How to be innovative: Using new tools to make your pitches more engaging
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Posted: Wed 28th May 2025
8 min read
What comes to mind when you hear the word 'innovation'? For many people, it evokes images of billion-dollar start-ups or cutting-edge tech firms.
The truth, however, is that Silicon Valley isn't the only place where innovation occurs. Local coffee shops, e-commerce businesses, creative agencies and service providers of all stripes are embracing it right now.
In the small business world, you'll find innovation in how a brand presents itself – the way it tells its story, grabs attention and gains support from customers, investors or partners. And the pitch is where it all begins.
Delivering a clear, captivating and visually appealing presentation is crucial, whether you're selling a product, looking for funding or wanting to create a new partnership. And the bonus is you don't need a team of designers or a substantial marketing budget to make it happen.
With the right tools – like Adobe Express – you can strengthen your pitch and innovate in a way that's both easy and effective.
Why a strong pitch has influence
Everyone at some point has endured a less-than-impressive presentation. Perhaps it had too much text, looked bland or simply failed to tell a coherent story.
The fact is that regardless of how much potential your business idea has, it won't be successful if you don't present it properly.
For a small business like yours, the pitch is your chance to shine. You should use it to:
establish your credibility
express your brand personality
make a statement in a competitive market
And much of the time, it's your one opportunity to make an impression on a potential investor, partner or buyer.
That's why using professional design tools is a strategic advantage that goes well beyond aesthetics. With the help of Adobe Express, you can transform your ideas into presentations that look polished, convey information clearly and connect with your audience.
Don't start from scratch – use free templates
When you're running a small business, you're often tight for time and light on resources. Adobe Express knows this, which is why it provides a huge range of free presentation templates that make the design process quick and easy.
You don't need to start with an empty slide and spend ages learning what the different formatting tools do. Instead, you can begin with a great-looking template that professional designers have created for people in your position.
There's a template to fit your brand and messaging, whatever you're pitching. You can easily tailor fonts, colours, pictures and logos to match your business's identity – without knowing anything about graphic design.
A real-world example
Suppose you own a small bakery that's looking to expand into wholesale. You're putting together a pitch to approach a local grocery chain.
Rather than make slides from scratch, you can choose a food-centred pitch deck template in Adobe Express, add mouthwatering photos of your baked goods and tell your story confidently.
Sharpening your message with One-Click Rewrite
One of the toughest aspects of constructing a great pitch is getting the wording right. You might already have an idea of what you want to say, but be unsure how to express it appropriately, convincingly and in the right tone.
This is where Rewrite, a Premium feature in Adobe Express, really stands out. It lets you:
rephrase text that reads awkwardly
cut down overlong descriptions
alter your tone from informal to formal (or vice versa)
make your messaging sharper and clearer
A single click is all it takes. No need to stress over synonyms or sentence structure. One-Click Rewrite makes sure your words have impact, whether you're refining your 'About us' slide or making a customer review more compelling.
Rewrite is an Adobe Express Premium feature, but we've secured our Enterprise Nation members three months' free access, which you can redeem at this link.
Go beyond basic layouts with Text Flow
Once you've fine-tuned your words, they should complement your design, rather than detract from it. That's where Text Flow can help.
This free Adobe Express design feature gives you complete control over how text flows across your slides. As you make adjustments, it'll automatically adapt to your layout.
Instead of unsightly page breaks or elements that overlap each other, Text Flow allows your content to wrap elegantly around images, shapes or other graphics. A text box's layout instantly changes when you resize it or move it to a different area of the slide – without ruining any formatting.
A real-world example
A small fashion brand getting ready to meet an angel investor wants to present its new collection visually while using text to explain its business model.
Using Text Flow, the business owner formats the slide so the text wraps around the photos of models and products, giving the whole presentation a suitably high-end look.
How to make your pitch stand out
Keep these pointers in mind as you create your next pitch:
Be concise: Aim for no more than 10 slides. Clarity is always an advantage
Start with the 'why': Explain the problem you're solving and why now is the right time
Show, don't tell: Use visuals, product photos or even short videos to reinforce your pitch
Include real results: If you have data, quotes or customer feedback, make the most of them
Practise, practise, practise: The best slides won't save you if your delivery is flat. Rehearse like you mean it
Ready to pitch like a pro?
Innovation doesn't always mean inventing something new. Sometimes, it means using smarter tools to improve what you're doing already.
With Adobe Express, you can save time, communicate better and stand out with beautifully designed presentations.
The next time you need to pitch your business, don't settle for "good enough". Start with a template, refine your words with One-Click Rewrite and bring it all together with Text Flow. Your story deserves to be told – and told well.
As an Enterprise Nation member, you can get three months' access to Premium for free – just redeem the offer at this link.
Relevant resources
Adobe Express: The quick and easy app to bring your business goals to life
With thousands of easy-to-use templates and commercially safe generative AI tools, Adobe Express makes creating content easy.