How (Re)usable Branding and PowerPoint Work Together
What is branding? Or rather, what do you think it is?
For a lot of people, branding is all about the sexy touchpoints. The tote bag, the mock-ups, the perfectly curated website. In other words, they see branding as that final layer of glossy polish: the extra touch of glamour that’s meant to win clients over.
But branding is also about the materials that go out to clients and prospects every single day. And they’re far more important than any tote bag. Tote bags don’t meet decision-makers – documents do!
Those documents represent you and your team. If they don’t embody your brand – if they don’t look like you – then you risk sending the wrong message about your professionalism, your standards and your identity.
Branding affects documents – and vice versa
It’s easy to think of branding as something separate from your ordinary tasks: those PowerPoint decks you make and edit every day, for example. That’s why your visual identity wasn’t built for PowerPoint. In reality, branding impacts your PowerPoints, and those PowerPoints should impact your branding.
Many organisations pay for a custom brand pack, use it once, and then forget about it. But the work doesn’t stop once you’ve overhauled your website or applied that new set of logos.
Every deck and document you produce is a continuation of your brand identity. It amplifies your message and represents your organisation to the outside world, including key decision makers.
So ask yourself: Is your existing brand actually (re)usable? Or is it just a set of throwaway guidelines, the kind you apply and forget?
The risks of non-reusable branding
Let’s look at a common scenario that plays out for many companies. You’ve just invested in a complete brand overhaul, so now your online presence is beautiful and polished.
A funder or prospect sees your website and thinks, ‘Wow, these people look great!’ They’re already feeling positive about you and your team.
But those visual identity guidelines didn’t include anything about pitch decks. Or perhaps they did, and your team hasn’t learned to apply them. So you send out messy DIY slides that don’t fit with your branding at all. Your lead loses trust, and starts to wonder if you’re really the professional outfit they thought you were.
Your decks showcase your brand just as much as a website does. Sloppy, inconsistent PowerPoints can undermine your image and affect your business. Messy DIY slides make teams feel stressed and embarrassed.
It’s all about first impressions
You’ve got just three seconds to make a first impression. And that clock restarts every time a new document is opened – each one will either reinforce or sabotage trust.
That’s why you can’t rely on your website alone to convey quality. You need to impress your client every single time you meet them. That includes when they open a new document.
And it’s not just about beautiful slides or a great logo. It’s about how your team uses them.
After all, communication isn’t a one-time thing. It’s a continuous action, and your branding needs to support it through (re)usable templates, clear hierarchy and engaging content flow.
For example, picking the right colour palette isn’t just about aesthetics. The wrong colour combination can exclude those with visual impairments, or even trigger headaches. Colour choices need to support both clarity and accessibility.
PowerPoint can work for you
Habitual Office users tend to think of PowerPoint as quite basic. And most designers don’t specialise in PowerPoint, which leads to templates being an afterthought. This is exactly why many templates look ‘off’: they weren’t created with your communication needs in mind at all.
But when it’s used well, PowerPoint isn’t as basic as many people think.
By learning to embed your own brand colours, fonts and layouts, you can design elements in PowerPoint that are on a par with specialised design software. In fact, I find PowerPoint is actually better at some things than Canva: have you ever tried to add a custom shape in it?
Setting up your brand properly in PowerPoint may require a bit of time and effort. But once it’s done, you don’t need to be a software expert to use it. The templates and formatting do all the heavy lifting for you. A little training really helps, too.
This is what we mean by (re)usable branding. Your visual identity should be built into your workflow, so that nobody in your team has to tackle that extra step – and risk getting it badly wrong.
How we can help
Re)usable branding has many benefits. It makes a powerful first impression. It amplifies your message. It simplifies your workflow, reinforces your image and helps you get more “YESes”.
It’s an investment that really pays off. But if you’re reading this, you might not have the time to invest when you’re already stretched managing your day-to-day communications. Or perhaps you feel like you’ve reached the limits of your software knowledge.
That’s why Beyond the Surface offers the support you need to feel proud sending those documents. Whether it’s brand exploration, template creation, PowerPoint training or all of the above, we’re ready to act as your visual branding and PowerPoint design agency.
For more “YESes” and less wasted time, reach out to our founder, Francesca, to book your free consultation. You can also sign up to our newsletter for fresh tips and insights.
