Presentation Tips: Design Your Own Success Story
You've probably heard the phrase dress for success. Certainly, the term
can be applied to most presentations whether the presentation is
designed for a corporate board room, a classroom, or the next membership
meeting of your local club or organization. Indeed, what you say is
crucial, but how you say it can go a long way in determining the
impression that is left on your audience.
To follow are five presentation tips that can help make your
presentation more impressive:
Presentation Tip #1: Use pictures wherever possible.
Everyone is familiar with the cliche a picture is worth a thousand words
and in the case of presentations, this can be especially true. If you're
using slides that describe a new product, be sure to actually show the
product itself. If you're creating a written presentation that talks
about new people who are joining your team, try your best to include
their pictures in your document. Another benefit to pictures: if you're
presenting to an international audience, and language may be a barrier,
pictures will communicate universally for you.
Presentation Tip #2: Include graphs, diagrams and tables.
If you've ever picked up and scanned through an annual report, you'll likely
have noticed several pie charts, bar graphs and tabular information that
quickly communicate essential data in a way that makes that data stand
apart from text. Other examples of graphic devices that can add to the
effectiveness of your presentation are: flow charts, timelines and
organizational charts.
Presentation Tip #3: Animate. Most presentation software
packages, PowerPoint for example, include animation features that
transform one-dimensional slides into moving shows. Examples are
animations that enable key points to build one by one (or several by
several) onto the slide to emphasize your messages. Other features
include fade-in and fade-out as well as wipe and box out animations that
can add instant interest to slide presentations.
Presentation Tip #4: Color your world. Adding color to
presentation slides immediately emphasizes essential ideas. However, do
not use too many different colors. And, much like good fashion, be aware
that colors must complement each other instead of clashing. If you're
creating a business presentation, it's usually a good idea to use your
companys corporate colors wherever possible. If your company has a
graphic design department, they can help make sure you use the right
color schemes.
Presentation Tip #5: In written presentations, consider the
paper and other factors. One of the surest ways to impress a
reader is to use special designer-inspired paper (such as linen stock or
cotton-laid textured stock). These types of elegant papers can help to
communicate an upscale, high quality image for yourself and your company.
In addition, linen report covers and portfolios will do the same thing.
Something else to consider: the use of presentation products that enable
you to custom-print your name, your customers name or any message you
want through your desktop computer printer. Computer-printable
presentation products are great for preparing last-minute presentations.
And, custom-designing the look of your presentation for individual
customers can really impress them.
