5. Presentations

Presentations have become an integral part of many businesses and business processes, and are used in situations that range from internal communications briefings to sales pitches to shareholder meetings. The vast majority of presentations nowadays are created using a computer program called Microsoft PowerPoint, but there is a tendency towards more sophisticated audiovisual packages incorporating video and animation on intranets or CD-ROM. Basic presentations may consist of little more than a few bullet points on some slides adorned with clip art, and are usually produced in-house. Nevertheless, there are occasional opportunities for copywriters in this area. You may be asked, for example, to create a PowerPoint version of some work carried out elsewhere; or edit an existing presentation; or even put one together as a stand-alone project. Needless to say, you will need to have access to PowerPoint for this kind of work. At the time of writing, the package costs around £300 on its own (more if you need it for an Apple Mac) but you can usually have it bundled in with other software when you buy your computer.

You will be unsurprised to know that the basic skill in writing or editing presentations is to have a good idea of who the communication is aimed at, and what will appeal to them. All too often, for example, pitch presentations stick to the following format: ‘here’s who we are’, ‘here’s what we do’, ‘here’s how we do it’, ‘here’s what we can do for you’, ‘here’s what it could mean for your business’. Personally, I would be amazed if this approach ever worked. The people who have to sit through these presentations are usually busy executives. Their first concern is likely to be ‘what’s in this for me?’ not ‘who are these guys?’, although I would not be surprised if that question popped up too after ten minutes of a traditional presentation. I usually advise turning the traditional pitch presentation structure on its head, so that it reads something like this: ‘here’s what we can do for you’, ‘here’s how we do it’, ‘here’s who we are so you know you can trust us’. This should, hopefully, get the audience’s attention right from the off.

Other tips

Here is a list of other things to do that will not only enhance the look and readability of your presentation, but also make it easier for the presenter to run through.

• Stick to between three and six bullet points per slide.
• Avoid background colours that clash or disguise text or images.
• Keep to a consistent style throughout your presentation, with fixed sizes and fonts for headlines and body copy.
• Make all points roughly the same length – say, one or two lines each.
• Avoid headlines of more than one line.
• Avoid bullet points of three lines or more unless they are there for good reason, for example as a stand-alone quote.
• Try to present data in the form of charts and diagrams rather than tables.
• Beware of vastly complicated diagrams that are difficult to read and convey little information.
• Use animation intelligently to improve the impact of each point and stick to a common animation theme throughout the presentation.