how to make an effective presentation in business

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

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!

How to Make Effective Impactful Presentations (Tips & Tools)

Learn how to make a good presentation great - step-by-step with examples. Learn the principles, guidelines & qualities needed to prepare captivating slides.

Dominika Krukowska

12 minute read

Short answer

Short answer: how to make a good presentation.

Start with a surprising statement, a bold promise, or a mystery

Provide context with a bit of background information

Structure your presentation within a story framework

Make every word count, and use as few as possible

Use visuals only to support your presentation text

Use interactive design to make your audience active participants

End by telling your audience what they can do with what they’ve learned

Boring presentations are instantly forgotten. How’s yours?

Lifeless presentations can spell doom for your message, leaving your audience disengaged and your goals unreached.

The price of a mediocre presentation is steep; missed opportunities, unimpressed prospects, and a bad rep.

In a world where everyone has grown to expect a good story, a boring presentation will be instantly forgotten. Like a drop in the ocean.

But not all is lost.

This post will teach you how presentation pros create compelling narratives and leverage the latest tech tools to command attention, drive a powerful message, and get shared like gossip.

Let’s get started!

How to prepare a presentation?

The successful presenter understands the value of small details and thorough preparation like the seasoned chef knows the importance of quality ingredients and careful technique for serving a 5 star dish

But where do you start?

Step-by-step guide for preparing a presentation:

1. Define your objective

Every presentation needs a clear goal. Are you looking to persuade, educate, or motivate? Perhaps you aim to showcase a product, or share insights about a recent project.

Defining your objective early on will guide your content creation process, helping you to focus your message and structure your presentation effectively. Think of your objective as the North Star guiding your presentation journey.

2. Analyze your audience

Next up, who are you talking to? Your audience should shape your presentation as much as your objective does. Understanding their needs, interests, and background will enable you to tailor your message to resonate with them.

Are they experts in your field, or are they novices looking for an introduction? What questions might they have? The more you know about your audience, the more compelling your presentation will be.

3. Research your topic

Once you've defined your objective and analyzed your audience, it's time to delve deep into your topic. Comprehensive research lays the groundwork for a robust, credible presentation.

Don't just scratch the surface – explore different perspectives, recent developments, and key statistics. This will not only enhance your understanding but also equip you with a wealth of information to answer any questions your audience might have.

4. Choose the right delivery format

Finally, consider the best format to deliver your message.

The right format can make all the difference in how your message is received, so choose wisely!

PowerPoint presentations are classic and easy to work with. But PowerPoint and Google slides are not so versatile in terms of their content experience. They're static, packed with information, and all look alike.

Our own presentation maker offers interactive, personalized, and multimedia content experience.

Data from our research of over 100K presentation sessions shows that audiences engage with Storydoc presentations 103% better than PowerPoint.

How to create an effective presentation?

There’s part art and part science in creating high-engagement high-impact presentations.

An effective presentation is the painstaking result of well-organized content, visuals that support and elevate your message, simplifying complex information, and personalizing wherever possible.

I wrote this post to teach you how to do all these, and a few things more.

Ready to learn? Let's dive in!

How to organize your presentation content?

Crafting a compelling presentation is like writing a page-turner.

You need to captivate your audience, maintain their interest, and guide them effortlessly through your narrative.

But how do you transform a heap of information into a well-structured presentation you can’t stop reading? There’s a structure you can follow.

3-step process for organizing a magnetic presentation:

1. Prioritize content

Your presentation should immediately capture interest and demonstrate relevance before moving on to establish understanding .

A) Build interest:

Begin with a strong hook that grabs your audience's attention. This could be an intriguing statistic, a powerful image , or an engaging question. It should stir curiosity and make your audience eager to hear more.

B) Establish relevance:

Once you have their attention it's time to establish why your presentation matters to your audience.

Address your audience's main concerns. Make sure your content directly speaks to these pain points, and address them in order of importance.

2. Build anticipation

A great presentation is like getting a new car – it builds anticipation, takes you on a thrilling ride, and ends with you wanting to share the experience with all your friends.

Start with a compelling problem your audience relates to and follow up with a promise of an amazing way they can solve it. This problem-solution dynamic creates a suspense that keeps your audience glued to your presentation.

3. Use a story framework

Finally, use a story framework to give your presentation structure and flow.

Begin with a big idea that underpins your presentation. Then delve into the problem, showcasing why it needs attention. Present your solution, painting a vision of a better future for your audience.

Weave in concrete examples of how your solution changes lives.

Tell the story of WHO you helped, WHAT the situation was before and after your solution, WHERE and WHEN it happened, WHY it worked and HOW it made them feel.

If you’re writing a business presentation you should follow this with an execution plan that outlines how the solution will be implemented.

Finally, close with clear next steps, guiding your audience on what they should do after the presentation to bring meaningful change into their lives.

Our recommended story framework:

How to design your presentation?

A good presentation is more than just making it look pretty ; it's about communicating your message effectively and creating a lasting impression.

Good presentation design grabs attention, and leads it to where it’s needed most. It takes your hand and leads you through the easiest and most pleasant path to understanding.

Good presentation design supports your message rather than steals the spotlight. Good design is narrated design.

What is narrated design (Scrollytelling)?

Scrollytelling, where "scroll" meets "storytelling", is an interactive content experience that guides readers through a narrative journey with a simple scroll. It connects text, images, videos, and animations into integrated “scenes” where content is both shown and narrated.

Scrollytelling breaks complex content into digestible chunks and gives the reader control over pace. It has been scientifically shown to enhance engagement, understandability and memorability.

Scrollytelling came up as a central thing when Itai Amoza, our Founder and CEO was building the foundations for Storydoc.

He partnered with one of the world’s leading visualization scientists , prof. Steven Franconeri , to help him bring to Storydoc the means to reduce the complexity, friction, and information overload so characteristic of business presentations.

Scrollytelling is part of the solutions that came up, which led to specialized storytelling slides like our narrator slide (in the example below).

An example of Storydoc scrollytelling:

How to design presentation visuals to support your story

Presentation visuals can be unsung heroes or sloppy distractions.

Visuals can bring your message to life, make complex concepts easy to understand, and engage your audience in ways that words alone cannot. Or… they can sit there looking all pretty and distract you from what’s really going on.

4 elements of great presentation visuals:

Support your message: Your visuals should support your text, highlight your main message, and align with your objective. They should reinforce your points and help your audience understand your message.

Represent your audience: The best visuals are relatable. They should resonate with your target audience and reflect their world of associations. Use images and graphics that your audience can identify with – this can enhance their engagement and make your presentation more memorable. Equally important is using clean images - an effective way to do this is by using tools that allow you to remove your image backgrounds . By eliminating distractions and focusing on your subject, you create images that are more impactful and, therefore, can potentially increase audience engagement.

Introduce your product, outcomes, and clients: Wherever possible, use visuals to demonstrate your product, illustrate outcomes, and represent your clients. This can remove doubt and misunderstanding by letting your audience see (and make obvious) what words sometimes struggle to describe.

Follow your branding guidelines: Your presentation is an extension of your brand, so your visuals should conform to your branding guidelines. Consistent use of colors, fonts, and styles not only enhances brand recognition but also creates a cohesive, professional look.

Here’s an example of a well-designed presentation:

How to communicate complex information?

Did you ever have to read a presentation where you felt like you're lost in a maze of jargon, data, and complex concepts?

Are you giving others this same experience?

Communicating complex information is a common challenge in presentations. But there are ways you can simplify your presentation and reengage your audience.

Here’s how you can get complex information across:

1. Use interactive content

Interactive content is your best friend when it comes to simplifying complex information and getting deeply engaged with your content.

It gets the readers more involved in your presentation by letting them play an active part; like choosing the content route they wish to take and controlling the pace.

It keeps your presentation textually lean - giving readers the choice to expand more details on demand (in tabs, live graphs, sliders, accordions, and calculators).

Beyond that, live graphs can illustrate trends, animations can demonstrate processes, and videos can bring concepts to life.

Calculators, questionnaires, and chatbots provide personalized and specific answers to readers as part of your presentation, without them having to get in touch with you or your team.

Elavating your presentations from static to interactive has been tied to increasing the number of people who read your presentation in full by 41% !

Making interactive used to be hard, but now you can just use Storydoc. Go make your first interactive presentation. It’s easy as pie.

2. Show don’t tell

A picture is worth a thousand words. Because no one will read a presentation with a thousand words, do everyone a favor and use images.

Images can be super effective at communicating complex information and save you a lot of needless text.

In fact, visual representation of data and concepts can often convey what words cannot. Use diagrams, infographics, and images to illustrate your points and simplify the complex.

The goal is to create a visual narrative that complements your verbal one.

3. Narrate your content

Storytelling is another powerful tool for communicating complex concepts.

Whether it's through text to speech AI, video bubbles, or a scrollytelling narrator slide, narrating your content can help guide your audience through the complexity.

By giving your information a narrative structure, you can make it more digestible, engaging, and memorable.

According to Sales Hacker’s data, people remember up to 10% of numbers and 25% of images they see. When you center your presentation around a story, this rises to 60-70% .

4. Use examples and allegories

Examples and allegories help unravel the complexity of ideas.

They scaffold your message with concepts we already know and understand, and can easily imagine in our mind. This makes them less new and intimidating and more familiar.

Critically, the real secret lies in selecting examples that are not just familiar but also deeply relevant—those are the ones that will truly ring with your listeners.

If you tailor the allegory to your audience's world, it is guaranteed to lead to an “aha” moment.

5. Open a line of communication

Finally, invite dialogue. This could be through a chatbot or an option to book a meeting for further discussion. This not only helps clarify any confusion but also encourages engagement and deepens understanding.

For example, finishing your presentation with an interactive calendar to book a meeting instead of a generic “Thank you” slide has proven to boost conversion rate by 27% !

How to personalize your presentation?

Imagine attending a party where the host doesn't remember your name or anything about you. Not a great experience, right? The same holds true for presentations.

In a sea of generic content, personalization can be a lifeline that connects you to your audience on a deeper level. It’s also the single most important predictor of success, getting 68% more people to read your presentation in full .

But how do you add that personal touch?

1. Address reader by name

Just as you wouldn't start a conversation without a greeting, don't start your presentation without acknowledging your audience.

Using your audience's name can make your presentation feel like a personal conversation rather than a generic monologue. It's a simple yet powerful way to engage your audience from the get-go.

2. Use their company logo

Including your audience's company logo in your presentation can make them feel seen and valued. It shows that you've taken the time to tailor your presentation to them, enhancing its relevance and appeal.

Plus, it's a subtle way to reinforce that your message is specifically designed to address their needs and challenges.

3. Add a personal message (video or text)

A personal message can go a long way in building a connection with your audience.

It could be a video message from you, expressing your enthusiasm for the opportunity to present to them, or a text message highlighting why the presentation matters to them.

This personal touch can make your audience feel special and more invested in your presentation.

4. Personalize your Call-to-Action

Finally, cap off your presentation with a call to action that speaks directly to your audience.

Swap out the generic 'Contact us' with something that gets to the heart of their needs, something like, 'Let's roll up our sleeves and tackle your [specific issue] at [their company].'

By tailoring your call to action, you show your audience you've truly got their back, that you're not just here to talk, but to make a real, positive impact on their world.

Here’s an example of a personalized slide:

How to measure the effectiveness of your presentation

Imagine if you could peek into your audience's mind, understand what resonated, what fell flat, and what drove them to action?

Presentation analytics is essential in order to guide you on how to fine-tune it for maximum impact.

But how do you get your hands on presentation analytics?

Any presentation you create with Storydoc comes with an out-of-the-box analytics suite , ready to track and provide insights.

We give you 100% visibility into how people engage with your presentations and send you real-time engagement alerts.

Here’s a video explaining how you can track performance with our analytics panel:

4 critical presentation engagement metrics to keep track of

1. Reading time

Storydoc gives you the precise time prospects spend reading your presentation so you can quickly figure out what's hitting the target and what's not.

Are they soaking up every word or just quickly skimming through? This can help you shape your content to hit the bullseye.

NOTE: Keep in mind that reading time alone might not show you a full picture. A better way is to use a smart engagement score that brings together different metrics like time spent and depth of reading. You can get this kind of total score in Storydoc.

2. Reading completion

Another basic metric we track is how many people read your content from start to finish.

This metric is a strong sign of the prospect’s interest and your content quality. It shows you if they're finding the information relevant, but also worth sticking with till the end.

3. Next step conversion rate

This one tracks how many people take the next step after they check out your presentation. This could be filling out a form, setting up a meeting, or downloading more files.

For business presentations, measuring this can show how well your presentation is pushing people further down the sales funnel.

At the top of your analytics dashboard, you can find a tab that shows you how many people clicked on your CTA divided by presentation, date, and location. If you scroll down to the list of readers, next to each person you can also see whether they clicked on the CTA or not.

Here's what it looks like:

4. Number of shares

This metric is particularly important for B2B sales teams . As more people are getting involved in buying decisions, this measure helps you see if and when your content is being passed around inside your prospect’s company.

On the analytics dashboard, under each presentation version, you can find detailed information on how many people read it. So, the higher the number, the more your presentation has been shared internally.

We'll notify you when your presentation has been shared, and who opened it, so you can time your follow-up perfectly to your buyer’s readiness to advance further.

Here's where you can find this information:

Best tool for making an effective presentation

In the realm of presentation tools, classics like Google Slides and PowerPoint offer simplicity and ease, while Canva and Pitch add a dash of design flair and collaboration.

If you're seeking to elevate your presentations to new heights you’ll need to do better than simple PowerPoints or flashy Canvas. Next-gen AI presentation tools like Storydoc are your game-changer.

They break free from the static concept of slides and offer the creation of interactive, immersive content experiences that sweep us along like a good story.

Grab a template - create your best presentation to date

Ever wished for a secret recipe to whip up a killer presentation? We've got something even better! Our interactive presentation templates are your shortcut to success.

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Home Blog Business Business Presentation: The Ultimate Guide to Making Powerful Presentations (+ Examples)

Business Presentation: The Ultimate Guide to Making Powerful Presentations (+ Examples)

A business presentation is a purpose-led summary of key information about your company’s plans, products, or practices, designed for either internal or external audiences. Project proposals, HR policy presentations, investors briefings are among the few common types of presentations. 

Compelling business presentations are key to communicating important ideas, persuading others, and introducing new offerings to the world. Hence, why business presentation design is one of the most universal skills for any professional. 

This guide teaches you how to design and deliver excellent business presentations. Plus, breaks down some best practices from business presentation examples by popular companies like Google, Pinterest, and Amazon among others! 

3 General Types of Business Presentations

A business presentation can be given for a number of reasons. Respectively, they differ a lot in terms of content and purpose. 

But overall, all types of business presentations can be classified as:

• Informative
• Persuasive 
• Supporting 

Informative Business Presentation 

As the name suggests, the purpose of an informative presentation is to discern the knowledge you have — explain what you know. It’s the most common type of business presentation out there. So you have probably prepared such at least several times. 

Examples of informative presentations:

• Team briefings presentation 
• Annual stakeholder report 
• Quarterly business reviews
• Business portfolio presentation
• Business plan presentation
• Project presentation

Helpful templates from SlideModel:

• Business plan PowerPoint template
• Business review PowerPoint template
• Project proposal PowerPoint template
• Corporate annual report template

Persuasive Business Presentation 

The goal of this type of presentation is to persuade your audience of your point of view — convince them of what you believe is right. Developing business presentations of this caliber requires a bit more copywriting mastery, as well as expertise in public speaking . Unlike an informative business presentation, your goal here is to sway the audience’s opinions and prompt them towards the desired action. 

Examples of persuasive presentations:

• Pitch deck/investor presentations
• Sales presentation  
• Business case presentation 
• Free business proposal presentation
• Business proposal PowerPoint template
• Pitch deck PowerPoint template
• Account Plan PowerPoint template

Supporting Business Presentation 

This category of business PowerPoint presentations is meant to facilitate decision-making — explain how we can get something done. The underlying purpose here is to communicate the general “action plan”. Then break down the necessary next steps for bringing it to life. 

Examples of supporting presentations:

• Roadmap presentation
• Project vision presentation 
• After Action Review presentation 
• Standard operating procedure (SOP) PowerPoint template 
• Strategy map PowerPoint template 
• After action review (ARR) PowerPoint template 

What Should Be Included in a Business Presentation?

Overall, the content of your business presentation will differ depending on its purpose and type. However, at the very minimum, all business presentations should include:

• Introductory slide 
• Agenda/purpose slide
• Main information or Content slides
• Key Takeaways slides
• Call-to-action/next steps slides

We further distill business presentation design and writing best practices in the next section (plus, provide several actionable business PowerPoint presentation examples!). 

How to Make a Business Presentation: Actionable Tips

A business presentation consists of two parts — a slide deck and a verbal speech. In this section, we provide tips and strategies for nailing your deck design. 

1. Get Your Presentation Opening Right 

The first slides of your presentation make or break your success. Why? By failing to frame the narrative and set the scene for the audience from the very beginning, you will struggle to keep their interest throughout the presentation. 

You have several ways of how to start a business presentation:

• Use a general informative opening — a summative slide, sharing the agenda and main points of the discussion. 
• Go for a story opening — a more creative, personal opening, aimed at pulling the audience into your story. 
• Try a dramatic opening — a less apparent and attention-grabbing opening technique, meant to pique the audience’s interest. 

Standard Informative Opening 

Most business presentation examples you see start with a general, informative slide such as an Agenda, Problem Statement, or Company Introduction. That’s the “classic” approach. 

To manage the audience’s expectations and prepare them for what’s coming next, you can open your presentation with one or two slides stating:

• The topic of your presentation — a one-sentence overview is enough. 
• Persuasive hook, suggesting what’s in it for the audience and why they should pay attention. 
• Your authority — the best technique to establish your credibility in a business presentation is to share your qualifications and experience upfront to highlight why you are worth listening to. 

Opening best suited for: Formal business presentations such as annual reports and supporting presentations to your team/business stakeholders. 

Story Opening 

Did you ever notice that most TED talks start with a quick personal story? The benefit of this presenting technique is that it enables speakers to establish quick rapport and hold the listener’s attention. 

Here’s how Nancy Duarte, author of “Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations” book and TED presenter, recommends opening a presentation: 

You know, here’s the status quo, here’s what’s going on. And then you need to compare that to what could be. You need to make that gap as big as possible, because there is this commonplace of the status quo, and you need to contrast that with the loftiness of your idea. 

Storytelling , like no other tool, helps transpose the audience into the right mindset and get concentrated on the subject you are about to discuss. A story also elicits emotions, which can be a powerful ally when giving persuasive presentations. In the article how to start a presentation , we explore this in more detail.

Opening best suited for: Personal and business pitches, sales presentations, other types of persuasive presentations. 

Dramatic Opening 

Another common technique is opening your presentation with a major statement, sometimes of controversial nature. This can be a shocking statistic, complex rhetoric question, or even a provocative, contrarian statement, challenging the audience’s beliefs. 

Using a dramatic opening helps secure the people’s attention and capture their interest. You can then use storytelling to further drill down your main ideas. 

If you are an experienced public speaker, you can also strengthen your speech with some unexpected actions. That’s what Bill Gates does when giving presentations. In a now-iconic 2009 TED talk about malaria, mid-presentation Gates suddenly reveals that he actually brought a bunch of mosquitoes with him. He cracks open a jar with non-malaria-infected critters to the audience’s surprise. His dramatic actions, paired with a passionate speech made a mighty impression. 

Opening best suited for: Marketing presentations, customer demos, training presentations, public speeches. 

Further reading: How to start a presentation: tips and examples. 

2. Get Your PowerPoint Design Right

Surely, using professional business PowerPoint templates already helps immensely with presentation deck design since you don’t need to fuss over slide layout, font selection, or iconography. 

Even so, you’ll still need to customize your template(s) to make them on brand and better suited to the presentation you’re about to deliver. Below are our best presentation design tips to give your deck an extra oomph. 

Use Images, Instead of Bullet Points 

If you have ever watched Steve Jobs’s presentations, you may have noticed that he never used bullet-point lists. Weird right? Because using bullet points is the most universal advice in presentation design. 

But there’s a valid scientific reason why Jobs favored images over bullet-point texts. Researchers found that information delivered in visuals is better retained than words alone. This is called the “ pictorial superiority effect ”. As John Medina, a molecular biologist, further explains :

“Hear a piece of information, and three days later you’ll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you’ll remember 65%.”

So if your goal is to improve the memorability of your presentation, always replace texts with images and visualizations when it makes sense. 

Fewer Slides is Better

No matter the value, a long PowerPoint presentation becomes tiring at some point. People lose focus and stop retaining the information. Thus, always take some extra time to trim the fluff and consolidate some repetitive ideas within your presentation. 

For instance, at McKinsey new management consultants are trained to cut down the number of slides in client presentations. In fact, one senior partner insists on replacing every 20 slides with only two slides . Doing so prompts you to focus on the gist — the main business presentation ideas you need to communicate and drop filler statements. 

Here are several quick tips to shorten your slides:

• Use a three-arc structure featuring a clear beginning (setup), main narrative (confrontation), ending (resolution). Drop the ideas that don’t fit into either of these. 
• Write as you tweet. Create short, on-point text blurbs of under 156 symbols, similar to what you’d share on Twitter. 
• Contextualize your numbers. Present any relevant statistics in a context, relevant to the listeners. Turn longer stats into data visualizations for easier cognition. 

Consistency is Key 

In a solid business presentation, each slide feels like part of the connecting story. To achieve such consistency apply the same visual style and retain the same underlying message throughout your entire presentation.

Use the same typography, color scheme, and visual styles across the deck. But when you need to accentuate a transition to a new topic (e.g. move from a setup to articulating the main ideas), add some new visual element to signify the slight change in the narrative. 

Further reading: 23 PowerPoint Presentation Tips for Creating Engaging and Interactive Presentations

3. Make Your Closure Memorable 

We best remember the information shared last. So make those business presentation takeaways stick in the audience’s memory. We have three strategies for that. 

Use the Rule of Three 

The Rule of Three is a literary concept, suggesting that we best remember and like ideas and concepts when they are presented in threes. 

Many famous authors and speakers use this technique:

• “Duty – Honor – Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, and what you will be” . Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
• “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” are the unalienable rights of all humans that governments are meant to protect.” Thomas Jefferson 

The Rule of Three works because three is the maximum number of items most people can remember on their first attempt. Likewise, such pairings create a short, familiar structure that is easy to remember for our brains. 

Try the Title Close Technique

Another popular presentation closing technique is “Title Close” — going back to the beginning of your narrative and reiterating your main idea (title) in a form of a takeaway. Doing so helps the audience better retain your core message since it’s repeated at least two times. Plus, it brings a sense of closure — a feel-good state our brains love. Also, a brief one-line closure is more memorable than a lengthy summary and thus better retained. 

Ask a Question 

If you want to keep the conversation going once you are done presenting, you can conclude your presentation with a general question you’d like the audience to answer.

Alternatively, you can also encourage the members to pose questions to you. The latter is better suited for informational presentations where you’d like to further discuss some of the matters and secure immediate feedback. 

Try adding an interactive element like a QR code closing your presentation with a QR code and having a clear CTA helps you leverage the power of sharing anything you would like to share with your clients. QR codes can be customized to look alike your brand.

If you are looking for a smoother experience creating presentations on the fly, check out the AI PowerPoint maker —it offers everything you can ask forfrom presentation design in a couple of clicks.

12 Business Presentation Examples and What Makes Them Great 

Now that we equipped you with the general knowledge on how to make a presentation for business, let’s take a look at how other presenters are coping with this job and what lessons you can take away from them. 

1. N26 Digital Bank Pitch Deck 

This is a fine business pitch presentation example, hitting all the best practices. The deck opens with a big shocking statement that most Millennials would rather go to the dentist than step into a bank branch. 

Then it proceeds to discuss the company’s solution to the above — a fully digital bank with a paperless account opening process, done in 8 minutes. After communicating the main product features and value proposition, the deck further conceptualizes what traction the product got so far using data visualizations. The only thing it lacks is a solid call-to-action for closing slides as the current ending feels a bit abrupt. 

2. WeWork Pitch Deck

For a Series D round, WeWork went with a more formal business presentation. It starts with laying down the general company information and then transitions to explaining their business model, current market conditions, and the company’s position on the market.

The good thing about this deck is that they quantify their business growth prospects and value proposition. The likely gains for investors are shown in concrete numbers. However, those charts go one after another in a row, so it gets a bit challenging to retain all data points. 

The last part of their presentation is focused on a new offering, “We Live”. It explains why the team seeks funds to bring it to life. Likewise, they back their reasoning with market size statistics, sample projects, and a five-year revenue forecast. 

3. Redfin Investor Presentation 

If you are looking for a “text-light” business presentation example, Redfin’s investor deck is up to your alley. This simple deck expertly uses iconography, charts, and graphs to break down the company’s business model, value proposition, market share, and competitive advantages over similar startups. For number-oriented investors, this is a great deck design to use. 

4. Google Ready Together Presentation 

This isn’t quite the standard business presentation example per se. But rather an innovative way to create engaging, interactive presentations of customer case studies .

The short deck features a short video clip from a Google client, 7-11, explaining how they used the company’s marketing technology to digitally transform their operations and introduce a greater degree of marketing automation . The narrated video parts are interrupted by slides featuring catchy stats, contextualizing issues other businesses are facing. Then transitions to explaining through the words of 7-11 CMO, how Google’s technology is helping them overcome the stated shortcomings.

5. Salesforce Business Presentation Example 

This is a great example of an informational presentation, made by the Salesforce team to share their research on customer experience (CX) with prospects and existing customers.

The slide deck errs on the lengthier side with 58 slides total. But bigger topics are broken down and reinforced through bite-sized statistics and quotes from the company leadership. They are also packaging the main tips into memorable formulas, itemized lists, and tables. Overall, this deck is a great example of how you can build a compelling narrative using different statistics. 

6. Mastercard Business Presentation

This slide deck from Mastercard instantly captures the audience’s attention with unusual background images and major data points on the growth of populations, POS systems, and payment methods used in the upcoming decade.

Perhaps to offset the complexity of the subject, Mastercard chose to sprinkle in some humor in presentation texts and used comic-style visuals to supplement that. However, all their animations are made in a similar style, creating a good sense of continuity in design. They are also using colors to signify the transition from one part of the presentation to another. 

In the second part, the slide deck focuses on distilling the core message of what businesses need to do to remain competitive in the new payments landscape. The team presents what they have been working on to expand the payment ecosystem. Then concludes with a “title close” styled call-to-action, mirroring the presentation title.

7. McKinsey Diversity & Inclusion Presentation 

This fresh business slide deck from McKinsey is a great reference point for making persuasive business presentations on complex topics such as D&I. First, it recaps the main definitions of the discussed concepts — diversity, equity, and inclusion — to ensure alignment with the audience members. 

Next, the business presentation deck focuses on the severity and importance of the issue for businesses, represented through a series of graphs and charts. After articulating the “why”, the narrative switches to “how” — how leaders can benefit from investment in D&I. The main points are further backed with data and illustrated via examples. 

8. Accenture Presentation for the Energy Sector

Similar to McKinsey, Accenture keeps its slide deck on a short. Yet the team packs a punch within each slide through using a mix of fonts, graphical elements, and color for highlighting the core information. The presentation copy is on a longer side, prompting the audience to dwell on reading the slides. But perhaps this was meant by design as the presentation was also distributed online — via the company blog and social media. 

The last several slides of the presentation deck focus on articulating the value Accenture can deliver for their clients in the Energy sector. They expertly break down their main value proposition and key service lines, plus quantify the benefits. 

9. Amazon Web Services (AWS) Technical Presentation 

Giving an engaging technical presentation isn’t an easy task. You have to balance the number of details you reveal on your slides to prevent overwhelm, while also making sure that you don’t leave out any crucial deets. This technical presentation from AWS does great in both departments. 

First, you get entertained with a quick overview of Amazon’s progress in machine learning (ML) forecasting capabilities over the last decade. Then introduced to the main tech offering. The deck further explains what you need to get started with Amazon Forecast — e.g. dataset requirements, supported forecasting scenarios, available forecasting models, etc. 

The second half of the presentation provides a quick training snippet on configuring Amazon SageMaker to start your first project. The step-by-step instructions are coherent and well-organized, making the reader excited to test-drive the product. 

10. Snapchat Company Presentation

Snapchat’s business model presentation is on a funkier, more casual side, reflective of the company’s overall brand and positioning. After briefly recapping what they do, the slide deck switches to discussing the company’s financials and revenue streams.

This business slide deck by Snap Inc. itself is rather simplistic and lacks fancy design elements. But it has a strong unified theme of showing the audience Snapchat’s position on the market and projected vector of business development. 

11. Visa Business Acquisition Presentation 

If you are working on a business plan or M&A presentation for stakeholders of your own, this example from Visa will be helpful. The presentation deck expertly breaks down the company’s rationale for purchasing Plaid and subsequent plans for integrating the startup into their business ecosystem. 

The business deck recaps why the Plaid acquisition is a solid strategic decision by highlighting the total addressable market they could dive into post-deal. Then it details Plaid’s competitive strengths. The slide deck then sums up all the monetary and indirect gains Visa could reap as an acquirer. 

12. Pinterest Earnings Report Presentation 

Annual reports and especially earnings presentations might not be the most exciting types of documents to work on, but they have immense strategic value. Hence, there’s little room for ambiguities or mistakes. 

In twelve slides, this business presentation from Pinterest clearly communicates the big picture of the company’s finance in 2021. All the key numbers are represented as featured quotes in the sidebar with diagrams further showcasing the earning and spending dynamics. Overall, the data is easy to interpret even for non-finance folks. 

To Conclude 

With these business presentation design tips, presentation templates , and examples, you can go from overwhelmed to confident about your next presentation design in a matter of hours. Focus on creating a rough draft first using a template. Then work on nailing your opening slide sequence and shortening the texts in the main part of your presentation when needed. Make sure that each slide serves a clear purpose and communicates important details. To make your business presentation deck more concise, remove anything that does not pertain to the topic. 

Finally, once you are done, share your business presentation with other team members to get their feedback and reiterate the final design.

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Business Presentations, Corporate Presentations, Design, Design Inspiration, Examples, Executive Reports, Inspiration, Presentation Ideas Filed under Business

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Ideas and insights from Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning

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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How can you make a good presentation even more effective?

This page draws on published advice from expert presenters around the world, which will help to take your presentations from merely ‘good’ to ‘great’.

By bringing together advice from a wide range of people, the aim is to cover a whole range of areas.

Whether you are an experienced presenter, or just starting out, there should be ideas here to help you to improve.

1. Show your Passion and Connect with your Audience

It’s hard to be relaxed and be yourself when you’re nervous.

But time and again, the great presenters say that the most important thing is to connect with your audience, and the best way to do that is to let your passion for the subject shine through.

Be honest with the audience about what is important to you and why it matters.

Be enthusiastic and honest, and the audience will respond.

2. Focus on your Audience’s Needs

Your presentation needs to be built around what your audience is going to get out of the presentation.

As you prepare the presentation, you always need to bear in mind what the audience needs and wants to know, not what you can tell them.

While you’re giving the presentation, you also need to remain focused on your audience’s response, and react to that.

You need to make it easy for your audience to understand and respond.

3. Keep it Simple: Concentrate on your Core Message

When planning your presentation, you should always keep in mind the question:

What is the key message (or three key points) for my audience to take away?

You should be able to communicate that key message very briefly.

Some experts recommend a 30-second ‘elevator summary’, others that you can write it on the back of a business card, or say it in no more than 15 words.

Whichever rule you choose, the important thing is to keep your core message focused and brief.

And if what you are planning to say doesn’t contribute to that core message, don’t say it.

4. Smile and Make Eye Contact with your Audience

This sounds very easy, but a surprisingly large number of presenters fail to do it.

If you smile and make eye contact, you are building rapport , which helps the audience to connect with you and your subject. It also helps you to feel less nervous, because you are talking to individuals, not to a great mass of unknown people.

To help you with this, make sure that you don’t turn down all the lights so that only the slide screen is visible. Your audience needs to see you as well as your slides.

5. Start Strongly

The beginning of your presentation is crucial. You need to grab your audience’s attention and hold it.

They will give you a few minutes’ grace in which to entertain them, before they start to switch off if you’re dull. So don’t waste that on explaining who you are. Start by entertaining them.

Try a story (see tip 7 below), or an attention-grabbing (but useful) image on a slide.

6. Remember the 10-20-30 Rule for Slideshows

This is a tip from Guy Kawasaki of Apple. He suggests that slideshows should:

• Contain no more than 10 slides;
• Last no more than 20 minutes; and
• Use a font size of no less than 30 point.

This last is particularly important as it stops you trying to put too much information on any one slide. This whole approach avoids the dreaded ‘Death by PowerPoint’.

As a general rule, slides should be the sideshow to you, the presenter. A good set of slides should be no use without the presenter, and they should definitely contain less, rather than more, information, expressed simply.

If you need to provide more information, create a bespoke handout and give it out after your presentation.

7. Tell Stories

Human beings are programmed to respond to stories.

Stories help us to pay attention, and also to remember things. If you can use stories in your presentation, your audience is more likely to engage and to remember your points afterwards. It is a good idea to start with a story, but there is a wider point too: you need your presentation to act like a story.

Think about what story you are trying to tell your audience, and create your presentation to tell it.

Finding The Story Behind Your Presentation

To effectively tell a story, focus on using at least one of the two most basic storytelling mechanics in your presentation:

Focusing On Characters – People have stories; things, data, and objects do not. So ask yourself “who” is directly involved in your topic that you can use as the focal point of your story.

For example, instead of talking about cars (your company’s products), you could focus on specific characters like:

• The drivers the car is intended for – people looking for speed and adventure
• The engineers who went out of their way to design the most cost-effective car imaginable

A Changing Dynamic – A story needs something to change along the way. So ask yourself “What is not as it should be?” and answer with what you are going to do about it (or what you did about it).

For example…

• Did hazardous road conditions inspire you to build a rugged, all-terrain jeep that any family could afford?
• Did a complicated and confusing food labelling system lead you to establish a colour-coded nutritional index so that anybody could easily understand it?

To see 15 more actionable storytelling tips, see Nuts & Bolts Speed Training’s post on Storytelling Tips .

8. Use your Voice Effectively

The spoken word is actually a pretty inefficient means of communication, because it uses only one of your audience’s five senses. That’s why presenters tend to use visual aids, too. But you can help to make the spoken word better by using your voice effectively.

Varying the speed at which you talk, and emphasising changes in pitch and tone all help to make your voice more interesting and hold your audience’s attention.

For more about this, see our page on Effective Speaking .

9. Use your Body Too

It has been estimated that more than three quarters of communication is non-verbal.

That means that as well as your tone of voice, your body language is crucial to getting your message across. Make sure that you are giving the right messages: body language to avoid includes crossed arms, hands held behind your back or in your pockets, and pacing the stage.

Make your gestures open and confident, and move naturally around the stage, and among the audience too, if possible.

10. Relax, Breathe and Enjoy

If you find presenting difficult, it can be hard to be calm and relaxed about doing it.

One option is to start by concentrating on your breathing. Slow it down, and make sure that you’re breathing fully. Make sure that you continue to pause for breath occasionally during your presentation too.

For more ideas, see our page on Coping with Presentation Nerves .

If you can bring yourself to relax, you will almost certainly present better. If you can actually start to enjoy yourself, your audience will respond to that, and engage better. Your presentations will improve exponentially, and so will your confidence. It’s well worth a try.

Improve your Presentation Skills

Follow our guide to boost your presentation skills learning about preparation, delivery, questions and all other aspects of giving effective presentations.

Start with: What is a Presentation?

Continue to: How to Give a Speech Self Presentation

See also: Five Ways You Can Do Visual Marketing on a Budget Can Presentation Science Improve Your Presentation? Typography – It’s All About the Message in Your Slides

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What are the main difficulties when giving presentations?

How to create an effective presentation, after that, how do i give a memorable presentation, how to connect with the audience when presenting.

If you’ve ever heard someone give a powerful presentation, you probably remember how it made you feel. Much like a composer, a good speaker knows precisely when each note should strike to captivate their audience’s attention and leave them with a lasting impression.

No one becomes a great public speaker or presenter without practice. And almost everyone can recall a time one of their presentations went badly — that’s a painful part of the learning process.

Whether you’re working within a small creative team or a large organization, public speaking and presentation skills are vital to communicating your ideas. Knowing how to present your vision can help you pitch concepts to clients, present ideas to your team, and develop the confidence to participate in team meetings.

If you have an upcoming presentation on the horizon and feel nervous, that’s normal. Around 15-30% of the general population experience a fear of public speaking . And, unfortunately, social anxiety is on the rise, with a 12% increase in adults over the last 20 years . 

Learning how to give a good presentation can dismantle your fears and break down these barriers, ensuring you’re ready to confidently share your point of view. 

It’s the week before your presentation, and you’re already feeling nervous . Maybe there’ll be an important mentor in the room you need to impress, or you’re looking for an opportunity to show your boss your value. Regardless of your countless past presentations, you still feel nervous. 

Sharing your vision and ideas with any sized group is intimidating. You’re likely worrying about how you’ll perform as a presenter and whether the audience will be interested in what you offer. But nerves aren’t inherently negative — you can actually use this feeling to fuel your preparation.

It’s helpful to identify where your worries are coming from and address your fears. Here are some common concerns when preparing for an upcoming presentation:

Fear of public speaking: When you share your ideas in front of a group, you’re placing yourself in a vulnerable position to be critiqued on your knowledge and communication skills . Maybe you feel confident in your content, but when you think about standing in front of an audience, you feel anxious and your mind goes blank.

It’s also not uncommon to have physical symptoms when presenting . Some people experience nausea and dizziness as the brain releases adrenaline to cope with the potentially stressful situation . Remember to take deep breaths to recenter yourself and be patient, even if you make a mistake.

Losing the audience’s attention: As a presenter, your main focus is to keep your audience engaged. They should feel like they’re learning valuable information or following a story that will improve them in life or business.

Highlight the most exciting pieces of knowledge and ensure you emphasize those points in your presentation. If you feel passionate about your content, it’s more likely that your audience will experience this excitement for themselves and become invested in what you have to say.

Not knowing what content to place on presentation slides: Overloading presentation slides is a fast way to lose your audience’s attention. Your slides should contain only the main talking points and limited text to ensure your audience focuses on what you have to say rather than becoming distracted by the content on your slides.

Discomfort incorporating nonverbal communication: It’s natural to feel stiff and frozen when you’re nervous. But maintaining effective body language helps your audience stay focused on you as you speak and encourages you to relax.

If you struggle to incorporate body language into your presentations, try starting small by making hand gestures toward your slides. If you’re working with a large audience, use different parts of the stage to ensure everyone feels included. 

Each presenter has their own personal brand and style. Some may use humor to break the ice, while others might appeal to the audience’s emotional side through inspiring storytelling. 

Watching online presentations, such as TED talks, is an excellent way to expose yourself to various presentation styles and develop your own. While observing others, you can note how they carry themselves on stage and learn new ways to keep your audience engaged.

Once you’ve addressed what’s causing your fears, it’s time to prepare for a great presentation. Use your past experience as inspiration and aim to outshine your former self by learning from your mistakes and employing new techniques. Here are five presentation tips to help you create a strong presentation and wow your audience:

1. Keep it simple

Simple means something different to everyone.

Before creating your presentation, take note of your intended audience and their knowledge level of your subject. You’ll want your content to be easy for your intended audience to follow.

Say you’re giving a presentation on improving your company’s operational structure. Entry-level workers will likely need a more straightforward overview of the content than C-suite leaders, who have significantly more experience. 

Ask yourself what you want your audience to take away from your presentation and emphasize those important points. Doing this ensures they remember the most vital information rather than less important supporting ideas. Try organizing these concepts into bullet points so viewers can quickly identify critical takeaways.

2. Create a compelling structure

Put yourself in your audience member’s shoes and determine the most compelling way to organize your information. Your presentation should be articulate , cohesive, and logical, and you must be sure to include all necessary supporting evidence to strengthen your main points.

If you give away all of your answers too quickly, your audience could lose interest. And if there isn’t enough supporting information, they could hit a roadblock of confusion. Try developing a compelling story that leads your audience through your thought processes so they can experience the ups and downs alongside you. 

By structuring your presentation to lead up to a final conclusion, you’re more likely to keep listeners’ attention. Once you’ve reached that conclusion, you can offer a Q&A period to put any of their questions or concerns to rest. 

3. Use visual aids

Appealing to various learning styles is a great way to keep everyone on the same page and ensure they absorb your content. Visual aids are necessary for visual learners and make it easier for people to picture your ideas.

Aim to incorporate a mixture of photos, videos, and props to engage your audience and convey your key points. For instance, if you’re giving a presentation on anthropology subject matter, you could show your audience an artifact to help them understand how exciting a discovery must have been. 

If your presentation is long, including a video for your audience to watch is an excellent way to give yourself a break and create new jumping-off points for your speech.

4. Be aware of design techniques and trends

Thanks to cutting-edge technology and tools, you have numerous platforms at your disposal to create a good presentation. But keep in mind that although color, images, and graphics liven things up, they can cause distraction when misused.

  Here are a few standard pointers for incorporating visuals on your slides: 

• Don’t place blocks of small text on a single slide
• Use a minimalistic background instead of a busy one
• Ensure text stands out against the background color
• Only use high-resolution photos
• Maintain a consistent font style and size throughout the presentation
• Don’t overuse transitions and effects

5. Try the 10-20-30 rule

Guy Kawasaki, a prominent venture capitalist and one of the original marketing specialists for Apple, said that the best slideshow presentations are less than 10 slides , last at most 20 minutes, and use a font size of 30. Following this strategy can help you condense your information, eliminate unnecessary ideas, and maintain your audience’s focus more efficiently.

Once you’re confident in creating a memorable presentation, it’s time to learn how to give one. Here are some valuable tips for keeping your audience invested during your talk: 

Tip #1: Tell stories

Sharing an anecdote from your life can improve your credibility and increase your relatability. And when an audience relates to you, they’re more likely to feel connected to who you are as a person and encouraged to give you their full attention, as they would want others to do the same.

Gill Hicks utilized this strategy well when she shared her powerful story, “ I survived a terrorist attack. Here’s what I learned .” In her harrowing tale, Hicks highlights the importance of compassion, unconditional love, and helping those in need.

If you feel uncomfortable sharing personal stories, that’s okay. You can use examples from famous individuals or create a fictional account to demonstrate your ideas.

Tip #2: Make eye contact with the audience

Maintaining eye contact is less intimidating than it sounds. In fact, you don’t have to look your audience members directly in their eyes — you can focus on their foreheads or noses if that’s easier.

Try making eye contact with as many people as possible for 3–5 seconds each. This timing ensures you don’t look away too quickly, making the audience member feel unimportant, or linger too long, making them feel uncomfortable.

If you’re presenting to a large group, direct your focus to each part of the room to ensure no section of the audience feels ignored. 

Tip #3: Work on your stage presence

Although your tone and words are the most impactful part of your presentation, recall that body language keeps your audience engaged. Use these tips to master a professional stage presence:

• Speak with open arms and avoid crossing them
• Keep a reasonable pace and try not to stand still
• Use hand gestures to highlight important information

Tip #4: Start strong

Like watching a movie trailer, the first seconds of your talk are critical for capturing your audience’s attention. How you start your speech sets the tone for the rest of your presentation and tells your audience whether or not they should pay attention. Here are some ways to start your presentation to leave a lasting impression:

• Use a quote from a well-known and likable influential person 
• Ask a rhetorical question to create intrigue
• Start with an anecdote to add context to your talk 
• Spark your audience’s curiosity by involving them in an interactive problem-solving puzzle or riddle

Tip #5: Show your passion

Don’t be afraid of being too enthusiastic. Everyone appreciates a speaker who’s genuinely excited about their field of expertise. 

In “ Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance ,” Angela Lee Duckworth discusses the importance of passion in research and delivery. She delivers her presentation excitedly to show the audience how excitement piques interest. 

Tip #6: Plan your delivery

How you decide to deliver your speech will shape your presentation. Will you be preparing a PowerPoint presentation and using a teleprompter? Or are you working within the constraints of the digital world and presenting over Zoom?

The best presentations are conducted by speakers who know their stuff and memorize their content. However, if you find this challenging, try creating notes to use as a safety net in case you lose track.

If you’re presenting online, you can keep notes beside your computer for each slide, highlighting your key points. This ensures you include all the necessary information and follow a logical order.

Tip #7: Practice

Practice doesn’t make perfect — it makes progress. There’s no way of preparing for unforeseen circumstances, but thorough practice means you’ve done everything you can to succeed.

Rehearse your speech in front of a mirror or to a trusted friend or family member. Take any feedback and use it as an opportunity to fine-tune your speech. But remember: who you practice your presentation in front of may differ from your intended audience. Consider their opinions through the lens of them occupying this different position.

Tip #8: Read the room

Whether you’re a keynote speaker at an event or presenting to a small group of clients, knowing how to read the room is vital for keeping your audience happy. Stay flexible and be willing to move on from topics quickly if your listeners are uninterested or displeased with a particular part of your speech.

Tip #9: Breathe

Try taking deep breaths before your presentation to calm your nerves. If you feel rushed, you’re more likely to feel nervous and stumble on your words.

The most important thing to consider when presenting is your audience’s feelings. When you approach your next presentation calmly, you’ll put your audience at ease and encourage them to feel comfortable in your presence.

Tip #10: Provide a call-to-action

When you end your presentation, your audience should feel compelled to take a specific action, whether that’s changing their habits or contacting you for your services.

If you’re presenting to clients, create a handout with key points and contact information so they can get in touch. You should provide your LinkedIn information, email address, and phone number so they have a variety of ways to reach you. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all template for an effective presentation, as your unique audience and subject matter play a role in shaping your speech. As a general rule, though, you should aim to connect with your audience through passion and excitement. Use strong eye contact and body language. Capture their interest through storytelling and their trust through relatability.

Learning how to give a good presentation can feel overwhelming — but remember, practice makes progress. Rehearse your presentation for someone you trust, collect their feedback , and revise. Practicing your presentation skills is helpful for any job, and every challenge is a chance to grow.

Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

6 presentation skills and how to improve them

How to write a speech that your audience remembers, how to make a presentation interactive and exciting, tell a story they can't ignore these 10 tips will teach you how, 3 stand-out professional bio examples to inspire your own, reading the room gives you an edge — no matter who you're talking to, writing an elevator pitch about yourself: a how-to plus tips, 18 effective strategies to improve your communication skills, your ultimate guide on how to be a good storyteller, similar articles, the importance of good speech: 5 tips to be more articulate, the 11 tips that will improve your public speaking skills, 30 presentation feedback examples, how to not be nervous for a presentation — 13 tips that work (really), how the minto pyramid principle can enhance your communication skills, 8 clever hooks for presentations (with tips), stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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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

Instructive Business Presentation

Lastly, instructive business presentations are a type of supporting material. They can be used to teach your audience a new process, or explain your own vision and goals. These types of presentations are a great resource for your audience.

Instructive Presentation Examples:

• Employee Training Presentation
• Employee Onboarding Presentation
• Company Policy Presentation

Speech and powerpoints alone aren’t enough to engage and inspire your audience. We’ve all sat through a monotonous presentation that went in one ear and promptly out the other. In fact, it only takes about 10 minutes to lose your audience with powerpoint.

Business presentations and particularly business presentation videos break out of the traditional mold of presentations. They give your audience helpful visuals that can be accessed over and over again even after the presentation is over. Not only do they captivate your audience’s attention, they can help you become a better, more confident presenter. Business presentations can serve as a road map, helping you to stay on-track and anticipate what’s coming. With the right presentation, you’ll break through the competition for attention and make a lasting impression.

Your business presentation will vary depending on your audience, time frame, intent, and content. However, no matter what the topic, here are some elements worth including:

• Introduction Slide
• Agenda or Purpose Slide
• Main Information or Content Slides
• Key Takeaways Slides
• Call-To-Action or Next Steps Slide

Luckily, you don’t have to be in-person to share a business presentation. Today, you can create and share video presentations online. They can even include screen and webcam recordings to communicate more clearly and with less room for misinterpretation.

There are lots of components of a great presentation. Below, we’ve compiled a list of 12 tips to make your best business presentations yet using the content and skills you already have.

1. Make a presentation storyboard

It’s time to get a lay of the land. Compile the facts, statistics, or other helpful bits of information that are crucial to your presentation. Lay them out in a presentation storyboard to find a flow that is comfortable for you and that tells a compelling story. Whether it’s made with a pen and paper or a premade template , it’s important to organize your thoughts before you start crafting your presentation.

2. Keep your presentation simple

Your presentation shouldn’t be bogged down by paragraphs of text or complex diagrams. The more simple the presentation, the more likely your audience is to find the relevant and most important information.

3. Keep your presentation short

We’ve all heard the dismal statistics about our diminishing attention spans. While this might be true for social media feeds, if you have a captive and relevant audience for your presentation, you have about 20 minutes to make your point. Though attention spans differ between individuals, 20 minutes is the sweet spot. If you can make it shorter, even better! Presentations that are short, sweet, and to-the-point often make the greatest impressions.

4. Remember the 10/20/30 rule

The 10/20/30 is a tried and true rule for presentations: your presentation should not have more than 10 slides, be longer than 20 minutes, and should not use fonts smaller than 30 point size. This golden rule can also apply to video presentations which tend to be more engaging and memorable.

5. Don’t overload slides with information

Viewers become overwhelmed when there is too much information on one slide. Remember to tailor and trim your content to its most important elements. If you need to explain a complicated process, try including a screen recording rather than including a wordy explanation.

6. Tell a story to connect with your audience

Storytelling is a presenter’s greatest asset. Hook your audience in from the very beginning and lead them down a path that illustrates the problem or conflict, explain the problem-solving process, and celebrate solutions and wins at the end. If you don’t have a shiny solution to present at the end that’s okay, but make sure that your audience knows how your story continues.

7. Inject business-friendly humor

If you want your idea or information to stick, you have to connect with your audience. There’s no better way to do this than with a little business-appropriate humor. Don’t be afraid to crack a joke, reference a meme, or share a gif to get a laugh.

8. Make your presentation interactive

Help your audience break out of autopilot by engaging with them during your presentation. Create a dialogue between you and your audience by asking questions, using anecdotes, or opening it up to stories and feedback.

9. Use visual aids to keep your audience engaged

Visual aids can say more and make a bigger impact than words alone. Include pictures, diagrams, video clips, and animations to make key points stick. You can also include webcam recordings to keep your audience engaged and connected to your message.

10. Follow your brand design guidelines

Presentations should be viewed with as much scrutiny as a social media post or any other external communication. Be sure to keep your presentation on-brand so it’s instantly recognizable to your audience. Your presentation might be the first impression you make, so set the tone by adhering to your brand guidelines. With Animoto’s Saved Brand feature , you just need to save your font, brand colors, and logo once then you can instantly apply them to all future videos.

11. Prepare a Q&A session after your presentation

Now that you’ve spent time talking at your audience, it’s time to talk with them. Leave enough time for a Q&A session at the end of your presentation to clarify certain points, hear feedback, and make the audience feel more involved and valued. If you don’t have enough time for a Q&A session, you can follow up with a Google form or email to compile questions then send out a short question and answer video so everyone has a chance to learn more.

12. Practice your business presentation

Before you step into the spotlight, it’s critical to know your material . If you aren’t sold on your information, your audience won’t be either. Run through your presentation as many times as it takes to stick. Try recording yourself to identify any repetitiveness, ambiguity, or redundancies. Not only will this make your business presentation more concise, it will boost your confidence come presentation day!

Now that you know how to make your best presentations yet, it’s time to start creating! With Animoto, you can create professional video presentations in minutes. No more finnicking with layouts or animations – Animoto’s easy-to-use templates do the presentation design work for you. The best part? You can get started for free !

1. Choose a template: There are hundreds of templates to choose from! The Presentation template is designed to share your screen and webcam recordings so you can present just like you would in person. Check out our presentation templates to spark inspiration and start creating.

2. Upload your photos and video clips: Easily upload then drag and drop your favorite photos and video clips into our templates to make them your own. Then fill in the gaps with our Getty Images stock library!

3. Record your screen and webcam: With Animoto, you can record you screen and webcam and seamlessly add it to your video! Not only can webcam recordings make your presentations more personal and relatable, but screen recordings allow you to show your audience exactly what they need to see. Just click the Record button in your workspace, record your video, and drag and drop it into your project. This blog has all the tips and directions you’ll need to create a professional recording in minutes.

4. Personalize your business presentation: Create a Saved Brand to apply your brand elements with just one click. You can also add extra text boxes, choose your own animations, and select from our library of 3,000+ licensed music tracks to set the scene. For added personalization and to explain topics in further detail, you can record and edit a personalized voice-over message to overlay in your video.

5. Download and present your presentation: Once you’ve created your professional presentation, you’re ready to start sharing! Click the Share button to send to your desired social destination or embed in an email. You can also download your video to your laptop or a USB drive to carry with you to the conference room.

Need help getting started? The Meeting Recap template below is one of our most popular templates for sharing the results of a campaign or event. You can easily customize it with your own brand elements, facts and figures, and photos to make an engaging and energetic video that stands out from traditional presentations.

For more inspiration, check out our blog “ 11 Easy Video Presentation Ideas (For Your Business) ” for a breakdown of our most popular video presentation templates. Or, you can start browsing our workplace templates to find one that suits your needs.

No matter where you start, Animoto makes it easy to create professional, engaging, modern business presentations, no experience required. Try it out for free !

Business presentation FAQs

How to start a presentation.

Getting started can feel like the hardest part. In addition to the tips and tricks shared above, we recommend using a customizable video template to start creating without getting bogged down by powerpoint formatting.

How to end a presentation?

How you end a presentation is almost as important as how you start one! Recap with a quick summary and key takeaways, state a clear call to action, and leave the floor open for a quick Q&A session and further clarification.

What makes a good presentation?

Good presentations are engaging, memorable, and inspiring. They don’t overwhelm the audience with information, rather, they offer clear takeaways that can be digested or acted upon right away. Check out these presentation templates for some great examples.

How to make a presentation interactive?

Don’t just talk at your audience, engage with them! You can make your presentation interactive with polls, Q&A sessions, asking for examples or stories, exercises, or even games. As long as the interaction is relevant to the topic, it is bound to make your presentation more memorable.

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Job Success  - Building an Effective Business Presentation

Job success  -, building an effective business presentation, job success building an effective business presentation.

Job Success: Building an Effective Business Presentation

Lesson 7: building an effective business presentation.

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Building an effective business presentation

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to...

• Explore reasons for giving a business presentation
• Prepare a business presentation
• Recognize tips for delivering an effective business presentation

If you work in a business or corporate setting, you may be called upon to speak publicly for a variety of reasons. Possible reasons include...

• Being asked to give a report or presentation during a meeting
• Being asked to share your knowledge or expertise on a given topic
• Being asked to teach a new skill (a systems administrator might be asked to teach coworkers how to use a new email client)
• Being asked to give an informative presentation in order to draw newcomers to an activity, group, or program with which you are involved

Determining your purpose

When giving a business presentation, chances are you already know your topic. To prepare, you just have to determine your purpose of presenting that topic to others. In doing so, you'll focus on what exactly you want to say.

To determine your purpose, consider the following:

• Audience . To whom are you presenting? What are the audience's special interests and concerns? Which part is most interesting or significant to the audience? How will they react to your topic? Are there any special or technical terms that should be defined?
• Order of importance . What aspects of your topic are most important or most serious? Choose three or four main points.
• Time . What can be most easily explained or discussed in the time or space allotted?
• Purpose . What do you want the audience to know, understand, believe, or do when you are finished? The answer to this question should be clearly written and should focus on your three to four main points. The sentence below will serve as your purpose statement.

Sample purpose statement : "By the end of my presentation on _________________, I want my audience to know/understand/believe/do _____________________, ______________________, and _____________________."

Researching and organizing your presentation

The next step is to thoroughly research each point so you can find evidence to support your statement. Remember, providing supportive evidence lends to the overall credibility of your presentation.

To begin your research, check out:

• Credible online resources
• Encyclopedias
• Expert interviews

Look for facts , figures , statistics , and definitions . Consider using expert testimony, quotations, personal stories, and humor that will communicate your purpose. You may find it necessary to rewrite your purpose statement if you have discovered new things about your topic.

There are several ways to organize your presentation:

• Topical . This is best when there are several ideas to present and one idea seems to naturally precede the other. It is a common pattern used for informative and entertaining presentations.
• Chronological . This is best when you want to organize your points using a time sequence. It is a common pattern in informative and persuasive presentations, both of which require background information.
• Problem/Solution . This is best for persuasive presentations. The first part of a presentation details a problem, while the second part presents a solution.
• Cause/Effect . This is best for persuasive presentations. The first part describes the cause of a problem, while the second part describes its effect.

Planning your presentation

Visual tools such as outlines or concept maps can help you see the overall structure of a topic and how the main points are linked.

Your outline/concert map should include:

• A purpose statement
• An introduction
• Each of the main points you intend to address
• Any subpoints or issues
• Evidence to support each point or argument
• A conclusion
• Any questions you would ask or anticipate from the audience

To learn more about outlines, visit the Purdue University Online Writing Lab .

To learn more about concept maps, visit Mind Tool's Mind Maps: A Powerful Approach to Note-Taking .

Practicing your presentation

Consider using charts, graphs, maps, images, pictures, handouts, video, and music to enhance your presentation. You might use a microphone, chalkboard, whiteboard, overhead projector, slide projector, laptop, presentation software, or other equipment or materials to help get your point across.

Visit our PowerPoint tutorials to learn more about Microsoft's powerful presentation software.

When using presentational aids , make sure you know how to use them. Practice setting them up and operating them to get an idea of the time it will take. The more you practice, the more confident and polished your presentation will become. There are several ways to improve your presentation:

• When you practice, use your notes until you are comfortable without them. Your delivery should be natural. Remember, you're talking to the audience, not reading your notes.
• To become aware of your gestures, vocal pitch, facial expressions, and general delivery, video yourself giving the presentation. If you don't have access to such equipment, use a tape recorder or practice in front of a mirror.
• Ask others to listen to you give your presentation. When finished, ask for constructive feedback.

Giving your presentation: Last-minute tips

• Visualize yourself giving the presentation.
• Realize that the audience wants you to succeed.
• Turn your nervousness into positive energy.
• Talk rather than read. Avoid rote memorization.
• Speak at a volume appropriate to the room and size of the audience. Your voice should be heard in the back of the room.
• Vary the pitch of your voice.
• Stand up rather than sit.
• Make eye contact.
• Make sure any aid you use can be clearly heard and seen by the entire audience.
• Focus on main arguments.
• Don't remain behind the podium. Move around occasionally, but don't pace.
• Smile and gesture when appropriate.
• Maintain energy and enthusiasm throughout the presentation.
• Finish your talk within the time limit.
• Summarize your talk both at the beginning and at the end.
• Respond to audience needs, such as adjusting the temperature or providing extra handouts.
• Be flexible, but stay focused.
• Respond to questions.
• Give the audience an opportunity to critique your presentation by supplying them with a short, anonymous evaluation form.

Technical tips

• Back up all files.
• Don't give an important presentation without on-site technical support.
• Assume that your technical equipment will fail, and have a backup plan.
• Beware of connecting to the Internet during your presentation. You never know when your connection may fail.
• Toastmasters International : Toastmasters International is an organization that focuses on improving oral presentation and communication skills. There are Toastmasters clubs throughout the world. Members meet to practice their presentation skills.

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How to Make a Business Presentation in 7 Easy Steps [Free Business Presentation Templates]

Updated: May 02, 2022

Published: September 11, 2019

There’s a reason many people despise public speaking. Defining your presentation style , putting together engaging slides, getting your point across clearly, handling unexpected questions, and squeezing a laugh out of the audience is a lot to consider.

Still, nearly all of us have to give business presentations every so often — especially salespeople . And the most daunting part of preparing for any presentation is that there’s always room to improve. 

Even the most seasoned speakers headlining at conferences or reps who top the leaderboard every month can improve their storytelling, deliver their message more clearly, and perfect their physicality. And so can you.

There are an infinite number of presentation tips out there, so we’ve distilled the vast pool of tips down to what will make the biggest impact on your presentation — and we’ve left you with actionable takeaways you can apply to your presentations today.

How to Make a Business Presentation

1. make a plan.

Things won’t go according to plan if you don’t even have a plan in the first place. Before building your slide deck , create an outline that includes the main points and pieces of evidence you want to get across.

This outline will act as your anchor while you build a slide deck and give your presentation, pointing you toward the key arguments you know you need to touch on.

I like to start with the bare bones: introductory remarks , the three points I hope my audience remembers from my talk, and concluding remarks. Then, I add sub-points to each of those three points that comprise the meat of my presentation.

These bullet points become helpful later, too, when I’m putting together my slides. They show me how much material I have on each takeaway, which allows me to split my content into the appropriate number of slides.

A well-delivered, memorable introduction and conclusion are essential ingredients of a presentation. Don’t overlook them in your outline.

Even a couple of quick bullet points on exactly what you plan to cover in each will help you set an engaging, confident tone at the start and wrap up in a way that helps your material stick in your audience’s mind.

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2. Choose a slide deck

Select a slide deck that matches the tone of your presentation. There are three primary factors that can influence your deck style:

• The formality of your workplace . A good litmus test is your company’s dress code. For example, if you wear business formal attire to work, stick with a slide deck with neutral colors like navy, white, grey, and black, and keep your fonts sharp. If your workplace is more casual or prizes creativity over ceremony, consider a more colorful deck, but keep it to two to three complementary colors to avoid creating slides that are too busy.If you’re looking for a slide deck that’s creative but not overwhelming, consider something like this ( you can download this slide deck template for free here ):

• The content you’re presenting. Serious research and financial data, for example, are suited for more professional decks. Informal recaps, brainstorms, and planning sessions may give you more bandwidth to use brighter colors.Here’s an example of a slide that would be well-suited for data:

Download the Slide Deck Template for Free

• Your personal brand . If you’re known at work for your sense of humor or your GIF reaction time on Slack, you’ll be able to get away with a more friendly font and colorful template. If you lean into professionalism and want to express rigor in your analysis or ideas, select a deck with few distractions — keep the colors neutral.

We had our designers here put together a set of free business presentation templates that you can start using today. 

3. Lead with a story and a laugh

One of the reasons it’s so easy to get wrapped up in TED Talks for hours on end is that nearly every presenter begins with a compelling story.

Whether it’s the harrowing tale of a near-death experience or a heartwarming recap of the speaker’s daughter’s first day of preschool, a great story engages the audience’s attention. It should also allow the speaker to build a personal connection with listeners and serve as a memorable cornerstone of the presentation.

When possible, begin your presentations with a story. The key, once you’ve shared your story, is to succinctly tie its main point back to the focus of your presentation.  

Don’t feel you must tell a story that’s groundbreaking or unique — in fact, relatable stories will be most effective at breaking through to your audience.

For example, a marketing director at HubSpot recently began a presentation about her team’s redesign project by sharing a personal anecdote about her struggles clearing weeds in her garden.

Finally, add humor where it feels natural. Getting a laugh out of your audience within the first minute will put them at ease and set a positive tone for the information they’re about to take in. 

4. Add verbal signposts

One of the best pieces of presentation advice I’ve ever gotten came from a college professor who believed our brains needed what he called “signposts”: verbal cues that could stick in an audience’s mind even as the details slipped away. 

He challenged us to distill our presentations down to three key takeaways and come up with one-to-three-word phrases that represented each point. Then, we were to reference those three cues or signposts in our introduction — just before diving into their details — and once again at the end.

If there were slides involved, he also had us select a simple image for each signpost that would be repeated throughout the deck.

Here’s an example: if you were giving a presentation pitching a website redesign, you might talk about all of the benefits a redesign would bring. Your website would be more visually consistent with your brand, the user experience would vastly improve, and you’d improve loading time to boost your search rankings.   

The signposts for this presentation might be: 

• Brand Consistency
• Improved UX

Even if the audience forgot the mechanics of how each of these areas would improve with the redesign, they would walk away with three easy-to-remember phrases that summarized the value of your proposed project.

Since taking that professor’s class, I’ve watched and created presentations completely differently. I always look for a speaker’s signposts and incorporate my own into every presentation I build. Signposts help me retain more material and communicate my points more directly.

5. Rely on images and charts rather than text and tables

Humans process images faster than text. And, as a speaker, it’s a disconcerting experience to see your audience squinting their eyes as they try to make out a hundred tiny words or numbers on your slides, scribbling down as much information as they can before you skip to the next section.  

To avoid this issue, rely on images whenever possible. Keep the attention on you, the expert, by selecting an image or two to drive home your point. Don’t try to squeeze all of your information on a single slide.

6. Incorporate audience interaction

We all dread sitting through boring presentations. And no matter how experienced a speaker you are, there’s inevitably going to be a low-energy point of your talk during your first dry run.  

To keep the energy up, add in a quick moment of audience interaction. There are many different ways to re-engage listeners with participation:  

• Quiz them and have them raise their hands to vote on options.
• Ask a question.
• Have them turn to a neighbor and share one reaction to what they just heard.
• Have people stand up momentarily if they agree with a given statement.

Movement will engage attention in a new way and refresh the energy of the room, carrying you through to the end of the presentation.

7. Hold a couple of non-essential data points until the Q&A at the end

You will always want to use adequate data to make a business case and provide a meaningful, truthful presentation. However, it’s okay if you’re not able to fit every detail into your presentation. 

In fact, if you intend to hold a question and answer session at the end of the presentation , leaving a couple of interesting but non-essential data points out during the presentation can give you impressive material to work with during the Q&A.

Anticipate several questions you’re likely to get or have a colleague watch a practice run-through and come up with three questions for you. Then, choose a couple of pieces of evidence not included on the slides themselves and have them in your mental back pocket to support your answers. 

Data always speaks more loudly than statements that don’t have a specific piece of evidence behind them. Remember, you’re an expert on your presentation topic — and additional, specific points can only help you when it comes to demonstrating your expertise.

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How to Create Slides That Suit Your Superiors: 11 Tips

When you’re pitching ideas or budgets to execs in your organization, you need to deliver slides that fit those particular people just right. This checklist identifies the key considerations.

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I recently interviewed 20 of my customers, all in senior roles at Fortune 100 companies, and asked them their biggest pain point in presenting to higher-ups and even colleagues. What I heard consistently was that it can feel like Goldilocks bouncing from one option to the next, testing to figure out what’s “just right.” Does the audience want deep reports? Sparse slides? Something in between? Like … what?

Teams often come to presentation meetings with vast amounts of backup content just in case an exec wants to take a deep dive on any given point. There’s often a struggle to anticipate every direction attendees might want to go. It’s frustrating, and it’s not efficient.

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There are many ways to build slides. I’m not just talking about crafting them well versus poorly. I’m talking about all of the important decisions regarding how to organize them, how much text to use, when to lean into a chart, the best ways to use bullets and color, and whether to include an appendix with additional information. Before you make your next proposal or request of the executive team, use this list of 11 tips for your next set of slides as a guide.

Four Things You Must Have in Every Exec’s Slides

Before we drill down into the harder aspects, the ones where your executives’ tastes may vary widely, let’s quickly cover four aspects that you can consider the building blocks — the basics you should never proceed without.

Start with an executive summary. Begin the slide deck with a tight executive summary that follows a three-act structure. First, start with stating the current realities. Second, clearly state the problem or opportunity your idea addresses and its potential impact. Third, explain how your recommendation solves the problem or exploits the opportunity and the next steps you’re proposing.

Have a logical organization. The arc of the deck — the package from beginning to end — should make sense. If your audience reads only the headline of every slide, the order should be coherent and make most of the case for you. The content below each slide’s headline must support the statement made in the title. Remove everything that doesn’t support your point; as writers will tell you, you sometimes need to “kill your darlings” when you’re editing.

Begin the slide deck with a tight executive summary that follows a three-act structure.

Make it skimmable. Help your audience to quickly grasp the point without getting bogged down in details. Create a clear visual hierarchy. Guide the reader’s eye through the content: Use bold headings, bullet points, and numbered lists to break down information into digestible pieces. Highlight key takeaways or conclusions in a different color or font size to draw attention to these critical points.

Focus on concise insights. Succinct statements with clear insights are everyone’s jam. Every slide should serve a purpose and contribute directly to the decision-making process. Distill complex information. Don’t use 100 words when 20 words will nail it. If you’re having difficulty trimming, consider using company-approved AI tools to help you take out the fluff.

Five Preferences to Confirm With the Person You Want to Reach

Now we’ll delve into what your particular audience does and does not want. If you haven’t yet, start by asking the person you’re presenting to what they generally prefer. They probably know themselves well but have not been asked to articulate how they like to receive information.

Ask how dense is too dense. Some executives prefer detailed slides with comprehensive data. Others favor a more high-level approach. You’re weighing how to balance informative content with readability, ensuring that slides are not overloaded yet are sufficiently detailed to support decision-making.

Confirm the delivery format and timing. Some execs like information presented to them. Others prefer a pre-read of the material followed by a discussion. I always recommend our tool Slidedocs (I’ve written a free e-book on them), which are visual documents using both words and images. The templates help presenters organize their thoughts into a document for a pre-read or a read-along. They are designed to be skimmable and able to travel through your organization without the help of a presenter.

I’m a huge fan of pre-reads and prefer to use my time in meetings to ask questions and build alignment. If your audience didn’t review your material in advance, ask at the top of the meeting whether they would like you to present it or would prefer to read through it and then discuss it.

Find out how much data visualization they prefer. Charts, graphs, photos, and illustrations often communicate complex data more clearly than words alone. When execs can see what you’re saying, they often can better understand the impact of your idea. Does the exec want to understand exact numbers? Bar charts allow them to move their eyes across a series of specifics. Does the exec want to know the shape of a trend over time? Line charts can show the pattern. (See “Classic Charts Communicate Data Quickly.”) Some prefer charts with annotations that draw attention to what you think is the most important point. Others want to make their own conclusions from the data.

One of my clients, the CEO of a massive commercial real estate company, doesn’t want anything visualized. He prefers numbers, only in a table, and only in two colors — black and red. You might think this is archaic. But the fact that he’s clear to his teams about what he wants takes all the mystery out of how to communicate with him.

When the stakes are high, have a conceptual thinker help with diagrams and concepts. If you don’t have one on your team, and when it’s high stakes, find an internal designer to help you or hire one. You can’t afford to have the baby (your idea) thrown out with the bathwater (terrible slides).

Identify which details need spelling out. How well do the people you’re presenting to know the landscape and function of the company and products you’re talking about? For example, if your engineering team threw a slide into a deck about an issue that requires executive approval, do the execs all speak geek? Or do you need to explain the technology so that they will really understand the ask? Either eliminate internal jargon and acronyms or unpack those bits, especially if your proposal deeply involves expertise outside of the executives’ domain.

Ask whether appendices will be useful. When you’re organizing a presentation, you often troll data, read through complicated reports, and even hire external experts to figure out what’s best for the company. Do your execs want access to that supporting data? You can add a document to the end of the presentation as an appendix to show all of the data and source material. This allows the main content of the slides to remain focused and accessible while still providing comprehensive background information for those who want more.

Two Tips to Improve Your Presentation Skills

Getting materials in place is the biggest step. They will be your best tools for selling your ideas. But there are two extra areas to pay attention to as a presenter: how you handle questions and how you use every experience to improve.

Anticipate questions, and practice your answers. Before you have your meeting, gather a small team to challenge every point you make. Invite colleagues you trust to role-play as “a rapidly inquisitive exec” or “the doubting naysayer exec” so you are prepared to present your idea well. They’re gonna grill you, and practicing will help you remain unruffled when it happens.

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Ask for feedback after the presentation. Establish a feedback loop with those you presented to. Ask what worked well and how you can improve. If attendees don’t have the time, find people who have had their ideas funded and talk to them about what they did that worked. Advice and some perspective will help you nail your performance even better next time.

Empathetically understanding your audience members and how they process information, whether it’s executives or peers, sets up your ideas for success. Clarity creates efficiency. When a presentation fits just right, you’ve given your great thinking the best chance of moving through your organization and having maximum impact.

About the Author

Nancy Duarte is CEO of Duarte Inc. , a communication company in the Silicon Valley. She’s the author of six books, including DataStory: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story (Ideapress Publishing, 2019).

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Businessing Magazine

Leading     Christina DeBusk    January 10, 2015     4 min read

7 Steps to Creating an Effective Business Presentation

In my pre-writing life, when I was still an Enforcement Officer charged with helping the court enforce domestic relations orders, I attended a presentation put on by the State of Michigan. The opening speaker was fabulous. Not only was he able to gain my attention from the moment he first spoke, but he kept it for 45 minutes straight.

Admittedly, this guy was not delivering a business presentation as it was more of a motivational speech, but the same general rules apply. After all, isn’t a business presentation also a way to motivate your audience to do whatever it is you want them to do?

For instance, if you’re presenting to your employees, you may be sharing procedural changes that you want them to welcome with open arms or you could be sharing your future vision of your company so they help guide you in that direction. Business presentations are also often necessary to convince potential investors of the worth of your business, or to get a financial institution to extend a line of credit. Thus, they serve many purposes, which makes presenting successfully the key to taking your small business where you want it to go.

To create a solid and impactful business presentation, here are the seven steps that will help you captivate your audience and inspire them to get on board:

Step #1: Decide Your Purpose

Knowing what you intend to accomplish with your presentation is beneficial in two different ways. First, it helps you select the information and material that will guide you toward your preferred results. Second, it establishes what outcome you want to see which allows you to more accurately gauge whether or not you were effective.

So, what is it that you intend to achieve by giving your business presentation? Are you seeking employee compliance with a new office procedure, or do you want other business owners to partner with you on a joint venture? Decide this up front so you have a clearer image of what you are attempting to do.

Step #2: Set Specific Expectations

Once you know your general intent, it is time to add some detail by way of setting specific expectations. This will motivate you even more as you strive to reach your intended results, and it will help you decipher whether or not you’ve been successful.

It’s like when you set a goal, or expectation, to help your company grow. Which statement is going to motivate you more: saying that you want to bring on a couple investors sometime in the near future to help you build your company, or deciding that you need three investors who will supply $50,000 each over the course of the next twelve months?

While both may be what you want, the detail provided in the second statement is more definitive and helps you see exactly what results you expect to achieve.

Step #3: Learn About Your Audience

Just as you have to know your target market inside and out in order to effectively engage with them, the same is true when it comes to the audience that will hear and see your presentation. You need to know what motivates them, what demotivates them, what their worries are, and what concerns keep them up at night.

Learning their likes and dislikes, what drives them, and what inspires them to action helps you create a presentation that will appeal directly to them. You will be able to connect with them in a way in which they understand.

Step #4: Draft Your Presentation

Now that you’ve thought about what you want to do and who your audience is going to be, it is time to draft your presentation. Here are some pointers to make this process easier:

• Outline the key points that you wish to address. Ideally, you want to highlight three as they will be harder to remember if there are more.
• Come up with an introduction that gets your audience’s attention. Look for a shocking statistic, use a famous quote, or start with a funny or dramatic story as all of these options are compelling presentation openers.
• Use language they will understand. Don’t talk over or under your audience as neither will connect the way you’d like.
• Be careful with humor and jokes. Even the best intentioned “funny” can offend someone and cause negative consequences, so be cautious if you decide to take this route.

Step #5: Create Captivating Visuals

Oftentimes, people will remember visuals more than something they heard. Therefore, you may want to consider coming up with some sort of slideshow or graphics to enhance your presentation and make it stand out. Charts, graphs, and infographics are all options that can really make your message stick.

Step #6: Practice Your Delivery

One of the worst things you can do when preparing for a business presentation is fail to practice your delivery. Going through your presentation a couple of times will allow you to identify any problem areas or potential issues beforehand, which also gives you the opportunity to correct them without losing face with your audience.

Step #7: Present with Confidence

Finally, give your business presentation with complete and total confidence. Take a few deep breaths before you begin, stand with good posture (head up, shoulders down and back, tummy tilted in), and, most importantly, smile.

When you follow these seven steps, you will create a business presentation that your audience may just remember forever. For good reasons, that is.

Christina DeBusk

Freelance writer, author, and small business consultant committed to helping entrepreneurs achieve higher levels of success.

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How to Make an Effective Business Presentation

Most commercial products and services aren’t unique, and their benefits aren’t always immediately obvious.

Their value must be communicated in a compelling way to make a sale to customers, convince investors to provide capital, or acquire partners.

A successful business presentation will convey that value.

Preparation

The first step to creating an effective business presentation is to study the target audience you are trying to reach.

An effective business presentation must speak directly to the needs and aspirations of your audience. You’re aiming to inform your listeners about how your product or service will solve their problems or help them achieve their goals.

You should develop an outline of what you want to say or “pitch.” Your presentation should tell a persuasive story, establish your business expertise, address any concerns of customers, clients, investors, or partners, and end with a call for action.

You should also prepare answers for questions that you expect your audience to ask.

The Delivery

Business is a serious subject that demands a serious approach.

While humor may be appropriate in some situations, using it in a pitch is risky. It can distract from your message and leave your audience with the wrong impression of your business.

Start and Finish Strong

The most important parts of a business presentation are the beginning and the end.

At the beginning, you must capture the audience’s attention. You can do this by asking an interesting question, polling the audience, or by making a bold statement. For example, you could say: “I have a product that could increase your sales by 100% or more.”

At the end, you must make a clear and direct call to action. You must tell the listeners how to take the next step such as ordering your company’s product or service or contacting a representative of your company.

Connect with Your Audience

You should remember to involve the audience, which includes making eye contact, smiling where appropriate, and thanking the audience for their attendance and attention.

You can walk around during your presentations if it’s appropriate and comes naturally to you, but you shouldn’t feel compelled to do so.

You should treat questions from the audience as an opportunity to address concerns or skepticism and be willing to invite questions during the presentation instead of waiting until the end.

When you speak, you should avoid using acronyms and technical jargon unfamiliar to your listeners and keep your pitch brief. Audiences in business presentations sometimes complain that pitches are hard to understand and too long.

Multimedia Tools

PowerPoint and other multimedia tools are commonly employed for business presentations. They can either add or detract from your message depending upon how they're used.

When used well, slides can sharpen your message, particularly when they contain graphics that illustrate points in a dramatic or memorable way.

When misused, slides can be boring. A common misuse of slides is when a speaker retreats to the back of the room and simply narrates what’s already on the screen.

Tips for effective slides:

• Limit the number of slides you use: a good rule of thumb is no more than 20 total slides for a presentation
• Place titles and the most important information at the top of each slide
• Use images, charts, or graphs instead of text wherever possible
• Delete unnecessary words and images from your slides
• Use as little punctuation as possible and avoid using all uppercase text
• Choose readable font that people sitting in the back of room can read
• Avoid white backgrounds and make sure there’s enough contrast between the background and the text on slides
• Never skip over slides because it suggests to the audience that you’ve miscalculated the time or didn’t carefully organize your slides

PowerPoint slides are now used for more than just presentations. Potential investors often request an electronic version of your slides (sometimes referred to as a “deck”) beforehand.

Technical Issues

You should always be prepared for unexpected issues with technology.

If it’s possible, you should visit the presentation site ahead of time to become familiar with the audio-visual equipment (e.g., computer, projector, and microphone) available and know how to use it.

It’s also wise to bring a back-up thumb-drive for your slides if necessary.

Business Presentation Training

The Division of Economic Development (DED) organizes and co-sponsors conferences throughout the year to connect tribal businesses with potential public and private sector customers and partners.

Some of these conferences offer business presentation training sessions where business experts give feedback to American Indian and Alaska Native business owners about their pitches.

If you’re interested in attending these training sessions, please contact DED.

Additional Information

Related pages.

• Marketing for Artists and Artisans
• Product Differentiation and Place Branding

Related Documents

• Making an Effective Business Presentation

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How to make your branding presentation a success

Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.

Anete Ezera March 30, 2024

For all brands, whether established or new, pitching your identity and intentions as a brand should be an important part of presentations. But, it’s not always easy to showcase your brand in the way you envision. This is why knowing how to create the perfect branding deck is important. With Prezi, merging your ideas into a branding presentation has never been easier. Read on to learn more about what a branding deck is and get the knowledge you need to showcase your brand in the right way. 

What is a branding presentation? 

People use branding presentations for several reasons. They can be used to introduce a brand and explain their values and business strategy. They’re also used to brief marketing teams or partners or align internal teams with the brand’s direction. They can be useful for all brands, from newly established to global companies. 

A branding presentation will usually consist of: 

• Brand overview;
• Detailed information about the brand’s target market;
• How the brand positions itself in the market;
• Showcase of the brand’s visual elements (logo, color palette, imagery);
• Explanation of the brand’s communication style (voice, tone);
• Examples of how the brand identity is applied across various mediums;
• Brand guidelines and standards.

Examples of branding presentations

We’ve put together some examples of branding presentations that were created using Prezi. 

Personal branding presentation 

The following example is a personal branding presentation, which uses the same principles as a normal branding presentation. Only, the brand you’re selling is yourself. This presentation is created by the help of Prezi AI , and you can reuse this presentation example and fill in the placeholders with your own information. You can showcase your strengths, values, and goals, and add a personal touch to make it authentically yours. Or, you can also use Prezi AI to create a presentation like this in minutes or even seconds.

Fashion branding presentation 

The following branding presentation could be used for a fashion brand. The presentation design, created using Prezi AI , matches the aesthetic appeal a fashion brand might want to use. This is a good example of storytelling as the presentation moves through each point telling the audience about the brand and what their intentions are. The fashion brand presentation also explores its identity and heritage, which is a great way to connect with the audience on a personal level. You can simply reuse this presentation, add your content and personal touch, and present it right away.

Grammarly brand presentation 

This presentation on Grammarly is a great example of staying consistent and true to your brand. When you look at the overall theme of the presentation, such as the colors and fonts used, you can see that the brand identity is solid all the way through. This is a great way of sharing what you envision your brand to look like with the audience. 

8 Tips to help you create the best branding presentation

Now we know what a branding presentation should consist of, let’s look at some tips to help you in the creation process. 

Start with a strong story 

In order to captivate your audience from the beginning, you need to come up with a story that captures your brand’s mission, vision, and values. A storytelling approach helps to engage your audience emotionally and intellectually, making your brand’s purpose and direction clear from the outset. 

Know your audience 

Think about who you’re presenting to, as this will help you highlight the more relevant aspects of your brand. Whether you’re presenting to clients, stakeholders, or internal teams, tailor your branding presentation to the specific interests and expectations of your audience. 

Highlight the unique value proposition 

In order for people to take your brand seriously, you should talk about what sets you apart from your competitors. Think about the unique benefits your brand offers compared to similar brands, and highlight these points. You should make your unique value proposition the main focus of your presentation to showcase why your brand matters. 

Use interesting visuals 

Another great way to grab your audience’s attention is to make your branding presentation look visually interesting. You should include your brand logo and color scheme throughout to reinforce who you are. When it comes to including imagery, it’s important to choose images that correlate with your message, and they should be relevant to the information on your presentation slides. When used in the right way, visuals can be really good at strengthening the points you’re making. 

Examples of your brand in action 

The best way to get people on board with your brand is to make them believe in it. The best way to do this is to show them your brand in action. This could be from brand packaging and advertising examples to displaying your digital presence. By showing how your branding is applied in real-world circumstances, you’re bringing your brand to life, rather than just talking about it. 

Be concise and focused

Your audience is going to soak in information better if you keep your presentation clear and to the point. Think about the key points you want to make, and stick to them. You could use each slide of your branding presentation to make one key point, this way you’re not overloading each slide with too much information, which can be confusing. When thinking about how you want your presentation to look, avoid cramming your slides with too much text and too many visual elements. Your message will come across much clearer if you keep it simple. 

Interactive elements 

This is an aspect that can really boost your presentation and make it less boring. For branding presentations, you might want to include interactive elements like a live demonstration or an interactive session where the audience can experience your products or platform firsthand. Another idea might be to encourage your audience to participate in discussions, like sharing their experiences or expectations of your product or service. For virtual branding presentations, use Live Prezi to take interactivity to the next level. With Live Prezi, you can create an interactive presentation experience in real-time. Simply set up your link and share it with anyone, anywhere. Up to 100 participants can join your Live Prezi session and follow along as you guide them through your compelling content.

End with a clear call to action 

It’s important that you make it clear to your audience what action you need them to take following your presentation. This might be seeking approval or feedback, or a specific, unique action you require from your branding presentation. Either way, you should be clear about the next steps you want the audience to take following your presentation. 

Pitfalls to avoid 

We’ve already discussed things that you should consider when creating your branding deck, now let’s look at some mistakes you should avoid. 

Too much information 

A common mistake when making branding presentations is putting too much information onto the slides. Overloading slides in this way is going to be distracting for your audience. Try using bullet points to make each point clear and use visuals that complement your spoken words. With Prezi’s AI text editing tool , you can easily modify your text to match your desired outcome in seconds. Make text longer, shorter, or create a concise and engaging list.

Inconsistency 

When you use a mixture of styles, fonts and colors throughout your branding presentation, it screams amateur. You should make sure the whole thing looks in alignment with your brand and stays consistent for the whole presentation. Staying constant with the visual aspect helps to paint a picture of what your brand looks like. To feel more confident in your design choices, use Prezi’s AI presentation maker – it’ll suggest matching color schemes, layouts, and more, to match your topic and style.

Underestimating your audience’s knowledge 

Assuming your audience knows too little or too much can cause confusion. Make your presentation just right for what they know about your brand and the field it’s in. Give them new things to learn without making it too simple.

Skipping your brand’s story

People tend to resonate with stories and purposes. Failing to talk about who you are as a brand and what you stand for can cause your audience to disconnect. You should make it a personal branding presentation that mentions your values and intentions. 

Failure to mention competitors

It’s important to let your audience know where your brand sits in the market. When you fail to discuss your competitors, your audience may deem this ignorant or naive. The purpose of mentioning your competitors is to show how your brand can outshine them and what values you have to offer that they don’t. Without this, your audience will be left with questions about your brand’s uniqueness and whether you’ll fit in the market. 

Forgetting to proofread 

If your presentation contains typos, spelling mistakes, or inaccuracies, you may come across as unprofessional and questions about your brand’s credibility may arise. Remember, branding presentations are all about giving off a good first impression, so make sure you’ve checked each slide properly before your big moment arrives. 

Don’t rely too heavily on text

When the screen is crammed with text, it can make your branding presentation look dull and make it harder for your audience to follow. By using visuals to explain your points instead of lots of text, the audience can process your message much faster. After all, you’re going to be the voice of the brand, so stick to a few bullet points and elaborate with speech. 

Not preparing for questions 

Your audience is bound to have questions about your brand and goals, and how you plan on reaching these goals. Since there’s no way of knowing what questions will be thrown at you, it’s a good idea to prepare beforehand. 

Prezi’s role in your branding presentation 

Prezi is a presentation tool that’s different from any other. It lets you share ideas in a way that’s interesting, by moving around a single space, letting you zoom in and out of sections to show off your points. There’s no longer a need for boring, traditional slide-based presentations because Prezi allows us to share our thoughts in a more dynamic way that lets us bring our audience on a journey with us. 

Prezi is particularly useful for creating branding presentations because you can share your brand’s story and identity in a new and exciting way that sticks with your audience. Let’s look at some of Prezi’s features that would be great for creating your branding presentation. 

Brand kits 

We know how important it is that things stay consistent when it comes to branding presentations. This is why Prezi has created the Brand Kit feature, where you can include your brand’s color palette, logo, fonts, and style so that every time you need it, you have a pre-set branding presentation template. This way, you can save time whenever you need to create a presentation based on your brand, and you know it’s going to align with your brand’s identity every time. 

Integration features 

When it comes to presenting your branding deck virtually, Prezi has all the tools you need to succeed. You can connect and engage with hybrid teams in real-time using Prezi Video , making your meetings more exciting and engaging. You can show your branding content at the same time as showing your face, so you can still present just like you would in a conference room. 

Open canvas 

Prezi’s open canvas feature allows you to move freely from one point to the next. It takes away the restrictions that come with slide by slide-based presentations. This is ideal for when you’re telling your brand’s story, as you can zoom in on certain key points and then back out to the bigger picture. It’s also easier to go back and forth between points which might be useful when faced with questions about your brand. 

Professionally designed templates 

For those who don’t want to start with a blank page, having a fully prepared template can be a huge help. With Prezi, you can choose from a great range of templates . No matter what industry you’re starting out in, you can find a template that can serve as the building ground for your branding presentation. Prezi templates are customizable, so you can integrate parts of your brand as you go along the creation process. 

Images and icons 

Prezi has countless icons and images you can choose from to help you create the perfect visuals. Branding presentations are all about telling a story, and with Prezi, your options are endless when it comes to selecting the perfect visuals to complement your narrative. Having a great range of images and icons to choose from all in the same place makes the creation process much simpler, saving you time for more important aspects of your brand. 

AI text editing tool 

When it comes to forming the right words, we can help. Our AI feature can edit your work or offer suggestions, such as correcting spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. Prezi’s AI text editing tool can also shorten or lengthen text, as well as restructure it, such as changing paragraphs to readable bullet points. This is a really important feature when it comes to making a branding presentation, as easily readable slides are a crucial part of it. 

Collaborate easily 

Working together to create the best branding presentation is easy with Prezi. You and your team can work remotely on the presentation and communicate ideas and feedback using the comment feature. You can comment on each frame, so you and your team can be sure that every part of the presentation is up to scratch, working together from anywhere in the world. 

Why every branding presentation needs AI 

At Prezi, we’re always striving to provide the best presentation creation experience – that’s why we’re elevating it with advanced AI features. There are so many benefits of using AI to assist in the creation process of your branding presentation. Let’s look at a few of these advantages: 

Save time with automatic design and content: AI quickly creates designs and content, cutting down the time you spend on making presentations. For those using Prezi, this means extra time to improve your story. 

Brings new ideas: AI can come up with new designs and content ideas that you might not have thought of yourself. 

Keep things consistent: Many AI tools can help you stick to the same theme throughout your branding presentation, such as, colors and fonts. 

Easy updates and changes: With AI, making changes and improvements to your presentations is a lot easier. Take the Prezi AI text editing tool for example, which makes suggestions to make your content even better. 

A new beginning for branding presentations 

Whether you’re launching a new brand or whether you’re an established brand taking on a new venture, branding presentations can be the make or break for you. This is why it’s so important to make a good, strong impression on your audience. By following the tips we’ve mentioned in this article, you can maximize your chances of making a showstopping branding presentation that leaves your audience invested. 

By using Prezi to make your presentation, you’re not only equipped with features like pre-designed templates , but you also have the advantage of AI-powered design tools . It’s clear that features like the AI presentation creator and AI text editing tool have changed the way we create presentations. Gone are the days of worrying about what to say and when, because with Prezi, you know that each slide is going to have the perfect balance between text and visuals, captivating your audience.  

And, not only is the creation process a lot easier with Prezi, but it’s quicker too. This is a great perk for brand owners, as we know there’s much more to launching a brand than making presentations. The assistance of Prezi means you now have more time to spend on important tasks. So, for your next branding presentation, partner with Prezi and reap the benefits of amazing design features and AI-powered presentation tools. 

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April 4, 2024

11 Best Websites for Making a Presentation (And How to Choose One For Your Needs) 

Here are 11 of the best websites and programs to create free presentations online

Co-founder, CEO

The best websites for making presentations equip you with all the tools needed to build a professional, attractive, and informative slide deck quickly and efficiently. But with dozens of slide makers claiming to be the best, it’s hard to choose an app that suits your needs best. 

We’ve done the legwork for you and scoured the web for the best presentation websites. We based our evaluation on factors such as functionality, ease of use, AI sophistication, collaboration tools, and value for money. Below is the result — a comprehensive overview of the 11 best web-based slide creation apps based on our findings.  

Short on time? Summary of the best sites for making a presentation

1. plus ai — best all-round presentation maker.

Key Features

• Adds easy-to-use AI to Google Slides
• Affords customization options for slide templates, colors, and logos 
• Allows slide deck generation via different methods 
• Facilitates collaboration within teams on Google Workspace 
• Features a setting-rich but straightforward user interface
• $10/month for Basic and $20 for Pro versions when billed annually ($15 and $30, respectively, with monthly billing)

Plus AI is a powerful and user-friendly presentation maker that’s suitable for any purpose, whether you’re a professional, student, or amateur user.  

Plus AI gives you a robust selection of AI slide creation methods. You can generate presentations straight from text, work on them slide-by-slide, design them from scratch, or use existing templates. Regardless of the method, the tool’s AI technology does all the heavy lifting design-wise and the interface is a breeze to navigate, so you can sit back and focus on the content. 

Meanwhile, the customization options allow you to tailor the slides to your desired aesthetic, content type, and audience, and you can create your presentation in 80 languages. The resulting slide decks are elegant, professional, and appropriate for any use case. 

Plus AI is an affordable presentation maker, with pricing that starts at $10 per month with annual billing, or $15 when billed monthly. Each of the plans includes an AI extension for Google Docs; this feature helps you compose and edit text. If you’d rather not spend money without taking the tool for a test drive, Plus AI offers you a 7-day free trial.  

Here are the key pros and cons of Plus AI — they should help you decide if this presentation maker is right for you: 

• Generates professional and visually appealing presentations in minutes — no design skills needed
• AI function allows you to edit and format slides without manual effort
• Lots of ways to customize the presentation
• Vast selection of templates and example presentations  
• Text-to-slide and from-scratch creation
• Allows team collaboration in Google Workspace 
• Integrates with Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint
• Budget-friendly plans and a 7-day free trial 
• Plus creates presentations in Google Slides or PowerPoint format, which may be harder for newer users to edit

2. Canva — Best free presentation site 

• Offers mobile presentation templates 
• Web- or mobile-based Canva app supports collaboration 
• Remote Control feature lets you run the presentation from your smartphone
• Canva live feature allows viewers to join QA sessions during a presentation  
• Presenter mode lets you see your speaking notes and upcoming slides while you present 
• AI assists in slide creation and can present on your behalf
• Individual Free Plan: $0 per month
• Individual Pro Plan: $14.99 per month
• Teams Plan: $29.99 per month

Canva is a web-based template editor with graphics creation tools and a powerful presentation builder in its free plan. Canva offers you an array of slide templates designed for virtually any purpose, along with a suite of customization tools to tailor the presentation to your topic and setting. 

Canva has made a noticeable effort to optimize presentations for the smartphone. The app’s most striking feature is its selection of mobile presentation templates, which don’t lag their desktop-based peers in either aesthetics or utility. But whether or not your presentation is designed for a mobile screen, Canva lets you run it right from your smartphone, with a presenter view that shows your notes and upcoming slides. The audience can likewise engage with your presentation from their mobile devices during Q&A sessions.     

Depending on your use case, you may be able to get away with Canva’s comprehensive free plan. The free Canva has presentation creation and editing tools and gives you access to a huge selection of professional templates. However, it’s the $14/month Pro plan that lets you unlock all the premium tools and graphic assets. And if you need Canva to collaborate with teams, you’re looking at $29.99 per month for the first 5 users. 

To help you decide whether Canva is worth trying out, we’ve made this quick summary of the app’s pros and cons: 

• Solid free plan with basic features and a large selection of graphic assets 
• Optimized for mobile presentations 
• Elegant templates for any use case 
• Intermediate design skills required 
• No direct integration with Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 (possible through third-party apps)

3. Prezi — Best slide tool for creative users

• Web-based tool for creating presentations, videos, and infographics 
• Asset library includes templates, ready-to-use story blocks, and stock images from Unsplash and GIFs from 
• Integrates with Webex, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and other video conferencing apps to show presentations and the presenter on the same screen 
• Lets you convert PowerPoint presentations to Prezi

Pricing (all plans are billed annually)

• For students/educators: $3-8 per month
• For individuals: $7-19 per month
• For businesses: $15-29 per month

Prezi is a web-based tool for creating presentations, videos, and infographics that are suitable for business and educational settings. The tool offers a wealth of image and icon assets, as well as templates to get you started on your slide deck. The templates do not constrain your creativity with linear slides the way PowerPoint does — you can create your presentations on an open canvas. Prezi even lets you import and customize PowerPoint presentations in its app. And, with the help of Prezi’s new AI tool, you can create and edit entire presentations quickly. 

One of Prezi’s most defining features is its integration with popular video conferencing apps, such as Webex, Zoom, Teams, and Meet. Crucially, Prezi lets your slides appear on the same screen as your own video feed while you’re presenting. 

Prezi offers three pricing tiers. Students and educators get the least expensive options, with plans that range between $3 and $8 per month. For individual users, plans cost $7-19 per month, while business users pay between $15 and $29 per month. All of Prezi’s plans are billed annually, but you can try the tool for 14 days without committing to a subscription. 

If you’re not sure whether this presentation tool is right for you, consider Prezi’s pros and cons below: 

• Design freedom and for creating unique and attractive slides
• Graphic assets are readily available
• Integrates with video conferencing apps 
• AI assistant generates and edits presentations 
• Inexpensive plans for students and educators 
• Video and infographic creation part of each plan
• 14-day free trial 
• Design skills required to create quality presentations 
• Lack of integration with Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint
• No monthly billing options 

4. Visme — Best for graphics and special effects

• Tools for creating special effects and animating graphics 
• Ability to import and edit Microsoft PowerPoint presentations 
• AI designer helps create a presentation draft 
• Integration with Google Drive, DropBox, Mailchimp, Slack, and other apps 
• Presentation analytics tools 
• Basic package: $0/month 
• Starter package (individual): $12.25/month 
• Pro package (individual or team): $24.75-$79+/month

Visme is a web-based app for producing various types of visual content, including presentations. The app’s most distinct feature is its suite of special effects you can use to make the slides’ content and graphics more engaging. The app also lets you animate the images and insert video and audio features into the slides. 

Visme integrates with a whole host of other platforms and apps. These integration options are largely designed to let you import content seamlessly into Visme. For example, you have the option of importing your PowerPoint files into Visme, enhancing them there, and exporting them back in the .ppt format if you like. That said, Visme does not work as an extension in popular slide makers, like Google Slides or PowerPoint. 

You have three main pricing options with Visme. The Basic plan is free, but you’re limited in access to collaboration tools, assets, interactive, and AI features. The more comprehensive Starter plan costs $12.25 per month (billed annually), and equips you with Visme’s more premium tools. Finally, the Pro team plan sets you back $79/month for a team of 5 and lets you use Visme’s entire suite of interactivity and collaboration functions.     

Here are a few vital pros and cons if you need help deciding whether Visme is right for you: 

• Vast selection of special effects 
• Ability to animate graphics on the slides 
• Simple file movement between different web-based apps
• Free plan available 
• Free plans extremely limiting 
• No direct integration with Google or Microsoft slide tools 

5. Powtoon — Best for slides with animation

• Templates with configurable graphics and animation
• Customizable fonts, colors, and logos
• Access to stock images, videos, and soundtracks 
• Lite plan: $50/month ($15/month when billed annually) 
• Professional plan: $190/month ($40/month when billed annually) 
• Agency: $117/month (annual billing only) 

Powtoon is a visual web-based content creation platform with tools for making videos, animations, and presentations. The app’s presentation function lets you build slides using professional templates, in which you’re free to customize the fonts, colors, logos, and graphics. You can even animate the graphics and build custom avatars to present on your behalf — it’s one of Powtoon’s unique selling features. 

Powtoon’s suite of slide tools includes a database of royalty-free stock images, video footage, and music. You can use all of these assets in your slides, or upload your own as you see fit. However, how much of these shiny tools you can use in your slide decks depends on the chosen plan. 

There are three pricing plans available, and the discrepancy between monthly and annual payments is striking. Most presentation sites charge a few dollars more if you opt for monthly instead of annual billing, but Powtoon’s monthly prices easily triple and quadruple. For example, the Lite plan costs $15/month with annual billing, but $50 if you wish to pay every month instead. You get very basic features with this plan, especially as far as animation and interactivity are concerned. Likewise, the Professional plan jumps from $40 to $190 if you choose monthly payments. You get a bit more for your buck, but some rudimentary features are still absent (like font uploads). Meanwhile, the Agency plan costs a whopping $1400 annually (no monthly option), and this plan gets you all of the app’s bells and whistles. 

Not sure if investing in a product like Powtoon is worth it? Consider its pros and cons below: 

• Comprehensive animation and video creation features 
• Graphic and audio assets available with subscription 
• Fonts and logos can be uploaded
• Most customization, animation, and AI features only come with the expensive Agency package
• Monthly payment options are not reasonable 

6. Haiku Deck — Best site for image editing options 

• Minimalistic interface 
• Graphic design tools for improving slide aesthetics 
• Pre-loaded templates and image assets 
• Cloud-based file sharing for team collaboration 
• AI presentation builder (Haiku Deck Zuru)
• Pro plan: $9.99 per month billed annually, or $19.99 monthly
• Premium plan: $29.99 per month, billed annually

Haiku Deck is a web, desktop, and mobile-based presentation builder with a significant focus on design aesthetics. The app’s design tools allow you to refine the graphics in the preloaded templates and images you’re using in the slides. You can source the images right from Haiku’s repository, which boasts over 40 million assets. 

To help you create your slide decks, Haiku offers its AI assistant. The AI feature can create new presentations from your outline, or enhance your existing drafts. Since the AI learns from other Haiku users, its algorithms are now trained to outfit slides with contextually relevant imagery and graphics.    

Haiku Deck’s pricing has two tiers: Pro and Premium. The Pro plan costs $9.99/month when billed annually and affords full access to the slide creation tools. Meanwhile, the Premium plan will set you back $29.99/month (again, billed annually), and equips you with features such as analytics, live web tracking, and priority support. 

Here’s a summary of Haiku Deck’s most prominent pros and cons: 

• Visually appealing slides 
• Large database of graphic assets 
• Advanced tools for editing images 
• Capable AI-powered slide builder
• No free plan
• No integration with Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint 

7. Zoho Show — Best presentation site for budget-minded users  

• Clean interface with tools changing depending on the task 
• Library for templates, slides, and fonts to facilitate team collaboration 
• Over 100 templates 
• Imports/exports PowerPoint files 
• Presentations can be controlled from smartphone or smart watch
• For individuals: Free
• Professional Plan: $2.50/month and up (billed annually)
• With Zoho Workplace Standard: $3.00/month (billed annually) 

Zoho is a web-based suite of business tools, and Zoho Show is its slide creation app. Zoho Show is a straightforward, inexpensive, yet fully functional slide maker that offers most of the same features you’ll get from pricier presentation sites. You can build your decks using over 100 preloaded templates, work on PowerPoint presentations before exporting them to their original file format, and run your slideshow from a smart device. Show’s most unique feature is its clean, contextual interface that only displays tools that are relevant to your current task (whether that’s handy or limiting depends on your preferences). 

Zoho Show’s pricing has three tiers. First, there’s the Free plan. This package lets you build basic presentations, but you miss out on key collaboration features and have limited access to graphic assets. Next, you get the more comprehensive Professional Plan, which costs $2.50; you must sign up for Zoho WorkDrive and have a team of 3 people to get this plan. Finally, you can get the entire Zoho Workplace suite for $3/month — this option unlocks the full functionality of the Show app and lets you use other Zoho tools, such as their Office Suite, Mail, and Workdrive. 

Have a look at Zoho Show’s pros and cons below to see if this presentation website is right for you: 

• Interface automatically shows tools relevant to the task
• Ability to add custom fonts and embed files into slides
• Templates, graphic assets, and collaboration tools included
• Supports PowerPoint file formats 
• Subscription to Zoho Workdrive or Workplace required to access paid plan — unnecessary if all you need is a presentation tool
• Some plans require a minimum of 3 users 
• Free individual plan limits use of graphic assets, templates, and collaboration tools 
• No direct integration with Google Slides 

8. Pitch — Best presentation site for use in business and sales 

• Lets you build presentations with AI, from a template, or from scratch 
• Supports custom fonts and colors 
• Provides team collaboration tools 
• Allows you to embed presentations on the web 
• Offers engagement analytics tools 
• Pro plan: $25/month
• Business: $100/month 

Pitch is a web-based presentation maker designed primarily for business use. The app helps streamline slide deck creation with its AI tool, which generates a first draft based on your prompts and leaves your team with the task of refining the slides to your liking. The slides have shareable links, so your entire team can collaborate on the slide deck. You can even invite consultants from outside your workplace to edit the presentations. 

Once your slide deck is complete, Pitch allows you to embed it on the web in your CMS — much like you’d do with a YouTube video. And to give you a feel for how audiences engage with your presentation, Pitch equips you with engagement and analytics performance tools.  

There are three pricing options with Pitch. The free plan comes with all the presentation creation functions, but you get no tracking and limited collaboration tools. The Pro plan costs $25/month (or $22 per month when billed annually), and gives you more freedom to use Pitch in a team environment. Finally, the Business plan costs $100/month (or $85/month with yearly billing) and gives you access to the full suite of features. 

Can’t decide if Pitch is the best presentation website for your team? Have a look at its most vital pros and cons: 

• AI slide creation feature 
• Performance analytics tools 
• Integration with various productivity and collaboration apps
• Media asset library 
• Engagement tracking only available in paid plans
• No integration with Google Slides or Microsoft 365

9. Beautiful.ai — Best site for no-frills AI-generated presentations

• AI-powered presentation maker 
• Slide creation from user’s prompts 
• Automated slide formatting 
• File sharing within the team (requires Team Plan) 
• Graphic assets database 
• Pro: $144 per year  
• Team: $40/month per user with annual billing ($50 with monthly billing)
• Enterprise: Pricing available on request 

Beautiful.ai is an AI-powered presentation builder that leverages full automation to make slide creation quick and easy. All you need to do is enter a prompt for your slide deck, and beautiful.ai will generate your first draft. These AI-generated drafts are quite simplistic in terms of both content and graphics, but they serve as a good starting point. Moreover, beautiful.ai’s presentations are formatted consistently, which should save you time as you edit each slide. 

You get three pricing options with beautiful.ai — Pro, Team, and Enterprise. The Pro package is meant for individual use, and costs $144 per year (there’s no way to pay monthly). The plan equips you with the AI slide maker but limits your use of assets and team collaboration features. The Pro plan costs $50/month for each user, or $480 annual for each license you purchase. This plan affords access to more customization and teamwork functions and lets you use graphic assets. Finally, the Enterprise plan includes all the features of the Pro plan, but with more dedicated training and support for your team. You’d have to reach out to beautiful.ai’s sales team to get a quote for the Enterprise plan. 

Beautiful.ai helps create slides quickly and with little skill. However, if you’re not sure this app is right for you, consider its most vital pros and cons below. 

• Quick way to create and format slides
• Inexpensive plan for personal use
• Elegant slide templates
• No integration with Google Slides or Microsoft 365 
• Slide content is very basic 
• Limited customization and branding options 

10. Google Slides — Best for Google Workspace Users With Basic Presentation Needs 

• Basic presentation creation tool 
• Limited selection of templates, fonts, and colors 
• Supports import/export of PowerPoint files 
• Allows collaboration within the Google Workspace
• Free with a Google account 

Slides is the web-based presentation tool you get with your Google account. This rudimentary app features a limited library of templates, fonts, and colors, along with a basic suite of tools for formatting the text and graphics in your slides. You can insert your own image, video, and audio files into the slides, but there is no access to a library of royalty-free assets. 

Despite its functional constraints, Google Slides is a useful app because it lets teams using Google Workspace collaborate easily on presentations. To get the most of Slides, though, you need to boost its functionality with a suitable extension. Google Gemini now works as an extension within the app, but for the $30 it costs you, the output is disappointing. All Gemini knows does is generate simple, low-quality images; it won’t help you produce, format, or edit presentations. 

In contrast, an app like Plus AI leverages artificial intelligence algorithms to give Google Slides powers it lacks on its own. By using the Plus AI extension, you can create entire Slides presentations from a single prompt, automate slide editing and formatting, and access a rich library of templates and ready-made slide decks. Meanwhile, Plus AI’s customization features help you brand your presentations with custom fonts, colors, and your company logo. 

Not sure if Google’s slide creation tool is right for you? Have a look at its pros and cons below. 

• Allows collaboration in the Google Workspace 
• Compatible with PowerPoint files 
• Supports AI-powered slide-creation extensions, such as Plus AI
• Free to use with a Google account 
• Limited capabilities without third-party apps 
• No library with image, video, or audio assets

11. Microsoft PowerPoint — Best For Highly Skilled Presentation Designers 

• Vast library of slide themes, variants, and layouts 
• Database of stock images and videos 
• Massive array of slide editing, formatting, and customization tools 
• Supports collaboration in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem 
• As a standalone product: $159.99 (one-time fee) 
• With Microsoft 365 apps, for home use: $6.99-$9.99/month 
• With Microsoft 365 apps, for business use: $6.00-22.00/user/month 

PowerPoint is one of the world’s oldest presentation builders that’s been part of Microsoft’s arsenal since the early 1990s. To this day, PowerPoint has been the most commonly used presentation app. But there’s a reason we’ve ranked it last on our list. Buoyed by its popularity, PowerPoint hasn’t evolved much over time; you won’t get anything beyond the most basic and uninspired presentations out of it unless you’re an advanced user with lots of time on your hands. 

The app’s user interface immediately overwhelms you with options and settings. Some of these seem similar in how they function, and you won’t know which tool to use until you’ve experimented with them all. Apart from the cluttered interface, PowerPoint disappoints with its simplistic selection of templates and designs. 

You can use Microsoft’s Copilot to forgo the tedious task of creating your own PowerPoint presentation, but beware: like Gemini, Copilot is still limited in its slide-making abilities. You can get it to create a slide deck from a single prompt, but the output will feature basic and repetitive along with lifeless images. 

PowerPoint’s pricing is a bit convoluted at a glance — you get different options whether you want the standalone product ($159.99) or the entire Microsoft 365 suite. If you choose the latter, the Home options range in price between $6.99 and $9.99 per month, while the Business plans cost between $6.00 and $22.00 per month per user. 

We don’t believe that PowerPoint is worth your time considering the vast selection of more powerful and user-friendly presentation apps on the market. However, you can review the app’s pros and cons below and decide for yourself. 

• Massive selection of design and customization tools 
• Integrates with Microsoft Copilot 
• Lets team members using Microsoft 365 work on the same presentation simultaneously  
• Overwhelming user interface 
• Very basic templates and designs
• Creating professional presentations is a challenge for novice users
• AI assistant cannot produce elegant, content-rich slide decks 

How we ranked the best presentation sites 

To make your selection process simple and effective, we ranked the best presentation websites based on these vital criteria: 

• Functionality
• Level of AI sophistication
• Ease of use
• Collaboration options

Integration with popular slide creation tools 

Value for money, functionality .

The best presentation sites are loaded with handy functions that enable you to make visually appealing, info-rich, and engaging presentations with little effort and minimal editing. These include customization tools, templates, image assets, and graphics refinement features. 

Level of AI sophistication 

AI technology is at the forefront of slide makers’ drive to create the best product for their clients. AI-powered presentation sites save you from spending long hours on writing content, digging up graphics, and then formatting every slide — AI handles these tasks for you. But not all AI slide creators are made equal. Some leave you with rudimentary decks that feature repetitive content and unrelated imagery. Others give you a solid starting point for an informative and captivating presentation. 

Ease of use 

The best presentation sites greet you with an intuitive and uncluttered interface that takes you minutes (if not seconds) to master. But usability goes beyond navigating the UI. That’s why we also assess the simplicity with which you can actually produce presentations. Simply put, how easy is it to create and edit slides? Do you need advanced design skills to manipulate the graphics and give the slide deck your desired aesthetic ? The best slide makers take these questions into account, so that their product makes presentations a breeze. You worry about the content, and let the app do the rest. 

Collaboration options 

High-quality presentation apps allow team members to create, edit, and give feedback on presentations remotely. That’s because today’s business needs, along with hybrid work arrangements, mean that more and more teams are forced to collaborate electronically. Features such as cloud-based file sharing and integration with communication platforms help different members of your team work on the presentation from wherever they are. 

Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint are the most commonly used presentation programs in the world. These two giants are the natural, go-to option for slide creation in the corporate, educational, and institutional world. Any presentation app that’s worth its salt should integrate with at least one of these tools. At the very least, a quality independent slide app should be able to import and export files that can be used in Google Slides or PowerPoint. 

The best presentation apps are usually not free, but the money you pay for them should be worth the features and benefits you get in return. That’s why we’ve evaluated each of the slide makers above based on the balance between their price point and their offerings. 

How to choose the best presentation website for your needs? 

You can’t really go wrong by opting for any of the 10 presentation sites above; however, to get a tool that’s tailored to your use-case, you’ll have to do a bit more research and analysis. The four steps below should help you zero in on the optimal presentation maker for your needs.   

• Consider the purpose of the presentation. Some slide tools cater to sales teams (think Pitch), others to graphic-minded users (Haiku Deck comes to mind), while others, like Plus AI, are excellent all-rounders. 
• Decide on the level of customization you need. How concerned are you with personalizing and branding your slide decks? If a generic, templated presentation is all you need for a school project, investing in a feature-rich, customizable tool may be overkill. But if you need your slide decks to feature custom colors, fonts, and convey your brand identity, opt for a tool (and pricing package) that has this functionality. 
• Decide if you want AI help. Unless you’re a skilled designer with a passion for creating and formatting slides, AI can be incredibly useful. Consider this: would you rather spend hours on refining your slides and ensuring consistency, or have the AI tool produce a uniformly formatted first draft? Check out the best AI presentation makers here.
• Factor in your budget. Most presentation sites have similar pricing, with monthly plans ranging between $0 and $40. However, some charge more — much more. Of course, the higher price points generally translate into richer offerings that may include other apps for visual content creation. Consider whether you need these extras or if a capable slide creation tool will suffice. 

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