- Hi there. I'm AJ from HubSpot.
Are you about to make
the most important PowerPoint presentation of your career
and don't know where to start?
Well, you're in the right place.
Today, I'm going to show you how to create
and deliver the best presentation ever
using our free PowerPoint templates.
To get started, head to the description
to download our collection
of professionally designed PowerPoint templates.
We've included plenty of options
so that you can choose the design
that's the best fit for your audience.
Now, before you start creating
your actual presentation, pause.
A PowerPoint presentation needs
to be thoroughly planned out
before you put words and images on your slides.
So take the time to outline your presentation
on a Google Doc or a Microsoft Word document first.
Heck, you can even use Post-It Notes
if that's what you need to do.
Just plan your talking track before you start
adding in animations and images.
Give your presentation a coherent beginning, middle, and end
and break things up into clear and organized sections.
And don't forget to note which visuals
or graphs you wanna highlight on your slides.
Trust me.
This makes the process of putting your ideas
into the presentation way easier.
Otherwise, you might find yourself
designing the perfect slide,
then give the presentation a run-through
and realize you have to go all the way back
to the drawing board.
This way, you get your story down on paper,
and your slides will fall right into place.
Now that your talking track is all planned out,
let's begin building your presentation.
Start by choosing your design
from HubSpot's collection of free PowerPoint templates.
Think about which design is most eye-catching
and appropriate for your audience.
For example, this one might be best
for a more formal presentation, but this one is better
for a more fun and engaging option.
For this video, let's go ahead and choose this one
because I'm a sucker for whitespace.
Go ahead and title your presentation,
swap out the image, delete those instructional slides,
and we're off to the races.
And keep in mind,
everything in these templates is completely customizable.
So get creative.
Feel free to change the font style or theme colors
to match those of your brand or your message.
Because PowerPoint presentations can last,
well, a while, it's customary to provide an agenda
of what's coming and when.
You wanna show you have a clear path for the presentation.
It's kind of like showing your copilot on a road trip a map
of where you're going and how long it'll take to get there.
Plus, it clearly lays out the point of the presentation
and gets your audience curious
about how you're going to arrive at your conclusion.
The agenda should be a simple, text-heavy slide
going line by line for each section,
but feel free to add a stock photo
or a logo of your brand if you want a visual.
Next, if you haven't already,
introduce yourself to your audience.
It doesn't matter if it's a group
of familiar colleagues or complete strangers.
Use this slide to introduce the speaker
or group of speakers,
specifically highlighting the speaker's background
and qualifications to be speaking today.
And don't forget to include a spiffy headshot,
like this one that HubSpot got taken from me the other day.
Okay. Yes.
We can now get into the actual content of your presentation.
Actually, one more thing.
Before making each section,
make a copy of all of your content slides
so that you have a fresh set of templates to work with.
If you're making edits to the templates themselves,
you'll just have to revert the changes you made
every single time you start a new section.
So it's a best practice to start fresh.
Refer back to that outline
we started the video talking about
and start building out your presentation slide by slide.
In each set of templates,
you'll notice a variety of slide types,
like text-heavy, image-heavy, a data slide,
and a quotation slide, just to name a few.
Remember, you don't need to use every single slide type
in every section, so if you come across a template
you don't need in one section, just delete it.
You can adjust these designs
and vary them up however you choose.
For example, on this data slide,
you can resize and relabel the content of this graph,
or you can use a data visualization tool
like Excel or Canva to build and insert a new graph.
For these images, you can replace them with new graphics
and crop them to a unique shape
by clicking the arrow next to the Crop button,
selecting Crop to Shape, and choosing the design you want.
And while it's tempting to get carried away
with all of these features, remember,
whitespace is your friend.
PowerPoint should be used as a visual tool
to convey the information that your words can't.
With too many words or images on a slide,
you can easily overwhelm your audience
and detract from the message you're trying to get across.
It's still up to you, the speaker,
to tell a coherent and engaging story
that's worth people's time.
So leave some buffer room
between the elements of your slide
and make the slides' contents more readable
by using short sentences or bullet points whenever possible.
And don't forget to end each section
with a clear point and takeaway.
Once your section is complete,
follow the same steps we just outlined.
Continue to make a copy of the original templates
and fill out your subsequent sections
until your presentation is finalized.
Once you're happy with your design,
consider adding animation effects
by clicking the element you want to show up,
going to the Animations tab,
then click the effect you want to have happen and how.
Whenever you add a new animation,
it will default to come after one previously added
and can be triggered by a separate click,
but you can change this by choosing With Previous
or After Previous if you want it to happen without clicking.
PowerPoint has unlimited creative options,
so for each section, try to add different designs
or animations to keep your audience's attention
throughout the entire presentation.
Lastly, wrap things up with a conclusion slide
summarizing the presentation
and any next steps or clear follow-ups.
This could be your last chance to share a thought
with your audience, so if there's anything you need
to add or specify, now's the time to do it.
You might want to include your social media handle
or email address if you're presenting
to an external audience and are open to follow-ups.
And there we go!
You now have the templates and the know-how
to deliver a captivating
and visually appealing PowerPoint presentation.
Don't forget you can download these awesome templates
for free from the link in the description.
Did we miss any PowerPoint hacks today?
Share your tips in the comments below
and subscribe for more videos just like this one.
Thanks for watching,
and we'll see you next time.
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- [Narrator] HubSpot. Grow better.