You may not enjoy public speaking or giving presentations. Nonetheless, learning how to deliver an effective one is critical to your career success and a good life skill.

Whether you are an experienced presenter or just starting, you can enhance your presentation skills.

This begs the question: How can you make your “good” presentation “great”?

7 simple yet powerful tips to create a compelling presentation

Here are seven tips to help you produce an effective presentation and enhance your public speaking skills.

1. Hook your audience with a powerful opening

Make your first sentence and first slide count in your presentation. You want to make sure that your audience stays engaged.

Your hook or intro must instantly capture your audience’s attention. It must be memorable, unique, and play to their imagination.

A hook is like a fishing pole worm attracting a fish. It must engage your audience, so they want to listen to what you have to say. 

Research has shown that humans ignore boring things.

The beginning of your presentation is crucial. Grab your audience’s attention instantly. Start by entertaining them with a powerful hook.

First impressions count, and you must grab your audience’s attention. Your audience will remember the beginning and end of your presentation.

These “bookends” must be powerful, so they will not be forgotten.

2. Make the presentation about your audience

It can be easy to get caught up in your ideas and forget that your presentation is about your audience.

Your presentation aims to inform, persuade, and entertain.

Make it easy for your audience to understand and respond to your presentation.

You must engage your audience, including quizzes, self-assessments, or icebreakers.

The goal of your presentation should be to determine what your audience will take away from listening to you.

Keep asking yourself, “What does my audience need and want to know?”

3. Pay attention to body language

The majority of our communication is nonverbal. This means that your body language is critical to conveying your message.

Make sure you convey the correct messages.

• Avoid crossing your arms.
• Do not pace the stage or put your hands in your pockets.
• Your body language must be open, confident, and natural.
• You should smile a lot and make eye contact with your audience.
• It would help if you built a rapport with your audience.

When delivering a presentation, focus on maintaining good posture or the position you hold your body in while standing. It would help if you stood straight with your shoulders back and relaxed. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart.

Whether you like it or not, your audience will judge you based on your appearance. They will want to know if you are warm and competent.

Also, ensure your body faces your audience, and you don’t face the screen with your slides.

Your slides should trigger your comments, but don’t read your slides word for word. Your audience will get bored and stop listening to you if you read to them.

4. Tell stories

Our brains are programmed to respond to stories. Stories help your audience pay attention and remember your message.

When you tell stories, your audience will remember your main points.

People love stories, and they are a powerful way to connect with your audience

Your presentation must tell a compelling story.

Consider what main story you want to tell your audience. Develop this main story with “mini-stories” or chapters that contribute to it.

Guarantee your overall presentation has a clear point and that each slide and story contributes to telling that story.

5. Make it visual

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” — Frederick R. Barnard, an American educator

Visuals are key. They support your points and stories and bring your words to life.

• Your presentation must include a mix of images, videos, and charts.
• The presentation visuals should be of high quality to look sharp when projected on a larger screen.
• Your visuals should reinforce your messages.
• They must be impactful, so your slides aren’t cluttered with images.

Don’t use clip art for images. Some of the best presenters use a big picture with a word or sentence on their slide. That’s it.

6. Keep your presentation short and sweet

Please keep it simple, short, and memorable. People often get tired of sitting in their chairs and listening for too long.

Thanks to social media, we get bored quickly. You don’t want your audience to disappear into their smartphones and not listen to you.

You should limit the number of slides you use. Consider how much time you have to guarantee an effective presentation.

You don’t want to rush through your slides. A good rule of thumb is one minute of talk time per slide.

Guy Kawasaki is an American marketing specialist and author. He is a former Apple employee.

Guy suggests that an effective presentation should consist of:

• Have no more than 10 slides
• Last no more than 20 minutes
• Text on slides should not be smaller than 30-point font

When planning your presentation, remember the top three points your audience wants to take away.

The power of three.

Remember that things come in threes. Compelling stories have a beginning, middle, and end. Great conversationalists use the three-question rule.

• Keep your messages focused and brief.
• Don’t include a story or idea that doesn’t contribute to your core message in your presentation.
• Stop trying to say too much in your presentation–less is more.

7. Close strong

Your presentation must end as strongly as it started. To do so, you should summarize your key points and reinforce your main message.

It would be best if you ended with a compelling story. Your story should come full circle, reflecting how you began your presentation.

Your presentation should close with a strong call to action. Clearly state what you want your audience to do after they leave.

Please include your contact information so that your audience can reach you if they have questions after the event. Thank your audience for their attention.

Bringing it all together

Seven powerful tips will help you create a compelling presentation.

• Begin by capturing your audience with a compelling opening.
• Make the presentation about your audience.
• Pay attention to body language.
• Tell stories.
• Make it visual.
• Keep your presentation short and sweet.
• Close strong.

These tips can help you design and deliver an impressive presentation successfully.

A memorable presentation can boost your career and lead to new opportunities at work. Developing a persuasive presentation is a valuable skill to learn as you grow your career.

“The success of your presentation will be judged not by the knowledge you send but by what the listener receives.” — Lilly Walters, an author

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