Be it pitching an idea to potential investors for business or to your marketing team, PowerPoint presentations(PPT) remain one of the most common platforms to create and deliver your thoughts. You can make your presentation interesting not just with your content but also with visual effects.
However, most of the time, we hear people saying that they find PPTs boring, no matter how good the content and design are. You must know how to make your presentation effective and appealing to keep your audience engaged. All you need to do is hone your presentation skills and master some of the PowerPoint’s lesser-known features.
Here are seven tips to enhance your slides and keep your audience engaged:
If you want to give a powerful and better presentation, then you must improve your presentation. You can follow these tips to become a better presenter:
-Outline your presentation and keep things simple: You must outline your presentation before you start creating your PowerPoint deck. This will assist you in understanding the structure of your PPT and ensure that there is some symmetry among the main ideas. There should be a logical flow to the delivery. You must prefer simple, short sentences and don’t overwhelm your slides with too many texts.
If you want an effective presentation, you must follow the 5/5/5 rule, which says that each line of text should not have more than 5 words. There should be only five lines of text in each slide and only five text-heavy slides consecutively. Use fewer texts and illustrations to convey your ideas.
-Just don’t read it out: Let your slides tell your idea. In most cases, we see that people put everything on the slide and just read it out. You must articulate your key ideas in bullet form and add colour and definition to the basic structure while speaking.
Try to keep your audience involved by asking tricky questions and organising games and quizzes. You must rehearse many times and become familiar with the material so that you can speak confidently and extemporaneously without referring to the points.
-Add creative designs: You can become a better presenter by adding creative designs. From your design to fonts to the theme colour, everything plays a crucial role in making your PPT look good. However, these elements will vary depending on the overall template of your PPT.
For instance, you can use dark text on a light background, use appropriate colours, incorporate graphics and charts and other visual elements for an effective presentation. You can add professional designs with attractive templates and layouts so that the audience perceive your thoughts.
–Speak to specific people while presenting: You must know where to position your eyes when you are delivering your presentation. We are often told that we must gaze over the heads of the audience towards the back of the room to keep them engaged.
You should not be looking at anyone. Instead, you should make an effort to interact with specific people in the room. For example, you can look at an individual for one sentence or two, then change the position of your eyes and speak to someone else in the room.
-Use fewer transitions: You must know how to deliver a simple yet powerful presentation so that the audience is impressed. You must be very careful when applying transitions to your slide deck. You can go for simple fades, but using wipes, slides and other dramatic effects often look sophomoric. You must be judicious when you use visual effects. Minimise transitions in your slide deck.
-Add animated charts and align your graphics: You can also use animated charts and align your graphics to give an effective presentation. Since each segment animates individually, you can format any kind of chart in your PPT. This will help you to gather attention to the specific parts of the chart as and when you discuss them.
You can also add various objects such as shapes, lines, arrows, text boxes, and other elements to your PPT. But getting them aligned can be a little tricky at times.
-Close with a call to action: You must put in an equal amount of effort while ending the presentation as you did with the rest of your slides. Don’t just end your presentation, but it is recommended that you close with a call to action. Even if the audience doesn’t respond instantly, your powerful ending will give them something to reflect upon.
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