Do you find it disappointing to see your audience drift away in their heads, or zone out while you are doing your presentation that you put your heart and soul out into making? Sure they might laugh at that funny video and the meme you include, but are you positive that you are able to drive the point home?
Don’t start fretting over this now if your presentation is tomorrow. You’ve still got plenty of time to give your presentation a makeover to make sure that your audience gets hooked on every word you have to say and not get distracted by their phones!
Here are some tips that will help you make a killer presentation that everyone will appreciate!
#1. Make a story out of it
Apple is famous for its launch events, and one big reason for that is the legendary storytelling ability of Steve Jobs. He could come up with a story perfect for that audience and keep them captivated through the whole presentation.
If you are planning to do a bunch of slides with a heap of information you have researched, stop it right there. Nobody wants to listen to you go on and on about plain and boring details! (No wonder they are so eager to stare at their phones!)
Instead, you should make your presentation more engaging by presenting it as a story. This means it needs to have a great introduction, a climax (it should be the problem you are trying to dissect and solve) and a conclusion, and of course characters (who should be your audience).
Some of the world’s most famous presentations are stories and if you can prepare your presentation like a story the job is almost half done. However, not all presentations can be converted to stories and the next four tips are for those sort of presentations.
#2. Start with something intriguing
You need to appeal to the interest and curiosity of the audience at the very beginning of the presentation. How so? You can start with a shocking fact, a unique idea or useful insight relevant to your topic. Or it could even be an image or a short video which will help you build your point successfully.
It could even be a story. If you can’t make a story of your presentation then at least you can get the attention of your audience by starting with a story.
#3. Don’t go off the track
Don’t talk about potatoes if you want to make a point about brand building (unless, of course, you sell potatoes!). Stick with the relevant information and make sure that you don’t try to talk about everything there is to talk about in this world.
Figure out your core message and stay married to it throughout the presentation. It will help you stay on track and keep your audience stay focused during the presentation. Much of this comes down to preparation but it can be easy to get sidetracked via questions and other distractions.
#4. Use visual as much as you can
You definitely don’t want your audience to vacantly stare at you and plan their next vacation in their heads while you are doing your presentation. So you should never dump a bunch of statistics and facts on your audience and not clarify them with diagrams, charts, graphs, pictures or videos.
These visual means help you increase the credibility of your information and make it easy for your audience to follow you. Numerous research has shown the benefits of visual communication so there is absolutely no reason for you to not to include them in your presentation.
Additionally, people are far more likely to remember the visuals of your presentation than the facts you’ve talked about in the presentation. So make sure that your visuals are directly tied to the message of your presentation.
Even a boring presentation full of stats and data can be made interesting with the right visuals. There are many easy to use infographic tools which you use to create these visuals.
#5. Keep it simple and short
If you don’t want your audience to groan in frustration, you need to make your presentation simple and short. Don’t include too many slides and facts or complex visual aids that would take a longer period of time to explain. Get your facts straight and keep it relevant and simple.
The duration of your presentation depends on many factors and one of the most important one of them is the audience. It’s worthwhile to take some time to study your audience if you know in advance the general dynamic of your audience. If you fail to prepare then you’re preparing to fail.
Also, do not use too many visual effects that would distract the audience and make them lose their interest. This might sound like counteractive to the previous point, but too much of anything can be bad. You should always use readable fonts and be consistent with the colors and themes you use throughout the presentation.
Most good presentations use a few contrasting colors throughout their presentation so the audience can easily identify facts and figures. Don’t forget to keep the text to a minimum too.
Any more effective presentation tips?
Follow these simple steps and make sure that your presentation is actually presentation-worthy! You won’t master something like storytelling overnight but with practice, you can get there in a limited amount of time. Some of the other tips are not that hard to do and will definitely improve the overall quality of your presentation.
Also, don’t forget to double-check for spelling and grammar errors. You really don’t want to embarrass yourself like that in front of a whole audience! I didn’t include this is as a point since its somewhat obvious but I’ve seen many presentations suffer because of simple things like that. It is important to remember that we humans tend to spot errors quite efficiently.
Got any more awesome tips that can enhance presentations? I’d love to hear about them so make sure to mention them in the comments section.
And good luck with your presentation.
Images: ”Speaker at Business Conference with Public Presentations. Audience at the conference hall. Entrepreneurship club. Rear view. Horisontal composition. Background blur. /Shutterstock.com“
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