Thank you Slides in your Powerpoint: Do you need one?

Of course, we want to use a thank you slide to end our presentations. After all, it has been shared sometimes among the tips for effective slide decks. Somehow, it seems like an instinct or a legacy from good old PowerPoint presentation days. Yet, not all of us have that tendency. And there’s also a natural explanation as to why that’s the case. So, here, we bring to you 3 main reasons why you shouldn’t add a thank you slide. 

1. A verbal "thank you" also works

Number one, you can be verbally appreciative. So there’s no need to be adding a “thank you” note as a prominent visual display at the end of your presentation. A second’s worth of a heart-filled “thank you” can achieve the same appreciation your massive thank you slide would aim to set in a room. 

If thanking your audience is a must for you, then take a minute to do that. Better yet, you can work at weaving that into your plot in a way that wraps up your pitch deck story. 

In case hearing about stories as a means of crafting a pitch deck is a new concept for you, please head on out to our article on why storytelling matters. It’s a vital part of any presentation, so read more about it if you’re unfamiliar. Or work at fitting that aspect into your verbal cues as much as possible. It will help your wrap-up, we’re sure.

2. Calls to action work better

One reason we eliminate a thank you slide as a presentation’s end is the value that removal provides. Remember the principle of physical matter. What gets removed clears room for the new matter to take its place. It just transforms. And thank you slides work similarly to that.

A second of the 3 main reasons why you shouldn’t add a thank you slide has to do with making much better use of your final slide than what a thank you can achieve. 

Simply put, there are so much more profitable uses to your final slide, it’s a bit pointless to spend it on a two-word thank you note. Sorry to say it that way, yet it’s what needs to happen. 

Think about your last slide as a way of leaving an impression. How you start and how you end your business pitch is a decisive moment of interaction with your audience. While thanks set an appreciative tone in the air, it also speaks of a time past. 

You’re thanking people for listening to you, we assume, correct? Yet, imagine making more profitable use of that in a business or educative sense to leave an impression that speaks of your brand or presentation content to your audience. Wouldn’t that be much more useful?

You can furthermore direct your audience to a specific action. This positive is what we mean when we advise replacing your thank you note for a call to action. Whether it’s your contact details, an image of your product, a step you genuinely wish your target audience would take next as of the time you finish presenting, you can gear your presentation’s end as the start of a new set of actions that your listeners unleash for you. 

Make an everlasting impression of the most exceptional kind. Don’t just settle for a quick exit of a thank you slide. Build the start of a relationship, instead of closing on it. 

3. You can make much more of it, instead

Geared on pitch decks, we wouldn’t recommend adding summaries or new data to your final pitch deck slide. Guy Kawasaki’s 10 slides rule, for instance, only gets you as far as a use of funds slide at the end to explain how you plan on spending a new investment. That one also includes your startup’s current status and a timeline with accomplishments. 

However, for different kinds of presentations in other settings, you could also consider adding a quick summary of what you just presented that solely highlights the key areas you want people to remember the most. These include business sales, educative recaps, market analysis, and many other types of presentations. 

And we’re still speaking of making a final lasting impression that sets you off into a new relationship with your target audience. Remove all the extra details and focus on a visually friendly way to recap your fundamental content areas. Even for a marketing strategy kind of meeting, a final visual recap will do much better to open a follow-up conversation than a simple thank you would ever do. 

A note on quotes, by the way

Also, and now that we’re at it, you might find quotes as highly recommended resources to wrap up your business presentations. However, we advise against making such extensive use of what might seem like an attractive and compelling idea. Part of the 3 main reasons why you shouldn’t add a thank you slide also support not to use a quote lightly as an equally easy exit to a thank you note. 

We covered a perfect example of the use of quotes, especially in front of investors, when we gave you 8 interesting facts on pitch decks. And we also touched upon this a bit over our ideas for pitch deck hooks that will get your audience’s attention. To sum it up very concisely, quotes won’t always do the trick. Especially not complicated, self-contradictory, or unrelatable quotes that won’t help your business idea. 

If you can stay away from quotes as a wrap-up, chances are you’ll be better off. Yet, look into quotes as pitch deck hooks in the recommended article, for example. You might be able to find it justifiable to catch your audience’s attention with one. 

Care about your presentation design?

Ultimately, the query of adding a thank you slide, or not, is one of presentation efficiency. What we all truly want to nail is how to create stunning presentation slides that give the best result for the content we wish to share. 

As we’re devoted entirely to online presentation software, we can’t say goodbye without recommending you invest time, if not also resources, into making of your presentation slide design the best possible fit for your market needs. Serve your target audience with mouth opening slide design. It’s a great way to impress, especially parties who’ll be assessing your use of technology and how you present your brand, for instance, into which investors fit the mold, as well. 

If you ever need a hand, rest assured our pitch deck design services will be here to help. 

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