A few weeks ago, Michael Hyatt posted this clip of comedian Brian Regan on his blog:

Brian’s point is well made. Does anyone actually need those “running heads”? Isn’t it insulting to our intelligence to think that we would forget what we’re reading mid-chapter?

The same thing is true of PowerPoint presentations. Many people feel compelled to put their logo on every slide. I believe the thought is that you’ll be driving brand recognition through constant repetition or something like that. But it’s simply not necessary for the reasons Mr. Regan so eloquently illustrates in the video above. Put your logo on the first and last slides, but don’t beat your audience over the head with it throughout the presentation.

This goes for section headers as well. PowerPoint’s templates make it seem like putting a title on every slide is the way to go, but that approach is also somewhat subtly insulting to your audience. Use a section title slide that introduces the point you’re about to make, but place only the immediate point or idea or evidence you’re presenting right at that moment on the following slides. You can also put the section title slide back up on the screen at the end of the section to act like bookends for that point, but titles on every slide isn’t the way to go.

It might feel uncomfortable at first, but I promise your audience won’t forget who you are or what you’re talking about if you remove repetitive elements like these. Plus you’ll free up precious real estate on your slides and prevent your visuals from becoming too cluttered. Try it next time you give a presentation.

When you walk into one of the 8,500 Wal-Mart stores in the world, you expect one thing and one thing only: the best price. Wal-Mart customers know they could go to Target or the mall or virtually anywhere else and get better service and better presentation, but they also know they’d have to pay more.

Using PowerPoint’s built in templates to fill slide after slide with bullet points and clip art is like shopping at Wal-Mart. It’s cheap and easy, but the resulting experience is dismal. Good design costs extra.

If you want to rise above the wasteland of presentation mediocrity here’s what you can expect to pay.

Time (or maybe money)

Good design takes time. It’s much quicker to write gobs of text than it is to distill your message. Grabbing a piece of mediocre clip art is much easier than finding or creating the perfect visuals.

In Slide:ology, Nancy Duarte estimates that the time required to create a good presentation is somewhere between 36 and 90 hours. That’s over two typical work weeks spent on one 60 minute presentation.

The obvious question raised by the statement above is, “is it worth it?” The answer can only be determined by considering the importance of the outcome of the presentation. If you’re preparing slides for your weekly staff meeting, then the answer is almost certainly, ‘no’. But, if a lucrative business deal is at stake you might change your mind.

Not every presentation requires meticulous preparation. To help decide which ones are worth the effort, Nancy and her team at Duarte Design put together the “Presentation Landscape” (shown below) which visually maps most of the different types of presentations in terms of formality and presentation-ness. She says that the kind of presentation that’s worth spending 36-90 hours on are those in the upper right quadrant. If yours isn’t one of those, you probably don’t need to spend the time. You can download a PDF copy of the Presentation Landscape here.

The short-cut

You can save yourself from putting in the time by paying someone else to do it. I recommend hiring a presentation designer if you can afford it. But even if you pay someone else to do the work for you, you should still allow for the time they’ll need to do things right. You can can’t call them three days before the presentation needs to be given and expect it to come together. Or at least don’t expect it to be cheap.

Mental Energy

A good presentation is the result of good thinking. In fact, you should spend MORE time thinking about things ahead of time than you actually spend using PowerPoint.

What should you be thinking about?

The first thing is research. Research your topic until you’re an expert. Research your audience so you know what they need to hear and how to tell them in a way they’ll accept.

Next is brainstorming to generate all the possible things that could go into this presentation. Stats and figures, for one thing, but also stories, illustrations, visuals, videos, and audience interactions. Once you’ve come up with all of the ideas you can, organize the ideas into key messages, then eliminate like crazy. You can’t cover absolutely everything you know in your talk so hone your message to just the most salient points.

Finally, turn your messages into pictures. Sketch images that illustrate your ideas. These don’t have to be fabulous works of art. Circles, squares, stick men and arrows work just fine.

The short-cut

Sorry. There’s no getting around this one. Even if you pay a presentation designer to craft your presentation for you, you’ll still need to come to them with information about your topic. They can help you craft your key messages and study your audience, but you’ll still need to provide input and insight. Be prepared to be part of the process.

Great presentations take time and effort. It’s up to you to decide whether your presentation is worth the work, but if the answer is yes, then do what it takes and budget realistically for these factors.