4 Tips for Great Infographics in Your Business PowerPoint Presentation

Last month we talked about why infographic-style slides are great for adding a visual boost to your business PowerPoint presentation. This month, we give you four key things to keep in mind when creating your infographics:

1. Decide if an infographic is right for your presentation

The first and most important step in the design process is to make sure an infographic style is appropriate for your information. Simply because you have a lot of charts, images and copy you want to use, doesn’t mean they will work as an infographic. All of those elements need to be a part of a single concept or story.

Ideally, every slide in a business PowerPoint presentation has a beginning (the title), middle (the page content) and an end (the key takeaways) – but sometimes this isn’t practical. At eSlide we have seen many presentations that need several slides to establish and support a single key message.

A true infographic works well for illustrating your overarching concepts and how they link together. The granular details that support those are then free to use as many slides as needed to cover the topic.

2. Tell only one story within each infographic

One infographic = one story. It may sound simple, but it’s tempting to want to include all of the fantastic charts, graphs, images and copy you’ve created in the past six months in your infographic. But a successful infographic is as much about what you choose NOT to include as it is about what you leave in.

Remember, you can use additional slides in your business PowerPoint presentation to fill in details. These can (and should) still be visual, but they don’t need to actually fit within the infographic itself. Some of the best presentations we’ve seen use infographics as section dividers, with the following slides providing supporting evidence to the concept outlined in the infographic.

3. Apply good storytelling technique

Infographics should use good storytelling technique which follows this simple format:

• Introduce the topic.
• Use supporting data to guide your reader through the story.
• Use highpoints in the info to grab their attention or create excitement.
• End with a motivating call to action that your audience simply can’t ignore.

That last one is really important. Make sure your call to action is noticeable and easy to follow up. You don’t want to miss your chance to connect with your audience because you didn’t make it easy for them to get in touch with you or take another action.

4. Use great design

Last but not least – a great infographic needs great design which means you need to apply all the same rules as you do with other slides in your business PowerPoint presentations. This is the stuff we’re always talking about, e.g.,  stick to one or two fonts, avoid low quality clip art, highlight the info you want your audience to remember most, etc. To brush up on any of these topics you can browse our past blog articles.

As always, if you need a hand with your infographic-style slide design or any aspect of your business PowerPoint presentations, we’re here to help. At eSlide, we’ve been designing successful PowerPoint presentations for more than 20 years, so we know how to create great visual content that you’ll be proud to show off. Get in touch.