Effective marketing presentation

At Storydoc, we’ve analyzed more than 100,000 presentation sessions to get to the bottom
of what makes the most effective decks so successful.

Let's dive into some intriguing presentation statistics that shed light on the
components of a successful marketing presentation.

1. Hook

The first 3 slides determine whether people will bounce or read on - make them count:

 Think deeply about your hook

 Use the person's name and company logo in the title
 Prioritize the information that matters most to your audience
 Be very short and to the point

32% of people bounce from your deck in the first 15 seconds. But more importantly 80%
of readers who cross the 3rd slide threshold will read the deck in full.

Imagine you were giving a speech and after 3 minutes a 3rd of the audience just stood up
and left the hall. That would feel horrible, wouldn’t it? So why do this to your decks?

What you can do is write a relevant, personalized, and intriguing hook, and place it on
slides 1-3 of your deck. Make the audience understand that you’re writing FOR THEM,
about THEIR NEEDS, but also that you have something amazing up your sleeve.

And tell them how long reading your deck will take. Time is their currency, you wouldn’t
ask a client for “money” without stating how much, would you?

You should also have a strong visual hook. Use a video, animated, or interactive cover
slide. Make it so they can’t look away.

Here's an example of a great hook:

2. Personalization

Personalization is the key predictor of success:

  Get to know your audience, their needs, and the words they use (Voice
of Customer)

 Use dynamic fields to inject personal details of your recipient (when

prospecting at scale)

 Offer tailored solutions that address the specific needs of your audience

 Leverage automation tools to pull personalized data directly from your

CRM into your presentations

Adding a personal touch to your presentations can work wonders. Our data shows that
decks with personalized notes are 68% more likely to be read in full compared to general
presentations.

More impressively, personalized content led to a 41% increase in average reading

time, and decks customized for a specific prospect were shared internally 2.3x more often.
So, sprinkle in that personal touch, and watch engagement skyrocket!

But, effectively personalizing presentations at scale is incredibly time-consuming, right?

Well, not necessarily, in Storydoc you can add dynamic variables that let you inject
personal info into any number of presentations. Storydoc can even pull this info
automatically from your CRM.

Now each presentation you send will feel tailor-made for the recipient while only taking a
few clicks to create.

Here's a great example of a personalized presentation:

3. Interactive design

Including interactive elements in your presentation increases engagement:

 Integrate interactive features like videos, tabs, live graphs and charts,
calculators, or sliders

 Use video and animations to illustrate complex ideas

 Avoid text-heavy slides

  Test user interactivity to ensure all the features work

Using interactive elements in your presentation can boost engagement significantly.

Decks with tabs to click through, live data calculators, sliders with case studies, or
customer testimonials were scrolled to the bottom 41% more often, leading to a 21%
longer average reading time.

If your average reading time is 5 minutes, that’s one whole minute extra to get your
message across. Do you think you could use that extra minute?

The simple fact is that if you make your deck a dynamic, interactive experience, your
audience will be much more likely to stick around and listen.

Static slides often fail to get and hold attention. This leads to missed opportunities.

Interactive slides will engage your audience and motivate them to explore your content in-
depth.

Which one would engage you more?

4. Great mobile experience

1 in 3 people read decks on mobile - make sure yours looks flawless on any device:

 Design for mobile first

 Use responsive design
 Simplify your content
 Test on multiple devices

32% of all decks are opened on mobile devices. What do you think this means for you if
your presentation isn't optimized for mobile? How many opportunities are you losing?

It’s worth noting that the average reading time on mobile is 3:41 minutes, slightly less than
the 4:24 minutes on desktop, but more than enough time to create a memorable impact.

Is giving a third of your a great mobile content experience on their preferred device just
'nice-to-have'? You decide.
Creating a mobile-friendly presentation sounds like a lot of work but it isn’t. You can find
fully tested mobile-optimized presentation templates in our marketing presentation
template gallery.

Here's a great example of a mobile-friendly deck:

5. A clear next step

Making the next step clear and easy boosts conversion:

 Include a clear call-to-action (CTA)

 Limit your CTAs to avoid choice overload

 Make multiple instances of the same CTA look the same (design and
text) to avoid confusion.

 Make the CTA stand out

 Deliver value first before asking readers to take the next step

 Make your next step a small concession rather than a big commitment

A well-crafted marketing presentation isn't just about informing—it's about converting.

Decks that contained a singular, clear next step (e.g., book a demo, sign up, leave your
email) saw a 27% boost in conversion rate compared to those ending with a generic
"thank you."

Bottom line - make your call to action crystal clear, easy to do, and with immediate reward.

Vague or generic calls to action result in missed conversion opportunities.

The solution is smart and easy to act on CTAs, such as embedding your calendar in the
presentation. You can’t do this with PowerPoint, but you can with Storydoc.