Pitching your business to investors often requires a pitch deck. Pitch decks typically contain between 10 to 20 slides and are designed to tell investors about your story, your brand, and your vision.
Presenting a powerful and professional pitch deck can be the opening you need to secure funding. It’s therefore key that you know exactly what a pitch deck should contain, the best way to make yours stand out, and what trends to keep an eye on.
Why Does a Pitch Deck Design Matter?
A pitch deck isn’t going to be the only thing potential investors will consider before they make any funding decisions, but it is going to demonstrate to them some key information early on.
Firstly, pitch decks can be content-heavy, filled with data, graphs, research, and ideas on the project you want them to invest in. It’s usually best to have two pitch decks; one packed full of the research and one to act as a visual aid.
This is where the design of a pitch deck comes into play. An attractive and thoughtful pitch deck design demonstrates that you pay attention to detail and engage with creativity from the offset. It also helps to craft the brand and conception of the business from the start.
Handing over a bland pitch deck with minimal information will convey a lack of care that could put investors off considering funding.
What Are Investors Looking For?
Investors want to see a considered pitch deck that highlights key information and statistics while incorporating a level of creativity. Creative design demonstrates an ability to engage with conceptual thinking that is usually considered a bonus by investors.
Your design pitch needs to begin to engage with how you want your brand to present itself, but don’t try to overshoot yourself and overcomplicate the matter. Good design is about showing the least amount on the slide with the highest impact, consider thinking ‘what can I remove’.
If your brand identity isn’t fully developed, you shouldn’t try to create one just to fit the pitch deck. Instead, craft the pitch deck around what you do know – choose between one to three colours that reflect the personality and stick to a maximum of two typefaces, ideally one for headings and another for body copy.
Top Tips to Make Your Pitch Deck Stand Out
The most important tip is to think visually. If this isn’t your strong suit, then consider outsourcing to a team or individual who knows how to work effectively with design concepts.
Minimise the amount of heavy data in your pitch by sticking to core points and facts. You should also consider converting statistics into easy-to-read charts or graphs. This will look visually appealing whilst also proving you’ve done your homework.
Creative layouts are part and parcel of a successful pitch deck; consider tiling your points into blocks, let the content breathe and make use of any professional photographs you have of your team or business.
Tailor the content to the company you are pitching to. Co-branding the design and including brief summaries of what they have told you so far ensures they know you have listened. They want to feel heard.
Use the ‘The BFD Test” – Big F*ing Deal. Your presentation should explain why people should care. If you don’t feel you have hit this yet, keep asking yourself why. Get to the real tangible benefits as to why your business is a Big F*ing Deal.
Create a hierarchy on the slide. Make important information big and bold. Got a cool stat? Great – make the number bigger than the rest of the text so it stands out. Ensure that the colour and weight of the slide are assigned to the most important information. Let your design tell your story.
Design Trends to Keep an Eye On
Making creative use of some of the successful features of social media can be really effective if it’s kept relevant and professional. Look at including any appropriate GIFs or Emojis that convey your brand identity as well as help to punctuate any statistics or research.
Do some research regarding the upcoming trends; look into minimalism, doodles, muted pastels, and more.
Animated pitch decks are also becoming more popular due to the engaging and appealing way they present information whilst holding attention. You don’t want an investor to become bored by the droves of facts you’re presenting and animating your pitch deck can be a great way of avoiding this problem.
