To Create a Presentation are needed all the time. A report for the boss, a lecture for students, or a report at a conference – with a good presentation you will get ten points for every presentation. But if you come out with illegible slides, your ideas will not be heard and understood. But even if you aren’t a designer, you can make your presentation in such a way that you will not see your colleagues’ Instagram feeds scrolling, but their burning eyes.
Here’s how to make a presentation: what its structure should be and how to create great slides. You’ll also learn how to avoid common mistakes when creating slides and be able to make a beautiful presentation without any design skills.
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Basic Types of Presentations and how to Create a Presentation
A presentation is a handy tool to help convey your message, teach something or “sell” an idea to the audience. Descriptive slides help salesmen present a new product to the clients, and the teacher – to explain a rule or formula in a simple way.
Something to Sell
A presentation often plays the role of a sales proposal. For example, your company used to do only contextual advertising, but now you have opened an SMM direction, and you need to tell your clients about it quickly and clearly.
Or you have a website about interior design, and you want to put the conditions of advertising on the site for commercial partners. The presentation will help deliver information about the product in a concise and understandable way.
Teaching Something
Teachers often use presentations during classes. Almost any guide or instruction can be clearly laid out in the form of slides. And such presentations are needed not only when you teach maths but also when you are conducting a tutorial on how to gamble at https://tonybet.com/en/live-casino. Slides are also handy for HR people to tell new employees about the company’s values.
Speaking in Front of an Audience
Whether you are a manager, company founder, or accountant speaking at a professional conference, with a good presentation it will be much easier to attract the attention of the audience to the report. And it will be remembered stronger.
Stages of Presentation Creation
The presentation should reveal the main idea of the speaker and help him achieve his goal. Therefore, do not start with finding bright pictures and thinking about the color of the background and text. Formatting is the last stage: beautiful slides are important, but clear, logical content is more important. The main steps of the presentation are described below.
Formulate the Goal
The answer to the question, “What do I want my presentation to accomplish?” will help you determine your purpose. The answer should be as specific as possible. For example:
- Convince potential course students to enroll in a tester program.
- Prove to investors that your startup is credible.
- Explain to students what is unique about the Silver Age.
As you add each slide, put a particular thesis on it, and place a picture, keep the purpose of the presentation in mind. If that text, photo or graph helps to achieve the goal, leave them. Ruthlessly get rid of everything unnecessary, the world has already seen too many overloaded presentations.
If after the presentation your project should be chosen for investment, it is worth explaining why it is noteworthy, how it is better than competitors, what global problem it solves, what niche it occupies and what the investor will get by investing its assets in it.
If you present travel services, you need to answer the questions, why exactly this country and this travel agency need customers. Who is suitable and who is not, what holidays are offered and how they differ from other options.
It’s impossible to motivate action or make a decision without working with objections, answering popular questions and comparing it with alternative offers.
Identify Your Target Audience
The nuances of the pitch depend on who will be watching your presentation. For presentations to potential investors and partners, use numbers, charts and graphs. For potential customers, it may be more interesting to insert illustrative product examples with photos and videos. For the press, use bright infographics.
Only you know who will see the presentation and how to interest them. Think about this and take it into account when preparing your material.
Decide on the Topic
If the speaker clearly defines the topic and adheres to it during the presentation, it is pleasant and easy to listen to. When there is no specific topic, you get information mush and a waterfall of unnecessary facts. You’ve probably heard such unsuccessful presentations more than once and dreamed of escaping from them.
A common mistake is to take too broad a topic. In this case, the presentation grows by leaps and bounds and it’s hard to understand what’s important in it and what’s not. There is too much information and you can’t make your points clear.
Create a Structure and Define the Content
Before you make slides and look for illustrations, decide on the content of your presentation. If you have correctly defined the purpose and topic of the presentation, it is easy to prepare the structure.
Act according to an algorithm:
- Identify the problem whose solution you want to propose. Characterize it for the listener, based on his or her pains and worries. Explain why the audience should hear about the problem in the first place-what it is, what its implications are. Make a simple, concise text with examples and a clear structure.
- Describe a solution to the problem based on how your target audience thinks.
- Write an introduction and conclusion. In the introduction, make those points without which the audience won’t understand the rest of the story, and try to keep them interested. In conclusion, answer potential objections-what other solutions exist and how they are better or worse than the ones you offer.
The main thing is that the points of reference should be a skeleton on which the “meat” of your speech will be firmly held. If there is no clear structure, you won’t keep the audience’s attention.
If such a format fits into the narrative, try to tell an interesting and illustrative story rather than just presenting the material you’ve worked on.
Reread the text: the structure should be clear and understandable, the facts – to go in sequence. There should be order and logical consistency in your presentation.
For example, if you want to present a product, stick to something like this sequence:
- Introduction.
- Description of the product.
- What problem the product solves for the consumer.
- How it differs from the competition.
- Answers to the main objections of potential customers.
- Conclusion with a call to action.
The Structure to Create a Presentation
Cover Page
The cover tells the listener what the presentation will be about. Don’t overload it with text and images. Let the topic of the presentation be read immediately and be the main element of the cover.
Introducing the Speaker
If you’re speaking to a new audience, you need to confirm your expertise and tell them who you are and why they should listen to you. Put on the slide only what will help confirm your experience and knowledge in a particular topic, there is no need to describe your entire biography.
Pointing out the Audience and Their “Pains”
A good way to get your audience’s attention right away is to immediately point out an issue that is important to them. If you have a good idea of your audience and know the purpose of the presentation, it will not be difficult. You don’t have to detail important issues for the listener on the slides, just remind them why the topic is important to them.
Reporting Points
Outline the outline of your presentation on a separate slide. Use short talking points to show what you will talk about during the speech.
The Substantive Part of the Presentation- Create a Presentation
Formulate your presentation in the format of short talking points and supporting facts. The facts can be presented in text, graphs, charts, screenshots, diagrams, drawings and videos, depending on the topic and audience. Don’t forget about logic, you shouldn’t stray far from the main topic, otherwise you will lose the listeners’ attention. Remember the purpose of the presentation.
Contacts, Questions, and a Call to Action
The final slide is traditionally left for contact information and lead generation. You can put your phone number, email, social media, and website address there. Feel free to write directly what your listeners should do: “Call us,” “Download the guideline on our website,” “Get a customized offer.”
How to Make the Perfect Slide- Create a Presentation
There are no rigid rules for creating the perfect slide. A slide is perfect if it looks like an organic part of the presentation, the information is clear, and the listener’s attention is not scattered. But there are a number of basic tips to help achieve all this and not to blush for your presentation. Here are some of them.
Remember the purpose. If a slide doesn’t fit the purpose in some way, get rid of it without regret.
One thought, one slide. Follow this simple principle, and it will be much easier for listeners to absorb your ideas. A thought can be expressed in more than just text. Graphs, drawings, diagrams, and videos can also successfully visualize your ideas.
More specificity in your slides. The less “water” and theory and the more facts, examples from life and interesting stories, the better. Respect your listener; he or she can find the theory on the Internet.
Consider the number of slides. If you have difficulty calculating how many slides you need, use the rule of one slide per one or two minutes of presentation.