Bang, you’re dead. Not really. But at some point, you’ve suffered “Death by PowerPoint”. Dull slides, unclear graphics, monotone delivery. All put together by someone with presentation skills that’ll inspire you… to jump out the window. Just check you’re on the ground floor first. You’re not alone. 79% of people say they find presentations boring. And with 35 million PowerPoint presentations (PPT) being delivered every day, that’s a lot of yawning. But in the right hands, presentations can do great things. They can help your business grow by connecting with target audiences across retail, manufacturing, and industrial sectors. Don’t underestimate the power of an effective storytelling PPT. Before we deep dive into the benefits of PPT, do you have any questions?
Great question. We briefly touched on this, but let’s take a further look. You know when you’re sat in a presentation and your mind starts to drift? You’re still focused… just on the door, the floor, the window (don’t jump) … pretty much everything except the slides on the screen? That’s “Death by PowerPoint”. It’s where poor presentation skills capture less audience attention than Edward Scissorhand’s fishing net. This is a common pitfall. Some people have a lot to say and want to include as much as possible. Others get carried away with aesthetics. Either way, you end up with a bloated set of slides and bored recipients. Excess is tempting but must be avoided. Having too many words, features, images, or graphics on a slide will overwhelm people. What are the key points you want them to take away? When you’ve got 40 slides it’s difficult to say. Beware the “curse of knowledge” too. Some jargon may be second nature to you, but it’ll isolate your audience. Basically, bad presentations mean lost business.
OK, so we’ve got bad presentations out of the way. Now we can focus on the good stuff. But before we go into detail, let’s define a presentation. It’s a tool that uses visual aids and verbal delivery to give data, information, and ideas to target audiences. In business, you’ll use them for sales pitches, training, educating, and updating customers and stakeholders. Spoken content is supported and enhanced by slides, charts, images, and graphs. The aim is to engage your audience, tell them your message, and leave a lasting impression. That’s enough toe-dipping. Let’s dive off the top board.
Have you ever worried about something you didn’t know about? Probably not, even if you should’ve… because you didn’t know about it. Effective communication is at the heart of any successful activity. How can you expect the audience to buy what you’re selling if they can’t understand what you’re saying? Used correctly, presentations can get your message across clearly and succinctly. You may be talking to a small group of colleagues or addressing a large conference. Either way structured content and strong visuals will engage them with key takeaways (just not the kind you can eat).
Did you know that the average human attention span is 8 seconds? And that’s the average, which means there are some with much shorter… wait, what were we saying? Joking aside, these people could be part of your target audience. We’re talking about decision-makers, order placers, conversions, and anyone else who may spend money.
Audience engagement is crucial. People get bored easily. They don’t need bad presentations to make them lose even more interest.
An effective storytelling PPT with increased visual appeal, anecdotes, and real-life examples gives you a better chance of living in their head rent-free. This means they’re more likely to buy whatever you’re selling.
We already know it’s easy to lose your audience. But if you bombard them with jargon, statistics, and technical specs, they’ll check out quicker than a supermarket shopper at closing time. Only 5% of people retain specific statistics from a presentation, but 63% remember the story they’ve been told. Can you stomach losing 58% of potential clients? Not all diets are good. But less is more when it counts. Have you ever been served a pizza with no cutter? Frustrating, isn’t it? Eating the whole thing was never in doubt… until it was. Presentations are great for breaking down your complex ideas into small, easily digestible slices of joy. Taking your audience on a journey that’ll stay with them.
What do you think of “Versatility” as the above subheading? Yes, it’s only one word. But it’s also a very powerful word that gives scope for the content to go in any direction. The same applies to PowerPoint. PPTs can be customized to cater to everything from sales pitches to investor meetings, and everything in between. Giving you more flexibility than a yoga instructor.
What do you want from your audience? Money? Attention? Both are good answers. But the one thing you need to establish before anything else is trust. 81% of consumers see trust as an important factor when choosing an organization and 95% say it’s what keeps them coming back.But how do you gain trust? The best way is to follow up on what you promise. Hard to do when you don’t have an order though, right? This is where PowerPoint presentation skills come in.A well-designed, carefully crafted PPT projects a professional image that brings you credibility and gives your audience confidence in what you’re doing.
Presentations used to be seen as static ways to deliver information to relatively small groups of people. But that’s all changed. PowerPoint now lets you reach a much wider audience across multiple platforms. With the right presentation skills, you can connect with more people and help your business grow. An effective storytelling PPT instils confidence in both you and your target audience.
Find out how P3 Design can help you with your PowerPoint Presentation.
