• Start with a PowerPoint template – Your PowerPoint template is a critical asset. Most basically, it is essentially your company’s presentation stationery. A template brands your presentation and helps drive uniformity and consistency. The good news is that many companies will already have an established PowerPoint template that you can – maybe even should – use. If not, there are many free templates available on the Web, including some very good ones from ProPoint Graphics.
• Use relevant imagery – Don’t make the mistake of limiting your presentation to slide after slide of bullet points. Everybody can read and listen. People simply do not need to read the full script of a presentation while it is simultaneously spoken by the presenter. Instead of text, use visuals to supplement and reinforce your presentation. When you do use graphics, ensure that they are pertinent to and supportive of the messaging in your slides—and that they work with your color palette. Be careful to avoid gratuitous images that don’t add to your content.
• Avoid clichés – Reviewing your annual budget doesn’t mean your audience needs to see yet another image of stacked coins along the right-hand side of your slides. Think outside of the box to come up with some fresh, innovative ideas to connect the visuals to your content. Cliché images are just as painful for your audience as the verbal ones.
• Retire the bundled clip art – Presentation software usually comes with a suite of free clip art that can be drawn upon exhaustively, but most available images are benign at best, and terribly inappropriate for business at worst. A cartoon graphic that works well for an 8th grade school project probably won’t get the job done for a Fortune 500 business presentation. Look beyond the convenient and seek new, relevant, professional graphics that will help you make an impact.

By taking a little extra time upfront to make sure your presentation design will impact, not detract, you can feel confident every time you step up to the podium.