How to Make a Marketing Presentation [A Complete Guide]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Sep 5, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 18
While working on a marketing presentation deck for our client, Olivia, she asked us a question that honestly, more people should ask:
"What exactly makes a marketing deck actually work in a meeting room?”
Our Creative Director didn’t hesitate. He replied, "When it’s built to guide a decision, not just to impress."
That one sentence pretty much nails it.
As a presentation design agency, we work on dozens of marketing decks every quarter. And one challenge keeps popping up like clockwork: Too much focus on what to say, and not enough thought on how it’ll land in a real conversation.
So, in this blog, we’re breaking down how to make a marketing presentation deck that doesn’t just look slick, but actually drives a result. Whether that’s interest, approval, alignment, or just getting the next meeting — we’re going to talk about building a deck that moves things forward.
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.
What is a Marketing Presentation
Let’s not overcomplicate this.
A marketing presentation deck is a structured set of slides used to communicate your marketing strategy, campaign, or idea to a specific audience: internal teams, leadership, clients, investors, or partners.
But here's the problem: most people treat it like a glorified brochure. Pages full of jargon, numbers that nobody asked for, and visuals that look good but do nothing to clarify the story.
That’s not a deck. That’s noise.
A good marketing deck is more like a conversation starter. It’s built to walk someone through your thinking in a way that’s clear, logical, and purposeful. It should explain the “why” behind your strategy, the “what” you’re actually doing, and the “how” it’s going to work — without assuming your audience already understands any of it.
You’re not just showcasing data. You’re building trust in your approach. You’re helping your audience buy into your way of thinking.
And if your deck isn’t doing that, then it’s not really doing its job.
This applies whether you're pitching a new campaign, launching a product, or trying to align leadership around a shift in positioning. If it’s a marketing decision that needs support or approval, a well-built presentation deck is your sharpest tool.
How to Make a Marketing Presentation
You want to make a marketing presentation deck that holds attention, builds credibility, and makes people say, “Yes, let’s do this.”
Here’s how you do that — step by step, with no fluff.
1. Start With the Outcome, Not the Introduction
Forget the fluffy intros for a second. Before you build the deck, ask yourself: What’s the outcome you want from this presentation?
You’d be surprised how many decks are created without a clear ask. Or worse, they’re trying to do five things at once.
Pick one goal:
Get approval for a campaign
Align leadership on a strategic direction
Sell a creative idea
Secure budget for a new tool
Now reverse engineer your content to support that one goal. Every slide you add from this point forward should have one job — move your audience closer to that decision.
If it doesn’t help with that? Leave it out.
2. Don’t Start With Slides. Start With Your Story.
Here’s a mistake most people make — they open PowerPoint or Google Slides and just start building.
Don’t.
Start with a blank page and outline the story first. Think of your deck like a guided conversation.
You’re walking someone through a shift in perspective. That means your narrative needs flow.
Here’s a classic marketing deck structure that works in nearly every context:
The Context: What’s the current market, audience, or brand situation?
The Shift: What’s changed or what’s not working?
The Insight: What’s the key opportunity or problem we need to solve?
The Strategy: What’s our big idea or approach?
The Execution: How are we going to roll it out?
The Outcome: What results are we expecting and how will we measure them?
The Ask: What do we need from the audience?
This structure isn’t rigid, but it helps you anchor the story. You’re not dumping information. You’re guiding belief.
3. Know Your Audience Better Than Your Slides
You can have the world’s cleanest slides and still bomb if you don’t know who you’re talking to.
A deck is never one-size-fits-all. A marketing deck for a CEO is not the same as one for a digital campaign manager. One wants high-level strategy and ROI. The other wants tactics and timelines.
Before you make a single slide, ask:
What does this person care about?
What are they skeptical of?
What do they already know?
What keeps them up at night?
Then shape your tone, your visuals, and your detail level accordingly.
When people feel like a deck “gets them,” they lean in. When it feels like it could’ve been made for anyone, they check out.
4. Keep Each Slide to One Point. Seriously, One.
The biggest sin in presentation design is clutter.
Most slides try to do too much: five bullet points, a chart, two logos, and an image of a smiling team. That’s not communication. That’s an information dump.
Here’s the rule we follow religiously: One slide = one point.
If the slide’s headline doesn’t summarize the key message in one sentence, you’re not ready to design it yet.
That doesn’t mean every slide has to be minimal. You can show data, comparisons, frameworks — but each slide should focus on delivering one clear thought.
Your audience should know exactly why that slide exists the second it appears.
5. Design With Intent, Not Decoration
Now let’s talk design — and this is where we’ve seen decks get wrecked.
The goal isn’t to make it pretty. The goal is to make it clear.
Design is there to support the message, not decorate it.
A few principles we follow in every deck we build:
Use consistent layouts. Don’t change structure every slide. Repetition creates rhythm.
Limit your colors. Use your brand palette but keep it under control. Highlight with purpose.
Choose readable fonts. Fancy fonts don’t impress anyone if no one can read them.
Use whitespace. It’s not empty space. It’s breathing room for your message.
Use visuals to clarify, not to impress. Infographics, charts, and diagrams should simplify your point, not complicate it.
If your deck looks great but doesn’t make the message easier to understand, you’ve missed the point.
6. Show, Don’t Tell
It’s tempting to explain everything with text. But here’s a secret — the best decks don’t explain much at all.
They show.
Got a campaign idea? Show a visual mock-up. Have a strategy? Show the framework. Want to pitch a social rollout? Show sample posts.
People don’t respond to paragraphs. They respond to experiences. The more you can make your ideas visual and tangible, the more buy-in you’ll get.
A visual walkthrough of a campaign will land harder than any bullet-point explanation ever will.
7. Prep Like the Deck Doesn’t Exist
This one surprises people — but it might be the most important.
Before the meeting, practice delivering your entire story without the slides.
Why?
Because the slides aren’t the presentation. You are.
The deck is a support tool. It’s there to reinforce your message, not carry it. If you can walk someone through your strategy with just a pen and paper, you’re ready. If you need the slides to remember your points, you're not.
And more often than not, real conversations will take the meeting off-slide anyway. You’ll be asked things you didn’t anticipate. When that happens, your clarity of thinking — not your slides — will carry the moment.
8. Cut Mercilessly Before You Present
Editing a deck is like sculpting. You’re not just adding, you’re removing everything that doesn’t serve the idea.
Right before you present, do one final ruthless sweep:
Remove any slide that doesn’t add value
Rewrite headlines for clarity
Tighten any rambling copy
Reorder if the flow feels off
Delete slides that repeat a point already made
Less is almost always more. Especially in a room full of busy people.
We've seen decks go from 35 slides to 18 and instantly become 3x more effective. Not because the extra slides were bad — but because they diluted the message.
When in doubt, cut.
9. End With Clarity, Not “Thank You”
Don’t end your deck with a bland “Thank You” slide.
End with a clear next step. What do you want the audience to do now? Approve something? Share feedback? Greenlight budget?
Say it. Show it. Put it on the last slide.
Ambiguity is the enemy of action. If the deck ends and no one knows what’s next, the presentation didn’t do its job.
10. Make It Easy to Share Without You
After the meeting, your deck might be forwarded to someone who wasn’t in the room.
That person won’t hear your voice, your explanation, or your excitement. They’ll just see the slides.
So, before you send it off, make sure the deck can stand on its own:
Add short, readable speaker notes for key slides
Make data points clear and source them
Avoid insider language or abbreviations
Ensure context is explained wherever needed
The best decks survive outside the room. They don’t just pitch ideas. They carry them forward.
Example of a Marketing Presentation Deck
We recently created a marketing strategy presentation for our client, Jax Art District in Saudi Arabia, focused on a minimal design style and content that got straight to the point.
Why Hire us to build your presentation
At Ink Narrates, we specialize in creating visually stunning, effective presentations that not only look great but also deliver the results you need. If you’re looking for expert help with your marketing presentations, we’d love to work with you. Reach out to us through the contact section of our website or schedule a consultation directly from our contact page.
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