I believe design is a basic marketing skill. With so much information received each day, the importance lies on the presentation and its conveyance of such information through its design. When you think about presentations, Microsoft PowerPoint comes to mind.
No matter if the speaker is well spoken during the presentation, a bad design ruins the overall presentation effect. I cannot focus and process the information given due to the lack of appeal.
What can you do to improve your presentation?
Here are some tips to keep in mind when designing a PowerPoint:
1. Keep a consistent style.
Simple is usually better, but depends on who your audience is. Once you decide on a style and color scheme, stick to it. It’ll be confusing if your first few slides consist of green-black-blue, and then your next slide is pink-red-orange.
Furthermore, consider your message when choosing a style. If your message is about an art school for younger children, for example, you might want to consider a warm color scheme with a creative and fun style such as paints. If your message is to investors, then a more minimalistic and modern style with cooler colors might suit the presentation well.
Everyone has their own style and personal touch. I prefer more elegant, minimalistic look and this may be difficult when my message requires a more fun, maximalist design.
2. Typography and sizing is important.
The perception of the font type influences the viewers’ impression of you. The correct font helps introduce a consistent brand personality and expertise.
A prevalent mistake is believing your font is “boring” and therefore not “exciting” enough. However, if the font is too “exciting”, it can also be seen as less professional.
Combining both a fun font and larger letters with a professional font can produce an engaging presentation. Making percentages bigger than the words draws attention to the data, so feel free to play around with the sizes as well.
Similar to your presentation styles, try to be consistent with your fonts so the slides look the same throughout your presentation. This way, your viewers won’t be distracted from the contrasting fonts.
3. Make use of PowerPoint’s animation when necessary.
I used to stay clear of any animations because I see many others not using the animations correctly. However, effective animations can add extra impact to your presentation. That being said, I still avoid the crazy and wild animations that seem too extraneous for my message.
But there are simple and effective ones, such as Wipe or Fade entrance that help guide your audience through your presentation. Or if there are two slides about timelines and there is a linear line connecting both of them, you can add animation to transition from the two slides moving down along the linear line.
I'm still learning about Powerpoint and I’d love to talk more about it with you! My name is Sharon, one of the Co-Heads of Communications. Reach out to me at the next Guerrilla Marketing Society meeting or add me on LinkedIn :)