XSplit Blog

You have a lot of information to get across to your team. What’re your chosen means of communication? Most of us default to email when we want to reach several people quickly: but is a written email the most effective method?

Software like our XSplit Presenter enables you to pre-record a seamless presentation. Instead of sending out lots of text and attachments, why not try sending a link to a short presentation instead? Here are a few reasons why you and your colleagues may prefer watching to reading.

TL;DR

Or, “too long; didn’t read”. We’ve all opened emails and, faced with what looks like a whole dissertation to wade through, quickly closed it “for later” and then forgotten about it. If you have a lot of information to get across, maybe a presentation is better suited to your needs. As advertisers know, 80% of people will watch a video, but only 20% will read all the text, so why not borrow a tip from marketing practice, and use visual rather than written media?

This still requires work from you as you’ll need to write the script and record the delivery. But, thanks to XSplit Presenter, this is super-straightforward, and when you get used to it, it’ll seem even easier than just writing the text. Import your Microsoft Powerpoint or Google Slides presentation, include clips from YouTube, or connect to Zoom, Skype, and other platforms to add flair to your presentation.

Unattached

Then there are attachments. Not only do emails have paragraphs of text to get through but there are multiple attachments and links to open. If you are sending a pre-recorded link, you can incorporate the information from these attachments into the presentation itself.

XSplit Presenter lets you import PowerPoint or Google Slides into your presentation, cutting down on the need to attach graphs or images, which can be simply included in your PowerPoint or Google Slides instead. You can also play videos directly in your presentation. Rather than provide your recipients with multiple links, this allows you to show snippets in a more convenient and user-friendly way. The result of all this? A straightforward email with a link to the presentation.

Better Email Has Access for all

There are plenty of ways to make the text of an email more accessible; however, a subtitled presentation will reach most people without the need for any adjustments. As well as providing email alternatives for colleagues with visual or hearing impairments, you’re also helping your neurodiverse teammates.

XSplit Presenter is simple to use and has the tools to facilitate bringing teams closer together in a way that accommodates accessibility needs. For one, it allows you to add text to provide a subtitled presentation for your colleagues. It can also make things easier for you if you prefer to speak than to write, or if the thought of speaking in front of a live audience gives you the jitters.

We’ve covered several compelling reasons why a video can make a better email than text. Download XSplit Presenter to make your business communications easier and more accessible. Find out more about XSplit Presenter in our blog (and yes, it does include a short film).

In the busy world of work, it can be difficult to get everyone together for an all-hands meeting or for a big announcement.  This may be down to holidays, busy schedules, or other commitments. You can make your company updates slicker, more streamlined, and more flexible for your colleagues by pre-recording them instead of doing them live!

What are the advantages of pre-recording meetings? 

Using XSplit Presenter to record your presentation has many advantages. You can script it in advance and then record it carefully, making sure you don’t stumble over your words. You can check everything in your demonstration goes smoothly, include a voiceover, and make annotations on your presentation as you go along. This will come from rehearsing as well as recording your presentation and watching it back to see what you need to improve.

Using these points can make your presentation more interesting and engaging, and of course smoother and slicker. But don’t forget that it can make it shorter as well – by removing any awkward pauses and speeding up anything obvious or slow. This can remove dead air time, getting all the same information across but in less time. This is something that will definitely be appreciated by your busy colleagues! 

When you pre-record meetings, you can also easily bring in your chosen guest speakers to make a contribution to the presentation. Of course, this can be done live too but pre-recording can make things easier. Now, you can work around your guest’s schedule, making it more likely to secure someone’s time. You can also help your viewers focus on what’s important by adding quick and easy annotations that capture their attention.

Videos can be reused

Once you’ve made your video, it can be watched at a later time by anyone who missed the meeting, without you having to spend time delivering the presentation again. It can also be sent as a file or uploaded to places like YouTube so your audience can watch it back as and when they wish to. Choosing to pre-record allows busy staff to prioritize their workload and to pick an hour that best suits them during the day without compromising their other tasks.

Doing this for your colleagues will prevent them from being taken from their most vital and pressing work to attend a meeting. This allows them to instead structure their day without missing out on the information. It will essentially give your guests greater control over their working day and, in turn, help them to perform at their best.

Having a pre-recorded video allows the meeting attendees to watch the video more than once if they want to. This allows them to make sure they picked up all the information or to show it to a colleague if they wish. This can, again, save you time and increase your reach, whilst still making it more convenient for your audience and their schedule. 

Pre-recording your big company updates can improve the quality of the presentation and make it easier for your colleagues to watch when it’s most convenient for them. We have some handy tips to get you started and some pointers on how to add some sparkle as well!

These days, every presentation has a set of slides. As your perfect pitch deck, it should be well-formatted and engaging, as well as containing pictures and video content. Why not take yours to the next level? Instead of just showing your slides and talking about them, you could take it up a notch and appear in them in a video pitch deck. This will help you stand out from the crowd and might even make putting your presentation together easier.

Make your perfect pitch deck a live video

There are a number of good reasons to create a recording of yourself delivering the presentation. The first one is the wow factor of the perfect pitch deck – by being that little bit different, it’s more likely to pique your audience’s interest. It also allows you to script, practice, and pre-record your lines, meaning that you can edit out any fluffed delivery. This would be perfect if you’re nervous about presenting, allowing you to deliver a much slicker, smoother, and more carefully paced presentation.

Having your presentation pre-recorded in advance takes a lot of pressure off you as a presenter. You now know you can just hit go, and then make yourself available to answer questions at the end. You can amp up audience engagement by speaking to your viewers in the chat while your presentation plays.

What else can you do with a video presentation?

Video pitch decks allow you to plan and implement special effects, such as having your recorded self point to bullets on a slide or pull a graph out of thin air. As you put the video together in XSplit Presenter, you can time transitions to fit your movements and cut out any pauses while you try to find the next graphic or video. This helps make sure that all your media, graphics, and notes appear at exactly the right time in your perfect pitch deck. Now this will require some rehearsal on your part, but getting everything perfect is what we’re after here!

It also gives you the option to include webpages as part of your media, again removing any loading times or worrying about whether a site will work properly when you load it. The platform also pulls in presenter notes from your original presentation, making it easier to remember what to say when you present. To help your viewers focus on the right parts of your presentation at the right time. You can annotate it in real-time using a handy virtual pointer tool. 

How do I make the perfect pitch deck?

XSplit Presenter allows you to take control of your presentations in many ways. At the basic level, you can overlay media, including webcams, NDI guest calls from Zoom or Skype, pictures, and videos over your slides. At its most advanced, you can pre-record your entire presentation and then work through it again. Tidying it up, moving elements around, and producing a more polished and efficient show for your audience when you record it again. Presenter offers the tools to make your presentation stand out, allowing you to concentrate on making the content and writing the script. 

Does your deck require more than one presenter? XSplit Presenter makes it easy to mix things up and add more speakers to your presentation with NDI sources like Zoom or Skype to make it more engaging. 

Presentations can be a challenge no matter what industry you’re in. You can find out more about what XSplit Presenter can do for you here, and we’ve got some additional useful advice for improving your presentations, too.

Live pitches can be daunting and, whether you plan on delivering it in person or via a video call, it is a good idea to have a live pitch deck to hand that you can refer to throughout. The best pitch deck will effectively communicate your idea and also capture your audience’s imagination. It should excite, inspire and educate in equal measure, striking a balance between style and substance. Read on to see how to make a pitch deck that will keep your presentation on track and wow your audience.

What do we mean by an effective pitch deck?

An effective, well-crafted pitch deck will serve two main purposes. It should act as a trampoline for you to launch your pitch from, while also getting your audience excited about whatever you are pitching, be it an investment opportunity, product launch, or new business venture.

The key is to make it clear and concise. Practicing your pitch will reveal which areas, and which slides, you absolutely need and which ones you can do without. Focus on the core idea that your pitch revolves around, while also making it compelling enough to draw the audience in. Ultimately, the best pitch deck will tell your story or that of your business, highlighting the problem or gap you have identified, what solution you can offer, and what you are looking for from your audience.

It should be visually attractive, but not overly busy or cluttered, offering key facts and an enticing investment opportunity that is easy to understand and act upon. Try to keep your visual style consistent throughout the entire deck. If visualization is not your forte, search online for presentation templates that you can customize to bring your pitch deck to life. See if you can find examples of pitches that are similar to your own, and see why they worked or why they didn’t.

Making your pitch flow

Once you have chosen the tools and style you will use to build your deck, next you want to think about how to make a pitch deck flow naturally. Alejandro Cremades, the author of The Art of Startup Fundraising & Serial Entrepreneur, suggests the following flow based on his analysis of several successful pitch decks, including the template used by billionaire venture capitalist Peter Thiel.

• Problem – the problem you have identified
• Solution – a description of your product or service
• Market – who is your ideal customer?
• Product – showing the product or service in action
• Traction – metrics showing the growth of the business
• Team – who are you and who is your team?
• Competition – how do you compare to your competition
• Financials – projected earnings and profit
• The amount being raised – the range of investment you are looking for

Depending on what the presentation is about, you may or may not need all of these, but it provides a good spine to work from. While these could all be one slide each, you can also experiment with this format and spread one section over a couple of slides if need be.

How long should your pitch deck be?

The length of the pitch deck will correlate to the length of your pitch itself, so practice your presentation and see how long it lasts. You don’t want to be flipping through lots of slides, nor do you want to leave the same slide on screen for too long. The general consensus is that at a minimum you want 10 slides. For some experts, this is also the maximum, while others suggest you can push it to 20 slides.

Several years ago, file-sharing company DocSend completed an in-depth analysis of over 200 pitch decks, looking at the sections included and how long each section was. Almost all of the sections were between one and two pages, with the exception of the Product slides, Business Model, and Financials.

So how long should your pitch be? There is no one definitive answer. Some experts say no more than five minutes while others stretch this up to 20. However, the DocSend analysis found that on average, investors spent 3 minutes and 44 seconds looking at the pitch deck. Alejandro Cremades suggests a time of around four minutes, and definitely no longer than five. This would work out at roughly 30 seconds per slide on a 10 slide pitch deck.

Using presentation software to elevate your pitches

Most pitch decks will be built on presentation software such as PowerPoint or Google Slides. In a physical meeting, you can connect this to a monitor or projector and discuss the slides in person.

However, investment opportunities are global, and in the post-pandemic world, more and more pitches will be conducted via video call rather than in person. The solution here is to screen share your pitch deck while talking it through, but your audience may then lose the ability to see you or have to flick between two screens.

XSplit Presenter offers a perfect solution to this and makes your best pitch deck even better. It is fully compatible with Teams, Zoom, and Skype, and allows you to inject some character and flair into the presentation. By using a webcam, you can integrate yourself into the pitch deck, making it more interactive and informative. It also allows you to annotate your presentation in real-time, or use notes you may have made in your original document. Plus, you can deviate away from your presentation, adding separate windows to show websites or other applications without showing your desktop.

Now that you know how to make a pitch deck, you can take these skills and apply them to similar scenarios like streaming, video presentation, or online meetings. Check out creating media-rich presentations to improve your online meetings to learn some creative ways to keep everyone’s attention during your next Zoom meeting.