Craft your message

Strong opening

Gather data

Simple and easy-to-grasp text

Examples, facts and numbers

Edit

Whatever the design, your message comes first. So, figure out what you want to say from the beginning. To set out your intentions efficiently, use the points below.

Stick to a plan

1

2

3

4

5

Create an easy-to-follow structure

Create a strong opening to grab attention

Keep text simple and easy-to-grasp

Gather data to support your offer or idea

Two pitch decks: one to send and one to show

1

Create an easy-to-follow structure

When presenting your ideas, story is everything. What’s the difference between a story and a phrase? Framing. Every story has a plot, a beginning, and an end. A consistent and structured narrative is crucial for information delivery, regardless of the purpose behind your pitch deck.

Make a single point

Stick to a plan

Make a single point

To hold viewers’ attention is a tricky thing. One of the most effective tools you have is to make only a single significant statement at a time. There is an easy way to make sure your presentation isn’t trying to cover too much ground: the essence of everything you have to say can fit into one sentence without inconsistencies or contradictions.

Don’t bother your audience with things they already know. Keep content short and focused, entertaining but to the point.—Andreas Haase, Founder of Hello&Goodbye design studio

Stick to a plan

Even a weekly report can sound as fascinating as a Marvel movie when planned and structured well. Frame your information wisely, and make sure even your dog could understand why it starts and ends where it starts or ends. Deliver your message in the middle.

You might start by writing down all your key ideas in a text file. Group them by topic, begin with the most simple statement and build up to more complex ideas. Highlight important facts and get rid of what seems secondary. Your main points can eventually serve as subheadings, as they do here.

Take a closer look at templates for a pitch deck, annual report, design agency presentation and educational slide deck.

2

Create a strong opening

The first 5 minutes of a presentation is your chance to win an audience's attention by setting the mood or highlighting the most important aspects of the project. That is why your introduction should be explanatory, clear, catchy and even slightly entertaining. Here are some ready-made solutions for quick decisions:

State a fact

Make a joke

Ask a question

State a fact

Or make a clear statement / provide statistics. Making a solid point gives a super universal opening for any narrative, but works best for presenting project results in business-related presentations.

Make a joke

Both topic-related and hilarious jokes are brutal to find or come up with. But if you do, consider your presentation a success; you nailed it. Two small tips though. 1. You don’t have to be self-destructive to be funny. 2. Memes and GIFs can also go a long way.

Ask a question

It goes back to the ancient Greek principles of rhetoric. If you ask the right question about the information you are planning to share, everything that follows is just an answer to the question on the first slide.

A good pitch should include a strong opening, powerful storytelling through design and images that support your content. The best presentations keep the viewer engaged throughout, so it's critical there are storytelling devices that can maintain momentum.—Tarik Fontenelle, Director, ON ROAD

An opening with a question used in IDEO.org 10-year impact report

3

Keep text simple and easy-to-grasp

The most important text in your presentation is typically the spoken portion. Keywords, phrases, and headings in the actual presentation only support, highlight or emphasize the point you’ve already made. For text that is required in the presentation, here is what you need to do:

Less is more

Edit

Stick to your chosen tone of voice

Less is more

Keep the text on each slide to a minimum—keywords and bullet points, not sentences. Images and infographics work better than words in slide decks.

A presentation of the Track & Field Collection celebrating the all-comers' spirit of track and field with masterful visuals

We prioritize consistency and simplicity by distilling the idea to its simplest form. It's important not to overload the reader with too many interactions and different styles. In other words, don't have too much going on. Less is more! Pick a few interactions and explore them fully, define your typographic styles and stick with them throughout.—Ric Bell, Creative Director, and Christina Twigg, Designer at POST Studio

Edit

To edit means sharpening your point by using the most suitable intonation, word choice, and syntax constructions. It is particularly important when working on the slide’s heading, which attracts the most attention. Check if the words correspond well with your visual content and if all headings work together as a system.

Stick to your chosen tone of voice

The vocabulary and style you choose depend on your audience, which is true on many levels. While editing, look for inconsistencies in the stylistic register and word choice. Remember, even the need to be extra formal doesn’t mean you have to be boring as well.

Content exists to serve your business.

First of all, content should serve your audience.

Tone of voice plays a crucial part in telling a story and can have a big influence on the way in which content is received by the reader, so spending time developing this at the start of the project is extremely valuable.—Ric Bell, Creative Director, and Christina Twigg, Designer at POST Studio

Super ergonomic and concise tone of voice

A good quality pitch deck should have a format that’s easy to use, that helps everyone create elements of communication that are coherent with the brand’s visual identity.—Helena Álvarez Fernández, Graphic Designer at Fever

4

Gather data to support your offer or idea

When the message is sharp and you have a killer starting point, it may be time to contextualize. In that case, it’s better to talk numbers and use examples your reader can relate to. Stick to the following types of content:

Examples, facts and numbers

Benchmarking

Examples, facts and numbers

When talking about abstract concepts, it’s better to nail them down with specific facts or down-to-earth analogies, which are more accessible and thus easier to remember. On the other hand, when presenting numbers or particular solutions, it is better to generalize to help see the bigger picture.

When creating a sales presentation, you need to show how the product transforms your target audience's needs. So, examples should work as a problem-solution duo. When working on a report, be specific: instead of ‘our team did well’ try ‘we did X% of our planned revenue’. Same with pitch decks: not ‘the best start-up in the world’, but ‘the demand for X has grown over the past 5 years from A to B — and according to the estimates of both, it will continue to grow’.

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