PowerPoint. People either love it or they hate it. That’s because many presenters don’t know how to harness the full power of PowerPoint.
There are over 36 million PowerPoint presentations created each and every day. Given the limited number of templates available within PowerPoint, it’s pretty easy to make your presentation look like every other one out there.
That’s why you want to make a branded PowerPoint template. It will give each and every presentation a unique look that will be difficult to duplicate.
Keep reading to discover how you can create your own slick branded PowerPoint template and find tips to create an unforgettable presentation.
Why Have a Branded PowerPoint Presentation?
Your brand is the most important asset in your business. Believe it or not, large companies like Nike and Apple aren’t so valuable based on their product sales alone. They have very high valuations based on their brand.
Nike’s brand is worth almost $16 billion alone. Apple’s brand value is staggering. It’s worth an incredible $170 billion, or 21% of the value of the entire company.
Brands have a unique power in the marketplace as long as they’re presented well, and they’re presented consistently.
Whenever you present your company, whether it’s at a trade show, marketing campaign, or in a sales pitch presentation, you need to have the same look and feel. If you have too much variation, people will lose what your company is about.
You essentially want to hit’em over the head with your brand. Gently, of course.
What is Your Brand?
Once you discover the importance of having brand consistency, you might be in a panic because you have no idea what your brand is.
That’s OK, we’re here to help you with that.
Your brand is a big promise. It’s what customers think of when they think of your company. Your brand is the emotion that they feel when they see your logo. Coca-Cola is well known for selling happiness, not soda.
Your job is to figure out what your business is about and what the meaning is behind your company. Yes, you deliver a product or service. What is the emotion that you want people to feel when they think of your product or service?
A few common brands are about happiness, trust, security, love, fear of missing out, connections. You want to really dig deep and discover the emotional essence of your company. That will help you a great deal as you create the branded PowerPoint template.
After all, you can’t have a branded PowerPoint template without a solid brand to drive it.
Make or Review Your Logo
A big part of your branded PowerPoint template will be your logo. Once you have a better understanding of your brand, you’ll want to take the time to either create a new logo or review your existing logo.
You want to make sure that the shapes, colors, fonts, and images all align with the emotion that you’re trying to capture.
Each element in your logo has to have a purpose and help you get to the core of your brand. You could have a very modern brand.
That would mean that your colors would have to be modern, like a light blue or a black and white logo. Your fonts should be modern, too by using sans-serif fonts.
If you want to have a modern and approachable company, then you can use a circular shape, which people perceive as more open and empathetic.
If you find that your logo doesn’t match your brand, this is the perfect time to make adjustments using a Logo Maker.
How to Make a Branded PowerPoint Template
Now that you know what your brand is and you have your logo ready to go, it’s time to finally create your branded PowerPoint template.
You’re really only going to need two templates for your PowerPoint presentations. You’ll want to have a customizable presentation cover and a template for the presentation slides. You can get more involved by creating a template for the agenda/table of contents,
In PowerPoint, you’ll have several options to create your templates. You can use a template that already exists in the program and customize it. Another option is to create one from scratch. A third option is to find a template that you like online and use it or customize it. One final option is to hire a designer and have them create one for you.
The easiest option to go with is to customize an existing PowerPoint template and we’ll cover that here.
Choose Your Template
You’ll need to choose your template to customize in PowerPoint. Open up the program and choose to create a blank presentation.
Click on “Design” at the top of the screen and select your template. You can get additional ideas on the right-hand side of the screen by selecting Design Ideas.
For starters, you can create the title slide. As you create additional slides for your branded PowerPoint template, you can right-click the slide and choose “Layout.” This will give you more layout options that you can customize on your own.
Colors You Want to Use
Customize the colors by right-clicking the background area and select “Format Background.” This option will allow you to select your colors of the background. You may opt for a plain white background, a transparent background, or add an image.
Anytime you want to change the color of an element, using the right-click feature is the best way to go.
Add Your Logo
Are you ready to add your slick new logo to the presentation? All you have to do is pick an area on a slide go to the top of the screen and click “Insert.” Select “Pictures,” and you’ll be able to select your logo and add it to your presentation.
You can add it front and center on the title slide. Put the logo in a corner where it’s recognizable but not distracting on the other slides.
Congratulations, you now have a branded PowerPoint presentation.
Tips to Create a Killer PowerPoint Presentation
Now that you have your branded presentation templates, you need to fill them in for your next big presentation.
Here are some things that you need to know to make your next big pitch unforgettable.
Have a Strong Opening
A typical presentation starts with the title slide and the agenda. That immediately sets the tone of the presentation that it will be like most of the others.
Instead, start off your presentation with a story. That is a sure way to get your audience on board immediately.
People Can Read for Themselves
One of the biggest mistakes that presenters make over and over again is that they put their entire presentation into the PowerPoint presentation.
They will write the words of the presentation and then plug the entire speech into the presentation. They’ll then read every single point of the presentation. They’re essentially reading the entire presentation out of PowerPoint.
You will lose your audience for two reasons. The first is that they don’t want to be read to. The second is that you have to make the text so small because you have so much content, they can’t see the screen.
There is a workaround here. That’s to only highlight the most important points in PowerPoint slides. You may find that challenging because that means you have to speak to fill in the rest of the major points.
Practice Your PowerPoint Presentation
How do you make a great presentation better? Practice it. You need to give is several run-throughs to make sure that the content is useful and you’re comfortable presenting the slides.
You also want to make sure that the slides are in the proper order. When you edit and create slides, it’s easy to switch things around.
You don’t want to wait until you’re due to give a big presentation to test things out.
Keep Your Audience Awake (Engaged)
When you’re talking to people for an extended period of time, it’s natural for them to tune you out after a while.
If you want to be remembered for the right reasons, you have to keep your audience engaged. Your presentation content may be a little on the boring side, but you can still keep your audience engaged by asking the right questions.
Common tricks that professional speakers use is to have audiences repeat important points, fill in the blanks, and ask questions.
A Powerful Presentation Begins with a Branded PowerPoint Template
When you’re creating a presentation, PowerPoint is the go-to tool to make it happen. Yet, you don’t want your presentation to look like every other one out there.
Creating a branded PowerPoint template is a great way to make sure that your company is remembered for the right reasons. It drives consistency and is more impressive to look at than a standard PowerPoint template.
Would you like to start designing your brand identity? Work with one of our designers who can create a stunning logo along with brand guidelines today.
