Templates By A Presentation Template Designer – The Difference They Can Make
A good PowerPoint template is very different from a bad one. Or even a mediocre one. And great ones don’t just create themselves – because it’s not just about sticking a logo in the corner of a document.
A well-designed presentation template is one of the most valuable communication tools a business can have. You could be pitching for new business, communicating internally, or sharing an important report. Whatever information you have to share or result you hope to achieve, your messaging matters.
With consistent, professional slides you present a consistent, professional image. It can influence how your message is received and how your brand is remembered. If you are a professional company – large or small – you need professional slides.
Amateur PowerPoint templates are likely to end in wasted time, visuals that don’t reflect your brand, and inconsistent or confused messaging. They can cost time, money, and opportunities, and undermine your credibility.
What does a presentation template give you?
If you start each time with a basic set of brand guidelines, but no standard design, it’s likely that each presentation deck will be different. And within each deck you’re likely to find inconsistencies. This can lead to communications being ‘off-brand’ or jarring with the people they’re designed to impress.
When you have departments or even individuals in different areas who need to work together, collaboration can be harder if there is no accepted ‘right’ way of doing something. Templates created by a presentation designer can help build efficiency and reduce internal friction as well as promoting a professional image.
If you start with a PowerPoint template for your presentations, you get:
A standardised design
Fonts, colours, and layout set for you each time
Brand consistency
A faster creation process
Help for non-designers to create professional-looking presentations
When does a company need a professional presentation template?
You don’t have to be a huge, international company pitching for multi-million-dollar deals to need professionally designed templates. Smaller companies immediately look more professional, which allows them to compete with larger companies with bigger budgets. Plus, those larger companies often use in-house teams who just don’t have the expertise or the mandate for professional-looking, company-wide template use. So, win-win.
Signs your company needs a professionally designed template
You create a lot of presentations, pitches, proposals, or training materials
Businesses that regularly pitch for contracts or compete with others for business, or that create resources to share will spend a lot of time and effort creating presentations. The amount of time required becomes even greater without a professional template to hand.
Your presentations are worth a lot, either financially or reputationally
If it could mean the difference between winning or losing a large contract, or even if it’s ‘just’ a question of looking good to internal or external people, a professional template will be worth significantly more than it costs.
Different departments or individuals create their own presentations each time
Not only is the workload being repeated, inconsistencies will abound.
There are inconsistencies between presentations
It’s hard to create consistent presentations if you haven’t been trained to, it’s not your job, or you just don’t have the time or skill.
There are inconsistencies within presentations
Inconsistencies within presentations can lead to embarrassment or even missing out on an important contract.
Presentations look amateur
The last thing any business wants is to be perceived as amateur and not up to the task at hand, especially if there is a lot at stake.
Logos and graphics are stretched, pixelated, or poorly placed
If the people creating presentations are not able to use the software properly, are using the wrong types of files, or don’t have an eye for design, the resulting presentation decks are unlikely to look good.
Brand colours are inconsistent, wrong, or missing
Trying to ‘guess’ or approximate a brand colour can lead to varying shades of brand colours on one page and within documents. Not only does it look amateur, it’s reminiscent of fake brands and scams.
There’s a habit of ‘design by committee’
Many presentations end up being a case of ‘too many cooks spoiling the broth’ because everyone has an opinion and a way of working. A professionally designed template can solve this.
Decks take too long to create, especially with short deadlines
The less expertise the people designing your presentations have, the longer it’s likely to take them. The alternative is they rush it to meet the deadline, but this shows in the result too.
Old slides are being reused even though you’ve had a rebrand
If you’ve had a rebrand that isn’t being consistently applied to presentations, a new template will get rid of the old elements and inconsistencies.
Your business is growing into new markets, areas, or partnerships
If you are growing and expanding, your marketing collateral needs to reflect this.
Templating a template – building a base
Templating a template is essentially creating a ‘master’ template. This master will be designed with brand fonts, colours, layouts, and so on. Within this there will be templated slides that should align with all a company’s needs. These can include title slides, agendas, charts, case studies, bios, and so on – whatever is required.
A templated template gives a business a consistent starting point for any type of presentation. This is particularly useful when you have different teams or areas creating their own part of a larger presentation. Pulling multiple teams’ presentations together to make it look like cohesive can be an arduous, time-consuming task.
Hiring a presentation designer to create a template
Maybe your team needs to create PowerPoint presentations at times – maybe those that are less ‘important’ financially or reputationally. Perhaps you want them to consistently create presentations. Either way, hiring a professional presentation designer – to create your template will save your team a lot of time and energy. As well as resulting in a better outcome.
We always speak to our clients to work out exactly what they require and how we can best support them. We’ll tell you what we’ll need from you in terms of fonts, styles, logos, file types, and so on. If you already have something you’d like updated, we can start there. If you haven’t already established firm brand guidelines, we can help you with that too.
Hiring a presentation designer to create presentations when you don’t have a template
All presentations have to start somewhere. If you don’t already have a template, we can create a presentation based on your current brand guidelines, existing decks, or instructions. Alternatively, we can create a template for you first and then use it for your presentation.
Avoid the common mistakes made with templates
We’ll avoid the common mistakes made when creating templates. These include:
Over-complicating things
Making it too generic
Not designing it for what you’ll actually be using it for
Not explaining how to use it properly
Making it too flexible
Making it too rigid
The right PowerPoint presentation template is a powerful business tool
A good template saves time, money, and energy. It should be seen as more than just a design asset. Done properly, it’s a strong communication tool, and can open up a world of strong pitches and confident teams.
power your point provides presentation design services and we thrive on creating amazing templates for our clients. If you already know you need a template or would like us to take a look at what you have, please get in touch. We are a London-based presentation design company, but we can work with you remotely too.