8 Considerations for hiring a presentation designer

When you’re giving a presentation, your goal is to get people excited and inspired. You need confidence and a great presentation designed to arrive at this outcome. A shabbily created slide deck will likely turn heads – but in the wrong direction. That’s where a freelance presentation designer comes in.

While you might already have the confidence, presentation design skills may be more challenging. Your time is dedicated to other things! This is not uncommon. 67% of presenters have said that creating the presentation design is the most challenging part of the entire presentation scenario. 

Today, in business, a basic business presentation is not enough. You have to wow the audience. For this reason, you may want to consider professional presentation design services. You also have to consider the designer’s skills, to ensure they really hit the nail on the head. 

So, here’s everything you need to consider.

Why presentation design is important 

Presentation designers are more important to the business world than you think. 97% of professionals say that trustworthy content is important to them. And, the look of your content is majorly important to how reliable it comes across. 

Digging into this, presentation designers have the skills to help people process information – allowing them to really get into what you’re saying through knock-out design. It also makes the presentation more memorable – beautiful visuals tend to stick in people’s minds longer than a simple body of text or a generic picture. Not to mention that 91% of presenters feel more confident when presenting with a well-designed slide deck – meaning that you are more likely to ace it! 

Last but not least, design has a way of bringing your brand into the room. Brand presence is not to be underestimated. It can bring life, context, and extra shine to the presentation. 

So, this is all to say that the quality of your presentation design is tantamount to the success of your actual talk. Because of this, you should consider hiring a freelance presentation designer to help you out.

 

8 Reasons to opt for a presentation designer 

“Presentations are part of the job”, is the sentiment of many business people. You already know the ropes, using PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google Slides shortcuts, and have presented your own work in venue sizes big and small. 

This is probably why 65.7% of people still commit time and effort to designing their own presentations. 

If you’re on the fence about hiring a presentation designer – which as the statistics show, many people are, then here are some things to consider.

 

1. Do you really have the time? 

The world we live in is fast-paced. Sometimes a presentation can come up suddenly and you only have two days to prepare for it. On top of that, time is money – right? 

You have your business, your work, your team, and so many other responsibilities on your plate. Have you calculated how much one hour of your work time is worth? It’s a good exercise to complete to decide whether you truly have the time to create your own presentation. 

In reality, you probably don’t. A good 10-15 slide business presentation takes anything from 6 to 10 hours to create. Some presentations take up to 20 hours to get right for the average Joe. That’s equal to one working day at the least. Giving up a full day of work to design a presentation is most likely not the best way for you to spend your time. It is, however, the exact right use of a freelance presentation designer’s time. 

 

2. Do you have the skills? 

This is where you need to be honest with yourself. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. To get the best results, you need to put your best foot forward and perhaps your best foot is better geared at writing, statistics, or talking, rather than designing a business presentation in PowerPoint. 

When you know something can be done better by somebody else, it’s better to let them do it. Your hard work and in-depth research will shine much brighter in a professionally designed business presentation. 

Why? Because people who offer presentation design services have a passion for it and they truly know what works based on both their experience and education.

Hiring a freelance presentation designer allows you to focus your time and energy on your true passion, while still ensuring that the slides get designed well. 

 

3. How important is your presentation? 

Let’s be real, some presentations are more important than others. If you’re working on landing a huge lead, wanting to impress board members, or trying to gain some extra capital for your business – then the pressure is on! 

The particular business presentation that you use in any one of these – or other, similar – scenarios could be make or break for you. You don’t want to come across as an amateur, you want to be taken seriously. Rookie moves like generic-looking presentations with basic visuals are not going to cut it. 

Presentation companies can help you take your good presentation to the next level. They have the knowledge and skills to take your content and turn it into something stirring and inspirational. That’s exactly what you need to win over a tough, critical group in a high-stakes situation. 

 

4. Is your graphic design team capable? 

Of course, you may already have a graphic design team at your disposal. It can be tempting to just plop the presentation content on their desks and let them have their way with it. 

You may have thoughts along the lines of “it’s their job”, “it’ll save time and money”, or “it shouldn’t take them too long”. Sound familiar? If so, that’s not particularly surprising. This is often the way it goes when you have a team dedicated to designing. 

However, in reality, it’s not that clear-cut. Most designers are able to create presentations but are not experts at it. Presentation design is an entire skill on its own. 

Internal design teams are usually hired for tasks like UX, web design, creative sales tools like pamphlets, logos, or social media templates. Your internal team may not have the exact design skills you are looking for. 

Having worked as part of an internal design team (and design agencies), I’m 99.5% sure presentations are the last thing any designer wants to be working on. It doesn’t inspire them. (And they loathe using presentation software like PowerPoint.) Do you really want someone who doesn’t have a passion for it to design your valued hard work and research?

On top of that, all the tasks mentioned above take hours to complete, are constantly flowing in, and probably take higher priority than your presentation. 

Can you really afford to risk it? It’s better to opt for a qualified and experienced freelance presentation designer. This person will be proficient in all the tools necessary to create a great presentation and will be accustomed to the challenges that come with a presentation design, meaning they will design a better final product, faster! 

 

5. Will your presentation stand out? 

People sit through presentations almost on a daily basis. Most people check out after about 20 minutes. Unless, of course, you have an engaging presentation that you’re showing off. 

It’s been found that people are 22 times more likely to remember information when it’s packaged well. To get it to be a stand-out talk, where people remember and think back on the take-home points, you have to include visual story-telling into your slide deck. 

The average person is not well-versed in visual narrative creation, but presentation designers are.

 

6. Is brand consistency important to you? 

Keeping the color palette correct is not the only aspect of branding. There’s so much more that goes into it. 

Branding includes logos, use of imagery, style of imagery, font, colors, and design. To keep brand consistency these need to be implemented in all your presentations. At the same time, you shouldn’t simply reuse the same template over and over again – as it becomes obvious and comes across as though you don’t care enough to change it up. 

A freelance presentation designer can stick to your brand basics while creating fresh and new presentations that have thought behind every slide. Now that’s creating a good impression of your brand! 

 

7. Do looks matter? 

There are so many statistics proving that the look of a presentation matters. It has been shown that: 

• Presentations with good visuals are 43% more persuasive. 
• Effective presentations consist of 55% non-verbal communication (in other words visual communication). 
• 65% of humans are visual learners. 
• People who are asked to recall information after a three-day period retained just 10% of what they heard during an oral presentation, 35% from a visual presentation, and 65% from an oral presentation with visuals.
• 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual.

 

Based on this, you should agree that looks matter. A rough-looking presentation is not likely to sit well with your audience. 

Here, you should ask yourself how much looks matter to you. Sure, the look of the presentation is not the whole point, but it helps you get your point across. And, that’s the point! So perhaps enlisting some professional presentation design services is the way to go.

A presentation designer will ensure that your business presentation is looking as good as it possibly can. 

 

8. Are you prepared for ALL your presentations? 

As I mentioned, presentations are common. They happen every day. You likely have more than one scheduled into your calendar already. 

Preparing for multiple business presentations is not only time-consuming but tiring. For those who are not passionate about design, it may even be mildly annoying. 

When you enlist a freelance presentation designer – the issues of time, effort, and scaling practically disappear. 

These professionals know how to scale your current presentations. On top of that, they use all their collected knowledge about you and your company to ensure that your presentation design is everything it needs to be and more. 

 

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BONUS: Presentation designers catch on, and they remember everything about you and your business. Once a freelance presentation designer or a presentation company has worked on one project with you, they’re very likely to finish future projects in shorter time periods, with less need for the tedious briefing of new designers that don’t know the ins and outs of your brand.

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Go pro with a presentation designer! 

Ask yourself all the above questions and really think your answers through. If we’re honest about it, your best bet is to allocate the business presentation design work to somebody who is uniquely skilled to deliver what you need. 

If you need presentation design services or assistance with a business presentation, hire someone that has a passion for it, hire me!