We live in a visual world. In fact, during presentations, 93% of the information that
people retain is based on what they saw, not on what you said. That means you better make
sure your pitch deck graphics are compelling and memorable, but how much animation should
you add and does it really work?
If you’re interested in finding out how to have the most powerful pitch deck possible,
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Thanks for watching, I’m Antonia from aok.com.au, and I’ve been helping my clients for 23
years as a business strategist and angel investor. I have had the pleasure of working with my
clients to raise millions towards their business goals.
I’ve created more pitch decks than I can remember and the greatest advice I can give
you is to make sure you have all the key points investors are looking for in your pitch deck.
This comes before design or animation.
If you haven’t already, download my pitch deck content guide to make sure you have those
key points covered before you take another step. You can find a link for it in the description.
The right amount of animation can add the extra wow factor to your presentation. There’s
no doubt that animation in your pitch deck can be very effective.
To help you tread that fine line between a great pitch deck and an over animated visual
nightmare, I’ve put together this user-friendly guide to keep you on track.
Were you aware that there are two ways of adding movement to your presentation - animation
and transitions.
Transitions allow you to animate how your slide comes into view. For instance, having
your slide pushing in from the bottom or splitting from the middle to view the next slide, is
called a transition.
Animation lets you move a single object or a group of objects on the slide. If you’re
clever you can do some amazing animation in presentation software. But let’s get back
to whether you should or should not animate and if you do, how much is enough.
Let’s start with transitions. Most presentation software offers a range
of eye-catching transition effects to make your pitch deck slides look more interesting
as you go from one slide to the next. It is the most widely used animation solution for
presentations and can include around one hundred slide transition options.
If you use a transition for every slide, your audience might feel a bit like they’re on
a rollercoaster ride. I call this approach ‘the mad woman on roller skates’. Avoid
doing this at all cost.
Mix transitions up. Intersperse some transitions from one slide to the next. Or use some transitions
for a few slides then do a series of slides with no transitions at all.
Transitions are a little like visual magnets that pull your viewer from one slide through
to the next. So an effective approach is to only utilise them when you want to emphasise
particular slides in your presentation.
This will help to slow your presentation down at those points and allow your potential investors
to linger on your message and have a little longer to digest that information before you
move on to your next key business point.
My suggestion is to keep your transition choices consistent throughout your entire presentation.
This will immediately make your pitch deck message appear more cohesive, professional,
and polished.
Overall, transitions are a great choice for changing the pace of your pitch deck and are
simple to use.
Have you tried adding animation to your pitch deck and it just isn’t working or looks
lame. Let me know in the comments below.
Next up, is animation. If animation does make you a little nervous
it’s time for a mindset makeover.
Having a play with the inbuilt animations without getting too hung up on the results
can be a lot of fun and is very easy.
If you want to learn more, YouTube is full of great tutorials and how-to guides for presentation
animation. Personally I just played with the animations until I got the effect I was looking
for. It’s pretty intuitive, but you do have to bring some imagination to the table.
Programs such as Keynote, Google slides, Visme or Genially, each have their own set of solutions.
I suggest you have a play with them to see how they compare.
Now, the advantage of animation is that it can focus your audience’s attention on a
particular point on your slide. It can also bring to life a complex business idea or infographic
that can’t be captured in a static image.
The key is to think about how you want investors to see the information on your slide. This
is called ‘eye flow’.
For example, if you had an important piece of information you might fade that on first
and when you feel that point is clear, you would bring on the rest of your content. Breaking
up your content with animation like this will mean your audience will be more likely to
remember this key message.
But please keep your animation simple. Once you start playing with animation it’s
easy to get carried away and use every possible effect. But if there’s too much going on,
the clutter may crowd the screen and detract from your key message. Don’t overdo it.
By all means add animation effects like a few pop outs and dissolves but don’t go
mixing whirls, wipes, zooms and chequerboard animations all in the one presentation.
As a general rule, use no more than two different animation approaches in your entire pitch
deck.
If you are going to use animations in your pitch deck, you will also need to consider
the timing of your presentation.
Remember, your audience can only focus on one thing at a time. So never say anything
important while they’re watching an animation or transition build. State your important
point before the animation effect or after it but never at the same time.
What about using sound effects, are they a good idea?
Ahhh, well you could but again, keep them simple and subtle. This is still a business
presentation and too many bells and whistles (do you like what I did there?) will detract
from your credibility.
And seeing we’re at it, too much colour can also be distracting. Keep to a set colour
theme that all work together and make sure your pitch deck doesn’t turn into a rainbow.
If your pitch deck has turned into a mad woman on roller skates and you think it could do
with a second set of eyes looking it over, send it to me and I’ll review it for you.
You’ll find my contact details in the description.
Have you been getting a good response to an animated pitch deck? Let me know what kind
of feedback you got in the comments below.
Do me a favour and give me a thumbs up and while you’re there don’t forget to subscribe
to my channel.
Creating a powerful and compelling pitch isn’t easy, but don’t forget, you are following
your dreams, so keep on pitching with passion.