How to Design a "Content Heavy" Pitch Deck [A Guide]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Oct 18, 2023
- 9 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Our client Michael asked us an interesting question while we were building his investor pitch deck for a deep-tech AI product.
He said, “How do you keep slides informative without making them overwhelming?”
Our Creative Director replied, “You don’t keep them informative. You make them digestible.”
We work on many content heavy pitch decks throughout the year. And in the process, we’ve observed one common challenge: most teams try to fit too much into a single slide and end up overwhelming their audience instead of convincing them.
So, in this blog, we’ll talk about how to design a content heavy pitch deck without losing your audience’s attention or your core message.
In case you didn't know, we specialize in only one thing: making presentations. We can help you by designing your slides and writing your content too.
Why Content Heavy Pitch Decks Exist (And, why the go wrong)
Let’s be honest. Not every pitch deck is meant for a stage.
Some are meant to be read. By a potential investor on a flight. By a board member in between meetings. By a procurement officer trying to make sense of what your solution does and how it compares.
That’s when the deck gets heavy. It’s not a flaw. It’s a function.
Content heavy pitch decks exist because:
The topic demands context
You’re explaining a new product, a complex process, or a niche market. That takes words.
The deck travels alone
It’s not always you presenting. The slide has to speak for itself.
You need to show credibility
The reader doesn’t know you. They only know what’s on the slide. So the instinct is to show everything. Credentials, proof, partnerships, charts, numbers, footnotes.
But here’s where most decks go wrong: instead of structuring that content, people dump it.
Text blocks. Data bombs. Cluttered visuals. No breathing room.
It’s like trying to eat a five-course meal all at once. Doesn’t matter how good the food is. You’ll be full and confused.
The mistake isn’t in having a lot of content. It’s in how that content is organized, prioritized, and visually designed.
That’s the difference between a deck that informs and one that gets ignored.
How to Design a Content Heavy Pitch Deck
Alright, you’ve got a deck full of information that actually matters. You know it’s not fluff. You’re not repeating clichés like “We’re revolutionizing the market.” You’re presenting facts, details, technicalities. It’s a dense but necessary story.
So, the real task isn’t cutting the content. It’s designing the experience.
Let’s break this down into the parts that matter.
1. Think Slide First, Not Story First
Yes, storytelling matters. But in a content heavy deck, you don’t always have the luxury of a TED Talk arc. Instead of obsessing over a dramatic narrative, start thinking slide by slide. Each slide needs to have one clear purpose.
Ask yourself: What is the one thing I want someone to take away from this slide?
Not three things. Not five. Just one.
That single intention drives what you keep and what you leave out.
We once worked on a deck for a sustainability tech startup. They wanted to explain the science, the funding ask, the team, and the impact model all on one slide. We asked, “Which part do you want the reader to remember?” The founder said, “The science.” So we pulled the rest out, gave the science breathing room, and created separate follow-up slides for the other content. Suddenly, clarity returned.
Every slide has a job. Don’t give it two.
2. Design for Skim-Reading, Not Deep Reading
Content heavy decks aren’t novels. People skim them. That’s just how it is.
And yet, most content heavy slides are designed like research papers. Long paragraphs. No hierarchy. No visual cues.
If you want your deck to be read, it has to look skimmable. Here's how:
Use subheadings: Break your slides into sections. Titles like Problem, Solution, Impact, Why It Matters give structure.
Highlight key phrases: Make important numbers or facts bold or use a different color. Don’t rely on people to “find” the main point. Make it unmissable.
Use bullet points: But make them smart. No more than 4–5 bullets per slide. And don’t treat bullets like dumping grounds. Write each one as if it’s a tweet — tight, clear, purposeful.
Use whitespace: This isn’t decoration. It’s strategy. Whitespace gives eyes a place to rest and helps group information mentally. It makes your content feel manageable.
We worked with a biotech firm whose slides were a wall of jargon. Instead of deleting, we introduced a color-coded structure: each category had its own color. Headlines were in larger font. Side notes were pulled into callouts. Same content. New experience. Their deck finally felt readable.
3. Use Visual Hierarchy to Control Attention
Visual hierarchy is how your eyes know what to read first, second, third. And it’s your secret weapon.
If you treat all content equally, nothing stands out. So your job is to design difference.
Title: Make it bigger and bolder than everything else.
Main takeaway: Use font weight, color, or position to spotlight it.
Supporting points: Keep them consistent and smaller.
Footnotes: Grey it out, reduce the font size. Let them be background noise.
Think of it like a stage. Not everyone is the lead actor. Most elements are supporting cast. Let them behave accordingly.
Here’s how we do it: We open every slide in grayscale first. If everything feels equally loud, we know we’ve got a problem. Once hierarchy feels right in black and white, then we layer in the color.
4. Chunk Content Into Visual Modules
If you must show a lot of content, chunk it.
Divide the slide into visual blocks — think of them as containers. One idea per container.
Your brain likes patterns. It doesn’t want a stream of unrelated things. So group your points in a logical way.
For example:
Instead of this: 15 lines of tiny text talking about three markets, go-to-market plan, competitors, pricing, and IP protection — all in one scroll-fest.
Do this: Split it into three horizontal bands:
Market Insights (top)
GTM Strategy (middle)
IP & Defensibility (bottom)
Or better yet, break it across two slides.
One deck we redesigned had six graphs on one slide. The founder thought it looked “efficient.” But to any reader, it looked like a mess. We turned that into two slides with three graphs each, gave each section a label, and suddenly, the reader knew where to look and why it mattered.
The brain hates clutter but loves structure.
5. Layer Content Using Levels of Detail
Not every piece of content deserves top billing.
Use different “layers” of visibility:
Headline (what you say out loud or what they read first)
Support copy (short, medium-size explanations for clarity)
Annotations (small, for those who want more detail)
This way, you're not removing content. You're just prioritizing how it’s consumed.
We did this recently for a Series A deck where the founder had a lot to explain about their algorithm. Instead of cutting, we used layers:
A bold headline explaining the value (eg. “Our AI reduces fraud by 68%”)
A short sentence underneath explaining how
A shaded text box with technical detail for those who care
Three levels. One slide. No overwhelm.
6. Use Infographics, Not Just Charts
Charts are useful. But sometimes, numbers don’t need to be charted. They need to be explained.
Infographics are your friend. They let you combine text and visuals in ways that simplify complex content.
A decision-making process? Show it as a flow.
A system architecture? Turn it into a layered diagram.
Customer journey? Use icons and steps.
Good infographics reduce the cognitive load. The brain understands visuals faster than text. When you combine both smartly, you speed up understanding.
One of our clients had a slide with four long paragraphs explaining how their logistics system worked. We turned it into a visual map with labeled steps. No new content. Just better framing. Suddenly, investors were nodding in the first ten seconds.
7. Avoid the Temptation to Over-Explain
Here’s a hard truth. If your deck explains everything, people will stop paying attention.
A pitch deck isn’t your business plan. It’s the gateway.
You’re not trying to tell your entire story. You’re trying to spark enough clarity and curiosity for someone to want to know more.
So be ruthless. Not about deleting content, but about deciding where it belongs. Not everything needs to be in the deck. Some details are better in the appendix. Or in a follow-up document. Or in the meeting itself.
Remember, your reader isn’t trying to become an expert. They’re trying to figure out whether this is worth their time or money.
That’s your filter. If the content serves that decision-making process, keep it. If it distracts or delays, move it out.
FAQ: What should I do when my deck actually needs much more context?
Don't delete the context. Just stop forcing it all into the foreground.
If your product is complex (like deep-tech or healthcare), use the "Read-Me" Approach:
Layer the Detail
Use a bold headline for the conclusion (what it means) and smaller, greyed-out text or a sidebar for the technical specs (how it works). Let the investor choose how deep to read.
Use the Appendix
Keep the main slide focused on the narrative. Move the heavy data tables, full clinical results, or code snippets to the appendix. Add a small footnote on the main slide: "See Appendix B for full data."
One Idea, One Slide
If you have to explain the history, the problem, and the regulations, do not put them on one page. Split them into a three-slide sequence. Investors prefer clicking three times on clean slides over squinting once at a messy one.
Rule of thumb: If the context is for verification, put it in the appendix. If it is for understanding, keep it on the slide but give it breathing room.
How to Change Your Mindset So You Don't Create Content Heavy Decks in the First Place
To fix the slide, you usually have to fix the thinking first.
Most content-heavy decks aren't a design problem. They are a psychology problem. They stem from a phenomenon called the "Curse of Knowledge." You know so much about your product that you can't imagine how anyone could understand it without knowing everything you know.
Here are three mindset shifts to stop the clutter before it starts:
1. You are a Tour Guide, not an Encyclopedia
An encyclopedia lists every fact. A tour guide points out the three most interesting things and moves on. Your job is to curate, not document. If a piece of information doesn't directly help the investor make a decision right now, cut it.
2. Brevity Signals Confidence
Founders often bury investors in data to prove they are smart. But actually, over-explaining signals insecurity. It looks like you are trying too hard to convince them. The most confident founders simplify. They know their value is obvious enough that they don't need 500 words to prove it. Trust your core value proposition.
3. The Goal is a Meeting, Not a Check
This is the biggest trap. You are not trying to get a wire transfer from this PDF. You are trying to get a phone call. You don't need to answer every question the investor might have. In fact, leaving a few questions unanswered is a good thing because it gives them a reason to reply.
FAQ: Will adding more slides to "space things out" make my deck too long?
This is a common misconception. Founders often cram everything onto 10 slides because they heard that "investors have short attention spans."
But investors don't measure length in slide count; they measure it in cognitive friction.
A deck with 20 clean, spacious slides that takes 3 minutes to skim is infinitely better than a deck with 10 dense, cluttered slides that takes 10 minutes to decipher.
If a slide feels crowded, break it in two.
Slide A: The Market Problem.
Slide B: The Market Opportunity.
Don't worry about the total page count. Worry about the "time-to-understanding" per page. If the reader has to stop and squint, you’ve lost them. If they can click "Next" rapidly and keep nodding, you are winning, no matter how many slides it takes.
FAQ: Should I use my content heavy deck for a live presentation?
A big NO. This is a classic mistake.
If you project a content heavy deck on a screen behind you, your audience will immediately start reading the slides. Since people read faster than you speak, they will finish the slide while you are still talking, get bored, and check their phones.
You need two versions:
The Presentation Deck
This is for the stage. It should have highly visual slides, very little text, and big headlines. It supports your voice; it does not replace it.
The "Leave-Behind" Deck
This is your content heavy deck. It includes all the details, data, and context. You email this version after the meeting (or for them to read alone) so they can study the specifics at their own pace.
Don't try to make one deck do both jobs. It will fail at both.
Why Hire Us to Build your Presentation?
If you're reading this, you're probably working on a presentation right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.
How To Get Started?
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Just click on the "Start a Project" button on our website, calculate the price, make payment, and we'll take it from there.