Developing all of the presentations involves developing the content and designing the framework for the presentation. No matter how great the news is, if they’re not presented systematically, no one will ever remember or respond to what you are conveying in your message. Here are a few tips on how to make a presentation.
Plan Your Storyline
The use of a good story can make the rest of your presentation. Take TED talks, for instance. All of them are built upon interesting narratives that relate to the claim or the idea behind the speeches.
Every presentation should be properly themed. Create a flow from the beginning through the middle into a great end. According to presentation designer Nancy Duarte, it should take the presenter twice as much time to frame the storyline as it takes to create the slides. A pitch deck design agency can help optimize the appeal and efficiency of your slides.
Moreover, do not leave out emotional details and powerful words in your decks. These will make your audience feel much more connected with you. Ladies and gentlemen, people will not remember what you said to them, nor will they remember the slides you used in your presentation.
Use the Rule of Three
It is well known that people can retain about three significant points from a presentation at most, so try to use this effect.
When designing your storyline, imagine three things you wish your viewers to come out of the room with. To remember the three key points, you have to make them concise, easily memorable, and shocking.
Plan Your Delivery
Effective delivery is one of the most important presentation techniques you can learn. After framing is complete, it is time to focus on how it will be delivered to you. The main delivery methods of a talk can be categorized into three types. It can be read right off a script or a teleprompter. Instead of writing a script, writing down key points you want to make under each subhead is very useful. Another option is memorization, which means reciting your talk until you know it by heart, word for word.
Do not read it or pass the speech through a teleprompter. It’s just far too formal–people will see you are reading. And as soon as they feel it, how they take your talk will change. One day, you are as close as two people can be, and the next, you are strangers who are forced to work together.
Fortunately, getting past this point is very easy. In other words, it is simply a question of doing it often enough that the words come as naturally as anything else.
Simplify Your Slides
Whether your slides are full of highly relevant content or filled to the brim, no one will bother to try and read through them. The more writing we put on a slide, the very thing that we are assuming our audience needs to be able to learn is distracting them.
The rule of thumb for making your presentation slides simple is to avoid putting too much information on each slide and even try to limit the information presented on each slide to just one idea. To this end, it is always beneficial to reflect on the fact that one definite statement, numeral, or even word can convey more meaning than a whole slide filled with bullets.
Use the Power of Visuals
That is why videos or images inform the audience and appeal to their emotions, which would be very hard to stir if the speakers did it alone. Ensure that the images you incorporate convey your core message or explain what you speak of. This works very well, especially in the creative industry, where graphic content support is essential.
Practice Relentlessly
More can be said about this point: attending a presentation where the speaker keeps looking down at his notes is very painful. For example, Winston Churchill spends hours and even days preparing for a 10-minute speech.
For a compelling presentation, memorize the flow of the presentation and how you want to present it. To the degree that you will not be needing the notes for referencing again, do it.
While rehearsing, you should make a videotape to watch how you stutter, the looks of nervousness on your face, and how you manage your body language. Of course, they will not advise you to do something wrong, so do not hesitate to ask a friend to do you a favor and critique you.
Develop Stage Presence
Many first-time speakers find physical presence on the stage to be one of the biggest challenges of speaking—yet people exaggerate its significance. What you are saying, the story you are telling, and the substance of that story matter far, far more than how you hold your body or if you are shaking in your boots. There’s nothing like some direction in front of an audience to help take the pressure off stage fright. Just getting a person to avoid moving the lower body area can enhance stage presence by a great deal.
Therefore, one of the most significant physical actions to be enacted on the stage is looking into the eyes. Choose five or six courteous persons in different sections of the audience and smile at them when you are talking. And even if you find yourself underprepared and have to depend on a script or a guide to read from, simply looking up and focusing your eyes on the people you are communicating with will make a lot of difference.
Build in Time for the Q&A
The clients are likely to have other questions even if you include other features, such as interactive ones, in your presentation. That is why you should not be afraid to use as many as 10-20 minutes for the Q&A if your presentation time is limited to a definite amount of time.
Enhances the interest of the audience and makes your keynote more comprehensible. Sometimes, I don’t like webinars, even though the information might be good. One can hardly stay focused on a computer monitor without running back and forth. It will motivate them to wait for the Q&A portion, during which they will get a chance to have the mic to listen to the entire presentation.
Bottom Line
Despite the common belief that professionalism involves adhering to a strict, rigid format, finding a middle ground and incorporating creativity into our work is important. Incorporating captivating narratives into our work discussions and presentations can significantly enhance our capacity to inform and persuade positively. Utilize uniform formatting and design. It is difficult to recall the content of a conversation when the speaker’s delivery is very disruptive. Poor and irregular formatting detracts from your message and diminishes your credibility.