Do these four things for an unforgettable investor deck

For many businesses with a December year end, creating the results presentation will now be rapidly rising up the investor relations team’s to-do list. 

Building an investor presentation that captures the attention of stakeholders is no easy feat, and ensuring it communicates your financial performance and strategies in a compelling way that resonates with audiences is fundamental to its success. After delivering investor decks for more than 150 companies across multiple industries, we’ve identified several practices that help achieve this, ready for you to put into practice.

1. Nail the basics

Like any other slide deck, standard presentation design rules apply. To maintain your audience’s attention throughout the delivery of your investor presentation, keep its structure simple and content as clear and concise as possible. After you have perfected the messaging, leave enough time to finesse the finer details of your deck. For example, check formatting elements (margins, footers, sizing, text box alignment etc) are consistent from slide-to-slide. Finally, use stunning illustrations, infographics, icons, and imagery to break up content and highlight it in a more engaging and memorable way.

But how can you really differentiate yourself from the competition in the eyes of investors?

2. Create synergy between your suite of comms

Ensure the look and feel of your presentation slides aligns with that of other comms in your IR toolkit, like your investor site and annual report. This includes re-using specific colour gradients, typography, shapes, photography, content layouts and chart styles, all of which will make your investor materials immediately recognisable to stakeholders. Keeping the design of your comms consistent also demonstrates your attention to detail, considering things which others may overlook.

3. Visualise data with clarity

Financials, figures and statistics form the crux of investor presentations. It can be easy to overload slides with data, so rather than displaying it in standard bulleted lists, visualise it in graphs, charts, and tables (incorporating colour and other features of your brand where possible). Better still, do so using formats that pull out the data in more creative ways. For example, shapes that increase in size could represent your financial growth over a period, or highlighting areas of a world map might show how widespread your customer base is. Not only do these data visualisation methods look more impressive, but they also communicate the story behind the numbers in a way that is much easier for investors to digest, comprehend and remember

4. Look for ways to add extra impact

Animating content is a great way of making a presentation even more impactful. It gives slides a smooth flow and helps you control the pace at which content is delivered, rather than the audience constantly reading ahead. Be careful not to over-do it though, as heavy and unnecessary animation/transitions can become distracting for audiences. You could even embed an interactive menu system into your deck. This gives you the advantage of being able to navigate to content in a non-linear format when your audience ask you to revisit sections particularly relevant to them.

Also consider how an impactful experience can be created for anyone unable to attend the live presentation. For example, send them an interactive PDF that summarises its key messages, or a video that explains the more complicated aspects of your investor narrative.

Need extra help to make sure your next investor presentation delivers results?

Contact [email protected] to discuss how we can support you with a review of your current investor deck.