With these 5 tips you will convince with your presentation (on every stage)

May 31, 2019

Whether in a professional environment, at university or in private life - presentations are still an important way to convey content and ideas, but very few presentations are really able to convince professionally.

The secret of a good presentation is much less complicated than you might think. With these 5 simple but essential tips you will certainly convince at your next presentation!

1. The Power lies in Brevity

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in a presentation is to overwhelm the audience. Countless slides filled with text and design elements are a guarantee that you will lose your audience after three polite minutes at the latest. Therefore one of the most important tips for presentations: Less is more. As a rule of thumb, you can remember that a number of 10 slides per presentation should not be exceeded.

Not only the number of presentation slides should be reduced as much as possible - the same applies to the time of the presentation: the shorter, the better. Even if a total of one hour is set aside for the presentation, you should only plan about one third of the time for the actual presentation. This is because most presentations begin by starting the laptop and opening the presentation. In the best case, some listeners arrive late and ten of the 60 minutes have already passed. A good presentation also lives from the discussion afterwards. This should take up at least one to two further thirds of the presentation time.

2. Put creativity on the backburner in design

Creativity is without doubt essential for a good product and a successful company. But in presentations it can often cause more confusion than it helps. Instead of being creative, you should avoid complicated design elements when creating your presentation. After all, in the end, the content should be transported, and elaborate designs can quickly distract from the actual topic. This does not mean, however, that you should completely do without appealing elements in your design. The ultimate goal is still to attract the attention of the audience. With this guide, you are guaranteed to get your design right:

Change the background from white to black

A black presentation background may seem unusual at first glance, but this is exactly what you can use to your advantage. While a white background radiates boredom, the color black almost magically attracts the audience's attention.

Arial should not be the first choice

Instead of relying on the classic, which your audience knows to the point of fatigue, the text of a good presentation is best printed thickly, white and sans serif.

Font size 30

font size 10, the whole slide is filled with text and the presenter just reads out the text shown - this is how many presentations look like in reality. But as soon as the audience notices that the text is simply read out, you have lost attention. It's better to increase the font size to 30 and throw any superfluous text off the slide.

Reduce images

Even when selecting images for a presentation, it is important not to overburden the audience. Although pictures are descriptive and attract attention, they are much more powerful when they are large and stand alone. Instead of selecting several images, it is therefore better to limit yourself to a single large image.

3. Start your presentation with a bang

The beginning is probably the most decisive moment of your presentation. Already in the first few seconds the audience decides whether the presentation arouses their interest or not. For this reason the start should be well thought out. The simplest tip to get an audience directly on your side is an emotional address. And nothing conveys emotions better than something that directly affects the audience. If possible, you should address your audience directly and tailor the start to the listeners in the best possible way.

4. Know your audience

No matter if it's for the introduction, for intermediate questions or for the final discussion - to deliver a good presentation, you need to know your audience. Only if you know background information about your audience, you will be able to respond to the needs of the audience and answer questions precisely. BEFORE the presentation, you should therefore deal with the following questions:

Who is the audience? What background information can you find out about the audience, which of them is relevant for your presentation?
What are the expectations of the audience and how can you meet them?
What is the goal of the presentation, what do you want to convey to the audience?

5. One logical structure

A good structure is the be-all and end-all of any presentation. Any design, no matter how exciting, and any presentation technique, no matter how well thought out, will lose its effect if the audience cannot follow you. A good structure usually consists of three core elements: A strong introduction, the demonstration of the core elements or conflict and finally the change or solution presentation. Make sure that your audience knows what it is all about every minute and that they are guided through the presentation like a thread.

As is so often the case, successful presentation depends on the right preparation. Already during the creation of the design errors can be avoided with the help of some simple tips. Even if you always want to give 100 percent in your presentation, you should not overshoot the mark. Because the five tips and tricks for a successful presentation show: Simple is not necessarily bad! If you reduce design elements, length and layout of the presentation and convince with well prepared and structured content, you are guaranteed to have the audience on your side.