How to create a pitch deck for UK clients.

What is a pitch deck?

Pitch decks, also known as marketing decks or simply just decks, are a tool used by businesses to convince others to work with them. It could be pitching for investment as a start-up or proving you’re the best business for a website redesign. The main goal of a pitch deck is to teach someone about your business in a short space of time and showcase all the things you’re good at.

When you create a pitch deck, you’ll typically include slides that cover a range of important topics around your business. This might mean slides on your business plan and future goals, along with your recent performance and latest achievements. Pitch decks are typically presented live to the client but are sometimes emailed over to give them a chance to read the slides when they’re ready.

When should you use a pitch deck?

There are a handful of cases where you might need to use a pitch deck. But the most common are the client pitch, potential investor pitch, and the start-up business pitch. The layout of these decks and the areas they focus on will change depending on the goal of the pitch.

For example, if you want to create a pitch deck to prove your business is best suited to social media management, you’d lean into examples of content. Alternatively, if you were trying to encourage investment, you might only use a top-performing example of your content to prove your audience interaction.

Ultimately, every pitch deck should be different, especially if they’re going to be effective. This is because a good pitch deck needs to be tailored, not only to your business, but to who you’re speaking to. If you’re meeting multiple investors or clients over an extended period, you’ll want to create a pitch deck that focuses on your audiences’ wants and needs.

For a client pitch or presentation.

If you’re creating a client pitch deck, you’re likely competing against others for the chance to work with them. To stand out from the crowd, you’ll need to get to know your client beforehand and understand the challenges affecting their business. Once you know their issues, you can position yourself as the solution to their problems.

For potential investors.

If you’re pitching to potential investors, you’ll likely have limited time to make an impact – potentially as little as two minutes. Your deck needs to be focused on four key elements:

• The service or product you’re providing
• Your competitors
• How you plan to expand and make money
• Evidence that you and your team are capable of succeeding.

For a start-up business pitch.

If you’re creating a deck for a start-up business pitch, your aim probably isn’t to close a deal but to encourage conversation with investors. Realistically, you want to convince potential investors that your business will provide a reliable solution to a problem.

Tailor your deck to your audience.

It’s important when you create a pitch deck that’s tailored to your audience. Think about what they’re likely to know, how they’re likely to feel about key topics and their past work. Adjust your presentation accordingly. If you’re able to speak to your audience in a way that resonates with them and shows you’ve done your research, it should help you connect with your listeners.

Have one idea per slide.

You may want to cram multiple ideas on to one slide, especially when you have a lot to say. However, this can be confusing to the audience and, even worse, lead to key ideas getting lost in the overall conversation. Focus on simple communication to avoid misunderstandings and information overload.

Tell a story for your audience.

Stories are a natural part of conversation and can be a compelling way to convey information and data. It can be the story of how you built your business, or what inspired you to invent the service or product you’re trying to sell. Whatever story you choose to tell, ensure that it’s relevant and contributes to the presentation.

Make sure you use consistent branding.

When you’re designing your presentation, your slides should include your business’ branding. Not only does this look better, but it’s professional and acts as a reminder of the business identity – something investors may recognise if they receive multiple documents from you.

Branding doesn’t have to be flashy or over the top. It just needs to be distinct enough that you aren’t mistaken for someone else.

Switch up your slide layout to keep things interesting.

While your brand identity should be consistent throughout the presentation, it doesn’t mean your slide layout has to remain the same too. Instead, switch up your slide layout. This will keep your audience engaged and help tell your story. There’s no hard and fast rule here. Just try to include some variation in the slide design.

Choose the right font for the job.

Like slide layouts and the use of consistent branding, the right font can make all the difference to a presentation. Some fonts are hard to read, and others take up too much space to be useful in a presentation. Factor in accessibility and practicality when picking your font and you can’t go too far wrong.