As a marketer, you're probably familiar with this experience: A member of the sales team has an upcoming meeting and needs to put together a pitch deck. The sales rep finds a previous pitch deck and starts updating it. He or she might take out a slide or two but will certainly add in new ones.

A few other tweaks are made—a logo swapped here; names adjusted there—and the deck is done. The bulk of the deck has been used before, so it's good to go, right?

The cycle repeats itself when a different sales rep needs a pitch deck and pulls that same presentation as a starting point.

Welcome to the Frankendeck, and what can be a never-ending cycle of unattractive content that kills your audience's attention, one awful presentation at a time.

Marketers know Frankendecks well because of the headaches such decks create and the business risk they can pose. Read on to learn how to avoid scary pitch decks.

The Junk Drawer of Content

Frankendecks are often a byproduct of good intentions. An eager junior colleague might not have the design experience to know any better. A senior colleague might fear using the wrong template or may lack the time to reinvent the presentation. Pulling something that's already been used and tweaking it can seem like the best plan.

But how good is the deck that was pulled? Is it on-brand? Did Marketing approve it? Does Marketing even know the deck exists? Do the new tweaks follow design best-practices?

Presentations that start with the best of intentions can quickly become an overwhelming mess for teams.

Frankendecks are also known as "the junk drawer of content," because they result in a mishmash of fonts, formats, and information that isn't consistent or, more important, on-brand. From a marketing standpoint, such presentations miss the mark in every way possible.

So, how does a marketer avoid the Frankendeck and put an end to the cycle?

How to Spot a Frankendeck

Learning how to spot one is a good starting point. Frankendecks have a few hallmark characteristics:

• Information overload. Presentations that include everything but the kitchen sink are likely Frankendecks. It's a struggle to even read the slides—let alone comprehend them—because they're jammed with information. The audience won't know where to focus or what the takeaway is.
• Lengthy text blocks. Part of the information overload can be lengthy text blocks on slides that aren't reader-friendly. Wordy slides with little visual appeal are a Frankendeck staple.
• Jumbled assets and elements. Frankendecks feature an inevitable hodgepodge of brand assets and design elements. Marketers might notice various versions of the same logo, mismatched colors, a mixture of font styles and sizes, or branded slides that don't match. Without a designer's eye or the right presentation software, teams can easily jumble assets and elements.