Connect and engage your stakeholders with a nicely represented annual report

An annual report is a lengthy document that represents a comprehensive report on a company’s transactions or activities (selling & buying of products, investments, charities, etc.) throughout the preceding year. It transparently explains the expenses, profits, growth & degrowth, and the financial status of a company on the day of the annual meeting. It is a must for every listed company. Basically, the purpose of preparing this report is to present the report of all the activities of a company including profits and losses to the stakeholders, partners, investors, employees, and other people who are interested in it.  

These days, a company’s annual report is no longer only a representation of financial figures and statutory reports of the company for the preceding year, but it is much more than this. It has become a strategically designed marketing tool for a company through which a company tries to maintain the interest of existing stakeholders and attract more stakeholders and investors for the growth of the company. Therefore, it is very important that the design, structure, and representation of the annual report of your company reflects your brand, vision, and business values. If you try to prepare an effective design and structure for your company’s annual report without having expertise in this field, you will definitely create a mess. So, it is better to hire professional annual report design firms. This approach will help you to design an attractive, interesting, and engaging annual report of your company for the preceding year. 

Why Design and Structure of An Annual Report are Important?

During the recently passed decade, the trend of designing a company’s annual report emerged. Before that, for most companies, it was just a representation of financial figures with some statutory reports. In simple words, it was only the responsibility for a company toward the stakeholders. At that time, giving information about the company’s activities and financial status for a preceding year was the only purpose of preparing an annual report. But, today, several smart marketers use their company’s annual report strategically to attract more stakeholders and investors and make strong relationships with them. And that’s why an annual report of a company must be attractive and interesting so that the stakeholder and investors can connect and engage with your brand’s vision.  

For making your company’s annual report attractive, interesting, and engaging, you need to hire professionalannual report design firms. They are available every corner of the world and you can reach them over the internet and through their contact numbers. 

Three Things to Make Your Annual Report Interesting and Engaging

Generally, a representation of an annual report of a company is quite boring for even stakeholders and investors due to its simple and lengthy data. Sometimes, the audience starts yawning and even sleeping during the representation of the annual report of a company. It often happens because nobody takes interest in a lengthy and boring presentation of data. That’s why the need for designing and structuring annual reports emerged. 

Here in this section, we have mentioned three things which are very important to make your company’s annual report interesting, attractive, and engaging. Make sure you always include these data in your company’s annual report.

Use Infographics

Using infographics for statistical analysis and achievements of a company in the annual report is a great idea. It is far better than representing the statistical data only in text form as infographics are attractive and easy to understand. Basically, infographics are graphical or visual representations of data. It tells a story in a proper way. The best things about infographic representation of data are:

The statistical data look really very attractive and interesting. The audience pays their full attention during the whole presentation of the annual report with excitement. 

The data is easily readable and understandable for the audience that includes stakeholders, investors, partners, the board of directors, employees, and other interested parties.

The data tells a story of the whole preceding year in a series and that looks quite interesting.

The infographic representation of statistical data is also easier to represent correctly in front of the audience for representatives of the company. 

Bold Fonts and Colors

Leave the old-fashioned way of preparing an annual report with a white page, black text, and no colors. This is really unattractive. If you want to maintain the interest of your stakeholders, investors, and other people who are interested, then your approach must be trendy for designing your company’s annual report. Make sure you use bold fonts and colors smartly in all pages of the annual report. Your brand name and logo must be bold and highlighted throughout the whole document. This approach will make your company’s annual report interesting and vibrant and inspire stakeholders to be with your vision and promote your vision. For the best results, you should hire professional annual report design firms. Their experts will do the job for you. 

Show the Portfolios of Your People

It is a great idea to include portfolios of your company’s people in your annual report. This will motivate the audience and leave a positive impression on those. Use their pictures in which they are looking professional and briefly explain their role in your company. Explain about their expertise, experience, and achievements, these things will inspire both your company’s people and the audience. 

It is better to put the portfolios of your company’s people after the introduction part in the annual report. Make sure you do not make this part too lengthy. Put those people in your annual report which are pillars of your company and play a vital role in the development of the company. So that the interest of the audience remains high throughout the representation of your company’s annual report. 

Motion graphics – explainer videos for Horse Racing Ireland

This year has been a funny old one. We’re mid-July but it still feels like the longest March ever. At this stage we’re pretty tired of the words unprecedented and lockdown. That said, this period has been one of the most innovative for Kaizen and our clients right across the country. Where some businesses pivoted into entirely new markets, others tasked us with rapidly deploying their online presence and providing e-commerce functionality through Shopify Development and Woo-Commerce stores.

Sport in general however was completely decimated overnight. Games, races, festivals and entire seasons concluded overnight. Many of these sports are now thankfully on the path to restarting and we have just assisted the Irish Football Association with their Return to the Everyday Game, guidance strategy document design.

Horse Racing, of which we are deeply intertwined with both the governing body in Ireland and multiple racecourses, lends itself well to social distancing. Plenty of space, a non-contact sport and with a sole jockey being able to manage most tasks pre, post and during a race, few people are needed to keep the sport going. The Irish Government have been quite supportive of the return to Horse Racing in Ireland and as such this has been one of the first sports to come back to life….though the notable absence of crowds and even owners makes this a surreal time for all.

As part of the return to racing Horse Racing Ireland and RTE have teamed up to show racing every Saturday evening, showing racing from right across the country. This is huge for the sport as with many other sports remaining absent, we have been able to gain new viewers and followers who may have previously discounted the sport. Helping to engage newcomers to the sport, Kaizen were tasked with creating a series of explainer videos. The aim of the video series is to introduce the sport, its rules and to address some of the most common questions that arise from racing.

We cover topics such as: The Ground, How Long is a Race? Stewards Enquiries and many more common topics. All videos are output at broadcast quality and with the addition of a great voice over, these explainer videos have been incredibly well received both in broadcast and online platforms.

PowerPoint pitch deck dos and don’ts

A pitch deck is through which businesses, companies, and professionals try to effectively interact, influence, and engage their clients, business partners, investors, and employees with their business. We can say, it is one of the most important and valuable tools companies have. It is something that briefly describes the company, and its owners, investors, products & services, business plans & strategies, business models, etc. 

While compiling a PowerPoint pitch deck, even the professionals often make very silly mistakes which actually decrease the value and effectiveness of a pitch deck. And this directly affects business meetings with investors, business partners, and employees. So, as a business owner, you must be very careful while creating a pitch deck for your business. 

For creating a pitch deck for your business, you generally get two different options that are “create yourself” and “hire a brand evolution company.” If you want a professional to create a pitch deck for you, this is actually the best option as the professionals serve the best product. On the other hand, if you want to create it by yourself, you need to be specific. In this post, we have compiled all the dos and don’ts you must follow while creating a pitch deck for your business and presenting it in the meetings and conferences. Let’s start with the do’s points. 

Dos For Pitch Deck

Narrate the Story

People love to listen to well-constructed interesting and engaging stories rather than long-lasting boring speeches. Even investors love stories. So, whenever you start creating aPowerPoint pitch deck, make sure the narration of the content flows like storytelling. Try to organise all the content in a sequence so that the audience can understand your point of view and engage with your vision. This is one of the most important aspects of making investors think about your proposal. 

One Slide – One Idea

We know content is the king, but the well-constructed presentation of content is equally important. So, never forget this point. No doubt, the best way to make a pitch deck presentation powerful is to use new customised feature-rich templates. If you don’t want to spend on buying customised feature-rich templates, still you can create a powerful presentation of a pitch deck. For that, you need to follow a few simple steps which are mentioned below.

  • Use one slide for one idea only. Whether the idea you want to put on a particular slide has only a few words or only an image, don’t put other ideas on that page. 
  • Avoid repetition of content or specific words. It will decrease the excitement level of the audience. 
  • Use different colors, highlighting features, underline, outline, and other features to make the slide look attractive. 

Focus on Making Great First Impression

There is a saying “the first impression is the last impression.” This is very true. You must dedicate all your skills, creativity, focus, discretion, and experience in making a great first impression. A great first impression will aid you to engage the investors and other audiences to your business proposal. They will take interest in your proposal and respond better than as per your expectations. So, make sure you leave a long-lasting impression on investors through a few first slides of yourPowerPoint pitch deck. 

Prepare Yourself Before Presenting Your Business Proposal 

Once you complete creating your presentation, prepare yourself accordingly. You must know all the calculations or metrics mentioned in the slides so that you can confidently present them. The best advantage of the preparation of the presentation is that you can confidently present all the data with just having an overview of slides. You don’t need to read all the slides word by word if you are prepared. 

Don’ts For Pitch Deck

Avoid Using Too Many Bullet Points

Presenting the content in bullet points is a great idea. It is an effective way of presentation. However, if you use too many bullet points in your PowerPoint pitch deckpresentation, it will be a poor presentation. So, avoid it by limiting the uses of bullet points in the pitch deck’s slides. In replacements of too many bullet points, you can create short 2-3 line paragraphs. This will increase the value of your presentation. 

Don’t Make Your Pitch Deck Too Long 

This is a really very important point. Make sure you create a short and average slides pitch deck. If you don’t have enough knowledge about creating a PowerPoint pitch deck, you can take assistance from professionals. 

Remember always, the words and statistics you say by your mouth is more important than what slides show. People are not interested in slides, they are interested in what you say about your business proposal by referring to your pitch deck. So, make your pitch deck not longer than 30 slides. 

Don’t Create a Picture-Poor, Text-Reach Presentation

The investors sitting in the conference hall to listen to you cannot read and listen at the same time. So, create a balanced presentation that has more pictures and graphical statistical content than text content. This will allow investors to listen to you more than paying attention to slides. So, make sure you follow this step wherever you create a pitch deck for a business proposal. 

Don’t Use Small and Too Many Fancy Fonts 

Sometimes, people use small and fancy fonts in presentations to make it more attractive. However, they don’t know that small and fancy fonts will only create disturbance in pitch deck presentation. You should not use these types of fonts but you should use simple and commonly used fonts such as Ariel and Times New Roman.

These pitch decks do’s and don’ts are very effective to help you to create a powerful pitch deck presentation. At the same time, these points will help you to present your pitch deck confidently and make investors accept your proposals. So, whenever you have any business proposal and you want to create a pitch deck for that, make sure you follow these effective dos and don’ts tips. 

9 important things your business powerpoint pitch deck must contain

A pitch deck plays a vital role in businesses and industries. It helps them to easily and effectively explain to their clients and staff about their products, services, visions, achievements, status in the market, etc. Today, every business, small and large companies prefer to have an effective PowerPoint pitch deck of their company, and approximately more than 80% of companies already have their pitch deck. This helps them to effectively attract, interact, and engage their customers, business partners, investors, and employees. Likewise, companies and businesses become able to expand their market and boost their sales and revenues.  

What is a Pitch Deck?

A pitch deck is a brief introduction, presentation, or an overview of a business or company that is used to describe all about the business including its vision, proposals or offers, achievement, employees, products or services, etc. Mainly, it is used in face-to-face meetings, online meetings, B2B, and B2C dealings. It is generally made using PowerPoint, Keynote, or Prezi. Out of these three pitch deck creation platforms, PowerPoint pitch deck is the most commonly preferred platform by the companies. As an owner of a company or business or a business entity, if you still don’t have your business pitch deck, you can hire a brand evolution company near your locality. They will do the job for you. 

9 Important Slides Your Pitch Deck Must Contain

The content your business pitch deck contains plays a vital role to educate, attract, and engage the clients, customers, business partners, and investors. Therefore, a pitch deck must contain all the important information that can leave a lasting impression on clients, customers, business partners, and investors. Here is some important information that your pitch deck must contain. 

1. A Brief Introduction of Your Company

The first and foremost thing that your pitch deck must contain is a brief introduction to your company. Describe who you are, and why you are here? Try to keep this short, concise, and effective. If you make the intro part in thePowerPoint pitch deck too long, it would be boring and irrelevant. So, keep this point in mind when making your business pitch deck. 

2. Introduce the People Behind the Vision

The second most important thing to remember when creating your pitch deck is to introduce your team, business partners, or people who are behind the idea and who are associated with your vision. Keep it short and effective. Try to add their professionalism and big achievements to their profile. It will help you to leave an impact on the audience. One thing you should take care of that this content must be on the second slide or second topic of your pitch deck.

3. The Idea Behind or Problem

After effectively representing briefly about your business and business partners, come to the problem part. Describe what is the problem that led you to establish your business or vision or what are you trying to solve? But before this, explain where the idea of creation of this vision comes from or what is the story behind this. Keep in mind that you have to keep all the content short and concise so that it could be more effective.

4. The Benefits

Once you explain the problem, come to the benefits and solution part. Explain what are the benefits of their solutions and how your solutions are different? How will you be contributing to benefitting your clients, customers, business partners, and investors? Also, if it is possible, explain how you will be contributing to society, government, economy, and environment. 

5. Products & Services

After describing problems, solutions, and benefits, come to the part of introducing your products and services. This part must carefully be designed as it is the main part of your business. It is something that you will be offering to your clients. So, keep all your products and services organized in your PowerPoint pitch deck. Cover all the important products and services in slides and remove all the unnecessary stuff. One thing that you must present in the products and services parts of your pitch deck is their specification. So, keep this in mind. 

6. Scope or Market

This is another most important thing you must nicely cover in your pitch deck. Describe what is the potential market or scope of your products and services and why people will buy your products & services? Make sure you present some statistical data, reports, and surveys about the current market situation. Also, present what are the aspects that will force the customers to buy their products and services.

7. Competition and Competitors

For this, you need to do comprehensive market research and analysis. You will get the data about the competition in your field and your competitors. Explain what are the strategies you are following to beat the competition and what are you doing differently to attract more and more customers. This part is as important as Products & Services and Scope or Market.

8. Business Model & Investment Plans

Now, you need to disclose your business model, investment planning, and market strategies to expand and increasingly grow your business. This is one of the most important parts of a PowerPoint pitch deck. Your business model, investment plans, and market strategies must be impressive to grab the attention of investors, clients, and business partners. This part, you need to comprehensively elaborate in your pitch deck. 

9. Contact Details

Lastly, you need to provide all the important contact details of your business and business partners for business inquiry. Add mobile numbers, landline numbers, email addresses, fax numbers, website links, and others that you have in your pitch deck. This is also very important. 

So, that’s all your business pitch deck must contain. If you have more information that you want to add, you can. But make sure it should be relevant and impressive.  

Kaizen Brand Evolution

At Kaizen Brand Evolution we have helped many many businesses from innovative start-ups to clients like Coca-Cola, Hellenic and Mirror Media Ireland with considered graphic design and engaging presentations. As part of our design process we seek to understand the real message you are attempting to communicate with your pitch deck, and then we go about creating beautiful looking pitch decks for you to wow your audience. If you’d like a printed version to hand out after your presentation, we can also provide an exceptionally high quality print service to support your digital presentation. To find out more you can visit our pitch deck design page, or get in touch via our contact form, or by calling 02890022474.

Pitch Deck Design