presentation aim

Plan a Presentation for Success – 8 steps

September 03, 2023

Too many people, when they hear the word presentation, reach for their computer and switch to PowerPoint. That’s because they feel they are making progress by making slides. They pull information together, they lay out slides and admire their handiwork. Only then do they try to tell a story.

This is not the right way to plan a presentation..

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” Alexander Graham Bell

What to do instead: Plan a presentation using a story, a script and a plan

The process for presentation planning should be more like that of movie making. When you make a movie you only start filming at the end of the planning process. Before filming you have a story, a script and a plan.  It should be the same when you plan a presentation.

The better you plan a presentation, the easier it is to be successful. At first, it may feel frustrating that you are not writing slides. You may spent hours staring into space or doing research. But investing in proper planning will pay back many times over.

In the end by planning your presentation properly you will spend less time writing PowerPoint slides. You will spend less time editing and you will spend less time searching for a way to link the sections of your presentation together. You’ll also discover that practising and rehearsing is easier.

“There are three things that are important for a film. Number one is story, number two is story, number three is story. Good actors can save a bad script and make it bearable, but good actors can’t make a bad script good – they can just make it bearable.” Mark Strickson, TV producer & actor

Your 8 Step Presentation Plan

Let’s explore each of these presentation planning steps, one by one.

1. Start by using the AIM approach in your presentation plan

What is the first step in planning a presentation? AIM is an easy-to-apply first step so that your presentations are easier to prepare.

What typically goes wrong. Most people create presentations without proper planning. They start writing slides before they have decided what they really want to say.

Why is it important to plan a presentation?  Without an effective presentation plan you waste time and energy.   

What to do instead. Use AIM. Start with a blank sheet of paper and write the three letters A.I.M. across the top. In each of these columns start writing what you know about A: Audience , I: Your intent , (or Purpose) and M: your take-away Message .

See the next three paragraphs for more detail on A, I and M.

“Proper planning prevents poor performance” James Baker, former US Secretary of State

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2. Presentation planning : Who’s your audience and what do they need?

Shortcut Summary : Your audience, not you, should be centre of attention in your presentation. The better you understand your audience, the better your talk will be.

What typically goes wrong : When people give presentations about their latest project, they talk about their latest project. If they are reporting quarterly results, they report quarterly results. If they are speaking about their new business, they tell the audience about their new business. If explaining a new piece of regulation, they talk about elements of that regulation.

The problem with this approach is you are not including your audience in your talk. And if you don’t include your audience, your audience will be disengaged.

Why does this matter?  Audiences are selfish. They like being talked about.

What to do instead. Your talk should be about what your subject means for the audience. For example these are good titles for a presentation:

• “What you can learn from our latest project.”
• “Our quarterly results and what they mean for your department next quarter.”
• “How our new business can make you money.”
• “What the new regulations mean for you and your clients”

To do this, you must understand your audience. That means asking questions about them and getting under their skin. For example, some questions you may have could include:

ABOUT BACKGROUND

• Who is coming to this talk?
• What common reference points can I use?
• What experiences have they shared?

ABOUT MOTIVATION

• Why are they coming?
• What problems do they have?
• What do they need and want?
• What will make life easy for them?

ABOUT EXPECTATIONS

• What would they like me to talk about?
• What would victory feel like for them?
• What will make them sit up?

ABOUT CONNECTING

• What can I say that will show them I am on their side?
• What stories will resonate?
• How can I add value?

ABOUT EMOTIONAL POSITION

• What frame of mind will they be in?
• What should I avoid talking about?
• What will make them feel good?
• What can I say at the start to win them over?

ABOUT MAKING IT EASY FOR THEM

• What specific language should I use?
• How should I position what I am talking about for this audience?
• What phrases will resonate?

The more you learn about your audience, the better you know them and the better you can plan your talk for them.

“Designing a presentation without an audience in mind is like writing a love letter and addressing it: To Whom It May Concern.” Ken Haemer, presentation designe r

• Before any talk, analyse the audience.
• Research them.
• Make sure you really know them and their needs before you start planning what to say.

3. How to plan a presentation – What are you trying to achieve?

Summary : Decide early the intent or purpose to your talk. This will help you direct your efforts to achieve your goals.

What typically goes wrong : “I’m going to talk about…” is a typical answer to the question “Why are you doing this talk?” But talking about something is of no use to anyone. It is pointless.

For example these are bad intents:

• “I’m talking about our new project”
• “I’m talking about the new regulations”
• “A pitch about our new fund”
• “An introduction to ABCX co”
• “Monthly board report”

Why does this matter? For a talk to work it requires a clear purpose. When you know your purpose you can harness your talk to achieve just that.

What to do instead : Decide your intent. For example, when I asked a Chief Financial Officer recently what was the intent of his presentation, he was clear: he said that he “Wanted to look like the next CEO of this business.” This clear purpose made it easy to help him prepare what he said, how he said it and how he positioned himself.

More examples of a good intent:

• A Lawyer, when giving a talk about new regulations , was clear that she wanted “to help companies use the new regulations to run better, more profitable businesses”.
• An HR director who was introducing a new expense system was clear that her intent was to “get people to use the new system by next month so they can get paid faster and with less effort.’
• A fund manager who was pitching a first time fund to new investors had a clear intent of “getting onto their radar screens and securing a second meeting”
• A company looking for a trade buyer had crystallised their intent into “creating excitement about the potential value of buying this business and demonstrate the risk of others buying it.”
• An accountant at a well known firm had the intent with his monthly board reports to “Get them to recognise the value my team adds.”

Having a clear intent will make it easier for you to plan your presentation. Identifying that intent is also one of the harder parts of planning a talk.

“A talk is a voyage with purpose and it must be charted. The man who starts out going nowhere, generally gets there.” Dale Carnegie

• Be absolutely clear on the intent of your talk.
• Summarise your intent in one line
• Use your intent as your North Star to guide everything you say and how you say it.

4. What’s your one big take-away message?

Summary : Your presentation needs a take-away message . This means one simple message so when someone asks “What was that talk about?” a listener can confidently answer.

What typically goes wrong : Many presentations have titles such as:

• “Quarterly strategy report”
• “Project X”
• “Manufacturing update”
• “Annual results”

These are all topics, not messages

Why does this matter? These titles don’t help the audience. They only tell them something they already know. With a topic title you miss the opportunity of preparing your audience and getting them in the right mindset to be ready for your talk.

What to do instead : Identify a message that summarises your talk that you can use as its title. Keep improving the title until it properly captures what you want to say. For example:

• “Our strategy remains on track”
• “Launching Project X by December could double revenues next year”
• “Manufacturing: three problems we must address”
• “Profits up 5% this year despite Covid headwinds”

Then test your title on other people. Check if it generates the reaction you want.

“If you can’t write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don’t have a clear idea.” David Belasco, theatre producer

Next Steps in planning a presentation

• Decide the title of your talk early.
• Check it generates the reaction you want.
• Use this to build the rest of your talk.
• Re-test your message against A.I.M.

5. How to plan a presentation – What are the three parts of your talk?

Summary : Your brain Is naturally tuned to hearing things in sets of three . If you can break your presentation into three parts then it’s more likely to be a success.

What typically goes wrong : Many presentations are like shopping lists: covering multiple topics and jumping from one idea to the next.

Why does this matter? In the end, a huge amount of information has been transmitted but little has been received.

What to do instead : Less is more in a presentation. Help your audience by giving them a structure. A three part structure is one of the most useful planning shortcuts that you can use.

Once you are completely clear about your intent and your message, start developing a three part structure for your talk. For example, if I wanted to give a talk that shared advice on how to present, I would consider using one of the following structures:

• Mistakes other people make / Tips you can use / How to become a great speaker
• How to define your messages / How to structure your talk / How to deliver your talk
• What bad looks like / what good looks like / what you can do differently

“ In writing and speaking, three is more satisfying than any other number.” Carmine Gallo, author

• Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
• Liberté, égalité, fraternité ;
• A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play;
• Stop, Look and Listen;
• Faster, Higher, Stronger;
• Veni, vidi, vici ;
• “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”
• Find your three part structure early.
• Use the structure to focus your efforts and guide your planning

6 . Presentation planning – What is your story?

Summary: Use a story to underpin your talk. No matter how dry your subject, when you use a story you will make it more memorable and more effective.

What typically goes wrong As an expert, a typical presenter wants to share knowledge.

For example: A few years ago, I helped a lawyer give a talk to investors. This audience consisted of private equity executives who sat on their investee company boards. The subject was the 2006 Companies Act and the Duties and Responsibilities of a Company Director. A dry subject.

In her first draft, she reviewed sections of the Act and highlighted problems that directors may face. For example, “Section 172 of the Act, sets out your overarching duties as a director. You must act in the way you consider, in good faith, would be most likely to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole.”

As you can imagine, it was not the most exciting of talks.

Why does this matter? A precise talk may not be an interesting talk. Your job as a presenter is to make the talk interesting and easy for your audience.

What to do instead Find a story that fits what you want to talk about.

For example, for the investor director talk above, we decided to title the talk “How to keep your nose clean and yourself out of jail” Then the talk was based around a series of situations that anyone in the audience might face. She did not refer to any particular section of the Companies Act at all. Her text was:

“Imagine this situation. You turn up for a board meeting. You are a 10% shareholder and you are a director. At that board meeting the CEO announces that the company is near bankrupt and needs more funding. What should you do? Do you absent yourself, having a connected interest. Or do you declare your interest as a shareholder? Or do you carry as normal assuming business as usual?”

By framing it as a story you involve your audience and you make it easier for them to process what you say.

“Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form.” Jean Luc Godard, film director

• Find stories to tell, narratives to bring your facts to life.
• Tell the story behind the numbers.
• The dryer your subject matter, the more important stories become.

7. How to plan your presentation – Have you asked WHY?

Summary : ‘Why’ comes before ‘What’ comes before ‘How’

What typically goes wrong : When a speaker knows a subject well, it is easy for them to assume knowledge and talk about the nuances of what they know. I often describe this as the ‘How’ of a subject.

For example, when speaking about a new engine you have developed, you might say that you made the pistons more accurately, that you mix petrol more precisely and you have added a new technique of managing engine performance.

Why does this matter? This is one of the most common mistakes that experts make when giving talks. They spend too much time explaining HOW something works, rather than explaining WHAT it is they are talking about and WHY it is important.

What to do instead : “We have designed a more efficient car engine that will get 100 miles to the gallon.”

“Start with Why” Simon Sinek

• Ask yourself “So What?” to everything you say
• Check that you are clear why the audience will be interested.
• Imagine someone in the audience asking “What’s in it for me?” (WIIFM)

8. How to plan a presentation – Can you give a 90 second summary of your presentation?

Summary : The best way to plan your presentation is by speaking a c 100-200 word summary of your presentation. This summary will test the rigour of your thinking, the clarity of your ideas and the robustness of your plan.

What typically goes wrong : The average poor presentation meanders from topic to topic and is more like a data dump than a well organised talk. It is rich in information but poor in story, structure and planning. It will be hard to summarise that talk easily.

Why does this matter? Lack of planning = Lack of story = Hard for your audience.

What to do instead : Create a short summary of your talk to test your thinking

• You can use your summary early in your presentation planning to test your ideas.
• If you are working with colleagues you can share your thinking using your summary.
• If you are planning a presentation for someone else, you can share your summary to test their reaction.
• If someone else is preparing your presentation, you can use a summary to check they are on track.

Creating a summary is one of the most powerful ways to plan a presentation and will save you a huge amount of wasted time.

“If you can’t write your message in a sentence, you can’t say it in an hour.” Dianna Booher, Autho r

Next Steps for Presentation Planning

• Test your ideas with a short summary.
• Use a critical audience.
• If it is not tight enough, keep refining your summary.

Summary – how to plan a presentation for success

Start by planning, not by writing. This may feel counter intuitive, but you’ll make progress faster.

How do you plan a presentation for success? Try these steps:

• Use AIM as the first stage of preparing any talk
• A – Audience: Analyse your audience and understand their needs
• I – Intent: Be clear on the single purpose of your talk.
• M – Message: Decide your one take-away message from your talk
• Decide the three parts of your talk
• Create and perfect a 90 second summary of your talk before fleshing it out
• Answer the WHY questions in your talk before the WHAT or HOW questions.
• Imagine your audience asking So What? and What’s in it for me? throughout.
• Check your talk summary against your Audience, Intent and Message.

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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.

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

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Giving an Academic Presentation in English pp 1–13 Cite as

The key aims of a presentation

• Adrian Wallwork 3  
• First Online: 24 June 2022

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This chapter begins by discussing the role of an academic today. The chapter then answers the following questions. What skills do I need to be an academic and how do these relate to presentation skills? How important are presentation skills? What do you dislike about other people’s presentations? What makes a good presentation? What are your fears of giving presentations (in English)? How important are first impressions? What makes a presentation memorable? How different from a scientific/technical presentation is a presentation given by a humanities/arts student?

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Complete Guide for Effective Presentations, with Examples

July 9, 2018 - Dom Barnard

During a presentation you aim to look confident, enthusiastic and natural. You’ll need more than good words and content to achieve this – your delivery plays a significant part. In this article, we discuss various techniques that can be used to deliver an effective presentation.

Effective presentations

Think about if you were in the audience, what would:

• Get you to focus and listen
• Make you understand
• Activate your imagination
• Persuade you

Providing the audience with interesting information is not enough to achieve these aims – you need to ensure that the way you present is stimulating and engaging. If it’s not, you’ll lose the audience’s interest and they’ll stop listening.

Tips for an Effective Presentation

Professional public speakers spend hours creating and practicing presentations. These are the delivery techniques they consider:

Keep it simple

You shouldn’t overwhelm your audience with information – ensure that you’re clear, concise and that you get to the point so they can understand your message.

Have a maximum of  three main points  and state them at the beginning, before you explain them in more depth, and then state them at the end so the audience will at least remember these points.

If some of your content doesn’t contribute to your key message then cut it out. Also avoid using too many statistics and technical terminology.

Connect with your audience

One of the greatest difficulties when delivering a presentation is connecting with the audience. If you don’t  connect with them  it will seem as though you’re talking to an empty room.

Trying to make contact with the audience makes them feel like they’re part of the presentation which encourages them to listen and it shows that you want to speak to them.

Eye contact and smile

Avoiding eye contact is uncomfortable because it make you look insecure. When you  maintain eye contact  the audience feels like you’re speaking to them personally. If this is something you struggle with, try looking at people’s foreheads as it gives the impression of making eye contact.

Try to cover all sections of the audience and don’t move on to the next person too quickly as you will look nervous.

Smiling also helps with rapport and it reduces your nerves because you’ll feel less like you’re talking to group of faceless people. Make sure you don’t turn the lights down too much before your presentation so you can all clearly see each other.

Body language

Be aware of your body language and use it to connect:

• Keep your arms uncrossed so your  body language is more open .
• Match your facial expressions with what you’re saying.
• Avoid fidgeting and displaying nervous habits, such as, rocking on your feet.
• You may need to glance at the computer slide or a visual aid but make sure you predominantly face the audience.
• Emphasise points by using hand gestures but use them sparingly – too little and they’ll awkwardly sit at your side, too much and you’ll be distracting and look nervous.
• Vary your gestures so you don’t look robotic.
• Maintain a straight posture.
• Be aware of  cultural differences .

Move around

Avoid standing behind the lectern or computer because you need to reduce the distance and barriers between yourself and the audience.  Use movement  to increase the audience’s interest and make it easier to follow your presentation.

A common technique for incorporating movement into your presentation is to:

• Start your introduction by standing in the centre of the stage.
• For your first point you stand on the left side of the stage.
• You discuss your second point from the centre again.
• You stand on the right side of the stage for your third point.
• The conclusion occurs in the centre.

Watch 3 examples of good and bad movement while presenting

Example: Movement while presenting

Your movement at the front of the class and amongst the listeners can help with engagement. Think about which of these three speakers maintains the attention of their audience for longer, and what they are doing differently to each other.

Speak with the audience

You can conduct polls using your audience or ask questions to make them think and feel invested in your presentation. There are three different types of questions:

Direct questions require an answer: “What would you do in this situation?” These are mentally stimulating for the audience. You can pass a microphone around and let the audience come to your desired solution.

Rhetorical questions  do not require answers, they are often used to emphasises an idea or point: “Is the Pope catholic?

Loaded questions contain an unjustified assumption made to prompt the audience into providing a particular answer which you can then correct to support your point: You may ask “Why does your wonderful company have such a low incidence of mental health problems?” The audience will generally answer that they’re happy.

After receiving the answers you could then say “Actually it’s because people are still unwilling and too embarrassed to seek help for mental health issues at work etc.”

Be specific with your language

Make the audience feel as though you are speaking to each member individually by using “you” and “your.”

For example: asking “Do you want to lose weight without feeling hungry?” would be more effective than asking “Does anyone here want to lost weight without feeling hungry?” when delivering your presentation. You can also increase solidarity by using “we”, “us” etc – it makes the audience think “we’re in this together”.

Be flexible

Be prepared to adapt to the situation at the time, for example, if the audience seems bored you can omit details and go through the material faster, if they are confused then you will need to come up with more examples on the spot for clarification. This doesn’t mean that you weren’t prepared because you can’t predict everything.

Vocal variety

How you say something is just as is important as the content of your speech – arguably, more so.

For example, if an individual presented on a topic very enthusiastically the audience would probably enjoy this compared to someone who covered more points but mumbled into their notes.

• Adapt your voice  depending on what are you’re saying – if you want to highlight something then raise your voice or lower it for intensity. Communicate emotion by using your voice.
• Avoid speaking in monotone as you will look uninterested and the audience will lose interest.
• Take time to pronounce every word carefully.
• Raise your pitch when asking questions and lower it when you want to sound severe.
• Sound enthusiastic – the more you sound like you care about the topic, the more the audience will listen. Smiling and pace can help with this.
• Speak loudly and clearly – think about projecting your voice to the back of the room.
• Speak at a  pace that’s easy to follow . If you’re too fast or too slow it will be difficult for the audience to understand what you’re saying and it’s also frustrating. Subtly fasten the pace to show enthusiasm and slow down for emphasis, thoughtfulness or caution.

Prior to the presentation, ensure that you  prepare your vocal chords :

• You could read aloud a book that requires vocal variety, such as, a children’s book.
• Avoid dairy and eating or drinking anything too sugary beforehand as mucus can build-up leading to frequent throat clearing.
• Don’t drink anything too cold before you present as this can constrict your throat which affects vocal quality.
• Some people suggest a warm cup of tea beforehand to relax the throat.

Practice Presentation Skills

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Pause to breathe

When you’re anxious your breathing will become quick and shallow which will affect the control you have on your voice. This can consequently make you feel more nervous. You want to breathe steadily and deeply so before you start speaking take some deep breaths or implement controlled breathing.

Controlled breathing is a common technique that helps slow down your breathing to normal thus reducing your anxiety. If you think this may be useful practice with these steps:

• Sit down in an upright position as it easier for your lungs to fill with air
• Breathe in through your nose and into your abdomen for four seconds
• Hold this breathe for two seconds
• Breathe out through your nose for six seconds
• Wait a few seconds before inhaling and repeating the cycle

It takes practice to master this technique but once you get used to it you may want to implement it directly before your presentation.

Completely filling your lungs during a pause will ensure you reach a greater vocal range.

During the presentation delivery, if you notice that you’re speaking too quickly then pause and breathe. This won’t look strange – it will appear as though you’re giving thought to what you’re saying. You can also strategically plan some of your pauses, such as after questions and at the end of sections, because this will give you a chance to calm down and it will also give the audience an opportunity to think and reflect.

Pausing will also help you  avoid filler words , such as, “um” as well which can make you sound unsure.

• 10 Effective Ways to use Pauses in your Speech

Strong opening

The first five minutes are  vital to engage the audience  and get them listening to you. You could start with a story to highlight why your topic is significant.

For example, if the topic is on the benefits of pets on physical and psychological health, you could present a story or a study about an individual whose quality of life significantly improved after being given a dog. The audience is more likely to respond better to this and remember this story than a list of facts.

Example: Which presentation intro keeps you engaged?

Watch 5 different presentation introductions, from both virtual and in-person events. Notice how it can only take a few seconds to decide if you want to keep listening or switch off. For the good introductions, what about them keeps you engaged?

More experienced and confident public speakers use humour in their presentations. The audience will be incredibly engaged if you make them laugh but caution must be exercised when using humour because a joke can be misinterpreted and even offend the audience.

Only use jokes if you’re confident with this technique, it has been successful in the past and it’s suitable for the situation.

Stories and anecdotes

Use stories whenever you can and judge whether you can tell a story about yourself because the audience are even more interested in seeing the human side of you.

Consider telling a story about a mistake you made, for example, perhaps you froze up during an important presentation when you were 25, or maybe life wasn’t going well for you in the past – if relevant to your presentation’s aim. People will relate to this as we have all experienced mistakes and failures. The more the audience relates to you, the more likely they will remain engaged.

These stories can also be  told in a humorous way  if it makes you feel more comfortable and because you’re disclosing a personal story there is less chance of misinterpretation compared to telling a joke.

Anecdotes are especially valuable for your introduction and between different sections of the presentation because they engage the audience. Ensure that you plan the stories thoroughly beforehand and that they are not too long.

Focus on the audience’s needs

Even though your aim is to persuade the audience, they must also get something helpful from the presentation. Provide the audience with value by giving them useful information, tactics, tips etc. They’re more likely to warm to you and trust you if you’re sharing valuable information with them.

You could also highlight their pain point. For example, you might ask “Have you found it difficult to stick to a healthy diet?” The audience will now want to remain engaged because they want to know the solution and the opportunities that you’re offering.

Use visual aids

Visual aids are items of a visual manner, such as graphs, photographs, video clips etc used in addition to spoken information. Visual aids are chosen depending on their purpose, for example, you may want to:

• Summarise information.
• Reduce the amount of spoken words, for example, you may show a graph of your results rather than reading them out.
• Clarify and show examples.
• Create more of an impact. You must consider what type of impact you want to make beforehand – do you want the audience to be sad, happy, angry etc?
• Emphasise what you’re saying.
• Make a point memorable.
• Enhance your credibility.
• Engage the audience and maintain their interest.
• Make something easier for the audience to understand.

Some general tips for  using visual aids :

• Think about how can a visual aid can support your message. What do you want the audience to do?
• Ensure that your visual aid follows what you’re saying or this will confuse the audience.
• Avoid cluttering the image as it may look messy and unclear.
• Visual aids must be clear, concise and of a high quality.
• Keep the style consistent, such as, the same font, colours, positions etc
• Use graphs and charts to present data.
• The audience should not be trying to read and listen at the same time – use visual aids to highlight your points.
• One message per visual aid, for example, on a slide there should only be one key point.
• Use visual aids in moderation – they are additions meant to emphasise and support main points.
• Ensure that your presentation still works without your visual aids in case of technical problems.

10-20-30 slideshow rule

Slideshows are widely used for presentations because it’s easy to create attractive and professional presentations using them. Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur and author, suggests that slideshows should  follow a 10-20-30 rule :

• There should be a maximum of 10 slides – people rarely remember more than one concept afterwards so there’s no point overwhelming them with unnecessary information.
• The presentation should last no longer than 20 minutes as this will leave time for questions and discussion.
• The font size should be a minimum of 30pt because the audience reads faster than you talk so less information on the slides means that there is less chance of the audience being distracted.

If you want to give the audience more information you can provide them with partially completed handouts or give them the handouts after you’ve delivered the presentation.

Keep a drink nearby

Have something to drink when you’re on stage, preferably water at room temperature. This will help maintain your vocal quality and having a sip is a subtle way of introducing pauses.

Practice, practice, practice

If you are very familiar with the content of your presentation, your audience will perceive you as confident and you’ll be more persuasive.

• Don’t just read the presentation through – practice everything,  including your transitions  and using your visual aids.
• Stand up and speak it aloud, in an engaging manner, as though you were presenting to an audience.
• Ensure that you practice your body language and gesturing.
• Use VR to  practice in a realistic environment .
• Practice in front of others and get their feedback.
• Freely improvise so you’ll sound more natural on the day. Don’t learn your presentation verbatim because you will sound uninterested and if you lose focus then you may forget everything.
• Create cards to use as cues – one card should be used for one key idea. Write down brief notes or key words and ensure that the cards are physically connected so the order cannot be lost. Visual prompts can also be used as cues.

This video shows how you can practice presentations in virtual reality. See our  VR training courses .

Two courses where you can practice your presentations in interactive exercises:

• Essential Public Speaking
• How to Present over Video

Try these different presentation delivery methods to see which ones you prefer and which need to be improved. The most important factor is to feel comfortable during the presentation as the delivery is likely to be better.

Remember that the audience are generally on your side – they want you to do well so present with confidence.