Practical “mine-clearing” techniques for event planning!

Some time ago, I often reviewed plans with novice planners and found that many common mistakes occurred in the planning process. These mistakes were also the minefields that I often stepped on when I first started planning.

Based on these minefields and according to the key links of the planning process, this article will sort out practical "mine clearance" techniques, hoping that novice planners can work less overtime, get scolded less, and lose less hair. It also serves as a wake-up call to veteran planners to avoid the situation of "I understand the principles, but I just forgot them."

Of course, planners please skip this article.

The practical skills of "mine clearance" will be divided into two parts:

1. Three essential mine-clearing amulets before planning:

These three amulets are the principles that we need to keep in mind before planning and throughout the entire planning process. Only by establishing the correct planning mindset can we eliminate the possibility of stepping on landmines from the source.

2. 15 Mine-clearing Techniques for the Planning Process:

This section will focus on the "thunderstorm prone areas" in the six key links of the planning process and provide the corresponding 15 major mine clearance techniques.

(PS: These six steps are not the complete process of the planning proposal. Other steps such as media planning will not be discussed in this article.)

1. Three essential mine-clearing amulets before planning

1. Empathy and dual identity

When they first start planning, many people psychologically regard it as just a task of their own and it is fine as long as they complete it. So there will be ideas like: "This is a good idea" and "This concept form is also very popular"... Putting these together, the plan is complete and the task is accomplished.

But whether these good things are really good, we have never carefully thought about and measured them, nor do we know how to measure them.

Empathy is the primary yardstick for this measurement. We need to put ourselves in two roles and measure whether our plan can solve the problem from two perspectives:

(1) Think from the customer’s perspective

Only when we think about problems from Party A's perspective can we truly perceive his/her pain points, know what kind of service from Party B is the most worry-free and considerate, and know what issues I most urgently need Party B to help me solve... Only in this way can the plan formulated according to Party A's pain points truly help customers solve problems and make our customers feel: you understand me.

It is particularly worth mentioning that when we can truly think from the perspective of others, we will not just regard this plan as "it's just a task, it's fine once it's completed", but we will treat customers as friends, help them think in the long term, and do what is most beneficial to their future development and the company's future development, so that customers will feel: you not only understand me, but also help me think about the future.

(2) Think from the audience’s perspective

It is certainly not enough to only look at the problem from the customer's perspective. After all, the final result of the planning still affects the audience, and whether it is good or not will be determined by the market reaction. So on the other hand, we need to stand in the audience's perspective and feel their needs.

For example, when planning an event , we can imagine ourselves as a participant, close our eyes and immerse ourselves in the entire event, from accepting the invitation, to the event site (how to sign in, on-site layout, etc.) to finally leaving...

In this process, what kind of communication content can greatly attract me? What link settings can give me a comfortable experience? …Only in this way can the final output content truly resonate with the audience and create a good experience for them.

2. Emotional substitution and emotional matching

Planning routines are indeed an important magic weapon for novices to improve efficiency, but you will find that many people just write according to the template, especially the analysis part of the plan, step by step. In some places, they may not even know why they are necessary, but they think it is better to have them than not, at least the content looks complete and well-founded.

Some students sometimes find that the information of some modules cannot be found at all when following the template, and they even use some far-fetched information to complete the model into the plan.

However, this approach has actually lost the basic logic of the plan. It is just a pile of materials and information, which has no motivation at all.

To put it simply, the basic logic of the plan is to help customers identify problems and clarify goals, develop strategies to solve problems, and finally formulate specific implementation methods based on the strategies. But based on the basic logic of rationality, we also need to substitute our own emotions and incorporate emotional elements, which is the driving force of the plan.

Think about where our emotions are? What touches us? Be careful not to form rigid thinking. Once you get a plan, you will think about finding information, applying methodology, and getting results. If you make plans in this mechanical way, you will never make a good plan.

After all, our target audience is people. When people see an advertisement, their first reaction is based on their intuitive feelings, and they will not think about the logic behind it point by point.

For example, in a brand positioning communication case, we can regard this company or this product as our lover. In the eyes of a lover, every woman is a beauty. Through the collected information, we can feel carefully what is the most unique and touching point about it. Perhaps this point will become the source of our Big Idea. Based on this point, we can think about how to communicate so that everyone can feel this unique side.

Of course, if you are worried that the points you grasp are biased, we can preset 1-2 more and let the team discuss them together.

I believe that when we truly put our emotions into writing a proposal, we will slowly discover that writing a proposal is no longer about facing a series of cold methods and routines, but it is like when we accidentally obtain a good thing that no one has discovered before (that is, the highlight of the company or product), and we are eager to share (the proposal) with our good friends around us with excitement, so that everyone knows how good it is.

3. Strategy and creativity are not equally important

There is often debate about whether strategy or creativity is more valuable.

Those who support the greater value of creativity think that there is no need to spend too much time and energy on preliminary work such as "interpreting needs, collecting analysis, and formulating strategies". These time-consuming and brain-burning things will not be released in the end. Some customers who are in a hurry often ask us to skip the previous work and look at the creativity directly.

To put it simply, the purpose of strategy is to point out a clear path for creativity, find core issues, and provide core thinking. Without a strategy, no matter how good the creative ideas we produce are, they can only be used anywhere, that is, they become the self-enthusiasm of advertisers.

There is a saying: Creativity dances in shackles under the guidance of strategy.

The party that supports the more valuable strategy feels that as long as the strategy is determined, there will be a lot of creative ideas. If this were true, wouldn't everyone be able to come up with those touching copywriting and eye-catching creative forms?

Therefore, strategy is the core guide for communication creativity or activity planning, and creativity is an effective means to realize strategy. The two are interdependent and have equal value.

It’s like I told you that the way to say goodbye to being single is to improve your appearance (strategy), and one of the ways to improve your appearance is to change to a more handsome hairstyle (creativity). We can't say which one is more valuable for us to finally say goodbye to being single, right?

But does this mean that strategic creativity is equally important? This requires a specific analysis of the specific situation:

(1) Analyze customer needs.

If it is a relatively simple event execution case, the client has a clear grasp of the core needs, so we naturally do not need to repeat too much information that she already knows, and focus on creativity;

If it is an annual communication case, the focus should naturally be on strategy, because it will be used to guide the communication rhythm and creative planning for the whole year.

(2) Analyze the situation of the decision maker.

For example, under normal circumstances, the brand liaison person at the execution level of Party A will focus more on the specific creative content of the plan; while the leadership of Party A generally only focuses on the top-level key points, and the specific execution is generally left to subordinates to control, and they will focus more on the strategy of the plan.

Therefore, the situation of the participants and decision makers at the proposal site will largely determine the weight of the two parts of the proposal strategy and creativity, and also determine whether he or she will be interested in our proposal.

To summarize the three major mine-clearing amulets in this section, it is best to form your own muscle memory before planning~~

2. 15 Mine-clearing Techniques in the Planning Process

With the amulet protecting us, we can officially embark on the battlefield of planning. In this part, I will focus on the six key links of planning in the figure below, and sort out the corresponding 15 mine-clearing techniques according to the "thunderstorm-prone areas" of each link to help you pass the level and capture the planning fortress.

1. Interpreting the needs

When we go to the battlefield, we must first understand the situation on the battlefield. This section mainly provides mine-clearing techniques for four situations that are prone to problems in the interpretation and communication of customer needs, to avoid directional errors in the solution due to inadequate understanding or deviation.

The first step is to understand the customer’s “duplicity”

We should not believe that customers can really explain their real needs at one time. Sometimes they can only tell us the basic needs, and we need to dig out more detailed and specific content;

Sometimes the needs he/she talks about are different from the actual needs, but his/her expression leads to misunderstanding... To avoid the situation of "saying one thing and thinking another", there are two commonly used methods:

1. In-depth communication

After the customer makes a request, try to dig deeper into the reasons and deeper needs behind the request to find out its real purpose. Because sometimes the demands raised by customers may be information that has been processed by the customers themselves according to their needs. For example, it may only talk about the method to solve the demand, but this method is sometimes not correct.

In this case, if we simply "obediently" complete the task as the customer asks, we will find that our starting point is completely different from that of the customer and we cannot solve the problem he wants to solve.

For example:

When a client suggests that they want to hold an event taking advantage of a recent hot topic, our first reaction should not be to follow the client's lead to find out what event he or she wants to hold, but to trace back to understand the reason behind the client's desire to hold a hot topic event, for example, is it to solve the problem of insufficient exposure and expand the opening? Or is it a problem of word-of-mouth bias?

Or is it a matter of clearing inventory for the launch of new products? In this way, we can be consistent with the starting point of the customer and jointly solve the problem. At the same time, we can also help customers analyze from a professional perspective whether chasing hot spots is the best way to solve their pain points.

2. Try to communicate and find out the needs

For some things that cannot be understood simply by description, we should try to communicate on a specific matter and see the other party's reaction in order to understand the other party's complete thoughts. After all, advertising planning is greatly influenced by subjective factors to a certain extent, and everyone's feelings are different.

For example:

We wanted to understand the client's design style preferences in advance, so we asked the client, and he said, "It's all right. Our company style varies a lot. You can decide. As long as it looks good, it's fine." When we hear this, we can't simply assume that the client really "does it all". He may just "not know".

Therefore, we need to bring out some works of similar styles to test with them. Only then will they realize, “Oh, this is definitely not the style our company likes.” By doing this, we can slowly understand the customer’s preferences and reduce the risk of “mines” in subsequent content output.

The second trick is that love cannot be a one-time satisfaction

Customers often make many requests. We must learn to simplify, see the essence through the surface, grasp the most core requests, and then communicate with the customers to confirm. If we try to meet every requirement of the client, then the proposal we write will inevitably be unfocused, and the final result will be half the result with twice the effort.

For example:

The client wanted to hold a forum to increase the attention of high-end talents to the company, to initially establish the company's brand image, to provide exposure and solve the problem of low visibility, etc.

With so many goals, trying to tackle them all will only backfire, so we need to guide customers to communicate and confirm what the core purpose of the plan is.

For example, if the core purpose is to increase the attention of high-end talents to the company and achieve the recruitment goals, then we must select recruitment channels where high-end talents gather in the media, and every link of the forum must be set up with the goal of maximizing the application rate of target talents. However, such a setting is obviously not suitable for maximizing the satisfaction of other goals.

The third trick is to choose the right dish and the right person to make a plan

Before making a plan, you must understand who the client's decision-makers are, who the final decision-maker is, and what their decision-making style is. Because the quality of a plan is not like a math problem where there is only one right or wrong answer. The quality of a plan depends entirely on people's subjective judgment.

Only when we know who the plan will be handed over to and what criteria these people use to judge the plan, can we make targeted moves. As the saying goes, "Look at the food to eat and the person to commit the crime." This has three main impacts on program planning:

The first is to reduce the risk of demand deviation.

For example, the relationship chain between Party A and Party B is often like this: Party A's leader proposes requirements - instructs subordinates - subordinates coordinate requirements with advertising companies - advertising companies output plans - Party A's leader makes the final decision.

In a situation like this, the advertising company directly communicates with the leaders’ subordinates about their needs, but do the subordinates really convey the leaders’ needs to us completely and accurately? If subordinates fail to communicate information properly, there is a high possibility that the plan will be overturned at the proposal site.

Therefore, when we communicate on demand in the early stages, we must understand the decision-maker's situation in advance and try our best to invite the decision-maker to participate in the demand communication. If we really cannot let the decision-maker participate, we must promptly remind the contact person of possible risks, understand the decision-maker's true thoughts from multiple dimensions, and promptly feedback our key information to the decision-maker through the contact person.

The second is to determine the proportion of the scheme.

For example, judging the proportion of strategic creativity by customer identity needs. This part has been described in detail in the previous "Mine Clearance Amulet 3: Strategic Creativity is Equal in Value but Not Equal in Weight", so I will not repeat it here.

The third is to determine the logical order of the plan.

For example, once when I was communicating with a client about their needs and asked about the company’s decision-making style, she said we are “results oriented”. Then she gave us a very important reminder. She said: "Remember to put the results that can be achieved by doing this as early as possible in your plan, and the title should directly point out the results. Our company uses "what results can be achieved" as the criterion for whether to do this or not.

“In this way, we must pay close attention to the presentation logic of our plan.

Tip 4: Don’t worry, budget is bullshit

If we ask our clients about their budget and they tell us, "Don't worry about the budget, just follow your ideas." Don't believe them! Often when this happens, customers will be shocked when they receive the budget: “Why is it so expensive!”, and a large part of the final plan will be cut.

Sometimes customers may not have a clear budget, or need to apply for a budget with our proposal, but we can ask them for a price range, or give them several price ranges and let them make a selection. The customer must have an idea in his mind, it just depends on whether we can find out.

2. Collection and Analysis

After clarifying the customer's needs and understanding the battlefield situation, we can start preparing the "ammunition" for planning. The ammunition here is the collection or research of pre-plan information to provide factual support for the plan. The work at this stage is complex and time-consuming, and the area is also prone to thunderstorms.

Step 5: Search with confidence

After receiving the task of collecting company information, some novice planners will directly start searching the company name on Baidu, then search whatever they think of, copy down pieces of information, and finally mark the key points.

The documents submitted in this way do not know what the focus is or what the conclusion is, and the collected information is just information.

The correct approach to collecting information should be: clarify goals based on customer needs, determine the basic research path for the solution, and then search for detailed information based on the framework path, so that you are confident before searching.

To give an example, the problems of an enterprise are like the illness of a patient. As doctors, we clearly know that the basic approach to treating a patient is: look, smell, ask and palpate. Then we collect information from these four aspects to find out the cause of the disease.

On the one hand, this can improve collection efficiency, as you can achieve twice the result with half the effort by focusing on the right target. Blindly searching may result in you finding that a lot of information is useless. On the other hand, it can ensure the completeness and accuracy of the information obtained.

If we think and search at the same time, we will inevitably miss some key information due to lack of holistic thinking.

The sixth trick is to have more than just search engines

Baidu, Google, etc. are our ways of searching for information, but they are not the only ways. Search engine information is vast and complex. Even simply adding Baidu advanced search is much more efficient than using Baidu search directly.

But it is more effective for us to continuously accumulate vertical websites and search through vertical search channels according to the content we want to find.

For example: if you are looking for industry reports, you should go to iResearch, Analysys, Penguin Intelligence, etc.; if you are looking for video ideas, you should go to New Film Studio, Kaiyan, Bilibili Advertising... If you still can't find it, you can spend a little money on Taobao or pay for consultation on Zhihu.

Tip 7: Become an efficient information organizer

It is not enough to do a good search. You also need to master the skills of organizing information while searching to improve the efficiency of subsequent information application.

Based on the "Fifth Trick: Search with Confidence", we can color-code and grade the information according to its criticality in the data collection form. For example, level 1 (yellow): key information; level 2 (green): less important information; level 3 (blue): information to assist in understanding. In addition, we can create another column to summarize the viewpoints extracted from the data, and finally attach the original link to facilitate information tracing.

For the data collection and analysis part, I will take the annual communication case as an example to make a complete table example for everyone to intuitively understand the knowledge points of this section:

Before searching, we first set up a framework. For annual communication cases, we generally analyze from five perspectives: environment, industry, enterprise, competitor, and consumer, and break it down into each dimension. The environment is further divided into macro environment pest and competitive environment swot for analysis.

Then we copy the key content of the original text, write our opinions or feelings in the column of refining opinions, and finally attach the link.

3. Develop strategies

With "information" as ammunition, we can aim at the direction and fire the shells. The process of aiming at a direction is the process of "strategy formulation", which provides directional guidance for our plans.

The eighth trick is to use the model softly instead of hard.

As we all know, there are many strategic models in the industry, such as the 360 ​​Brand Communication Compass, the PROFIL Consumer Value Model, the Growth Hacker Model, and so on. But for novice planners, on the one hand, because they do not have a thorough understanding of the model, and on the other hand, the number of models they master is limited, they often apply models mechanically, or use only one model regardless of the case.

If you want to master the idea of ​​a good strategy model, there is no shortcut to "soft" use of the model. You can mainly do the following three things:

1. Learn more classic models, analyze them in depth and apply them repeatedly to be able to apply them freely;

2. When using the model, you can improve it according to the actual situation of the plan, not just the prototype;

3. Be diligent in summarizing and summarize what type of solution is suitable for what model. You can also try to summarize and refine some practical models yourself.

4. Refining the Theme

Once we find the right direction, we can fire the shells. The theme is the biggest and most critical bomb. Only when it explodes successfully can the subsequent creativity lay the foundation for success.

The ninth trick is to speak in a pleasant and memorable way to hit the pain points

Distilling a theme is indeed a brain-dead job. A seemingly simple sentence requires rationally condensing the core value points into the theme, and it also requires emotional copywriting to convey it. Only with a large amount of copywriting accumulation and daily meticulous insights can good inspiration come. Inspiration is sometimes really hard to come by.

It is really too brain-burning, so planners sometimes use some lazy methods. For example, according to the core value points, they find some synonyms, and then piece these synonyms together, and then modify them with copywriting to make them into theme slogans with gorgeous words and neat parallelism. For example, the format of "XXXX,XXXX" is very common.

There is no doubt that sometimes the slogan produced by this method will not be wrong, but it will never be a good slogan. There are three points to keep in mind when drafting a good topic:

1. Based on the strategy, figure out what type of theme positioning we want to go for: Is it to promote functional propositions? Or highlight the brand image? Or is it for differentiation? Because the type of theme positioning will determine the language style of our slogan to a certain extent.

For example, OPPO’s “Charge for five minutes, talk for two hours” is positioned on product functions, and its style is simple, human and down-to-earth; but KEEP’s “Self-discipline gives me freedom” is positioned on highlighting the brand image, so it is more about showing a personalized lifestyle;

2. Based on the keywords extracted from the company or product, immerse yourself in the situation and imagine it. Focus on what we want to hit on in this sentence until we get it right. Write down the imagined scenes or words.

3. Carefully consider, polish, and organize the recorded content, and express it in pleasant, memorable, and easy-to-understand language.

We all understand the principle, but the actual operation is really very brain-consuming. However, I hope everyone will be conscious and tell themselves every time you think of a slogan not to use a fixed format to piece it together. Try to break through, and only by accumulating experience over time can you make progress.

5. Creative Output

The main theme has been released, and now it’s up to the creative “hay of bullets” to capture the city. But "bullets hail" does not mean firing at will. The following three tricks will help us avoid stepping on landmines and concentrate creative firepower to attack the planning fortress.

The tenth step is to grasp the core soul of creativity

Creativity should revolve around the theme from beginning to end, so that the entire plan will have a backbone and all creativity will have a core soul, rather than a collection of scattered ideas.

There is one situation that needs special mention. Sometimes the company formulates an activity theme that is not very tangible or concrete, and we need to plan activities around this theme.

Here I will explain what is meant by “not very tangible activity theme”. For example, the slogan of the 2019 CCTV Host Competition is: I will strive for my dreams. Such an activity theme makes it difficult for us to quickly come up with a specific scene or object in our minds to represent this activity.

The theme of Zhihu's offline event is called "Unknown Clinic". This theme allows us to quickly imagine a clinic scene in our minds, and we can quickly develop relevant creative associations around this scene.

When faced with such a difficult-to-visualize topic, planners can easily fall into misunderstandings.

For example:

There was a technology-based enterprise whose event theme was not concrete enough, so when we were thinking of creative ideas, we gave this event the concept of "wave", meaning that they were the trendsetters who set off the "technological wave".

However, during the planning process, we went astray and over-emphasized the concept of "wave". The elements of science and technology were weakened in the event, and as a result, we failed to showcase the core characteristics of the company.

There are two main ways to avoid this situation:

First, the theme setting at the beginning should be as concrete as possible to make it easier for us to have a sense of picture; second, if the theme has been decided, it is indeed necessary to find concrete concepts to package the event.

So what we need to pay attention to is: this concrete concept cannot be too detached from the characteristics of the enterprise and be too conceptual; nor can it take the place of the main theme. What we want to promote is the enterprise, not our creativity or concepts.

Tip 11: Creativity should be flesh and blood

When I first started working as a planner, I often got too excited when thinking of creative ideas, and only cared about making them fun and eye-catching, but I lost sight of the core selling point.

This creates a logical gap between the subsequent creativity and the previous deductions. Secondly, it loses the original intention of the company to build a brand. After all, the value of creativity is not to make people happy, but to establish an image and solve problems.

Creativity is not something that can be created on a whim. Before outputting specific ideas, we must first sort out the core selling points of the product, and then integrate the core selling points into the creative presentation. This is creativity with flesh and blood, and different creative ideas should have different emphases on the presentation of core selling points.

In this way, all creative ideas can form an inseparable whole, and customers will not casually remove one of our ideas, because the loss of one will have a great impact on the overall communication.

Twelfth move: reveal what should be revealed and save what should be saved

What I am mainly talking about here is that creative presentation should be detailed and concise. Some novice planners write all their creative ideas in great detail, which makes the proposal too long, tiring for clients to listen to, and a waste of time and effort; others write too simply, making it difficult to grasp the highlights of the idea.

The presentation of creativity should be arranged according to the overall situation of the plan. If it is the brightest or most important idea in the plan, you should not only write down the idea, but also the details.

If there are several similar ideas, then take one as an example and write in detail, and just briefly mention the others; if they are some ordinary auxiliary ideas, then just briefly talk about the ideas and functions.

6. Content presentation

To win a war, strength alone is not enough, we also need momentum. Sometimes "bluffing" can really help us win the final victory. The "momentum" here refers to the way the plan is presented. Good content and good presentation are necessary to play a good hand.

Tip 13: Good content still relies on logical strings

The logic presented in the plan is a high-risk area for novice planners to make mistakes. I will explain it from four perspectives:

1. Complete logical structure

The presentation of the plan still follows a basic framework logical sequence, namely background (current situation, challenges, goals, etc.) - strategic theme - plan content.

Some novice PPTers immediately put forward the big idea at the beginning of their presentation, thinking that this creative concept is super awesome and the most important content should be displayed first. There are actually two risks in this idea:

First, it would be fine if the client really approves of our creativity as we wish. But if he/she thinks it is not good, all the subsequent contents will be wasted. Besides, we still have to whet the client’s appetite for the best product. Second, without any preparation, it is difficult for the client to resonate with our ideas.

With the preparation of the previous content, on the one hand, customers know that we understand them, and on the other hand, customers know what ideas are used to create creative ideas, so that our ideas can lead the thinking of others.

2. Smooth logical connection

There is a way to avoid logical blockage. After writing the proposal, read it from the perspective of the proposer. When we find that the connection between two pages is not smooth, it is very likely that there is a gap in the logic of these two pages.

For example: We wrote about the problems that the brand needed to solve on the previous page, and then on the next page, without any analysis, we just suddenly presented the solutions. This way of presentation seems very jumpy to the audience, who does not know the process and logic behind our solution, which makes it difficult for customers to resonate with our ideas.

3. Logical relationship correspondence

It is easy for novice planners to accidentally create problems such as incoherence and illogicality. The questions raised at the beginning of our plan and the foreshadowing must be responded to later; conversely, things that have not been laid out in the beginning cannot suddenly appear later.

For example, the plan lists four major problems that need to be solved for the current brand image, but then proposes three solutions based on the problems, and the solution to one problem is nowhere to be found. This logical relationship does not correspond.

4. Clear logical relationship

Sometimes when the proposal contains a lot of content, people will directly start presenting one content after another. As the audience listens, they will forget the previous content and their minds will only be filled with a lot of creative content that is difficult to absorb.

There are two ways to solve this situation. One is to put out the framework before discussing the details, so that the audience can understand the specific content with our framework ideas and will not be confused. The other is that the analysis of each section must have periodic conclusions, and finally the final conclusion is summarized and condensed from the conclusions of each section. In this way, with a framework in front and a conclusion in the back, the audience can obtain key information more clearly and accurately.

The 14th trick is to win people’s hearts with sweet words

Sometimes a plan has all the necessary content and logic, but the whole plan just feels very bland. At this time, you may need to "package" the plan and add some flowery words. There are two ways to "pack":

1. Use concepts to package the logical lines of the plan to make the content come alive.

For example, the brand communication rhythm of a certain company is divided into four stages: warm-up - start-up - heating up - closing. We package the four stages of its communication rhythm as spring - summer - autumn - winter according to the characteristics of the company. In this way, when the audience feels our creative communication, it is like experiencing a journey of changing seasons, and good ideas will become more motivating.

2. You can add a page of PPT after the key theme concepts and ideas, and explain the theme through beautiful copywriting and illustrations, just like a short poem. On the one hand, this will deepen the customer's understanding of our key content. On the other hand, beautiful copywriting can lead the customer to imagine with us and make the customer feel involved.

Tip 15: Appearance is Justice

The "appearance" here refers to the fact that the PPT of the plan must look good. After all, customers can intuitively experience our plan. If it does not look good, they may not want to read the content. If you want to look good, you should pay attention to the following six points:

1. Use pictures instead of words as much as possible

Try to use concise words and graphics to express your thoughts and avoid long paragraphs of text. This can convey the content to the audience intuitively and concisely on the one hand, and on the other hand it can create a sense of model and improve the level a bit.

Of course, this is not to encourage us to abuse the model and make it very complicated. After all this explanation, it is actually a simple principle.

2. The key words should be expressed in parallel and neat manner

The title or key words should be well-balanced and well-written. On the one hand, it looks beautiful and reflects professionalism, and on the other hand, the language should be as concise as possible.

For example: Technological development stimulates growth space, and the first-mover perspective provides insight into future development

3. The PPT layout and color matching are beautiful and appropriate

There are 4 points to pay attention to in order to be beautiful and suitable:

(1) Select the appropriate layout according to the theme and tone of the plan. If we choose a serious business template for a lively and interesting event, it will undoubtedly greatly reduce the customer's intuitive experience;

(2) For those who are not good at PPT design, it is recommended that you purchase templates from the PPT STORE. The appearance of the PPT will be completely different. Spending a little money can save you a lot of time. There are indeed many free templates on the Internet, but the fact is that there is a difference between those who pay and those who don’t.

(3) With a beautiful PPT template, we adjust the color scheme based on the existing layout, generally using the client’s father’s VI color as the base color.

(4) The color scheme of PPT can be roughly divided into dark background (mostly black) and light background (mostly white). These two color schemes have their own advantages and disadvantages. The dark background will appear more high-end, but it is difficult to make it look good. If you are not careful, the whole color scheme will appear too dark.

A light-colored base will appear more ordinary, but the risk of color matching failure is lower than that of a dark-colored base.

4. Fonts should be “seek common ground while reserving differences”

"Same" refers to the fonts of a PPT, generally no more than 3 fonts are used. Generally, there is one font for the main text (mostly Microsoft YaHei), and no more than two fonts at most, in order to reflect uniformity; "different" means that a font that matches the emotional tone conveyed by the text is used in the headlines of key pages (such as slogans, etc.), in order to allow the audience to more directly feel the emotions behind the text and enhance the sense of immersion.

5. High-definition and appropriate pictures

Selecting a PPT background image that matches the text on the screen is an excellent way to create a sense of immersion in the program for customers, making our theme text instantly intuitive and perceptible.

To find high-definition pictures, websites like Panorama.net, Photo.net, Pixabay, etc. are all very useful vertical image search websites.

6. Cultivate Format Obsession

Center! Align! Isometric! Same size!

Although the principles are simple, some principles require repeated attention and formed habits in order to be truly remembered. Below I will illustrate some of the more commonly used formatting points that you should pay attention to when using matrix diagrams.

Tips: The rulers, grid lines, and reference lines in the PPT view are all good reference tools for format adjustment, so use them more often!

Some of you may say at this moment, I think some irregular typesetting looks much better than this regular typesetting.

That’s right, I’m only talking about the most basic typesetting. Once you’ve learned the basics and developed good work habits, you can pursue advanced typesetting on the basis that you’re sure you won’t go wrong. Besides, advanced typesetting also follows the rules of basic typesetting to some extent, right?

The practical skills of "3 amulets + 15 mine clearance techniques" for novice planners have been introduced. Finally, let's review them as a whole with a picture:

I wish you all will never make mistakes, won’t have to revise your manuscripts, and will conquer the planning fortress as soon as possible!

Author: Granular Sauce

Source: Shuying.com