Red Carpet Ready Business PowerPoint Presentations

The Oscars’ ceremony is here again and soon the stars will be out on the red carpet showing off their best looks. We mortals watching at home will have to be content with the paparazzi-fest that follows when a big celebrity gets it really wrong.

At eSlide, we never want you to face your big moment with a business PowerPoint presentation you’ll regret later. Instead, we want to help you get the wow-factor with these five easy tips.

1. Because Image Matters

As a wise person once said, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” This is why everything about your presentation has to be right – from the type face to the color scheme to the logo placement.

A template is an absolute necessity as it will help you maintain consistency throughout your business PowerPoint presentation. You definitely don’t want to work without one. Pre-set PowerPoint themes and templates are useful, but they can limit your options.

A custom template will inject some oomph into your presentation, allowing you to show off – brand and message – better. As an example, a custom template will allow you to match your corporate colors exactly, rather than defaulting to PowerPoint’s existing colors.

2. Work Your Look

Once you’ve decided on a template, it’s time to make each slide beautiful in its own right. Visual information has more impact than plain text, so it’s great that PowerPoint offers a range of options for diagrams, flowcharts and custom shapes that may get your point across better than a bulleted list.

But consider all of your options before you start creating. Make sure that diagrams and flow charts highlight key points in your business PowerPoint presentation, rather than secondary or supporting material. Also, it should be clear via contrast what the most important info is on each slide. If the contrast isn’t right, your audience won’t be able to distinguish between the stars of your show and the supporting cast.

3. If Bling Is Your Thing

Well-designed graphics will get your business PowerPoint presentation noticed even more. Good graphics allow you to combine images and text to present a lot of information in an impactful and memorable format. Be wary of over-complicated graphics that are more confusing than revelatory. Also, make sure your graphics can be seen from the back of the room.

Video and audio are another way to set your business PowerPoint presentation apart from the crowd. Make sure you embed video into the presentation so that you don’t have to switch to another window to watch it. (For Mac users, this can get a bit complicated, so it’s best to use the same OS for both designing and presenting.) You can take a free tutorial on this directly from Microsoft here.

4. Less Is More

Once you’ve mastered a technique, like how to use PowerPoint custom shapes, it’s tempting to over-do things. This is particularly important when it comes to animations. They shouldn’t distract from your content. If you are going to use animation, keep it consistent from slide to slide.

5. Get an Agent

Remember, too much bling can ruin a good look. So if you need help deciding how much is too much or how to put your best PowerPoint design foot forward, try one of our training seminars. Our team has spent the past 20 years perfecting the art of getting presentations right, and we can help you too. Or, contact us for a personalized design consultation and we’ll help your business PowerPoint presentations shine.