tips for effective business presentation

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How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

By Krystle Wong , Jul 20, 2023

A top-notch presentation possesses the power to drive action. From winning stakeholders over and conveying a powerful message to securing funding — your secret weapon lies within the realm of creating an effective presentation .  

Being an excellent presenter isn’t confined to the boardroom. Whether you’re delivering a presentation at work, pursuing an academic career, involved in a non-profit organization or even a student, nailing the presentation game is a game-changer.

In this article, I’ll cover the top qualities of compelling presentations and walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to give a good presentation. Here’s a little tip to kick things off: for a headstart, check out Venngage’s collection of free presentation templates . They are fully customizable, and the best part is you don’t need professional design skills to make them shine!

These valuable presentation tips cater to individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, encompassing business professionals, sales and marketing teams, educators, trainers, students, researchers, non-profit organizations, public speakers and presenters. 

No matter your field or role, these tips for presenting will equip you with the skills to deliver effective presentations that leave a lasting impression on any audience.

Click to jump ahead:

What are the 10 qualities of a good presentation?

Step-by-step guide on how to prepare an effective presentation, 9 effective techniques to deliver a memorable presentation, faqs on making a good presentation, how to create a presentation with venngage in 5 steps.

When it comes to giving an engaging presentation that leaves a lasting impression, it’s not just about the content — it’s also about how you deliver it. Wondering what makes a good presentation? Well, the best presentations I’ve seen consistently exhibit these 10 qualities:

1. Clear structure

No one likes to get lost in a maze of information. Organize your thoughts into a logical flow, complete with an introduction, main points and a solid conclusion. A structured presentation helps your audience follow along effortlessly, leaving them with a sense of satisfaction at the end.

Regardless of your presentation style , a quality presentation starts with a clear roadmap. Browse through Venngage’s template library and select a presentation template that aligns with your content and presentation goals. Here’s a good presentation example template with a logical layout that includes sections for the introduction, main points, supporting information and a conclusion: 

2. Engaging opening

Hook your audience right from the start with an attention-grabbing statement, a fascinating question or maybe even a captivating anecdote. Set the stage for a killer presentation!

The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.

3. Relevant content

Make sure your content aligns with their interests and needs. Your audience is there for a reason, and that’s to get valuable insights. Avoid fluff and get straight to the point, your audience will be genuinely excited.

4. Effective visual aids

Picture this: a slide with walls of text and tiny charts, yawn! Visual aids should be just that—aiding your presentation. Opt for clear and visually appealing slides, engaging images and informative charts that add value and help reinforce your message.

With Venngage, visualizing data takes no effort at all. You can import data from CSV or Google Sheets seamlessly and create stunning charts, graphs and icon stories effortlessly to showcase your data in a captivating and impactful way.

5. Clear and concise communication

Keep your language simple, and avoid jargon or complicated terms. Communicate your ideas clearly, so your audience can easily grasp and retain the information being conveyed. This can prevent confusion and enhance the overall effectiveness of the message. 

6. Engaging delivery

Spice up your presentation with a sprinkle of enthusiasm! Maintain eye contact, use expressive gestures and vary your tone of voice to keep your audience glued to the edge of their seats. A touch of charisma goes a long way!

7. Interaction and audience engagement

Turn your presentation into an interactive experience — encourage questions, foster discussions and maybe even throw in a fun activity. Engaged audiences are more likely to remember and embrace your message.

Transform your slides into an interactive presentation with Venngage’s dynamic features like pop-ups, clickable icons and animated elements. Engage your audience with interactive content that lets them explore and interact with your presentation for a truly immersive experience.

8. Effective storytelling

Who doesn’t love a good story? Weaving relevant anecdotes, case studies or even a personal story into your presentation can captivate your audience and create a lasting impact. Stories build connections and make your message memorable.

A great presentation background is also essential as it sets the tone, creates visual interest and reinforces your message. Enhance the overall aesthetics of your presentation with these 15 presentation background examples and captivate your audience’s attention.

9. Well-timed pacing

Pace your presentation thoughtfully with well-designed presentation slides, neither rushing through nor dragging it out. Respect your audience’s time and ensure you cover all the essential points without losing their interest.

10. Strong conclusion

Last impressions linger! Summarize your main points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway. End your presentation with a bang , a call to action or an inspiring thought that resonates long after the conclusion.

In-person presentations aside, acing a virtual presentation is of paramount importance in today’s digital world. Check out this guide to learn how you can adapt your in-person presentations into virtual presentations . 

Preparing an effective presentation starts with laying a strong foundation that goes beyond just creating slides and notes. One of the quickest and best ways to make a presentation would be with the help of a good presentation software . 

Otherwise, let me walk you to how to prepare for a presentation step by step and unlock the secrets of crafting a professional presentation that sets you apart.

1. Understand the audience and their needs

Before you dive into preparing your masterpiece, take a moment to get to know your target audience. Tailor your presentation to meet their needs and expectations , and you’ll have them hooked from the start!

2. Conduct thorough research on the topic

Time to hit the books (or the internet)! Don’t skimp on the research with your presentation materials — dive deep into the subject matter and gather valuable insights . The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel in delivering your presentation.

3. Organize the content with a clear structure

No one wants to stumble through a chaotic mess of information. Outline your presentation with a clear and logical flow. Start with a captivating introduction, follow up with main points that build on each other and wrap it up with a powerful conclusion that leaves a lasting impression.

Delivering an effective business presentation hinges on captivating your audience, and Venngage’s professionally designed business presentation templates are tailor-made for this purpose. With thoughtfully structured layouts, these templates enhance your message’s clarity and coherence, ensuring a memorable and engaging experience for your audience members.

Don’t want to build your presentation layout from scratch? pick from these 5 foolproof presentation layout ideas that won’t go wrong. 

4. Develop visually appealing and supportive visual aids

Spice up your presentation with eye-catching visuals! Create slides that complement your message, not overshadow it. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean you need to overload your slides with text.

Well-chosen designs create a cohesive and professional look, capturing your audience’s attention and enhancing the overall effectiveness of your message. Here’s a list of carefully curated PowerPoint presentation templates and great background graphics that will significantly influence the visual appeal and engagement of your presentation.

5. Practice, practice and practice

Practice makes perfect — rehearse your presentation and arrive early to your presentation to help overcome stage fright. Familiarity with your material will boost your presentation skills and help you handle curveballs with ease.

6. Seek feedback and make necessary adjustments

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek feedback from friends and colleagues. Constructive criticism can help you identify blind spots and fine-tune your presentation to perfection.

With Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature , receiving feedback and editing your presentation is a seamless process. Group members can access and work on the presentation simultaneously and edit content side by side in real-time. Changes will be reflected immediately to the entire team, promoting seamless teamwork.

7. Prepare for potential technical or logistical issues

Prepare for the unexpected by checking your equipment, internet connection and any other potential hiccups. If you’re worried that you’ll miss out on any important points, you could always have note cards prepared. Remember to remain focused and rehearse potential answers to anticipated questions.

8. Fine-tune and polish your presentation

As the big day approaches, give your presentation one last shine. Review your talking points, practice how to present a presentation and make any final tweaks. Deep breaths — you’re on the brink of delivering a successful presentation!

In competitive environments, persuasive presentations set individuals and organizations apart. To brush up on your presentation skills, read these guides on how to make a persuasive presentation and tips to presenting effectively . 

Whether you’re an experienced presenter or a novice, the right techniques will let your presentation skills soar to new heights!

From public speaking hacks to interactive elements and storytelling prowess, these 9 effective presentation techniques will empower you to leave a lasting impression on your audience and make your presentations unforgettable.

1. Confidence and positive body language

Positive body language instantly captivates your audience, making them believe in your message as much as you do. Strengthen your stage presence and own that stage like it’s your second home! Stand tall, shoulders back and exude confidence. 

2. Eye contact with the audience

Break down that invisible barrier and connect with your audience through their eyes. Maintaining eye contact when giving a presentation builds trust and shows that you’re present and engaged with them.

3. Effective use of hand gestures and movement

A little movement goes a long way! Emphasize key points with purposeful gestures and don’t be afraid to walk around the stage. Your energy will be contagious!

4. Utilize storytelling techniques

Weave the magic of storytelling into your presentation. Share relatable anecdotes, inspiring success stories or even personal experiences that tug at the heartstrings of your audience. Adjust your pitch, pace and volume to match the emotions and intensity of the story. Varying your speaking voice adds depth and enhances your stage presence.

5. Incorporate multimedia elements

Spice up your presentation with a dash of visual pizzazz! Use slides, images and video clips to add depth and clarity to your message. Just remember, less is more—don’t overwhelm them with information overload. 

Turn your presentations into an interactive party! Involve your audience with questions, polls or group activities. When they actively participate, they become invested in your presentation’s success. Bring your design to life with animated elements. Venngage allows you to apply animations to icons, images and text to create dynamic and engaging visual content.

6. Utilize humor strategically

Laughter is the best medicine—and a fantastic presentation enhancer! A well-placed joke or lighthearted moment can break the ice and create a warm atmosphere , making your audience more receptive to your message.

7. Practice active listening and respond to feedback

Be attentive to your audience’s reactions and feedback. If they have questions or concerns, address them with genuine interest and respect. Your responsiveness builds rapport and shows that you genuinely care about their experience.

8. Apply the 10-20-30 rule

Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it!

9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule

Simplicity is key. Limit each slide to five bullet points, with only five words per bullet point and allow each slide to remain visible for about five seconds. This rule keeps your presentation concise and prevents information overload.

Simple presentations are more engaging because they are easier to follow. Summarize your presentations and keep them simple with Venngage’s gallery of simple presentation templates and ensure that your message is delivered effectively across your audience.

1. How to start a presentation?

To kick off your presentation effectively, begin with an attention-grabbing statement or a powerful quote. Introduce yourself, establish credibility and clearly state the purpose and relevance of your presentation.

2. How to end a presentation?

For a strong conclusion, summarize your talking points and key takeaways. End with a compelling call to action or a thought-provoking question and remember to thank your audience and invite any final questions or interactions.

3. How to make a presentation interactive?

To make your presentation interactive, encourage questions and discussion throughout your talk. Utilize multimedia elements like videos or images and consider including polls, quizzes or group activities to actively involve your audience.

In need of inspiration for your next presentation? I’ve got your back! Pick from these 120+ presentation ideas, topics and examples to get started. 

Creating a stunning presentation with Venngage is a breeze with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and professionally designed templates for all your communication needs. 

Here’s how to make a presentation in just 5 simple steps with the help of Venngage:

Step 1: Sign up for Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account or simply log in to access your account. 

Step 2: Pick a design from our selection of free presentation templates (they’re all created by our expert in-house designers).

Step 3: Make the template your own by customizing it to fit your content and branding. With Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily modify text, change colors and adjust the layout to create a unique and eye-catching design.

Step 4: Elevate your presentation by incorporating captivating visuals. You can upload your images or choose from Venngage’s vast library of high-quality photos, icons and illustrations. 

Step 5: Upgrade to a premium or business account to export your presentation in PDF and print it for in-person presentations or share it digitally for free!

By following these five simple steps, you’ll have a professionally designed and visually engaging presentation ready in no time. With Venngage’s user-friendly platform, your presentation is sure to make a lasting impression. So, let your creativity flow and get ready to shine in your next presentation!

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What Are Effective Presentation Skills (and How to Improve Them)

Presentation skills are essential for your personal and professional life. Learn about effective presentations and how to boost your presenting techniques.

At least seven out of 10 Americans agree that presentation skills are essential for a successful career [ 1 ]. Although it might be tempting to think that these are skills reserved for people interested in public speaking roles, they're critical in a diverse range of jobs. For example, you might need to brief your supervisor on research results.

Presentation skills are also essential in other scenarios, including working with a team and explaining your thought process, walking clients through project ideas and timelines, and highlighting your strengths and achievements to your manager during performance reviews.

Whatever the scenario, you have very little time to capture your audience’s attention and get your point across when presenting information—about three seconds, according to research [ 2 ]. Effective presentation skills help you get your point across and connect with the people you’re communicating with, which is why nearly every employer requires them.

Understanding what presentation skills are is only half the battle. Honing your presenting techniques is essential for mastering presentations of all kinds and in all settings.

What are presentation skills?

Presentation skills are the abilities and qualities necessary for creating and delivering a compelling presentation that effectively communicates information and ideas. They encompass what you say, how you structure it, and the materials you include to support what you say, such as slides, videos, or images.

You'll make presentations at various times in your life. Examples include:

Making speeches at a wedding, conference, or another event

Making a toast at a dinner or event

Explaining projects to a team 

Delivering results and findings to management teams

Teaching people specific methods or information

Proposing a vote at community group meetings

Pitching a new idea or business to potential partners or investors

Why are presentation skills important? 

Delivering effective presentations is critical in your professional and personal life. You’ll need to hone your presentation skills in various areas, such as when giving a speech, convincing your partner to make a substantial purchase, and talking to friends and family about an important situation.

No matter if you’re using them in a personal or professional setting, these are the skills that make it easier and more effective to convey your ideas, convince or persuade others, and experience success. A few of the benefits that often accompany improving your presentation skills include:

Enriched written and verbal communication skills

Enhanced confidence and self-image

Boosted critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities

Better motivational techniques

Increased leadership skills

Expanded time management, negotiation, and creativity

The better your presenting techniques, the more engaging your presentations will be. You could also have greater opportunities to make positive impacts in business and other areas of your life.

Effective presentation skills

Imagine yourself in the audience at a TED Talk or sitting with your coworkers at a big meeting held by your employer. What would you be looking for in how they deliver their message? What would make you feel engaged?

These are a few questions to ask yourself as you review this list of some of the most effective presentation skills.

Verbal communication

How you use language and deliver messages play essential roles in how your audience will receive your presentation. Speak clearly and confidently, projecting your voice enough to ensure everyone can hear. Think before you speak, pausing when necessary and tailoring the way you talk to resonate with your particular audience.

Body language

Body language combines various critical elements, including posture, gestures, eye contact, expressions, and position in front of the audience. Body language is one of the elements that can instantly transform a presentation that would otherwise be dull into one that's dynamic and interesting.

Voice projection

The ability to project your voice improves your presentation by allowing your audience to hear what you're saying. It also increases your confidence to help settle any lingering nerves while also making your message more engaging. To project your voice, stand comfortably with your shoulders back. Take deep breaths to power your speaking voice and ensure you enunciate every syllable you speak.

How you present yourself plays a role in your body language and ability to project your voice. It also sets the tone for the presentation. Avoid slouching or looking overly tense. Instead, remain open, upright, and adaptable while taking the formality of the occasion into account.

Storytelling

Incorporating storytelling into a presentation is an effective strategy used by many powerful public speakers. It has the power to bring your subject to life and pique the audience’s curiosity. Don’t be afraid to tell a personal story, slowly building up suspense or adding a dramatic moment. And, of course, be sure to end with a positive takeaway to drive your point home.

Active listening

Active listening is a valuable skill all on its own. When you understand and thoughtfully respond to what you hear—whether it's in a conversation or during a presentation—you’ll likely deepen your personal relationships and actively engage audiences during a presentation. As part of your presentation skill set, it helps catch and maintain the audience’s attention, helping them remain focused while minimizing passive response, ensuring the message is delivered correctly, and encouraging a call to action.

Stage presence

During a presentation, projecting confidence can help keep your audience engaged. Stage presence can help you connect with your audience and encourage them to want to watch you. To improve your presence, try amping up your normal demeanor by infusing it with a bit of enthusiasm. Project confidence and keep your information interesting.

Watch your audience as you’re presenting. If you’re holding their attention, it likely means you’re connecting well with them.

Self-awareness

Monitoring your own emotions and reactions will allow you to react well in various situations. It helps you remain personable throughout your presentation and handle feedback well. Self-awareness can help soothe nervousness during presentations, allowing you to perform more effectively.

Writing skills

Writing is a form of presentation. Sharp writing skills can help you master your presentation’s outline to ensure you stay on message and remain clear about your objectives from the beginning until the end. It’s also helpful to have strong writing abilities for creating compelling slides and other visual aids.

Understanding an audience

When you understand your audience's needs and interests, you can design your presentation around them. In turn, you'll deliver maximum value to them and enhance your ability to make your message easy to understand.

Learn more about presentation skills from industry experts at SAP:

How to improve presentation skills

There’s an art to public speaking. Just like any other type of art, this is one that requires practice. Improving your presentation skills will help reduce miscommunications, enhance your time management capabilities, and boost your leadership skills. Here are some ways you can improve these skills:

Work on self-confidence.

When you’re confident, you naturally speak more clearly and with more authority. Taking the time to prepare your presentation with a strong opening and compelling visual aids can help you feel more confident. Other ways to improve your self-confidence include practicing positive self-talk, surrounding yourself with positive people, and avoiding comparing yourself (or your presentation) to others.

Develop strategies for overcoming fear.

Many people are nervous or fearful before giving a presentation. A bad memory of a past performance or insufficient self-confidence can contribute to fear and anxiety. Having a few go-to strategies like deep breathing, practicing your presentation, and grounding can help you transform that fear into extra energy to put into your stage presence.

Learn grounding techniques.

Grounding is any type of technique that helps you steer your focus away from distressing thoughts and keeps you connected with your present self. To ground yourself, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and imagine you’re a large, mature tree with roots extending deep into the earth—like the tree, you can become unshakable.

Learn how to use presentation tools.

Visual aids and other technical support can transform an otherwise good presentation into a wow-worthy one. A few popular presentation tools include:

Canva: Provides easy-to-design templates you can customize

Powtoon: Animation software that makes video creation fast and easy

PowerPoint: Microsoft's iconic program popular for dynamic marketing and sales presentations

Practice breathing techniques.

Breathing techniques can help quell anxiety, making it easier to shake off pre-presentation jitters and nerves. It also helps relax your muscles and get more oxygen to your brain.  For some pre-presentation calmness, you can take deep breaths, slowly inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

While presenting, breathe in through your mouth with the back of your tongue relaxed so your audience doesn't hear a gasping sound. Speak on your exhalation, maintaining a smooth voice.

Gain experience.

The more you practice, the better you’ll become. The more you doanything, the more comfortable you’ll feel engaging in that activity. Presentations are no different. Repeatedly practicing your own presentation also offers the opportunity to get feedback from other people and tweak your style and content as needed.

Tips to help you ace your presentation

Your presentation isn’t about you; it’s about the material you’re presenting. Sometimes, reminding yourself of this ahead of taking center stage can help take you out of your head, allowing you to connect effectively with your audience. The following are some of the many actions you can take on the day of your presentation.

Arrive early.

Since you may have a bit of presentation-related anxiety, it’s important to avoid adding travel stress. Give yourself an abundance of time to arrive at your destination, and take into account heavy traffic and other unforeseen events. By arriving early, you also give yourself time to meet with any on-site technicians, test your equipment, and connect with people ahead of the presentation.

Become familiar with the layout of the room.

Arriving early also gives you time to assess the room and figure out where you want to stand. Experiment with the acoustics to determine how loudly you need to project your voice, and test your equipment to make sure everything connects and appears properly with the available setup. This is an excellent opportunity to work out any last-minute concerns and move around to familiarize yourself with the setting for improved stage presence.

Listen to presenters ahead of you.

When you watch others present, you'll get a feel for the room's acoustics and lighting. You can also listen for any data that’s relevant to your presentation and revisit it during your presentation—this can make the presentation more interactive and engaging.

Use note cards.

Writing yourself a script could provide you with more comfort. To prevent sounding too robotic or disengaged, only include talking points in your note cards in case you get off track. Using note cards can help keep your presentation organized while sounding more authentic to your audience.

Learn to deliver clear and confident presentations with Dynamic Public Speaking from the University of Washington. Build confidence, develop new delivery techniques, and practice strategies for crafting compelling presentations for different purposes, occasions, and audiences.

Article sources

Forbes. “ New Survey: 70% Say Presentation Skills are Critical for Career Success , https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/09/25/new-survey-70-percent-say-presentation-skills-critical-for-career-success/?sh=619f3ff78890.” Accessed December 7, 2022.

Beautiful.ai. “ 15 Presentation and Public Speaking Stats You Need to Know , https://www.beautiful.ai/blog/15-presentation-and-public-speaking-stats-you-need-to-know. Accessed December 7, 2022.

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How to give a good presentation that captivates any audience

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What are the main difficulties when giving presentations?

How to create an effective presentation, after that, how do i give a memorable presentation, how to connect with the audience when presenting.

If you’ve ever heard someone give a powerful presentation, you probably remember how it made you feel. Much like a composer, a good speaker knows precisely when each note should strike to captivate their audience’s attention and leave them with a lasting impression.

No one becomes a great public speaker or presenter without practice. And almost everyone can recall a time one of their presentations went badly — that’s a painful part of the learning process.

Whether you’re working within a small creative team or a large organization, public speaking and presentation skills are vital to communicating your ideas. Knowing how to present your vision can help you pitch concepts to clients, present ideas to your team, and develop the confidence to participate in team meetings.

If you have an upcoming presentation on the horizon and feel nervous, that’s normal. Around 15-30% of the general population experience a fear of public speaking . And, unfortunately, social anxiety is on the rise, with a 12% increase in adults over the last 20 years . 

Learning how to give a good presentation can dismantle your fears and break down these barriers, ensuring you’re ready to confidently share your point of view. 

It’s the week before your presentation, and you’re already feeling nervous . Maybe there’ll be an important mentor in the room you need to impress, or you’re looking for an opportunity to show your boss your value. Regardless of your countless past presentations, you still feel nervous. 

Sharing your vision and ideas with any sized group is intimidating. You’re likely worrying about how you’ll perform as a presenter and whether the audience will be interested in what you offer. But nerves aren’t inherently negative — you can actually use this feeling to fuel your preparation.

It’s helpful to identify where your worries are coming from and address your fears. Here are some common concerns when preparing for an upcoming presentation:

Fear of public speaking: When you share your ideas in front of a group, you’re placing yourself in a vulnerable position to be critiqued on your knowledge and communication skills . Maybe you feel confident in your content, but when you think about standing in front of an audience, you feel anxious and your mind goes blank.

It’s also not uncommon to have physical symptoms when presenting . Some people experience nausea and dizziness as the brain releases adrenaline to cope with the potentially stressful situation . Remember to take deep breaths to recenter yourself and be patient, even if you make a mistake.

Losing the audience’s attention: As a presenter, your main focus is to keep your audience engaged. They should feel like they’re learning valuable information or following a story that will improve them in life or business.

Highlight the most exciting pieces of knowledge and ensure you emphasize those points in your presentation. If you feel passionate about your content, it’s more likely that your audience will experience this excitement for themselves and become invested in what you have to say.

Not knowing what content to place on presentation slides: Overloading presentation slides is a fast way to lose your audience’s attention. Your slides should contain only the main talking points and limited text to ensure your audience focuses on what you have to say rather than becoming distracted by the content on your slides.

Discomfort incorporating nonverbal communication: It’s natural to feel stiff and frozen when you’re nervous. But maintaining effective body language helps your audience stay focused on you as you speak and encourages you to relax.

If you struggle to incorporate body language into your presentations, try starting small by making hand gestures toward your slides. If you’re working with a large audience, use different parts of the stage to ensure everyone feels included. 

Each presenter has their own personal brand and style. Some may use humor to break the ice, while others might appeal to the audience’s emotional side through inspiring storytelling. 

Watching online presentations, such as TED talks, is an excellent way to expose yourself to various presentation styles and develop your own. While observing others, you can note how they carry themselves on stage and learn new ways to keep your audience engaged.

Once you’ve addressed what’s causing your fears, it’s time to prepare for a great presentation. Use your past experience as inspiration and aim to outshine your former self by learning from your mistakes and employing new techniques. Here are five presentation tips to help you create a strong presentation and wow your audience:

1. Keep it simple

Simple means something different to everyone.

Before creating your presentation, take note of your intended audience and their knowledge level of your subject. You’ll want your content to be easy for your intended audience to follow.

Say you’re giving a presentation on improving your company’s operational structure. Entry-level workers will likely need a more straightforward overview of the content than C-suite leaders, who have significantly more experience. 

Ask yourself what you want your audience to take away from your presentation and emphasize those important points. Doing this ensures they remember the most vital information rather than less important supporting ideas. Try organizing these concepts into bullet points so viewers can quickly identify critical takeaways.

2. Create a compelling structure

Put yourself in your audience member’s shoes and determine the most compelling way to organize your information. Your presentation should be articulate , cohesive, and logical, and you must be sure to include all necessary supporting evidence to strengthen your main points.

If you give away all of your answers too quickly, your audience could lose interest. And if there isn’t enough supporting information, they could hit a roadblock of confusion. Try developing a compelling story that leads your audience through your thought processes so they can experience the ups and downs alongside you. 

By structuring your presentation to lead up to a final conclusion, you’re more likely to keep listeners’ attention. Once you’ve reached that conclusion, you can offer a Q&A period to put any of their questions or concerns to rest. 

3. Use visual aids

Appealing to various learning styles is a great way to keep everyone on the same page and ensure they absorb your content. Visual aids are necessary for visual learners and make it easier for people to picture your ideas.

Aim to incorporate a mixture of photos, videos, and props to engage your audience and convey your key points. For instance, if you’re giving a presentation on anthropology subject matter, you could show your audience an artifact to help them understand how exciting a discovery must have been. 

If your presentation is long, including a video for your audience to watch is an excellent way to give yourself a break and create new jumping-off points for your speech.

4. Be aware of design techniques and trends

Thanks to cutting-edge technology and tools, you have numerous platforms at your disposal to create a good presentation. But keep in mind that although color, images, and graphics liven things up, they can cause distraction when misused.

  Here are a few standard pointers for incorporating visuals on your slides: 

• Don’t place blocks of small text on a single slide
• Use a minimalistic background instead of a busy one
• Ensure text stands out against the background color
• Only use high-resolution photos
• Maintain a consistent font style and size throughout the presentation
• Don’t overuse transitions and effects

5. Try the 10-20-30 rule

Guy Kawasaki, a prominent venture capitalist and one of the original marketing specialists for Apple, said that the best slideshow presentations are less than 10 slides , last at most 20 minutes, and use a font size of 30. Following this strategy can help you condense your information, eliminate unnecessary ideas, and maintain your audience’s focus more efficiently.

Once you’re confident in creating a memorable presentation, it’s time to learn how to give one. Here are some valuable tips for keeping your audience invested during your talk: 

Tip #1: Tell stories

Sharing an anecdote from your life can improve your credibility and increase your relatability. And when an audience relates to you, they’re more likely to feel connected to who you are as a person and encouraged to give you their full attention, as they would want others to do the same.

Gill Hicks utilized this strategy well when she shared her powerful story, “ I survived a terrorist attack. Here’s what I learned .” In her harrowing tale, Hicks highlights the importance of compassion, unconditional love, and helping those in need.

If you feel uncomfortable sharing personal stories, that’s okay. You can use examples from famous individuals or create a fictional account to demonstrate your ideas.

Tip #2: Make eye contact with the audience

Maintaining eye contact is less intimidating than it sounds. In fact, you don’t have to look your audience members directly in their eyes — you can focus on their foreheads or noses if that’s easier.

Try making eye contact with as many people as possible for 3–5 seconds each. This timing ensures you don’t look away too quickly, making the audience member feel unimportant, or linger too long, making them feel uncomfortable.

If you’re presenting to a large group, direct your focus to each part of the room to ensure no section of the audience feels ignored. 

Tip #3: Work on your stage presence

Although your tone and words are the most impactful part of your presentation, recall that body language keeps your audience engaged. Use these tips to master a professional stage presence:

• Speak with open arms and avoid crossing them
• Keep a reasonable pace and try not to stand still
• Use hand gestures to highlight important information

Tip #4: Start strong

Like watching a movie trailer, the first seconds of your talk are critical for capturing your audience’s attention. How you start your speech sets the tone for the rest of your presentation and tells your audience whether or not they should pay attention. Here are some ways to start your presentation to leave a lasting impression:

• Use a quote from a well-known and likable influential person 
• Ask a rhetorical question to create intrigue
• Start with an anecdote to add context to your talk 
• Spark your audience’s curiosity by involving them in an interactive problem-solving puzzle or riddle

Tip #5: Show your passion

Don’t be afraid of being too enthusiastic. Everyone appreciates a speaker who’s genuinely excited about their field of expertise. 

In “ Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance ,” Angela Lee Duckworth discusses the importance of passion in research and delivery. She delivers her presentation excitedly to show the audience how excitement piques interest. 

Tip #6: Plan your delivery

How you decide to deliver your speech will shape your presentation. Will you be preparing a PowerPoint presentation and using a teleprompter? Or are you working within the constraints of the digital world and presenting over Zoom?

The best presentations are conducted by speakers who know their stuff and memorize their content. However, if you find this challenging, try creating notes to use as a safety net in case you lose track.

If you’re presenting online, you can keep notes beside your computer for each slide, highlighting your key points. This ensures you include all the necessary information and follow a logical order.

Tip #7: Practice

Practice doesn’t make perfect — it makes progress. There’s no way of preparing for unforeseen circumstances, but thorough practice means you’ve done everything you can to succeed.

Rehearse your speech in front of a mirror or to a trusted friend or family member. Take any feedback and use it as an opportunity to fine-tune your speech. But remember: who you practice your presentation in front of may differ from your intended audience. Consider their opinions through the lens of them occupying this different position.

Tip #8: Read the room

Whether you’re a keynote speaker at an event or presenting to a small group of clients, knowing how to read the room is vital for keeping your audience happy. Stay flexible and be willing to move on from topics quickly if your listeners are uninterested or displeased with a particular part of your speech.

Tip #9: Breathe

Try taking deep breaths before your presentation to calm your nerves. If you feel rushed, you’re more likely to feel nervous and stumble on your words.

The most important thing to consider when presenting is your audience’s feelings. When you approach your next presentation calmly, you’ll put your audience at ease and encourage them to feel comfortable in your presence.

Tip #10: Provide a call-to-action

When you end your presentation, your audience should feel compelled to take a specific action, whether that’s changing their habits or contacting you for your services.

If you’re presenting to clients, create a handout with key points and contact information so they can get in touch. You should provide your LinkedIn information, email address, and phone number so they have a variety of ways to reach you. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all template for an effective presentation, as your unique audience and subject matter play a role in shaping your speech. As a general rule, though, you should aim to connect with your audience through passion and excitement. Use strong eye contact and body language. Capture their interest through storytelling and their trust through relatability.

Learning how to give a good presentation can feel overwhelming — but remember, practice makes progress. Rehearse your presentation for someone you trust, collect their feedback , and revise. Practicing your presentation skills is helpful for any job, and every challenge is a chance to grow.

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6 presentation skills and how to improve them

How to write a speech that your audience remembers, how to make a presentation interactive and exciting, tell a story they can't ignore these 10 tips will teach you how, 3 stand-out professional bio examples to inspire your own, reading the room gives you an edge — no matter who you're talking to, your guide to what storytelling is and how to be a good storyteller, 18 effective strategies to improve your communication skills, writing an elevator pitch about yourself: a how-to plus tips, similar articles, the 11 tips that will improve your public speaking skills, 30 presentation feedback examples, fear of public speaking overcome it with these 7 tips, how to not be nervous for a presentation — 13 tips that work (really), how the minto pyramid principle can enhance your communication skills, 8 clever hooks for presentations (with tips), stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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How can you make a good presentation even more effective?

This page draws on published advice from expert presenters around the world, which will help to take your presentations from merely ‘good’ to ‘great’.

By bringing together advice from a wide range of people, the aim is to cover a whole range of areas.

Whether you are an experienced presenter, or just starting out, there should be ideas here to help you to improve.

1. Show your Passion and Connect with your Audience

It’s hard to be relaxed and be yourself when you’re nervous.

But time and again, the great presenters say that the most important thing is to connect with your audience, and the best way to do that is to let your passion for the subject shine through.

Be honest with the audience about what is important to you and why it matters.

Be enthusiastic and honest, and the audience will respond.

2. Focus on your Audience’s Needs

Your presentation needs to be built around what your audience is going to get out of the presentation.

As you prepare the presentation, you always need to bear in mind what the audience needs and wants to know, not what you can tell them.

While you’re giving the presentation, you also need to remain focused on your audience’s response, and react to that.

You need to make it easy for your audience to understand and respond.

3. Keep it Simple: Concentrate on your Core Message

When planning your presentation, you should always keep in mind the question:

What is the key message (or three key points) for my audience to take away?

You should be able to communicate that key message very briefly.

Some experts recommend a 30-second ‘elevator summary’, others that you can write it on the back of a business card, or say it in no more than 15 words.

Whichever rule you choose, the important thing is to keep your core message focused and brief.

And if what you are planning to say doesn’t contribute to that core message, don’t say it.

4. Smile and Make Eye Contact with your Audience

This sounds very easy, but a surprisingly large number of presenters fail to do it.

If you smile and make eye contact, you are building rapport , which helps the audience to connect with you and your subject. It also helps you to feel less nervous, because you are talking to individuals, not to a great mass of unknown people.

To help you with this, make sure that you don’t turn down all the lights so that only the slide screen is visible. Your audience needs to see you as well as your slides.

5. Start Strongly

The beginning of your presentation is crucial. You need to grab your audience’s attention and hold it.

They will give you a few minutes’ grace in which to entertain them, before they start to switch off if you’re dull. So don’t waste that on explaining who you are. Start by entertaining them.

Try a story (see tip 7 below), or an attention-grabbing (but useful) image on a slide.

6. Remember the 10-20-30 Rule for Slideshows

This is a tip from Guy Kawasaki of Apple. He suggests that slideshows should:

• Contain no more than 10 slides;
• Last no more than 20 minutes; and
• Use a font size of no less than 30 point.

This last is particularly important as it stops you trying to put too much information on any one slide. This whole approach avoids the dreaded ‘Death by PowerPoint’.

As a general rule, slides should be the sideshow to you, the presenter. A good set of slides should be no use without the presenter, and they should definitely contain less, rather than more, information, expressed simply.

If you need to provide more information, create a bespoke handout and give it out after your presentation.

7. Tell Stories

Human beings are programmed to respond to stories.

Stories help us to pay attention, and also to remember things. If you can use stories in your presentation, your audience is more likely to engage and to remember your points afterwards. It is a good idea to start with a story, but there is a wider point too: you need your presentation to act like a story.

Think about what story you are trying to tell your audience, and create your presentation to tell it.

Finding The Story Behind Your Presentation

To effectively tell a story, focus on using at least one of the two most basic storytelling mechanics in your presentation:

Focusing On Characters – People have stories; things, data, and objects do not. So ask yourself “who” is directly involved in your topic that you can use as the focal point of your story.

For example, instead of talking about cars (your company’s products), you could focus on specific characters like:

• The drivers the car is intended for – people looking for speed and adventure
• The engineers who went out of their way to design the most cost-effective car imaginable

A Changing Dynamic – A story needs something to change along the way. So ask yourself “What is not as it should be?” and answer with what you are going to do about it (or what you did about it).

For example…

• Did hazardous road conditions inspire you to build a rugged, all-terrain jeep that any family could afford?
• Did a complicated and confusing food labelling system lead you to establish a colour-coded nutritional index so that anybody could easily understand it?

To see 15 more actionable storytelling tips, see Nuts & Bolts Speed Training’s post on Storytelling Tips .

8. Use your Voice Effectively

The spoken word is actually a pretty inefficient means of communication, because it uses only one of your audience’s five senses. That’s why presenters tend to use visual aids, too. But you can help to make the spoken word better by using your voice effectively.

Varying the speed at which you talk, and emphasising changes in pitch and tone all help to make your voice more interesting and hold your audience’s attention.

For more about this, see our page on Effective Speaking .

9. Use your Body Too

It has been estimated that more than three quarters of communication is non-verbal.

That means that as well as your tone of voice, your body language is crucial to getting your message across. Make sure that you are giving the right messages: body language to avoid includes crossed arms, hands held behind your back or in your pockets, and pacing the stage.

Make your gestures open and confident, and move naturally around the stage, and among the audience too, if possible.

10. Relax, Breathe and Enjoy

If you find presenting difficult, it can be hard to be calm and relaxed about doing it.

One option is to start by concentrating on your breathing. Slow it down, and make sure that you’re breathing fully. Make sure that you continue to pause for breath occasionally during your presentation too.

For more ideas, see our page on Coping with Presentation Nerves .

If you can bring yourself to relax, you will almost certainly present better. If you can actually start to enjoy yourself, your audience will respond to that, and engage better. Your presentations will improve exponentially, and so will your confidence. It’s well worth a try.

Improve your Presentation Skills

Follow our guide to boost your presentation skills learning about preparation, delivery, questions and all other aspects of giving effective presentations.

Start with: What is a Presentation?

Continue to: How to Give a Speech Self Presentation

See also: Five Ways You Can Do Visual Marketing on a Budget Can Presentation Science Improve Your Presentation? Typography – It’s All About the Message in Your Slides

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14 effective presentation tips to impress your audience

Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.

Anete Ezera July 15, 2022

An effective presentation can communicate key ideas and opinions, save time, and contribute to your overall success as a business, but good presentation skills don’t come naturally to everyone. In this blog post, you’ll find 14 effective presentation tips you can implement in your next presentation to make it a success. 

Whether you’re preparing for an important presentation at work or school, or you’re looking for ways to generally improve your presentation skills, you’ll find these presentation tips useful. We’ve gathered a list to help you impress your audience from the get-go. You’ll find tips for creating and presenting your slides, talking in front of an audience, and other effective presentation techniques to help you stand out. 

Most common presentation mistakes

Before we list our top effective presentation tips, let’s explore the most common presentation mistakes. If you’ve made one or more mistakes in this list, you’re not alone. Most people have made at least one mistake. However, what’s important is to be aware of these errors and try avoiding them next time.

#1 A poor start

One of the most common mistakes people make is undermining the importance of the first few minutes or seconds of their presentation. 

Let’s say you’ve practiced your key talking points meticulously and gone over your slides a million times, but when you’re in the spotlight and need to say your first line, do you know exactly what to say to wow the audience? 

The start of your presentation is crucial. Not only because how you start sets the tone for the rest of your presentation, but also because people generally require around 8 seconds to decide whether they find the subject interesting enough to keep listening. Starting your presentation with a captivating intro is even more important than you think. To ensure you start off right, read our guide on how to start your presentation . 

#2 Lack of preparation

Yes, even though it’s clear that you should prepare before giving a presentation, it’s still a common mistake amongst presenters. Preparing content and talking points is an obvious start, but there are other steps that you might be overlooking.

Before you even join a meeting or walk into a room where you’re going to present, consider the technical requirements and get familiar with the equipment. If you’re presenting online, make sure to test-run your presentation and the visual aids you’re going to use. The last thing you want is a broken video link, poor audio, or a weak connection when you’re presenting. 

Also, consider the questions your audience might want to ask you about the topic. Think about how you’d answer those questions, or do even further research to really impress the audience with your answers. 

Explore other ways to prepare for a presentation to feel even more confident when presenting.

#3 Losing track of time

It’s great to feel passionate about your topic. However, you’ll have to consider your audience’s level of interest and knowledge. Some details might seem fascinating to you, and you’d like to talk about them for hours, but for your audience, too much information will drain their energy and lose their attention. 

Therefore, make sure to keep track of time. Also, consider your audience’s interests. A concise presentation is always better than a long one with a ton of information. Plus, you’ll have a higher chance of keeping your audience’s attention throughout the presentation. 

Effective presentation tips

Now that we’ve looked at some of the most common presentation mistakes – let’s dive into effective presentation tips that’ll help you excel in future presentations. 

#1 Tell a story

Stories connect, inspire, and empower people. Telling a story can entice action, help understand an idea, and make people feel connected to the storyteller. It’s also one of the most effective presentation tips. A study by organizational psychologist Peg Neuhauser found that a well-told story is easier to remember than facts, which makes it a highly effective learning technique. 

With that in mind, telling a story when you’re presenting can engage your audience and make it a more memorable experience. You can either share a personal story or a historical event, just make sure to have a clear connection between the story and the topic you’re presenting. 

#2 Work on your body language

Body language can make a huge difference in how your presentation is perceived. It’s one of the presentation tips you definitely shouldn’t overlook. 

Body language says a lot about a person’s confidence level, emotions, state of mind, and even credibility. For the audience, it’s a way to understand what the person is saying and how interested they are in the topic. 

Therefore, work on your body language to better convey the message you’re trying to communicate. Practice in front of a mirror before your presentation and be conscious of your hand gestures and facial expressions. 

#3 Understand your audience

Before crafting your presentation, you must know who you’re speaking to. Understanding the interests, demographics, professional background, and other valuable information of your audience is crucial in making your speech successful. 

If you’re speaking at an event, contact the organizers to get more information about other speakers and the audience. If you’re presenting at work, you may already know your audience fairly well. Use this information to your advantage and create content you know they’ll resonate with.

#4 Use high-quality visuals

What’s one of the most effective presentation techniques? Use of visuals. They play a crucial role in your presentation. However, only high-quality visuals will make a good impression and effectively communicate your message. Use high-quality visuals like images, videos, graphs, maps, and others to really land your point. 

Using visuals is a great way to convey your ideas as they’re easier to process than text. If you’re not sure where to find great visuals, check out our blog post on presentation visuals for five free resources.

P.S. the Prezi library holds a variety of images, videos, GIFs, stickers, and other visuals, including different charts and maps to spice up your presentation. It’s all available in your dashboard .

#5 Use data visualizations

Do you want to showcase statistics or other datasets in your presentation? Use data visualizations to make your data stand out and impress your audience. 

There’s nothing more boring than a bunch of data presented in a flat way. If you want to tell a story with your data, use interactive infographics or slides enriched with eye-catching visuals. Showcasing data will make your ideas appear more trustworthy and credible. 

Prezi Design offers a range of templates to choose from. You can start creating data visualizations from scratch or choose a template and edit the data there. 

#6 Make it engaging with interactive elements

It’s not easy to deliver an engaging presentation. People can easily get distracted or try to multitask, especially in the virtual environment. Sometimes, it’s difficult to focus on the speaker and the written text. Other times, the content just isn’t impressive enough to hold the audience’s attention. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

You can make your presentation more engaging for everyone by including interactive content like graphs and charts. With interactive data visualizations, you’ll make the data discovery process more engaging and exciting for your audience. 

Your audience will be able to hover over data points and click on certain icons or datasets to discover information on their own. Interactive visualizations will make the presentation more memorable and impressive. 

As you can see in the example below, you can discover different data by engaging with the infographic. 

#7 Stay consistent with fonts and color styles

You want your presentation to look visually appealing and highlight essential information. To make that happen, stay consistent with font styles and color schemes throughout your presentation. 

Use one or two fonts max to make the text easy to read and understand. Also, use a carefully selected color scheme that’s not too distracting. If you’re using Prezi Design, you can easily copy and paste styles by right-clicking on your data visualizations and selecting “copy styles.” This makes it easier to stay consistent and saves time when picking matching colors. 

#8 Structure your presentation properly

Before creating your presentation, think about its structure. What’s the main idea you want to convey? Use that as your starting point, and only include information that adds value to the narrative. 

Plan out the first topics carefully to properly introduce your argument. Add the essential information in the middle part of your presentation. Lastly, close your presentation with a summary of the main points and leave your audience with an afterthought. Also, plan when you’re taking questions and for how long. 

For more insight, watch this tutorial on how to structure your presentation:

#9 Practice your public speaking skills

Public speaking may not be your forte, but you can get better with practice. Don’t decline a great opportunity to share your ideas with a larger audience just because you feel nervous speaking in front of a group of people. 

One of the best ways to improve your public speaking skills is to practice in front of your family or friends – people you feel comfortable with. Also, focus on the topic you’re presenting and get excited about the idea you want to convey. This way you’ll appear more confident and feel less nervous about public speaking. 

Explore other public speaking tips from Jessica Chen, the founder, and CEO of Soulcast Media: 

#10 Show your slides next to you on-screen

If you’re presenting on Zoom or in a virtual meeting , think twice before you share your screen. The days of hiding behind slides are over. People want to see and connect with other people, not sit through another run-of-the-mill screen share. To do that, use Prezi Video to showcase all your content right next to you in your video feed. 

As a result, your presentation will look more engaging than a traditional virtual presentation . Also, your audience will have the chance to read your body language and follow along with what you’re saying even better. 

If you already have your slides prepared, don’t worry – you can easily integrate them into Prezi. 

See Prezi Video in action and check out our video templates to get started.

#11 Calm down before presenting

Being in front of an audience can feel nerve-racking. However, there are ways to calm down before presenting that will make you feel more centered and confident. The last thing you want is all your hard work to go to waste just because of stress. 

Try breathing exercises or a five-minute guided meditation before presenting. The trick is to remove all distractions and focus on the present moment so you’re not overthinking right before starting your presentation. Also, be fully prepared and know exactly what to say and when which will help you feel more collected. If you want to discover other ways to feel and look more confident, read how not to be nervous before a presentation . 

#12 Use transitions and animations 

Add movement to your slides with transitions and animations. You’ll make your presentation more visually appealing and engaging. However, be careful not to overwhelm your audience with your choice of transitions and animations. 

Choose a transition that matches your presentation visually and use it throughout your presentation. Consider what animations will be relevant to your audience and select a few to add to your slides. Don’t overdo it. Keep the focus on the message you’re trying to convey, and use animations to only support that message. 

#13 Be enthusiastic 

When you’re in a room with a positive and enthusiastic person, you can’t help but feel uplifted as well. High-energy people have this effect on others. Most importantly, a lot of people tend to mimic people’s behavior and mirror their energy when they feel a connection or relate to them. That’s called the chameleon effect . 

When you’re presenting, you want your audience to feel curious about what you’re presenting. You may also want to leave your audience feeling uplifted, interested to know more, or inspired. To have that effect on others, try to convey those emotions when presenting. Practice your speech, slow down your narration at times, or take a pause after you’ve delivered a statement, and use different presentation techniques to present your project and really drive your points home. 

#14 End your presentation in a memorable way

The first few minutes of your presentation are crucial for captivating your audience’s attention. However, don’t underestimate the importance of ending your presentation as powerfully as you started it. 

The way you end your presentation will play a crucial part in how your audience will remember it. You want to make a memorable impression by closing your presentation with a summarizing statement, a rhetorical question, a call to action, or another impactful way. Discover 10 ways you can end your presentation in our guide.  

There are a lot of factors to consider when creating and delivering a presentation. You want your slides to look professional and visually appealing while conveying your main points. You also want to look and sound confident even if you’re nervous about public speaking. Whatever your concerns may be, remember that preparation is essential. Practice and dedication are the keys to giving a successful presentation . Make sure to follow these effective presentation tips to excel in your future presentations. If you’re interested in creating a captivating presentation with Prezi, contact us to learn more or try it for free . 

Elevating presentations with Prezi AI

Embrace the innovation of Prezi to bring your presentations to life. With its unique platform, Prezi AI offers more than just visually appealing templates; it provides an immersive narrative experience, engaging your audience with a story-driven approach. By integrating Prezi AI , our platform’s capabilities are further enhanced, offering intelligent design suggestions and optimizing content layouts to ensure your presentations are not only beautiful but impactful. This integration is a perfect example of effective presentation techniques in action, using technology to create a more engaging presentation.

Interactive elements: transforming passive listening into active engagement

Prezi revolutionizes the way information is presented by incorporating interactive elements that invite audience participation. With Prezi AI, these features become even more accessible, suggesting ways to make your presentation more engaging through clickable areas, zoomable images, and dynamic visualizations. This level of interaction encourages exploration, making your message more memorable and transforming a standard presentation into an effective presentation.

Adding a personal touch in digital presentation with video

Prezi Video stands out by seamlessly integrating your content alongside your video feed, bridging the gap between traditional presentations and personal engagement. This feature is crucial for those looking to follow presentation tips that emphasize the importance of connecting with your audience on a more personal level. Prezi AI enhances this experience, ensuring your content is displayed in the most effective way possible, making your virtual presentations feel as though you’re directly conversing with your audience.

Mastering presentation artistry with Prezi

The journey to becoming a skilled presenter involves continuously refining your approach and embracing tools that elevate your ability to communicate effectively. Prezi, enriched with Prezi AI, is one such tool that transforms ordinary presentations into captivating experiences. By leveraging these advanced features, you can deliver presentations that are successful, memorable, and truly unforgettable, embodying the essence of tips for presentation mastery.

Whether you’re an experienced speaker or preparing for your first presentation, Prezi equips you with the tools to succeed. Engage your audience, tell compelling stories, and deliver your message with confidence and creativity. Following effective presentation tips and exploring how Prezi AI can transform your next presentation is a step towards mastering the art of impactful communication. Delve into the features and begin your journey to presentation mastery today.

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10 Tips For Giving Effective Virtual Presentations

What to know before you go live.

September 26, 2016

Presenting online? Try these suggestions to improve your results. | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

As audiences go global and you need to reach more people through technology (including webinars, conference calls and teleconference), you must consider the challenges to connecting with a virtual audience. Here I pinpoint 10 valuable best practices to ensure you communicate successfully.

1. Be Brief

Audiences begin to lose attention after roughly 10 minutes of hearing from the same presenter. If you have more than 10 minutes of content, use interactive activities to keep your audience engaged (for example, take a poll, give quizzes, or ask audience members for their opinions via chat).

2. Be Simple

Keep slides simple — avoid too many words, graphics and animation features. Less is definitely more!

Light yourself well | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

3. Be a TV Personality

Look straight into your camera, not the screen. Wear clothing that is neutral in color (no plaids or stripes). Light yourself well and from above. Be mindful of what appears behind you in the background. Invest in a good microphone.

4. Be Standing

Even though your audience cannot see you, stand when you present. This allows you to stay focused and use good presentation delivery skills such as belly breathing, vocal variety, and pausing.

5. Be Prepared

Practice delivering your presentation with your technology in advance of your talk. Make sure all of the features of the technology work. Record your practice using the recording feature of your tool. Watch and listen to learn what works and what you can improve.

6. Be Assisted

Have someone available to deal with technical issues and to field email/text questions. Also, if you have multiple remote audience members in one location, be sure to pick one of them to be your “eyes and ears.” Ask them to queue up questions and facilitate discussion on your behalf.

7. Be Specific

Ask pointed questions to avoid too many people answering at once. For example, rather than ask, “Are there any questions?” try “Who has a question about the solution I provided?” Set a ground rule that people state their names prior to speaking.

Imagine your audience | Illustration by Tricia Seibold

8. Be Synchronized

Transitions are critical. You must connect what you just said to what is coming next when you move from point to point. Transitions between topics and slides are good opportunities to get people reengaged to your talk.

9. Be Connected

Imagine your audience even though you can’t see them. You can place pictures of audience members behind your camera so you can look at people as you present.

10. Be Early

Encourage your audience to access your call or webinar in advance of the start time so you can iron out any technical issues in advance and get them familiar with the technology.

Matt Abrahams is a Stanford GSB organizational behavior lecturer, author, and communications coach.

For media inquiries, visit the Newsroom .

Explore More

Lose yourself: the secret to finding flow and being fully present, speak your truth: why authenticity leads to better communication, when words aren’t enough: how to excel at nonverbal communication, editor’s picks.

April 04, 2016 A Big Data Approach to Public Speaking Key takeaways from analyzing 100,000 presentations.

November 19, 2014 Matt Abrahams: The Power of the Paraphrase An expert on public speaking shows how paraphrasing can help you navigate tricky communication situations.

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Mastering the Art of Business Presentations: 8 Effective Tips to Try 

From pitching an idea to leading a meeting, summarizing information to seeking investments—most professionals need to give a business presentation at some point.

And the difference between a good and bad presentation is both obvious and impactful. A strong business presentation helps you: 

• Convey information clearly and concisely. 
• Persuade or convince your audience towards your ideal income. 
• Engage and inspire colleagues or employees for greater work performance. 

Not only do these benefits help achieve business or career goals, but mastering the process can help you save time, become more efficient, and communicate better. 

Here are eight tips and tricks to take your business presentations to the next level.

8 Impactful Business Presentation Tips 

Whether you need help creating better visual aids or just get nervous speaking in front of people, there are effective presentation techniques you can learn today. 

Here’s how to elevate your business presentation skills for maximum impact. 

1. Know Your Audience

The first step in mastering your presentation skills is to know your audience—who’s on the receiving end? This is important because you can customize your approach to a specific group rather than a general one, which is always most effective. 

Think about: 

• Demographics : This includes things like positions, roles, interests, and other characteristics of the people you’re presenting to. Consider how you will tailor your presentation to align with those things. 
• Expectations : What does your audience expect to receive from your presentation? How can you ensure that happens? 
• Frustrations: Consider any pain points or challenges your audience is coming in with. How can you preemptively address questions or concerns?

2. Focus on Clarity and Impact

Clarity is key for an effective business presentation. Clear communication leads to greater impact because it ensures everyone is on the same page and knows how to move forward after the presentation. 

Here are two key business presentation tips for clarity and impact: 

• Use a logical structure: Make sure your presentation follows a sequence, such as “introduction-body-conclusion” or “problem-solution-benefit.” This helps everyone follow the same roadmap. 
• Choose a simple design: Make sure your visual aids (i.e., PowerPoint, Google Slides) are simple and easy to follow. Use bullet points, numbering, or simple graphics. Don’t cram too much information in, but ensure it’s easy for everyone to follow. 

3. Use Visual Aids Effectively

Visual aids can help you get your information across clearly and effectively. They can also enhance your presentation and make it more compelling. Here are some business presentation tips to try: 

• Use high-quality images: Don’t settle for blurry graphics or too-small text. Make sure you are choosing quality visual aids. Unsplash and Pexels are both great for high-quality stock images. 
• Practice with your visual aids: Do at least a quick run-through of your presentation to ensure seamless integration and timing. This also makes sure everything works properly (i.e., a video loads quickly). 
• Be creative: Depending on your audience, it may be appropriate to use out-of-the-box visual aids like memes, gifs, or videos. Don’t be afraid to have some fun with it!

Remember that your visual aids are meant to enhance a verbal presentation, not replace it. 

4. Engage in Storytelling

The most engaging business presentations are those that use the art of storytelling to some degree. Stories create emotional connections that help your audience relate to your message. 

In a business context, stories can include: 

• Anecdotes and stories : Share past experiences with clients or partners that are relevant to your presentation and audience. 
• Personal experiences: Give your audience a glimpse into your own thought process, what you’re learning, or what you’re excited about. It helps people connect with you on a deeper level, which invites participation and buy-in. 
• Big picture: Set your presentation in a broader context—what’s the purpose of this presentation? How does it lead to the next steps? What are the goals you want to achieve? 

5. Practice Your Delivery

Mastering presentation skills requires practice. Unless you’re naturally a great public speaker—and some are!—you’ll need to spend time practicing. Here are some effective presentation techniques to work on : 

• Vocals: Be mindful of your tone and pitch when you give a presentation. Are you varying it to create interest? Do you speak slowly and clearly? 
• Body language: Consider your natural body language and what message it may give off. Look for opportunities to increase eye contact, use hand motions, and stand straight. These all project confidence and help you better connect with your audience.
• Flow and pacing: Think about the length of your presentation and what you want to communicate. Make sure your pacing is spot-on so you have time to get through everything on time and are not too rushed in the end. 

Practice is effective because it can help you overcome nervousness and anxiety. As you practice, you’ll gain confidence by knowing the material better and ironing out all the small issues. 

If you’re still nervous after practicing, take some deep breaths before you start. Remind yourself that it’s normal to feel that way and you’re still capable and competent to give a great presentation. You’ll fall back on your knowledge and practice once you start—so take a deep breath and go for it!

6. Foster Engagement through Questions and Conversation

Most presentations are more engaging when there is an opportunity for discussion or engagement with the audience. You can encourage participation by: 

• Preparing discussion questions: Deliberately set aside time for participants to discuss relevant topics to your presentation. Build it into your allotted time so that you can still get through all your main points. 
• Being open to feedback and encouraging questions: Don’t be so rigid with your presentation that you’re closed off to feedback. If someone has something to contribute, stay open and address it; you may not have time to delve into their questions at that time, but you can always follow up later. 

7. Choose the Right Environment

Another key consideration for your presentation is where you’ll host it. Depending on your workplace, you may not have much choice. But if there is some flexibility, consider choosing a location that supports the goals of your presentation. 

Here are some things you can think about: 

• Room size and layout: Does the space comfortably fit all the participants? Is the layout conducive to your desired outcome? For example, if you want to facilitate conversation, group tables together. 
• Comfort: Consider your audience and what will make them most comfortable and, therefore, engaged. This could be things like chairs, natural lighting, or some coffee and snacks.
• A/V equipment or other supports: Does your space have adequate technological support for your presentation? Make sure you test any equipment in advance. 

Remote teams may be accustomed to giving presentations online, but there’s a strong case for the benefits of in-person meetings. A coworking space offers flexible, on-demand meeting rooms equipped with A/V tools, comfortable seating, and on-site support.  

8. Leverage AI and Other Tools

Once you’ve got the basics of effective presentation techniques in place, you can think about leveraging AI or other tools to take things to the next level. Some AI programs can help you increase efficiency or generate ideas. Here are some things to look into: 

• Idea generation : ChatGPT is a great starting point to generate ideas or content. You can go back and forth with the AI to get ideas for a presentation, write sections, convert large paragraphs into bullet points and so much more. 
• Presentation : Many AI programs can create attractive, creative, and effective presentations. Check out Beautiful.AI , SlidesAI , or Slidebean to get started.

Mastering presentation skills is possible for any professional. Look through these business presentation tips and tricks to find what will help take your next presentation to the next level!

Ready to elevate your professional experience and boost your daily productivity? Book a tour of The Post today.

How Not To Ruin Your Business Presentation

Updated on: 3 March 2023

One might well believe that the process of preparing a business presentation could consist of a mix of anxiety compounded by a number of associated problems.

Yet it may not even occur to you that listening to a tedious and monotonous presentation could be a dreadful experience (or, to be honest, pure torture).

An overuse of text …. and the audience just zones out. Actually, it’s this very example where words can turn into powerful weapons –  weapons that can stifle everyone’s attention in one fell swoop.

Dull presentations may not only reduce sales but also erode a company’s reputation.

So, in order to prevent listeners from becoming the victims of the presentation and, in fact, show them a trustworthy company culture, we’ve prepared for you a list of research-based business presentation tips . Use them to ace your next business presentation!

In case you want to skip right to the tips:

• Pay attention to eye-contact
• Focus attention on your appearance and posture
• Try to engage the audience
• Practice makes perfect
• Try to assure everyone that your point of view is right
• Do not create something really complicated and intricate
• Do not overfill the presentation with unnecessary information
• Use those colors and fonts that are easy to see and read
• Visuals, visuals and once again ….. visuals!
• Show a genuine interest in what you’re talking about

How do people perceive the information?  In order to understand how you can influence the audience, you should, first of all, learn about the ways that information is perceived.

Gregory’s Top-Down Processing Theory

Richard Gregory, a British psychologist, was convinced that perception is a process which is based on top-down processing. It means that information is pretty ambiguous, so in order to interpret it, we need to assess our expectations, convictions, and knowledge that comes along with the experience.

As you can probably appreciate, we create an idea about something big from tiny details that already exist in our mind.

If we were to talk about some experiments that prove this theory, it would be appropriate to mention one particular test. Gregory demonstrates using a Charlie Chaplin mask.

Yeah, it may seem that nothing is untoward with this ordinary mask yet, when you see the hollow part of it, it reconstructs the man’s face in 3-dimension even though it is concave and this reconstruction will be based on past experience and expectations.

What else do we know about this theory?

• About 90% of information is lost by the time it reaches the brain;
• Received visual information is combined with past experience and this very fact, actually, constructs our perception of reality;
• The recognition of images is based on contextual information.

Regarding the top-down processing theory, such tips about info design can be detailed thus:

Sanocki and Sulman’s Color Relations Experiment

Thomas Sanocki and Noah Sulman conducted an experiment in order to find out how the combinations of colors influence short-term memory.

They chose a variety of harmonic and disharmonic color palettes. At each step of the experiment, they showed people two different palettes, one at a time, within a particular period of time of each other.

Testees had to work out whether the palettes were identical. In addition to this, they were asked to say which combinations of colors were considered to be pleasant or unpleasant.

So, how did the colors affect our visual perception?

• Those palettes that had matched colors, and not more than three colors, were more noticeable
• The contrast between background and text can help to concentrate focus on the context
• It’s possible to remember various color combinations simultaneously

Regarding Sanocki and Sulman’s color relations experiment, such tips about info design can be denoted as follows:

Binocular Rivalry Phenomenon

During the experiment, Frank Tong, Ken Nakayama, J. Thomas Vaughan and Nancy Kanwisher drew a conclusion: when people look at two different pictures at one time, they are subjected to a phenomenon known as a binocular rivalry.

One of them dominates, while the other one is suppressed.

So, it means that we don’t perceive two pictures simultaneously. We perceive them one after the other and, moreover, even see them as two rivals for a dominant image.

Regarding binocular rivalry phenomenon, such tips about info design can be denoted thus:

Larson and Ricard’s Experiment on Typography Influence

Kevin Larson and Rosalind Picard conducted an experiment and found out how typography influences a reader’s mood. Actually, they implemented two particular aspects of research and twenty people took part in each of them.

They gave testees The New Yorker magazine and twenty minutes to read it. The first group got the text with a bad typography, while the second group – with a good one.

Over the course of the research, people were interrupted and asked how much time had passed from the beginning of the experiment. It turned out that people who were in a great mood found this task easy to accomplish.

Moreover, they thought that they spent a lesser amount of time on reading. After the first part of the research, people were asked to pin a candle to the wall with the help of the thumbtacks in such a way that wax didn’t drip.

Finally, testees who were reading text with a good typography showed more interest in the articles than the others. Furthermore, no one from those who were reading text with a bad typography could solve the task with the candle, while the other group of people was more successful.

It can mean that good typography has an impact on dealing with problems.

Regarding Larson and Picard’s experiment on typography influence, such tips about info design can be summed up as follows:

Castelhano and Henderson’s Scene Perception Study

Monica Castelhano and John Henderson found out how color influences our ability to perceive the gist of a scene.

Their experiment had three particular tests. Students were shown hundreds of photos of nature and different objects in a certain sequence. The colorful photos were presented along with monochromatic ones. Moreover, they also showed photos with abnormal colors.

In general, it turned out that people can pick up on the gist of a scene in just a few seconds. In addition to this, it was found that colors tend to define the structure of objects.

Regarding Castelhano and Henderson’s scene perception study, such tips about info design can be summed up as follows:

Secrets Are Revealed: Here are 10 Business Presentation Tips to Stand By

To begin with, you should pay attention to some ordinary, but, nevertheless, crucial points that will help you to give an exciting and persuasive presentation.

Pay Attention to Eye-Contact

Frankly speaking, eye-contact can be considered one of the most important things when reaching out to an audience.

It’s not a big secret that people who use minimal eye-contact can sometimes be considered as not being very confident and even disinterested.

If you’re not used to public presentations, you can always try looking over the heads of the listeners or find a particular object in the room on which to focus (anyway, it should not be really far away from you, so choose something in the middle distance).

Focus Attention on Your Appearance and Posture

It is said that first impressions are half the battle.

As you can probably appreciate, the dress code is a prime rule that you must follow. Just dress formally and acknowledge your brief brush with fame. By the way, keep in mind that you should stand up straight, so no slouching!

Try to Engage the Audience

Actually, you can ask a lot of questions. They can create interest and intrigue your listeners.

In addition to this, ask them to pose some questions of their own if they are interested in specific details that were not mentioned.

Practice Makes Perfect

Without a doubt, everyone has heard this phrase. If we’re talking about presentations, you should definitely look through your notes a lot of times, check out the technology ( projector, PowerPoint slides, laptop etc.) and be sure that it works.

Furthermore, it would be nice to rehearse your speech and find out how you look and sound. By the way, when you start to talk, a lot of anxiety and stress will disappear.

Now we will proceed to more specific rules in order to help you develop a superb business presentation.

Try to Assure Everyone that Your Point of View is Right

It’s a well-known fact that you present the information not for yourself, but for the audience.

That’s why you should capture their attention in order to make them believe in you being right. Channel all your efforts into achieving this as your goal.

Do Not Create Something Really Complicated and Intricate

To tell the truth, a simple presentation with understandable explanations that are accompanied by some graphics can turn out to be a marvelous purveyor of information. Just emphasize your words with some images and success will follow.

Do Not Overfill the Business Presentation with Unnecessary Information

To start with, you should just stick to the point. It’s crucial to focus on this very point and organize the presentation around it. Do not be distracted and do not distract an audience from the most important issues.

If you want to add something special to your presentation, you can take a glance at these two PowerPoint templates made by TemplateMonster. Each of them can help you to add a visual trick to your repertoire.

Evolution is a brand new multipurpose  PowerPoint template  that will provide your presentation with a spectacular look. It comes with 5 pre-made colors and 5000 total slides which are fully editable. Bring your business to the next level using this template!

Ultimate is a template that will serve as a perfect addition to your presentation. It has tons of slides which can be edited and, moreover, 5 pre-set colors. Add some brightness and create a positive impression using this template!

As we have touched on the topic of PowerPoint presentations, we should share some tips about making them a little bit more interesting and absorbing.

Use Those Colors and Fonts that are Easy to See and Read

You have already read about experiments on information perception, but, actually, let’s go back to this aspect one more time to make some additions.

Don’t ignore the fact that colors should have adequate contrast, otherwise it will be really difficult or even impossible to read. Moreover, pay attention to the font size and do not use small letters.

Visuals, Visuals and Once Again ….. Visuals!

No one wants to read slides full of text. Research has shown that one of the most annoying things that can be inflicted on their audience by presenters is slides overflowing with an excessive amount of text.

If you want to present numeric data, use some diagrams and graphs to do it. To tell the truth, there are numerous different ways to present information through visual presentations. Have no doubt about that and try to use them to their best advantage.

Creately  can help you make your presentation more impressive with the help of visual aids.

You have a chance to create various flowcharts, organizational charts, mind maps, infographics and so and so forth.

All of these diagrams will help you simplify complex ideas and make the presentation visually pleasurable and exciting.

Grab this opportunity and spice up your speech using this great service!

Show a Genuine Interest in What You’re Talking About

The last tip should be considered a common sense one to every possible presentation.

Now let’s just imagine that you’re not the one who is going to present something, but the one who is going to watch and listen.

What do you want to hear? You want to be confronted by a persuasive and interesting presentation during which you won’t have any desire to pick up a pillow and sleep, sleep, sleep…

Ideally, what do you want to see? Someone who is really excited about the presentation? Someone who shows a passionate interest in what he/she is talking about?

That’s why you need to become this very person. Push yourself beyond the limits and make it possible to achieve your long-awaited goal.

Anymore Business Presentation Tips?

So, if you want to follow this spectacular path to success, you should definitely take into consideration all the rules that you’ve just read. With their help, you won’t ruin your business presentation.

By the way, if you want to find out plenty of useful tips regarding business presentations, you can  download this book  and learn everything that you need to know about this very topic.

Color schemes, icons, quotes, and pieces of advice on many other things are already waiting for you. Just follow this step-by-step guide and you will, without a doubt, impress everyone with your presentation.

We really hope that this article has been useful to you. If you have any additions or thoughts, feel free to share them in the comments section.

Thanks for reading and may your presentation be the best!

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

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Best practices for virtual presentations: 15 expert tips that work for everyone.

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In today’s COVID-19 world, virtual meetings and presentations have become the norm. While many presentation skills and best practices apply to both in-person and virtual presentations, expert virtual presenters understand the importance of adjusting their approach to match the medium. With in-person presentations, you more or less have a captive audience — you still need be engaging, but your audience is kind of stuck with you for the duration. But with virtual presentations, your audience has a greater opportunity to stray. You now have to compete for their eyes, ears, hearts, and minds against diminished attention spans, increased home and work life distractions, and conflicting priorities. 

Here are 15 expert tips to set you up for success in your next virtual presentation:

1.     Get the Lighting Right:  As a presenter, it is essential that people can see you well. Make sure you have good front light—meaning the light shines brightly on your face. If your back is to a window, close the shades. While natural light is often the best choice, if your home office doesn’t have natural light and you do a lot of virtual presentations, consider purchasing supplemental lighting to enhance your image.

2.     Choose the Right Background:  Try to use a background that enhances your professional image and is aligned with your message. Avoid a cluttered background or anything that can be distracting. Learn whether your presentation platform enables you to use virtual backgrounds (like Zoom) or whether you can blur your background (like Microsoft Teams). Your background can either add to your professional presence or detract from it.

3.     Know the Technology:  Nothing kills a presentation faster than a presenter who fumbles with the technology. This is a performance, so make sure you know how to make it work. A dry run is essential so that you’re comfortable with the platform features. It’s best to have a co-host (or producer or moderator) assist you with the technology so that you can focus on your presentation. Make sure you practice with the same technical set up (computer and internet connection) that you will use when you deliver the presentation.

4.     Play to the Camera:  When you are the one speaking, look directly into your computer’s camera , not on the screen or at the other participants. This takes some practice, but it makes the viewer feel as if you are looking right at them. Some presenters turn off their self-view so that they aren’t distracted by their own image. Put the camera at eye level . Try not to have your camera too far above or below you. If it’s too low, then you run the risk of creating a double chin. A camera too high makes it difficult to maintain eye contact, as you may find your gaze dropping as you speak. If you are part of a panel or a team of presenters, make sure you are aware of when your camera is on. If you are not speaking but your camera is on, make sure you look like you are paying attention! Powerful presenters understand the importance of making eye contact with their audience, so this means you have to simulate the same effect virtually.

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5.     Get Close (But Not Too Close).  You want the camera to frame your face, neck, and shoulders. People are drawn to faces, so you don’t want to lose that connection by being too far away, but you also don’t want your face to take over the whole screen like a dismembered head because, well, that looks weird. Practice your positioning and distance.

6.     Stand Up:  If possible, use a standing desk or position your laptop so you can stand at eye level with your computer. Standing up provides a higher energy level and forces us to put our body in a more presentation-like mode. If you have to sit, lean forward as you would if you were presenting at a real meeting or as if you were a TV news anchor. Avoid slouching away from the camera, as that sends a signal that you are disconnected from the audience.

7.     Be Animated:  Just like in a live presentation, you want to present with a little energy and animation. Too slow or too monotone in your voice makes it easy for folks to disengage and tune out. Keeping people engaged virtually requires you to actually be engaging.

8.     Pace Yourself:  Without real-time visual audience feedback cues, getting the pacing right can be difficult. Even though you want to infuse some animation and energy into your presentation don’t pump up the speed too much. If you tend to be a fast talker in real life, practice slowing down just a bit. If you’re a slow talker, you may want to speed up just a bit.

9.     Do A Sound Check:  If your sound is garbled, people will tune out. While people may forgive less than perfect video, if they can’t clearly hear you, they will leave. Practice with someone on the other end of the presentation platform. Make sure your sound emits clearly. Sometimes headphones or external microphones work better than the computer audio, sometimes not. Every platform is different, so make sure your sound quality is excellent every time. And again, you should practice with the same technical configurations and location that you will use for your presentation.

10.  Plug into Your Modem:  If possible, plug your computer directly into your modem using an Ethernet cable. This will give you the strongest signal and most stable internet connection. The last thing you want to happen during your presentation is to have a weak or unstable internet signal.

11.  Incorporate Redundant Systems.  If using slides, make sure someone else (another webinar co-host or producer) also has a copy of the slides just in case your internet goes wonky and you have to present by calling in. If you are using slides, make them visually appealing. Use high-quality graphics and limit the amount of text on each slide. It’s your job as presenter to deliver the content. The slides are meant to enhance your spoken words, not replace them.

12.  Engage Your Participants. Just as if you were doing an in-person presentation, craft your presentation to engage the audience. Incorporate chats, polls, raised hand features, etc. Try not to speak for more than ten minutes without some sort of audience engagement. Use the participant list to interact with your participants by name. Have people chat or raise a hand if they want to speak. Keep track of the order of people and then call on them to invite them to turn on their mics or cameras. 

13.  Let Someone Else Check the Chats.  Don’t get sidetracked by the chats during your presentation. You’ll be shocked at how distracting it is to your train of thought if you attempt to read the chats while speaking. Instead, have your co-host or producer monitor the chats. If you ask people to chat you answers or comments to a question you’ve posed, then pause your talking and engage directly with the chats by acknowledging them, reading them out loud, and commenting on them. 

14.  Evaluate and Enhance:  If possible, record the session and take the time to play back and look for areas that worked well and areas that you might want to improve upon. Great presenters, whether virtual or in person, understand the value of continually honing their craft. Be sure to acknowledge your strengths as well as your areas of improvement.

15.  Be Yourself and Have Fun:  Again, just like in face-to-face presentations, audiences connect to authenticity, so be yourself! Let your personality show through. Have fun. If you look like you’re enjoying the presentation so will others. Research shows that happy people retain information better than bored or disinterested people, so model the energy that you want to create. The audience takes its cue from you.

Remember, whether you are presenting in-person or virtually, all presentations are performances. And all performances are in service to your audience. Their time is valuable, so honor that time by delivering the best presentation you can. No matter what kind of presentation you are giving, you must find ways to create authentic audience connection, engagement, and value.

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Powerful and Effective Presentation Skills: More in Demand Now Than Ever

When we talk with our L&D colleagues from around the globe, we often hear that presentation skills training is one of the top opportunities they’re looking to provide their learners. And this holds true whether their learners are individual contributors, people managers, or senior leaders. This is not surprising.

Effective communications skills are a powerful career activator, and most of us are called upon to communicate in some type of formal presentation mode at some point along the way.

For instance, you might be asked to brief management on market research results, walk your team through a new process, lay out the new budget, or explain a new product to a client or prospect. Or you may want to build support for a new idea, bring a new employee into the fold, or even just present your achievements to your manager during your performance review.

And now, with so many employees working from home or in hybrid mode, and business travel in decline, there’s a growing need to find new ways to make effective presentations when the audience may be fully virtual or a combination of in person and remote attendees.

Whether you’re making a standup presentation to a large live audience, or a sit-down one-on-one, whether you’re delivering your presentation face to face or virtually, solid presentation skills matter.

Even the most seasoned and accomplished presenters may need to fine-tune or update their skills. Expectations have changed over the last decade or so. Yesterday’s PowerPoint which primarily relied on bulleted points, broken up by the occasional clip-art image, won’t cut it with today’s audience.

The digital revolution has revolutionized the way people want to receive information. People expect presentations that are more visually interesting. They expect to see data, metrics that support assertions. And now, with so many previously in-person meetings occurring virtually, there’s an entirely new level of technical preparedness required.

The leadership development tools and the individual learning opportunities you’re providing should include presentation skills training that covers both the evergreen fundamentals and the up-to-date capabilities that can make or break a presentation.

So, just what should be included in solid presentation skills training? Here’s what I think.

The fundamentals will always apply When it comes to making a powerful and effective presentation, the fundamentals will always apply. You need to understand your objective. Is it strictly to convey information, so that your audience’s knowledge is increased? Is it to persuade your audience to take some action? Is it to convince people to support your idea? Once you understand what your objective is, you need to define your central message. There may be a lot of things you want to share with your audience during your presentation, but find – and stick with – the core, the most important point you want them to walk away with. And make sure that your message is clear and compelling.

You also need to tailor your presentation to your audience. Who are they and what might they be expecting? Say you’re giving a product pitch to a client. A technical team may be interested in a lot of nitty-gritty product detail. The business side will no doubt be more interested in what returns they can expect on their investment.

Another consideration is the setting: is this a formal presentation to a large audience with questions reserved for the end, or a presentation in a smaller setting where there’s the possibility for conversation throughout? Is your presentation virtual or in-person? To be delivered individually or as a group? What time of the day will you be speaking? Will there be others speaking before you and might that impact how your message will be received?

Once these fundamentals are established, you’re in building mode. What are the specific points you want to share that will help you best meet your objective and get across your core message? Now figure out how to convey those points in the clearest, most straightforward, and succinct way. This doesn’t mean that your presentation has to be a series of clipped bullet points. No one wants to sit through a presentation in which the presenter reads through what’s on the slide. You can get your points across using stories, fact, diagrams, videos, props, and other types of media.

Visual design matters While you don’t want to clutter up your presentation with too many visual elements that don’t serve your objective and can be distracting, using a variety of visual formats to convey your core message will make your presentation more memorable than slides filled with text. A couple of tips: avoid images that are cliched and overdone. Be careful not to mix up too many different types of images. If you’re using photos, stick with photos. If you’re using drawn images, keep the style consistent. When data are presented, stay consistent with colors and fonts from one type of chart to the next. Keep things clear and simple, using data to support key points without overwhelming your audience with too much information. And don’t assume that your audience is composed of statisticians (unless, of course, it is).

When presenting qualitative data, brief videos provide a way to engage your audience and create emotional connection and impact. Word clouds are another way to get qualitative data across.

Practice makes perfect You’ve pulled together a perfect presentation. But it likely won’t be perfect unless it’s well delivered. So don’t forget to practice your presentation ahead of time. Pro tip: record yourself as you practice out loud. This will force you to think through what you’re going to say for each element of your presentation. And watching your recording will help you identify your mistakes—such as fidgeting, using too many fillers (such as “umm,” or “like”), or speaking too fast.

A key element of your preparation should involve anticipating any technical difficulties. If you’ve embedded videos, make sure they work. If you’re presenting virtually, make sure that the lighting is good, and that your speaker and camera are working. Whether presenting in person or virtually, get there early enough to work out any technical glitches before your presentation is scheduled to begin. Few things are a bigger audience turn-off than sitting there watching the presenter struggle with the delivery mechanisms!

Finally, be kind to yourself. Despite thorough preparation and practice, sometimes, things go wrong, and you need to recover in the moment, adapt, and carry on. It’s unlikely that you’ll have caused any lasting damage and the important thing is to learn from your experience, so your next presentation is stronger.

How are you providing presentation skills training for your learners?

Manika Gandhi is Senior Learning Design Manager at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. Email her at [email protected] .

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Job Success  - Building an Effective Business Presentation

Job success  -, building an effective business presentation, job success building an effective business presentation.

Job Success: Building an Effective Business Presentation

Lesson 7: building an effective business presentation.

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Building an effective business presentation

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to...

• Explore reasons for giving a business presentation
• Prepare a business presentation
• Recognize tips for delivering an effective business presentation

If you work in a business or corporate setting, you may be called upon to speak publicly for a variety of reasons. Possible reasons include...

• Being asked to give a report or presentation during a meeting
• Being asked to share your knowledge or expertise on a given topic
• Being asked to teach a new skill (a systems administrator might be asked to teach coworkers how to use a new email client)
• Being asked to give an informative presentation in order to draw newcomers to an activity, group, or program with which you are involved

Determining your purpose

When giving a business presentation, chances are you already know your topic. To prepare, you just have to determine your purpose of presenting that topic to others. In doing so, you'll focus on what exactly you want to say.

To determine your purpose, consider the following:

• Audience . To whom are you presenting? What are the audience's special interests and concerns? Which part is most interesting or significant to the audience? How will they react to your topic? Are there any special or technical terms that should be defined?
• Order of importance . What aspects of your topic are most important or most serious? Choose three or four main points.
• Time . What can be most easily explained or discussed in the time or space allotted?
• Purpose . What do you want the audience to know, understand, believe, or do when you are finished? The answer to this question should be clearly written and should focus on your three to four main points. The sentence below will serve as your purpose statement.

Sample purpose statement : "By the end of my presentation on _________________, I want my audience to know/understand/believe/do _____________________, ______________________, and _____________________."

Researching and organizing your presentation

The next step is to thoroughly research each point so you can find evidence to support your statement. Remember, providing supportive evidence lends to the overall credibility of your presentation.

To begin your research, check out:

• Credible online resources
• Encyclopedias
• Expert interviews

Look for facts , figures , statistics , and definitions . Consider using expert testimony, quotations, personal stories, and humor that will communicate your purpose. You may find it necessary to rewrite your purpose statement if you have discovered new things about your topic.

There are several ways to organize your presentation:

• Topical . This is best when there are several ideas to present and one idea seems to naturally precede the other. It is a common pattern used for informative and entertaining presentations.
• Chronological . This is best when you want to organize your points using a time sequence. It is a common pattern in informative and persuasive presentations, both of which require background information.
• Problem/Solution . This is best for persuasive presentations. The first part of a presentation details a problem, while the second part presents a solution.
• Cause/Effect . This is best for persuasive presentations. The first part describes the cause of a problem, while the second part describes its effect.

Planning your presentation

Visual tools such as outlines or concept maps can help you see the overall structure of a topic and how the main points are linked.

Your outline/concert map should include:

• A purpose statement
• An introduction
• Each of the main points you intend to address
• Any subpoints or issues
• Evidence to support each point or argument
• A conclusion
• Any questions you would ask or anticipate from the audience

To learn more about outlines, visit the Purdue University Online Writing Lab .

To learn more about concept maps, visit Mind Tool's Mind Maps: A Powerful Approach to Note-Taking .

Practicing your presentation

Consider using charts, graphs, maps, images, pictures, handouts, video, and music to enhance your presentation. You might use a microphone, chalkboard, whiteboard, overhead projector, slide projector, laptop, presentation software, or other equipment or materials to help get your point across.

Visit our PowerPoint tutorials to learn more about Microsoft's powerful presentation software.

When using presentational aids , make sure you know how to use them. Practice setting them up and operating them to get an idea of the time it will take. The more you practice, the more confident and polished your presentation will become. There are several ways to improve your presentation:

• When you practice, use your notes until you are comfortable without them. Your delivery should be natural. Remember, you're talking to the audience, not reading your notes.
• To become aware of your gestures, vocal pitch, facial expressions, and general delivery, video yourself giving the presentation. If you don't have access to such equipment, use a tape recorder or practice in front of a mirror.
• Ask others to listen to you give your presentation. When finished, ask for constructive feedback.

Giving your presentation: Last-minute tips

• Visualize yourself giving the presentation.
• Realize that the audience wants you to succeed.
• Turn your nervousness into positive energy.
• Talk rather than read. Avoid rote memorization.
• Speak at a volume appropriate to the room and size of the audience. Your voice should be heard in the back of the room.
• Vary the pitch of your voice.
• Stand up rather than sit.
• Make eye contact.
• Make sure any aid you use can be clearly heard and seen by the entire audience.
• Focus on main arguments.
• Don't remain behind the podium. Move around occasionally, but don't pace.
• Smile and gesture when appropriate.
• Maintain energy and enthusiasm throughout the presentation.
• Finish your talk within the time limit.
• Summarize your talk both at the beginning and at the end.
• Respond to audience needs, such as adjusting the temperature or providing extra handouts.
• Be flexible, but stay focused.
• Respond to questions.
• Give the audience an opportunity to critique your presentation by supplying them with a short, anonymous evaluation form.

Technical tips

• Back up all files.
• Don't give an important presentation without on-site technical support.
• Assume that your technical equipment will fail, and have a backup plan.
• Beware of connecting to the Internet during your presentation. You never know when your connection may fail.
• Toastmasters International : Toastmasters International is an organization that focuses on improving oral presentation and communication skills. There are Toastmasters clubs throughout the world. Members meet to practice their presentation skills.

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How to Win More Business: 5 Pitching & Presentation Tips for 2024

When it comes to enhancing your business, pitching and presentations can play a big part. Connecting with your audience is important, and easier than you might think.

Good presentation design is key to selling the right idea or story to your customers, and could be the difference between landing a new client—or satisfying existing ones—and putting off potential customers.

So how do you deliver a good presentation? Don’t fret, these pitching and presentation tips for 2024 will help win more business and do some of the leg work for you.

1. Level Up Your Presentation Design

It’s important to keep your finger on the pulse of presentation design trends . Trends are key to keeping your business relevant and connecting with your audience. Minimalist design has become a popular choice for many brands in their marketing and advertising. Presentation design trends have followed suit, with many adopting a more simplistic approach to pitching.

This presentation style is a show of confidence for any business, proving that less is more. It’s perfect for guiding an audience's attention while delivering a clear and concise message.

Source: Envato Elements

Similarly, simple and muted pastels have moved to the forefront of design. Pastels are diluted primary and secondary colors that have an understated yet powerful effect. The calming and soothing tones relax the viewer, declutter, and keep designs fresh. Incorporating pastels will leave your audience feeling warm and fuzzy, and establish a better emotional connection.

If you really want a design that catches your audience’s eye, why not consider 3D design in your presentation? This design trend can really bring your ideas to life. Rendering 3D images sounds more complicated than it is—Envato Elements has plenty of free tools available to build show-stopping 3D images and text!

2. Think About Data Visualization

Put simply—data visualization is the visual representation of data. It works by providing clients with accessible and engaging information, quickly. Most of us are familiar with charts; bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, and venn diagrams to name a few. These are all effective ways of representing information and figures visually.

Never underestimate just how impressive they can look on your screen. Data visualization is a powerful tool at any pitch or presenter's disposal—considering that, statistically, people process visual information much faster and are more likely to trust numerical figures.

As a data-driven society, there are a plethora of ways to represent your information aesthetically. Choosing the right one really depends on the data and your audience. Column, bar, and line charts will visualize the distribution of information, showcasing outliers and range.

If you need to compare values — pie, column or mekko charts are a strong choice. Bubble charts or scatter plots are great for showing value between data, and how the variables affect one another. Whichever you choose, the goal is to clarify complicated information and make it easily digestible for your audience.

The humble pie chart will never go out of fashion, but there is always room for more creative ways to display data—without overdoing it of course. Basic data visualization designs are trending, with simple infographics and charts the preferred choice.

Video infographics are also becoming a popular way to display data, as they’re fun, quick and captivating. Plus a recent study found 67 percent of people preferred learning new information this way. There’s no doubt about it—condensing your data into concise and compact visuals is key to creating an impactful pitch .

3. Tell a Story

Incredible presentation design can only take you so far—you also need a great story to tell. Using visual elements like animation can help immerse viewers and bring your presentation to life on the screen.

As a narrator, it’s also important to know when to pause or direct attention to what is being shown on the screen. Aligning your visual cues with verbal ones is essential for crafting an engaging sales presentation .

Consider what kind of story you're going to tell. Figuring out a structure is common practice in good presentation and pitching. Will it be a hero's journey? A story about overcoming obstacles to gain knowledge?

Demonstrating the success of a product and establishing credibility? No matter what story you tell, it’s vital to offer viable solutions to a problem, and leave the audience feeling empowered with a sense of urgency .

Deciding which story fits comes down to each individual audience and pitch. The best powerpoint presentation tips are straight forward: keep it simple, genuine and succinct. Don’t shy away from emotion—if you believe in your presentation enough, the audience will follow suit.

4. Get to the Point (Quickly)

Your pitch should work like an ergonomic office chair —it should be comfortable and purpose built. Your presentation needs to hook your audience from the onset, then keep them there.

Getting to the point quickly definitely helps to keep your audience's attention. Your pitch should have a clear beginning, middle and end; staying on track reduces the risk of hiccups, a bored audience and pre-pitch nerves.

A great tip is to follow a checklist for your presentation. Clearly map out time, pitch points and slide transitions. This will help you to organize your ideas and engage your audience. Make sure to include your goals, the audience you are speaking to, as well as each speaking point.

Leave time for consideration and don’t over-word your slides or cue cards—keep them short and pithy. If you start to lose your point, remember to take a breath. Delivering a good presentation takes practice, and knowing your pitch back to front is key.

For more presentation tips visit Effective Sales Presentations: 11 Tips to Win Deals + Templates , and get pitching like a pro.

5. Use Tools and Templates

Long gone are the days where PowerPoint 3.0 was the only resource available to create presentations. In fact, with the help of presentation templates , you no longer even have to even create them from scratch!

Keynote, Google Slides and PowerPoint all offer easy-to-use templates—it really just depends on your budget, style and operating system.

PowerPoint is the original presentation software, and has years of user support to go with it. It’s easy to navigate and integrated with Microsoft Office Suite online, plus it has traditionally offline capabilities. Its online integration is still behind other software, so collaboration and saving presentations in real time isn’t seamless yet.

Keynote is designed for and by Apple, so it’s great if you are already using that particular operating system. It works on Mac, iPads and iPods, can sync to iCloud, and be shared across multiple devices at once. The design is sleek and easy to use, and it can be exported as a PowerPoint presentation. The downside is that it’s designed strictly for Mac—no PCs allowed.

Google Slides are an innovative and integrated presentation software system. It’s all operated online, so files are saved and shared in real time. It’s a seamless experience for users and built for ease of use. Collaboration is made easy through Google Slides, plus—it’s free! The catch is that users have to sign up with a Gmail account.

When sending presentations to your investors, you can spice things up with an interactive kick. Interactive PDF documents can be far more engaging when you, the presenter, are not around.

Whichever system you choose, remember to apply these top 5 tips of 2024 to build business and lift your presentation game. Don’t panic, you'll do great!

Need some help crafting a killer sales presentation? These examples will show you how it's done.

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Home Blog Business Guide to Crafting an Effective Strategy Presentation

Guide to Crafting an Effective Strategy Presentation

Presenting and communicating your strategies to align a team’s effort remains one of management’s priority tasks. Regardless of the company’s scale, strategic presentations help convey complex strategic plans into clear and actionable tasks to follow in accordance with the business goals.

In this guide, we will show you how to effectively create a strategic presentation, the elements it should list, and some recommendations for PowerPoint templates to speed up this process.

Table of Contents

• What is a Strategy Presentation?

Types of Strategy Presentations

• How to Structure a Strategy Presentation

Do and Don’ts of Strategy Presentations

Recommended powerpoint templates for strategy presentations, key takeaways, what is a strategy presentation.

A strategy presentation is a communication tool designed to communicate goals, strategic plans or pre-formulated strategies, and initiatives to stakeholders. The strategy presentation slide deck aims to outline the company’s vision, strategic goals, and the specific actions needed to achieve them. To accomplish that, strategy presentation slides typically introduce a mixture of visual aids with relevant data to maximize the retention rate across the audience.

We can define the following categories for strategy presentations.

Strategic Plan Presentations

Strategic plan presentations are intended to communicate the organization’s long-term goals and the strategies to achieve them to stakeholders. This kind of presentation may cover topics such as market analysis, strategic objectives, and detailed action plans. 

The primary purpose is to align the team and stakeholders around a shared vision and ensure everyone understands the steps necessary to drive the organization toward its strategic goals.

Sales Strategy Presentations

Sales strategy presentations are targeted toward increasing the sales revenue inside an organization within a specific time frame. These presentations detail the tactics, target markets, and objectives involved in boosting sales performance. They typically include an analysis of market trends, competitive positioning, and specific sales goals – elements we can find in a sales plan presentation . 

The core objective in sales strategy presentations is for team members to understand their role in executing the sales strategy and how to measure the impact of their actions.

Marketing Strategy Presentations

Marketing strategy presentations are instances in which the marketing plan presentation is communicated to the team and stakeholders. These presentations outline the methods and channels the company will use to reach its target audience and achieve marketing objectives. We can find details on market research, customer segmentation, positioning strategies, and planned marketing campaigns.

Think of a marketing strategy presentation as a roadmap for how marketing efforts can contribute to the overall business goals. It ensures clarity on task execution, expected outcomes, and resource allocation.

Business Model Strategy Presentations

Business model strategy presentations outline the fundamental structures and mechanisms through which a company creates, delivers and captures value. These presentations explain the business model components, such as revenue streams, cost structures, customer segments, value propositions, and key partnerships. 

The objective is to articulate how the company operates within its market and competitive environment, detailing strategies for sustainability and growth.

Product Development Strategy Presentations

Product development strategy presentations focus on the stages and processes required to design, create, and launch a new product. These presentations typically cover the product concept, design iterations, market research, target customer analysis, production processes, and marketing strategies. They aim to align cross-functional teams—such as R&D, marketing, and production—on the product’s vision, features, and roadmap.

IT Strategy Presentations

IT strategy presentations communicate an organization’s technology-related plans and objectives. They outline how IT resources, infrastructure, and initiatives align with the broader business strategy to enhance operational efficiency, support growth, and mitigate risks. Key topics typically include adopting new technologies, cybersecurity measures, data management strategies, and IT governance.

Change Management Strategy Presentations

Change management strategy presentations are typically used in organization restructuring scenarios – after mergers, acquisitions, or significant internal restructuring – outlining the approach and plans for managing organizational changes. Change Management Strategy presentations detail the reasons for change, the specific changes to be implemented, the strategies for managing the transition, and the impact on stakeholders. Key elements often include stakeholder analysis, communication plans , training programs , and mechanisms for feedback. 

The primary goal of Change Management Strategy slide decks is to facilitate a smooth transition by preparing the organization and its members for change, minimizing resistance, and ensuring that changes are effectively integrated into the organization to achieve desired outcomes and improve overall performance.

How to Structure an Effective Strategy Presentation

In our experience, here’s a suggested presentation structure format for a strategic presentation.

The Introduction

Begin your presentation with a relevant hook for the topic you are approaching (see our guide on How to Start a Presentation for tips). Use an agenda slide to introduce the key themes and strategic objectives to discuss. Additionally, consider incorporating an executive summary to provide a concise overview of the strategy, highlighting key decisions and expected outcomes.

Body of the Presentation

Depending on the kind of strategic presentation you deliver and the tools and slides required to design it. As a general guide, consider this approach per category:

• Strategic Plan Presentations: Strategic planning requires vision and mission statements, strategic goals , market analysis, SWOT analysis , action plans, and a timeline for accomplishing them.
• Sales Strategy Presentations: We need to showcase sales objectives, target market analysis, sales methods and tactics, performance metrics, and sales forecasts.
• Marketing Strategy Presentations: For this category, consider listing the marketing goals, customer segmentation, value proposition, marketing channels, budget, and timeline.
• Business Model Strategy Presentations: This can be done as part of a business plan presentation . Include the business model canvas, revenue streams, value propositions, key partnerships, and customer relationships.
• Product Development Strategy Presentations: Since we’re considering an entire product development plan, be sure to list the product concept, design and development process, market research, product roadmap, and the Go-to-market strategy .
• IT Strategy Presentations: This selection is mainly intended for organizations looking to renew their IT strategy. List the IT objectives, technology roadmap, infrastructure needs, cybersecurity strategy, IT budget, and resource allocation.
• Change Management Strategy Presentations : In this case, be clear about the core reason behind the change management. Include the change management plan, stakeholder analysis, communication strategy, training, and support plans.

The Conclusion

Concluding a strategy presentation effectively is crucial for reinforcing the key messages and ensuring that the audience leaves with a clear understanding of the strategic objectives and their role in achieving them. To achieve this, consider the following steps:

• Summarize Key Points: Summarize the business presentation , briefly recap the main strategic goals and necessary actions, reinforcing the session’s core messages.
• Closing Statement: End with a compelling statement or call to action that encapsulates the presentation’s vision, motivating your audience.
• Multimedia Element: Optionally, use a short impactful video or visual to vividly summarize the strategy, enhancing retention.
• Q&A Session: Allocate 3-5 minutes for questions to clarify uncertainties and engage the audience further.
• Follow-Up Details: Provide information on how attendees can access more resources or ask additional questions.
• Express Gratitude: Conclude by thanking your audience for their participation, emphasizing their importance to the strategy’s success.

Aside from these tips, we can also follow the recommendations from our article explaining how to end a presentation , which also recommends using a media presentation asset, like videos, although it’s advisable to leave 3-5 minutes for a question and answer session.

Follow these insights to improve the quality and impact of your strategy presentations.

Do(s) of Strategy Presentations

• Use visual aids to summarize concepts. 
• Prepare handouts so the audience can further reference the information you deliver.
• Tailor your presentation to include interactive presentation instances, as they can help to engage the audience in the importance of their role.
• Consider a follow-up after a week. This can be in email format, with a poll, or a brief meeting in which you can evacuate doubts.

Don’t(s) of Strategy Presentations

• Respect your audience’s time, and don’t go overboard, especially if this involves sacrificing the Q&A session.
• Don’t use outdated data. Ensure all your statistics and references are current and relevant.
• Avoid using industry-specific terms without explaining them, unless you are sure that your audience will understand.

To speed up your strategy presentation design process, here’s a list of recommended PowerPoint templates and Google Slides templates by SlideModel.

1. Brand Strategy PowerPoint Template

This brand strategy template for presentations includes striking visuals and cohesive color scheme. Whether you’re presenting a brand strategy presentation to stakeholders or team members, this brand strategy PPT template empowers you to convey the essence of your brand strategy with clarity and impact. Use the brand strategy PowerPoint template to guide your audience through your brand’s journey and strategic milestones.

Use This Template

2. Goals Based Strategic Planning PowerPoint Templates

With a goal-oriented approach, the goal-based strategic planning PPT template emphasizes setting measurable objectives to transform visions into actionable results. This strategy presentation template provides a forward-looking framework, where goals are established from a future vantage point and brought to life through detailed KPIs, such as revenue targets and profit margins.

The Goal-based strategic planning template contains 15 customizable slides, including GAP analyses, problem statements, and strategic action plans, complete with a 30-60-90 day timeline.

3. Sustainability Strategy PowerPoint Template

4. Communication Strategy PowerPoint Template

5. Go-To-Market PowerPoint Template

Frequently Asked Questions

To make a strategy presentation more engaging, use interactive elements like polls or Q&A sessions, incorporate storytelling to contextualize data, and use visual aids and animations to highlight key points.

The ideal length of a strategy presentation varies based on content and audience, but generally, it should not exceed 30 minutes. This duration helps maintain audience attention while leaving time for discussions and Q&A session .

Strategy presentations should be updated regularly, at least annually or as major changes occur within the organization or industry. Regular updates ensure that the content remains relevant and reflects current goals and strategies.

To engage senior executives, focus on summarizing strategic impacts, ROI, and alignment with overarching business goals . Keep the presentation concise, data-driven, and directly related to decision-making and organizational growth.

Providing handouts can be very beneficial, especially for complex presentations. Handouts allow attendees to revisit the content at their own pace, which can aid in better understanding and retention.

• Clarify Goals and Objectives: Strategy presentations are essential for communicating clear, actionable goals and strategic plans to stakeholders.
• Incorporate Visuals Aids: Incorporating visual slides with charts, graphs, and infographics can greatly enhance understanding and retention of complex information.
• Adapt Presentation to Audience: Tailoring the presentation to the audience’s knowledge level and interest ensures greater engagement and comprehension.
• Use of Templates: Employing professional strategy PowerPoint or Google Slides templates can streamline the creation process and ensure a consistent, professional appearance.
• Engagement and Interaction: Incorporating interactive elements and engaging visuals helps maintain audience interest and facilitates better understanding of their roles in strategy implementation.
• Continuous Update and Feedback: Regular updates and follow-ups help keep the strategy aligned with organizational goals and stakeholder expectations.

Final Words

A well-prepared strategy presentation is a powerful tool for communicating an organization’s objectives. Presenters should focus on leveraging their graphical assets so the text inside slides is reduced to the minimum—content that can be shared in handouts for presentation format—which guarantees a smooth experience for the audience.

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Presentation Approaches, Strategy Filed under Business

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5 Strategies for Improving Mental Health at Work

• Morra Aarons-Mele

Benefits and conversations around mental health evolved during the pandemic. Workplace cultures are starting to catch up.

Companies are investing in — and talking about — mental health more often these days. But employees aren’t reporting a corresponding rise in well-being. Why? The author, who wrote a book on mental health and work last year, explores several key ways organizations haven’t gone far enough in implementing a culture of well-being. She also makes five key suggestions on what they can do to improve the mental health of their employees.

“I have never felt so seen.”

• Morra Aarons-Mele is a workplace mental health consultant and author of  The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears Into Your Leadership Superpower (Harvard Business Review Press, 2023). She has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, O the Oprah Magazine, TED, among others, and is the host of the Anxious Achiever podcast from LinkedIn Presents. morraam

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