There are two front runners when choosing software to create your pitch deck - PowerPoint
and Keynote.
PowerPoint wins out time and time again because most people own it.
Making it a no brainer when you know you are going to have to send your pitch deck to investors.
But could you make a splash by using Prezi instead?
Let’s take a look at whether it’s a good idea or a bad idea.
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Hi I’m Antonia from aok.com.au, and I have been a business strategic adviser and angel
investor for 23 years. I work with my clients to identify their goals and help them create
an engaging pitch message that will close deals and go on to grow their businesses.
So, you’ve decided you want your pitch deck to stand out from the crowd when you send
it to potential investors, and chosen to go with Prezi. What are the pros and cons of
using Prezi over the other software solutions?
Let’s start by looking at how Prezi works.
The first thing you need to understand about Prezi, is it’s an online presentation application
that allows you to create presentations using a single canvas which contains frames.
Each frame contains the content you would normally add to a slide.
If you click on a frame, you zoom in to the content. Just like a slide, each frame can
contain the content of your pitch deck.
The frames are dispersed around the canvas and then linked via a path.
Whereas with slides you traditionally tend to present your story chronologically.
What I always stress in any pitch deck is to create a storyline and work progressively
from one point to the next to develop a story that sequentially covers the key points of
your business. Prezi certainly gives you that ability however you have to think of your
presentation a little differently.
If you have levels of information within that frame that need to be clicked on to be revealed,
you could be creating an issue when it becomes a standalone presentation that you send out
to investors.
If investors are randomly flipping through your pitch deck without you there, they may
miss some crucial points and your storyline will seem muddled.
Another thing you need to avoid is having too many points within points. Zooming in
and out again will make your potential investors dizzy.
The last thing you want is a potential investor closing your presentation because it is annoying!
Now you are going to have to share your Prezi pitch deck, so how are you going to do that?
There are several ways:
You can share a link via email which solves the problem of sending the presentation to investors.
You can present it remotely by sharing a link with your audience which they will follow
as you navigate and present. This is a great solution but not unique.
You can download it as a pdf and each step in your presentation will become a page. Nothing new there.
You can also download the Prezi presentation and use it with Prezi's desktop app, but this
can be a stumbling block for investors.
If you have the paid version you can also export it as a PowerPoint presentation.
This is handy but then you are back in the land of PowerPoint.
If you are determined to create a presentation that stands out from the crowd, you can certainly
do that in Prezi.
I need to warn you though, you are going to need to put aside quite a bit of time to experiment
with your message to make you sure don’t overdo the exciting zooming effects.
In a nut-shell, Prezi is a lot of fun but you and anyone who edits your pitch deck will
need to spend some time learning it and figuring out how you can make it do what you want.
Of course, if you can hire someone like me to do it for you, but you will still need to
manage the content in the future and get your head around how Prezi works.
Yes you can.
It takes a little planning to develop the message and graphics, as you can see here.
You need to have one large image which you zoom in and out of to reveal your key points.
You can also add slides at certain points in your presentation so that it isn’t constantly
zooming in and out.
This will give you the best of both styles but in a software you already have a subscription
for and may find easier to use.
There is one downside with creating a Prezi style presentation, adding all those lovely
animations zooming in and zooming out may make editing your pitch deck content a little tricky
in the future.
Would I use Prezi for my pitch deck?
Probably not. I think for the extra cost and the extra effort required, you wouldn’t get a result
suitable for a pitch deck.
Some zooming in and out is great but at the end of the day, too much animation can detract
from your key message and may not help you impress investors who just want to get to
your core pitch.
Have you created your pitch deck in Prezi? I would love to see it. Pop a link to it in
the comments.
A powerful pitch deck is crucial so don’t forget to download my content guide if you
haven’t already. It’s a great starting point for your pitch deck and I’ve successfully
used it for my clients and I know it works. You’ll find the link for it below.
If you have any doubts about your pitch deck content, send me what you have so far and
I’ll review it for you.
Can you do me a favour and hit the like button and while you’re there, subscribe to my
channel for more great videos just like this one.
Knowing when to ask for help when you get stuck can be daunting but don’t forget,
you’re following your dreams so gather your courage and keep moving forward.