How to Cook Up an Awesome
Deck Recipes by 31 Experts

Everything starts with the idea.
— Aaron Friedman.

Ask yourself, “What am I
going to talk about?” and “Who is my audience?” — Phil Fraser.

Ensure the audience walks away
with something actionable, something they can take back to the office. — Stacey MacNaught. Tweet this

Creating a great, show-stopping presentation
is no easy task. — Ned Poulter.

Define a learning outcome, the
core message you want people to get. — Nick Garner. Tweet this

How can You do it?
We asked 31 speakers and digital marketing experts

Presentation Creation SuccessYou Research Conception
Structured Content Designing the Deck Practicing the Speech

1. Conducting Research Brad Geddes
Brian Downard Carolyn Jones Nichola Stott

Start with proper planning What
is the style of the session: workshop, how- to, educational, high-level, problem-solving? What is the length of time you have to speak? What are the other presenters going to speak about? (Either avoid overlap or have a nice segue from one speaker to another.)

Know your audience Audience size
(determines how personal your presentation style needs to be) Audience education level based on subject Audience corporate level (practitioners, decision makers, CMOs, etc.)

Think over about outcomes The
audience outcome (What should they do with the information?) Business outcomes (What do I want out of it?)

Based on the Step-by-Step Research
you can decide how the session needs to be laid out from introducing your- self, opening statement, supporting materials and then conclusion. — Brad Geddes.

5 More Insights
to Rock

Research other popular presentations that
have a high share count online. (Topsy is a great tool for this.) — Brian Downard. #1 Tweet this

Find slides, videos or write-ups
of past talks to get an idea of what has been presented before and what has been well-received. — Carolyn Jones. #2

Have the main point of
your speech written down in one sentence. — Carolyn Jones. #3 Tweet this

Define your business targets —
download the slides, visit any further information or tools referenced. — Nichola Stott. #4

Let the idea sit in
your head for a few days. Consider the audience, different approaches, etc., until something gels. Then move to bullet points. — Brad Geddes. #5

2. Defining Conception Miles Burke
Ben Austin Laura Crimmons Ned Poulter Neil Eneix Jono Alderson Kent Lewis Stephen Kenwright Lyena Solomon Ross Simmonds Justin McGill Tony Dimmoсk

Without a clear outline it can
be tricky. Here are a few reasons why…

Jumping straight into PowerPoint will
quite often mean large structural changes to the ordering of the deck, right up until the last minute! — Jono Alderson. #1

The hardest bit is a
message that ties everything together… individual slides are easy because it’s just filling in time. — Stephen Kenwright. #2

11 Amazing Tips to Empower
Your Presentation

Storytelling is a key point
of your presentation. — Miles Burke. #1 Tweet this

Structure your presentation for a story (setup,
conflict and resolution). — Laura Crimmons. #2 Tweet this

Set-up (introduction) prepares listeners to
hear the story. — Lyena Solomon. #3

Build the presentation around that
key takeaway with a story line. — Neil Eneix. #4 Tweet this

Create a mind-map of all
the topics and elements you intend to include. — Tony Dimmock. #5

A slideshow with great info
but no story will limit the decks ability to resonate with people and be shared on a consistent basis. — Ross Simmonds. #6

Removal of “fluff” – anything
and everything that sounds like “waffle” is removed. — Tony Dimmock. #7

Use the presentation for support,
rather than a crutch. — Kent Lewis. #8 Tweet this

Use a real example of someone
or a company that’s done a great job. — Mel Carson. #9 Tweet this

Look for supporting data that
proves the point. This could be case studies, industry reports, Analytics dashboards, test results, etc. #10 — Leyna Solomon.

Try and find imagery that
supports each slide or main point. — Justin McGill. #11

3. Moving to Structured Content
Ali White Nichola Stott Brian Downard Illiy Vjestica Micah Fisher- Kirshner Matthew Barby Matt Beswick Carolyn Jones Lucasz Zelezny Simon Penson Ross Simmonds David Bain Stacey MacNaught

Visualizing Ideas Moving to a
Structured Flow

Visualizing Ideas Moving to a
Structured Flow

Organize things visually to get
an idea of how things are going to flow. — Carolyn Jones.

Draw out your ideas on
sticky notes and post them on the wall. — Illiy Vjestica.

I use a Post-it note
for each slide. I move them around, remove some, add new ones (a process that typically takes hours!). — Stacey MacNaught. Tweet this

I always sketch out some
rough ideas and concepts on a large A3 sheet to begin with. — Matthew Barby.

Creating the basic structure can
be done by simply scribbling them on a piece of paper and laying them out in order, one point per sheet. — Simon Penson.

Visualizing Ideas Moving to a
Structured Flow

Wireframe structure of the deck
— just white backgrounds and black text — to get an initial version of the slides in place. — Matt Beswick.

Work schematically, writing the key
message on each slide. — Simon Penson.

Start with 5-to-6 overall concepts.
Structure things and decide on the 3 concepts that work together the best — Matt Beswick.

List the main points, 3
or 4 — they become the sections of the presentation. Break these down further by listing 6 or 7 bullet points for each section of the deck. — David Bain.

Write bullet points. Based on
bullet points, prepare a Table of Content. — Lucasz Zelezny. Tweet this

Your key points require multiple
steps of review from colleagues and friends to make sure the points you’re trying to make come across well. — Micah Fisher-Kirshner.

4. Designing a Deck Ali
White Micah Fisher- Kirshner Simon Penson Brian Downard Geno Prussakov Kent Lewis

I prefer to default to
1 background image and no more than 3 bullet points in a callout box. — Kent Lewis.

Make sure you use a
high enough resolution for all your images, charts and other supporting materials. — Ali White.

5 more designing tips to stay
ahead of others!

Each topic/concept in a presentation may have 1-5
slides. — Kent Lewis. #1

Keep ideas short and easy
to understand. — Brian Downard. #2

Arrange for effective presentation via
animation and emphasis. — Geno Prussakov. #3

Try to keep things as
visual as possible. — Matthew Barby. #4

Most people forget the value
of great design, it captures attention and keeps it. — Brian Downard. #5

Use a general rule of
one text-based slide, followed by one image based slide, followed by something that has subtle humor within it. — Matthew Barby. Tweet this

Run through your slides with
a timer. — Ali White. Tweet this

Spot-check various grammar, spelling and
formatting issues, and make sure your information is matching up to how you plan to speak about it. — Micah Fisher-Kirshner.

Written content should use a
lot formatting tricks to hold a user’s attention — once, a friend of mine had a client tell him that his infographic couldn’t use capital letters as their customers “didn’t use them.” — Peter Campbell.

5. Practicing your speech Simon
Penson Phil Fraser Peter Campbell Ben Austin Justin McGill

Simply practice the finalized deck
3 or 4 times in the 10 days before the event. — Simon Penson.

My practice normally entails standing
in the bedroom delivering the speech to the dog and my wife! — Phil Fraser.

Write a script, and rehearse like
crazy. — Peter Campbell.

Use a video to record
yourself practicing so you can see how you’re doing. — Justin McGill. Tweet this

Once I’m happy with my
slides, I’ll do a practice run in front of the office — my toughest critics! — Ben Austin.

Looking for more information? Follow
our Experts on Twitter to Learn More!

Lukasz Zelezny Matthew Barby David
Bain Jono Alderson Stephen Kenwright Brad Geddes @LukaszZelezny @matthewbarby @DavidBain @jonoalderson @stekenwright @bgtheory

Matt Beswick Pete Campbell Simon
Penson Aaron Friedman Ali White Nichola Stott @mattbeswick @petecampbell @simonpenson @AaronFriedman @AlistairWhite @NicholaStott

Carolyn Jones Brian Downard Miles
Burke Neil Eneix Stacey MacNaught Ross Simmonds @carolynlyn @pocketyourshop @milesb @neileneix @staceycav @TheCoolestCool

Kent Lewis Tony Dimmock Justin
McGill Illiy Vjestica Lyena Solomon Ned Poulter @kentjlewis @Tony_DWM @Jus10McGill @illiyadesigns @lyena @NedPoulter

Nick Garner Ben Austin Michael
Reynolds Mel Carson @nickgarner @absolutelyben @michaelreynolds @MelCarson Laura Crimmons Geno Prussakov @lauracrimmons @ePrussakov

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