Be purpose-driven

All of your marketing materials, including your slideshow, should be focused on driving a specific business outcome. Why? Because your presentation will be viewed by more people when they see your slideshow on a website, on an app, or in a mailing than when it’s viewed in a physical setting.
In other words, your content should be tailored to the specific context it will be used in.

For example, when your marketing materials are used to sell a product, the purpose of your content is to convince your audience to make a purchase by showcasing the product in the best possible light.

When your marketing materials are used for staff recruitment, the purpose is to attract top talent to your organization by showcasing the benefits of working for your company.

Be user-friendly

No matter how fancy your visual designs are, if your slides are too complicated or too confusing to understand, your audience will not be able to fully engage with your content.

Keep your slides concise and easy to understand, even if that means using a diagram or table to simplify your point. After all, your audience should be able to pick up your visual presentation and understand it on first glance.

Be creative

If you’re designing your presentation content by hand, try to keep things interesting by mixing it up a bit. Mixing up your creative designs will keep your audience’s attention, which is imperative for keeping their interest in your content high.

Some creative ideas to keep your audience’s attention include:

• incorporating different themes and ideas within each slide
• limiting the use of standard visual designs (i.e., using a photo of your dog on one slide, and a photo of a house on the next)
• creating a short animation at the end of each visual
• incorporating a relevant quote or two within your visual designs

Be professional

Although creativity is important when designing your presentation, your visual designs also need to be consistent with the professionalism of your brand.

Keep things professional by keeping your visual designs consistent with your brand’s aesthetic. This means that your visual designs should be clean, simple, and professional.

You can achieve a professional look by designing your visual designs in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, or another graphics program.

Be transparent

Transparency is key to building trust and likability with your audience.

When designing your visual designs, make sure everything you include is transparent. This means that your visual designs should include images, charts, graphs, etc. that show data instead of keeping your audience in the dark by concealing information within your image design.

Transparency allows your audience to see the whole truth behind the information you’re presenting, which builds trust and likability.

Be different

Your visual designs should be different from any other presentation on the block, both in terms of design and content.

Your visual designs should be distinct, both in terms of design and content. This means that your visual designs should be unique, both in terms of design and content, and not be reminiscent of other brands or presentations.

To create distinct visual designs, think of new and interesting ways to use design and incorporate different types of visual content into your visual designs.

Wrapping up

Marketing has become incredibly digital, and it’s important that your visual designs are as well. Your visuals will be viewed online, on apps, and in mailing lists—more so than in person—which means that they need to be as digital as possible. After all, digital visuals allow your audience to view and interact with your content from their own devices, which is ideal for reaching your target audience and encouraging a purchase.

When designing your visual designs, keep in mind these seven rules:

• Be purpose driven
• Be user-friendly
• Be creative – Be professional – Be transparent – Be different – Wrapping up