Inside Ethos3: Using Content Pitches to Develop a Strong Storyboard

Our design portfolio is pretty self-explanatory: gorgeous design, minimal content, and beautiful finished products that tell a brand’s story. But a portfolio piece isn’t able to show all of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into each project, such as design comps, moodboards, and storyboard outlines.

You might think of a presentation like a play at a theater. All of the work really happens behind the scenes and offstage, with rehearsals, costume design, and set creation. What the audience sees is only a tiny fraction of the many different hours of work from many different team members.

This in mind, we want to share with you one of our very best “behind the scenes” tactics which you can use to help write your presentation content. What is it?

Inside Ethos3: Using Content Pitches to Develop a Strong Storyboard

Meet the content pitch

Without giving away too much of our secret sauce, a content pitch is a summary of the “feeling” you want to evoke with your presentation. Similar to a design mood board, a content pitch creates a short glimpse of words, concepts, or even a structure that you want to apply throughout your deck. When we write content pitches for client, we provide them with three different options to mix and match for their project. Starting with a more conservative pitch, we tend to get more creative depending on the client’s needs.

Here’s an example

Let’s say you want to write a few pitches for your healthcare company, about a high-tech hospital bed that will be sold to potential hospitals and healthcare facilities. The first step is to come up with a few titles, and then elaborate on those titles with some general copy about how you want the presentation to “feel.” You might call the deck “Rest Easy,” or “A Better Way to Heal,” or something more high-level like “Support.”

For “Rest Easy,” you could write a paragraph like: this presentation will use images of jumping sheep and other sleep-related imagery in order to show how comfortable hospital patients will feel on these new beds. The presentation will use contemporary language and bright images to convey this concept throughout.

Clear and simple. You don’t need any more than a few sentences to describe your main ideas.

So, how can you use this technique?

Content pitches aren’t just a great way to get your creative juices flowing; they are also helpful if you are working with a team and want to get their feedback on your ideas before you start writing. Take inspiration from us and write down three pitch paragraphs paired with three titles based on your existing content. Share your pitches with your team to get feedback, and then choose a direction to start writing your storyboard.

As you develop your pitches, think “high level.” These are meant to be an early starting point in your writing process, and help inspire you down the line. When you have a larger theme to work from, you may find it easier to come up with content that fits within that theme rather than approach the task from a granular level.

Want to learn more about developing content for your presentation? Go behind the scenes into our process with these similar articles:

How to Structure Your Presentation Content: An Easy Formula

33 Writing Tips, In 140 characters or Less

Presentation Writing From the Ground Up

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