No one wants to sit through a boring presentation. End of story. A presentation that loses its audience by including wordy slides, lengthy lists, or too many statistics can easily miss the mark. The key to creating a winning presentation design is to get the audience excited about the topic or product, share your passion, and be involved. The way you do that isn’t hard, it just requires you to remember some important points when designing it. By keeping these points in mind, you can design a presentation that knocks their socks off.
Start on paper - While your first impulse may be to jump right in and start creating the presentation in PowerPoint or other presentation program, stop yourself. This can lock you into their design and their templates. Instead, get out your sticky notes and start there. Create a sticky note for each point you want to make and stick them onto a sheet of paper in the order you want. It’s common to reorder, add, or throw away ideas in this phase. But getting it right before you start can help you visualize the presentation and create a good flow.
One idea per slide - You may want to share every statistic you know about an item, or try to cram several thoughts in at once. But the key to a good presentation is having your audience remember what they hear and see. Pick a fact or statistic that is dramatic, big, or important and focus on that. Nail each slide with something important and the audience will remember it.
Use awesome graphics - Too flashy, too plain, too small, too big. Much like Goldilocks, you have to find the right graphic for each slide. Simple, uncluttered images work best. But don’t be afraid to use humor either. A simple comic that makes a point can be a winning point. One effective tool when choosing graphics that ties a good presentation together is to select a theme and stick to it for the whole presentation.
Tell a story - The same lessons you learned about writing a story in English class can apply to creating a great presentation. Make sure that the slides, the speech, the flow, all come together to tell a clear story. Including elements such as conflict and humor can add to audience engagement and involvement.
Provide a payoff - People are generally egocentric. They care about themselves and their lives. One of the biggest ways a presentation succeeds is by showing the audience how the product will help them make their lives better. People who can see themselves using the product will buy it. If they don’t see that payoff or benefit, the presentation will not have done its job.
Having a product you believe in and sharing it in the presentation isn’t enough. It is essential to create a presentation that engages and helps the audience feel the same way about the product. Following these key points can help you achieve that goal. A well designed presentation will have people asking question, talking about your product, and sharing it with others. For more information on how you can create winning presentation designs, as well as other marketing tools, contact us. We specialize in help you with all your marketing needs.