1. Don’t rely on your slides to be your pitch
People buy from people. Your slides should help you get your message across but they shouldn’t replace you as a presenter.

2. Plan carefully
Just as you would plan a report or a marketing activity work out not just what you want to say but most importantly what your audience are interested in hearing.

3. Use the master slide
Set up the master slide on your presentation first, once you have this it’s much easier to adjust all the slides at once, saving you time if you need to make changes to layout.

4. Don’t read out your slides
Your audience will listen to you so you don’t need to repeat what you are saying to them on your slides.  Put facts, figures, quotes, images and extra information on your slides instead.

5. Great photos
Save as JPEG files and RGB not CMYK colour. Most slides are 24cm x 18cm at 150 dpi so resave your pictures smaller to decrease the file size of your final presentation. Small presentations will run slide transitions faster.

6. Putting it on a CD/DVD
PowerPoint doen’t import audio and video files, it links to them on your hard disk. Keep them in the same place relative to your presentation on your CD to keep everything working.

7. Don’t overfill slides
Packing each slide full of information will overwhelm your audience, split your content over several slides in manageable chunks.

8. Set up time
Get to your venue early to set up your laptop, projector and screen. Testing your slides before your audience arrives will also help calm any nerves.

9. At the end…
Put your name, contact details and website on the final slide so that people can make a note of how to contact you without forming a queue to ask.

10. Use the notes facility in the print options to give your audience a copy of  your slides along with a space they can use to write notes while you are presenting, these can be a valuable aide-memoir for your audience.

What next? Create Design Studio specialise in producing PowerPoint presentation slides call 01962 737989 or email studio@createdesignstudio.co.uk for a free consultation.

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Marketing your business is easier when you can point to something that makes your offer unique. This is usually referred to as your USP or unique selling point but I find it easier to think about it as the personality of your business. After all, every personality is unique.

Passion
What is the passion that lies behind your business? Can you remember what it was that got you into your industry? Are you stuck in the day-to-day running of your business and have you lost sight of what it is that motivated you to begin with?

If you can remember what got you into your business, rediscover your motivation and put it into words you have in a nutshell described your passion for your business. Getting that across to your customers in your marketing makes a big difference in inspiring confidence in your ability and motivation.

Unique
What is it that your business does that is unique? It might not be what you do but rather the way you do it that is important to your customers. Think through some of the most recent or most successful projects you have completed for customers and try to identify what you did for them that they would have difficulty finding elsewhere.

Once you can see the unique service that you give to your customers you can use it to define your offer in your marketing materials. Don’t keep it a secret, tell your customers what is unique about your service offer to them.

Customers
What are your customers like? Can you spot any trends that are common between them all? Perhaps they are mostly local, or mostly small companies, or mostly freelancers, or perhaps they are all from the same industry sector.

Once you know what kind of customers you work for it is easier to work out why they choose to buy from you. You might be their nearest supplier and the most convenient, or you might specialise is products or services that are relevant to their industry. Once you know why customers come to you it’s possible to target your marketing materials to the right area or the right companies in an industry sector. You can also identify possible new customers to approach.

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What do your customers think of your business as it is at the moment? Ask them for their impressions of your business, your products or services and your staff. All feedback is valuable and can help to enlighten reasons that your business does well in some cases but not others.

Consider the feedback you get and work out if there are changes you can make to improve things. Your marketing can then highlight these changes and improvements to your customers.

Have a plan
Put all your discoveries so far into your marketing plan and use the plan to work out what your budgets are and how best to spend them. You should be able to plan what you are going to say and who you are trying to reach now you have thought about your passion, uniqueness and your customers. This knowledge makes planning easier.

Create Design Studio can help your business move forward by reviewing your marketing activities. For £249 we will evaluate your current activities and provide you with lots of new ideas for complementary marketing and promotional activities.

Call David Woodroofe for more information on the Create Design Studio Marketing Review Service on 01962 737989.

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