make a slide deck presentation

How to Make an Engaging Slide Deck (+ Example & Templates)

Learn how to create a slide deck step-by-step. Get tips, examples, and templates to make a slide deck presentation that stands out beyond any PowerPoint.

7 minute read

helped business professionals at:

Short answer

How to make a slide deck in 7 easy steps?

The main steps for creating a slide deck are:

• Define your slide deck goals
• Research your target audience
• Research your topic
• Prioritize what you want to say
• Write your slide deck narrative
• Create or collect visuals that support your narrative
• Use a template to set up your slide deck design
• Bonus: Use an AI slide deck generator to do it all for you

Most slide decks bore the audience because they fail to tell a story

Imagine standing in front of an audience, only to watch their attention fade as you click through slide after slide. It's a disheartening experience, and it's more common than you might think.

The truth is, a slide deck without a clear narrative will bore your audience and leave your message unheard.

Worse than that, a storyless slide deck may leave people disappointed and feeling like they wasted their time. And you probably wouldn’t want such feelings to reflect on you.

But a good story makes your slide deck memorable, enjoyable, and perceived as more valuable by your audience. This is the power of a good story, and this is what this post will teach you to harness.

Let me show you the techniques to turn your presentations into compelling narratives . Learn the process, get insights, and tips, and grab a slide deck template to get you started.

Let's dive in!

Common mistakes to avoid when creating a slide deck

Here's a rundown of common mistakes to avoid when creating a slide deck as shared by Dan Zedek , a professor of journalism and media innovation at Northwestern University:

Overloading with visuals: Feeling insecure about visual talent often leads to overloading slides with too many photos, irrelevant images, colors, or typefaces. Simplicity adds clarity.

Long slide duration: A slide that stays up for 5 or 6 minutes can cause the audience's mind to wander. Aim for 30 seconds to a minute per slide to keep engagement high.

Irrelevant animations and colors: Using animations and colors that don't serve the content can be distracting. Use them sparingly and consistently to highlight important concepts.

Ignoring the audience: Understanding who's in the audience and what they expect from your presentation is key. Tailor the contents of your presentation to resonate with them.

Reading from the slide: This is considered one of the worst sins in slide presentations. Your slides should complement your speech, not repeat it.

Lack of pacing: Research shows that people's patience lasts about 6 or 7 minutes. Pacing your presentation and breaking down big ideas into smaller pieces can keep the audience engaged throughout.

Failure to inject personality: You're not just presenting facts; you're telling a story. Let your personality shine through, whether it's your authority, humor, or passion for the subject.

How to prepare for creating a slide deck?

The difference between a forgettable slide deck and a memorable one lies in the groundwork you do before you sit down to build the slide deck.

In the words of Nancy Duarte , the author of the book “slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations”: “Audience interest is directly proportionate to the presenter's preparation. You better spend time and energy on any presentations where the stakes are high.

An audience can tell how much energy you spent on your presentation, which is a reflection of how much you valued their time.

If they gave you an hour of their time, you need to make it worth it to them by treating their time as a valuable asset by making the content valuable to them.”

Here's a guide to laying that foundation for a slide deck that not only informs but engages:

1. Define your slide deck goals

What's the aim of your presentation? Are you looking to educate, convince, engage, or motivate? Pinpointing your goal is like setting your GPS; it guides everything that follows.

2. Research your target audience

Understanding your audience's needs, expectations, and pain points allows you to tailor your message. Speak their language, address their concerns, and you'll capture their attention from the first slide.

3. Research your topic extensively

Dive into your subject with the curiosity of a child and the diligence of a detective. This depth of understanding will shine through in your presentation, building credibility and allowing you to address questions and objections with confidence.

4. Choose the right delivery format

Most slide decks are delivered using the PowerPoint slide format, a common 9:16 ratio that we all know. This includes presentations made with tools like Google Slides and Canva. You may even think this is the ONLY way.

But the ppt slide format is a bad format for engagement. It’s static, limited in space, and prone to all the common slide deck mistakes .

On the one hand, a static slide deck is the most common and recognized format, which makes it “safe”. But the fact it’s recognizable also makes it indistinguishable and boring.

On the other hand, an interactive slide deck invites your audience to explore with you, turning the presentation into a conversation.

Which deck would be more likely to get your attention, the static or the interactive one?

How to organize the contents of your slide deck?

A slide deck's effectiveness isn't just about the content; it's about how that content is organized.

The way you structure your slide deck can mean the difference between your audience walking away with valuable insights or leaving halfway into your presentation.

Here’s how to organize the contents of your deck for maximum impact:

1. Prioritize what you want to say

The reality is that people forget 90% of what you present after 48 hours , and the 10% they do remember is often random.

So, how can you control that crucial 10%? By prioritizing your content, focusing on the key messages that align with your goals, and crafting your content to ensure that the right bits of information become part of that vital 10% that sticks.

2. Build anticipation

Engage your audience's natural curiosity by leveraging information gap theory . Create intentional gaps in your narrative, pose questions, and hint at answers to come.

It's like leaving breadcrumbs along the path, guiding your audience through your narrative and keeping them hungry for more.

3. Create a slide deck narrative

Humans think in stories; we relate to them, and we remember them. The secret to an engaging slide deck is using a storytelling structure.

If it's a business presentation, follow with an execution plan, and close with clear next steps. The storytelling framework helps your audience flow through your slide deck like a good book.

Here’s our recommended storyline structure:

How to design your slide deck for engagement

If you want to design your slide deck for engagement, think beyond text.

Create original visuals that breathe life into data. Complement your words with multimedia elements like images and videos. Incorporate interactivity and narrated design to transform a monologue into a conversation.

5 magical steps to create your best-ever slide deck

Creating a slide deck that stands out might seem like a complex task, but with AI as your creative companion and a clear roadmap to follow, it turns into a seamless and magical experience.

Here's how you can breathe life into your ideas and make a captivating slide deck with a few easy steps:

1. Tell our AI about your presentation goals

Begin by telling our AI assistant about the slide deck you wish to create. This first step sets the tone, allowing the AI to align with your goals and craft the perfect content structure.

2. Introduce yourself and your brand

Briefly share details about yourself, your company, and the topic of your presentation. This personal touch helps the AI fine-tune the content, making your slide deck resonate with your audience.

3. Select your slide deck design and style

Choose a design that reflects your brand. Our AI assistant will take it from there, crafting a deck that's visually cohesive and appealing.

4. Customize your slide deck

Add your text and design touches, and let the AI adapt the design to your content. You can also use it to enhance your copy, brainstorm ideas, or even generate original visuals.

5. Review and refine your slide deck

Take a final look and make any last-minute changes. If any tweaks are needed after sending, no worries—you can still make them. Your deck lives online, so you're in control of the version your audience sees, always.

How to personalize your slide deck

In the world of presentations, personalization is the magic ingredient that turns a standard slide deck into an engaging dialogue.

It's the subtle art of making each viewer feel like you're speaking directly to them, understanding their unique needs and interests.

But how can you achieve this level of personal connection? Here’s how you can do it with Storydoc -

3 steps for easy slide deck personalization:

Add information about your prospect: Add names and company details with a simple click. Your audience will receive a deck that feels crafted just for them, enhancing engagement.

Add dynamic variables: Using dynamic variables, you can address your reader by name throughout the presentation, turning it into a personalized conversation.

Advanced: Integrate Storydoc with your CRM: Storydoc seamlessly integrates with your CRM, allowing you to pull information directly into your decks. It's personalization at scale.

How to measure the effectiveness of your slide deck

Measuring the success of a slide deck goes beyond numbers; it's also about understanding the connection you've made with your audience. It's about knowing what resonates, what inspires, and what lingers in the minds of those you've reached.

Every slide deck created with Storydoc comes with an analytics panel that provides real-time insights -

Are viewers spending time on the slides that contain your key points? Who are they sharing your presentation with? Are they taking the next step, like visiting your website to learn more or looking through your portfolio?

By understanding how your audience interacts with your content, you can turn a standard presentation into a powerful tool for connection and influence.

Here’s a quick video showing how it works:

Slide deck templates

While following best practices is essential, standing out requires something more. It requires going from static to interactive, and from fact-led to story-led slide decks.

But interactive storytelling slide deck templates are hard to come by. Or at least they used to be.

Below you have designed templates that will make your next presentation something to remember.

Hi, I'm Dominika, Content Specialist at Storydoc. As a creative professional with experience in fashion, I'm here to show you how to amplify your brand message through the power of storytelling and eye-catching visuals.

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10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea, from TED’s in-house expert

When your slides rock, your whole presentation pops to life. At TED2014, David Epstein created a clean, informative slide deck to support his talk on the changing bodies of athletes . Photo: James Duncan Davidson/TED

Aaron Weyenberg is the master of slide decks. Our UX Lead creates Keynote presentations that are both slick and charming—the kind that pull you in and keep you captivated, but in an understated way that helps you focus on what’s actually being said. He does this for his own presentations and for lots of other folks in the office. Yes, his coworkers ask him to design their slides, because he’s just that good.

We asked Aaron to bottle his Keynote mojo so that others could benefit from it. Here, 10 tips for making an effective slide deck, split into two parts: the big, overarching goals, and the little tips and tricks that make your presentation sing.

Aaron used this image of a New Zealand disaster to kick off a slide deck from TED’s tech team — all about how they prepares for worst-case scenarios. He asked for permission to use the image, and credited the photographer, Blair Harkness. View the whole slidedeck from this presentation.

The big picture…

• Think about your slides last . Building your slides should be the tail end of developing your presentation. Think about your main message, structure its supporting points, practice it and time it—and then start thinking about your slides. The presentation needs to stand on its own; the slides are just something you layer over it to enhance the listener experience. Too often, I see slide decks that feel more like presenter notes, but I think it’s far more effective when the slides are for the audience to give them a visual experience that adds to the words. .
• Create a consistent look and feel . In a good slide deck, each slide feels like part of the same story. That means using the same or related typography, colors and imagery across all your slides. Using pre-built master slides can be a good way to do that, but it can feel restrictive and lead to me-too decks. I like to create a few slides to hold sample graphic elements and type, then copy what I need from those slides as I go. .
• Think about topic transitions . It can be easy to go too far in the direction of consistency, though. You don’t want each slide to look exactly the same. I like to create one style for the slides that are the meat of what I’m saying, and then another style for the transitions between topics. For example, if my general slides have a dark background with light text, I’ll try transition slides that have a light background with dark text. That way they feel like part of the same family, but the presentation has texture—and the audience gets a visual cue that we’re moving onto a new topic. .
• With text, less is almost always more . One thing to avoid—slides with a lot of text, especially if it’s a repeat of what you’re saying out loud. It’s like if you give a paper handout in a meeting—everyone’s head goes down and they read, rather than staying heads-up and listening. If there are a lot of words on your slide, you’re asking your audience to split their attention between what they’re reading and what they’re hearing. That’s really hard for a brain to do, and it compromises the effectiveness of both your slide text and your spoken words. If you can’t avoid having text-y slides, try to progressively reveal text (like unveiling bullet points one by one) as you need it. .
• Use photos that enhance meaning . I love using simple, punchy photos in presentations, because they help what you’re saying resonate in your audience’s mind without pulling their attention from your spoken words. Look for photos that (1) speak strongly to the concept you’re talking about and (2) aren’t compositionally complex. Your photo could be a metaphor or something more literal, but it should be clear why the audience is looking at it, and why it’s paired with what you’re saying. For example, I recently used the image above—a photo of a container ship about to tip over (it eventually sank)—to lead off a co-worker’s deck about failure preparation. And below is another example of a photo I used in a deck to talk about the launch of the new TED.com . The point I was making was that a launch isn’t the end of a project—it’s the beginning of something new. We’ll learn, adapt, change and grow.

Here, a lovely image from a slidedeck Aaron created about the redesign of TED.com . View the whole deck from this presentation .

And now some tactical tips…

• Go easy on the effects and transitions . Keynote and Powerpoint come with a lot of effects and transitions. In my opinion, most of these don’t do much to enhance the audience experience. At worst, they subtly suggest that the content of your slides is so uninteresting that a page flip or droplet transition will snap the audience out of their lethargy. If you must use them, use the most subtle ones, and keep it consistent. .

• Try panning large images . Often, I want to show screen shot of an entire web page in my presentations. There’s a great Chrome extension to capture these—but these images are oftentimes much longer than the canvas size of the presentation. Rather than scaling the image to an illegible size, or cropping it, you can pan it vertically as you talk about it. In Keynote, this is done with a Move effect, which you can apply from an object’s action panel. .
• For video, don’t use autoplay . It’s super easy to insert video in Keynote and Powerpoint—you just drag a Quicktime file onto the slide. And when you advance the deck to the slide with the video that autoplays, sometimes it can take a moment for the machine to actually start playing it. So often I’ve seen presenters click again in an attempt to start the video during this delay, causing the deck to go to the next slide. Instead, set the video to click to play. That way you have more predictable control over the video start time, and even select a poster frame to show before starting. .

Lastly, I’d love to leave you with a couple book recommendations. The first is Resonate , by Nancy Duarte. It’s not so much about slides, but about public speaking in general – which is the foundation for any presentation, regardless of how great your slides are. In it, she breaks down the anatomy of what makes a great presentation, how to establish a central message and structure your talk, and more. (One of her case studies comes from Benjamin Zander’s charming TED Talk about classical music, a talk that captivated the audience from start to finish.) Think of this as prerequisite reading for my second recommendation, also by Duarte: Slide:ology . This is more focused on presentation visuals and slides.

Happy slide-making.

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Create an Effective Slide Deck

A great presentation depends on more than the high-quality information you’re sharing. Here are some essential principles to help you create a memorable slide deck. Choose the right fonts. Use sans serif fonts like Helvetica or Arial for a minimal look and better readability. Stick to two font styles throughout your presentation—one for headings and another […]

A great presentation depends on more than the high-quality information you’re sharing. Here are some essential principles to help you create a memorable slide deck.

Source: This tip is adapted from “How to Make a ‘Good’ Presentation ‘Great’” by Guy Kawasaki

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What is a Slide Deck? Everything You Need to Know!

By: Author Shrot Katewa

In my personal experience alone, I’ve seen people use very many different words including the word “Slide Deck” for a presentation. I always wondered what is the meaning of Slide Deck, and how is it different from other words commonly used to describe a presentation. So, I did a little research, and here’s what I found out!

A Slide Deck is a term assigned to a group of slides that together form a complete presentation. A slide deck is usually created using a presentation design application. A slide deck is often used as an aid for storytelling or presenting information about a topic or an organization.

But, how is a slide deck different from a slide show or a PowerPoint? In this article, we will understand the nuances of the various presentation terminologies used. Plus, I will also help you understand why is a slide deck really called a slide deck!

So, let’s get started.

A Quick Note Before We Begin – if you want to make jaw-dropping presentations, I would recommend using one of these Presentation Designs . The best part is – it is only $16.5 a month, but you get to download and use as many presentation designs as you like! I personally use it from time-to-time, and it makes my task of making beautiful presentations really quick and easy!

What is a Slide Deck?

When it comes to describing a presentation, there are several words that are used. One word that is often used is a “Slide Deck”.

As mentioned above, a slide deck really is a collection of slides put together to form a presentation. A slide deck is used in many organizations to give an overview about their organization, to share strategies or plans, or showcase performance updates, or even just sharing a piece of interesting information about a topic. There are several use cases for a slide deck!

You may wonder, “Is slide deck not just the same as a presentation?”. If so, then why not just call it a presentation instead of a slide deck? Why use the term slide deck at all?

Pro Tip: All slide decks are presentations, but not all presentations can be classified as a slide deck!

A presentation is usually a much broader term. For instance, when you are displaying a physical product and verbally sharing nuggets of information about that product, it is still referred to as a presentation. More specifically, it is called a product presentation.

The key difference between a slide deck and presentation is that a presentation is an act of delivering information such as a speech or a talk. Whereas, a slide deck is the visual aid used while giving a presentation!

Although the two terms are often used interchangeably, a slide deck and a presentation are actually two different terms!

Why is a Slide Deck called a Slide Deck? A Brief History!

The term slide deck evolved from an old technology that was used for projecting the slides on the wall. A physical 35 mm slide was inserted into a carousel slide projector . All the slides that were used during a presentation were collectively known as a slide deck (as in a deck of cards).

The term “slide deck” stuck around and became synonymous with a presentation even after the technology evolved . Thus, even today, many people refer to a presentation as a slide deck.

If you are wondering how this projector really worked, then you would be amazed to know that each model came with slots for 40 or 80 slides that could be inserted at a time.

Each slide would be placed upside down and backward in terms of the chronological order so that the image projected is in the correct orientation and order. The slide themselves were usually photographs and not much could be done on the slide.

Difference Between Slide Deck and Slide Show?

Another term that people often use interchangeably is a slide deck and a slide show.

A slide deck is the group of slides used to create a presentation. However, when these slides are displayed or shown to an audience while giving a presentation, the process is known as a slide show.

In other words, a slide deck is usually a presentation file whereas a slide show is a process of showing the contents of that file to an audience.

Slide Deck vs PowerPoint: What’s the Difference?

I’ve also seen people get confused between a slide deck and PowerPoint. Again, these are also another set of terms that are used interchangeably. But, there is a difference.

As mentioned before, a slide deck is usually a group of slides collectively put together to give a presentation. The term slide deck has existed even years before PowerPoint was introduced. As we learned above, a slide deck was initially used to describe the batch of physical slides used in a projector.

PowerPoint, on the other hand, is a presentation design software. Unlike a slide or a presentation, PowerPoint is actually a program that is used for designing a slide or creating a presentation.

As the technology evolved and a computer started to have more computing power, complex applications were designed to enable the ease of leveraging technology.

Contrary to the common opinion, PowerPoint was not created by Microsoft. It was first released by Forethought Inc in 1987 initially only for Mac OS. However, Microsoft acquired PowerPoint 3 months after its initial release and rebranded it as Microsoft PowerPoint.

What is the Difference Between Slide Deck and a Pitch Deck?

Another term that you may hear often, especially in the more recent times, is a pitch deck. It is important to note that using the two interchangeably might not be the correct thing to do. Here’s why –

A slide deck is basically all the final slides put together to create a presentation. However, a pitch deck is a type of a slide deck created with a very specific purpose of pitching an idea or a business model to an investor with the intention of raising funds for implementing the idea.

In this era of start-ups and entrepreneurs, a pitch deck is quite common. In fact, every time an organization is looking to raise funds for the project or business, a pitch deck is required.

Simply put, a pitch deck can also be called a slide deck, but not all slide decks can be referred to as a pitch deck!

What is a PowerPoint Slide Deck?

There are multiple ways of creating a slide deck. As we learned earlier, traditionally a slide deck was created using actual physical slides.

As the technology evolved, sophisticated computer applications were used to create a slide deck. One such application is Microsoft PowerPoint.

A PowerPoint slide deck is a term used to describe a slide deck or a presentation that is created using Microsoft PowerPoint as the presentation design application. A PowerPoint slide deck usually consists of multiple slides put together to create a presentation.

That said, a PowerPoint slide deck is more commonly referred to as a “slide deck” or just “Presentation” as PowerPoint is not the only presentation design application available to a user.

What is a Slide Deck in Google Slides?

Although PowerPoint has been one of the most well-known and commonly used presentation design programs, another application that has been gaining in popularity amongst the users is Google Slides!

The idea of a slide deck in Google Slides is pretty much the same. When you put together all the final slides that are going to be used in a presentation using Google Slides, it is known as a slide deck in Google Slides.

If you are not sure what exactly is Google Slides and would like to understand this a bit more in detail, I’ve written a detailed post on this topic. Make sure you check it out! Click on the below link.

What is Google Slides? The ULTIMATE Guide!

How to Make a Slide Deck in PowerPoint?

If you are using PowerPoint, one of the things that you may often be asked to do at work is to make a slide deck in PowerPoint. But, how exactly do you do that? Let me try to answer this question.

Here’s how to make a slide deck in PowerPoint –

• Open a PowerPoint Presentation
• Create a structure for your content
• Create a Title Slide
• Design the Other Remaining Slides
• Use Images relevant to the content
• Add Animations and Transitions
• Create a Thank You Slide
• Save Your Slide Deck
• Share the File with your team

Honestly, this topic deserves a separate article in itself. Perhaps even a single article may not be complete enough to cover this topic.

How to Make a Good Slide Deck?

Let’s face it – most of us don’t want to come across as incompetent. Thus, making a good slide deck is almost always important. But, how exactly does one do that?

There are actually several things that you can do to make an attractive presentation. I actually wrote a detailed article on how to easily create a good slide deck. The tips that I share in that article are also relevant for beginners. So, make sure you check out that article as well! The link is mentioned below.

7 EASY tips that ALWAYS make your PPT presentation attractive (even for beginners)

More Helpful Resources –

• Should You Add Table of Contents in your Presentation?
• How to Give a Presentation When You Are Not Prepared?
• A Quick Guide to Using Animations and Transitions in PowerPoint

Image Credit for the Featured Image

Best slide deck templates and examples

Crafting the best business presentation is as important as giving the best academic presentation out there. We know how helpful it can be to find your best template slides in a single place. So, we put together a list of our best slide deck templates and examples divided by 5 categories:

Startup pitch decks

Business slides

Sales presentations

Marketing decks

Academic templates

And, in case a few definitions on slide decks could help, we'll also cover a few basic questions on PowerPoint slide decks. Throw pitch deck terminology in there and the different types of presentations that exist along with how to quickly build a slide deck. Stay with us for all this.  

What is a slide deck?

A PowerPoint slide deck refers to a set of slides put together in the same presentation. It's typically meant for business as the term pitch deck is commonly used to refer to a startup pitch deck. In it, each slide serves a specific purpose. 

Yet, in the end, a PowerPoint slide deck is an aid we use to present. It's material that helps speakers remember the crucial points they need to make. And they're also a resource to keep an audience engaged while someone is presenting. 

Slide decks are particularly useful to emphasize information speakers want an audience to remember. In business, highlights of this nature help anything entrepreneurs wish to convey on a startup or business. These kinds of presentations are distinctly helpful to make convincing points. 

Where does "slide deck" come from?

We know that the term "slide deck" comes from somewhat old technology. Think of times when slide projectors had to face a wall. Slides piled up as cards for those machines to work, just like a deck of cards! That's where we get the name pitch deck for business presentations .

Silicon Valley, especially, can be sensed as the birthplace of the term we now use to talk about a business pitch deck presentation. 

What types of presentations can we give?

Even though we focused on a pitch deck's business side, presentations can be of many different kinds. What matters is the presenter's ultimate goal. Based on that, we can craft a whole deck to achieve that primary goal beautifully. 

Coming up, we'll go over the different presentation types that exist. 

Presentation types

As you can see so far, presentations are mostly based on what speakers want to get out of an audience. The type of presentation we give depends on why we go up on stage or deliver a presentation via Zoom or otherwise. Here's a list of those. 

1. Educational: This type of presentation informs an audience about something.

2. Persuasive: Used to persuade an audience to be on your side of a topic.

3. Introductory: To give out the necessary information on something. For example, a company.

4. Decision-driven: The goal is to provide an audience with a recommendation.

How to quickly build a slide deck 

The most efficient way to build a great slide deck is by using a template. Save tons of work and forget about designing a slide from scratch. Also, make sure you don't miss any crucial parts of a slide deck presentation. 

We've got a wide range of templates based on successful startup pitch decks that can undoubtedly help you get started and quickly create a fantastic slide deck.

Slide deck examples and templates

Pitch decks:, airbnb pitch deck.

Airbnb's original pitch deck from 2009 has become one of the most sought-after references for new entrepreneurs. It was one of the first pitch decks from unicorn companies to be released publicly. It certainly got a lot of media attention.

Download this template

Uber pitch deck.

Nine years after founding Uber, Garret Camp (co-founder) shared the pitch via Medium. We took the liberty of redesigning (using our AI button) the original Uber pitch deck to make it look better. As we know, Uber became a big name. And their pitch deck had become a significant reference for anyone building a startup.

Elevator pitch deck

Our elevator pitch deck template lets you simply explain your business concept to prospective clients and investors. It could help you secure investment or new business opportunities.

Investor deck template

An investor deck is usually a 10-20 slide presentation designed to give a short summary of your company, your business plan, and your startup vision. Similar to a pitch deck, this is a document you often send potential investors.  

Cannabis Slide Deck Template

Our Cannabis Investor Deck, influenced by CannaBusinessPlans, is your ticket to securing vital investment for your budding cannabis business. This dynamic presentation not only impresses investors but also serves as your roadmap, guiding your business through the intricacies of the industry. Showcasing market understanding and growth potential, this pitch ensures you secure the funds needed to turn your cannabis vision into reality.

Business slide deck templates

Company profile template.

A company profile template is a marketing tool that showcases your brand's products, services, and activities. A powerful company profile template presentation should be more than just a brochure. It vibrantly showcases your business and engages with stakeholders about your company's offerings and unique qualities.

Business Plan template

This presentation template is a business plan template in the form of a slide deck. There's some disambiguation about what a business plan is, when it's needed, and how long it should be. But we'll try to clarify some of these questions in this article.

Business Proposal template

Business proposals may be delivered in many ways, from a classic text or PDF document to a crafted, (hopefully) well-designed presentation. We often recommend sending them in the form of a slide deck (using this Business Proposal Template as a guide).

Case Study template

A case study is a type of research to better understand a particular problem. It mostly focuses on strategies and refers to a specific person, an action, a company, or an event. Here's our case study PPT template to use online or download to PDF.

Professional Profile template

Like creating a cover letter or writing a perfect resume, the essential element to writing a professional profile is discipline. You're bound to succeed in presenting an admirable professional profile if you abide by very detailed steps to writing a professional profile template.

Sales slide deck templates

Sales pitch deck  .

We've designed a stunning and straight-forward sales pitch deck template. This presentation is critical to accelerating your sales process.

Sales Report template

This is a sales team meeting template based on weekly updates from our sales department.

Zuora Sales deck template

Our sales deck template should help you considerably in your sales efforts. With it, you will be able to organize all ideas and present them in a way that clearly establishes the benefits of the products and/or services.

Sales plan template

Our sales plan template will help establish your team's strategy to achieve your sales goals.

Services proposal template

To impress a marketing services client, it's essential to have a visual aid and support your strategy. It can be a crucial step to begin a successful client relationship that will lead to much more business. The services proposal template is the guideline you need to present a robust strategy that will land you a deal.

Marketing slide deck templates  

Digital marketing proposal template.

As you prepare a digital marketing plan, it'll help to know everything expected out of one. To assist, we've formatted the basics around those in steps to create a digital marketing proposal that attracts new clients.

Marketing plan template

A Marketing Template will become a go-to document during the most critical stages of your company. It will help you to coordinate your efforts and your ideas to achieve your company's growth goals.

Check out this beautifully designed Marketing Plan template and start thinking about what's next for you and your team.

Go-to-market strategy template

Our go-to-market strategy template gives you the tools to succinctly and clearly summarize the strategy during a presentation.

Marketing strategy plan presentation template

Our marketing strategy slide deck can be easily adapted to all sorts of sectors and markets. It can be used for almost any type of organization. 

Social media report template

Suppose you're looking to create a high quality and efficient social media report. In that case, our unique social media report template can help. Make the best analytics report to showcase your results.

Academic slide templates

Research plan template.

Formulating a research plan is necessary to set the foundations for a research process. We can conceive it as a roadmap that helps you align your vision with your aspirations. 

Master thesis presentation template

We've created this 16 slide university thesis presentation template that's sure to grab your professor's attention. 

Resume presentation template

Recruiters spend, on average, 5-7 seconds looking at a resume. If you don't want your resume to end up in the trash folder, think outside the box.

Research proposal template

A research proposal presentation encourages you to pare down your written proposal into a clear and concise summary of your project. Using a research proposal template can also help you organize your thoughts and ensure that your message makes it across effectively.

And here you have it! These are the best slide deck templates and examples. 

This is a list of great templates and examples based on successful startup pitch decks . We covered business template examples, sales presentations, and marketing decks. We hope you found it useful!

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A pitch deck is the standard document used by startups to present their case to investors; it’s a brief deck of about 10 to 20 slides. See examples here.

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Creating a slide deck for any occasion.

Make a slide deck that shows off your ideas, holds your audience’s attention, and even entertains them.

Remember that you’re telling a story.

Whether you’re presenting a pitch deck, leading a webinar, or simply sharing your ideas with your team, keep in mind that humans naturally think in terms of narrative. In fact, neuroscientists have discovered that listening to a story can activate all parts of the brain and even lead to changes in behavior. As a presenter, you can take advantage of this human quirk. By sharing a story with a beginning, middle, and end, a presenter draws in audience members and stirs their emotions. Showing sales numbers to potential investors will be more effective when it’s part of a presentation that weaves a compelling narrative. Creating a slideshow highlighting important data can help you relay the high points of a dense report to your employees. No matter the information, before you start thinking about specific presentation slides, ask yourself what story you want to tell. Who is your audience and how do you want them to respond?

A professional presentation in three acts.

Present your story as a classic three-act play with your audience as the hero. What do they want? What obstacles must they overcome to achieve their goal? Begin with the first obstacle, and build a little suspense before you offer the solution. You might tell a smaller story about facing that obstacle, giving it a place in the larger narrative. Then move onto the next obstacle and do the same.

In the second act, present your solution to the problem. What is it and how does it work? How will it successfully help your heroes reach their goal?

In the final act, your narrative ends with the audience getting what it needs: resolution. Their problem is solved with the help of your solution or product, and maybe something extra — like a problem they haven’t even anticipated — is also solved. Once you’ve filled in the details of this basic structure, you’re ready to start making slides.

Put design principles to work.

Slide design is crucial for every deck, no matter the presentation software you’re using. Working elements of visual storytelling into your entire presentation will ensure that even audience members watching on laptops stay engaged. Just follow these simple rules:

Stick to a visual theme.

A consistent look — with consistent typography and a basic color scheme — will help your audience stay focused on the content of your slides.

Keep it simple.

Avoid cluttering your deck with endless charts, tables, or bullet points too small for everyone to read. Allow for plenty of white space on each slide, so the crucial information stands out.

Find the right tools for every job.

Pie charts are great for demonstrating percentages. Vertical bar charts show changes over time better than horizontal bar charts, which are best for comparing quantities. To visually represent trends, a line chart is your best bet. You might also try creating an infographic to help your audience visualize your data or to tell a smaller story within your larger narrative.

Incorporate video or audio.

People sit up straighter and pay closer attention when you break up your static slides with video and audio. Use motion and sound to help draw your audience’s focus to your key takeaways.

Make your design elements sparkle with Adobe InDesign.

To create an impactful and entertaining presentation without starting from scratch, choose one of the many presentation templates in Adobe Stock and open it in InDesign. Then import your brand logo and other marketing assets for a consistent look.

Once you’ve got the visual theme and color palette you want, consider including surprise elements like high-quality Adobe Stock photographs, illustrations, or even movie clips to help your work really stand out. Plus, in InDesign, a simple two-step command allows you to export and preview, so you can immediately see every single slide through your audience’s eyes.

To start a presentation from scratch, follow these steps:

1. Find the right page size.

Click on File in the InDesign main menu, then New Document. A dialog box will open. If you’re not sure what dimensions to use, set the page width to 12 inches and the page height to 9 inches. Click Create and a blank page will appear.

2. Choose your background.

Remember to keep it simple, but look for a striking background image that works with text overlay. The deck’s title can also become part of the background.

3. Create paragraph styles.

Keeping it simple applies to your text too. Select no more than three text styles to keep the title font, body font, and footnote font consistent throughout the presentation. Creating paragraph styles also allows you to change font and size with a click of a button, saving you time in the long run.

4. Set up master pages.

Master pages streamline your slide design workflow and ensure your presentation looks professional and well designed. You can create one slide with three columns, one with a big background image as a transitional slide, one that highlights a customer quote — the list goes on. Add image and text frames to the master pages so you can drop your content in later without having to overthink the layout.

5. Add images and text.

Once you’ve created the master pages, it’s easy to drag and drop Photoshop (.PSD) files, PDFs, Illustrator (.AI) files, JPEGs, PNGs, or GIFs into the image frames. To add text, just copy and paste text files or select the Type Tool from the toolbar and type directly into the text frame.

6. Add page numbers.

Page numbers will help you and your audience keep track of any sequentially paged documents. To insert page numbers, select Type from the main menu, then Insert Special Character, then Markers, and finally Current Page Number. InDesign will automatically number the slides.

7. Add finishing touches.

From movies and sound clips to hyperlinks, cross references, and page transitions, you’ve got plenty of interactive options to make your story as compelling as possible.

8. Export your slide deck.

When you’ve finished creating your deck, the final step is to export it in a format that can be projected or distributed. Exporting as Adobe PDF (Interactive) lets you play or click through interactive content directly in the presentation.

To export, just click File in the main menu, then Export. From the Format dropdown menu, select Adobe PDF (Interactive), and then click Save.

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APPROACHABLE DESIGN

How to create slide decks that don't put people to sleep

Great slide deck presentations are just great stories. Learn how to avoid over-designing your deck and stuffing it with useless information.

By Nate Kadlac

Slide deck presentations are broken.

I once sat through a presentation by a CEO who had prepared two 50+ page slide decks for an important all-hands meeting.

Just the act of building two decks ensured the message would be messy. And using 50+ pages to tell a company story left everyone in the room exhausted (and confused).

Why are building slide decks so tricky? Most people think each slide needs to describe every thought in their head, even if they know better. And I bet you have read all of the articles about preparing slide decks and know this. Yet, you’re still wondering how to communicate the inspiring quote, the graph with all of this detailed data, and the story of how big your company will be if you just owned 1% of the trillion-dollar TAM.

The good news is, it doesn’t have to be this way. You can build beautiful, simple, and effective slide decks that will engage your audience and help you make your point.

And in this article, I will show you how to avoid retrofitting your content into giant presentation templates like this. (This gives me nightmares)

First, avoid opening up your slide deck app

If building a slide deck was the length of a 10k race, opening up the slide deck software would put you at the 8k mark without all of the preparation. You just skipped all of the most important work, which all happens outside of Powerpoint. (I use Figma!)

It can feel compelling to open up Powerpoint, Google Slides, Keynote, or any other fun piece of software. (I lied, Powerpoint is not fun.) But this forces you to think about the design of your slides and everything else that doesn't matter at this point.

So here's what to do first: Open up your favorite writing app and start thinking about the story you want to tell, not how your slides should look. (We'll get to that in a moment.)

Now, we'll look at ways to think about building your slide decks.

Seven tips for structuring your content for an effective slide deck presentation

Even if you're running a company and your employees are being paid to listen to your presentation, they won't. It's you against the audience, and they don't owe you anything.

Now that many presentations are given virtually, it's more important than ever to make sure every slide needs to be there. It's too easy for someone to shut their camera off and tune out.

Tip #1: Build your slide deck like a book

For a moment, think about holding a book in your hands. Just holding it in your hands, it reveals several characteristics that tell us a bit about it.

The cover creates intrigue and hints at the story before opening it.

The size of the book tells us how much time it might take us to read it.

The inner flap humanizes it by telling us about the author and showing a portrait of them

The table of contents gives us an idea of the themes discussed in the book, or the adventure it's about to take us on.

Each chapter is a milestone, asking us to pause before we continue on

Each chapter has subheaders breaking up the ideas and stories within the book.

The back of the book gives us a summary of the content and more info about who worked on it, and testimonials of the content inside.

Books are great examples of setting expectations before we even flip to the first page. Our presentations—no matter how big or small—should help our audience similarly.

We want people to know where they are, and how much time they have left. These unanswered thoughts are running through the minds of your audience, and creating a basic structure like this puts them at ease.

Your slide deck presentation should include:

Cover slide with a clear title (or hook!) of the story

Table of contents

Chapter pages highlighting where you are in the deck

Slides with a single takeaway (and supporting evidence)

An end slide with how to contact you and follow-up

Tip #2: Every presentation deck should tell a story

Most people immediately start putting too much information into slides. It's easy to make the mistake that your slide decks need a lot of information.

Instead, the story arc of a slide deck presentation should mimic a movie. You'll have a beginning, middle, and end. Each deck should communicate one large idea, and within that, you're sharing supporting ideas, each on its own slide.

How you organize your slides is up to you to create the narrative you want. If you're designing startup pitch deck templates for your business, your story will take up a large percentage of the presentation.

“Storytelling is an art combined with science. The artistic part is to understand that a story’s goal is to persuade an investor who most likely starts with the fear of losing their money, and to transition that through your story to a fear of missing out.”— Keith Teare, Accelerated Digital Ventures’ US Managing Partner

Even when trying to persuade investors, if you present a deck with too much information, it will complicate the overall story you're telling.

As Keith lays out for executing a great pitch deck to investors, the key is to answer the following questions:

What is your end game?

Why is it worth the effort?

How will you make it happen?

Tip #3: Present one takeaway per slide

It's better to have five slides, each with one main point, versus one slide with five points. One way to focus on this strategy is to title the slide with the ultimate takeaway.

This helps the overall flow of your slide deck and enables you to think only about what the audience needs to hear.

A trick is to view the slide deck presentation in outline view and read through the titles. It should have an overall flow that your audience can understand, as well as be incredibly informative.

If there's one piece of text your audience will read, it's going to be the title. Make sure it summarizes the insight.

Tip #4: Communicate your ideas using the Pyramid Principle

Your audience is busy. If you're presenting to the C-suite, you might not get through all your slides. The Pyramid Principle was created by Barbara Minto at McKinsey as a method for logically structuring your arguments.

Start with the answer first

Group and summarize your supporting arguments

Order your supporting ideas in a logical way

Starting with the answer first and then sharing your supporting ideas seems counterintuitive for many people. But it skips the preamble and delivers the message clearly while giving you time to explore the supporting ideas if there's time.

Tip #5: Avoid too many bullets (stick with 2-3 per slide)

Forgetting what to say is a common fear of giving a presentation. One bad presentation will leave you stuffing your slides with every thought you have, to avoid forgetting everything.

This is how slides with too many bullets create a false sense of safety.

When you're presenting every single thought you have, the audience has to choose one. Should they listen to you or read the words on your slide? When you're reading aloud, it will create a conflict between your voice and their internal dialogue.

This division makes for a poorly formatted presentation, making the audience choose one or the other.

Tip #6: Aim for 10 slides or less 

We should all have reasonable goals when creating a slide deck. Giving ourselves a goal to have less than 10 slides might feel impossible, but most slide deck templates tempt you to create more than necessary. 

10 slides is a good number to aim for because it forces us to focus on the most important takeaways. Remember, our slide deck creation does not need every thought we have, so start by creating your deck template with just 10 headlines or less, and see if you can still communicate what you need. 

Most of the time we spend on our presentation template is due to the number of slides we have. Also, the more slides, the longer it takes to deliver. 

Having just 10 slides means we can usually keep the presentation under 20 minutes. 

Tip #7: End with a free call-to-action reward

Aside from the main theme you want to articulate in your presentation, what action do you want them to take?

One of the biggest missed opportunities is to leave the audience without something to do at the end. Maybe it's a URL to fill out a form, or simply a way to contact you. Whatever you do, make sure you use this as the reward for listening to you speak

While asking for their information is the default use case, you can take this further and create something for your audience. If you're giving a talk about being more productive in the workplace, create a list of free ideas for them to do just that, and give them a way to download it after the presentation.

Showing up for your audience shows that you care, and it's a way to connect with those afterward.

How to design your presentation slide deck without relying on free templates

I once redesigned a website for a client, and they had never thought about creating one from scratch before. "I just thought you picked a template and filled it in."

This is what most people do with their own slide decks, which leads to an inconsistent experience and stuffing their slide decks with too much info.

My general advice is not to rely on free slide deck templates. Most are over designed, gaudy, and dated. You're also overthinking the layout , and how to retrofit your content into the templates.

This is difficult, and a waste of time.

Instead, start with one idea per slide, then we'll make simple, timeless design decisions to prevent you from redesigning your templates from scratch in the future.

Creating a simple presentation deck template using 2-3 colors, 1-2 fonts, and a basic content structure is all you need to design a slide deck that stands out.

Don't over-design your slide deck presentation

It doesn't matter what kind of slide deck presentation you're giving, you don't need to over-design your slides. This applies to all types of deck formats. A pitch deck template, a strategy deck, an informational deck... these all should be using timeless design principles.

Stick to the basics. Where do you start?

Start with a blank template

While this might seem like I’m adding more work, in the end, this reduces the amount of design decisions most slide deck apps force on you. 

Add your titles to each slide

In most apps like Powerpoint or Keynote, you can change the view to “Outline” which will let you see the title of the slide. This is another way to avoid thinking about design for as long as possible, and start putting your content into the slides. 

Even if your presentation doesn’t look great yet, don’t worry! We’ll get there, and we won’t even worry about gradients, drop shadows, video, text effects or animations to build a good looking slide deck. 

Colors: Use three colors + light and dark versions for the body text

Three colors are all you need when designing a presentation deck. If you have a brand deck, please use those colors and don't deviate from them. Building reputable brands means using the same consistent choices over and over.

Applying brand decisions should be boring.

Here's the simple formula:

One primary color (pick this first)

One neutral color (pick this second)

One accent color (pick this third)

Optional: A custom black for text and a custom white for reversed white text

I always use this combination of

Primary color

Your primary color is your main brand color. You can use this for your dark backgrounds or any other primary instances. 

This will be the color you use in 80% of cases. When in doubt, use this color for your design decisions. 

I usually bookend my slide decks with this color, using it for the cover slide and end slide. I might also use it for the Table of Contents, and then use a lighter background for the interior pages, just like a book. 

This adds a bit of personality and the sterile look and feel most slide decks have. 

Neutral color

Neutral colors are great for lowering the amount of contrast in a slide. I like to use my neutral color instead of a pure white background, which often gives the presentation a sophisticated feel.

Feel free to experiment, but neutral colors are almost white. In the example above, I'm using the hex value #F9F5F3.

Accent color

An accent color is useful when you need to call out or highlight an important word or section. If you're trying to highlight one of the most important takeaways, try using this as the slide’s background.

The purpose is not to overuse this color, but to use it strategically when necessary.

Avoid using true black and white for body text

Most templates will use pure black and white for body text. But these colors are high-contrast, and demand unnecessary attention. Pure black and white don't exist in the world because of the way light reflects off surfaces. Even shadows aren’t pure black because they absorb the color of the surface. (Unless maybe you're in a pitch-black float tank?)

Instead of just going with the defaults, I’ll pull in the ends of each just slightly, so to soften the intensity overall.

Imagine a spectrum of white and black on opposite ends. I choose colors that sit at around 95% of each end. It's hard to notice without comparing them, but that's the point. It creates a more soothing experience, even if no one can tell you're not using pure black and white.

Fonts: Choose a maximum of one or two fonts

First, if your company or brand already uses specific fonts, use those and forget this section! Consistency matters, and you'll only make it more difficult when everyone is choosing a font that matches their attitude that particular day.

You only need one typeface, as long as it has multiple weights. A typeface with multiple weights means it has bold, regular, semi-bold, black , and so on. Those give you a much more flexible family to work with than typefaces with just one.

If you need to use two fonts, you'll want to pick fonts with contrast. This creates visual intrigue, and it’s easy to accomplish using a serif or sans-serif combination. Like, Helvetica and Georgia. 

Avoid picking two fonts that look too similar, like Helvetica and Arial. These two in particular look similar, but they’re slightly different. This makes the overall design look confusing or off .

Use images that have a clear meaning

If you're in a pinch for a photo, try to resist the temptation to find a generic or cheesy stock photo. They make your slide deck look unprofessional and dated. It's better to use no photo than one that adds skepticism to your presentation deck.

If you do use images, make sure they support your story. They should also touch the edges of your slide deck, without any white padding. This will help give your slide deck a more polished feel and help the placed images avoid looking like clip art. 

Illustrations can be useful

I won’t lie and say illustrations can’t be powerful and creative. I’ve used them in my decks. But they aren’t necessary to communicate a good story. The problem with stock illustrations is that they usually look off-brand, or confuse the message more than anything. I try to avoid them at all costs unless you have the budget to hire an illustrator to build them specific to your business. ‍

Charts and graphs

Charts or graphs can be extremely useful to tailor a story with data. Most of the time you’ll end up using screenshots or displaying other existing work, but if possible, try to create these yourself using your brand colors and aesthetic. 

I use Figma to create all of my charts, but there are plenty of great creative tools like Canva, Keynote, and Figma. (If you want to learn more about using Figma, you can learn more here .)

Use simple grid layouts in your slide deck

Laying out content can always cause a bit of a struggle. It’s best to keep things simple for your content. 

Use a simple grid structure

Imagine your slide deck divided between 1-4 equally spaced columns. This gives you a basic grid when planning how to lay out content in your slide deck. 

Don't add a logo or copyright information on every page

Many slide deck templates will have a spot for brand logos, page numbers, and other elements to make your slide deck feel more professional.

If you need to add copyrights, page numbers, or disclaimers, reserve that for a printed copy of the slide deck. Or go ahead and make a duplicate deck for sharing purposes, because that won't help you during a live presentation, and gives the audience more to look at during your presentation.

Presentation takeaways

During that long presentation with two prepared slide decks and over 100+ slides, we all left that conference room confused and unsure of what we should do next.

So in your next slide deck presentation, remember to do these things:

Start by writing a list of insights to talk about, in a story format. (These will be your slide deck titles)

Add any supporting details under each point.

Use the Pyramid Principle to make better arguments

Aim for 10 slides of less, and one insight per slide

Add your cover slide and a closing slide with a CTA

Open your slide deck software and pick 1-2 fonts (Don’t use a deck template)

Choose 3 colors (Primary, neutral, and accent)

Layout your slides using 1-4 columns

Use accent or primary colors for your most important slides

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122+ Complete Slide Deck Templates for PowerPoint

Browse a collection of complete slide decks for presentations. Find templates with useful slides for your business presentations. Combine slides from different presentations into your final slide deck and impress your audience. Under this category you can find complete slide deck templates, each PowerPoint template containing many slides so it makes it easier to insert your company logo and keep a consistent look & feel.

Featured Templates

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Formal Template for PowerPoint Presentations

A slide deck is another name for a pitch deck or a presentation deck. It refers to a group of slides that are put together to tell your business’s or startup’s story. The word ‘slide deck’ comes from an old technology where slide projectors were used to view films. The slides would be piled up just like a deck of cards to be used in the projectors.

Download stunning slide deck slide designs and Slide Deck PowerPoint backgrounds from SlideModel to use in your presentations. For guidance on how to create a slide deck that effectively communicates your story, explore our detailed resources.

What is a Slide Deck?

A slide deck is a presentation deck or a pitch deck that tells the story of a business or about its operations. Different ideas can be shared and strategies can be made with presentations using slides.

Download slide deck PowerPoint presentation templates from SlideModel to use in your business presentations.

What is a Slide Deck PowerPoint template?

A slide deck PowerPoint template is a PowerPoint presentation template that business professionals and students can download and edit to utilize in their presentations.

Simply download and edit the slide deck in your PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Keynote, and ace your presentations

How can a Slide Deck PowerPoint template be used in a presentation?

A Slide Deck PowerPoint presentation template can be used in a presentation by downloading and editing the template in PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Keynote.

Each template comes with a description and the details about the number of slides, the colors, and the supported versions. Edit the text, colors, and size of the templates to customize it according to your preference.

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Our annual unlimited plan let you download unlimited content from slidemodel. save hours of manual work and use awesome slide designs in your next presentation..

6 steps to creating an effective presentation or slide deck

Creating powerful presentations and supporting documents for clients is the heart and soul of everything we do at Presentation Studio. As part of this, we see the good, the bad and the downright ugly !

One of the most common mistakes people make is to confuse a presentation and a report. Quite often, they’ll try and present a report.

Difference between a presentation and report

A presentation  includes carefully constructed and designed slides that support what a speaker is presenting. So, like a billboard on a highway, you should be able to digest the content on each slide within a few seconds without causing a pileup of information.

Visuals, keywords, infographics and diagrams are used to explain or create an emotional connection with your audience, so you can help them remember your key points.

A  report  or slide deck , on the other hand, can be used as a stand-alone document that you handout before or after you present.

Slide decks are great when you have more information than you can put on screen. Like a magazine, they can be read on their own and don’t need the speaker to talk through them – in fact, that would make understanding them worse as you can’t read lots of information and listen at the same time.

You can do both in most presentation software, but a presentation and a slide deck have different purposes. Ideally, you would present and then follow up your presentation with a report/slide deck of the supporting information.

To help show the difference between the two, let’s look at how you might take a large chunk of text from a word document (like above) and turn it into a handout and then an effective presentation.

HANDOUT TOOL [REPORT] 

Step 1: Convert text into multiple columns

The human eye finds narrow columns easier to read than full-width pages. That is why newspapers and magazines split the information up with visuals and columns, and graphic designers use grid layouts when setting copy pages.

So your first step would be to convert blocks of text into multiple columns that automatically adjust. This makes it easier for your audience to scan read.

Step 2: Contrast fonts and font size to emphasize points

To help the ‘readability’ of your information, make the titles bold, use line spacing to tighten up blocks of text that are related to each other. You might also look at highlight quotes in different colors, fonts or font sizes, and add in bullet points where you can.

This makes the information far more natural to scan and digest. That’s a perfect handout for before or after you present.

PRESENTATION 

Step 3: Cut the clutter 

Once this is done, you can start thinking about thinking your text into a presentation. It’s more important than ever to cut out all the clutter from your presentation. What gets left out of your presentation is more important than what goes in.

Some of us are apparently better at this than others. Many of us believe that sharing everything and blinding our audience with data is the best way to create a connection – that couldn’t be further from the truth! This will only put the people you are trying to engage off and make them lose interest faster.

You need to identify the main points that your audience can act on and display these in a way that they can immediately understand. Strip out all the other background content.

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Step 4: Spread out your slides 

Step 5: Represent data as diagrams 

Step 6: Create visuals, icons and images 

Images create an emotional connection to what you are saying, which helps your audience remember it. Think of the meaning or the feeling you are trying to evoke and represent that. Avoid hand-shaking figures, smiling suited people, little vector people standing on arrows and graphs, and predictable and boring stock images that have been used a hundred times before. Cheesy stock photos have the opposite effect than the one you want – they turn your audience off. This is your chance to get creative! Using these visual references helps create clarity and a much stronger emotional connection with your audience. It’s these kinds of emotions and visuals that they will remember long after your presentation has ended.

Quick summary

Before your next presentation, the following will help you create a powerful and pleasing slide deck:

• Covert text-heavy information into multiple columns
• Contrast font and font sizes to emphasize points, highlight headings with color
• Reduce the clutter
• Spread out your slides
• Represent data as diagrams
• Create visuals, icons and images
• Use a PowerPoint theme to make your presentations visually uniform and consistent

About the author

As the founder and CEO of Presentation Studio, Emma leads the team to create presentations that are influential, memorable and successful. Emma and her team can help you stand out so that your audience understands your message. She can help your presentations have impact and influence. This means the right messages are more memorable for your audience. Emma achieves this through content writing, visual communication, and strong presentation delivery.

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Innovative Business Idea Pitch Deck

Innovative business idea pitch deck presentation, free google slides theme and powerpoint template.

Download the Innovative Business Idea Pitch Deck presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. Whether you're an entrepreneur looking for funding or a sales professional trying to close a deal, a great pitch deck can be the difference-maker that sets you apart from the competition. Let your talent shine out thanks to a customizable template for PowerPoint or Google Slides. Take advantage of our design and watch your ideas take shape and eventually hit the market.

Features of this template

• 100% editable and easy to modify
• Different slides to impress your audience
• Contains easy-to-edit graphics such as graphs, maps, tables, timelines and mockups
• Includes 500+ icons and Flaticon’s extension for customizing your slides
• Designed to be used in Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint
• Includes information about fonts, colors, and credits of the resources used

How can I use the template?

Am I free to use the templates?

How to attribute?

Attribution required If you are a free user, you must attribute Slidesgo by keeping the slide where the credits appear. How to attribute?

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