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How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

• Guy Kawasaki

Remember: Less is more.

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

• Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and was the former chief evangelist at Apple. Guy is the author of 16 books including Think Remarkable : 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.

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Blog Beginner Guides How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

Written by: Krystle Wong Jul 20, 2023

A top-notch presentation possesses the power to drive action. From winning stakeholders over and conveying a powerful message to securing funding — your secret weapon lies within the realm of creating an effective presentation .  

Being an excellent presenter isn’t confined to the boardroom. Whether you’re delivering a presentation at work, pursuing an academic career, involved in a non-profit organization or even a student, nailing the presentation game is a game-changer.

In this article, I’ll cover the top qualities of compelling presentations and walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to give a good presentation. Here’s a little tip to kick things off: for a headstart, check out Venngage’s collection of free presentation templates . They are fully customizable, and the best part is you don’t need professional design skills to make them shine!

These valuable presentation tips cater to individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, encompassing business professionals, sales and marketing teams, educators, trainers, students, researchers, non-profit organizations, public speakers and presenters. 

No matter your field or role, these tips for presenting will equip you with the skills to deliver effective presentations that leave a lasting impression on any audience.

Click to jump ahead:

What are the 10 qualities of a good presentation?

Step-by-step guide on how to prepare an effective presentation, 9 effective techniques to deliver a memorable presentation, faqs on making a good presentation, how to create a presentation with venngage in 5 steps.

When it comes to giving an engaging presentation that leaves a lasting impression, it’s not just about the content — it’s also about how you deliver it. Wondering what makes a good presentation? Well, the best presentations I’ve seen consistently exhibit these 10 qualities:

1. Clear structure

No one likes to get lost in a maze of information. Organize your thoughts into a logical flow, complete with an introduction, main points and a solid conclusion. A structured presentation helps your audience follow along effortlessly, leaving them with a sense of satisfaction at the end.

Regardless of your presentation style , a quality presentation starts with a clear roadmap. Browse through Venngage’s template library and select a presentation template that aligns with your content and presentation goals. Here’s a good presentation example template with a logical layout that includes sections for the introduction, main points, supporting information and a conclusion: 

2. Engaging opening

Hook your audience right from the start with an attention-grabbing statement, a fascinating question or maybe even a captivating anecdote. Set the stage for a killer presentation!

The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.

3. Relevant content

Make sure your content aligns with their interests and needs. Your audience is there for a reason, and that’s to get valuable insights. Avoid fluff and get straight to the point, your audience will be genuinely excited.

4. Effective visual aids

Picture this: a slide with walls of text and tiny charts, yawn! Visual aids should be just that—aiding your presentation. Opt for clear and visually appealing slides, engaging images and informative charts that add value and help reinforce your message.

With Venngage, visualizing data takes no effort at all. You can import data from CSV or Google Sheets seamlessly and create stunning charts, graphs and icon stories effortlessly to showcase your data in a captivating and impactful way.

5. Clear and concise communication

Keep your language simple, and avoid jargon or complicated terms. Communicate your ideas clearly, so your audience can easily grasp and retain the information being conveyed. This can prevent confusion and enhance the overall effectiveness of the message. 

6. Engaging delivery

Spice up your presentation with a sprinkle of enthusiasm! Maintain eye contact, use expressive gestures and vary your tone of voice to keep your audience glued to the edge of their seats. A touch of charisma goes a long way!

7. Interaction and audience engagement

Turn your presentation into an interactive experience — encourage questions, foster discussions and maybe even throw in a fun activity. Engaged audiences are more likely to remember and embrace your message.

Transform your slides into an interactive presentation with Venngage’s dynamic features like pop-ups, clickable icons and animated elements. Engage your audience with interactive content that lets them explore and interact with your presentation for a truly immersive experience.

8. Effective storytelling

Who doesn’t love a good story? Weaving relevant anecdotes, case studies or even a personal story into your presentation can captivate your audience and create a lasting impact. Stories build connections and make your message memorable.

A great presentation background is also essential as it sets the tone, creates visual interest and reinforces your message. Enhance the overall aesthetics of your presentation with these 15 presentation background examples and captivate your audience’s attention.

9. Well-timed pacing

Pace your presentation thoughtfully with well-designed presentation slides, neither rushing through nor dragging it out. Respect your audience’s time and ensure you cover all the essential points without losing their interest.

10. Strong conclusion

Last impressions linger! Summarize your main points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway. End your presentation with a bang , a call to action or an inspiring thought that resonates long after the conclusion.

In-person presentations aside, acing a virtual presentation is of paramount importance in today’s digital world. Check out this guide to learn how you can adapt your in-person presentations into virtual presentations . 

Preparing an effective presentation starts with laying a strong foundation that goes beyond just creating slides and notes. One of the quickest and best ways to make a presentation would be with the help of a good presentation software . 

Otherwise, let me walk you to how to prepare for a presentation step by step and unlock the secrets of crafting a professional presentation that sets you apart.

1. Understand the audience and their needs

Before you dive into preparing your masterpiece, take a moment to get to know your target audience. Tailor your presentation to meet their needs and expectations , and you’ll have them hooked from the start!

2. Conduct thorough research on the topic

Time to hit the books (or the internet)! Don’t skimp on the research with your presentation materials — dive deep into the subject matter and gather valuable insights . The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel in delivering your presentation.

3. Organize the content with a clear structure

No one wants to stumble through a chaotic mess of information. Outline your presentation with a clear and logical flow. Start with a captivating introduction, follow up with main points that build on each other and wrap it up with a powerful conclusion that leaves a lasting impression.

Delivering an effective business presentation hinges on captivating your audience, and Venngage’s professionally designed business presentation templates are tailor-made for this purpose. With thoughtfully structured layouts, these templates enhance your message’s clarity and coherence, ensuring a memorable and engaging experience for your audience members.

Don’t want to build your presentation layout from scratch? pick from these 5 foolproof presentation layout ideas that won’t go wrong. 

4. Develop visually appealing and supportive visual aids

Spice up your presentation with eye-catching visuals! Create slides that complement your message, not overshadow it. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean you need to overload your slides with text.

Well-chosen designs create a cohesive and professional look, capturing your audience’s attention and enhancing the overall effectiveness of your message. Here’s a list of carefully curated PowerPoint presentation templates and great background graphics that will significantly influence the visual appeal and engagement of your presentation.

5. Practice, practice and practice

Practice makes perfect — rehearse your presentation and arrive early to your presentation to help overcome stage fright. Familiarity with your material will boost your presentation skills and help you handle curveballs with ease.

6. Seek feedback and make necessary adjustments

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek feedback from friends and colleagues. Constructive criticism can help you identify blind spots and fine-tune your presentation to perfection.

With Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature , receiving feedback and editing your presentation is a seamless process. Group members can access and work on the presentation simultaneously and edit content side by side in real-time. Changes will be reflected immediately to the entire team, promoting seamless teamwork.

7. Prepare for potential technical or logistical issues

Prepare for the unexpected by checking your equipment, internet connection and any other potential hiccups. If you’re worried that you’ll miss out on any important points, you could always have note cards prepared. Remember to remain focused and rehearse potential answers to anticipated questions.

8. Fine-tune and polish your presentation

As the big day approaches, give your presentation one last shine. Review your talking points, practice how to present a presentation and make any final tweaks. Deep breaths — you’re on the brink of delivering a successful presentation!

In competitive environments, persuasive presentations set individuals and organizations apart. To brush up on your presentation skills, read these guides on how to make a persuasive presentation and tips to presenting effectively . 

Whether you’re an experienced presenter or a novice, the right techniques will let your presentation skills soar to new heights!

From public speaking hacks to interactive elements and storytelling prowess, these 9 effective presentation techniques will empower you to leave a lasting impression on your audience and make your presentations unforgettable.

1. Confidence and positive body language

Positive body language instantly captivates your audience, making them believe in your message as much as you do. Strengthen your stage presence and own that stage like it’s your second home! Stand tall, shoulders back and exude confidence. 

2. Eye contact with the audience

Break down that invisible barrier and connect with your audience through their eyes. Maintaining eye contact when giving a presentation builds trust and shows that you’re present and engaged with them.

3. Effective use of hand gestures and movement

A little movement goes a long way! Emphasize key points with purposeful gestures and don’t be afraid to walk around the stage. Your energy will be contagious!

4. Utilize storytelling techniques

Weave the magic of storytelling into your presentation. Share relatable anecdotes, inspiring success stories or even personal experiences that tug at the heartstrings of your audience. Adjust your pitch, pace and volume to match the emotions and intensity of the story. Varying your speaking voice adds depth and enhances your stage presence.

5. Incorporate multimedia elements

Spice up your presentation with a dash of visual pizzazz! Use slides, images and video clips to add depth and clarity to your message. Just remember, less is more—don’t overwhelm them with information overload. 

Turn your presentations into an interactive party! Involve your audience with questions, polls or group activities. When they actively participate, they become invested in your presentation’s success. Bring your design to life with animated elements. Venngage allows you to apply animations to icons, images and text to create dynamic and engaging visual content.

6. Utilize humor strategically

Laughter is the best medicine—and a fantastic presentation enhancer! A well-placed joke or lighthearted moment can break the ice and create a warm atmosphere , making your audience more receptive to your message.

7. Practice active listening and respond to feedback

Be attentive to your audience’s reactions and feedback. If they have questions or concerns, address them with genuine interest and respect. Your responsiveness builds rapport and shows that you genuinely care about their experience.

8. Apply the 10-20-30 rule

Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it!

9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule

Simplicity is key. Limit each slide to five bullet points, with only five words per bullet point and allow each slide to remain visible for about five seconds. This rule keeps your presentation concise and prevents information overload.

Simple presentations are more engaging because they are easier to follow. Summarize your presentations and keep them simple with Venngage’s gallery of simple presentation templates and ensure that your message is delivered effectively across your audience.

1. How to start a presentation?

To kick off your presentation effectively, begin with an attention-grabbing statement or a powerful quote. Introduce yourself, establish credibility and clearly state the purpose and relevance of your presentation.

2. How to end a presentation?

For a strong conclusion, summarize your talking points and key takeaways. End with a compelling call to action or a thought-provoking question and remember to thank your audience and invite any final questions or interactions.

3. How to make a presentation interactive?

To make your presentation interactive, encourage questions and discussion throughout your talk. Utilize multimedia elements like videos or images and consider including polls, quizzes or group activities to actively involve your audience.

In need of inspiration for your next presentation? I’ve got your back! Pick from these 120+ presentation ideas, topics and examples to get started. 

Creating a stunning presentation with Venngage is a breeze with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and professionally designed templates for all your communication needs. 

Here’s how to make a presentation in just 5 simple steps with the help of Venngage:

Step 1: Sign up for Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account or simply log in to access your account. 

Step 2: Pick a design from our selection of free presentation templates (they’re all created by our expert in-house designers).

Step 3: Make the template your own by customizing it to fit your content and branding. With Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily modify text, change colors and adjust the layout to create a unique and eye-catching design.

Step 4: Elevate your presentation by incorporating captivating visuals. You can upload your images or choose from Venngage’s vast library of high-quality photos, icons and illustrations. 

Step 5: Upgrade to a premium or business account to export your presentation in PDF and print it for in-person presentations or share it digitally for free!

By following these five simple steps, you’ll have a professionally designed and visually engaging presentation ready in no time. With Venngage’s user-friendly platform, your presentation is sure to make a lasting impression. So, let your creativity flow and get ready to shine in your next presentation!

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20 Basic PowerPoint Guidelines to Design Effective Presentations in 2024 (+Video)

No matter what kind of presentation you’re working on, make sure it's engaging and also well designed. Otherwise, you run the risk of dealing with death by PowerPoint and nobody wants to see their presentation flop. 

To make sure your presentation is effective , there are a few PowerPoint presentation guidelines you need to follow. In this post, we’ll share those guidelines. We’ll also show you examples of engaging presentation designs so you can save time and make sure your presentation looks polished and professional. 

The Top PowerPoint Guidelines to Design Effective Presentations for 2024 (Video)

Do you want to get started with the best PowerPoint design guidelines quickly? Review the quickstart video:

For evern more PowerPoint design guidelines, study the complete tutorial below.

Guidelines for Planning Your PowerPoint Presentation

Before you start with the design part of your presentation, plan your presentation. Here are a few PowerPoint presentation design guidelines to follow when it comes to planning:

1. Decide on the Presentation Goal

First, decide on the presentation goal. Are you sharing an annual report or creating a pitch deck? Is the goal to increase sales or get the higher-ups onboard with a new marketing tactic?

Whatever the case may be, the presentation goal helps you decide what to include in your presentation and how that information should be presented. It'll also help you with all the other steps involved in creating an effective and engaging presentation. 

2. Create an Outline 

With your presentation goal in mind, create an outline for your presentation. You'll save time in the long run. Plus, you'll be sure that your presentation covers everything you need to cover for your idea or data to be understood. 

3. Think About the Slides You Need to Include

The next step is to think about the slides you need to include in your presentation. For example, if you’re creating a pitch deck for potential investors, sharing information about your company on an About or Team slide is a must. 

But if you’re creating an internal presentation to share your sales report, including those slides would be a waste of time. Instead, your presentation should focus on numbers and data as well as individual product or product line performance. 

4. Decide on Visuals

Your planning stage should account for visuals that'll help back up your story. This can include photos, icons, charts, infographic elements, graphs, tables, and anything else you need to make your data more visually appealing. Envato Elements is a great source for a wide variety of design assets .

Once you’ve decided on the visuals you want, gather them all in one place so you can easily locate them. Don’t forget that you can create charts and graphs from your Excel data if needed. Be sure to gather those spreadsheets as well. 

5. Establish Your Call to Action

Finally, decide what’s the next step your audience should take once you’re done delivering your presentation. Should they email you or call you to set up an appointment? Do they need to send over information? 

Make sure your last slide includes your call to action along with specific instructions on what to do.

PowerPoint Presentation Design Guidelines

Once you've get your presentation planned out, it’s time to tackle the design part of creating a presentation . When designing your presentation, keep the following guidelines in mind: 

1. Keep the Text to a Minimum

When it comes to your presentation, PowerPoint should assist you in delivering the presentation. It shouldn't be the main source of information. Less is more, so keep the text to a minimum. 

Stick to one main idea per slide and limit yourself to using no more than three bullet points per slide. This will help keep your audience engaged and not zoned out. 

2. Use Large Font Sizes

Another thing to keep in mind is that not everybody in your audience will be close to the slides. Make sure to use larger font sizes. Consider using 40 pts for headings and going no smaller than 28 pts for the content text.

3. Make Sure Fonts Are Readable

While we’re on the topic of fonts, avoid using script or decorative fonts. They're hard to read. Stick to sans-serif fonts for body text. To emphasize your headings, use a readable serif font. 

4. Use Color Sparingly

Color can make your presentation more visually appealing. But that doesn’t mean you've got to color every slide differently or use different colors for your fonts. If you’re presenting in a dark room, consider using a dark background for the slide paired with a light color for the text. It'll make it easier for your audience to follow along. 

Avoid using light text on light background or clashing colors. They'll distract your audience. 

5. Enhance the Data With Charts and Graphs

We mentioned earlier you need to decide on the visuals you'll use in your presentation. Using charts and graphs is a great way to make abstract data easier to understand. So, don’t shy away from using them. 

6. Design for Wide Screen Formats

Keep in mind that most projector screens are optimized for widescreen 16:9 ratio. As such, design your presentation following those PowerPoint presentation guidelines. If you design your presentation in 4:3 ratio, your presentation will still work. But some parts of your slides might get cut off or not display properly. 

7. Be Consistent With Style Settings

Another important bit of PowerPoint design guidelines is to keep your design style consistent across all slides. This will reinforce your brand image as well as ensure that the entire presentation is visually appealing.

8. Use Animations Sparingly

There's nothing wrong with using subtle animations or slide transitions to keep things interesting. But, avoid animating every single word or slide as this will make your presentation look amateurish and unprofessional. 

9. Proofread Everything

Be sure to proofread each slide to make sure there are no embarrassing typos. If you’re mentioning other associates or colleagues in your presentation, make sure their names are spelled correctly to avoid any awkward moments. Ask another person to go through your presentation and make sure it’s error-free.

10. Consider Using a Template

Our last guideline for making an effective PowerPoint presentation is to consider using a premade PowerPoint template . A premade template will have a professional design. It'll also have all the slides you'll need: from section break slides, company and team slides to charts, galleries, and more. This will save you a lot of time in the design stage and ensure that your presentation looks polished. 

Presentation Guidelines for Delivering Your PowerPoint

Now that your presentation is designed, the last thing you need to do is deliver it. Here are a few PowerPoint presentation guidelines to follow for delivering your PowerPoint presentation :

1. Do a Practice Run

Before the actual presentation day, do a practice run. This will help you memorize the contents of your presentation, not to mention it'll help you build up the necessary confidence.

2. Test the Equipment

Show up early before the presentation and test the equipment. The last thing you want is tech difficulties or malfunctions that'll delay the start of your presentation. 

3. Maintain Eye Contact

Throughout your presentation, maintain eye contact with your audience. This will make them feel like you’re talking to them. Plus, it'll help keep them engaged and interested instead of losing interest. 

4. Ask Questions During Your Presentation

Ask your audience questions during the presentation. Get them involved or ask if they've got any questions that need to be clarified. Getting your audience involved is a great tactic for making your entire presentation feel more engaging. It also allows your audience to feel like they're active participants instead of being bombarded with data.

5. Don’t Read the Slides

The last bit of PowerPoint guidance we've got for you is to avoid reading the slides. If you read the slides you’ll not only bore your audience, but you’ll also come off as disinterested in your own presentation. This will make your audience disengage and forget your presentation as soon as it’s over.

Best PowerPoint Presentation Template Examples

Following the basic PowerPoint guidelines outlined above is a great way to ensure your presentation has an engaging design and is easy to follow. But there's no doubt that designing an entire presentation from scratch is a time-consuming task. That’s why using a premade PowerPoint presentation template is a great alternative. 

You can find thousands of beautifully designed PowerPoint templates over on Envato Elements. If you buy design templates on a regular basis, Envato Elements is a logical choice. You get access to unlimited PowerPoint and other design templates for one low monthly price.  

Look at some of our top presentation templates from Envato Elements: 

1. Galaxi PowerPoint Presentation Template

The Galaxi PowerPoint template has a clean and modern design. It’s versatile enough to use for all kinds of presentations and comes with five premade color schemes. The template comes with 30 premade slides based on master slides, image placeholders, and editable shapes. 

2. Buizi PowerPoint Presentation

The Buizi is another minimal presentation template for PowerPoint with a versatile design. This template is a great choice for portfolio presentations and comes with 30 total slides, all based on master slides. You’ll also find custom vector icons and fully editable shapes. 

3. Aiony Creative PowerPoint Template

If you’re looking for a more creative solution, the Aiony template is a great choice. It’s very photo heavy. This is perfect for any presentation that relies heavily on images and photos. You’ll get a total of 50 slides and drag and drop image placeholders for easy editing. 

4. Agio PowerPoint Presentation Template

The Agio template is best suited for corporate presentations. It's got an elegant look and feel. Customize colors and fonts to your liking. 

Easily add photos using the image placeholders. You’ll get a total of 630 presentation slides designed in full HD resolution. 

5. Over PowerPoint Presentation Template

The Over PowerPoint presentation template is a multipurpose PowerPoint template. Use it for corporate presentations as well as for pitch decks and webinars. The template comes with 32 slides designed in both standard and HD resolution. 

Envato Elements is a great choice if you need design templates on a regular basis.

Find More PowerPoint Template

And if you want to see more beautiful PowerPoint templates from both Envato Elements, check out the following articles: 

Envato Elements: Design Without Limits

Envato Elements has a compelling offer.  For a low monthly price, you get access to thousands of unlimited use PowerPoint templates, web templates, stock photos, fonts, and more. 

What’s more, you can download as many templates as you want and customize them to your needs. Sign up for Envato Elements and start downloading PowerPoint templates today.

Design a Stellar Presentation With the Help of PowerPoint Presentation Guidelines

Designing a stellar presentation might seem daunting. But once you’re familiar with and follow the basic PowerPoint guidelines for creating effective PowerPoint presentations, the task becomes easier. 

To save time while you’re designing your presentation, use one of our top PowerPoint presentation templates from Envato Elements. Why not get started today?

Editorial Note: This post has been updated with contributions from Brenda Barron . A video has been added by Nathan Umoh . Brenda and Nathan are freelance instructors for Envato Tuts+. 

A Guide to Every Type of Corporate Presentation (and The Templates to Create Them)

What types of presentations might be delivered at a corporate level? The list is as endless as the possible business functions. Regardless of the variety of presentations that might be used in a corporate setting, they share the common purposes of informing, persuading and motivating an audience of both internal and external colleagues and customers. While some business presentations might be designed to achieve one of those three primary goals, other presentations might need to accomplish all three.

It’s practically impossible to master every possible type of corporate presentation, but you can hone your public speaking skills and gain a valuable understanding of an assortment of corporate presentation types. Not only will it make you more prepared when these presentations ultimately come your way, but you’ll be ready to pitch your own presentations when they most benefit your team.

Want to learn more about the various types of corporate presentations a modern professional might encounter? The following types of business presentations are sure to help teams communicate with clients and close more deals.

Elevator pitch

An elevator pitch is direct, to the point and lasts less than a minute. It’s the initial business pitch or personal pitch one might make if they found themselves with an executive in an elevator. The persuasive speech is designed to spark interest in a brand, product or person.

Every elevator pitch is unique, but professionals at any level of their career can get ideas by looking at some of Beautiful.ai’s famous PowerPoint makeovers and see how some of the world’s most successful companies pitched their startups. 

Sales pitch

A sales proposal or sales pitch presentation is used to demonstrate how a business, brand, product or service will positively influence a buyer, partner or investor. The impactful, straightforward message is important in the corporate environment because it’s frequently relied upon to close new deals.

The Beautiful.ai sales proposal template features all the necessary slides to showcase a company, brand or product, plus it provides all the basic placement and design elements for users to fill with customized content.

Investor pitch

An investor pitch deck or investor proposal presentation is used to introduce a product or brand and show how it solves a problem or opportunity in the market. It’s used in the corporate world to attract potential investors as well as partners.

Beautiful.ai’s investment proposal template helps professionals explain their projects and business ideas clearly and succinctly. It includes slides that introduce teams to potential investors and data visualizations to help users secure funding for their companies.

Product proposal presentation

A product proposal presentation helps professionals launch new products and sell big ideas. In fact, the product proposal is where most new ventures start, so it’s easy to understand their importance in the corporate business environment. An effective product proposal attracts buyers and investors by outlining key features, showcasing product visuals and reflecting value and profitability using market data.

The Beautiful.ai product proposal presentation template includes slides perfectly curated to present a product as a solution, emphasize its versatility and inspire excitement among potential clients.

Keynote presentation

At some point in most any professional’s career, they will have to deliver a keynote presentation, which focuses on a central theme and sets an overall tone for a meeting or event. Keynote presentations can be inspiring, informational, entertaining and motivational. While not delivered as commonly as a sales pitch, for example, the ability to design and communicate a keynote presentation is a valuable tool in any personal professional arsenal.

Beautiful.ai users don’t have to stress about designing the slide deck for their keynote presentations. Just modify one of our presentation templates, such as our master thesis presentation template or our research project template , and add your custom content to the preselected slides.

Webinar presentation

A webinar is an online seminar, workshop, lecture or presentation hosted via video conferencing software. Webinar presentations are used in the corporate world for launching new products and services, lead generation, inbound marketing, email marketing and brand building. Webinars are also more frequently used in the modern business world for internal remote presentations between management and employees.

Beautiful.ai features a customizable webinar recap template that features everything needed to successfully recap a lengthier webinar session, including webinar guidelines and a creative strategy exercise. It’s perfect for sharing additional resources with audiences, capturing emails for new prospects and promoting upcoming webinars and conferences.

Board meeting presentation

A board meeting presentation is just as its name suggests: a presentation or slide deck designed to provide information in a board meeting. A board meeting presentation might accomplish goals such as reporting company progress, refining goals and celebrating company wins.

Beautiful.ai’s board meeting presentation template is perfectly designed to help users communicate key company initiatives, share updates with the board and evaluate campaigns or goals. Just add your content and let artificial intelligence handle the rest.

Budget proposal

A budget proposal presentation is an essential tool in the corporate business environment as it helps professionals make their case for additional resources to management or executives. The presentation should explain the idea, identify obstacles and communicate why the desired budget is necessary for the project. 

Beautiful.ai’s customizable budget proposal template features slides perfectly curated to explain proposed budgets for a new project, fund new hires for a team and gain funding for a department.

Year-end review

Year-end review presentations are used in corporate business to reflect on what worked for a company and what didn’t over the prior year. It can help organizations find solutions to problems and implement strategies for future growth. A year-end review presentation is a vital tool for communicating important business data to investors, upper management and employees.

Beautiful.ai users don’t need to lose sleep about their upcoming year-end review presentations. Our year-end review template features slides to help summarize how a company performed over the past year, set goals for the future and outline a strategy to meet those future goals.

Business plan

Corporate professionals use business plan presentations to explain how a company will reach its goals and to show value to potential partners and investors. A business plan presentation is useful when launching a new product, when starting a new business and when updating investors on a company’s status.

You can remove some of the stress associated with designing a business plan presentation slide deck by relying on Beautiful.ai’s business plan presentation template . Don't worry about developing individual slides to suit each purpose of your project. Instead, just customize the template and let AI handle the fine details.

Performance review presentation

Performance reviews are a necessary part of business that help managers and employees align their expectations and set goals for future success. Unfortunately, performance reviews can also be a dreaded chore for managers and employees alike. A performance review presentation helps bring the reports to life and gives the data more meaning to those under review.

Of course, it’s unlikely that most managers have the availability to design a new presentation for every employee they review. Instead, they can save time and effort with Beautiful.ai’s customizable performance review presentation template . The slide deck template already includes all the necessary topics, users need only enter individual employee data and let AI handle the rest.

Project planning presentation

How does a project manager communicate the status and results of their various campaigns? A project planning presentation helps teams visualize projects and sell them to target audiences. A project planning presentation might be used to kick off a new project, detail specific project plans or even pitch and win new work.

Beautiful.ai’s project plan template takes just minutes to customize, and it includes all the core elements needed for a successful presentation, including project timelines, goals and budgets.

Training presentation

Training is an integral element of any corporate environment, and a training presentation is a great way to engage employees and new recruits while delivering an informative and organized message. A training presentation provides structure to a speech and boosts presenters’ confidence. It also allows the presenter to deliver their message more efficiently, leaving a lasting impression on the audience.

Need a powerful visual aid for your next corporate training session? Beautiful.ai’s training presentation template features slides chosen specifically to present information simply and logically while helping the presenter to stay focused on their speech while they motivate, inspire and inform their audience.

Competitive analysis report

How can you better understand your competitors in the corporate world to stand out against them? Companies use competitive analysis reports to identify and evaluate their competitors, as well as to analyze factors such as competitors’ reach, products or services, areas of operation and online presence. By understanding competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, professionals can create strategies to help them lead the market.

Beautiful.ai users can customize our competitive analysis report template to more easily analyze their target market, compare products and services against competitors and create strategies to build a stronger market share.

Marketing campaign plan

Corporate teams use marketing campaign plans to identify relevant, integrated marketing activities that will help them reach campaign objectives and influence customers. A marketing campaign can be a complicated project, but a marketing campaign plan presentation can help keep everything organized. With a marketing campaign plan presentation, professionals can break down their campaigns from beginning to end, including details about their target audience and goals, social media and email marketing plans, performance metrics and more.

With Beautiful.ai’s marketing campaign plan template , users easily can keep all their marketing strategy participants on the same page, bring their stakeholders up to speed and present campaign ideas to executives.

Employee onboarding presentation

How do you bring new employees up to speed as efficiently and effectively as possible? One tool many corporate recruiters rely upon is an onboarding presentation. Through onboarding, new employees are integrated with a company and its culture while they receive the tools and information needed to be productive team members. With onboarding presentations, professionals can introduce new hires to a company in a smooth and consistent process.

Beautiful.ai’s new hire onboarding template helps users keep everything organized for new employees. The template lets designers create roadmaps for one month to six months to ensure new hires are on the right path.

Didn't see what you were looking for? Check out our entire library of pre-built presentation templates here and customize it to make it your own.

Samantha Pratt Lile

Samantha is an independent journalist, editor, blogger and content manager. Examples of her published work can be found at sites including the Huffington Post, Thrive Global, and Buzzfeed.

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How to give a business presentation + free templates

1. Define clear objectives

2. create a plan, 3. craft a story to engage your audience, 4. find support for your claims, 5. use visual or interactive elements, 6. prepare for questions at the end, 1. avoid overloading slides with information, 2. speak clearly and slowly, 3. make it a conversation, 4. practice with a friend or colleague, 5. follow your brand design guidelines, basic business presentation, creative business presentation, data-driven business presentation, sales pitch deck, consulting presentation, boost your business presentation skills with online english tutors.

Listen to useful tips from Sylvia and Iris on how to create a study plan that’ll help you learn a language effectively

Giving a successful business presentation is a prerequisite for any leadership position. Whether you’re managing a small team or an entire company, leaders are expected to oversee projects, conduct progress updates, lead brainstorming sessions, and pitch to clients. Ultimately, growing these skills comes down to your ability to make a business presentation.

As a bonus, improving your business presentations shows you’re taking the initiative to grow your leadership skills . It will also help you become more confident in business English, especially if it’s not your native language.

Let’s dive into a step-by-step guide to how to make a business presentation, followed by some helpful tips and templates that will help you shine in your next meeting.

How to make a business presentation in 6 steps

Think back on some of the most memorable presentations you’ve seen. The speaker was likely poised, confident, and ready to answer any questions. However, most people aren’t born to be charismatic public speakers who can talk about any topic at a moment’s notice. It requires practice and preparation.

But the good news is: you could be that person too! With enough time to plan it out, you’ll lead your next presentation with the confidence of a leader . Here is our step-by-step guide to how to make a business presentation, from start to finish.

Start your business presentation by deciding what you want to do. Do you want to inform, persuade, or motivate your audience? This is particularly helpful if you are presenting in a second language because it will help you focus the presentation on key messages and simplify the process of conveying complex ideas.

When setting goals, use the SMART method . Make them specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. This method helps make your goals clear and doable, giving you a solid roadmap for your presentation.

For example, a salesperson’s main aim might be to convince customers about the advantages of a new product. In this case, the presentation would be tailored to highlight the product’s unique features and its return on investment to make a compelling case for why it stands out in the market.

This approach will result in a presentation where every slide, every statistic, and every story told aligns with the overarching goal of your presentation.

A well-structured plan not only aids in clear communication but also provides a sense of confidence and control over your material.

Begin by listing the main ideas you want to discuss in your presentation. This should happen before you even design your presentation (sometimes called a “slide deck”). Break your presentation into three parts: a clear introduction, a detailed middle, and a short conclusion . Remember, the goal is to convey your message effectively, not to overwhelm your audience or yourself.

For example, if you’re a project manager leading a project kickoff meeting, your presentation agenda should include clear objectives, timelines, and defined roles. This plan will ensure you cover every critical point of the project in the meeting.

Another good rule for clear and brief presentations is Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule . This rule says the best presentations should have no more than 10 slides , last less than 20 minutes , and use at least 30-point fonts . This will help your audience stay engaged without being bombarded with too much information at once.

Telling a story in your business presentation is very powerful. Storytelling changes your message from just giving information to something engaging and memorable. In fact, a study revealed that 63% of attendees remember stories from a presentation, but only 5% recall the statistics.

Why does storytelling work so well? It’s simple: stories forge emotional connections and make complex data relatable. When you show facts and numbers, put them in a way that is important to your audience . Ask yourself how this information will impact their work or decision-making, especially if they are stakeholders in a shared project.

Try integrating personal experiences, anecdotes, or relevant case studies that illustrate your key points. For example, if you’re a product manager, you might use a customer success story to demonstrate the real-world impact of a new feature. This can help sales representatives understand why customers value the product, which they can use in future sales presentations.

That being said, we can’t throw out statistics altogether. You still need to use data, research, or expert opinions to support your ideas. This makes your presentation more believable and convincing.

When you present evidence-based claims, you’re not just sharing an opinion but providing verifiable facts. This instills confidence in your audience and demonstrates your thorough understanding of the subject . For instance, an IT professional proposing new software can bolster their argument with data on efficiency improvements and testimonials from other companies.

Start by reviewing relevant and trustworthy evidence. This could include incorporating up-to-date statistics, quoting subject matter experts, or referencing results from recent studies. Make sure the evidence directly relates to your topic and adds to your presentation’s story . Data from your own projects, like sales results or marketing strategies, can be very effective.

Here are some helpful business presentation phrases that you can use to introduce data during your talk:

• Let’s look at the data to back this up.
• According to a study by [source], we find that…
• [Name], an expert in [field], supports this idea, stating that…
• The statistics clearly show…
• As you can see by this research from [institution or source]…

As we said earlier, incorporating evidence is more than just throwing in some numbers and quotes. You need to integrate them into your presentation so they strengthen your argument and resonate with your audience . When done right, using data transforms your presentation from a subjective viewpoint to an objective, fact-based discussion.

Visual aids like graphs , images, animations, and videos make complex information easy to understand and remember .

For example, a corporate trainer explaining a complicated process can use infographics to clarify. Similarly, you can use videos to illustrate case studies or bring testimonials to life, adding a human touch to your presentation.

Interactive parts make your presentation more lively and get the audience involved. Activities like live polls or quizzes during a webinar maintain audience interest and provide instant feedback so you can gauge the effectiveness of your presentation in real time.

Incorporating these elements into your presentation requires a thoughtful approach. Only use visuals and interactive parts if they help support and strengthen your message .

For instance, using a graph to illustrate market trends makes the data more accessible, while a live poll can be a great way to kick off a discussion or gather opinions on a topic.

Some phrases that you can use to introduce visual or interactive elements include:

• As you can see in this graph/chart…
• This infographic illustrates the main points effectively.
• Let’s watch a short video clip that highlights this concept.
• I’d like to draw your attention to this diagram…
• To get a better idea of everyone’s knowledge on this topic, let’s fill out this brief survey and discuss the results.

The key is to ensure that these elements are integrated seamlessly into your presentation, enhancing rather than distracting from your core message.

Thinking about the questions your audience might ask shows you know your stuff and are confident about it . It’s especially vital to prepare answers if English isn’t your first language. This will give you the confidence to handle the interactive part of the presentation, where language skills are tested in real time.

For example, a financial analyst discussing market trends should be ready for questions about future market predictions and their impact on investments. Similarly, a business consultant should have case studies and statistics at hand to answer queries about their proposed strategies.

Remember: practice is key. Anticipate the types of questions that might arise and prepare your responses. Practice a Q&A session with a coworker to better your answers and how you give them.

Below are some phrases to help you prepare for a Q&A session:

• I’m open to any questions you might have.
• Feel free to ask if anything wasn’t clear or if you need more information.
• I’d love to hear your thoughts or questions on this topic.
• Let’s take some time for a Q&A session now.
• I’m here to clarify any points or answer your questions.

You should also practice handling unexpected questions gracefully . Remember, the goal is not just to answer the questions but to do so in a way that recaps your main message and leaves a lasting impression.

5 business presentation tips

Now that you know how to make a business presentation, let’s review some of our best advice for taking your presentation from good to great.

In a presentation, less is often more, especially when it comes to your slides. Imagine a slide that’s just a wall of text. Not only does it become difficult to follow, but it also tempts your audience to read ahead, disrupting the sync between what you say and what they read. The key is simplicity.

Use bullet points and only put one to two ideas on each slide. This approach helps in breaking down information into digestible chunks. Remember, each slide should focus on one main idea to keep your audience’s attention directed and clear.

Visuals can be a powerful tool as well. Instead of paragraphs of text, use images, graphs, or icons to convey your message . For instance, in a business meeting, rather than listing all product features on one slide, spread them across multiple slides, each accompanied by a relevant image or icon.

Another useful tip is to utilize the presenter or speaker notes feature in tools like Google Slides or PowerPoint. This feature stores your detailed notes to keep the slides clean and focused.

In the art of delivering a good presentation , how you speak is as crucial as what you speak about. Clear and slow speech aids in better comprehension, making your presentation more accessible and effective.

Practice your speech to get used to your speed. Try recording yourself, then listen back to monitor your clarity and speed. You should also note where to improve your English pronunciation , which will help you sound more fluent.

Pay attention to the rhythm of your speech and use pauses strategically for emphasis. This will help communicate your points better while giving your audience enough time to absorb and process the information.

Another aspect to consider is the amount of eye contact you make during your presentation. Studies suggest maintaining eye contact for about 60% to 70% of your presentation can create a stronger emotional connection with your audience . Combined with clear and slow speech, this technique makes for a powerful presentation.

A conversation is more powerful than a presentation where you’re just talking at the audience. It makes people feel involved and they’ll remember it better. To achieve this, you need to incorporate elements that invite audience interaction and create a dialogue rather than a monologue. You can do this when you start a presentation by using an engaging hook to capture your audience’s attention.

Another good way is to ask questions that make people think or let the audience ask questions . This will break up the monotony and encourage the audience to think actively about the topic. For example, if discussing branding strategies, you could ask the audience about their experiences with different brands or conduct a quick poll to gauge opinions on current trends.

You should also actively seek input from different segments of your audience . For instance, a marketing director could enhance their presentation on branding strategies by inviting insights from various departments. This will enrich the content with diverse perspectives and make the audience feel valued and involved.

Collaborating with another person can help you refine both the content and delivery of your presentation. A friend or coworker can give new ideas and point out things to improve that you might not have noticed on your own.

It’s also particularly helpful for non-native speakers, as it allows them to fine-tune pronunciation and vocabulary . This practice can ensure your message is clear and accessible to all audience members.

When you rehearse in front of someone else, you open yourself up to constructive feedback on various aspects of your presentation, from the structure of your content to the nuances of your body language. This feedback is crucial for identifying any confusing elements or jargon that might alienate your audience.

To make the most of this practice session, pick someone who can give different opinions, maybe someone who doesn’t know much about the topic . They can give you a better sense of how your presentation will be received by a broader audience.

Encourage your practice partner to be honest and detailed in their feedback . This will help boost your confidence so you feel well-prepared to engage your audience successfully.

When your presentation matches your company’s brand, it strengthens your message.

Imagine a sales representative pitching to potential clients. By using branded templates, colors, and fonts, they do more than simply present a product or a service; they embody the company’s identity. This consistency in visual elements ensures that every slide reflects the brand’s character, creating a seamless and professional experience for the audience. It’s not just about looking good – it’s about creating a sense of trust and authority.

To achieve this, familiarize yourself with your company’s presentation design guidelines. Use the company’s templates, fonts, and colors in your presentation. If you’re including visuals or graphics, make sure they resonate with the brand’s aesthetic.

5 free business presentation templates to help you get started

If you’re not already working with an official template that uses your company’s brand guidelines, don’t worry. There are thousands of free business presentation templates online for any situation, from sales pitches and marketing campaign kickoffs to project overviews and business proposals.

We’ve compiled a list of free templates for different presentation software so you don’t have to build one from scratch. You can easily customize the colors, fonts, and images used in the templates to make them your own.

This modern and minimalist business presentation template from Canva is great if you don’t know how to start designing your slides. Its simple design easily fits any topic or situation.

It includes a table of contents, a great way to present your agenda and stay organized. The template also includes multiple examples of using images to make your presentation slides more visually appealing.

Although it’s still professional, this minimalist business presentation template from Canva uses less formal fonts and colors to make the design more appealing. This template is better for creative presentations, like visual branding or website design projects, where color is more impactful.

You can easily customize the template’s colors and gradients to your brand guidelines or personal preferences. The template also includes several examples of how to use images, diagrams, and data visualization to share information.

This KPI report design from Pitch is a useful template if your business presentation needs to focus on data, like a quarterly business review. The design focuses on numbers and data to avoid too much text, which can be distracting during this type of presentation.

The template includes many types of data visualization, from line graphs to bar graphs, so you don’t have to design them on your own. You can also easily change the colors and fonts without changing the main design.

This free template from Slidesgo is perfect for a sales pitch, thanks to nearly 30 different slide designs to help you present information like a business plan in a more engaging way. The template is available in five colors (blue, pink, orange, green, and purple) and contains editable graphics for easy customization.

Slidesgo templates also include over 500 icons to customize the design further. You can also use them in either Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint.

This free template from Slidesgo features a more abstract design if you’re looking to mix up the visuals of your presentation. Its comprehensive design makes it perfect for introducing yourself to new clients or pitching to prospective customers.

It has 20 different slide designs for many types of information – including risk assessment, financial models, and strategic planning tables – to help you convey other information. The template also features easy-to-edit graphics like graphs, maps, tables, timelines, and mockups so you don’t have to start from scratch.

Like all Slidesgo templates, this design can be used in Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint. It also includes over 500 icons for more customization.

Remember, a great presentation goes beyond the slides and the data. It’s about how effectively you communicate your message. This is especially crucial if English isn’t your first language. Working with a language tutor can enhance your confidence and fluency , ensuring your message is heard.

Preply’s online business English tutors offer personalized 1-on-1 lessons that fit even the busiest schedules. A private tutor can offer targeted support that focuses on your specific goals and industry so every session is practical.

As a bonus, tutors are available 24/7 in every time zone, so you can easily squeeze in an extra practice session on the day of your big presentation!

• Clear and effective communication
• Storytelling
• Audience engagement
• Using visual aids
• Concise content organization
• Public speaking confidence
• Ability to answer questions knowledgeably

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Naomi Boitel is a marketing specialist who has over 7 years experience of working in startups in London. Naomi is British and has previously relocated to Shanghai, London, and now lives in Barcelona. Naomi offers all the top tips for working professionals in relocating. She is also learning Spanish on Preply.

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16 Corporate Presentation Templates to Effectively Highlight Your Company

Written by: Gijs Ooijen

At a corporate level, you’re going to have to effectively communicate your vision, strategy or solution with different stakeholders.

Whether you’re presenting to investors, management, potential partners, or customers, your corporate presentations should leave an indelible impression.

Engaging and professional corporate presentations can have a great impact on your business. It does a great job of showcasing your brand in its best light and establishing credibility.

However, creating great corporate presentations isn’t a walk in the park, especially if you’re not a design expert. That's why we've put together a collection of 16 corporate presentation templates that will help you effectively highlight your company's strengths and accomplishments.

But that’s not all. In this article, we’ll take a look at what a corporate presentation is, what it is used for, and how you can create yours using a premade template

So, let's dive in and explore our selection of corporate presentation templates that will take your business to the next level!

Table of Contents

What is a corporate presentation, what should a corporate presentation include, 16 corporate presentation templates to make your own, how to give a corporate presentation.

• A corporate presentation is a visual tool used by companies to showcase products, services or ideas.
• Corporate presentations typically include elements like introduction, overview, products/services, market analysis, testimonials, financial overview and future roadmap.
• When creating corporate presentations, thoroughly research your audience's preferences and interests, then tailor your presentation to resonate with them.
• Create a compelling narrative using a problem-solution format and storytelling to engage your audience throughout the presentation. Use visual aids like icons, images and videos to enhance information understanding and retention.
• To capture the audience's attention and make your presentation effective, have an in-depth knowledge of the subject and practice beforehand.
• Visme offers an extensive library of corporate presentation templates. With a range of styles, layouts, and color schemes to choose from, you'll find the perfect template to fit your company's unique identity and messaging.

Corporate presentations are slideshows or demonstrations used by companies to showcase their products, services or ideas in a compelling and structured manner. It is a visual representation that combines text, images and other multimedia elements like charts and graphs to communicate information effectively.

Let's say you're the CEO of a tech startup seeking investors for a new app. A corporate presentation could be your key to success during pitch meetings. With an engaging presentation, you can confidently introduce your company, explain the app's features, demonstrate its potential and present financial projections.

By simplifying complex ideas and incorporating visuals, corporate presentations enhance understanding and leave a lasting impression on the audience. They also contribute to a professional image, boost brand consistency and offer versatility for various communication needs, making them a valuable tool for any company's success.

A corporate presentation is one of those types of things where the information included really depends on the goal of your presentation. However, there are several key elements you should include in your corporate presentation deck to effectively convey your company's message.

Let's take a look at them.

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

Introduction

Start your presentation with an engaging introduction. Introduce yourself and your company, providing a brief overview of your mission, values and achievements, or your company’s.

Next, it’s a good idea to offer an overview of your company, including its history, core offerings and target audience. Showcase your unique selling points and emphasize what makes your company truly unique.

Products and Services

In this section, highlight your key products or services and explain how they address the needs and challenges of your target market. Use visuals, such as images or short product demo videos, to showcase their functionalities.

Market Analysis

After introducing your products and services, provide a brief market analysis to demonstrate your understanding of the industry and its potential. Share relevant data, trends and insights that support the demand for your offerings.

Testimonials

Testimonials work. About 37% of people believe testimonial videos are effective because they’re more authentic than a business’ pitch. Whatever the goal of your presentation is, incorporating customer testimonials helps build trust and credibility. In this section, share success stories that highlight the positive impact your products or services have had on clients.

Financial Overview

Present key financial data and projections to demonstrate the company's stability and growth potential. Use data visualizations like charts or graphs to illustrate revenue, profits and any notable milestones. Visme makes it super easy for anyone to create beautiful charts and graphs without any design knowledge.

Roadmap For the Future

After your presentation, your audience will be left with the question: What’s next? To leave the audience on a good note, let them know about your company’s future plans and initiatives. Share exciting projects or product developments that demonstrate your commitment to continuous innovation.

In this section, we’ll showcase a wide range of essential corporate presentation templates in eight different categories. Each example of a corporate presentation comes with actionable tips you can use to polish your template and make it your own.

General Corporate Presentation

A general corporate presentation should give an all-encompassing overview of the company, its operations and notable accomplishments.

Corporate Slideshow Presentation Template

This template is perfect for any general corporate presentation. It features a clean and modern design, making it visually appealing. With its concise text, users can effortlessly skim through the content.

If you want the presentation to match your brand, you can easily use Visme’s brand wizard . Just insert your website URL and Visme can then automatically copy those colors, logos and fonts to the template.

Strategy Presentation Template

This corporate presentation template offers a touch of fun with its vibrant design, showcasing multiple colors like purple, orange and white. It provides an excellent platform to introduce your mission in an engaging way on the second slide, starting your presentation off on the right note.

The fonts in this design are very modern, but you might want them to be a bit more old-school. If so, don’t worry! Visme has hundreds of different fonts , all within the editor.

Marketing Corporate Presentation

A marketing corporate presentation is specifically crafted to highlight and advertise products, services or brand initiatives to the intended target audiences.

Business Case Presentation Template

This corporate presentation template offers 16 fully designed slides customizable to suit your specific needs. Whether you’re presenting a business case study or sharing a personal success story, this template is ideal for professional and personal use.

This template includes many 3D elements. If you don’t like the ones that are currently in the template, you can simply swap them out for one of the many 3D assets available within Visme.

KPI Presentation Template

Impress your audience with a professional and visually appealing presentation using this template. This template is perfect for sharing detailed end-of-year marketing KPI reports with managers. Its use of icons and charts allows for clear and efficient communication of key topics.

Creating visually appealing charts and graphs as a non-designer may sound hard, but it’s actually not. Visme actually has a robust data visualization tool that does almost all the work for you. You can easily build eye-catching charts, graphs, maps and widgets into your presentation.

Sales Corporate Presentation

A sales corporate presentation is created to help the sales team communicate effectively and strategize sales plans. This could be a sales deck or just a general sales presentation.

Sales Budget Presentation Template

This template showcases project financial plans and ambitions, specifically for sales budgets.

Its modern design and layout enable you to present your company's financial strategy in an impactful manner, leaving a lasting impression on your audience.

If you have live data, such as live financial reports, you can connect and import the data it to your presentation.

Once you customize the template and are happy with it, you can easily download it in many formats, including PDF, PPTX and MP4. You can even share it online with a live link or generate a code to embed it on your website.

Sales Report Presentation Template

This corporate presentation template features a captivating design with a color scheme of blue, white and yellow. The use of interesting graphs and a minimalist layout enhances the visual appeal and keeps the focus on the content.

If you want to make the minimalist design a little more playful, you could do so by adding animations . Have text move in and out of the screen, have colors change, have charts move—whatever you can imagine, it’s possible in Visme.

Tech Corporate Presentation

A tech corporate presentation is aimed at presenting technological innovations, products or services to clients and investors.

Technology Company Presentation Template

This corporate presentation template boasts a modern and futuristic startup-style design, creating a visually impressive experience for your audience. With its spacious layout, there is enough room to showcase and present information effectively.

If you have a lot of data to deal with, consider adding a table. Visme makes it very easy to do so. This tutorial explains how you can do that within Visme, step-by-step, so you can have it done in just a few clicks.

Technology Presentation Template

This technology corporate presentation template features a delightful and fun design, adding an element of excitement to your presentations. The beautiful combination of bright yet soft colors creates a visually appealing and harmonious aesthetic.

Sports Corporate Presentation

The sports corporate presentation is designed to showcase events, sponsorships or partnerships to stakeholders.

European Football Team Sponsorship Presentation Template

This corporate presentation template is specifically-made for European football team sponsors but can be used for many other things. It comes with a rich selection of images, capturing the essence of the football world. The simple yet striking red and black design adds a touch of professionalism to the presentation.

This template includes many images. But if you want other images that match your presentation, Visme has 1,000,000+ free stock images that will do the job for you.

Sports Team Sponsorship Presentation Template

This template, similar to the previous one, targets sports team sponsors. However, it offers a distinct design with a simpler layout, featuring a dominant blue overtone for a refreshing visual experience.

This template, again, features a lot of images. If Visme’s stock library doesn’t quite do it for you, there’s an alternative. Visme also has a free AI image generator . Just tell it what you want the image to look like and the image generator will create it for you in seconds.

Non-Profit Corporate Presentation

A non-profit corporate presentation is created to communicate the mission, projects and impact of the organization to donors and volunteers.

Poverty Alleviation Presentation Template

This template embraces simplicity, allowing the content and heavy themes to take center stage. Its minimalist design is ideal for serious and impactful topics, ensuring the focus remains on the message being conveyed. If you need to add additional information, make your presentation interactive . Instead of cluttering this design, use interactive features to link to documents or add pop-ups with more information or context. Visme offers easy-to-use interactive features to successfully complete this.

Nonprofit Event Presentation Template

This non-profit presentation template follows a minimalist design approach, just like the previous template. Its captivating 2D icons add a touch of visual appeal to your content and make it really simple to follow the content being talked about.

Visme has a rich library of design assets, including animated graphics, icons, illustrations, shapes, fonts and so much more, that can take your presentation to another level.

Product-Focused Corporate Presentation

A product-focused presentation is centered around highlighting a specific product or a group of products and providing in-depth information to potential customers or other potential stakeholders.

Design Tool Presentation Template

This product-focused presentation template offers a fun and futuristic design that takes your presentations to the next level. The vibrant combination of bright blue and pink colors adds an exciting touch to your content. With a focus on visual elements and minimal text, this template ensures an easy-to-follow corporate presentation.

This template includes a few bar graphs, which are actually super easy to create within Visme. With the free bar graph maker , you can create one in seconds just by providing it with the right data.

Fashion Design Presentation Template

This template is perfect for fashion-related presentations but can be modified to fit anything. With professionally stylish layouts and modern fonts, it offers a visually appealing and professional platform to showcase your fashion ideas and concepts or any other ideas and concepts you might have.

Once your presentation is done, you can easily record it using Visme’s presenter studio. Just hit record and start presenting.

Start Up or Agency Corporate Presentation

A startup or agency corporate presentation is created to introduce the company, its unique offerings, capabilities and success stories to potential clients, investors or partners.

Atmoluxe Marketing Plan Presentation Template

This agency presentation template uses contrasting blues and whites to make your content stand out. With diverse icons, images and visuals, it ensures an even distribution of information, leading to a clear and engaging presentation.

Often, multiple people work on a marketing plan at the same time. Visme makes this really easy with its collaboration tools . Just work on the same document simultaneously, see the edits your team makes and leave comments where necessary.

Watch this video below to see how the collaboration feature works

Airsns Pitch Deck Presentation Template

Elevate your pitch with this visually impressive template. This startup presentation template is a fully customizable pitch deck , offering various useful slides with high-quality vector icons and data visualizations. The breathtaking slide layout with geometrically stylized content blocks is designed to captivate and engage your audience effectively.

RELATED: 85+ Best Free Presentation Templates to Edit & Download

We’ve talked a lot about corporate presentations, but now it’s time to put it all into practice. Here are some actionable tips that will help you give the best corporate presentation of your life.

Know Your Audience

Before creating your corporate presentation, thoroughly research your audience's preferences, interests and knowledge level. What do they like? What do they not like? How can you touch them? Tailor your content to resonate with them and address their specific needs.

If you're presenting to potential investors, focus on financial projections and growth opportunities. If your audience consists of clients, you might want to highlight the benefits of your products and how they can address their pain points.

Craft a Compelling Story

Structure your presentation as a compelling narrative to engage your audience from start to finish. Incorporate a problem-solution format to captivate their attention and maintain their interest. Storytelling can truly take your presentation to the next level.

Use Visual Aids

Use visual aids, such as icons, images and videos, to enhance the understanding and retention of information. Keep the design simple to avoid overwhelming the audience.

Instead of using dense paragraphs of text, create slides with key points and complement them with relevant images or icons. This approach helps convey the message effectively and leaves a lasting impact.

Practice, Practice, Practice

In the end, a presentation is only effective if you manage to capture the audience. The most surefire way to do that is to truly know what you are talking about.

Practice your presentation multiple times to ensure smooth delivery and build confidence. Rehearse in front of a colleague or record yourself to identify areas for improvement.

Create Professional Corporate Presentations With Visme

A corporate presentation is a structured visual tool companies use to showcase products, services or ideas in a compelling manner. It effectively communicates company information to stakeholders, clients and investors, aiming to inform and create a positive impression about the company.

Ready to get started with creating your presentation? Choose from any of these 16 corporate presentation templates or browse Visme’s robust template library to find the perfect match for creating your own presentation .

Visme has everything to make your presentation pop with cutting-edge features like the intuitive editor, presenter tool, data visualizations and rich library of design assets.

Sign up to start creating engaging corporate presentations.

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How to Make a Business Presentation (12 Easy Tips)

Jul 25, 2022

Whether over online or in the conference room, there’s a lot to consider when making a business presentation. Finding your unique presentation style that balances humor, confidence, approachability, and professionalism is no easy feat. Above all, capturing and retaining your audience’s attention is the most important and often the most difficult thing to juggle.

In this blog, we’ll share how to make a business presentation that’s compelling, engaging, persuasive, and memorable. Feel free to skip ahead to our 12 tips or start creating your own business presentation with a professional template

How to Give a Business Presentation: Guide, Tips and Examples

Consistently nailing business presentations can be challenging, with recurring obstacles often popping up to scupper your chances. While some factors are beyond our control, many are not. Discover here how to consistently excel in preparation, creation, and delivery to boost your chances of ongoing success.

James Moffatt

April 23, 2024

It is inevitable that at one point in your professional life, you will be tasked with giving a business presentation. Making this presentation powerful and effective is something someone in this scenario would aspire for, and therefore the ability to deliver a business presentation well is an invaluable skill. Today, we will master this skill by honing in on the art and science behind crafting and delivering outstanding presentations, backed up by examples and tips that have proven effective in the corporate world from some of the most reputable businesspeople.

What are Business Presentations?

A professional’s tool for communicating new ideas and inspiring, persuading audiences or investors, and kicking off discussions, the business presentation is a collection of information that is prepared and shared in a business setting. Traditionally occurring solely within a boardroom or in-person workplace, recent developments in working styles and setups have meant that more business presentations than ever are being carried out remotely.

Common within both formats is a range of supporting content such as data visualizations, text, images, and other multimedia, that can be shown on slides, different tabs, or a pitch deck. To give a good presentation, the vocal and visual aspects have to be faultless individually, but must also intertwine seamlessly. Achieving this often poses challenges, whether presenting in-person or online, but the root of this challenge is poor preparation, or ineffective use of presentation software. By following the advice within this guide, you will unearth this root, replacing it with a new and improved seed containing invaluable information on top-tier business presentations and how to consistently deliver them.

On the note of ineffective presentation software use, and before we get stuck into our full guide for creating great business presentations, this seems like an apt place to give our first tip. 

Tip 1: Use Bubbles for Online Presentations

If you are in a position where you need to give a presentation remotely, you don’t want to fall into that trap of misusing or entirely neglecting software that can elevate your presentation and its aftermath. By using Bubbles, you are able to either present using just video recording software if a PowerPoint presentation isn't necessary, or present using screen recording and video recording, to get the best of both worlds.

This is the view you will see before starting your presentation. Working within an asynchronous team, there have been countless times where I have had to record a presentation to share with my teammates. Often, my presentations involve going through and sharing various sets of data, all recorded in different areas. The beauty of Bubbles is that the transition between tabs, pitch deck slides, or PowerPoint slides is super slick and easy, meaning no focus is taken away from the content or the verbal element of the presentation. Try using Bubbles for free, and start to drive some positive change into your online presentations.

Now, let's get our teeth into the presentation itself, and how you can set yourself up for success.

Crafting an Effective Business Presentation

1. planning and preparation.

• What are the Objectives: You don't want to meander along without a clear central idea for your business presentation, so begin the whole process by clearly defining the purpose of this presentation. What do you want to achieve by doing it? Who is the audience and how can you cater to them? Without realizing, you will go a long way towards shaping the future content and delivery of the presentation here. 
• Research: You want to be seen as reputable! Even if you find it boring, you need to research thoroughly to make sure every claim in your presentation is backed up by accurate, up-to-date data, stats or information. This can be especially useful for persuasion in a pitch or presentation where the audience are highly experienced and knowledgeable.

2. Structuring Your Presentation

• Create an Outline: As I said, your objectives will mostly ghost-write this for you, at least mentally. The next stage is to jot the outline of your presentation down and draft it into a blueprint. Get an introduction down in a brief but attention-grabbing format, then bulk out the presentation's main body and arguments, before drafting how you want to conclude. By outlining, you will make any necessary PowerPoint slide design a quicker and easier process, and your presentation slides will be more coherent from start to finish by establishing a structure.
• Develop a Script: When it comes to the business presentation itself, you won't want to be sticking to this verbatim, and you wouldn’t see that in the presentation examples we will look at later, but it helps elsewhere. Having a script will help you practice and will help you to create a presentation template at a later stage, with prompts that you can use to prompt yourself in the presentation.

Read on for the final 3 stages in our guide, more tips, and interesting examples of great business presentations.

Make your meetings matter

Use AI to record, transcribe, and summarize meetings into actions. Bubbles is your home for after-meeting collaboration.

3. Designing Your Slides (Where Applicable) ‍

• Choose the Right Template:  As we know at this stage, the spoken element of the presentation is not the only important element. A good PowerPoint template or Google Slides template can, and will set the tone for your entire presentation. Unless you’re a lone wolf, make sure your slide design aligns with your company’s branding.
• Effective Use of Visuals: Visuals should always be quality over quantity, as you don't want presentation design to be too busy. Incorporate some charts, graphs, and infographics if they are needed to explain complex data or add context. Also, throw in images and videos where it makes sense, to break up the monotony of text and to give yourself a break from speaking.
• Consistent Style: Match the style you choose throughout for your presentation to be as professional as possible, whether that be fonts, color schemes, or the frequency of non-text elements like videos.

4. Delivering the Presentation

• Practice Makes Perfect: Rehearse until you can't handle more rehearsing. A good presentation doesn't just happen overnight, and you need to practice to find areas that should be improved before the big moment. If you struggle with presentation anxiety, you will be doing yourself a favor by committing to rehearsing. Bubbles is great for practicing presentations, as you can record yourself presenting, before watching it back and analyzing the areas that need more work.
• Engage with Your Audience: Eye contact, natural hand gestures, varied voice tones... all of the above with help the maintain interest in your presentation. Try to involve the audience by putting questions within your presentation template and inviting guest participation.
• Handle Questions Intelligently: Questioning comes with a territory. Make sure you are prepared to answer the questions that you anticipate being asked.

5. Using Technology and Tools

• Presentation Software: You don't want to look like a rookie when it comes to handling your PowerPoint presentation, for example, so familiarize yourself with your chosen tool and make sure you know how to troubleshoot any common issues (slide transitions etc).
• Remote Presentation Tools: It's more common than ever before to present virtually, so pay equal attention to your virtual meeting platform, and make sure you know how to record a Zoom meeting, for example. Luckily for you, this is quick, easy, and free with Bubbles Notetaker.
• Asynchronous Presentation Tools:  It might also be required for you to present asynchronously before sending it to whoever needs to hear. You can use the same tactic as you did for practicing here, and record your presentation with Bubbles. By doing so, you will allow yourself to invite the audience to comment and offer their input.

Examples of Effective Business Presentations

1. steve jobs' iphone launch (2007).

Overview: In 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in a landmark presentation that would set the standard for product launches in the technology industry. The presentation was not only about revealing a new product but about introducing a revolutionary idea. Below, you can see how Bubbles can be used to record presentations, and you can also watch Steve Jobs' presentation in the bubble!

Why It Was Great: Steve Jobs excelled in creating a narrative that was both simple and compelling. He used clear, concise language and presented the iPhone as a revolutionary combination of three devices: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communicator. This approach helped the audience easily grasp the uniqueness and value of the iPhone without overwhelming technical details.

Key Elements: Jobs' presentation was highly effective due to his impeccable timing, use of suspense, and the staged reveal of each iPhone feature. He connected with the audience on an emotional level, making them feel they were witnessing the start of a new era. His minimalist slide design and charismatic delivery focused attention on the message, making the technology both relatable and desirable.

2. Mary Barra at CES 2021 (General Motors)

Overview: Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, delivered a pivotal presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2021, where she outlined GM's vision to transition to an all-electric future. The presentation marked a significant shift for the automotive giant, traditionally known for gas-powered vehicles.

Why It Was Great: Barra’s presentation was notable for its clear commitment to sustainability, a critical issue that resonated well with contemporary global concerns. She effectively communicated GM's long-term goals, including launching 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025 and aspiring for carbon neutrality by 2040.

Key Elements: The use of high-quality visuals and futuristic video demonstrations helped illustrate GM’s forward-thinking approach. Barra presented complex technological and environmental plans in an accessible manner, which helped stakeholders understand and align with GM's strategic direction. The presentation was also successful in reinforcing GM’s image as a leader in innovation and environmental responsibility.

3. Simon Sinek’s “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” (TED Talk 2009)

Overview: Simon Sinek’s TED Talk, where he introduced his concept of the "Golden Circle" and explained why "people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it," remains one of the most viewed TED Talks. It's effectively a presentation on how to present.

Why It Was Great: Sinek’s presentation stands out due to its insightful analysis of successful leaders and organizations. His core idea—that people are inspired by a sense of purpose or 'why' behind actions—helped many viewers rethink their business strategies and leadership approaches.

Key Elements: The simplicity of Sinek’s Golden Circle model, which starts with 'Why,' then moves to 'How,' and finally 'What,' made a complex concept easy to understand and apply. His engaging storytelling and use of real-world examples like Apple and Martin Luther King Jr. helped illustrate his points vividly. The talk’s clear, thought-provoking message combined with Sinek’s passionate delivery made it a transformative experience for many leaders and entrepreneurs.

These examples showcase not just the content of the presentations but also the strategies and delivery methods that made them stand out. Each presentation was tailored to its specific audience and designed to drive home a compelling message in a memorable way.

Tips for Giving Presentations Well

Storytelling.

Weave your data and statistics into a narrative that relates to your audience's experiences or challenges.

Interactive Elements

‍ Use polls, live demos, or interactive slides to involve your audience actively.

Psychological Engagement

‍ Techniques like the 'rule of three' or strategic pauses can enhance understanding and retention.

Delivering compelling business presentations requires careful preparation, thoughtful content organization, effective slide design, and engaging delivery. By integrating these elements, and staying on top of the latest technology that can help with presentations, such as Bubbles, presenters can captivate their audiences and achieve their communication objectives. Remember, the key to success lies in your ability to connect with your audience and convey your message powerfully and persuasively.

Collaborate better with your team

Get your point across using screen, video, and audio messages. Bubbles is free, and offers unlimited recordings with a click of a button.

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The Complete Guide to Every Type of Corporate Presentation

Frame your story for the corporate presentation.

A crucial aspect of planning for a Corporate Presentation is crafting a captivating and coherent narrative. Achieving this requires a deliberate effort to align your message with the interests of your listeners. A productive strategy for delivering a corporate presentation involves conceptualizing your discourse as a voyage, complete with an unmistakable commencement and conclusion. Assess audience knowledge and interest before diving in. Swiftly introduce topic’s significance to you and why it matters for them.

A corporate presentation is a powerful tool for companies to communicate their brand image and promote their products or services. It allows businesses to showcase their unique qualities and essential information to potential clients or investors. Whether it’s a corporate event for product launch or a company overview, a well-crafted corporate presentation can make a lasting impression and help build a strong brand identity.

Storytelling That Moves People

In commerce, persuading is crucial. Marketing, strategizing, and securing funding all require convincing language. Many executives struggle with dull communication. Research and proposals can fail without engaging storytelling. Captivating narratives inspire action.

Plan your delivery

In public speaking, different methods can be used to convey a message effectively. One way is reciting from a script or prompter. Another is using bullet points to guide the speech. Memorizing the speech is also an option, ensuring a polished delivery. Planning and rehearsing are crucial for a poised presence.

Develop Stage Presence

Inexperienced speakers often need help on stage. The presentation’s content determines its success. A strong stage presence enhances delivery quality and captures the audience’s attention. Excessive body movement, like swaying, looks unprofessional. To improve, keep your lower body still and use hand gestures. Walking around might not be necessary for everyone. With coaching and practice, anyone can develop confidence on stage.

Plan the Multimedia

In modern times, multimedia is vital for presentations. However, using technology wisely can enhance your message. A case in point is the prudent employment of PowerPoint , where minimalistic slides should be preferred over verbose substitutes for notes. Utilize note cards to maintain focus and avoid repeating information on slides. Remember audience comes to listen, not read bullets. Limit multimedia, focus on message, captivate spectators, leave impact.

Putting It Together

When refining presentation skills, getting feedback is crucial. Choosing a good test audience helps manage conflicting opinions and handle feedback well. Look for experienced presentation professionals for valuable insights. Stay open-minded to enhance delivery and presentation quality.

Key slides in a corporate presentation

Before designing a PowerPoint, search for ideas on effective presentation design and follow a professional approach. Choose templates aligned with your industry and branding colors to build your brand image. A business presentation is crucial for communicating key information to colleagues, clients, stakeholders. When designing slides, choose a theme for cohesion. Make an introduction slide attention-grabbing and select relevant, engaging topics.

1. Introduction slide

The introduction slide sets the tone for the entire corporate presentation. It should include the company name, logo, and a brief overview of what the corporate presentation will cover.

2. Mission and vision slide

This slide should outline the company’s mission and vision statements. It should be clear and concise, and should align with the overall theme of the corporate presentation.

3. Market analysis slide

The market analysis slide should provide an overview of the industry and market trends. It should include information on competitors, market size, and growth potential.

4. Product or service slide

This slide should highlight the company’s product or service offerings. It should include key features, benefits, and any unique selling points.

5. Financial performance slide

The financial performance slide should provide an overview of the company’s financials. It should include revenue, profit margins, and any other relevant financial metrics.

6. Growth strategy slide

The growth strategy slide should outline the company’s plans for growth. It should include information on new markets, product development, and other growth initiatives.

7. Conclusion slide

The conclusion slide should summarize the key points of the corporate presentation and leave the audience with a clear understanding of the company’s goals and objectives. It should also include contact information for the presenter or company.

Common unnoticed mistakes in delivering a corporate presentation

1. overloading slides with information.

In corporate presentations, overloading slides with data hinders audience comprehension. Keep slides concise, focusing on essential info.

2. Using too many fonts and colors

Another mistake: too many fonts and colors in the corporate presentation. Exercise restraint with font and color choices; excessive styles clutter and look unprofessional. Choose for simple, complementary fonts and colors for readability.

3. Lack of consistency

Consistency is key in a corporate presentation. Ensure all slides have a similar layout, font, and color scheme. This will help to create a cohesive and professional look.

4. Poor quality images

Inadequate visual aids can hurt the overall efficacy of a corporate presentation. All imagery utilized must be high resolution and pertain directly to the subject.

5. Lack of preparation

Not preparing adequately for the corporate presentation can lead to mistakes and a lack of confidence. Make sure to practice the presentation multiple times and have a backup plan in case of technical difficulties.

6. Ignoring the audience

When creating a corporate presentation, consider the audience. Content should be relevant and engaging for the group, and the presentation tailored to their needs. This shows professionalism and a focus on delivering a quality, resonant presentation.

7. Failing to tell a story

A corporate presentation needs a clear narrative, with each slide flowing smoothly into the next, and a well-structured intro, body, and conclusion.

7 amazing tips for designing best corporate presentations

1. storytelling is key.

The best corporate presentations focus on compelling stories that resonate with the audience. Companies that can weave their brand narrative into their presentation are more successful in engaging their audience and leaving a lasting impression.

2. Embrace technology

Integrating technology into corporate presentations is a vital component of modern business communication. Corporations leveraging innovative tools, such as virtual reality , augmented reality , and live polling, can craft truly immersive and captivating experiences for their target audience. This affords them a distinct competitive advantage in the realm of corporate messaging.

3. Keep it concise

In the era of rapid globalization, retaining audience attention is crucial. Presenters must deliver messages clearly and concisely to accommodate shorter attention spans. Success relies on effectively communicating core points in a brief time to engage the audience.

4. Focus on the audience

Corporate presentations focus on audience needs. Speakers who customize messages create strong connections.

5. Use data to support your message

Data-driven presentations :  Companies that use data to support their message are more likely to convince the audience of the validity of their ideas and proposals.

6. Practice well

Dedicate time and effort to improve presentation skills. Practice will boost confidence and ease during on-stage performance, resulting in a compelling corporate presentation.

7. Be authentic

1. elevator pitch.

Elevator Pitch – Corporate Presentation

An elevator pitch is a brief, compelling message that generates interest in your brand. It is designed to be delivered in a short elevator ride. The main objective is to communicate your value proposition concisely, leaving a memorable impression.

2. Sales Pitch

Sales Pitch – Corporate Presentation

A persuasive communication to convince potential clients to buy a product or service is known as a sales pitch. It involves giving an overview of benefits, features, offers, and promotions. A successful pitch is tailored to the audience and delivered clearly. Professional PPT slides can enhance sales presentations. Focus on key slides like product features, pricing, and unique selling points. Video presentations can leave a lasting impact on the audience.

3. Investor Pitch

Investor Pitch – Corporate Presentation

An entrepreneur or business proprietor may present an investor pitch to prospective investors in an effort to persuade them to invest in their enterprise or concept. This pitch covers business model, market potential, financial forecasts, and team qualifications. Successful pitch is clear, concise, and compelling, leaving investors excited to invest.

4. Product proposal presentation

Product Proposal – Corporate Presentation

A formal product proposal is a crucial tool for entrepreneurs to pitch their product/service to investors, clients, or stakeholders. It includes a detailed analysis of product’s features, benefits, market, competition, and financial projections. The main goal is to persuade the audience to invest in the product.

5. Keynote presentation

Professional Keynote Business Presentation

Delivering a keynote presentation establishes and communicates the tone and theme of an event. Its capacity to inspire, educate, entertain, and galvanize the audience is a rare art form. Crafting and presenting a keynote is a valuable skill every professional should acquire. A well-executed keynote can imprint a lasting impression and achieve the desired objective. A well-designed PowerPoint presentation is ready to impress by following branding guidelines. A design agency considers branding, business nature, and theme to build a suitable template.

6. Webinar presentation

Webinar Presentation

A webinar is an online event where viewers from different locations engage with the presenter through video conferencing tech on various devices. It’s common in business and education for info sharing, training, product showcase, and conferences. The ideal PPT combines info and visuals to keep the audience engaged. The presentation theme influences the brand message presentation, important for online interactions.

7. Board meeting presentation

Board Meeting Presentation

A board meeting presentation gives an overview of company performance, financials, objectives, and updates to the board. It’s led by a top executive. Using a PowerPoint slide linked to the presentation theme improves the look. Firms create slides that match their branding for consistency. The presentation background is the backdrop design or color scheme. It should align with branding colors and guidelines.

8. Budget proposal 

Budget Proposal – Corporate Presentation

A financial blueprint, a budget proposal allocates financial resources over time for an entity, projecting income, expenses, targets, and preferences. It’s presented to stakeholders for approval before implementation.

9. Year-end review

Year End Review – Corporate Presentation

Conducting a year-end analysis includes reviewing the past year, acknowledging successes and challenges, and setting goals for the next year. This review helps with understanding progress, identifying areas for improvement, and planning for future success.

10. Business plan

Business Plan – Corporate Presentation

A biz plan is crucial, outlining company goals, products, target market, competition, marketing, finances, and management. It aids in defining vision, overcoming obstacles, securing funding, and enhancing success chances.

11. Performance review presentation

Performance Review – Corporate Presentation

A performance evaluation is a meeting where a supervisor and a staff member discuss the latter’s work performance over a set period. It includes reviewing the employee’s goals, accomplishments, skills, areas for improvement, and creating a plan for development. It’s a time for the manager to provide feedback and guidance, and for the employee to ask questions and give feedback on their performance.

12. Project planning presentation

Project Planning Presentation

A project planning presentation conveys project details to stakeholders, clients, and team. It includes project objectives, timelines, expenditure, resources, risks, and achievements. To create it, gather data, organize visually, and deliver engagingly. For stakeholders, a video presentation enhances project impact. It uses dynamic visuals and engaging delivery to bring the project to life and convey complex information/emotion efficiently. Incorporating sales techniques in the presentation can convey project value and benefits, aiding in securing support and funding. Choosing background for PPT slides carefully can enhance aesthetics and professionalism.

13. Training presentation

Training Presentation

A training presentation educates individuals or groups on specific topics or skills in various formats like PowerPoint, videos, or live demos. It helps people perform job duties effectively by providing necessary knowledge and skills for success.

14. Competitive analysis report

Competitor Analysis – Corporate Presentation

The evaluation of your organization’s offerings, practices, and tactics in relation to your rivals is a competitive analysis report. It helps identify your organization’s competence and shortcomings, market prospects, and hazards. Data gathered can inform business choices and enhance competitiveness.

1️⃣ Data presentation

Data presentation is crucial for business as it communicates information effectively. Business presentation templates offer a professional way to present data, saving time and effort. Additionally, presentation tools such as PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Prezi offer a range of features to enhance the delivery of data visualization in presentations .

15. Marketing campaign plan

Marketing Campaign – Corporate Presentation

A well-crafted marketing campaign plan outlines marketing goals, strategies, tactics, and budget for a specific project. It involves analyzing the target audience, competition, and industry trends, as well as setting timelines and success metrics. Creating a marketing campaign plan is essential to ensure that marketing efforts are meaningful, effective, and aligned with company objectives.

16. Employee onboarding presentation

Employee Onboarding Presentation

The employee onboarding presentation acquaints new hires with company norms, regulations, protocols, and expectations. This crucial step fosters a welcoming environment that helps new recruits contribute effectively. The presentation covers company heritage, vision, principles, perks, and job responsibilities.

Corporate Presentation Hacks for a Captivating Pitch

To elevate the quality of your corporate presentations and capture the attention of your audience, implementing a few clever techniques can prove to be advantageous. While adhering to the fundamentals of creating engaging slides is crucial, other vital aspects such as your delivery style, succinct speech, and compelling visual storytelling can make a significant impact on the overall effectiveness of your presentation.

As a professional, it is imperative to familiarize yourself with the following swift strategies to enhance your corporate pitch:

Choose the Right Opening

Starting a presentation requires a strategic approach to grab the audience’s interest. Introduce yourself and the topic with poise. Give a brief reason for the presentation and a preview of the insights. With engaging opening statements, you set the stage for a successful presentation.

Avoid Text Overload

Less is more! Keep your presentations clear and concise to avoid overwhelming your audience with too much text. You can always provide more information and answer questions later on.

Visual storytelling

Visual storytelling is vital for effective communication. By mixing colors, graphics, and charts, one can create a compelling narrative. Visuals connect with the audience and convey the message powerfully. Harness this power to bring ideas to life.

Templates for Visual Consistency

Templates help with visual consistency and clarity in presentations. They maintain uniformity in background and create professionally crafted presentations without design expertise. A business presentation kit can assist in creating impressive presentations, even for those lacking design skills.

Use Videos to Stand Out

In today’s world, video content is vital in all industries, especially business communication. Audiences seek visual aids for better engagement, so adding videos to presentations can capture attention and maintain interest. To stand out, use videos!

Incorporate Data Visualizations (Infographics)

Incorporating data visualizations, like infographics and animations, can amplify the influence of your data. Crafting a visually compelling narrative allows you to communicate intricate information engagingly, capturing attention and aiding comprehension. Data visualizations are a potent tool for effective communication.

The Bottom Lines

In the current business climate, marked by cut-throat competition, the skill to deliver a captivating and convincing presentation is a prerequisite for triumph. After analyzing renowned organizations’ presentations, it’s clear that various strategies can create a lasting impact. Visual Sculptors provides customizable presentation templates, infographics, and videos to enhance your business communication. Our user-friendly designs impress audiences, helping you achieve business goals. Showcase expertise and improve brand image with our services. Try Visual Sculptors’ offerings today!

• What is corporate presentation?

A corporate presentation is a visual and verbal display of information about a company, its products or services, and its goals and achievements. It is an important tool for businesses to communicate their message to potential clients, investors, and stakeholders. A well-crafted corporate presentation can help build brand awareness, establish credibility, and generate interest in the company.

2. What should a corporate presentation include?

A corporate presentation should include an introduction to the company, its mission and values, a summary of its products or services, information about its target market and competition, financial data, and future plans and goals. It should also be visually appealing and engaging, with clear and concise messaging.

3. How do you start a corporate presentation?

There are many ways to start a corporate presentation, but some effective tips include starting with a powerful quote or statistic, telling a story that relates to your topic, or asking a thought-provoking question. It’s important to grab your audience’s attention from the start and set the tone for the rest of your presentation.

4. What are the 5 type of business presentations?

The five types of business presentations are: informational, persuasive, motivational, instructional, and entertaining. Each type serves a different purpose and requires a different approach to be effective.

5. What is the importance of corporate presentation?

Corporate presentations are important because they allow businesses to showcase their products, services, and ideas to potential clients, investors, and stakeholders. A well-designed and executed presentation can help a company establish credibility, build relationships, and ultimately drive sales and growth. It is a powerful tool for communication and persuasion in the business world.

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Home Blog Education Presentation Skills 101: A Guide to Presentation Success

Presentation Skills 101: A Guide to Presentation Success

Getting the perfect presentation design is just a step toward a successful presentation. For the experienced user, building presentation skills is the answer to elevating the power of your message and showing expertise on any subject. Still, one can ask: is it the same set of skills, or are they dependable on the type of presentation?

In this article, we will introduce the different types of presentations accompanied by the skillset required to master them. The purpose, as always, is to retain the audience’s interest for a long-lasting and convincing message.

Table of Contents

The Importance of Presentation Skills

Persuasive presentations, instructional presentations, informative presentations, inspirational presentations, basic presentation skills, what are the main difficulties when giving a presentation, recommendations to improve your presentation skills, closing statement.

Effective communication is the answer to reaching business and academic goals. The scenarios in which we can be required to deliver a presentation are as diverse as one can imagine. Still, some core concepts apply to all presentations.

 We define presentation skills as a compendium of soft skills that directly affect your presentation performance and contribute to creating a great presentation. These are not qualities acquired by birth but skills you ought to train and master to delve into professional environments.

You may ask: is it really that evident when a presenter is not prepared? Here are some common signs people can experience during presentations:

• Evasive body language: Not making eye contact with the audience, arms closed tightly to the body, hands in pockets all the time.
• Lack of interest in the presenter’s voice: dull tone, not putting an effort to articulate the topics.
• Doubting when asked to answer a question
• Irksome mood

The list can go on about common presenter mistakes , and most certainly, it will affect the performance of any presented data if the lack of interest by the presenter is blatantly obvious.  Another element to consider is anxiety, and according to research by the National Institute of Mental Health, 73% of the population in the USA is affected by glossophobia , which is the fear of public speaking, judgment, or negative evaluation by other people.

Therefore, presentation skills training is essential for any business professional who wants to achieve effective communication . It will remove the anxiety from presentation performance and help users effectively deliver their message and connect with the audience.

Archetypes of presentations

Persuasive presentations aim to convince the audience – often in short periods – to acquire a product or service, adhere to a cause, or invest in a company. For business entrepreneurs or politicians, persuasive presentations are their tool for the trade.

Unless you aim to be perceived as an imposter, a proper persuasive presentation has the elements of facts, empathy, and logic, balanced under a well-crafted narrative. The central pillar of these presentations is to identify the single factor that gathered your audience: it could be a market need, a social cause, or a revolutionary concept for today’s society. It has to be something with enough power to gather critiques – both good and bad.

That single factor has to be backed up by facts. Research that builds your hypothesis on how to solve that problem. A deep understanding of the target audience’s needs , concerns, and social position regarding the solution your means can offer. When those elements are in place, building a pitch becomes an easy task. 

Graphics can help you introduce information in a compelling format, lowering the need for lengthy presentations. Good presentation skills for persuasive presentations go by the hand of filtering relevant data and creating the visual cues that resonate with what your audience demands.

One powerful example of a persuasive presentation is the technique known as the elevator pitch . You must introduce your idea or product convincingly to the audience in a timeframe between 30 seconds and less than 2 minutes. You have to expose:

• What do you do 
• What’s the problem to solve
• Why is your solution different from others 
• Why should the audience care about your expertise

For that very purpose, using engaging graphics with contrasting colors elevates the potential power of your message. It speaks professionalism, care for details, and out-of-the-box thinking. Knowing how to end a presentation is also critical, as your CTAs should be placed with care.

Therefore, let’s resume the requirements of persuasive presentations in terms of good presentation skills:

• Identifying problems and needs
• Elaborating “the hook” (the element that grabs the audience’s attention)
• Knowing how to “tie” your audience (introducing a piece of information related to the hook that causes an emotional impact)
• Broad knowledge of body language and hand gestures to quickly convey your message
• Being prepared to argue a defense of your point of view
• Handling rejection
• Having a proactive attitude to convert opportunities into new projects
• Using humor, surprise, or personal anecdotes as elements to sympathize with the audience
• Having confidence
• Be able to summarize facts and information in visually appealing ways

You can learn more about persuasive presentation techniques by clicking here .

In the case of instructional presentations, we ought to differentiate two distinctive types:

• Lecture Presentations : Presentations being held at universities or any other educative institution. Those presentations cover, topic by topic, and the contents of a syllabus and are created by the team of teachers in charge of the course.
• Training Presentations : These presentations take place during in-company training sessions and usually comprise a good amount of content that is resumed into easy-to-take solutions. They are aimed to coach employees over certain topics relevant to their work performance. The 70-20-10 Model is frequently used to address these training situations.

Lecture presentations appeal to the gradual introduction of complex concepts, following a structure set in the course’s syllabus. These presentations often have a similar aesthetic as a group of professors or researchers created to share their knowledge about a topic. Personal experience does tell that course presentations often rely on factual data, adequately documented, and on the theoretical side.

An example of a presentation that lies under this concept is a Syllabus Presentation, used by the teaching team to introduce the subject to new students, evaluation methods, concepts to be learned, and expectations to pass the course.

On the other hand, training presentations are slide decks designed to meet an organization’s specific needs in the formal education of their personnel. Commonly known as “continuous education,” plenty of companies invest resources in coaching their employees to achieve higher performance results. These presentations have the trademark of being concise since their idea is to introduce the concepts that shall be applied in practice sessions. 

Ideally, the training presentations are introduced with little text and easy-to-recognize visual cues. Since the idea is to summarize as much as possible, these are visually appealing for the audience. They must be dynamic enough to allow the presenter to convey the message.

Those key takeaways remind employees when they revisit their learning resources and allow them to ruminate on questions that fellow workers raise. 

To sum up this point, building presentation skills for instructional presentations requires:

• Ability to put complex concepts into simpler words
• Patience and a constant learning mindset
• Voice training to deliver lengthy speeches without being too dense
• Ability to summarize points and note the key takeaways
• Empathizing with the audience to understand their challenges in the learning process

The informative presentations take place in business situations, such as when to present project reports from different departments to the management. Another potential usage of these presentations is in SCRUM or other Agile methodologies, when a sprint is completed, to discuss the advance of the project with the Product Owner.

As they are presentations heavily dependent on data insights, it’s common to see the usage of infographics and charts to express usually dense data in simpler terms and easy to remember. 

Informative presentations don’t just fall into the business category. Ph.D. Dissertation and Thesis presentations are topics that belong to the informative presentations category as they condense countless research hours into manageable reports for the academic jury. 

Since these informational presentations can be perceived as lengthy and data-filled, it is important to learn the following professional presentation skills:

• Attention to detail
• Be able to explain complex information in simpler terms
• Creative thinking
• Powerful diction
• Working on pauses and transitions
• Pacing the presentation, so not too much information is divulged per slide

The leading inspirational platform, TEDx, comes to mind when talking about inspirational presentations. This presentation format has the peculiarity of maximizing the engagement with the audience to divulge a message, and due to that, it has specific requirements any presenter must meet.

This presentation format usually involves a speaker on a stage, either sitting or better standing, in which the presenter engages with the audience with a storytelling format about a life experience, a job done that provided a remarkable improvement for society, etc.

Empathizing with the audience is the key ingredient for these inspirational presentations. Still, creativity is what shapes the outcome of your performance as people are constantly looking for different experiences – not the same recipe rephrased with personal touches. The human factor is what matters here, way above data and research. What has your experience to offer to others? How can it motivate another human being to pursue a similar path or discover their true calling?

To achieve success in terms of communication skills presentation, these inspirational presentations have the following requirements:

• Focus on the audience (engage, consider their interests, and make them a part of your story)
• Putting ego aside
• Creative communication skills
• Storytelling skills
• Body language knowledge to apply the correct gestures to accompany your story
• Voice training
• Using powerful words

After discussing the different kinds of presentations we can come across at any stage of our lives, a group of presentation skills is standard in any type of presentation. See below what makes a good presentation and which skills you must count on to succeed as a presenter.

Punctuality

Punctuality is a crucial aspect of giving an effective presentation. Nothing says more about respect for your audience and the organization you represent than delivering the presentation on time . Arriving last minute puts pressure on the tech team behind audiovisuals, as they don’t have enough preparation to test microphones, stage lights, and projector settings, which can lead to a less powerful presentation Even when discussing presentations hosted in small rooms for a reduced audience, testing the equipment becomes essential for an effective presentation.

A solution for this is to arrive at least 30 minutes early. Ideally, one hour is a sweet spot since the AV crew has time to check the gear and requirements for your presentation. Another benefit of this, for example, in inspirational presentations, is measuring the previous presenter’s impact on the audience. This gives insights about how to resonate with the public, and their interest, and how to accommodate your presentation for maximum impact.

Body Language

Our bodies can make emotions transparent for others, even when we are unaware of such a fact. Proper training for body language skills reduces performance anxiety, giving the audience a sense of expertise about the presented topic. 

Give your presentation and the audience the respect they deserve by watching over these potential mistakes:

• Turning your back to the audience for extended periods : It’s okay to do so when introducing an important piece of information or explaining a graph, but it is considered rude to give your back to the audience constantly.
• Fidgeting : We are all nervous in the presence of strangers, even more, if we are the center of attention for that moment. Instead of playing with your hair or making weird hand gestures, take a deep breath to center yourself before the presentation and remember that everything you could do to prepare is already done. Trust your instincts and give your best.
• Intense eye contact : Have you watched a video where the presenter stared at the camera the entire time? That’s the feeling you transmit to spectators through intense eye contact. It’s a practice often used by politicians to persuade.
• Swearing : This is a no-brainer. Even when you see influencers swearing on camera or in podcasts or live presentations, it is considered an informal and lousy practice for business and academic situations. If you have a habit to break when it comes to this point, find the humor in these situations and replace your swear words with funny alternatives (if the presentation allows for it). 

Voice Tone plays a crucial role in delivering effective presentations and knowing how to give a good presentation. Your voice is a powerful tool for exposing your ideas and feelings . Your voice can articulate the message you are telling, briefing the audience if you feel excited about what you are sharing or, in contrast, if you feel the presentation is a burden you ought to complete.

Remember, passion is a primary ingredient in convincing people. Therefore, transmitting such passion with a vibrant voice may help gather potential business partners’ interest.  

But what if you feel sick prior to the presentation? If, by chance, your throat is sore minutes before setting foot on the stage, try this: when introducing yourself, mention that you are feeling a bit under the weather. This resonates with the audience to pay more attention to your efforts. In case you don’t feel comfortable about that, ask the organizers for a cup of tea, as it will settle your throat and relax your nerves.

Tech Skills

Believe it or not, people still feel challenged by technology these days. Maybe that’s the reason why presentation giants like Tony Robbins opt not to use PowerPoint presentations . The reality is that there are plenty of elements involved in a presentation that can go wrong from the tech side:

• A PDF not opening
• Saving your presentation in a too-recent PowerPoint version
• A computer not booting up
• Mac laptops and their never-ending compatibility nightmare
• Not knowing how to change between slides
• Not knowing how to use a laser pointer
• Internet not working
• Audio not working

We can come up with a pretty long list of potential tech pitfalls, and yet more than half of them fall in presenters not being knowledgeable about technology.

If computers aren’t your thing, let the organization know about this beforehand. There is always a crew member available to help presenters switch between slides or configure the presentation for streaming. This takes the pressure off your shoulders, allowing you to concentrate on the content to present. Remember, even Bill Gates can get a BSOD during a presentation .

Presentations, while valuable for conveying information and ideas, can be daunting for many individuals. Here are some common difficulties people encounter when giving presentations:

Public Speaking Anxiety

Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, affects a significant portion of the population. This anxiety can lead to nervousness, trembling, and forgetfulness during a presentation.

Lack of Confidence

Many presenters struggle with self-doubt, fearing that they may not be knowledgeable or skilled enough to engage their audience effectively.

Content Organization

Organizing information in a coherent and engaging manner can be challenging. Presenters often grapple with how to structure their content to make it easily digestible for the audience. Artificial Intelligence can help us significantly reduce the content arrangement time when you work with tools like our AI Presentation Maker (made for presenters by experts in presentation design). 

Audience Engagement

Keeping the audience’s attention and interest throughout the presentation can be difficult. Distractions, disengaged attendees, or lack of interaction can pose challenges.

Technical Issues

Technology glitches, such as malfunctioning equipment, incompatible file formats, or poor internet connectivity, can disrupt presentations and increase stress.

Time Management

Striking the right balance between providing enough information and staying within time limits is a common challenge. Going over or under the allotted time can affect the effectiveness of the presentation.

Handling Questions and Challenges

Responding to unexpected questions, criticism, or challenges from the audience can be difficult, especially when presenters are unprepared or lack confidence in their subject matter.

Visual Aids and Technology

Creating and effectively using visual aids like slides or multimedia can be a struggle for some presenters. Technical competence is essential in this aspect.

Language and Articulation

Poor language skills or unclear articulation can hinder effective communication. Presenters may worry about stumbling over words or failing to convey their message clearly.

Maintaining appropriate and confident body language can be challenging. Avoiding nervous habits, maintaining eye contact, and using gestures effectively requires practice.

Overcoming Impersonal Delivery

In virtual presentations, maintaining a personal connection with the audience can be difficult. The absence of face-to-face interaction can make it challenging to engage and read the audience.

Cultural and Diversity Awareness

Presenting to diverse audiences requires sensitivity to cultural differences and varying levels of familiarity with the topic.

In this section, we gathered some tips on how to improve presentation skills that can certainly make an impact if applied to your presentation skills. We believe these skills can be cultivated to transform into habits for your work routine.

Tip #1: Build a narrative

One memorable way to guarantee presentation success is by writing a story of all the points you desire to cover. This statement is based on the logic behind storytelling and its power to connect with people .

Don’t waste time memorizing slides or reading your presentation to the audience. It feels unnatural, and any question that diverts from the topic in discussion certainly puts you in jeopardy or, worse, exposes you as a fraud in the eyes of the audience. And before you ask, it is really evident when a presenter has a memorized speech. 

Build and rehearse the presentation as if telling a story to a group of interested people. Lower the language barrier by avoiding complex terms that maybe even you aren’t fully aware of their meaning. Consider the ramifications of that story, what it could lead to, and which are the opportunities to explore. Then, visualize yourself giving the presentation in a natural way.

Applying this technique makes the presentation feel like second nature to you. It broadens the spectrum in which you can show expertise over a topic or even build the basis for new interesting points of view about the project.

Tip #2: Don’t talk for more than 3 minutes per slide

It is a common practice of presenters to bombard the audience with facts and information whilst retaining the same slide on the screen. Why can this happen? It could be because the presenter condensed the talk into very few slides and preferred to talk. The reality is that your spectators won’t retain the information you are giving unless you give visual cues to help that process. 

Opt to prepare more slides and pace your speech to match the topics shown on each slide. Don’t spend more than 3 minutes per slide unless you have to introduce a complex piece of data. Use visual cues to direct the spectators about what you talk about, and summarize the principal concepts discussed at the end of each section.

Tip #3: Practice meditation daily

Anxiety is the number one enemy of professional presenters. It slowly builds without you being aware of your doubts and can hinder your performance in multiple ways: making you feel paralyzed, fidgeting, making you forget language skills or concepts, affecting your health, etc.

Meditation is an ancient practice taken from Buddhist teachings that train your mind to be here in the present. We often see the concepts of meditation and mindfulness as synonyms, whereas you should be aware that meditation is a practice that sets the blocks to reach a state of mindfulness. For presenters, being in the here and now is essential to retain focus, but meditation techniques also teach us to control our breathing and be in touch with our body signals when stress builds up. 

The customary practice of meditation has an impact on imagination and creativity but also helps to build patience – a skill much needed for connecting with your audience in instructional presentations.

Having the proper set of presentation skills can be quite subjective. It goes beyond presentation tips and deepens into how flexible we can be in our ability to communicate ideas.

Different presentations and different audiences shape the outcome of our efforts. Therefore, having a basic understanding of how to connect, raise awareness, and empathize with people can be key ingredients for your career as a presenter. A word of advice: success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes dedication and patience to build communication skills . Don’t condition your work to believe you will be ready “someday”; it’s best to practice and experience failure as part of the learning process.

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Powerful and Effective Presentation Skills: More in Demand Now Than Ever

When we talk with our L&D colleagues from around the globe, we often hear that presentation skills training is one of the top opportunities they’re looking to provide their learners. And this holds true whether their learners are individual contributors, people managers, or senior leaders. This is not surprising.

Effective communications skills are a powerful career activator, and most of us are called upon to communicate in some type of formal presentation mode at some point along the way.

For instance, you might be asked to brief management on market research results, walk your team through a new process, lay out the new budget, or explain a new product to a client or prospect. Or you may want to build support for a new idea, bring a new employee into the fold, or even just present your achievements to your manager during your performance review.

And now, with so many employees working from home or in hybrid mode, and business travel in decline, there’s a growing need to find new ways to make effective presentations when the audience may be fully virtual or a combination of in person and remote attendees.

Whether you’re making a standup presentation to a large live audience, or a sit-down one-on-one, whether you’re delivering your presentation face to face or virtually, solid presentation skills matter.

Even the most seasoned and accomplished presenters may need to fine-tune or update their skills. Expectations have changed over the last decade or so. Yesterday’s PowerPoint which primarily relied on bulleted points, broken up by the occasional clip-art image, won’t cut it with today’s audience.

The digital revolution has revolutionized the way people want to receive information. People expect presentations that are more visually interesting. They expect to see data, metrics that support assertions. And now, with so many previously in-person meetings occurring virtually, there’s an entirely new level of technical preparedness required.

The leadership development tools and the individual learning opportunities you’re providing should include presentation skills training that covers both the evergreen fundamentals and the up-to-date capabilities that can make or break a presentation.

So, just what should be included in solid presentation skills training? Here’s what I think.

The fundamentals will always apply When it comes to making a powerful and effective presentation, the fundamentals will always apply. You need to understand your objective. Is it strictly to convey information, so that your audience’s knowledge is increased? Is it to persuade your audience to take some action? Is it to convince people to support your idea? Once you understand what your objective is, you need to define your central message. There may be a lot of things you want to share with your audience during your presentation, but find – and stick with – the core, the most important point you want them to walk away with. And make sure that your message is clear and compelling.

You also need to tailor your presentation to your audience. Who are they and what might they be expecting? Say you’re giving a product pitch to a client. A technical team may be interested in a lot of nitty-gritty product detail. The business side will no doubt be more interested in what returns they can expect on their investment.

Another consideration is the setting: is this a formal presentation to a large audience with questions reserved for the end, or a presentation in a smaller setting where there’s the possibility for conversation throughout? Is your presentation virtual or in-person? To be delivered individually or as a group? What time of the day will you be speaking? Will there be others speaking before you and might that impact how your message will be received?

Once these fundamentals are established, you’re in building mode. What are the specific points you want to share that will help you best meet your objective and get across your core message? Now figure out how to convey those points in the clearest, most straightforward, and succinct way. This doesn’t mean that your presentation has to be a series of clipped bullet points. No one wants to sit through a presentation in which the presenter reads through what’s on the slide. You can get your points across using stories, fact, diagrams, videos, props, and other types of media.

Visual design matters While you don’t want to clutter up your presentation with too many visual elements that don’t serve your objective and can be distracting, using a variety of visual formats to convey your core message will make your presentation more memorable than slides filled with text. A couple of tips: avoid images that are cliched and overdone. Be careful not to mix up too many different types of images. If you’re using photos, stick with photos. If you’re using drawn images, keep the style consistent. When data are presented, stay consistent with colors and fonts from one type of chart to the next. Keep things clear and simple, using data to support key points without overwhelming your audience with too much information. And don’t assume that your audience is composed of statisticians (unless, of course, it is).

When presenting qualitative data, brief videos provide a way to engage your audience and create emotional connection and impact. Word clouds are another way to get qualitative data across.

Practice makes perfect You’ve pulled together a perfect presentation. But it likely won’t be perfect unless it’s well delivered. So don’t forget to practice your presentation ahead of time. Pro tip: record yourself as you practice out loud. This will force you to think through what you’re going to say for each element of your presentation. And watching your recording will help you identify your mistakes—such as fidgeting, using too many fillers (such as “umm,” or “like”), or speaking too fast.

A key element of your preparation should involve anticipating any technical difficulties. If you’ve embedded videos, make sure they work. If you’re presenting virtually, make sure that the lighting is good, and that your speaker and camera are working. Whether presenting in person or virtually, get there early enough to work out any technical glitches before your presentation is scheduled to begin. Few things are a bigger audience turn-off than sitting there watching the presenter struggle with the delivery mechanisms!

Finally, be kind to yourself. Despite thorough preparation and practice, sometimes, things go wrong, and you need to recover in the moment, adapt, and carry on. It’s unlikely that you’ll have caused any lasting damage and the important thing is to learn from your experience, so your next presentation is stronger.

How are you providing presentation skills training for your learners?

Manika Gandhi is Senior Learning Design Manager at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. Email her at [email protected] .

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10 Corporate Deck Examples & Templates (That Stand Out)

Get tips for creating an impressive corporate pitch deck, see high-performing corporate slide deck examples, and grab a battle-tested corporate deck template.

8 minute read

helped business professionals at:

Short answer

What does a corporate deck include.

A typical corporate deck includes the following elements:

• Introduction (UVP + hook)
• Problem (your market segment has)
• Solution (you have that no one can copy)
• Market size and opportunity
• Business and revenue model
• Traction and validation
• Marketing/growth strategy
• Team (authority & experience)
• Investment and use of funds

Without an outstanding deck, you won't get funded.

The highly competitive business landscape makes it challenging to impress investors with your pitch. Countless hours spent crafting the perfect pitch may not be enough.

If you don't have a well-crafted corporate deck, you risk losing investors and missing out on the funding your business needs to succeed.

Read on to learn the key components of a winning corporate deck and get insights from templated corporate deck examples that have successfully secured funding for other companies. Let’s go!

What is a corporate deck?

A corporate deck, or corporate pitch deck, is a presentation designed to convey the essential aspects of a business to potential investors, partners, or stakeholders. A corporate deck includes slides that outline the company's business model, products or services, target market, competition, team, financials, and growth strategy.

Corporate pitch deck vs. startup pitch deck

The difference between a corporate deck and a startup deck is subtle. While a corporate deck is pitched to corporate incubators or departments for projects under the corporate umbrella, a startup pitch deck is pitched to investors as an independent business with the promise of a successful exit.

What is the goal of a corporate deck?

The goal of a corporate deck is to secure their investment, partnership, or stakeholder buy-in. To achieve this objective, corporate pitch decks should be heavily focused on showing the impact of the product, service or initiative on market-share, growth, and revenue.

If you're looking for other types of business presentations, check out our dedicated guides:

• Make a Sales Pitch Deck That Turns ‘Maybe’ to ‘Yes!’
• Create a Sales One-Pager (Examples, Writing Tips, Templates)
• Make a Winning Business Proposal Presentation in 12 Steps
• How to Create a Marketing Deck (Strategy, Tips & Templates)

Why most corporate decks fail (and how to avoid it)

The hard truth is that 99% of corporate decks fail to impress investors. That's a staggering statistic, but it's not surprising given the common pitfalls that many companies fall into when creating their presentations.

Here are the reasons why corporate decks fail and how to avoid these mistakes:

1. They use static slides that kill engagement

Static slides are engagement killers - there’s no option to visualize your data, include an actionable CTA, or deliver a pleasant reader experience on a mobile device.

Reengage your audience by incorporating interactive elements into your deck. Things such as videos, animations, clickable charts, or interactive ROI calculators.

Interactive content allows investors to explore the data on their own at their preferred pace. And when you allow investors to interact with your presentation, you’re increasing the chances of them reading it in full by 41% .

2. They offer facts rather than tell a story

Corporate slide decks that rely too heavily on listing out facts and figures are dry and tiring.

Instead of spouting facts, structure your deck around a compelling narrative that captures investors' attention and makes them care about your mission and vision.

If you’re not sure how to get started, here’s a video on how to improve storytelling in a pitch deck:

3. They are generic and fail to personalize

Investors are swamped with corporate decks on a daily basis, and they can smell generic from a mile away.

If you truly want to stand out from the crowd, you need to do your research ahead of time to understand the specific needs of your target audience.

By understanding what matters most to them, you can create a presentation that speaks directly to their concerns and demonstrates how your company can deliver value. Personalization gets 68% more people to read your deck in full .

4. They fail to use behavior data to continually optimize

Make sure you’re making data-driven decks instead of flying blind. If you’re sending out PDFs or PowerPoints that collect zero data about how readers engage with your deck there’s no way you’ll ever achieve a top performing deck.

The good news is that Storydoc decks collect insight on how your audience interacts with your deck, down to the slide and even button level. Where they skip, where they linger and when they share it with other decision-makers. Imagine what you could do with this info!

Corporate deck examples that stand out

A beautiful corporate presentation deck is a basic requirement - it’s not gonna make you stand out.

To create a deck that drives real results you’ll wanna take a close look at our list of the top corporate deck examples.

These corporate deck samples were all created using Storydoc and have been optimized for high engagement.

And the best part? All the examples are templated, which means you can use any of them to create your best-performing corporate deck in minutes!

Jump ahead to each example:

Startup pitch deck

What makes this deck great:

• The cover slide video enhances interaction, increasing engagement by up to 32% . This boosts the chances of potential investors reading the deck in its entirety and taking the desired action at the end.
• The roadmap slide offers a clear and concise presentation of your start-up’s journey. Meanwhile, various data visualization elements are perfect for demonstrating financial projections, proving that your business is making progress.
• The calendar integration on the final slide simplifies the process for investors to schedule the next meeting immediately after going through your corporate deck.

Light mode invest pitch deck

• The minimalist design makes your deck easy to follow even for those unfamiliar with the industry.
• With image and video placeholders , showcasing your solution and how it solves problems is effortless, without relying on complicated terminology.
• The interactive slides showcase the team behind your solution, illustrating their capability to steer it towards success.

Light mode product pitch deck

• The powerful personalization features enable you to produce an infinite number of versions of your deck in just a few clicks, resulting in 68% more people reading it entirely .
• The AI assistant lets you create relevant visuals or copy for the corporate pitch deck in just a few clicks.
• The intuitive editor automatically extracts the essential visuals of your company, ensuring that your deck maintains its brand consistency.

Investor pitch deck

• The fresh, contemporary design is sure to capture the attention of potential investors, particularly in trend-led industries.
• The perfect balance of text-based slides and engaging visuals enables you to present your key metrics while providing necessary context.
• The scroll-based interactive design facilitates explaining your solution to potential investors and guides them through a compelling narrative.

Pitch deck essentials

• The compact design makes it easy to communicate essential information in fewer slides, saving the investors' time.
• Various interactive slides provide potential investors with all the critical insights at first glance. By clicking through tabs, they can discover more about your solution, enhancing their engagement.
• The smart CTAs allow you to incorporate a live chat widget or calendar, smoothly directing potential investors to the next step.

Product pitch deck

• The combination of visual slides is ideal for presenting the product's primary features and use cases without overloading investors with walls of text.
• Videos that can be embedded and played directly from the deck allow you to include case studies from past customers to legitimize your product.
• An easy, intuitive editor ensures complete control over your presentation. If you release a new product version or make a typo in the specs, you can quickly make the necessary tweaks at any time, even after sending your deck.
• Powerful interactive design that doesn't detract from the main message. By using our running numbers slides and data visualization elements, you can present key metrics or financial projections to potential investors in an eye-catching, easy-to-understand format.
• Several data visualization elements that can be customized to your specific use case. You can also add real-time variables to your charts.
• The dynamic content allows your audience to interact with the deck. For example, you can embed an interactive ROI calculator that they can fill out to determine if they're getting their money's worth.

General invest pitch deck

• The versatile components make it suitable for pre-seed, seed, or series A funding. It includes all the necessary corporate deck elements that you can use to create a master deck.
• The ability to add customizable fields that can be filled in within seconds, making it possible to personalize your corporate deck at scale.
• The intuitive, user-friendly editor ensures that anything you add automatically adjusts to the overall deck layout. This means you don't have to worry about breaking the design.

Creative pitch deck

• The attention-grabbing design , featuring vibrant colors and animated elements, can convert casual scrollers into engaged readers.
• The fully interactive layout of this corporate deck increases interaction and extends the average reading time.
• The combination of visual and data visualization slides enables you to showcase snippets of your portfolio while emphasizing the most crucial metrics.

Bonus: successful corporate deck example by a Storydoc client

Finally, we left the best for last - a real-life corporate deck example created for one of our clients operating in the medical cannabis industry. It has been designed according to the best practices for creating a powerful corporate deck and delivered outstanding results.

• The running numbers slides enable readers to quickly and easily access the most critical metrics.
• The roadmap slide provides a clear and concise visualization of the company's current growth and significant milestones.
• The narrator slide simplifies complex financial metrics by directing the reader's attention to the exact numbers they should be focusing on at any given time.

How to create a corporate deck that stands out?

Putting together a corporate deck that leaves an impression and gets buy-in takes a lot of time and effort (and know-how) to get right.

But the truth is this task does not have to be so daunting. You can dramatically cut down the time and effort involved by leveraging corporate deck templates .

We have some tried and tested corporate pitch deck templates for you that are optimized for engagement and designed for making a lasting impression.

Make your best deck ever.

How to measure the effectiveness of a corporate deck.

To create a highly performing deck in the top 1%, it’s critical to measure performance, identify problems, and fix them.

Key corporate deck performance metrics to measure and optimize:

• Open rate: Measure the percentage of investors who open your corporate deck to understand how effective your deck is at generating initial interest.
• Reading time: Measure the total amount of time viewers spend reading your deck to gauge their level of interest.
• Engagement: Track how long viewers stay on each slide, how often they interact with the deck, or where they drop off to determine which parts of your corporate deck are most captivating and identify areas for improvement.
• CTA conversion rate: Measure the percentage of investors who take the desired action, such as scheduling a meeting, after viewing your corporate deck.

Here's a short video explaining how to get started with our analytics panel:

What is the best tool for making a corporate deck?

The best tool for making a corporate deck is intuitive, has lots of ready-made templates, and provides an outcome that stands out.

There are 2 types of tools on the market, legacy tools and next-generation tools, but only the next-gen tools will help you stand out.

Legacy tools like PowerPoint and Google Slides, Canva, and Visme will make same-old decks. But our own next-gen corporate deck creator makes interactive content experiences that make an impression.

Grab a template and see for yourself -

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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8 Tips for a Winning Company Presentation

A company presentation is a vital tool for management and sales departments . This type of presentation plays a huge part in promoting the corporate brand – it’s layout and structure need to be professional and convincing . In this article, we’ll show you what goes into a successful company presentation.

Your company presentation in PowerPoint 

Today’s dynamic market requires companies to adapt and continually seek out new partnerships and clients. Creating a compelling and versatile presentation of products and services is essential . Here are 8 useful tips for designing your company presentation in PowerPoint .

First impressions are everything – and that goes for company presentations, too. It takes people a fraction of a second to form an initial opinion and all too often, that initial opinion is hard to change. This makes it all the more important to set the right tone at introductory meetings.

At face value, a company presentation serves the simple purpose of presenting a company in the best possible light . You want to list key figures and detail services, but you also want to convey emotions and mission statements. The other party wants to learn about who you are .

Your company presentation needs to be tailored to your brand, your business, your products and your services . Although there is no ideal blueprint for a company presentation, there are principles and rules to guide the process.

Tip 1: Preparation and design: The first impression counts

A company presentation is often the first step in connecting with important stakeholders . It lays the groundwork for further discussions and meetings and other objectives, such as closing a contract, establishing a partnership or inviting the client to a follow-up meeting.

You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression and your company presentation is no exception to this rule. To truly be effective, every presentation needs a professional design . And that starts with the corporate design (CD) .

Take a look at your existing company presentation. Is it consistent with your CD?

If not, you need to tailor the font, color scheme and visual language to your corporate identity. Establishing a consistent and meaningful design will help you make a lasting impression on potential clients and partners.

In addition, high-quality images are a must. Professional preparation and great design mean being able to win over even the most critical managing director or the most demanding customers.

✔ Keep the design of your company presentation timeless, elegant and appealing . Avoid overwhelming your audience with cluttered slides and too many bells and whistles. Clean and modern flat design (a large selection of graphics, icons and diagrams can be found here ),as well as isometric design (found here ) are currently on trend.

Tip 2: The 20-minute rule. Your audience’s time is precious!

Most executives and leader are pressed for time and as a result, attention spans can be short. For this very reason, keep your company presentation short:

Spend a maximum of 20 to 25 minutes on the introduction section (“about us”). Then it’s time to get to the point and present your business concept, specific offer, products and/or services in detail. Better yet, keep you presentation short and start a dialogue .

Studies have proven that during a presentation, attention levels drop sharply after just 15 minutes . Your audience will be grateful that you value their time. In most cases, they already know more about your company than you think.

Tip 3: Structure: What belongs in a professional company presentation?

The art of a successful company presentation is, among other things, to condense the most important content of your business plan (business model, market, strategy, finances, etc.) onto a few slides . But it’s even more important to know which facts are truly relevant to your target audience and which are not.

1. Always start by answering the most important W questions :

Who? Contacts, management, staff, partner companies

What? Services, products, etc.

Where? Locations, industries/markets, business areas

How? Goal, vision, mission statement

Why? Advantages for new clients or partner companies

Emphasize the “What?” and ” Why?” of your presentation; this is what your audience will be most interested in.

2. Competition is fierce. Most markets are flooded with competitors and attractive alternatives. That’s why unique selling propositions and individual advantages are so important. What makes you special? Why are you better at meeting the needs of your audience?

3. Always include references from satisfied clients and customers . Concrete references help your audience better understand why your services or products are the right choice.

4. Call-to-action: The last slide of your PowerPoint presentation should motivate your audience to act . You’ve presented your company in detail and with conviction – now you want a reaction from the audience. You can formulate this call to action in more general phrases along the lines of “Let’s get it done!” or “Let’s go!”, package it as a targeted question about the content or use it as a prompt for follow-up contact.

Tip 4: Highlight benefits to your target audience

Knowledge about your target group is power . The first question your audience will ask themselves when you give a presentation is, “How will I benefit from this?” Here are some questions that will help you tailor your content to your audience :

• What are the driving factors for purchasing/collaborating?
• How much prior knowledge about your company is available?
• What follow-up questions are you likely to receive?
• What key messages do you want to convey in your presentation?
• What is your unique selling point (USP) and how do you differ from your competitors? Check out this blog article for more information.
• What kind of design and layout is right for your (business) presentation?
• Storytelling: How do you best get your story across?
• Is the company history really interesting to your audience? Maybe it’s the new innovative solutions you’re about to launch that will deliver real added value?
• Does it matter how many locations and employees you have or is how your customer service process works more important?

A good start to developing your presentation is a team brainstorming session followed by a workshop with key decision-makers from management, marketing, and sales. You can also bring editors, copywriters or a specialized agency on board.

Tip 5: Convince with more than just text

The presentation design needs to be just as convincing as the content. Most presentations we see consist of 70-80% text. But bullet points and sprawling text alone aren’t enough to make an impact .

The design process begins when you stop focusing on writing statements and start creating a presentation that supports your content visually. Here’s a good rule of thumb: 50% of your slide’s area should be text, 50% should be images, graphs and charts .

Obviously, you don’t have to follow this rigidly on all slides, but presentations with rich visual content are always a success . The most important thing is to keep written content short – keywords and short sentences are usually enough .

The following slides (screenshots from our Company Presentation Toolbo x ) provide vivid examples of layouts and designs.

If you’re pressed for time or need some professional design inspiration, check out our PowerPoint templates . Or ask a graphic designer or a professional PowerPoint or presentation agency like PresentationLoad for support.

Tip 6: The customer is king: Give them what they want

Before you start your presentation, ask your audience what information they need. Are they familiar with your company? Have they already gone to your website for information? Knowing this might help you tailor it more to your audience’s needs by editing or even completely omitting sections of your presentation. The key is to remain flexible while presenting and only include what is really relevant to your audience.

The first step is to make sure your presentation is completely up to date .  A slide master is the easiest way to make any universal changes to your presentation, update key figures, contact information, etc., without sacrificing formatting or layout.

Even in a completely updated presentation, you may find there’s information that just isn’t relevant to your target audience. PowerPoint helps you with this by providing a quick and easy option to hide slides . In the thumbnail pane, right-click the slide you want to hide and select Hide Slide .  You can also hide multiple slides by holding down the Ctrl key , clicking on them and then selecting Hide Slide with a right-click. The hidden slides will now appear greyed out. To reverse this option, simply click Hide Slide again and you slides will be visible.

Another technique to make your PowerPoint company presentation more flexible and interactive is to use hyperlinks . For example, you could hyperlink all the titles of individual sections on your agenda slide so that you can jump from the agenda slide directly to the relevant section with a simple click. This also allows you to respond dynamically to your audience’s reactions or interests.

Pro tip : Use your company logo as a home button. Adding a small logo to the corner of each slide not only strengthens your branding, but also allows you to add a hyperlink to the agenda slide. Click on the logo and you’re back to your PowerPoint presentation overview.

Tip 7: Present like a pro

A company presentation lives and dies by its delivery . Even a perfect presentation is of little value if the delivery isn’t convincing. As a presenter, you need to communicate the passion and enthusiasm you feel for your brand through your presentation.

But don’t go overboard! Be authentic . If you can do this, your company presentation will not only reinforce your company’s positive image but will also excite your audience.

Arouse emotions by using images that speak to your audience . Involve your audience by starting with words such as “Imagine…”. Focus less on “we” (your company) and more on “you” (your audience) . These techniques will help you open the door to your audience’s subconscious – which is where most decisions are made.

 ✔ Leave enough time to rehearse your presentation . Ask your colleagues if they would be willing to serve as a test audience and give feedback on your presentation.

Tip 8: Post-presentation best practice

Always prepare a ready-to-email format of your presentation . When your customers and partners are impressed, they’ more likely to ask for a digital copy.

Never send your presentation as a PowerPoint file; always send it as a PDF to preserve its formatting and layout. Be sure to pay attention to the file size , too. A company presentation in PDF format should be no larger than about 3MB. An email attachment containing a 30MB company presentation will come across as anything but professional. There’s also a risk that the email won’t even reach the recipient’s inbox due to a limited attachment size.

✔ Create your company presentation PDF before you present . This way, you can offer it as a digital copy directly after the presentation.

Win customers with your company presentation

On just a few slides, your company presentation summarizes all the pertinent facts and ideas with which you want to convince your audience. This makes it all the more important to truly understand your audience before you start designing your presentation .

The first impression counts – adhering to your corporate design will elevate your presentation to a higher, more professional level. Be concise and to the point and highlight the benefits your audience will derive from working with you and your company. A modern presentation is designed with a 50:50 ratio of text to images ; avoid too much text and unnecessary facts.

As the presenter, you represent your company. That’s why it’s especially important to be flexible and provide your audience with the information that matters most to them .

The aim of this blog post is to provide you with a general idea of how to create a practical and convincing company presentation in PowerPoint. These tips are based on years of proven professional expertise.

Need help creating an even better company presentation?

Feel free to post a comment here or contact me directly by sending an email to [email protected] .

I’d be happy to answer your questions or, along with my team, help you with the concept, structure, content and design of your company presentations. It can really help to have someone with a different perspective take a look at your presentations.

We have been creating PowerPoint presentations for mid-sized companies and international corporations for almost 20 years. As a result, we have a wealth of experience with corporate sales and strategy presentations.

Additional services:

• Non-binding consultation for your presentations.
• Send me your presentations for review.
• Professional support with concept and design.
• Revision of your existing company presentations.

Good luck with your presentations!

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The 10-Step Guide for a Successful Strategy Presentation

Discover essential steps and best practices in 'How to Write a Strategy Presentation.' Elevate your approach and effectively communicate your strategic vision with our comprehensive guide.

StrategyPunk

Introduction

Have you ever been trapped in the quicksand of a never-ending strategy presentation?

Think again. Plunge into our fresh guide, and you'll transform from a presenter to a storyteller.

How to Write a Strategy Presentation: 10 Steps

1. set the stage right.

In the same way, before you even think of diving into your content, please know your audience.

2. Define Your Mission

A strategy presentation without a clear mission is almost the same – directionless and meandering.

3. Craft an Unforgettable Opening

A quirky quote, a compelling statistic, or even a personal anecdote – choose a relevant and riveting opener. It’s the appetizer to your main course.

4. Break Down the Core

So, you’ve hooked them with the problem and dazzled them with your solution.

5. Elevate with Design

6. weave in stories.

Weave in anecdotes that resonate. Personal tales, success stories, or even fictional scenarios – a narrative touch can bring your presentation alive. Make it relatable.

7. Get Them Talking

The more involved they are, the more invested they become. It's the difference between passive listeners and active participants.

8. Wrap it Up with Pizzazz

9. rehearse to perfection.

And nothing, absolutely nothing, captivates an audience more than genuine confidence.

10. After the Applause: Your Next Moves

So, go ahead and inspire change—illuminate minds. And make a lasting impact.🚀

Sign up for StrategyPunk

Bonus: your strategy presentation success checklist.

Your trusty companion for every presentation!

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Global bites: pestle insights into nestlé (free ppt).

Download our free PPT template for in-depth PESTLE insights into Nestlé's global strategy. Learn more today!

PESTLE Analysis: Decoding Reddit's Landscape (Free PPT)

Navigating the terrain: a pestle analysis of lululemon (free powerpoint).

11 Guidelines for Planning & Designing Your Best Presentation

October 23, 2019 / Blog

We’ve all seen our fair share of dull PowerPoint presentations.

You know the ones—those wonderful preloaded templates. The walls of text. The “page turn” transitions…

Suffice it to say, presentations — and their visual aids — have come a long way since the early days of PowerPoint. 

At SlideGenius, we’ve spent the last eight years mastering all the tricks and skills needed to deliver a truly excellent presentation that stands out from the crowd, which is why we wrote this post on 11 tricks you can harness to create a winning presentation:

1) Start with a Strong Hook

They say the first 10 minutes of any presentation are the most crucial.

That time frame is when your audience is most receptive to what you have to say. Fail to catch their interest from the start and you may as well pack it up for the day.

You need to start strong with a compelling hook that makes your audience want to know more.

Propose a thought-provoking question or tap into the essential interests of your audience. The goal is to set the stage for your presentation. Everything you present should be grounded in what you establish at the start, to deliver a satisfying payoff for your audience.

For maximum effect, be sure to do the same with your presentation deck. Here’s how Spotify hooks it’s audience with colorful animation:

This presentation grabs your attention right off the bat with its beautiful, fresh imagery and animation sequences . You can’t help but be excited, can you?

2) Use Storytelling to Help Information Retention

The typical business presentation can be boring, bland, and emotionless, the culprit typically being the presenter focusing too much on hard facts without any sense of narrative. 

Information will always have its place in presentations, but the human element of your presentation should not be overlooked.

Numerous studies have shown that humans remember information more easily when it’s structured like a story. (In fact, memory champions regularly integrate a storyline structure to help recall long strings of information.)

Having a basic narrative structure  helps establish a flow that audiences can follow and anticipate. Just ask Dr. Zak, who carefully explains how the human brain responds to effective storytelling in this video:

As you plan your slides, create a sense of progression and development. Begin with an introduction that establishes and contextualizes who you are and what you offer.

Naturally, the middle of the presentation should build on your foundation, providing proof you can deliver on your claims.

Your conclusion should tie everything together and deliver a feeling of fulfillment and excitement.

3) Use Visuals to Grab (and Keep) Your Audience’s Attention

Just like there have been countless number of studies on how storytelling can help increase memory, an equal number of studies have proven how humans are visual creatures.

We don’t just crave imagery, we need it.

So why don’t more high-stakes presentations take visuals more seriously? 

Your presentations should make use of high-quality images, diagrams, and chart designs while integrating them with attention-grabbing animations .

The trick is not to overdo it (too many animations can actually be overwhelming), to make them consistent, and to select images that your audience will be able to relate to (more on that later).

Here’s example from our friends over at Red Bull:

Pretty cool, huh?

See how cohesive the narrative and design elements are? It really ties in Red Bull’s identity and keeps the presentation consistent and visually stimulating.

4) Don’t Show. TELL.

The most common mistake presenters are guilty of is an over reliance on text. This creates two glaring problems:

• Blocks of text are not appealing to look at.
• Too much text can cause you to use the slides as a script. When faced with such unfiltered information, audiences are sure to tune out quickly. 

As stated previously, you need to tell your story using visuals — and the best way to allow that is to minimize text on each slide to create more real estate for imagery and animation to flourish.

It will take some time and practice to get used to, but you can rely on images to deliver the same message a line of text normally would.

(After all, “a picture is worth a thousand words”, as they say.)

Here’s an example of how we helped Duolingo visualize information that would have otherwise been dull:

It’s important to keep in mind that with less text to read from, it will rest on your presentation skills to emphasize the essential information on screen.

5) Understand Your Audience for Maximum Effect

Marketing 101… know your audience .

Always be mindful of who exactly you are presenting to because people only care about what you can do for them.

If you’re trying to garner a company-wide buy-in for a new Design Operations initiative, the presentation you’d use to present your argument to C-level executives should be much different than the one you’d use to present to your company’s creative team.

Both teams will benefit from the new initiative. However, each team has different goals to achieve. Hence, the information in each presentation should speak to each audience’s respective goals.

And yet time and again, we see companies using the same sales presentation across different buyer personas, or recycling presentations meant for a specific department across the entire organization.

A more tangible example comes from brand communication coach Carmine Gallo’s book, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs , where he helped a CEO prepare a sales presentation for an audience of tech-savvy analysts.

Gallo suggested the CEO simply state the relevance of his company’s technological services to the audience instead of his originally lengthy and technical explanation.

The CEO asked his audience to hold their cellphones out. Then, he elaborated on how his company made those devices more efficient for its users.

Let’s think about this for a moment. His audience was mostly tech-savvy people. Although most of the audience could have kept up with the CEO’s original tech-heavy introduction, they still needed to know why the CEO’s topic matters to them.

With this approach, the CEO was able to keep his presentation simple and relevant with an engaging delivery about what his company can offer his audience.

6) Encourage Audience Participation for Increased Engagement

Audience participation is important because it deepens your relationship with your audience, while exhibiting your openness and transparency as a presenter.

The point is to treat your audience as an integral part of your presentation (instead of simply spectators) because based on the form of interaction, it can help your audience make important connections around what you’re presenting.

Here are some things you can do to encourage audience interaction:

• Ask them questions
• Give them something physical to do
• Give them something to react to
• Invite a volunteer
• Use a real object as a prop
• Use body movement

Speaking coach, Alex Lyon, goes into each tip in more detail in this video:

But remember to always be on your toes. Keeping the door open for feedback invites a slew of personalities. Some will authentically want to know more, while others will nitpick every single detail down to its bones.

7) Always Push Your Branding

As the presenter, you have full control over the information featured in the presentation.

Consider the mindset of your audience.

Do they have the time or interest to sift through dense sheets of financial information? Too much information in a presentation is a  mistake  many still fall for.

Take matters into your own hands. Carefully handpick the most essential pieces of information and showcase them in interesting ways. This can be done using infographics, charts, or sometimes simply just raw numbers . It’s important that your audience understands what you’re telling them quickly and clearly. Over complicating things by putting in too much information only risks confusing your audience.

Color, imagery, and language are big pieces of your branding. 

Every slide is an opportunity to educate your audience on exactly who you are. 

It’s all about consistency. 

The goal is for your audience to accurately recall the main aspects of your brand. Whether it’s your distinct color scheme, unique design elements, or fresh tone of voice, keep reminding your audience who you are and what makes you different from the rest.  

Here’s a pitch deck we created for NBC Universal that shows consistent branding in action:

8) Keep Data Simple

As the presenter, you have full control over the information featured in the presentation. 

Consider the mindset of your audience. Do they have the time or interest enough to sift through dense sheets of financial information? 

No, they don’t. 

There is such a thing as too much data in a presentation , and it’s a mistake many still make:

Over-complicating things by putting in too much information only risks confusing and alienating your audience, especially when data is important to their job roles.

The trick is to carefully handpick the most essential pieces of information and showcase them in interesting ways. It’s important that your audience is able to understand what you’re telling them quickly and clearly. 

This can be done using infographics, charts, or sometimes simply just the numbers. 

Here’s a revamped, simplified, easier-to-consume version of the above slide:

9) Bring the Energy

Enthusiasm will go a long way, and your audience will gravitate to you for it. 

No one likes having to sit through a presentation by someone who looks like they don’t want to be there. By keeping your energy up, you naturally project a feeling of confidence.  

Eye contact is a simple detail that’s worth remembering because it easily and directly connects you with your audience.

Remember to focus on who you are speaking to, whether it’s a face-to-face meeting with a potential partner or in front of a conference audience.

10) Include a Call to Action to Encourage the Next Step

In the narrative of your presentation, the final slide does not mean the end of the story.

When it’s all said and done, all your cards laid out on the table, you must guide your audience to make the next move. Whether you’re looking to make another sale or pen a new partnership, audiences need to be told explicitly what their next step should be. As the presenter, you can direct your audience where you want them to go.

While it ultimately rests on their shoulders to make decisions, you did your part to enforce your goals for the presentation.

11) Practice…a Lot

While it ultimately rests on their shoulders to make decisions, you need to do your part to enforce your goals for the presentation. After all, “practice makes perfect.”  

Before you even step into the boardroom, you should know your presentation by heart. Rehearsals allow you to iron out any kinks that may affect the quality of your presentation.  

Practicing is a great way to ease the nerves before the big pitch. The constant repetition will prepare you for the mindset you have to be in to deliver a winning presentation. A practiced speech exudes a sense of confidence and expertise that audience will instantly take notice of. It shows that you are a professional who takes their work seriously, making you come off as the ideal business partner.

Ready to take your presentation to the next level? Schedule a free presentation consultation now. Contact us today!

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The Ultimate Brand Identity Presentation Guide [FREE PPT Template]

If you’re in the process of building the right image for your company, it’s essential that you and your team manage clear guidelines on how to present your brand to the world .

These guidelines will help you maintain consistency (a KEY aspect of branding), and that’s why today, I’ll show you how to create a brand identity presentation that helps you inject your corporate identity into every single material.

We’ll go over the following topics:

• Starting with the basics: What is a brand identity presentation?

How to present a brand identity?

What to include in a brand identity presentation.

• Your Brand Identity
• Your Brand Visual Elements (+ Expert Tips!)
• What to expect? Brand identity presentation examples
• Check out our FREE Brand identity presentation template!
• Final Step: Brand Your Guidelines! Check out how we can help you out

Download your brand identity presentation PDF

What is a brand identity presentation.

A brand identity presentation is a practical and efficient way to present your brand’s guidelines. What are brand guidelines? They are a set of rules on how your brand should be used across any type of media.

These guidelines include all of your brand’s elements, such as your typography, color palette, tone of voice, etc . They provide all the instructions you need to maintain consistency every time you create new marketing materials, from brochures to flyers, packaging, and even your branded presentations .

The best way to present your brand identity is through a PowerPoint presentation. Why? For several reasons:

• Adaptability: Having all your brand's elements in a PowerPoint presentation not only provides the convenience of having everything accessible but also offers the flexibility to adapt it to various formats, such as social media and websites.
• Familiarity: PowerPoint is already a tool you likely use regularly. This familiarity makes using it for brand identity design presentation the easiest choice.
• Rich content: PowerPoint presentations have ample space for including visual examples, videos, and essential links. They encompass a wide array of content types, including text, charts, infographics, and videos.

Let's take a look at all the elements you should include in your brand identity presentation:

Your brand identity

1. Mission and Vision

Including your mission and vision in your brand identity design presentation is vital because it defines your brand’s purpose and long-term goals . You should structure these slides with a brief introduction followed by concise mission and vision statements:

2. Brand Purpose

Your brand’s purpose allows your audience to emotionally connect with your content, so it is crucial to include it to ensure everyone in the company creates content aligned with it. Present a brief statement with any explanation you’d like to have:

Including your brand’s values in your presentation is crucial as it helps match your team's actions and decisions with the core principles your brand stands for . You can present them simply or provide explanations for each one:

4. Tone of voice

Explaining your brand's preferred tone of voice is essential because it sets the style for all your content. Be sure to provide a description of how your brand should communicate and share examples about what to do and what not to do in order to clarify expectations:

5. Intended audience

By presenting your buyer persona, you ensure that everyone involved understands who the brand is speaking to . This way, you help them create content that resonates with the target audience:

Your Brand Visual Elements

Now, let’s check out the visual elements you should definitely include :

6. Logo design

Your logo is a cornerstone of your brand identity. Including it, along with variations and do’s and don'ts , ensures that everyone has access to and uses it correctly, which helps maintain a professional and consistent brand image:

7. Typography

Presenting your chosen typography is essential for maintaining a uniform visual identity in your text-based content. Include font styles for different types of text and usage guidelines to ensure that all written materials adhere to your brand’s style:

8. Brand Colors

Displaying your primary brand colors and their codes is essential for consistent visual branding. By providing the color palette and codes , you ensure that all design elements align with your brand's color scheme:

9. Photography

Explaining the style and types of photography that align with your brand is crucial. Make sure to include examples of preferred photography styles that help your team understand the visual aesthetic your brand aims to achieve :

10. Illustrations

If illustrations are part of your brand, presenting their style and usage guidelines is vital . You should include examples that illustrate the desired style and do’s and don’ts, making it easier for designers and content creators to maintain consistency in visuals:

Additionally, make sure you include these supplementary recommendations to elevate the quality even further, as suggested by our design managers Ramaditya Ananda and Indah Yuniarti .

As Ramaditya says:

“Make sure to include a link to access existing assets so it’s easier and faster for designers to use them.”

Including links to ALL the assets is a great way to facilitate the process for everyone designing or creating content. Attach these links for your logos, illustrations, shapes, etc.

Additionally, remember that you should include as many examples as possibl e. Try to be as specific as you can to ensure that all your content is illustrated exactly as you have in mind. As Indah adds:

"Be specific about how you would like to visualize your brand. Provide context regarding how the elements should be used and include the DO's and DON'Ts. Offer examples of both correct and incorrect applications of brand guidelines to help minimize errors in their implementation."

Check out the final product: Brand identity presentation examples

Ready to see the final product? Check out some amazing brand identity presentation examples.

Skype provides a great example of everything you must include in your presentation, especially how to present it. Skype’s guide offers a visually appealing yet playful presentation that cleverly introduces all of the brand’s elements in carefully crafted storytelling.

See the full brand guide here .

Heineken’s brand identity presentation provides every detail you should be including in your own presentation. They consider every single element, from all the logo variations, to all the visual elements the content creators or designers could need.

Check out the full brand guide here .

FREE Brand identity presentation template!

Now you’re ready to create your own brand style guide!

And to help you in the process, the 24Slides designers created a PowerPoint template that follows the structure we’ve seen above. Take this as your starting point in the making of your company’s brand identity presentation .

This hands-on brand identity presentation template comes with 20 slides for you to insert each one of your brand elements. If you feel ready to start, click on the image. You’ll be sent to our Templates Hub where you can download these slides for free.

However, as you might already notice, this is a generic template . It helps tremendously to get everything structured and in place as your first draft, but it’s not quite the finished document you want to present.

There’s one last step you shouldn’t skip if you really want to create a brand style guide that you and your team feel proud of.

Final Step: Brand Your Guidelines!

How are you going to encourage people to use your brand properly if you don’t do it yourself? Branding your guidelines, or any of your presentations , is key!

Your brand style guide or brand identity presentation is an excellent opportunity to practice what you preach and show how a document can breathe and live your brand to the fullest.

Ideally, your brand manual will be a consultation document for internal and external teams (graphic designers, copywriters, web developers, marketers, consultants, etc.), so it makes sense to have it aligned with your brand as well.

If you envision your brand style guide with a professional aspect but don’t know exactly how to get it there, you might be interested in outsourcing your presentation design .

At 24Slides , our PowerPoint designers are experts at making presentations that truly reflect your brand and values. Just check some of our before-and-after examples :

If you’ve already got all your elements and text in your brand identity PowerPoint template, all you need to do is send it our way ! Our designers have provided top-notch presentations to thousands of professionals and companies around the world, so rest assured your slides are in good hands.

But if you’d like to test the service first, that’s totally okay! We’re all about transparency and 100% customer satisfaction, so here’s a try-out offer for you : Send us one slide (maybe the cover of your brand style guide!), and we’ll redesign it for just one dollar. This is a cool way to experience what our presentation design service can do for you and your team.

As I mentioned before, no two brand style guides are the same. These 10 points we’ve covered are the essential parts any brand style guide should have, but you can add others according to what your brand needs.

Just remember to keep your brand style guide short, easy to read for everyone, and shareable!

Ready to create your own brand identity presentation? Look no further - this template is your ultimate tool to make it happen! Download it for free:

Want to learn more?

• Get superb on-brand presentations with 24Slides!
• Corporate Identity: Why is Branding Important in a Presentation?
• How to Write a Design Brief for Your Next Project?
• Rebranding Checklist: 5 Aspects You Should Consider

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How To Make a Corporate Presentation

An Executive Guide To Design a Corporate Presentation

You may have a business meeting approaching soon. Here is a quick executive guide on How to make a corporate presentation . In a tech-savvy world, business presentations are one of the advanced ways to communicate among the audience. In today’s competitive scenario business entities run extra miles to crack new business deals and agreements. There comes a call for a large number of corporate presentations for every deal done. Corporate presentations can be said as a unique way to acknowledge your clients and to build a brand image of a company.

You may use corporate presentations for advertising your products, services, or simply generate awareness regarding your brand. Rather then traditional means of advertisements , more and more professionals are using the corporate presentation to target their audience. Your corporate presentation can be the one which you may use to dazzle out your projects, ideas, prospects, etc. But if you are a global market player or deeper in marketing or with impressive client lists. Then the question comes how to excite your audience?

• Create Dynamic Impression: Your corporate presentation is the first interaction between your firm and your audience. So, it becomes crucial to make a strong, positive impression among your audience.
• Establish Your Credibility: Avoid traditional means of commencing a presentation like showcasing your business history, market value. This is exactly what most professionals do. Instead, establish your credibility right up front.
• Start at the end: How you want your audience to feel at the end of the presentation. The initial of your presentation should give a glimpse of the theme of your presentation – and should encourage questionnaires on how could you assist them. We suggest starting at the end as it makes clear the action plans that follow the meetings. So, you gain agreement instantly.
• Define Your Problem: Now it’s time to familiarize your audience with the problem in the way that is relevant to your audience. It makes the audience assured that you are versed with the problems.
• Show How It Works: Now it’s the ideal time to show how your solution works. Picturize your audience problem with your solutions to give a real-life effect to your presentation.

• Frame Solutions: Till now, you might have gained the attention of your audience. You have perceived your audience problems. Now its time to frame solutions, but not yours. Its where you highlight alternative solutions and its pitfalls. But not by directly addressing your competitors.
• Introduce Your Solutions : Now you have addressed your audience with alternative solutions and its drawbacks. Now its time to show your solutions. Show your problems, avoid pitfalls of the alternatives. Show the solutions in an orderly aligned format, regardless of the randomness of the problems and alternative solutions.
• Call for Action: It’s the most simple but crucial stage of any corporate presentation. It evokes audience interest and compels them to take action, think about them or to recheck if your job is done correctly. It leads to productive discussions.

Designing a business presentation can be incredibly complicated. There’s a secret behind a successful presentation. Knowing what to include in detail or when to leave out can assist in designing an out-of-box presentation. Being an entrepreneur at a point of time, you have to make a business presentation. Whether you are presenting your company’s portfolio, sharing your vision among employees and try to advertise your products or services, your presentation matters.

Tips To Create Highest Impact On Your Audience

• Tell a Story: Storytelling is the ideal way to engage with your audience. Accompany your audience on a journey. Get your audience emotionally attached, and you are more likely to convince them.
• Keep It Simple: Don’t bombard your audience with a lot of points. Instead, make with simple with between three to five points. Make your presentation as simple & straight forward as possible, which doesn’t distract the focus of your audience.
• Knowing Your Stuff: You may probably have to answer questionnaires at the end of your presentation. That means you need to have a thorough knowledge of your stuff. You might not have exact details about every figure of your presentation. But you should be able to provide it. It will not only let you answer questions later. But will induce confidence, so instead of referring notes less, you can connect with your audience.
• Don’t Act Over smart: Don’t try to act smartly during your presentation. Instead, speak as naturally as possible. Add only small tweaks to your conventional style. You need to sound competent and approachable. Avoid vulgarity and argument, and stay away from unusual words.

• Vary the Designs: If it looks stock. It will probably fail to grasp audience attention. Altering a stock design with that of astonishing one doesn’t take a tremendous amount of time. Using attractive designs indicates that presenter knows how to represent an idea in a visually attractive layout.
• Use Relevant Data: Real-time figures and statistical data gives a lot of weight to your words you want to say to your audience. Accompany your facts with real-time data to make the presentation more compelling.
• Don’t Visualize Everything: We are compelled to using slides and visuals in our presentation. However, you need to be vigilant while opting slides. Don’t feature everything on your presentation. Highlight only a few points using slides, don’t cram all information’s over slides. Business presentation is about describing your ideas. You need to speak up your information, with slides supporting it.

You are Not Selling a Product, but you are selling Idea behind it: It doesn’t matter what service you are selling or offering. These days consumers are not buying product either services – they are buying ideas behind it. Now the presentation is no longer about ending something; it’s about sprouting ideas that resonate with the audience. The idea then evokes the passion for acquiring the product or service. Remember, your presentation aims to gain trust, clarity, and convince the prospects to take the next step with you. Be assured you are demonstrating the aspects in style.

At SlideBazaar, we help you create engaging and memorable presentations. Choose from our collection of professional templates or opt for our custom design services for a personalized touch. Your presentations deserve to be elevated to new heights, and we’re here to help you achieve just that!

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The state of AI in early 2024: Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value

If 2023 was the year the world discovered generative AI (gen AI) , 2024 is the year organizations truly began using—and deriving business value from—this new technology. In the latest McKinsey Global Survey  on AI, 65 percent of respondents report that their organizations are regularly using gen AI, nearly double the percentage from our previous survey just ten months ago. Respondents’ expectations for gen AI’s impact remain as high as they were last year , with three-quarters predicting that gen AI will lead to significant or disruptive change in their industries in the years ahead.

About the authors

This article is a collaborative effort by Alex Singla , Alexander Sukharevsky , Lareina Yee , and Michael Chui , with Bryce Hall , representing views from QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, and McKinsey Digital.

Organizations are already seeing material benefits from gen AI use, reporting both cost decreases and revenue jumps in the business units deploying the technology. The survey also provides insights into the kinds of risks presented by gen AI—most notably, inaccuracy—as well as the emerging practices of top performers to mitigate those challenges and capture value.

AI adoption surges

Interest in generative AI has also brightened the spotlight on a broader set of AI capabilities. For the past six years, AI adoption by respondents’ organizations has hovered at about 50 percent. This year, the survey finds that adoption has jumped to 72 percent (Exhibit 1). And the interest is truly global in scope. Our 2023 survey found that AI adoption did not reach 66 percent in any region; however, this year more than two-thirds of respondents in nearly every region say their organizations are using AI. 1 Organizations based in Central and South America are the exception, with 58 percent of respondents working for organizations based in Central and South America reporting AI adoption. Looking by industry, the biggest increase in adoption can be found in professional services. 2 Includes respondents working for organizations focused on human resources, legal services, management consulting, market research, R&D, tax preparation, and training.

Also, responses suggest that companies are now using AI in more parts of the business. Half of respondents say their organizations have adopted AI in two or more business functions, up from less than a third of respondents in 2023 (Exhibit 2).

Gen AI adoption is most common in the functions where it can create the most value

Most respondents now report that their organizations—and they as individuals—are using gen AI. Sixty-five percent of respondents say their organizations are regularly using gen AI in at least one business function, up from one-third last year. The average organization using gen AI is doing so in two functions, most often in marketing and sales and in product and service development—two functions in which previous research  determined that gen AI adoption could generate the most value 3 “ The economic potential of generative AI: The next productivity frontier ,” McKinsey, June 14, 2023. —as well as in IT (Exhibit 3). The biggest increase from 2023 is found in marketing and sales, where reported adoption has more than doubled. Yet across functions, only two use cases, both within marketing and sales, are reported by 15 percent or more of respondents.

Gen AI also is weaving its way into respondents’ personal lives. Compared with 2023, respondents are much more likely to be using gen AI at work and even more likely to be using gen AI both at work and in their personal lives (Exhibit 4). The survey finds upticks in gen AI use across all regions, with the largest increases in Asia–Pacific and Greater China. Respondents at the highest seniority levels, meanwhile, show larger jumps in the use of gen Al tools for work and outside of work compared with their midlevel-management peers. Looking at specific industries, respondents working in energy and materials and in professional services report the largest increase in gen AI use.

Investments in gen AI and analytical AI are beginning to create value

The latest survey also shows how different industries are budgeting for gen AI. Responses suggest that, in many industries, organizations are about equally as likely to be investing more than 5 percent of their digital budgets in gen AI as they are in nongenerative, analytical-AI solutions (Exhibit 5). Yet in most industries, larger shares of respondents report that their organizations spend more than 20 percent on analytical AI than on gen AI. Looking ahead, most respondents—67 percent—expect their organizations to invest more in AI over the next three years.

Where are those investments paying off? For the first time, our latest survey explored the value created by gen AI use by business function. The function in which the largest share of respondents report seeing cost decreases is human resources. Respondents most commonly report meaningful revenue increases (of more than 5 percent) in supply chain and inventory management (Exhibit 6). For analytical AI, respondents most often report seeing cost benefits in service operations—in line with what we found last year —as well as meaningful revenue increases from AI use in marketing and sales.

Inaccuracy: The most recognized and experienced risk of gen AI use

As businesses begin to see the benefits of gen AI, they’re also recognizing the diverse risks associated with the technology. These can range from data management risks such as data privacy, bias, or intellectual property (IP) infringement to model management risks, which tend to focus on inaccurate output or lack of explainability. A third big risk category is security and incorrect use.

Respondents to the latest survey are more likely than they were last year to say their organizations consider inaccuracy and IP infringement to be relevant to their use of gen AI, and about half continue to view cybersecurity as a risk (Exhibit 7).

Conversely, respondents are less likely than they were last year to say their organizations consider workforce and labor displacement to be relevant risks and are not increasing efforts to mitigate them.

In fact, inaccuracy— which can affect use cases across the gen AI value chain , ranging from customer journeys and summarization to coding and creative content—is the only risk that respondents are significantly more likely than last year to say their organizations are actively working to mitigate.

Some organizations have already experienced negative consequences from the use of gen AI, with 44 percent of respondents saying their organizations have experienced at least one consequence (Exhibit 8). Respondents most often report inaccuracy as a risk that has affected their organizations, followed by cybersecurity and explainability.

Our previous research has found that there are several elements of governance that can help in scaling gen AI use responsibly, yet few respondents report having these risk-related practices in place. 4 “ Implementing generative AI with speed and safety ,” McKinsey Quarterly , March 13, 2024. For example, just 18 percent say their organizations have an enterprise-wide council or board with the authority to make decisions involving responsible AI governance, and only one-third say gen AI risk awareness and risk mitigation controls are required skill sets for technical talent.

Bringing gen AI capabilities to bear

The latest survey also sought to understand how, and how quickly, organizations are deploying these new gen AI tools. We have found three archetypes for implementing gen AI solutions : takers use off-the-shelf, publicly available solutions; shapers customize those tools with proprietary data and systems; and makers develop their own foundation models from scratch. 5 “ Technology’s generational moment with generative AI: A CIO and CTO guide ,” McKinsey, July 11, 2023. Across most industries, the survey results suggest that organizations are finding off-the-shelf offerings applicable to their business needs—though many are pursuing opportunities to customize models or even develop their own (Exhibit 9). About half of reported gen AI uses within respondents’ business functions are utilizing off-the-shelf, publicly available models or tools, with little or no customization. Respondents in energy and materials, technology, and media and telecommunications are more likely to report significant customization or tuning of publicly available models or developing their own proprietary models to address specific business needs.

Respondents most often report that their organizations required one to four months from the start of a project to put gen AI into production, though the time it takes varies by business function (Exhibit 10). It also depends upon the approach for acquiring those capabilities. Not surprisingly, reported uses of highly customized or proprietary models are 1.5 times more likely than off-the-shelf, publicly available models to take five months or more to implement.

Gen AI high performers are excelling despite facing challenges

Gen AI is a new technology, and organizations are still early in the journey of pursuing its opportunities and scaling it across functions. So it’s little surprise that only a small subset of respondents (46 out of 876) report that a meaningful share of their organizations’ EBIT can be attributed to their deployment of gen AI. Still, these gen AI leaders are worth examining closely. These, after all, are the early movers, who already attribute more than 10 percent of their organizations’ EBIT to their use of gen AI. Forty-two percent of these high performers say more than 20 percent of their EBIT is attributable to their use of nongenerative, analytical AI, and they span industries and regions—though most are at organizations with less than $1 billion in annual revenue. The AI-related practices at these organizations can offer guidance to those looking to create value from gen AI adoption at their own organizations.

To start, gen AI high performers are using gen AI in more business functions—an average of three functions, while others average two. They, like other organizations, are most likely to use gen AI in marketing and sales and product or service development, but they’re much more likely than others to use gen AI solutions in risk, legal, and compliance; in strategy and corporate finance; and in supply chain and inventory management. They’re more than three times as likely as others to be using gen AI in activities ranging from processing of accounting documents and risk assessment to R&D testing and pricing and promotions. While, overall, about half of reported gen AI applications within business functions are utilizing publicly available models or tools, gen AI high performers are less likely to use those off-the-shelf options than to either implement significantly customized versions of those tools or to develop their own proprietary foundation models.

What else are these high performers doing differently? For one thing, they are paying more attention to gen-AI-related risks. Perhaps because they are further along on their journeys, they are more likely than others to say their organizations have experienced every negative consequence from gen AI we asked about, from cybersecurity and personal privacy to explainability and IP infringement. Given that, they are more likely than others to report that their organizations consider those risks, as well as regulatory compliance, environmental impacts, and political stability, to be relevant to their gen AI use, and they say they take steps to mitigate more risks than others do.

Gen AI high performers are also much more likely to say their organizations follow a set of risk-related best practices (Exhibit 11). For example, they are nearly twice as likely as others to involve the legal function and embed risk reviews early on in the development of gen AI solutions—that is, to “ shift left .” They’re also much more likely than others to employ a wide range of other best practices, from strategy-related practices to those related to scaling.

In addition to experiencing the risks of gen AI adoption, high performers have encountered other challenges that can serve as warnings to others (Exhibit 12). Seventy percent say they have experienced difficulties with data, including defining processes for data governance, developing the ability to quickly integrate data into AI models, and an insufficient amount of training data, highlighting the essential role that data play in capturing value. High performers are also more likely than others to report experiencing challenges with their operating models, such as implementing agile ways of working and effective sprint performance management.

About the research

The online survey was in the field from February 22 to March 5, 2024, and garnered responses from 1,363 participants representing the full range of regions, industries, company sizes, functional specialties, and tenures. Of those respondents, 981 said their organizations had adopted AI in at least one business function, and 878 said their organizations were regularly using gen AI in at least one function. To adjust for differences in response rates, the data are weighted by the contribution of each respondent’s nation to global GDP.

Alex Singla and Alexander Sukharevsky  are global coleaders of QuantumBlack, AI by McKinsey, and senior partners in McKinsey’s Chicago and London offices, respectively; Lareina Yee  is a senior partner in the Bay Area office, where Michael Chui , a McKinsey Global Institute partner, is a partner; and Bryce Hall  is an associate partner in the Washington, DC, office.

They wish to thank Kaitlin Noe, Larry Kanter, Mallika Jhamb, and Shinjini Srivastava for their contributions to this work.

This article was edited by Heather Hanselman, a senior editor in McKinsey’s Atlanta office.

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More From Forbes

What presenters can learn from pope francis’s latest sermon tip.

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Pope Francis tells clergy to keep sermons short to avoid "putting people to sleep."

Presenters, whether leaders or public speakers, don’t usually look to clergy for speaking advice. While notable examples like Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech exist, we tend to think of Sunday sermons as rote recaps of the day’s readings or familiar teachings.

But, Pope Francis's recent advice on sermons offers valuable insights for any presenter. Addressing clergy, the Pope emphasized keeping homilies short - no more than eight minutes.

Perhaps reflecting ever-decreasing attention spans in this digital age, that’s actually a reduction from his previous recommendation of ten minutes . This advice underscores a broader principle relevant to anyone aiming to communicate effectively: brevity and focus enhance engagement and impact.

Briefer is Better

In reminding his audience of the importance of brevity, Pope Francis humorously noted that anything longer than his recommended eight minutes might cause the congregation to fall asleep.

In the earlier interview he said, "How many times have we seen people sleeping during a homily, or chatting among themselves, or outside smoking a cigarette?" While sermon smoke breaks are fairly uncommon in the U.S., today we might add, “surreptitiously checking our smartphones.”

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This eight to ten minute limit is consistent with what we know about human attention. According to neuroscientist and best-selling author John Medina, there’s an upper limit of ten minutes on how long a speaker can hold the audience’s attention. While Medina doesn’t recommend ending the presentation at that point, he does suggest changing things up in some way. Doing something “emotional and relevant” will gain attention and restart the clock.

Beyond Brevity

Even a short sermon can fail to engage the congregation. Pope Francis also noted that to be impactful, a homily “must be short: an image, a thought, a feeling.”

The introduction of emotion is also consistent with the science of attention. Medina uses stories to get and keep attention. When the ten minute mark approaches, a new story will reengage the audience’s brains.

Communication expert Carmine Gallo suggests some other ways to regain full attention : introduce characters, show videos, use props, give demos, and invite questions. Anything in your speech or presentation that creates contrast with what precedes it can have the desired effect.

Lessons from TED

Ted Talks are often prepared and rehearsed starting months before the actual talk, but even they run less than 18 minutes. In fact, presenters are often allocated as little as 3, 5, or 9 minutes, matching up nicely with the Pope’s advice.

Optimizing Outcomes

Most Catholic clergy don’t have extensive training in public speaking. The Pope’s eight minute limit and recommended use of emotional content ensure that even an average homilist won’t lose the congregation. (Unless, of course, they head outside for a smoke before the homily even starts. Tough audience in some places.)

The Pope’s advice applies to leaders, public speakers, and anyone in front of an audience: keep it short, and engage the audience with imagery, stories, etc. And, if you are going to speak for longer than eight or ten minutes, change up your content to reengage their brains and restart the timer.

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