Influential tips for effective PowerPoint presentation

Most of us might have experienced the pain of a bad presentation. 

As it is very essential to make it attractive that should not bore the viewers, who are watching your presentation this may not happen for the one, where you look at your watch every minute, hide your yawning, and wonder how long it will take before you lose your mind looking at a big screen with number of bullet-points of which you have no clue what are those about. 

So here is your one-stop guide with some influential killer tips to make a winning and effective PowerPoint Presentation,

There are many good articles on the internet that help us to know about how to prepare an effective presentation in your business, so I am not going into details about making effective presentations. The purpose is to give readers a short approach to deliver effective and winning presentations, how can you make your presentation more effective and attractive.

Business Microsoft PPT

Let’s solve this issue today You're reading this because you DON`T want to be the person giving that presentation, that bore your viewers, so here are six tips to improve your presentation.

1.    Focus on making it as a Story –

The first thing you need to realize is that the PowerPoint document is not the presentation, rather the presentation is a story what we make and the PowerPoint is visual story teller which keeps the viewers engaged. The objective of a good PowerPoint is to understand and share the feelings, must have the clarity of expression and make people remember the story what they have seen, same way in which what we have read mind cannot remember after sometime , but mind can remember it easily which they have seen visually, as our mind never remembers the text. Once you understand this most of the other points will become clear, and feel natural.

When you realize that your presentation is a story and you have to express it beautifully you realize that you don’t start creating it in PowerPoint just for namesake. You can start creating it on a piece of paper. You create an opening, a middle part and an ending just like a story is prepared. The most critical part is the beginning where we engage our audience. You have about some 60 seconds to create interest in an audience if you lose this objective of engaging, the rest of the presentation won’t even matter how attractive efforts you have made for it, you’ve already lost your views at the very beginning.

The middle is where your story arranged and the excitement of your audience is fulfilled for which they have been waiting for. The end summarizes repeats and provokes the targeted audience for an immediate response.

    

2.    Don’t get stuck with the bullets-

Have you ever made a presentation by filling in the bullet-points that are there? And tried to escape, of writing the content through stuffing it by bullet points, never do this again. It can create a chance for your audience to fall asleep during your presentation. We do this It’s considered a "standard". But I would suggest you do a Google search for "death by bullet points" and you will see how many articles are there who are trying to tell us to stop this unpleasant manner

Mainly bullet-points include too much text and the human brain is not made to read and listen at the same time. As soon as you start reading the text that is on the slide, you lose focus on what the presenter is saying. Although bullets help to organize our content and create a specific arrangement.  The other problem is that it's really hard to remember all the bullet points. Our brain to at least should link the bullet points to something, so find a suitable background, create a slide for each point instead of cramming it all in one slide and maybe you’ll end up with something like the image to the right.

3.    Use Images and more images –

The brain is really good at remembering images visually and it is also really good at connecting it to nonmaterial concepts that are detached from our senses. Perfect use of images is essential in a good PowerPoint presentation. A good image helps to understand the point and makes it remarkable without taking the focus away from the story. The brain can actually handle viewing something and listening to something simultaneously.

Don't allow your presentation to be boring 

 

So let's say you're talking about something that went really wrong in your story, and maybe you end up with something wrong in your presentation. It will stand out, it will look good, and people will remember you. This is true, so don`t take our word for it, pick up a book, or check out some of the excellent blogs about presentations on the web. Take some ideas and get started to remember the use of images makes a lot of sense in presentations.

4.    Keep it as simple -     

A very powerful rule in presentations tells that don't do things unless you don`t have, in other words, make it as simple and sweet rather than making things complicated. Go through your presentations and look at every slide and every detail now check and think is this necessary? Does this make sense to my story? Be hard on yourself and remove everything that doesn`t really need to be there.

Keep it simple and stupid

 Show your presentation in more and precise as you possibly can. Maybe you have a cool chart or graph that you really wanted to show, but unless it contributes to your content, take a deep breath and delete it.

5.    Slides and handouts are different things-

Your presentation should be visual and support your story. It is a very common mistake that most of the people take a print out of their power points, and distribute to each person on a group for reference, either before or after the presentation is given, stop this habit. 

Handout master 

A handout should be read in comfort by somebody that has already seen the presentation. Your handout is a place where you can put in the details, and all those facts and graphs that you had to delete from your presentation forcefully.

6.    Practice some more –

Perfectionists are those who practice every presentation that he holds over and over again. Have you ever heard anyone with this thought "I know this stuffs, I don’t need to practice"? Or maybe you have been that person yourself. Well, the best people in the world practice over and over again and still are scared of making silly mistakes in front of the audience. 

No matter what field we are in, practice always makes us better. So spend a couple of hours going through your presentation in front of the mirror, a camera, or a friend, try to present your presentation put yourself in the view of the audience. Is this capable of attracting the audience focus? Is this interesting? what can I do more to make it more attractive?

Let's discuss some of the steps in a nutshell that can help you to deliver better propositions –

                                

           

1.     Define the audience – 

This is very important and often neglected. Presentations cannot be made generic they have to address a set of real people.

1.     Identify the Target Audience

2.     Asses their knowledge level about the subject

3.     Define their priorities and intended take-always from the Presentation.

2.     Define Intended Messages – 

This is where you define what to SELL. There is usually multiple messages/take-always that you need to deliver

1.     Primary Message - This is the message that should be LOUD and CLEARLY coming out of the presentation i.e. your primary product/service and its value proposition.

2.     Secondary or Subtle Message - This is a message that is implied or hidden between the lines.  We use secondary messages to deliver something that may intentionally insult someone but is essential i.e. showing the benefits of offshoring.

3.     Create the Agenda –

 Now that you have a good understanding of the audience and your messages, start by creating a DRAFT agenda/storyline. Do not create the final agenda as it will limit your thought process and you might not be able to think 'Out-of-the-Box' :)

4.     Draft your Slides – 

Go ahead!! And draft your slides... although I do not intend to go in details about how to create slides I guess some points may be handy

1.     Be clear and concise

2.     Use graphics and images rather than text

3.     Remember the audience and messages 

4.     Be innovative

5.     Do not forget to include notes

6.     Make sure that the presentations lead to some next steps. You do not want to create an excellent presentation that does not result in Business.

5.     Get your slides reviewed –

 It's not about catching our mistakes but just cross check that the message you are intending to sell in clear. Believe me, it really helps since we tend to be in a thought process and another person can give you a different and absolutely valid perspective

6.     Run down the presentation with the presenter –

They say that a presentation is as good as the presenter. So if you are not going to deliver the presentation, make sure that you run down the presentation with the presenter and ensure that he is comfortable with the presentation and the subject. Also please modify the presentation (if required) to make the presenter comfortable. Then Finalize the Slides.