The road to Presentation Excellence: What it means to create “punchy” messaging & unforgettable decks

Is making messaging “punchy” part of the culture of Presentation Excellence? 

“Punchy” as a direction crops up when folks want messaging to land differently or maybe in an unexpected way. But does that also mean it’s strategic? And how on earth can we make PowerPoint presentations punchy??

Lucky for everyone in B2B, Emma Stratton’s book Make it Punchy: How to write simple tech messaging that wins hearts, minds and markets, is a hilarious and succinct guide for bringing jargon-riddled messaging and overly-wordy taglines back to a place rooted in strategy—and being “punchy” is a part of that. 

(We got to deep dive with Emma on our podcast, Presentation Thinking, making this episode an extra fun “book club” for us.) 

Emma emphasizes that “punchy” is more than just fun, eye-catching words. In fact, the fundamental principles of messaging strategy apply in punchiness and Presentation Excellence. 

With Emma’s teachings as our inspiration, this blog will walk through three key tips for making your messaging punchy, strategic and how those elements might manifest in presentation design or everyday decks. 

1) Pick an audience to make things relevant

For messaging to resonate with its audience, you have to know who you’re talking to.

Taking the time to find your “A+ customer” as Emma calls them and getting to know their values will help distill how you write to them. 

Instead of taking on every audience that your business has mapped out, try to tailor the message to a single, clear buyer. 

This is strategic so that your messaging is clear and lands in the hands of the right buyer. Too many avenues taken means the message gets muddied—a strategic messaging sin!

It’s not about winning ALL the potential buyers, it’s about winning the right buyers—for Presentation Excellence, you must pick a lane to stay relevant. 

How does “picking an audience” show up on slides? 

• Tailor your presentations and demos to specific audiences—is there a location or job title you’re appealing to? Put that in! 
• If your presentation is for a specific role, speak to their everyday priorities and pain points. 
• Be sure to use your audience’s logos & branding wherever possible. It doesn’t need to be over-the-top but its presence will be noticed. 
• When using quotes, ensure it’s from people within the audience industry or their company. Same with imagery—make it familiar to the folks you’ll be speaking with. 
• Relevant case studies only! Don’t show a B2C example if you’re talking to B2B, and so on.

2) Say ONE thing

In a chapter dedicated to “Staking your claim”, Emma shares the sweet and familiar experience of her son excitedly getting a flavored ice and putting in ALL the colored flavors into his frozen treat. It’s delicious at first…and then it turns into a slushy, brown mess. 

As the saying goes, “you say nothing when you say everything.”

Once you’ve established the “A+ customer” you’re talking to, it’s strategic to select ONE key message to share. Yes, really—ONE.

Sure, there can be supporting points and features associated with that message but having them connect with this single point will ensure the focus isn’t missed and your message will be even more memorable. 

This is where Emma employs her "Single Most Important Thing” (SMIT) framework to find exactly that—what’s the one key takeaway you want folks to go home with?

You can read more in Make it Punchy’s Chapter 9, but when thinking about your “SMIT”, here are some factors to consider:

1. The goal of customers and how your product can help them with that. 
2. The benefits of the product that customers would care about.
3. The pain or frustration the customer feels with the current situation.

Don’t worry about niche-ing down too much because your “A+ customer” mindset will extend to people similar to them.

How does saying a single thing show up in presentations? 

• One idea per slide—don’t worry about slide count! 
• Repetition is inevitable. Don’t be afraid to weave one idea throughout your presentation and utilize the same keywords. People need to hear things several times in order to remember.
• Let quotes live on their own slide, don’t over-stuff content. 
• Utilize visual hierarchy to guide the reader or audience to the most important thing. You don’t have to be a graphic designer to bold fonts you want emphasized, change colors in a consistent way and so on. 

3) Say it simply

After identifying your audience and prioritizing your key message, you just need to say it—simply. 

Industry jargon crops up all the time with the “curse of knowledge”—when we’re too wrapped up in our own industries, we forget what other people do and don’t know. When you’re in the B2B realm, especially in tech, it’s easy to forget a lot of people don’t really use the words “streamline”, “supercharge” or “bespoke” in real life. 

Simple messaging matters because, as Emma writes, “If your messaging is complex, people will think your product is, too.” And if people think your product is too complex, you’ve already lost the battle.

There’s a great study from the American Press Institute that Emma references about memorability. Basically, the longer a sentence becomes, the less people can understand it. Most everyone can understand a sentence with an average of eight words. But as those words increase, reading comprehension goes down. A sentence with 43 words will drop to less than 10% comprehension rate.  

Emma tackles this epidemic of a jargon problem by offering the simple advice: “Say it like you would at a BBQ.” In other words, say it like you would talking to a friend or someone you just met.

We know it may seem counter-intuitive in saying something simply can seem like there's not much to take away from your product or service. However, it’ll help the clarity shine through. 

Saying it like you would at a BBQ will add to the memorability and "stickiness" of a message. In other words, people will be more inclined to share what you have to say. 

Punchiness, in fact, is also simplicity. 

What does “saying it simply” look like in a presentation? 

• Relatively low volume of words per slide—beware sub-bullets!
• Repeatable headlines for each slide that aren’t bogged down with jargon. 
• When looking for stock imagery, keep in mind that cliche terms such as synergy or teamwork will produce cliche results. Get creative in your stock searches. 
• Billboard slides that are so beautiful, people want to take a picture with their phone.
• Each slide should feed into the next, there’s a sequential nature to the story of the presentation. 

Creating punchy messaging doesn’t have to be a bunch of buzzwords set out like fly traps to try and snag anyone that comes along. 

It’s a single message, built for a specific persona, said in a simple and human way. THAT, is punchy—and making it punchy is a core part of strategic messaging for Presentation Excellence.