Outsourcing is an increasingly prevalent practice, with experts from individual fields becoming more accessible. Big and small companies alike outsource various tasks and even departments and hence, outsourcing has taken the business world by storm. In 2018, the outsourcing market was estimated to be worth a whopping $85.6 billion dollars.
Outsourcing helps companies save on overhead costs and other operating expenses in general. PowerPoint design is an essential and fundamental task that is common in every business. Thus, this raises a question among many businesses if PowerPoint outsourcing is actually a solid investment, or if it is better to be done in-house.
Outsourcing presentation design tasks actually saves more time than you think. It is a secondary task that sounds simple, but don’t actually realize how much time it takes you to accomplish. Presentation design is needed in every business, whether it be to showcase a product, explain product benefits, pitch ideas, etc.
A good presentation requires emphasis on presentation design to leave an impact on your clients, bosses, team, etc. It is very easy to come up with a boring and standard looking presentation that everyone can do with templates found online. Hence, companies choose to outsource presentation design.
5 Benefits of outsourcing presentation design
1) Saves time to focus on other tasks.
This is undoubtedly the biggest benefit of outsourcing PowerPoint design! Saving tons of time that can be better allocated to doing other tasks that require more attention. This could refer to tasks such as speech practice or getting used to using hand gestures during your presentation. These come with time and practice, rather than spending most of your time on slide design.
On the contrary, if you are working in a startup, greater emphasis should be placed on other more profit generating activities, rather than spending too much time doing PowerPoints. Furthermore, if design is not one of your strengths, and you have no intention on mastering slide design, then outsourcing is a solution to turn to.
2) Design to influence and impress.
Regardless of whether you are trained in design or not, it is a given that presentation slides should still showcase professionalism and effort. Looking at unprofessionally designed presentation slides would put off any potential investor despite how good your product may be. You are essentially killing off any chances of selling your product.
Can you design slides that persuade investors and clients to take action?
A well-designed PowerPoint that gels well with your speech can make a huge difference between the success and failure of your pitch. It could potentially cost your business or company a huge deal. You want to maximize your probability of success when the stakes are high. What better way than to hire a veteran or experienced professional in PowerPoint design to help you come up with slides that can clearly convey your message to your audience?
3) Affordability & variety of services available.
There is a large variety of PowerPoint designers in the market today. Look around and shortlist some before finalizing on one designer. Some designers may only offer minor adjustments while some designers may offer to design your slides from scratch.
Moreover, PowerPoint design services are becoming more and more affordable due to the large competition in the market today. Outsourcing PowerPoint design has never been easier! It can be as simple as just filling up a form with your preferences and contact information, or getting on a call with the designer to discuss the details of your presentation.
4) Fast turnaround time.
If you were tasked with an important presentation that is somewhat lengthy and content intensive, can you imagine how long you would take? It could range from days to weeks and if you are short on time, you would need to burn the midnight oil and pull all-nighters just to complete the slides. Not forgetting, you still need to rehearse your script and hand gestures.
However, when you outsource, you may choose the duration in which you would like the designer to complete the slides within. The longer the duration, the cheaper the price in general. Why not save some time and effort and entrust the job to someone who has good design sense and can accomplish the job in a much shorter time frame than you?
5) High quality work.
Even professionals take time to build up a portfolio. This is especially so in the design sector, where style and tastes are subjective. Experienced professionals know which elements go well together and which doesn’t in terms of colors, text styles, icons, etc. They are able to arrange it for you such that it comes together and forms a unified big picture for your audience to be able to focus on your message.
Not only will these designers make your slides look unique and aesthetically pleasing, but also ensure that your message and branding is at the forefront of your presentation. This helps the audience to easily understand the message you are conveying.
5 considerations when outsourcing presentation design
1) Objectives, Goals and Requirements
Before you start sourcing for PowerPoint designers, make certain your objectives and goals of creating this PowerPoint. Is your goal to increase productivity? Present your company more professionally? Impress a client or investor? Think of your objectives and goals and list them down. This can help the designer draft the direction in which the slide design should follow.
Also, your goals can help to narrow down the requirements of your slide design. For example, would your presentation require for visuals to take precedence over text? Or would you require slides that place more emphasis on a specific recommendation or analysis instead?
Thereafter, come out with a list of requirements that you would like your potential designer to fulfill. This includes requirements that will help you achieve those goals that you have listed for your presentation.
2) Brand Guide and specifications
It is important to provide an overview of what your brand symbolizes and portrays. Additionally, your designer will also need an in-depth representation of the relevant details about your company, such as logo in various formats (PNG, JPG, etc.), brand colors with color codes, typography specifications for branding, etc.
If you require any charts to be crafted from data, it would be highly recommended for you to draft out a sample chart first and sending the sample to your designer. Your designer’s role will then be to beautify the chart and make it look more presentable and aesthetically pleasing.
This is because you, as a representative of the company, will likely be able to understand the data better than the designer can. Secondly, you want to avoid an inaccurate representation of your company’s data in the presentation as it will reflect badly on you. Hence, it is recommended to only let your designer beautify and not recreate from scratch any charts that you may need.
All these details need to be provided and stated clearly for your designer to incorporate into the presentation. An accurate representation of your company and brand will reflect in the final design of the presentation. You do not want your designer to misinterpret your company’s mission and vision, ultimately coming up with a presentation that is not what you are looking for.
3) Designer’s experience, style, reputation
Regardless of whether you have chosen to work with a company or a freelance designer, it is important to consider the party’s reputation. If you are outsourcing your work to companies in countries far from you, there might be a language barrier you might need to cross. Take these into consideration and if you have determined the designer to be trustworthy and that there are others who can vouch for his/her work quality, then go right ahead!
When you approach companies that outsource presentation design, you can request for design samples, to determine if it suits the style of your presentation and what you are looking for. Having a general idea of what to expect before embarking on the project is a good way to start. If there are reviews and commentaries, spare some time to look through them too.
4) Legal requirements for cross border transactions
This point is applicable if you are deciding to hire an offshore company based in a country that you are unfamiliar with. In instances like these, you should look up on the country’s employment laws and familiarize yourself with the legal requirements and limitations before moving ahead.
Some countries may have specific laws concerning overseas business partners or outsourcing that may affect you. Hence, it is important to do your research, and make sure that everything is in order before contracting with a third-party provider.
5) Time zone differences
When you contract with a designer that is based in a different country from you, don’t forget the existence of separate time zones! With a major time zone difference between you and your designer, it is especially important to communicate deadlines clearly.
Clarify with your designer and make certain how they are going to manage this issue, and how the both of you can communicate clearly and stay on the same page. Standardize the time zone in which you would like to discuss any deadlines on, and ensure that it stays consistent, to prevent any confusion.
Outsourcing in general is effective and a great way to manage your time and resources. PowerPoint outsourcing is inexpensive and helps you to save lots of time if you have other more important projects to work on.
In our opinion, the benefits of outsourcing your presentation slides outweighs the risks involved if you are clear in conveying what you want from your designer. Moreover, you get to leverage and tap on the expertise of talented designers at an affordable price.
With that being said, if you still have any doubts regarding the outsourcing of presentation design, feel free to contact us via the site linked here. Alternatively, feel free to connect with us on social media: Facebook and LinkedIn to find out more!
