We’ve all sat through a tedious, long presentation filled with charts and tiny text you couldn’t read. Please don’t repeat the mistakes you’ve seen so many times when it’s your turn to speak.
The most important factors to consider when preparing a presentation are content, design, and delivery format.
The presentation should be structured logically, and the content must support your message and goals. Design is not just about being pretty. You want to create something that grabs your reader’s attention and keeps them engaged without being overwhelming. The format you plan to deliver your presentation will affect its design and content: Will you be presenting live, emailing it to clients, or doing something else?
Content
Your presentation should include an introduction, a middle section, and a conclusion. Each team should engage with the viewer while keeping your product, business, or idea in mind. Each slide should be written to support the central message of your presentation. If it does not, throw it out!
It would be best to logically plan your presentation to progress from topic to topic. You don’t need to jump between issues or lose the interest of your audience.
Introduction
The introduction to your presentation will differ depending on the type you are creating.
The introduction slide of a presentation will include a paragraph about the company or bullet points. You may wish to have the size of the market or the need for the idea in your introduction slide if you’re introducing an innovation or an idea. You might write an entire introduction if your presentation is to teach a topic to your audience (assuming that you will hand it out or provide the indication to them).
If your presentation is lengthy, you may want to add a table of contents slide before the introduction slide.
The Middle
This is the part where you will include all the content supporting your main message and helping you reach your objective. You want all the information you need to keep your main message and help you achieve your goal. You can add slides that describe the market, your solution, competitors, etc., if you’re promoting a product.
Summary
Include a summary slide summarizing your presentation’s most critical points, especially those you wish your audience or readers to remember. The summary should be one slide with a short paragraph or bullet points.
Design
It would be best to create a visually appealing and functional design. It should complement your brand and your content and not hinder it. If you want to hire someone to do this for you, you can.
Use presentation platforms to find unique designs. You select a template and add your text or other content. Choose a template per the brand language you want to project and your content.
Your design should also be engaging and eye-catching, but not so much that it overshadows the content or takes away from what’s important. This balancing act is tricky. You’ll need to edit and review your presentation to get it right. Avoid overloading your slides with content or images. Your readers may lose interest if you overwhelm them. Be sure that the colors and backgrounds don’t make it difficult to read the text. Although music and videos are a great way to enhance a presentation, could you not add them to every slide?
It is essential to get your message across. Change the design if you feel it isn’t helping you to achieve your goal.
Fonts
You can’t use swirly or fancy text if you want your audience to read the content. Use familiar and essential fonts such as Arial, Calibri, or Helvetica to present the content.
Consistently use the same font size and shape throughout your presentation to make it look polished and professional.
Visuals vs. Text
Why do readers like infographics so much? They combine text and images that allow readers to “get the point” in a single glance. Use visuals to display your data, such as graphs and charts.
Delivery Channel
The content of your presentation can be affected by the channels through which you present it.
You will not be reading slides if you present live to an audience. Therefore, the presentation’s content should be minimal and support your message. You will not be there to answer their questions or explain anything if you are sending it by email to a potential partner, investor, or client. You’ll need more slides and more text in this case.