Creating a successful business presentation is similar to writing a poem. It takes time, effort, inspiration, and special knowledge. If you want the presentation to be different from what thousands of companies are making, you need to add some personalization.
Default templates, standard fonts, and overused images are out of the question. No matter how unique and useful your product is, you can’t sell it with a standard presentation.
In this article, we are sharing several tips to help you personalize your business presentation and attract the right customers. You can use them to tweak your existing presentations or create a brand new one.
1. Use the latest design trends
If you want your presentation to stand out, make sure to study the current design trends. They can make an impression on your audience without the risk of appearing old and reused.
If your potential customers notice that you use old design tricks, they may view your brand as outdated. This is one of the worst things you could achieve with a presentation.
Graphic design trends tend to change regularly. From glitch effects to double exposure and from 3D to hand-drawn graphs and illustrations, you should know what to use.
You don’t need to hire a graphic design professional to implement the latest trends in the presentation. All you have to do is invest a little time in research. If you can’t use all of them, don’t worry. A couple of trendy moves can save your presentation.
2. Discover your client
The key to making your presentation personalized is knowing who your clients and customers are. Your marketing team is probably working hard to identify the potential audience. Ask them for some pointers. Unless you know who you are speaking to, you can’t take any personalization steps.
Once you have an idea of who your audience is, you can change your presentation to suit their requirements. The key question you should ask yourself is what problem your customers want to solve. Yes, it’s that simple.
When you know their problems, you can start offering solutions. Of course, not all of your clients are likely to have the same problem. So you can segment your presentation to deal with several of them.
Make sure to speak the language of your audience. Don’t ever stuff your presentation with jargon unless you are 100% sure all your listeners understand it.
3. Value time
When you are designing the presentation, remember that time is money. And we aren’t talking about your time. No one wants to spend hours trying to understand your presentation. That’s why you should keep it short. Very short. Extremely short.
Did you know that some of the best speeches in history were under 20 minutes? The majority of listeners are likely to become bored in about ten to thirty minutes, no matter how stellar your presentation is.
So conciseness is your key to personalization. Become a presenter with the shortest presentation your customers have ever heard. Share only the most useful information in the slides.
Try to use one idea per slide. Avoid too many bullet points and sentences. It’s better to keep the slides concise and add information verbally.
4. Avoid improvisation
It may seem smart to improvise when you are giving a presentation to make it seem more personal. In reality, you are likely to end up with “eh,” “ah,” and “mmh.” Such interjections are dull and unprofessional.
If you think that improvisation can help you make a connection, practice it at home. Do you think comedians improvise? They just look like they do. In reality, the majority of them spends long hours at home practicing.
Respect your audience’s time and attention. Avoid improvisation.
5. Use media
Experts from Presentation Geeks share that using media can help personalize your presentation while keeping the audience focused. This is especially true for complex presentations.
You need to give your listeners a chance to rest and breathe. Humorous GIFs or videos are a great way to achieve just that. Ideally, you should invest in filming a unique short video, which could pack some information about your company in it. This way, you can personalize your presentation tremendously.
However, such videos are often costly. If you are on a tight budget, find a popular and funny movie or TV series moments that suit the subject of your presentation.
6. Make eye contact
Many presentation givers are so nervous about the process that they forget to interact with the audience. One of the best ways to keep the listeners focused is to make eye contact. Show the audience that you are talking to them instead of “at them.”
When someone is looking into your eyes, it’s much harder to yawn, shift, and avoid listening. Try to look at each one of your listeners at least once during the presentation.
7. Work on the Q&A section
The Q&A section is your opportunity to fix the mistakes you made during the presentation. Once you start hearing questions, you can see where you failed to share proper information. Pay special attention to the process and consider recording it for your next presentation making efforts to go smoother.
Remember, sometimes people don’t ask questions. Take the opportunity to offer answers to questions they might have. Prepare for such a situation in advance.
Personalizing a presentation is easy if you consider the needs of your audience, use the latest tools, and follow trends.
