9 Ideas for more Compelling and Effective Presentations

Are you a startup that has to pitch to a potential investor? Or maybe you have a business meeting with a client. Presenting your ideas through a slideshow makes them much more effective.

Your ideas look more convincing and are retained longer. You can make your presentations more compelling by using a few pointers outlined below:

Structure your Presentation

Most often, people directly start creating slides after getting the topic. And then haphazard slides are made. Your presentation is about you telling a story—the story of your product, business, or subject. So start with framing an outline of how you want to tell that story. You can base your presentation on that structure.

Have a strong Start

Try and capture your audience’s attention in the first few seconds. That will keep them hooked to your presentation. You can start with a rhetorical question or maybe a funny story! Also, your audience will be instantly engaged. You can even tailor it to your audience by using a pop culture reference if you know them well enough.

Divide your Presentation

Once you know the presentation’s outline, divide it into three parts – The introduction or opening, the body or middle part, and the closing.

• Opening

As told earlier, start with a gripping question or an interesting anecdote to intrigue your audience. They will pay more attention to your presentation and remain engaged.

• Body

This is the meaty part of your presentation. Provide thorough statistics and figures to support your idea. Explain the problems and their corresponding solution concisely and crisply. Also, give examples of similar problems and case studies of those.

• Closing

Here, you put in your closing remarks or even summarize your idea. You can even ask the audience if they have any questions. Thank them for attending and listening to your presentation.

Larger Fonts

This tip is essential for a presentation irrespective of audience or room size. A larger font makes it easier for people to read the content. It also helps them remember your presentation. A good size would be 24 pt. Anything smaller would be hard to read.

Use attractive Visual Cues

Take advantage of the phenomenon of the “Picture superiority effect” i.e. people retain messages better if they are accompanied by images. Use one powerful and big photo that emphasizes your point instead of many small pictures. Audiences retain such information almost 55-65% greater.

Less is More

A common mistake made by most presenters is adding too much information to their slides. Especially a lot of bullet points. The audience gets bored and loses interest in seeing so much information. Your slides only help you give your presentation better, but not be your entire presentation. So knock off all that unnecessary information.

Redo several Times

Your first draft will need polishing, and as they say, practice makes perfect! So, add, delete, edit rework your slides till you have relevant content on them. Look for more tips to make the data on your slide more presentable and concise. You can improve the kind of photos used, adding ones that are more compelling and relatable to the subject.

Use a good, clean Template

A bright and flashy presentation template takes the audience’s attention away from the content. So choose a template with sober colors with a few bright highlights to add some panache. Keep your content well-organized and use an attractive, legible font. You can find free PowerPoint templates online for the same.

Utilize data Wisely

Ultimately, data is the hero in your presentation. Make sure you use it wisely. Use the latest facts and statistics. Instead of boring slides and graphs, you can opt for infographics. These help the audience understand your idea better. Even pie charts do a good job of putting figures forth in a presentation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the main idea of a presentation is to make it easier for your audience to understand your idea or product better. Any solution you present to a problem is easier to understand with a great presentation. Less data, more interesting infographics, or images explaining the concept is a great way to connect with your audience. They can relate to the proposal or business better.