8 Slide Tips from the Pros to Engage your Audience

8 Slide Tips from the Pros to Engage your Audience 2

You and I both know that

presentation aids, when used

effectively, can help gain attention,

enhance understanding through

illustration, help listeners organize

their ideas, and help to make ideas

“stick.”

When creating presentation

slides I recommend a few basic

guidelines that are outlined in this

eBook. These tips will help you

improve your slides and,

ultimately, your presentation

delivery, keeping the audience

engaged and eager to hear your

“story.”

We all strive to deliver engaging presentations. Is your slide deck helping or hurting? Turn your presentation around using the 8 tips in this eBook.

Cheers,Gary

Welcome

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My first tip is to create your slides LAST. WHY?

“Your presentation needs to stand on it’s own…”

Aaron Weyenberg leads User Experience at TED Talks and happens to be a keynote slide guru. This is his most important take-away about creating slides.

Tip #1: Create Your Slides LAST

“Building your slides should be the tail end of developing your presentation. Think about your main message, structure its supporting points, practice it and time it—and then start thinking about your slides. The presentation needs to stand on its own; the slides are just something you layer over it to enhance the listener experience.

Too often, I see slide decks that feel more like presenter notes, but I think it’s far more effective when the slides are for the audience to give them a visual experience that adds to the words.”

Source

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Tip #2: Use Less Text, More Graphics

Expanding on Aaron Weyenberg’s advice, slides are not notes for the speaker. Slides should be a visual that compliments your words.

Is the message of my slides easily understood in a quick glance?

If the audience is reading a text-heavy slide they are probably NOT listening to what you’re saying. We think we can multi-task; the uncomfortable truth is…we can’t. We can either listen actively to the presenter OR we can actively read the information on the slide.

Make it easy for your audience to fully benefit from you AND the visual aids; let’s put it this way – text is for handouts. Images, video and charts are for slides.

If your slide has more text than you would have on a t-shirt, it’s time to cut text.

FAQ What size fonts should I use on my slides?

Ultimately if you can test your slides in the room where you will be presenting, you’ll get a good idea whether the text is large enough to be seen from the last row of seats. If you don’t have pre-access to the presentation room, try standing back from your computer at least 7ft to see if the text is legible.If I had to throw a size guideline out there, I would say that text should be no smaller than 30. I know of presenters who don’t use under 40 font for any text.

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In this example, four statistics are listed in sentence format on one slide. The audience will likely read while the presenter speaks. Which points will the audience remember…the speaker’s or the slide’s?

One of the statistics from the previous slide is used in large font with a compelling background image, which will bring the point to life and more effectively engage the audience.

The Power of Less Text

From “PowerPoint: The Extreme Makeover Edition”

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Tip #3: You’re the Leader, Not the Slides

You already know how great slides can make your presentation. You know to keep them simple for lasting impact. But you may not know that you can lose your audience when you move from slide to slide.

Your audience will disengage if there is a break in the flow of the presentation between slides.

Just like when we watch TV, the audience has a remote control, ready to “change channels” when things get “slow” or they lose interest. Once you lose them, it’s tough to get them back. So how do we keep the presentation from losing momentum as we move from slide to slide?

Verbal Transitions

You, as the “safari leader” of this performance, are in charge of your presentation. Your job is to keep your audience engaged and ready for your next point.

Lead the transition verbally, then visually: you are “in charge”…not the slide deck. Practice and preparation make all the difference on this step!

Toolbox

Here are some of the engaging verbal transitions I like to use:

- Ask a Question(How many of you…?)

- Summarize the previous slide & preview the next slide. (Now that you have a better understanding of X, let’s talk a bit about the benefits of Y.”)

- Flashback (“As I mentioned earlier…”)

- Use a “signpost” (“Now, let’s turn to something completely different.” or “Now, let’s dig a little deeper into this concept.”)

Remember that an effective transition can build suspense and maintain interest. Adding intrigue to your transitions will keep the audience on the edge of their seats, eager to find out what is coming next.

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Tip #4: Represent Your Brand

Your brand is the key to your company’s identity and your way of standing out against your competition. Your brand should be injected in ALL company materials – whether for internal employees or external customers.

Is your brand well represented in your slide deck? Are these brand elements showcased throughout the presentation?

Colors Font(s) Logo Consistent style of photography or illustrations Tagline

You do not have to use the same template on every slide (jump to Tip #6 for more on this), but use variants of your brand elements to keep the audience associating the presentation with your branding.

Brand Identity Example

Your website, packaging, print materials (business cards, flyers, handouts, etc.), proposals, presentation aids, and all company materials should contain your brand elements.

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Tip #5: Use Visuals that are 100% Clear

That slide deck that you are slaving over is meant to enhance your well-crafted presentation, not distract from it.

If you have a slide, image, chart, or other graphic representation that is confusing or complicated you risk losing the audience.

Only use visuals that are 100% clear and easy to read and understand.

This is a delicious example. My client, an Ice Cream Shop owner, replaced her text-heavy ‘Before’slide with a visual table slide, which is a great first step to making the information clearer to the audience. See the below ‘Before’ slides and turn the page for the ‘After’.

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Tip #5: Unclear Visual continued

What do you notice about this ‘After’ slide?

While this graphic representation of the ice cream shop’s annual sales is a vast improvement over the previous text-only and table slides, it has some other “issues”.

If you noticed a cone that isn’t lined up with the results, flavors that don’t match the images behind them, and cones that competed with the chart’s colors, you weren’t alone. Ultimately, this slide distracted some audience members from the sales results message the presenter intended to convey.

How could the presenter improve this slide? Perhaps use ice cream cone images that correspond to the flavor type, move the image next to or behind each flavor name, and/or increase the transparency of the cone images.

Remember if your audience is distracted with visuals in your slide deck, they will be tempted to disengage from your verbal presentation.

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Tip #6: Resist PowerPoint Formatting

Pro TipTo achieve a look like the ‘After’ on page 5, in which an image fills the entire background of the slide….**

1.Right click in yourblank slide

2.Click on option for“Background Image”

3.Use the menu toinsert an image from afile and adjust thetransparency

4.Add a text box to theslide to add a largestatement, fact, orquote.

** PC PowerPoint

BE A REBEL! Don’t use the traditional PowerPoint formatting. The default PowerPoint slide formatting that most users choose includes a big title and large text box for bullet points, a chart, table, image or video.

You don’t need a large title on every slide with a text box filled with bulleted lists.

Remember – make the most important information the biggest so that it stands out in the audience’s minds.

What to do instead? Start by inserting a blank slide. Decide on a visual that best represents your point or topic and will engage the audience the most.

A slide could consist of 1 of the following:

1 large image1 large statement with a background design

or image1 video1 chart or table that is easy to consume1 testimonial

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Example of Powerful Slides

“What Would STEVE DO? 10 Lessons from the World’s Most Captivating Presenters” is a popular presentation on SlideShare from inbound marketing leader HubSpot. Click the image or link and scroll through the presentation.

You won’t see any of the following: Slide titles Bulleted lists Small images Hard to read charts More than 1-2 ideas on a slide

But you’ll certainly notice: Powerful images and graphics that tell a story Colors that engage and inspire Examples that demonstrate value Actionable suggestions and ideas

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Tip #7: Use Video Like a Pro

Using videos in your presentation is one of the most powerful tools you can use to keep your audience engaged.

Be careful! Poorly executed video in your presentation will result in a stalled presentation, will look like you lack professionalism, and will certainly distract the audience.

Most Common Video Mistakes

1. Your video won’t play because you don’t have access to Wi-Fi!Ask ahead of time if you will have access to Wi-Fi at the presentation venue. If you won’t have Wi-Fi, download the video source file onto the same device you are using to run the presentation.

2. Can’t locate the portion of the video you want your audience to see!Don’t use precious time having your audience watch more of a video than necessary. Use video editing software to cut the clip down to just what you want the audience to see and then import it to your slide.

3. The video clip is too graphic and causes an adverse reaction among the audience. This can render your presentation ineffective. Make sure you “test” the video content on a few friends before going “live” with it.

Mistake #1 -SOLVEDDownload YouTube videos and other online recordings, by using KeepVid.

Just copy the video URL into the KeepVid software tool and save the download to your computer. Then in the PowerPoint “Insert” menu, select “Video” and then “Video on My PC.”

Mistake #2 -SOLVEDMake a video clip using free, easy-to-use software.

Apple users will find iMovie right on their devices.

PC users can download Lightworks

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Tip #8: Not Just PowerPoint Anymore!

PowerPoint is not the only tool you have available to make slide presentations. Get creative and use other tools to make your presentations even more engaging!

One of my favorites is Prezi, an online, cloud-based, storyboarding tool that makes presentations more interactive and dynamic than PowerPoint.

Reasons I use Prezi: Zoom Smooth transitions Fun animations Visually compelling Narration enabled Easily incorporates music, sound effects,

and video Free and paid professional templates

Great Presentation Tools

Prezi Keynote (Apple Users)CustomShowGoogle SlidesHaiku Deck

Pro Tip: You can use your iPhone phone as a remote “clicker” while presenting with Prezi. You can also use Screen Flow to create a video out of a Prezi presentation.

Couragio Consulting provides life-changing communication and presentation coaching and workshops to professionals in a safe and nurturing environment. Our mission is to build confidence, encourage the individual’s presentation style, and teach best practices to engage and impact audiences.

Copyright 2017 Couragio Consulting