Tips for Presenting: How to Structure Your Presentation

There’s no doubt about it, Humans love stories – It’s in our DNA.

When you hear the beginnings of a good story, you’ll find yourself instantly immersed and desperate to find out how it ends, whether it’s that gossip you overheard in the pub, in the supermarket or even a trailer for a new action movie.

So, why wouldn’t you want your audience to hang on your every word during your presentations?

A Powerpoint design company could help you to create an awe-inspiring PowerPoint presentation to wow your investors.  

They have teams of professional and creative presentation designers available who have first-hand knowledge of what works and what doesn’t when it comes to presentations, and once they hand over your completed presentation it is yours to modify and change as you see fit.

There is no secret formula for structuring a PowerPoint presentation but we will walk you through the basics so you can create your most powerful presentation design yet in just a few simple steps … if not then utilizing the services of a PowerPoint agency is a smart option.

Understand your goal.

If you know what you want your audience to think, feel, or do by the end of your presentation, you can work backward to ensure that every message in your presentation content points them in that direction. It’s a form of reverse psychology that’s effective in marketing, sales, and, of course, investing.

Two questions to ask yourself.

Why are you standing here and speaking to this audience?

What do you want to change?

Once you’ve determined your purpose, you can go back over your story as it unfolds and ask yourself, “Does this serve my purpose?” If it does not, you can change it or remove it completely.

Before planning the structure of their PowerPoint presentation, most people have a rough idea of their purpose.

The brief usually includes the overall outcome. Boost your product sales. Demonstrate our abilities. Change their outlook on the industry.

That is, all you need to do is put in the effort to figure out why you do what you do. You don’t just sell products; you also sell people their time back, such as through more efficient software.

If your purpose hasn’t been specified and the brief is completely open, you should read this article for tips on choosing a presentation topic before proceeding.

Understand your target market.

In a business sense, you probably know where you are and have a fairly good idea of where you want to go, so don’t overlook the individuals who will assist you in getting there: your audience. You’ll need to persuade them because they hold the secret to your success.

Understanding your audience is the most critical part of any communication. Most people make the mistake of focusing on themselves, and the content of their presentations is entirely self-centered. And we recognize that you are proud of your product and all the clients who have profited significantly from your collaboration. But your audience isn’t interested in your triumphs; they’re interested in their own.

If you can’t demonstrate that your product solves their problems, they’ll quit listening almost immediately.

The first step is to figure out what their problems are. What do you know about the individuals sitting opposite you on the big day? What is keeping them awake at night? What do they want? What is keeping them from achieving their goals?

You may build your PowerPoint presentation to indicate that you understand them and have the answers they need once you grasp their motives and impediments to success. This is how you define your core messages: the challenges of the audience and your proposed solution.

The language in which your presentation content is written

Who you’re talking to will tell you what kind of language to use in your presentation.

Your voice should always be honest, but how much detail you go into and what kind of specialized language you use will depend on what your audience already knows.

You don’t want to make fun of how smart they are by pitching too low. But you don’t want to use so much jargon that they don’t understand you after the first sentence.

In addition to language, you should think about tone. 

How well do you know the person next to you? 

Can you afford to be more casual and friendly?

Do I need to be more formal and professional?

You can find answers to all of these questions by doing research, so don’t skip the “getting to know you” stage. One thing we can tell you about your audience is that they are probably people. And it’s in our nature to tell stories.

Why structure your presentation content in the form of a story?

Our brains tend to respond well to stories – if they are compelling and interesting of course.

 We listen to and read stories every day. From the stories, our parents tell us before bed to the books and movies we read and watch to get away from our everyday lives to the short, sharp visual stories that smart advertising tells.

By setting up your presentation as a story, you become the guide. You take your audience by the hand and show them new and interesting ideas. You also convince them that if they stick with you, the future will be better.

How does a story appear?

A story must transport the reader on an adventure.

And, for a presentation, it must be easy to understand. Your audience will not have to work hard to comprehend your message. If it’s too complicated, they’ll stop listening.

This is where you start structuring your presentation’s primary messages. Traditional stories are separated into three sections: beginning, middle, and end, so that’s a good starting place.

Beginning

You begin by creating the scene and engaging with your audience by presenting a situation they can relate to. Briefly summarise the existing situation to ensure that everyone is on the same page and to display your industry understanding.

Give them a sneak peek at what’s to come. Set the tone by providing a condensed version of the agenda. We’ve discovered that breaking down the journey they’re going to embark on into three themes works wonderfully. Humans can easily deal with threes.

#Remember: The only limit is your imagination.

Middle

We will go over the concerns you identified during your audience research in the middle section. It is vital to acknowledge each of your audience’s challenges, whether they are one or 46. That doesn’t mean you have to get into specifics.

By grouping issues into broader themes, you can develop an easy-to-follow presentation structure while covering all of their challenges.

Each challenge must be met with a solution. There should also be a clear difference between the challenge and your response. Keep in mind that they won’t have to work hard to join the dots in your PowerPoint presentation design. It is your duty as a guide and storyteller to show them the way.

Remember not to bite off more than you can chew when planning the topics you wish to address during your presentation. Don’t try to uncover a cure for cancer, bring peace to Ukraine, or solve the enigma of what happens to odd socks in a single presentation.

Three satisfactorily replied proposals – or even two, or one – will be significantly more successful than a half-dozen half-baked ones. Keep a slim profile.

End

Your viewers will be emotionally invested by the time you get to your last slides.

All that remains is to appeal to the logical section of the brain.

Case studies, client testimonials, procedural deep dives, or even explaining how the technology actually works are all methods to lend logic and credibility to your argument. Whatever is related to your product, make sure you break it down in an easy-to-understand way that your audience will find useful.

Finish your presentation by summarising how much better their lives will be if your ideas are implemented. Restate your main points briefly. This is your conclusion, your final opportunity to convey your point. We recognize how difficult it is, which is why we entrust it to our Storytellers.

Make your action call as clear as possible. You’ve worked hard to take them on a journey and leave change breadcrumbs, so don’t pass up this opportunity to tell them exactly how they can make this change happen. Explain how they intend to take the first step toward a brighter future.

Your final slide should go out with a boom. This essay goes into the complexities of bringing a presentation to a close. Yes, that deserves its own post.

After you’ve mastered the essentials, you may play around with your narrative structure and get more creative with how you tell your story. Your primary messaging should remain consistent and customized to the demands of your audience, but you can experiment with timings to keep them guessing.

Remember to edit your presentation content

When you think you’ve nailed it, go back to answer the “so what?” argument. Consider why your target audience should be interested in each of your main messages. If you can’t come up with an answer, get rid of it.

Editing, of course, means simplifying your ideas to avoid repetition, ensuring that all your messages move towards your end objective, and tidying up your script in terms of narrative flow.

In conclusion

One thing to always bear in mind – YOU are the star of your presentation; the slides are just there to enhance and strengthen your ideas.