PowerPoint Presentation Tips

Do you know what the #1 cause of death is during a presentation? Powerpoint! Seriously though. There is an art to creating effective and engaging PowerPoint presentations (or Keynote if you prefer) and it begins with these simple PowerPoint presentation tips.

Powerpoint Presentation Tips

LESS Words

The fewer the words the better. Once you’ve created your slides, go back and edit out as much as you can. Use bullet points, NEVER paragraphs. AND, if you can convey your point with a picture or graphic, even better.  Most of my webinar slides have a full size image and no more than one to four words on a banner running across the slide.  LESS words!

LESS Animation

Too much animation makes one dizzy. If you use animation, I would consistently use the same animation – appear, dissolve, fade in, maybe fly in. But avoid over animation and all the fancy shmancy stuff – spinning, fireworks, sparkles, etc. Note also, that if you are doing a PowerPoint presentation as a webinar, the animation often does not translate well across the internet, so again, less is better.

MORE Pictures

If you can say it with pictures, do. Our minds think in pictures and we remember pictures WAY more than words. Ask yourself, what picture or graphic can illustrate this point? Many times you can use JUST the image with no words, or maybe just a single phrase. Don’t be afraid to use images that create an emotional response.  That’s one of the things that makes your presentation unforgettable. If you are teaching a framework or a formula – for example “Hook, Book, Look, Took” as a framework for storytelling OR “Quickly, Calmly, Confidently, Leaving no stone unturned” as a framework for action taking – creating a clear graphic of the framework helps make that formula unforgettable.

MORE Slides

Yes, MORE. This especially applies to webinars where people don’t see you. It also applies to video sales letters. Staying on a slide for more than 30, or 60 seconds at the most, will lose your audience. The key is to keep the audience engaged, and moving from one slide to the next helps to do that. So for example, when I first started doing webinars and telling my signature story, I left up the same slide with a picture of me the whole time I told my story – 4-5 minutes worth. Now I’ve created 6 slides, all with ONLY PICTURES or graphics that help to illustrate my signature story. Keep your audience engaged by keeping the slides moving.

So for your next PowerPoint (or Keynote) presentation, try using LESS words and animation and MORE pictures and slides, and let me know what you think.

Your Turn

What PowerPoint presentation or Keynote presentation are you working on? Which of these principles will you now pay more attention to as you create it?

Pam

 

PS – To see how I’ve applied these principles in my latest PowerPoint presentation, check out my newest online training HERE. Enjoy.