Crafting an Effective Pitch Deck: Content and Marketing Strategies

Pitching - whether you’re looking for an investor, trying to win over a client, or persuading your friends go to your favorite restaurant instead of one you despise, we all pitch in some capacity.

We’re pretty familiar with pitch decks here at Riff_. It’s a common way we partner with clients to help them secure fundraising, dial in their messaging for lead/sales generation, or sell to retail partners. We also pitch clients to win work, have our own big ideas that we pursue, and review pitches for startups looking to join our venture ecosystem.

I was recently fortunate enough to partner with our good friends at the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN) on a presentation about pitching - a need that was identified as a sore spot for a lot of their members. You can check out the full recorded presentation here and download the slide deck here.

In case you prefer a TLDR (or if you don’t want to listen to me presenting while overcoming a cold), here are a few high level points from the presentation.

Common Pitch Deck Mistakes:

1. The story is boring

You could have the most compelling product, solution, or technology in the world. But if you’re not able to craft a concise story that puts your audience on their heels, your pitch isn’t going to land. Refine your story and find a way to connect deeply with who you’re talking to. You want them to feel something (excitement, sadness, uneasiness, etc) as you’re presenting.

2. It is too focused on technical details with no real world example

It is easy to get caught up in the fine details, especially when you are so intimate with your product. The easiest way to explain a product or solution is to connect it to a real world example that your audience can relate to. If they can see how it impacts their lives and how your product makes their life better, there’s a higher likelihood of having your audience understand and feel engaged with what you’re saying.

3. There is too much text

I get it, there is a ton of info to share and you only have 10 minutes. But still, shoving 40 slides of information into 5 slides isn’t your answer. When it comes to distilling your pitch, we actually like to view pitches in two ways.

One way is a live pitch. When you’re presenting your pitch, you’re able to break up your messaging even more, click through slides at your leisure, and pause for dramatic effect. You want to be a lot more dynamic and you can have a lot less words on your slides because you have a talk track over it.

The second scenario is an emailed pitch or leave behind. The reader needs to be able to skim your deck and understand all key points you want to get across. The keyword here is “skim.” If you shove too much information onto a slide, they’ll miss the key points when they skim through the deck - unfortunately you can’t expect them to read every word.

Work through your content and determine what message is essential to get across on each page. Then utilize bolding and strategic formatting to make that message stand out.

A Few Top Tips:

• Explain why you matter: Great, you’ve sold the story. Don’t forget to highlight why you’re the right fit person to do the job.
• Show necessary data: Data = credibility. If you show the necessary data to prove your point, you’ll come across as a lot more credible.
• Adjust your pitch for your audience: We always recommend having a master deck that you can pull from and tweak for your different audiences. The more you can talk directly to your audience, the higher the chance of connecting with them and having a successful outcome.
• Have a desired outcome: Don’t forget what the end goal is for your pitch. Always include next steps and ensure your ask is clear.
• Make sure your pitch is easy to tweak: You’ll always be learning and refining. Make sure your pitch deck is formatted in a way that you can easily modify to your audience and as you learn.

We covered a lot more, including design strategies in my presentation with OEN. If you’re still reading, you should probably dig in more and check it out here.

Still have some questions? We’re always up for helping out. Just drop us a line!