9 Smart Ways to Make an Engaging PowerPoint Presentation

A successful PowerPoint presentation is a talent that any professional can learn. What is the issue? It’s really simple to make a mistake. A lousy PowerPoint presentation might detract from the excellent content you’re presenting to stakeholders on your team, from poor color choices to unclear slides.

Do you fear creating a PowerPoint presentation? Your presentations don’t have to be dry, dull, and constrained all of the time. You’ll be able to create a vibrant and exciting presentation with these PowerPoint presentation techniques.

1. Note Down Your Talking Points

Before thinking about presentation design, you should write your key messages and structure your speech.

Give importance to popular and appealing presentation frameworks, so you know what framework to use throughout your presentation. This will also simplify creating an overview that concentrates on your talking points.

Once you’ve created an outline that depicts your subject and hits on every crucial point you need to address, you can start looking for PowerPoint templates that will work for your topic.

2. Tell A Story

Since the beginning of time, humans have used stories to convey information, and it is still an effective method of communication. Even if you have to provide a lengthy list of facts, keep in mind that the underlying meaning or conclusion of those data will make an impression.

This does not imply that you should begin your presentation with ‘Once upon a time,’ but rather structure it so that the issue’s chronology is evident. Can you think of any story twists or hooks you might share along the road to keep them interested? Before getting into presentations, you may find it helpful to write an initial script away from PowerPoint.

3. Consider Your Audience While Preparing Your Presentation

Being honest about what people truly want to listen to and what they can actually absorb is the first step in getting the tone and substance of your presentation appropriate. If you really care about your audience, you must advocate for their learning requirements rather than your own.

That may imply streamlining your topic or rehashing past presentations. It’s preferable to losing them totally or becoming “that presenter” who was difficult to understand or didn’t identify who he or she was speaking to.

4. Use Images and Videos In Your Presentation

A picture is worth a thousand words, and excellent visuals are considerably superior to large amounts of text. The use of tacky stock graphics is a definite turn-off. Select images that immediately demonstrate or reinforce what you’re saying or that establish the tone of the presentation.

In the correct circumstances, a little levity can both cheer up and keep the audience focused (there are loads of great Internet meme graphics you can use or adapt.) Videos can also be effective, but confine them to brief snippets rather than devoting half of your presentation time to something pre-recorded.

5. Conduct a Dry Run

You’ve undoubtedly spent hours, if not days, perfecting your presentation content; don’t ruin it by failing to prepare on the day. You should practice your slides in the same room and on the same device that you will use on the big day.

This will help to prevent any local technical concerns (e.g., lack of Internet connection, poor slide projection, lack of sound, wrong presentation software, etc.) Don’t forget to switch off your screen saver!

6. Make Eye Contact With Your Audience

It’s quite easy to get fixated on the one person in the front row who seems to be smiling at you, but focusing on just one person or looking into space gives the primary audience the impression that you’re uninterested in them.

When speaking in front of a small group, make eye contact with everyone without focusing on one person in particular. If you have a bigger crowd, consider shifting your gaze from left to center to the right and back again, focusing on different people each time. Don’t forget about the ones in the back!

7. Don’t Speak Too Fast

It’s easy to assume that you need to provide as much information as possible, yet speaking too quickly is difficult for listeners to process. Consider how a TV newscaster speaks slowly and with many pauses. It’s a matter of ‘less is more,’ and you’ll be surprised at how much better the audience absorbs information.

The breathing gap will also offer you extra ‘CPU time’ in your head to monitor audience responses and respond appropriately. Speaking too quickly is a frequent feature of worried presenters, but slowing down can allow you to relax and give your presentation more gravity.

8. Don’t Read Directly From Your Slides

People attend conferences and seminars to hear a human person (that’s you!) interact with them, not to read the content. It’s OK to sometimes utilize slide content as a prompt, but reading off the screen with your back to the audience is both lazy and uninteresting to watch.

If you need more cues and are using a projector screen, utilize PowerPoint’s Notes function – you may have the notes shown exclusively on your computer (Slides > User Presenter View). At the same time, the audience only sees the primary slide content on the screen.

9. Share Your Presentation

Sharing your slides with your listeners after the presentation is a terrific method to assist them in remembering what you said. It’s also an excellent method to promote participation after the event, so add the date, time, and title of the presentation and your contact information.

Tell them at the start of the presentation that you’ll be making the slides accessible, so they don’t feel obligated to spend too much time taking notes instead of watching you. If you share your slides or distribute printed copies of your slides before the presentation, you will ruin the show and offer people a reason to leave without watching.

If you need a shortcut to create a power-packed presentation in just a few minutes, you must consider using PowerPoint themes!

Wrapping It Up

We’ve all sat through boring PowerPoint presentations. The content may be interesting, but countless slides of text may turn even the most compelling presentation into a snoozer.

You can, however, do better. You can build memorable presentations that grab your audience and leave them wanting more by including visuals and video.

You can accomplish much more with PowerPoint than simply presentations for your customers after you’ve mastered the style, design, and present procedures. With the help of a good template, you may create presentations that will wow your audience.