8 Key Strategies for Utilizing PPT for Your Small Business

Knowing how to give a proper presentation is essential for the success of your business. At some point, your business will have to present information on a product, answer user questions, pitch new ideas, or showcase creative expertise. The easiest and most efficient way to do this is through a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation. In this case, PowerPoint is available for Mac and Windows, while Keynote is only available for Mac.

PPT presentation

photo credit: Product School / Unsplash

A good PowerPoint presentation is like a lightbulb moment for your customers. PowerPoint presentation services can help your company or brand create professional pitch deck templates for multipurpose presentations and awesome slides. These can be deck slides for internal company pitches, investor pitches, weekly meetings, annual reports, blog shares, etc.

In addition to these, a professional PowerPoint creator can help you create a marketing PPT template with deck slides for your social channels. Professional designers can also help you create an overall marketing strategy for your company for different audiences, markets, and scenarios, and curate your slide designs. Here are 8 ways your business can make PPT work for it.

Know Your Viewers & Anticipate Their Needs

Your audience is specific, and it has a niche. So, aside from products and preferences, you might want to know what kind of presentation appeals to them. Market research is always a good starting point if you want to know more about your audience. If you have this pertinent information, you need to think about the best way to tailor it. What likes and dislikes do you think you might encounter, and how do you handle potentially sensitive issues?

Answering these questions will help you zero in on specific details such as what colors, fonts, themes, and presentation outlines would appeal to your audience.

Data & Statistics

PowerPoint presentations always have to be kept short and concise. Bullet points and headlines might do the trick for most presentations. For more engaging topics (for example, how to improve your articles for SEO), you should consider introducing metrics that will appeal to the audience’s needs. A tool like mockaroo allows one to generate realistic data sets that you can export in different file formats such as JSON, CSV, Excel, etc.

The beauty of numbers and equations is that they always take up little space, are straightforward, precise, and drive the point home. They can be emphasized on a PowerPoint slide and accentuated through charts, bars, histograms, and other unique presentation tools.

Reuse Templates or Modify Them

You might not always be able to afford a professional slide designer. Or, you might lack time to develop a new presentation from scratch. PowerPoint has hundreds of free templates and thousands of others that you can download to make your work easier. You can redirect your energies and those of your staff where they matter, that is, on hardcore data and creating relevant content.

Keep the Graphics Simple but Relevant

Don’t go for flashy graphics as they take from the core message you are trying to send to the audience. Instead, use such things as infographics, charts, vector diagrams, and data visualization tools to provide good color contrast of the presentation. The use of classic white space is also encouraged to keep the audience focused on the key presentation details.

PowerPoint allows you to include other details, such as high-quality product images and company logos in your presentations. Unlike watermarks in actual text documents, you should use images and logos in PPT presentations conservatively and only where needed.

Editing PowerPoint presentation

photo credit: Paul Hudson / Flickr

Use Appropriate Fonts, Font Sizes & Color

Choose a font type and size that appeals to the subconscious minds of your audience members. This will only be achieved by first doing market research and knowing more about your audience beforehand. Your typography should be professional, and while you can dare to be a bit risqué with the fonts, don’t stretch it too far; professionalism is always important.

Color also generates a subconscious reaction from your audience, and this should be ambient and suited for that specific presentation, data sets, and other visuals.

Unify Your Presentation Slide Decks

Your PowerPoint presentations don’t necessarily have to be limited to marketing outreach in webinars and other in-person business presentations. You can use the same deck for your marketing on various channels, such as your social media accounts, blogs, email publications, circulars, and newsletters. This is one area where a professional designer can come much in handy.

A business needs to make outreach profiles and strategies similar, at least for a specific period. It will be nearly impossible to maintain the same format and consistency if you create a different PPT profile for different channels. Unify your presentation deck slides so that the information and message cascaded always remain the same. Let your brand colors be consistent across all your marketing campaigns.

Don’t Go for Overused Templates

A majority of PowerPoint presentations use the same old tired templates, color schemes, etc. You can count on the fact that your audience has interacted with other PPT presentations before, and they will get turned off if you are not creative. If you lack time to create a unique presentation, try downloading templates independent from the MS PowerPoint catalog or hiring a designer.

Alternatively, you can go for professional custom template designs such as Envato and Golazo, which will give you something unique and tailored specifically for you.

Always Refine Your Marketing Slide Decks

Anticipate future marketing campaigns or other front-facing business communication instances where new PPT slides might be required. Keep your content and designs fresh and updated, even if you don’t need to do the presentation at that specific time. You can cut costs by changing color schemes on the master slides, trying out different themes, and replacing old images with new ones.

In Conclusion, Keep It Simple

A good PPT presentation is a sure way to increase the overall visibility of your brand, product, or company. Simplicity is a key rule of thumb for good slide design, improving readability, maintaining your audience’s attention, and consistency across your slide decks.

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