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How to give a good presentation that captivates any audience

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What are the main difficulties when giving presentations?

How to create an effective presentation, after that, how do i give a memorable presentation, how to connect with the audience when presenting.

If you’ve ever heard someone give a powerful presentation, you probably remember how it made you feel. Much like a composer, a good speaker knows precisely when each note should strike to captivate their audience’s attention and leave them with a lasting impression.

No one becomes a great public speaker or presenter without practice. And almost everyone can recall a time one of their presentations went badly — that’s a painful part of the learning process.

Whether you’re working within a small creative team or a large organization, public speaking and presentation skills are vital to communicating your ideas. Knowing how to present your vision can help you pitch concepts to clients, present ideas to your team, and develop the confidence to participate in team meetings.

If you have an upcoming presentation on the horizon and feel nervous, that’s normal. Around 15-30% of the general population experience a fear of public speaking . And, unfortunately, social anxiety is on the rise, with a 12% increase in adults over the last 20 years . 

Learning how to give a good presentation can dismantle your fears and break down these barriers, ensuring you’re ready to confidently share your point of view. 

It’s the week before your presentation, and you’re already feeling nervous . Maybe there’ll be an important mentor in the room you need to impress, or you’re looking for an opportunity to show your boss your value. Regardless of your countless past presentations, you still feel nervous. 

Sharing your vision and ideas with any sized group is intimidating. You’re likely worrying about how you’ll perform as a presenter and whether the audience will be interested in what you offer. But nerves aren’t inherently negative — you can actually use this feeling to fuel your preparation.

It’s helpful to identify where your worries are coming from and address your fears. Here are some common concerns when preparing for an upcoming presentation:

Fear of public speaking: When you share your ideas in front of a group, you’re placing yourself in a vulnerable position to be critiqued on your knowledge and communication skills . Maybe you feel confident in your content, but when you think about standing in front of an audience, you feel anxious and your mind goes blank.

It’s also not uncommon to have physical symptoms when presenting . Some people experience nausea and dizziness as the brain releases adrenaline to cope with the potentially stressful situation . Remember to take deep breaths to recenter yourself and be patient, even if you make a mistake.

Losing the audience’s attention: As a presenter, your main focus is to keep your audience engaged. They should feel like they’re learning valuable information or following a story that will improve them in life or business.

Highlight the most exciting pieces of knowledge and ensure you emphasize those points in your presentation. If you feel passionate about your content, it’s more likely that your audience will experience this excitement for themselves and become invested in what you have to say.

Not knowing what content to place on presentation slides: Overloading presentation slides is a fast way to lose your audience’s attention. Your slides should contain only the main talking points and limited text to ensure your audience focuses on what you have to say rather than becoming distracted by the content on your slides.

Discomfort incorporating nonverbal communication: It’s natural to feel stiff and frozen when you’re nervous. But maintaining effective body language helps your audience stay focused on you as you speak and encourages you to relax.

If you struggle to incorporate body language into your presentations, try starting small by making hand gestures toward your slides. If you’re working with a large audience, use different parts of the stage to ensure everyone feels included. 

Each presenter has their own personal brand and style. Some may use humor to break the ice, while others might appeal to the audience’s emotional side through inspiring storytelling. 

Watching online presentations, such as TED talks, is an excellent way to expose yourself to various presentation styles and develop your own. While observing others, you can note how they carry themselves on stage and learn new ways to keep your audience engaged.

Once you’ve addressed what’s causing your fears, it’s time to prepare for a great presentation. Use your past experience as inspiration and aim to outshine your former self by learning from your mistakes and employing new techniques. Here are five presentation tips to help you create a strong presentation and wow your audience:

1. Keep it simple

Simple means something different to everyone.

Before creating your presentation, take note of your intended audience and their knowledge level of your subject. You’ll want your content to be easy for your intended audience to follow.

Say you’re giving a presentation on improving your company’s operational structure. Entry-level workers will likely need a more straightforward overview of the content than C-suite leaders, who have significantly more experience. 

Ask yourself what you want your audience to take away from your presentation and emphasize those important points. Doing this ensures they remember the most vital information rather than less important supporting ideas. Try organizing these concepts into bullet points so viewers can quickly identify critical takeaways.

2. Create a compelling structure

Put yourself in your audience member’s shoes and determine the most compelling way to organize your information. Your presentation should be articulate , cohesive, and logical, and you must be sure to include all necessary supporting evidence to strengthen your main points.

If you give away all of your answers too quickly, your audience could lose interest. And if there isn’t enough supporting information, they could hit a roadblock of confusion. Try developing a compelling story that leads your audience through your thought processes so they can experience the ups and downs alongside you. 

By structuring your presentation to lead up to a final conclusion, you’re more likely to keep listeners’ attention. Once you’ve reached that conclusion, you can offer a Q&A period to put any of their questions or concerns to rest. 

3. Use visual aids

Appealing to various learning styles is a great way to keep everyone on the same page and ensure they absorb your content. Visual aids are necessary for visual learners and make it easier for people to picture your ideas.

Aim to incorporate a mixture of photos, videos, and props to engage your audience and convey your key points. For instance, if you’re giving a presentation on anthropology subject matter, you could show your audience an artifact to help them understand how exciting a discovery must have been. 

If your presentation is long, including a video for your audience to watch is an excellent way to give yourself a break and create new jumping-off points for your speech.

4. Be aware of design techniques and trends

Thanks to cutting-edge technology and tools, you have numerous platforms at your disposal to create a good presentation. But keep in mind that although color, images, and graphics liven things up, they can cause distraction when misused.

  Here are a few standard pointers for incorporating visuals on your slides: 

• Don’t place blocks of small text on a single slide
• Use a minimalistic background instead of a busy one
• Ensure text stands out against the background color
• Only use high-resolution photos
• Maintain a consistent font style and size throughout the presentation
• Don’t overuse transitions and effects

5. Try the 10-20-30 rule

Guy Kawasaki, a prominent venture capitalist and one of the original marketing specialists for Apple, said that the best slideshow presentations are less than 10 slides , last at most 20 minutes, and use a font size of 30. Following this strategy can help you condense your information, eliminate unnecessary ideas, and maintain your audience’s focus more efficiently.

Once you’re confident in creating a memorable presentation, it’s time to learn how to give one. Here are some valuable tips for keeping your audience invested during your talk: 

Tip #1: Tell stories

Sharing an anecdote from your life can improve your credibility and increase your relatability. And when an audience relates to you, they’re more likely to feel connected to who you are as a person and encouraged to give you their full attention, as they would want others to do the same.

Gill Hicks utilized this strategy well when she shared her powerful story, “ I survived a terrorist attack. Here’s what I learned .” In her harrowing tale, Hicks highlights the importance of compassion, unconditional love , and helping those in need.

If you feel uncomfortable sharing personal stories, that’s okay. You can use examples from famous individuals or create a fictional account to demonstrate your ideas.

Tip #2: Make eye contact with the audience

Maintaining eye contact is less intimidating than it sounds. In fact, you don’t have to look your audience members directly in their eyes — you can focus on their foreheads or noses if that’s easier.

Try making eye contact with as many people as possible for 3–5 seconds each. This timing ensures you don’t look away too quickly, making the audience member feel unimportant, or linger too long, making them feel uncomfortable.

If you’re presenting to a large group, direct your focus to each part of the room to ensure no section of the audience feels ignored. 

Tip #3: Work on your stage presence

Although your tone and words are the most impactful part of your presentation, recall that body language keeps your audience engaged. Use these tips to master a professional stage presence:

• Speak with open arms and avoid crossing them
• Keep a reasonable pace and try not to stand still
• Use hand gestures to highlight important information

Tip #4: Start strong

Like watching a movie trailer, the first seconds of your talk are critical for capturing your audience’s attention. How you start your speech sets the tone for the rest of your presentation and tells your audience whether or not they should pay attention. Here are some ways to start your presentation to leave a lasting impression:

• Use a quote from a well-known and likable influential person 
• Ask a rhetorical question to create intrigue
• Start with an anecdote to add context to your talk 
• Spark your audience’s curiosity by involving them in an interactive problem-solving puzzle or riddle

Tip #5: Show your passion

Don’t be afraid of being too enthusiastic. Everyone appreciates a speaker who’s genuinely excited about their field of expertise. 

In “ Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance ,” Angela Lee Duckworth discusses the importance of passion in research and delivery. She delivers her presentation excitedly to show the audience how excitement piques interest. 

Tip #6: Plan your delivery

How you decide to deliver your speech will shape your presentation. Will you be preparing a PowerPoint presentation and using a teleprompter? Or are you working within the constraints of the digital world and presenting over Zoom?

The best presentations are conducted by speakers who know their stuff and memorize their content. However, if you find this challenging, try creating notes to use as a safety net in case you lose track.

If you’re presenting online, you can keep notes beside your computer for each slide, highlighting your key points. This ensures you include all the necessary information and follow a logical order.

Tip #7: Practice

Practice doesn’t make perfect — it makes progress. There’s no way of preparing for unforeseen circumstances, but thorough practice means you’ve done everything you can to succeed.

Rehearse your speech in front of a mirror or to a trusted friend or family member. Take any feedback and use it as an opportunity to fine-tune your speech. But remember: who you practice your presentation in front of may differ from your intended audience. Consider their opinions through the lens of them occupying this different position.

Tip #8: Read the room

Whether you’re a keynote speaker at an event or presenting to a small group of clients, knowing how to read the room is vital for keeping your audience happy. Stay flexible and be willing to move on from topics quickly if your listeners are uninterested or displeased with a particular part of your speech.

Tip #9: Breathe

Try taking deep breaths before your presentation to calm your nerves. If you feel rushed, you’re more likely to feel nervous and stumble on your words.

The most important thing to consider when presenting is your audience’s feelings. When you approach your next presentation calmly, you’ll put your audience at ease and encourage them to feel comfortable in your presence.

Tip #10: Provide a call-to-action

When you end your presentation, your audience should feel compelled to take a specific action, whether that’s changing their habits or contacting you for your services.

If you’re presenting to clients, create a handout with key points and contact information so they can get in touch. You should provide your LinkedIn information, email address, and phone number so they have a variety of ways to reach you. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all template for an effective presentation, as your unique audience and subject matter play a role in shaping your speech. As a general rule, though, you should aim to connect with your audience through passion and excitement. Use strong eye contact and body language. Capture their interest through storytelling and their trust through relatability.

Learning how to give a good presentation can feel overwhelming — but remember, practice makes progress. Rehearse your presentation for someone you trust, collect their feedback , and revise. Practicing your presentation skills is helpful for any job, and every challenge is a chance to grow.

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Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

How to write a speech that your audience remembers

6 presentation skills and how to improve them, 3 stand-out professional bio examples to inspire your own, tell a story they can't ignore these 10 tips will teach you how, how to make a presentation interactive and exciting, your guide to what storytelling is and how to be a good storyteller, reading the room gives you an edge — no matter who you're talking to, 18 effective strategies to improve your communication skills, writing an elevator pitch about yourself: a how-to plus tips, how to disagree at work without being obnoxious, the importance of good speech: 5 tips to be more articulate, the 11 tips that will improve your public speaking skills, 30 presentation feedback examples, fear of public speaking overcome it with these 7 tips, how to not be nervous for a presentation — 13 tips that work (really), 8 clever hooks for presentations (with tips), stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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Blog Beginner Guides How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

Written by: Krystle Wong Jul 20, 2023

A top-notch presentation possesses the power to drive action. From winning stakeholders over and conveying a powerful message to securing funding — your secret weapon lies within the realm of creating an effective presentation .  

Being an excellent presenter isn’t confined to the boardroom. Whether you’re delivering a presentation at work, pursuing an academic career, involved in a non-profit organization or even a student, nailing the presentation game is a game-changer.

In this article, I’ll cover the top qualities of compelling presentations and walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to give a good presentation. Here’s a little tip to kick things off: for a headstart, check out Venngage’s collection of free presentation templates . They are fully customizable, and the best part is you don’t need professional design skills to make them shine!

These valuable presentation tips cater to individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, encompassing business professionals, sales and marketing teams, educators, trainers, students, researchers, non-profit organizations, public speakers and presenters. 

No matter your field or role, these tips for presenting will equip you with the skills to deliver effective presentations that leave a lasting impression on any audience.

Click to jump ahead:

What are the 10 qualities of a good presentation?

Step-by-step guide on how to prepare an effective presentation, 9 effective techniques to deliver a memorable presentation, faqs on making a good presentation, how to create a presentation with venngage in 5 steps.

When it comes to giving an engaging presentation that leaves a lasting impression, it’s not just about the content — it’s also about how you deliver it. Wondering what makes a good presentation? Well, the best presentations I’ve seen consistently exhibit these 10 qualities:

1. Clear structure

No one likes to get lost in a maze of information. Organize your thoughts into a logical flow, complete with an introduction, main points and a solid conclusion. A structured presentation helps your audience follow along effortlessly, leaving them with a sense of satisfaction at the end.

Regardless of your presentation style , a quality presentation starts with a clear roadmap. Browse through Venngage’s template library and select a presentation template that aligns with your content and presentation goals. Here’s a good presentation example template with a logical layout that includes sections for the introduction, main points, supporting information and a conclusion: 

2. Engaging opening

Hook your audience right from the start with an attention-grabbing statement, a fascinating question or maybe even a captivating anecdote. Set the stage for a killer presentation!

The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.

3. Relevant content

Make sure your content aligns with their interests and needs. Your audience is there for a reason, and that’s to get valuable insights. Avoid fluff and get straight to the point, your audience will be genuinely excited.

4. Effective visual aids

Picture this: a slide with walls of text and tiny charts, yawn! Visual aids should be just that—aiding your presentation. Opt for clear and visually appealing slides, engaging images and informative charts that add value and help reinforce your message.

With Venngage, visualizing data takes no effort at all. You can import data from CSV or Google Sheets seamlessly and create stunning charts, graphs and icon stories effortlessly to showcase your data in a captivating and impactful way.

5. Clear and concise communication

Keep your language simple, and avoid jargon or complicated terms. Communicate your ideas clearly, so your audience can easily grasp and retain the information being conveyed. This can prevent confusion and enhance the overall effectiveness of the message. 

6. Engaging delivery

Spice up your presentation with a sprinkle of enthusiasm! Maintain eye contact, use expressive gestures and vary your tone of voice to keep your audience glued to the edge of their seats. A touch of charisma goes a long way!

7. Interaction and audience engagement

Turn your presentation into an interactive experience — encourage questions, foster discussions and maybe even throw in a fun activity. Engaged audiences are more likely to remember and embrace your message.

Transform your slides into an interactive presentation with Venngage’s dynamic features like pop-ups, clickable icons and animated elements. Engage your audience with interactive content that lets them explore and interact with your presentation for a truly immersive experience.

8. Effective storytelling

Who doesn’t love a good story? Weaving relevant anecdotes, case studies or even a personal story into your presentation can captivate your audience and create a lasting impact. Stories build connections and make your message memorable.

A great presentation background is also essential as it sets the tone, creates visual interest and reinforces your message. Enhance the overall aesthetics of your presentation with these 15 presentation background examples and captivate your audience’s attention.

9. Well-timed pacing

Pace your presentation thoughtfully with well-designed presentation slides, neither rushing through nor dragging it out. Respect your audience’s time and ensure you cover all the essential points without losing their interest.

10. Strong conclusion

Last impressions linger! Summarize your main points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway. End your presentation with a bang , a call to action or an inspiring thought that resonates long after the conclusion.

In-person presentations aside, acing a virtual presentation is of paramount importance in today’s digital world. Check out this guide to learn how you can adapt your in-person presentations into virtual presentations . 

Preparing an effective presentation starts with laying a strong foundation that goes beyond just creating slides and notes. One of the quickest and best ways to make a presentation would be with the help of a good presentation software . 

Otherwise, let me walk you to how to prepare for a presentation step by step and unlock the secrets of crafting a professional presentation that sets you apart.

1. Understand the audience and their needs

Before you dive into preparing your masterpiece, take a moment to get to know your target audience. Tailor your presentation to meet their needs and expectations , and you’ll have them hooked from the start!

2. Conduct thorough research on the topic

Time to hit the books (or the internet)! Don’t skimp on the research with your presentation materials — dive deep into the subject matter and gather valuable insights . The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel in delivering your presentation.

3. Organize the content with a clear structure

No one wants to stumble through a chaotic mess of information. Outline your presentation with a clear and logical flow. Start with a captivating introduction, follow up with main points that build on each other and wrap it up with a powerful conclusion that leaves a lasting impression.

Delivering an effective business presentation hinges on captivating your audience, and Venngage’s professionally designed business presentation templates are tailor-made for this purpose. With thoughtfully structured layouts, these templates enhance your message’s clarity and coherence, ensuring a memorable and engaging experience for your audience members.

Don’t want to build your presentation layout from scratch? pick from these 5 foolproof presentation layout ideas that won’t go wrong. 

4. Develop visually appealing and supportive visual aids

Spice up your presentation with eye-catching visuals! Create slides that complement your message, not overshadow it. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean you need to overload your slides with text.

Well-chosen designs create a cohesive and professional look, capturing your audience’s attention and enhancing the overall effectiveness of your message. Here’s a list of carefully curated PowerPoint presentation templates and great background graphics that will significantly influence the visual appeal and engagement of your presentation.

5. Practice, practice and practice

Practice makes perfect — rehearse your presentation and arrive early to your presentation to help overcome stage fright. Familiarity with your material will boost your presentation skills and help you handle curveballs with ease.

6. Seek feedback and make necessary adjustments

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek feedback from friends and colleagues. Constructive criticism can help you identify blind spots and fine-tune your presentation to perfection.

With Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature , receiving feedback and editing your presentation is a seamless process. Group members can access and work on the presentation simultaneously and edit content side by side in real-time. Changes will be reflected immediately to the entire team, promoting seamless teamwork.

7. Prepare for potential technical or logistical issues

Prepare for the unexpected by checking your equipment, internet connection and any other potential hiccups. If you’re worried that you’ll miss out on any important points, you could always have note cards prepared. Remember to remain focused and rehearse potential answers to anticipated questions.

8. Fine-tune and polish your presentation

As the big day approaches, give your presentation one last shine. Review your talking points, practice how to present a presentation and make any final tweaks. Deep breaths — you’re on the brink of delivering a successful presentation!

In competitive environments, persuasive presentations set individuals and organizations apart. To brush up on your presentation skills, read these guides on how to make a persuasive presentation and tips to presenting effectively . 

Whether you’re an experienced presenter or a novice, the right techniques will let your presentation skills soar to new heights!

From public speaking hacks to interactive elements and storytelling prowess, these 9 effective presentation techniques will empower you to leave a lasting impression on your audience and make your presentations unforgettable.

1. Confidence and positive body language

Positive body language instantly captivates your audience, making them believe in your message as much as you do. Strengthen your stage presence and own that stage like it’s your second home! Stand tall, shoulders back and exude confidence. 

2. Eye contact with the audience

Break down that invisible barrier and connect with your audience through their eyes. Maintaining eye contact when giving a presentation builds trust and shows that you’re present and engaged with them.

3. Effective use of hand gestures and movement

A little movement goes a long way! Emphasize key points with purposeful gestures and don’t be afraid to walk around the stage. Your energy will be contagious!

4. Utilize storytelling techniques

Weave the magic of storytelling into your presentation. Share relatable anecdotes, inspiring success stories or even personal experiences that tug at the heartstrings of your audience. Adjust your pitch, pace and volume to match the emotions and intensity of the story. Varying your speaking voice adds depth and enhances your stage presence.

5. Incorporate multimedia elements

Spice up your presentation with a dash of visual pizzazz! Use slides, images and video clips to add depth and clarity to your message. Just remember, less is more—don’t overwhelm them with information overload. 

Turn your presentations into an interactive party! Involve your audience with questions, polls or group activities. When they actively participate, they become invested in your presentation’s success. Bring your design to life with animated elements. Venngage allows you to apply animations to icons, images and text to create dynamic and engaging visual content.

6. Utilize humor strategically

Laughter is the best medicine—and a fantastic presentation enhancer! A well-placed joke or lighthearted moment can break the ice and create a warm atmosphere , making your audience more receptive to your message.

7. Practice active listening and respond to feedback

Be attentive to your audience’s reactions and feedback. If they have questions or concerns, address them with genuine interest and respect. Your responsiveness builds rapport and shows that you genuinely care about their experience.

8. Apply the 10-20-30 rule

Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it!

9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule

Simplicity is key. Limit each slide to five bullet points, with only five words per bullet point and allow each slide to remain visible for about five seconds. This rule keeps your presentation concise and prevents information overload.

Simple presentations are more engaging because they are easier to follow. Summarize your presentations and keep them simple with Venngage’s gallery of simple presentation templates and ensure that your message is delivered effectively across your audience.

1. How to start a presentation?

To kick off your presentation effectively, begin with an attention-grabbing statement or a powerful quote. Introduce yourself, establish credibility and clearly state the purpose and relevance of your presentation.

2. How to end a presentation?

For a strong conclusion, summarize your talking points and key takeaways. End with a compelling call to action or a thought-provoking question and remember to thank your audience and invite any final questions or interactions.

3. How to make a presentation interactive?

To make your presentation interactive, encourage questions and discussion throughout your talk. Utilize multimedia elements like videos or images and consider including polls, quizzes or group activities to actively involve your audience.

In need of inspiration for your next presentation? I’ve got your back! Pick from these 120+ presentation ideas, topics and examples to get started. 

Creating a stunning presentation with Venngage is a breeze with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and professionally designed templates for all your communication needs. 

Here’s how to make a presentation in just 5 simple steps with the help of Venngage:

Step 1: Sign up for Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account or simply log in to access your account. 

Step 2: Pick a design from our selection of free presentation templates (they’re all created by our expert in-house designers).

Step 3: Make the template your own by customizing it to fit your content and branding. With Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily modify text, change colors and adjust the layout to create a unique and eye-catching design.

Step 4: Elevate your presentation by incorporating captivating visuals. You can upload your images or choose from Venngage’s vast library of high-quality photos, icons and illustrations. 

Step 5: Upgrade to a premium or business account to export your presentation in PDF and print it for in-person presentations or share it digitally for free!

By following these five simple steps, you’ll have a professionally designed and visually engaging presentation ready in no time. With Venngage’s user-friendly platform, your presentation is sure to make a lasting impression. So, let your creativity flow and get ready to shine in your next presentation!

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How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

by Guy Kawasaki

Summary .   

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

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How to Make a Company Profile Presentation (Tips & Examples)

Learn how to make a company profile presentation with our expert tips and company profile presentation examples. Try interactive templates for a personal touch.

Dominika Krukowska

9 minute read

Short answer

What is a company profile presentation?

A company profile presentation is a short, visually appealing presentation that tells your company's story — covering its mission, history, key achievements, and future aspirations. It's perfect for making a great first impression on clients and investors, showing them what makes your business special in a clear and engaging way.

Without a compelling company profile, you’re just another logo in a sea of businesses

In a world where every niche is crowded with competitors, both fresh startups and established giants, standing out is not just tough; it's a survival game.

Not having a strong company profile presentation can lead to missed opportunities and potential customers slipping through your fingers.

But here's the good news: I believe your company can not only compete but also shine.

Stick with me, and you'll learn to create a company profile presentation that not only stands out but also holds its own against the big players. I’m going to walk you through easy-to-implement, effective ways to elevate your company profile from just another name to a standout brand.

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What makes an effective company profile presentation?

An effective company profile presentation blends engaging storytelling, interactivity, and personalized content that speaks directly to your audience. It's about making a connection, tailoring your message to resonate with viewers, and highlighting your company's journey, mission, and successes.

What should a company profile presentation include?

When you're putting together a business profile presentation, think of it as telling your business's story in a way that's both engaging and informative.

It's your chance to connect with your audience, whether they're potential investors, clients, or partners, and give them a real sense of what your company is all about.

Here's a breakdown of what to include to make your business profile presentation shine.

1) The story of your business

Begin with the origins of your company. This isn't just about dates and facts; it's about sharing the journey, the ups and downs, and the lessons learned along the way.

This narrative helps your audience connect with your business on a personal level, understanding where you come from and what has shaped your company.

2) Core principles and goals

Your mission, vision, and values aren't just corporate jargon; they're the heart and soul of your business. They guide your decisions and actions.

Clearly presenting these principles helps your audience understand what your business stands for and what you're striving to achieve.

3) Milestones and success stories

Highlight the key moments that have defined your company's journey. This could be anything from launching a groundbreaking product to expanding into new markets.

These milestones not only showcase your achievements but also demonstrate your growth and adaptability.

4) Awards and recognitions

Displaying awards and recognitions adds a layer of trust and credibility. It shows that external bodies have endorsed your company, which can be a powerful tool in building confidence in your brand.

5) The team

People connect with people, not just brands. Introduce the key figures in your company, highlighting their expertise and roles.

You can also include employee testimonials that offer a genuine look into your company culture and the people who make everything happen. This humanizes your company and builds trust by showing the faces behind the business.

6) What you offer

Clearly outline what your company offers. This section should be straightforward, explaining your products or services and how they benefit your customers.

Keep it simple but informative, ensuring your audience understands your value proposition.

7) What makes you different

In a competitive market, it's crucial to highlight what sets you apart. Discuss your unique selling points and how they differentiate you from your competitors. This is your chance to explain why your company is the better choice.

8) Financial health and growth

Share key financial data that showcases your company's stability and growth potential. This reassures your audience of your business's health and prospects, which is particularly important for investors and partners.

9) Future plans and aspirations

Describe your goals and how you plan to achieve them. This shows that you're not just focused on the present but are actively planning for future growth and success.

10) Clear call to action

Finish your presentation with a clear invitation for your audience to take the next step. Whether it's exploring a partnership, trying out your products, or discussing investment opportunities, make it easy for them to know how to engage with your company.

How do you create a company profile presentation?

Creating a company introduction presentation is more than just listing facts about your business; it's an opportunity to tell a compelling story that resonates with your audience and offer a window into the soul of your business.

Here’s how to create a captivating company introduction presentation in a few easy steps:

1) Understand the purpose of your presentation

Before you start, it's crucial to understand why you're creating this presentation. Is it to attract investors, inform potential clients, or introduce your company to new employees?

Knowing your audience and purpose shapes the content, tone, and style of your presentation, ensuring it resonates with the right people in the right way.

2) Start with a strong introduction

Your introduction is your first impression. Start with something that grabs attention – your company's mission statement, a brief but intriguing history, or an engaging anecdote about how your company came to be.

This isn't just about providing information; it's about setting the stage and getting your audience interested in what comes next.

Here’s an example of a deck with a strong introduction:

3) Personalize your presentation

Customize your presentation to speak directly to your audience's interests and needs. If you're addressing potential clients, focus on how your products or services solve their specific problems. For investors, emphasize business performance and growth potential.

You can also add dynamic variables to your company profile and import relevant data like your reader’s name or company directly from your CRM. This simple trick will get 68% more people to read your deck in full , and share it internally 2.3x more often.

Here’s a great example of a personalized slide:

4) Incorporate scrollytelling

Scrollytelling can transform a static presentation into an interactive experience, especially for digital formats.

As the viewer scrolls, new elements of your story appear, keeping them engaged and curious about what's next. This technique works wonders for keeping your audience hooked.

Here’s what scrollytelling looks like in practice:

5) Tell your story authentically

Share your company's journey with authenticity. Talk about the challenges you've faced and how you overcame them, the milestones you've achieved, and the reasons behind starting your business.

Authentic storytelling creates a deeper, more emotional connection with your audience.

If you’re looking for inspiration, we have a handy guide including the best presentation storytelling examples and techniques .

6) Add interactive elements

Interactive elements like clickable links, embedded videos, or tiered slides can significantly enhance your presentation's engagement level. These elements provide additional layers of information and interaction without overloading your slides with text.

7) Simplify complex information

Data visualization slides and infographics are powerful tools for presenting complex information in a digestible format.

Whether it's market trends, growth statistics, or financial data, visual representations make it easier for your audience to understand and remember key points.

Here’s a great example of using data visualization in a presentation:

8) Guide your audience to the next step

End your presentation with a clear call to action. What do you want your audience to do next? Whether it’s visiting your website, contacting your team, or exploring a partnership, make this step clear and easy to follow.

Interactive presentation makers let you integrate your calendar into your deck, making it easier than ever for readers to book a meeting with you.

Here’s what a next step slide looks like:

Company profile examples that make your business stand out

Creating a compelling company profile presentation is an art. It's about striking the perfect balance between informative content and engaging storytelling.

To help you master this craft, let's dive into some standout examples of company profile presentations.

Each one shows just how well creativity and clear thinking can work together to really bring out what a company does best and where it's headed, in a way that's both unique and easy to understand.

Jump ahead to page section

Company highlights

This company highlights template presents your journey, market growth, and customer satisfaction. It's ideal for companies like SMEs, startups, and enterprises looking to illustrate their success in AI-driven innovation.

What makes this company profile presentation great:

Using a mix of storytelling and data to highlight a company’s evolution and expertise.

Interactive elements like clickable data points and embedded testimonials bring the company's impact and client experiences to life.

The presentation strategically targets diverse business segments , demonstrating the company's versatility and wide-ranging applications in AI solutions.

Company profile overview

This template is ideal for businesses seeking to present a comprehensive overview. It effectively communicates your company's mission, vision, achievements, and future goals, making it suitable for all types of businesses aiming to establish a strong brand narrative.

Key metrics like annual revenue growth and customer retention rates are highlighted, demonstrating market impact and growth trajectory.

It cleverly segments its audience , detailing how its AI solutions cater to the specific needs of SMEs, startups, and large enterprises, demonstrating a tailored approach.

The company uniquely positions itself by emphasizing its specialized team , highlighting their expertise in driving AI innovation.

Enterprise snapshot

This template is designed for large-scale organizations. It effectively showcases your company's scale, capabilities, and market position, making it ideal for enterprises aiming to highlight their industry dominance and innovative solutions.

It uses tiered slides with tabs , effectively catering to different use cases and readers, allowing for a personalized presentation journey.

The presentation features easily editable logo placeholders , offering the flexibility to showcase past clients' logos, enhancing credibility and trust.

The ability to embed a case study directly into the presentation, providing tangible evidence of a company’s impact and success in real-world scenarios.

Corporate spotlight

This template is a concise yet impactful tool for highlighting your company's background, values, capabilities, and accomplishments. It's perfect for businesses wanting to emphasize their unique selling points and industry standing.

A smart Call-to-Action (CTA) that's strategically placed to engage viewers and encourage them to schedule a call directly from the company profile deck.

The fully interactive layout of the presentation invites viewers to actively engage with the content, creating a more immersive and memorable experience.

Data visualization elements transform complex data into easily digestible and visually appealing information, enhancing understanding and retention.

Company introduction

This template is tailored for businesses in the finance and technology sector. It effectively communicates your company's solutions, market challenges, and how you address them, making it ideal for companies looking to establish credibility.

The average reading time on the cover slide sets clear expectations for the audience and reduces bounce rate by almost a quarter .

The use of grayed-out content strategically highlights key information, guiding the viewer's focus to the most important aspects of the presentation.

Running numbers dynamically showcase key achievements and growth metrics, capturing attention instantly.

Corporate profile

This corporate profile emplate offers a succinct yet powerful presentation of your company. Highlight your unique selling points and industry standing, making a strong impression on your audience.

A video on the cover slide immediately sets the tone for the company's innovative approach and boosts engagement by up to 32% .

A perfect balance between image and text placeholders ensures a visually appealing layout that communicates effectively without overwhelming the audience.

A built-in analytics panel allows companies to track viewer engagement and gather valuable insights for future presentations and strategies.

General business overview

This general business overview template is a versatile tool for businesses across various industries. It showcases your company's innovative solutions, market growth, and customer satisfaction, suitable for companies aiming to highlight their market impact and user-centric approach.

The presentation begins with a strong, user-centric message , emphasizing commitment to enhancing user experience and streamlining operations.

The ability to add testimonials and case studies can enhance credibility and showcase the real-world impact of your company’s solutions.

A library of data visualization elements to highlight the most important growth metrics in an interactive way.

Company insights

This company insights template is perfect for businesses looking to showcase their innovative solutions and market impact. It highlights your company's growth, customer satisfaction, and industry solutions, ideal for companies aiming to illustrate their success and expertise.

It offers the option to integrate dynamic variables , which enables a personalized experience for each viewer to enhance engagement and relevance.

The ability to use an AI assistant for crafting messages and generating images , showcasing a forward-thinking approach in presentation design.

The presentation design allows for the addition of multiple smart CTAs , giving presenters the flexibility to guide viewer interaction and drive specific actions.

Company overview

This template emphasizes your company's innovative solutions, market growth, and customer satisfaction, making it suitable for e-commerce, startups, and large enterprises aiming to demonstrate their user-centric approach and success.

An intuitive editor makes it easy for users to create and customize their presentations.

Thanks to various CRM integrations , you can personalize your deck at scale, allowing for tailored messaging that resonates with each unique audience segment.

The option to extract branding elements directly from the brand name and company website, ensuring brand consistency and a cohesive visual identity across the presentation.

Company intro

This template showcases your company's innovative solutions, industry challenges, and the benefits of your services, making it ideal for companies aiming to demonstrate their expertise and capacity for digital transformation and financial empowerment.

Using dynamic variables makes personalization quick and easy while ensuring that 68% more people will read your presentation in full .

The layout of the presentation automatically adapts to any changes made, so you don’t have to worry about ever breaking the design.

The option to make changes even after it has been sent , offering flexibility and control over the messaging and content.

Company presentation

This template is perfect for 'About us' decks or company overviews. It tells the story of your business in a way that engages and resonates with the audience, making it ideal for companies looking to create a compelling narrative about their journey and achievements.

A mobile-responsive design ensures it looks great and functions smoothly on any device, enhancing accessibility and viewer engagement.

The option to embed videos directly into the deck adds a dynamic and interactive element that can effectively convey the company's story and values.

The scroll-based design of the presentation creates a seamless and intuitive user experience, guiding viewers through the content in a natural and engaging way.

How to design a company profile presentation?

Designing a compelling company profile presentation is about more than just listing your achievements and services. It's about creating a narrative that resonates with your audience and showcases your company's unique value.

Here’s how to make your company introduction presentation stand out:

1) Tell your company's story visually

Start with a strong visual narrative. Use images, infographics, and timelines to illustrate your company's journey, achievements, and future goals. This approach helps your audience connect with your story on a deeper level.

2) Incorporate your branding

Ensure your presentation reflects your company's branding. Use your brand colors, logos, and fonts consistently throughout the presentation. This does more than just give a polished look; it really helps hammer home what your brand is all about. Use all the toolstack you need for a hgh-end design, from logo creators to brand color palletes.

3) Use data visualization components

When presenting data, such as market growth, financials, or customer demographics, use charts and graphs. This makes complex information more digestible and engaging.

4) Personalize for different audiences

Tailor your presentation to your audience. Whether it's potential investors, clients, or partners, make sure the content speaks directly to their interests and needs.

Also, thanks to CRM integrations, you can extract information such as first name or company name, and use it to personalize your business profile presentations at scale in just a few clicks.

5) Add interactive elements for engagement

Consider adding interactive elements like clickable links, embedded videos, or animated product demos. This interactivity keeps the audience engaged and makes your presentation more memorable.

6) Prioritize clarity and readability

Organize your content in a way that's easy to follow. Use bullet points, short paragraphs, and clear headings. If you have a lot of information, consider using expandable sections or tabs.

7) End with a strong Call to Action

Conclude your presentation with a clear call to action. Whether it’s inviting questions, scheduling a meeting, or directing them to your website, make it easy for your audience to take the next step.

Interactive company profile presentation templates

Starting from scratch on a company profile presentation can be a real challenge. You need to figure out not only what to say but also how to say it in a way that truly represents your brand.

That's where interactive company profile presentation templates are a lifesaver. They give you a solid foundation with professional designs and layouts, so you can focus on customizing the content to tell your company's unique story.

Grab one and see for yourself.

Hi, I'm Dominika, Content Specialist at Storydoc. As a creative professional with experience in fashion, I'm here to show you how to amplify your brand message through the power of storytelling and eye-catching visuals.

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• Presentations
• Public Speaking

The Complete Guide to Making Great Business Presentations in 2024

Introduction

Are you ready to consume a comprehensive treasure trove of the best presentation ideas and techniques for 2024? 

This ultimate guide is over 16 thousand words with nine full chapters of helpful and up-to-date information. 

It takes you through the complete presentation process from start to end. It includes good PowerPoint presentation examples you can easily follow.

It's packed with comprehensive easy-to-implement steps on making powerful business presentations quickly. It includes expert tips, great presentation design examples, actionable takeaways, and more. 

Download a FREE PDF Copy of Our New eBook on Making Great Business Presentations in 2024

Be sure to bookmark this page now, so you can quickly return to this epic business presentation guide.  Or   download this FREE guide  as a convenient 69 page eBook PDF with quick-action checklist (for easy offline use).

Table of Contents

Jump ahead to any part of this tutorial guide from this Table of Contents. Start learning the specifics on how to make a great business presentation in 2024:

• How to Make a Great (Highly Effective) Business Presentation  
• How to Prevent 18 Common Business Presentation Mistakes (Fails)  
• 25+ Best Business Presentation Tips From the Experts (For Great Results in 2024)
• How to Plan (+Write) a Powerful Business Presentation Quickly
• How to Choose the Best Business Presentation Software for 2024 (+Quick Start Tips)
• How to Design a Killer Business Presentation Like a Creative Professional
• Get Maximum Audience Impact: Give (Deliver) Great Business Presentations
• 7 Creative Ideas That’ll Add Extra Oomph to Any Business Presentation
• 2024 Business Presentation Checklist: To Prepare for Your Next Business Presentation (Step by Step)

Conclusion: Take Action & Make a Great Presentation (Start Now!)

Chapter 1. how to make a great (highly effective) business presentation.

Your business presentation represents an investment. You've invested time in creating it, and you'll invest even more time in giving it. That's why you want to get it right.

In this guide, you'll learn tips and techniques that'll help you give a successful business presentation—a presentation that people remember and that changes minds.

We've gathered together a comprehensive set of business presentation tips and techniques you can really use. Learn from the experts how to make a great presentation. Study these good PowerPoint presentation examples. Follow the step-by-step instructions and you can put together an effective presentation fast. 

In this guide, you'll learn how to:

• Prevent Common Presentation Mistakes.  Learn how to avoid common mistakes that could derail your presentation. If you're new to giving presentations, or if you haven't given a presentation in a while, you'll want to review this section carefully before you start working on your next presentation.
• Plan and Write an Effective Presentation . If you're one of those people who struggle to write the content for your presentation, this is for you. We'll take you through the writing process from finding the right topic to creating a written presentation. All you need to do is follow these seven simple steps.
• Design a Presentation With Impact. Discover the techniques that creative professionals use to build truly eye-catching slides that your audience will remember long after your presentation. Learn how layout, font choice, and color impact how your presentation is received. We'll also discuss how to properly use graphics, media, and other special effects in a business presentation.
• Deliver Your Business Presentation Powerfully . If giving a business presentation is the part you dread the most, you're not alone. We've got you covered. The public speaking hacks you'll learn will help you give your next presentation ( and future business presentations too ) with confidence.
• Add Those Creative Presentation Extras ( Oomph ) . Don't miss this special section that's chock full of interesting ways to help your presentation stand out. The information here is especially useful if your audience will be listening to more than one presentation, such as at a business conference.  

This guide is designed so that you can work throughout from Chapter 1 to Chapter 9 for complete business presentation training. Or, use the jump links in the Table of Contents to go directly to an area you're struggling with.

Download this FREE guide now  as a convenient  69 page eBook PDF with quick-action checklist. You can use this handy PDF set  even when you're not connected to the internet.

Chapter 2. How to Prevent 18 Common Business Presentation Mistakes (Fails)

Nothing’s worse than a presentation that fails. It’s embarrassing and, even worse, it can undermine your message and damage your business brand.

The question is: How can you prevent your business presentation from failing?

We’ll show you exactly what to do to sidestep the most common presentation mistakes. Read this chapter to learn what to do ( and not do ) to avoid a hard fail:

1.  No Research

For a successful presentation, you’ve got to do your homework. Planning and research make the difference between a great business presentation and a bad one.

Your audience can tell if you’re not current on the relevant facts. Not being familiar with your topic undermines your credibility.

Try This: Before you start writing your business presentation, study for it as you would a test. Identify two to three key sources of information. Read each and take notes. Highlight key facts and points.

2.  Reading Your Speech

Too many speakers read their presentation directly from their speaker notes or, even worse, from index cards. Reading a presentation leads to an unnatural speaking style and interferes with your audience rapport.

Try This: Practice your speech so you can say it without looking at your speaker notes. That way you can recall it from memory and deliver naturally. ( It’s okay to have your speaker notes on hand in case you get stuck though .)

3.  Not Enough Practice     

Practice makes the difference between a so-so business presentation and a great business presentation. Too many business professionals are tempted to skip the practice because they're too busy. Don't make this mistake! 

Fortunately, there are ways to work practice into your busy schedule.

Try This : A week before your business presentation, start practicing your speech three times a day. Practice first thing in the morning, once at lunch, and again in the evening. Give at least one of those speeches in front of a friend or family member who can provide constructive criticism.

We'll share more techniques about how to do a good job presenting your presentation later. In the meantime, learn more about how to effectively practice your speech in this tutorial:

4.  Going Over Your Time

For most presentations, you’ve got a set amount of time to give your speech. Going over your assigned time is annoying for your audience. It’s also upsetting for the speaker who comes after you and doesn’t have enough time to finish.

One of the most common causes of going over your allotted time is trying to cover material that’s not really related to your core message.

Try This : Unleash your inner editor. Read through your presentation with a critical eye. Delete anything that’s not part of your core message.

5.  Bad Body Language

When you give your presentation, you’re speaking with your words. But there’s another way you’re communicating to your audience that you may not even be aware of.

A UCLA study  shows that what you say through your body language is as important as the actual words you say. Research shows that over half of your message is conveyed through non-verbal communication. 

A stiff, nervous posture or awkward, nervous gestures can signal that you’re not confident about what you’re saying.

Try This : Smile during your speech. Smiling does more than just make you look friendly. According to Psychology Today , smiling releases neurotransmitters that’ll help you relax. The more relaxed you are, the more natural your body language will be.

6.  Failure to Make Eye Contact

Speakers who make regular eye contact with audience members are perceived as being more trustworthy.

Unfortunately, many speakers are too nervous and forget to make eye contact . Or they’re too shy.

Try This : Does the idea of looking at someone in the audience make you nervous? No worries. This trick will get you through. Choose three points on the wall behind the audience. Take turns looking briefly at each point as you speak.

7.  Lack of Conviction

If you don’t believe or care about what you’re talking about, how do you expect to convince your audience that it’s important?

When it comes to credibility, sincerity and conviction are important.  Make sure that you're confident about the truth and importance of your information.

Try This: It’s time to get honest. Review your presentation carefully and ask yourself: " Do I really care about this?" If your answer is “ no ,” you’re presenting the wrong message.

8.  Bad Design  

A poor presentation design is just as distracting as poor delivery. You don't want your audience spending so much time focusing on how awful, cluttered, or sloppy your presentation looks that they don't hear what you’ve got to say.

How your presentation looks is important. It should appear polished and professional—a look you can’t easily get from free presentation templates.

Try This : Check out the great professional presentation templates available on Envato Elements and GraphicRiver . Each template is carefully created by a professional designer to take advantage of the latest presentation design tools and trends.

9.  Not Enough Visuals

According to BrainRules by John Medina, you’re far more likely to remember information presented with a graphic or photo.  After three days, most listeners only retain about 10% of what they’ve heard. But when a visual is added, the percentage of information retained increases dramatically—to 65%.

Try This : When you can use an image (such as a graph, chart, or photo), do it. If you’re short on professional images, Envato Elements is a good source for professional photos  and other types of high-quality  graphics .

10. Too Much Text on a Slide

The fewer words you use, the better. Your audience isn’t going to read (or remember) long blocks of text. So, keep it brief.

What's even worse: presenters often make their text smaller to get more on a slide—making the slide even less readable. You want to avoid this in your presentation slides. 

For a problem example of what I mean, take a look at this slide below:

Note: This presentation slide example uses  The X Note – PowerPoint Template  from Envato Elements. (You can readily cut the text down in this slide.)

Try This: Keep the total number of words per slide to under 25. If there are more than 25 words, edit the text until you get the number of words on the slide down below 25.

11. Slide Text Too Small to Read

How small is too small? Most experts agree that body text of less than a 24-point font for a business presentation is too small to read.

Look at the difference in readability in the two PowerPoint presentation examples below. Now imagine looking at those slides from across a crowded room.

Take a look at the problem presentation slide above. The headings are done in a 24-point font, and the body text is in a 14-point font. That's hard to read.

In contrast, the headings below use a 48-point font, and the body text uses a 24-point font. It's quite a bit larger and easier to read.

Note: These presentation slide examples use  The X Note – PowerPoint Template from Envato Elements.

Try This : Choose a 28- to 32-point font for your body text, and 32 to 48 points for your headings and subheadings. That way, your audience can read your slides from across a large room.

12. Not Using a Legible Font

The most readable fonts for presentations are sans serif, such as these:

Avoid script and novelty fonts at all costs as they're extremely hard to read. Look at the PowerPoint presentation example below. Which example is easier to read?

Script Font Example

Readable (Sans Serif) Font

Note : These presentation slide examples use  The X Note – PowerPoint Template  from Envato Elements.

A sans serif font appears simpler and easier to read on projection screens. It lacks the extra serifs (small lines at the ends of characters) that are typically added to print font designs.

Try This : Replace novelty fonts in your business presentation with more readable sans serif font types. If you’re not sure whether the fonts on your slides are readable, ask a friend or colleague for their opinion.

13. Too Many Lists

Many presentations have too many lists: both bulleted and numbered. Yet  studies show that lists don’t work well.

In a 2014 study on visualization versus text from The International Journal of Business Communication ,  subjects who were shown a graphic recalled concepts more easily than those shown a bulleted list.

Try This : Use lists sparingly. Shorten lists or create a single slide for each list item. Better yet, use a graphic to explain a presentation idea instead of words.

14. Technical Problems

If your equipment fails, you'll have a tough time giving your presentation.

The best time to find out that your equipment isn’t working isn’t the day of the presentation. You won’t have adequate time to make alternate arrangements.

Try This: Go to your speaking venue the day before your presentation. Hook up your laptop (or other device) to the presentation system. Notice anything that doesn’t work and arrange to get backup equipment. Also, test any equipment you’ll be using during your speech.

15. Not Relating to Your Audience

A huge presentation mistake many speakers make is addressing their business presentation to the wrong audience. The only way to really be sure that your presentation is geared to your audience is to find out as much as you can about them.

You can't engage your audience or hold their attention if you don't really know who you're going to be speaking to.

Try This : If the presentation is for an organization you don’t normally attend, arrange to attend a meeting before the one in which you’ll give your presentation. Get to know your audience as well as possible before presenting.

16. No Next Steps

You’ve finished your presentation, but your audience is left hanging. What should they do next?

The next step may seem obvious to you, but your audience hasn’t made the connection—so they do nothing.

Try This: Be blunt. Tell the audience exactly what action to do next and how to go about doing it. Provide any details they need to take the next step.

17. Poor Choice of Content

Another common presentation mistake is including content that isn’t right for a presentation. The topic may be too broad to cover in the time that’s allowed, or your audience may not have the background needed to understand the topic.

Or you may be using terms your audience doesn’t understand.

Try This : Review your business presentation text carefully. Explain abbreviations or technical terms you plan to use.

18. Unrealistic Expectations

Having the right expectations is important. To start, you should have a clear and attainable goal. What do you expect to achieve with your presentation?

If you don't know what to expect from your presentation, it's already in trouble. Another unrealistic expectation is thinking that your listeners will remember all, or nearly all, of the material you present.

Try This : Decide on the purpose of your speech. Is your purpose to convince investors to take a chance on your startup? Or is it to persuade customers to buy your product? Include what you need to achieve your goal and leave out the rest.

3 Newsworthy Public Business Presentation Mistakes (With Real Examples)

You’ve just learned how to avoid the most common presentation mistakes. And in case you’re thinking that these types of presentation mistakes don’t happen often—think again.

Business presentation failure is much more common than you might imagine. Here are three common (and even famous) business presentation mistakes:

1  Unexpected Equipment Failure

This famous presentation example just goes to show that equipment failure can happen to anyone.

Former Microsoft executive Steven Sinofsky was giving a speech to launch the new Surface tablet—when suddenly the equipment stopped working.

Sinofsky did try to get through the situation gracefully, quickly swapping the non-working device for another. You can see the presentation here:

2  Too Much, Too Small

It looks as if this presenter had a lot of great data to share. It’s too bad that they felt compelled to put 14 bullet points (in a small font) on a single page.

Hopefully, the audience was interested enough in the topic to stay engaged:

3 Forgetting What to Say

You’ve seen this common presentation mistake on television a dozen times. A celebrity or public figure is giving a speech, and suddenly they stop.

What happens next makes all the difference in the world. A good tactic when you forget part of your speech is to simply admit it to the audience and take a minute or two to recover.

Even experienced speakers sometimes forget what to say. Watch the news clip below as a news reporter forgets their lines, and notice how they handle it:

Admitting you made a presentation mistake makes you seem relatable to the audience. So, what’s the worst thing you can do when you forget what to say next? According to most experts, your audience will see right through it if you try to pretend nothing is wrong.

What's Next?

You've just learned about 18 common business presentation mistakes and how to avoid them. Learn even more here:

You might be wondering: 

Are there other presentation tips I can use to make my business presentation more effective?

That’s what I’m going to cover next in this guide. You’ll learn more presentation tips and techniques to help you create a great business presentation. We’ll also explain how to avoid business presentation mistakes in more depth.

Chapter 3. 25+ Best Business Presentation Tips From the Experts (For Great Results in 2024)

You want to learn how to give an effective presentation, and you want to learn fast!

The best way to learn something is from someone who’s already doing it successfully. That’s why we’ve gathered over 25 great presentation tips from public-speaking experts from around the world. Look no further for winning presentation ideas.

Get unique insights from the business presentation tips for public speaking that we’ve gathered here. Discover presentation tips on how to prepare yourself and presentation skills tips for what to do on the day of your presentation and beyond. 

I’ve divided these presentation tips into:

• Tips for Before Your Presentation
• Tips for During Your Presentation
• Tips for After Your Presentation

Are you ready to start learning from these effective presentation (skills) tips?

Let’s get started…

Effective Business Presentation Tips for Before Your Speech

Get started quickly with these expert tips for a good presentation:

1. Pay Attention to Your Introduction & Closing

Pay extra attention to how you begin and end your business presentation. Your beginning and ending make the biggest impact on your audience.

Textbook author and speaking instructor Mark Powell points out the importance of the opening and close as follows:

“Research shows that audiences remember the first and last few minutes of a presentation long after they’ve forgotten most of what was said in the middle.”

For Powell’s whole lesson on how to effectively open and close a presentation, view the video (including business presentation examples):

Find even more effective presentation tips about starting and closing a presentation here:

2. Stand Up When You Practice

If you're practicing your presentation from the comfort of your armchair, you're doing it wrong.  Jennefer Witter , the CEO/Founder of the Boreland Group Inc., explains: 

"Most of us are seated when rehearsing. However, I strongly suggest you do at least one rehearsal standing up. Most speaking engagements require you to stand. Get comfortable talking on your feet."

Read the rest of Witter’s advice on how to prepare for a presentation in this article on the  Ellevate Network .

This Envato Tuts+ tutorial provides more excellent presentation skills tips for rehearsing your business presentation:

3. Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Public Speaking

To succeed in business,   communication skills—speaking and writing—are key.  Don’t make the mistake of overlooking these vital areas.

Indra Nooyi, board member at Amazon and former PepsiCo executive, said:

“You cannot over-invest in communication skills—written and oral communication skills...”

Read more about what Nooyi had to say about the importance of investing in communication skills in this  Forbes  article. 

4. Write a Presentation That Sounds Good

You may be used to writing business papers and reports that are meant to be read. But what works for a written report won’t work for a live audience .

Senior communications executive Karen Addis puts it like this: 

“Write for the ear, not for the eye. What reads fine on paper may be a mouthful when spoken.”

You’ll find more effective business presentation tips from Addis on the GuideStar blog . We'll also share  exactly how to write an effective presentation later in this guide.

5. Use an Outline

An outline is a key element to help you get started. A good outline helps you organize your speech. It also helps ensure that you don't leave any presentation ideas out.

2001 Toastmasters world champion speaker Darren LaCroix calls an outline: 

"The second most important step in the process of creating a great speech."

Today, LaCroix trains others on how to speak successfully through the Stage Time University training program . For more on what LaCroix has to say about outlines, watch the YouTube video here:

6. Your Presentation Is About Your Audience

Too many speakers focus their presentation on themselves. They make the speech about what they’re trying to say or how they feel.

Your presentation isn't about you. Author and blogger Seth Godin points this out: 

“The members of the audience are interested in themselves. The audience wants to know what they can use, what they can learn, or at the very least, how they can be entertained.”

Read Godin’s entire blog post to discover more  about speaking in public.

7. Know Your Message

Your audience won’t get your message unless you’ve focused in on it. Figure out what your message is before you give your presentation.

Speech and message coach Michelle Mazur explains:

"My one piece of advice is to get clear on the ONE and only one message that you want your audience to remember. Research shows that most audiences forget 80%-90% of what they hear a speaker say within 24-hours of hearing that speaker. If you want to be memorable, get clear on that one core message and drive that point home in your speech."

Mazur is the author of several books on speaking and thought leadership. Mazur also founded a company that helps speakers and businesspeople become thought leaders.

8. Don’t Underestimate the Power of a Story

Storytelling is a powerful way to get your audience’s attention—and keep it. Learn how to tell a good story, and your presentation will be better for it.

Lisa Bloom is a  consultant, trainer , and author of  Cinderella and the Coach - the Power of Storytelling for Coaching Success! Bloom also has an extensive background in training and development in large, multinational organizations.

Here’s what Bloom’s got to say about the importance of storytelling: 

"Using story in your presentation awakens your creativity while providing a refreshing perspective to re-energize and engage your audience and move them to action. If you want your presentation to have impact, you need to tell powerful stories."

"Let’s say you have a high-stake opportunity; you need to make a very specific impression—to close a deal or secure funding. You may not get a second chance. By using the right story at the right time, you can access your authentic, inspired self while learning to creatively articulate your vision & ideas. This means you get to connect deeply, contribute widely and inspire the people that matter."

9. Know What You’re Selling

If you're giving a business presentation, you're likely selling something. Do you know what it is? If not, your presentation is already in trouble.

Marissa Mayer, CEO of Lumi Labs (formerly CEO of Yahoo) puts it this way:

“Our theory is, if you need the user to tell you what you're selling, then you don't know what you're selling, and it's probably not going to be a good experience."

Find more inspiring Marissa Mayer quotes at Inc.

10. Your Purpose as a Speaker

You may think you know the purpose of your business presentation. But there’s one purpose to your business presentation that’s the same no matter who's giving it.

Chris Anderson is the curator of  TED  (the organization that gives us TED Talks) and also a TED speaker. Here’s Anderson’s insight on what all great speeches have in common:

“Your number one task as a speaker is to transfer into your listeners’ minds an extraordinary gift, a strange and beautiful object that we call an idea.”

Watch Anderson explain the importance of sharing ideas and other TED Talk presentation tips below:

11. Tell Your Audience What to Do Next

You've almost finished your speech, but you're not done yet. Don’t assume your audience knows what to do after your presentation. You’ve got to tell them what to do next.

Digital Content Strategist and international speaker  Donna Moritz  helps businesses leverage the power of visual storytelling and content strategy. Moritz advises that speakers provide the audience with actionable takeaways:

"Ensure that you focus on key, actionable takeaways that your audience will remember and can easily implement. This means one key point per slide - even eliminate dot points altogether - and use stories to bring home those key points. We remember well-told stories way beyond any slide or speaker, so match the power of storytelling with powerful, visual slides. It will make you a more memorable speaker. And more importantly it will make your message so memorable that your audience will take action!"

Excellent Presentation Skills Tips to Use During Your Speech

When it’s time to make your presentation, turn to these excellent presentation skills tips for public speaking.

12. It's Okay to Be Silent

You don't have to talk all the time. Being quiet connects you with your audience.

Here's what veteran speaker Dan Pallotta has to say about the value of silence:

"Be silent and look at the audience. Five seconds. Seven seconds. Just taking them in. Connecting with them. But never do it for effect. Do it to get intimate with your audience."

You’ll find more of Pallotta's effective presentation tips in this  Harvard Business Review article .

13. Care About Your Topic

If you don’t care about your topic, your audience will pick up on that. And if you don’t care, they’re likely to wonder why they should care.

Author and motivational speaker Simon Sinek discusses the importance of caring about your topic:

"I’m often asked, “How did you become such a good presenter?” and I like to joke that I cheat. I only talk about things that I care about, and I only talk about things that I understand. You can’t manufacture passion. You can manufacture energy. You can bounce on the stage and scream and yell. That’s not passion; that’s too much caffeine."   (Source:  YouTube )

Sinek’s TED Talk , “How Great Leaders Inspire Action,” is one of the most popular talks of all time. 

14. Be Authentic

In a recent interview with the Rotarian , award-winning speaker Dananjaya Hettiarachchi addressed the need for speakers to be authentic during their presentations: 

“One of the most important elements is to be authentic. Your voice is as unique as your fingerprint. Your voice, tone, rate, pitch, and volume tell who you are. People need to buy in to you before they buy in to what you’re saying or selling.”

Most audiences can spot it if you’re being insincere. And you’ll lose their interest.

Hettiarachchi is the CEO and founder of an HR company. He’s also the 2014 Toastmasters World Speaking Champion. Read the complete interview transcript on Hettiarachchi’s blog, I See Something In You .

15. It’s Normal to be Nervous

If you’re nervous about giving your presentation, know that you’re not alone. Even the rich and successful get nervous about public speaking.

According to The Times , British Royal Prince Harry suffers from stage fright. Here’s what that feels like in the prince’s own words:

"My secret is -- believe it or not -- I get incredibly nervous before public speaking, no matter how big the crowd or the audience and, um, despite the fact that I laugh and joke all the time I get incredibly nervous, if not anxious, actually, before going into rooms full of people when I'm wearing a suit... And now that I've confessed that, I'll probably be even more worried that people are looking at me."

16. Let Your Nerves Empower You

Are you nervous about your business presentation? You’re in good company. Even celebrities and public figures get nervous in front of crowds.

A former NFL player for the Houston Oilers, Bo Eason today coaches people to become better presenters and storytellers. Eason describes how nerves can actually be helpful:

"Back when I was performing my play, “Runt of the Litter”, my hands would shake like crazy every time I stepped on stage. My coach at the time would say, “That’s not nerves, it’s love. You want to be good. You love and honor the audience. That’s called love, not nerves. It’s okay." "Eventually… my nerves became fuel and the shaking did stop. But sometimes, even now, they’ll still shake. It’s just how it is; I care. I like when people care. Nerves are your jet fuel. Don’t try to pretend you don’t have them." ( YouTube )

17. Avoid Dry Mouth

Here’s a very real challenge many speakers face, but seldom talk about. Dry mouth.

Dry mouth happens when your mouth doesn’t produce enough saliva. And it can be triggered by stress.

John Zimmer, attorney and accomplished public speaker, has ten effective presentation tips to help you avoid dry mouth. Here’s our favorite from the list:

“Chew citrus-flavoured gum or a lozenge before speaking, but don’t forget to spit it out before going on stage!”

I like this tip because of how practical it is. You might not always have access to water, but it's easy to slip a pack of gum into your pocket before giving a presentation. 

Explore the complete list of Zimmer’s great presentation tips for dealing with dry mouth on the blog, Manner of Speaking.

18. Lean on Your Slides

Every speaker dreads forgetting what they’re talking about. But Rand Fishkin offers an effective business presentation tip for just that situation:

“Lean on your slides. If you have trouble remembering a story perfectly and telling it well, lean on your slides to help guide you through with visuals to convey each part of the story. “

Fishkin is best known as the founder and former CEO of the popular Moz  site and more recently the host of Whiteboard Friday . Fishkin is also an accomplished public speaker.

Read the complete interview with Fishkin at the Wistia for Marketing blog . 

Later in the guide, you'll learn how to create eye-catching slides that'll capture your listener's attention.

19. Your Voice Is Important

You may not think about your voice, but your voice is an important tool for your presentation. Learning how to use it properly will make you a more effective speaker.

Vocal coach  to celebrities and one of the world’s leading authorities on voice, Roger Love talks about the importance of your voice:

"Start thinking about what you SOUND LIKE. Your voice is the most powerful communication tool you possess. A 2017 Yale study proved that we have learned to lie with our words and our body language, but the sounds of your voice reveal authenticity and truth.

Learn how to use melody, volume, pitch, and pace to create sounds that move people emotionally. When you find your voice, you find your self-confidence, your storytelling ability, your charisma, and your influence. Only then can you create effective and outstanding business presentations."

20. Move Wisely

When you give your presentation, make your movements count . If you look aimless or awkward, it’ll make your audience uncomfortable.

The 2018 winner of the Toastmasters World Championship of Public Speaking agrees. Ramona Smith explains how paying attention to movement helped:

"I used to pace for no reason," Smith told Business Insider. "My movements weren't on purpose. I didn't have intentional movement. But I learned that you need to move with each point. So plant your feet, say what you have to say, move on to your next point."

You can find more of Smith’s public speaking advice on Business Insider .

21. Relax and Be Natural

Too many business speakers stand stiffly, making unnatural gestures. Or they fill their speech with flowery words they’d never use in real life.

Famed entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson favors a different approach. Here’s the public speaking advice Branson gave (via Inc .).

"Picture yourself in a living room having a chat with your friends. You would be relaxed and comfortable talking to them, the same applies when public speaking."

Effective Presentation Tips for After Your Speech

The tips below help you make the most of something most business presenters forget to think about. What happens after a presentation?

Here are some business presentation tips for what you should do when you're done speaking.

22. Ask for Feedback

One of the biggest questions most speakers have after their business presentation is whether it went well. Author and speech coach Suzannah Baum shares one presentation idea to find that out:

“When my presentation was done, I sought out the event planner immediately to get her feedback, put in terms of 'Did the content meet your objectives?'"

You’ll find more of Baum’s insights on the blog, Bring Power to Your Words .

23. Don’t Skip the Q&A Session

At the end of your presentation, give your listeners a chance to ask questions . A question and answer session lets you address any concerns members of your audience have. The right answers to an important question may even close the deal.

Professional communicator and author  Stacey Hanke  regularly gives keynote speeches and conducts workshops. Hanke highlights the importance of having a Q&A session as follows:

“Answering a question provides an opportunity for you to bond with those asking, even if the question is challenging. Questions allow you to clarify misunderstandings and set the record straight.”

Discover more of Stacey Hanke’s effective presentation tips in this article, The Best Way to Respond to Questions After a Presentation or Meeting .

24. Questions Are Good

If you think of questions after your presentations as a negative, think again. If the audience is asking questions, that's actually positive, according to former executive and presentation coach  Theodore May .

May puts it this way:

“But questions are not only good, they are essential. The successful presenter wants to be asked questions. …good and even difficult on-topic questions are what you want as a presenter.”

May offers even more tips for creating a great presentation in this article in the CIO digital magazine . 

25. Reconnect With Prospects

You’re not done when your business presentation ends. This is especially true if you made a sales presentation.

Following up with key prospects after a presentation is the important step many business professionals skip.  Follow-up may feel awkward, but it doesn't have to be that way.

Author and sales coach Jill Konrath provides this presentation tip for connecting with prospects:

“Your prospects want to work with someone who's constantly thinking about how they can improve their business. Be that person.”

Read more of Konrath’s presentation follow-up advice in the article, 3 Sales Follow-Up Strategies to Replace “Touching Base” .

You’ll also find follow-up is easier if you’ve got something your prospect is interested in to talk about.

26. Get Feedback

To improve your presentation skills, ask for feedback. Then listen to it.

Feedback lets you know how you did with your presentation. It also tells you what you should do differently the next time.

Founder of Global Public Speaking and Harvard lecturer  Allison Shapira  provides some practical presentation skills tips on how to get feedback. Here’s one of the most useful tips:

“You’ll be tempted to respond with, “yes, but…” and be defensive when receiving the feedback. Simply listen and learn from someone else’s interpretation of your speech.”

If you’re open to it, feedback will help you improve your presentation skills. 

Get Started on Your Presentation

You've just gotten business tips for making effective presentations from over 25 experts. Now it's time to start creating your own great business presentation. 

For more business presentation tips that work and inspiring presentation quotes, study these Tuts+ tutorials:

Next, we’ll share what you need to know about planning and writing great presentations. 

Stay tuned to learn more about how to make (plan and write) a great presentation...

Chapter 4. How to Plan (+Write) a Powerful Presentation Quickly in 7 Simple Steps

Preparation equals success. Planning and writing are your secret weapons for giving a powerful presentation. 

Let’s dive into the presentation writing process.

7 Simple Steps to Plan & Write Your Presentation

The presentation planning/writing process isn’t hard. It can be summed up in seven easy-to-follow presentation writing steps.

Many presenters skip important steps and pay for it when they give a poor presentation. Don’t be one of those underprepared presenters.

Here are the seven steps to follow to plan and write a great presentation:

• Discover Your Purpose
• Study Your Business Presentation Topic
• List Your Main Ideas
• Create a Presentation Outline
• Plan a Presentation Format
• Focus on the Opening & Closing
• Create the Written Presentation

These seven presentation writing steps will help you write a killer business presentation. Let’s look at each one:

Step 1. 5 Easy Questions to Discover Your Presentation’s Purpose

Your presentation’s purpose is what you want to get from your presentation when you’re done. Determining this is the first step in how to give a good presentation. Skip this and you might as well not give a presentation at all.

There are tools you can use to help you pinpoint your purpose. To start, ask yourself these questions:

• Why am I giving this talk?
• What does my business want from this presentation?
• Is the presentation informative?
• Is it a sales presentation?
• Do I want to rally people to my cause?

Once you’ve answered these questions, set a goal. It needs to be specific, and it needs to be measurable. If you’re unsure how to set effective goals, review this Envato Tuts+ tutorial:

The presentation writing process for setting goals for your speech is similar.

Now that you’ve set your goal, focus on it. It’s the reason you’re giving this presentation, after all. Everything in your presentation should advance your goal—especially your business presentation topic.

So how do you choose a presentation topic?

Here’s a Common Scenario

You’re invited to give a presentation at a conference. Your company, a public relations agency, wants five new clients as a result of your presentation. You choose the business presentation topic: How PR Will Help You Find a Winning Brand Identity .

In the example above, you could have chosen to cover all the benefits your PR company offers. But having a topic that broad would mean:

• You don’t cover any one point with enough detail.
• Your presentation runs too long.
• You lose your audience’s attention.

Try This: You should be able to cover your topic in 18 minutes or less. Why is this important? Attention span research from TED Talks shows that audiences can’t pay attention past 18 minutes. More on presentation length later.

Once you’ve discovered your presentation’s purpose, you’re ready to do your research.

Step 2. Be the Expert: Study Your Topic

Not understanding your topic or not getting to know your audience well is a recipe for presentation failure. Even worse—it’ll make you look foolish. Effective speakers study their topic and their audience.

Business Presentation Topic Research Questions

• Is the content accurate?
• Is the information current?
• Are there other sources for the information?

Audience Research Questions:

• What do they already know?
• What will be new information for them?
• What terms do they understand?

If you’ve been asked to speak for an external organization, ask that organization who your audience is and what they already know. Your company should also have some information on prospective customers.

Try This : Use demographic and psychographic studies to learn more about your audience. Facebook Audience Insights  and Google Trends can provide helpful information. Learn more about how to target an audience in these Envato Tuts+ tutorials:

Once you’ve finished your research, it’s time to choose your speaking points.

Step 3. Choose Your Main Points

During your research, you’ve gathered a lot of information. You’ve likely got more than you need.

Narrow it down to the main points that you want to present. Choose the information that’s most important to your audience and to meeting your goal.

List the information you've gathered. Now, review it. Cut anything:

• your audience already knows
• your audience doesn’t need to know
• that doesn’t advance your goal

Think of this presentation writing process as a funnel. You pour information into one end. Only the information that advances your goal comes out the other end. This keeps you from bogging your audience down with too much information.

Now, divide all the information into similar categories. You should start to see a natural grouping.

In the PR agency example above, the speaker finds that statistics on the importance of brand identity are important. They also find a case study where a redesigned brand identity led to increased customer awareness.

How many points should your presentation have? Many speech experts recommend having three main points (the so-called Rule of Three). The Rule of Three isn't a hard and fast rule. It depends on how much you say about each point.

It’s better to have fewer points that are well supported than a lot of barely supported points that your audience won’t remember anyway.

Remember: The ideal presentation length for most listeners is 15 to 20 minutes.

Try This:  If you’re scheduled to speak for more than 18 minutes, break your presentation into sections. Each section should be 18 minutes long or less. Use extra time to answer questions.

Example : Break a 45-minute presentation into two 18-minute speeches. Put a four-minute break in the middle and a five-minute question and answer session at the end.

Pro Secret: Get around the 18-minute attention span limit by planning a series of shorter presentations. ( Just make sure they’re not scheduled back to back .) This strategy works best if you’ve got more than one goal.

Step 4. Get Organized: How to Write a Presentation Outline

Once you know what your main points are, create an outline. You may wonder: how do you write an outline for a presentation?

Here’s what to do:

A presentation outline is like the outline for any other document. It sets the order of the information you’ll present.

At its most basic, a short presentation outline includes:

• introduction
• first point
• second point
• third point

Fill out these general headings with titles specific to your own presentation.

That basic outline works for a short presentation. Your presentation outline will vary with your audience and subject matter. A longer presentation outline could look like this:

• first main point
• support for point
• second main point
• third main point
• questions and answers

You've just created the outline for your presentation. Now you’re ready to plan a presentation format.

Step 5. Looks Count—Plan Your Presentation Format

Once you’ve selected your topic and main points, it’s time to plan your presentation format. For most business situations, a slideshow is the most effective presentation format you can use.

There are some significant advantages to using a slideshow format:

• It adds a visual component.
• You can easily integrate other media, such as audio or video.
• There are plenty of tools to help you create a slideshow.
• There are thousands of professionally designed templates to make your slideshow look good. ( We’ll take a closer look at how to use a professional presentation template later. )
• You control the pace of the presentation.
• You can leave a copy of the presentation with your audience when it’s over.

While there’s plenty of negative chatter about slideshows in general, and PowerPoint specifically, the truth is that they’re wildly popular. According to the BBC , there are more than 500 million PowerPoint users worldwide, and over 30 million presentations are given each day.

There’s a reason slideshows are so popular. They’re effective.

If you look closely at the complaints people make about slideshows, they’re really about the way the presentation software is used. Common complaints include:

• The presentation was poorly organized.
• The slides were poorly designed.
• The text was too small to read.
• The presentation went too long.

But these aren’t problems with the slideshow presentation format or any specific slideshow tool. There are two words for these problems: USER ERROR . And user error is exactly what you’ll avoid by following the advice in this guide.

Step 6. Write the Start and Finish of Your Presentation

The opening and conclusion of your presentation are important. The opening is where your listeners get their first impression of you. The closing is your last chance to get your message across.

For an effective presentation, take the time to get your start and finish right.

9 Presentation Writing Tips for a Successful Opening

The opening sets the tone for your presentation. Use the presentation writing tips below to grab your listeners' attention right from the start:

• Make a bold claim. This could be an astounding or even a shocking statement.
• Contradict expectations. Say the opposite of what the listener expects here.
• Stimulate curiosity. Start by presenting something curious or unusual that you’ll proceed to explain.
• Ask questions. Involving the audience right from the beginning is an effective way to engage them.
• Spin a surprising story. Storytelling is an effective presentation technique.
• Quote a well-known personality or a famous proverb. Starting with a quote is overused, but if done right can pull your audience in.
• Tell a joke. If you know your audience well enough to know what they’ll find funny, a joke can be a good opening.
• Show a video. A short but powerful video can make a huge impact on your audience.
• Reference a current event. If something momentous is happening, don’t try to compete. Instead, begin your presentation by briefly talking about what’s going on.

Towards the end of your intro, tell your audience what to expect from the presentation. Share your presentation structure. For example, if there’s a break in the middle of the presentation or if you'd like them to save all their questions until the end, tell them so in your opening.

Conclude Powerfully

Your presentation conclusion is your last chance to point out what you want your audience to take with them when they leave.

If you’re giving a sales presentation , appeal to your audience with a call to action . Many presentations omit this vital piece, yet it can mean the difference between success and failure. A call to action tells the audience what to do next.

Other options for closing your presentation include:

• a vision of the future
• a contrarian example
• a question and answer segment

Learn more about how to start and close a presentation:

Step 7. How to Write a Great Presentation

You've completed a presentation outline. You’ve worked on your introduction and conclusion. You’re now ready to create your written presentation.

You don't need presentation software for this stage. We'll add that in the next step. For now, a good writing tool will do. Follow this presentation writing process :

• Start with your presentation outline.
• Create presentation slide text for the introduction, each main point, and the conclusion.
• Write about your most compelling points in the first few slides.

To be effective, use short sentences and phrases to write your presentation. Review your content more than once to cut out wordiness and reduce unnecessary information.

Don’t put too much information on each individual slide. If a slide contains too much information, your audience won't grasp everything you’re sharing. Divide slides with too much material into several slides.

Learn more about writing a business presentation here:

Try This: Use planned pauses and transitions such as audience participation, videos, or other devices to divide a long presentation into smaller segments.

Caution : Humor can affect how your presentation is received. Humor lightens the mood and breaks up your material. But not everyone finds the same things funny. If you're not sure how a particular joke will be received, leave it out.

Want to access to this comprehensive guide for offline use.  Download this guide now (for FREE)  as a convenient 69 page eBook PDF with quick-action checklist. 

Keep reading to learn how to choose your presentation software…

Chapter 5. How to Choose the Best Business Presentation Software for 2024 (+Quick Start Tips) 

You’ve planned and written your presentation. Now, it's time to build it. Before you can do that, you've got to choose the best business presentation software for you to use.

We’ll help you make the right choice for your presentation. We’ll give you the information you need. Let’s take a close look at the best (and most popular) presentation software options:

Take the Quiz! What Business Presentation Software Is Right for You?

It helps to know as much about your presentation needs as possible. That’s why we’re including this presentation software quiz:

• What presentation software (if any) do you use now?
• What software requirements (if any) does your business have?
• What hardware and operating system do you use?
• What presentation tools do you have experience with?
• What's your budget for presentation software?
• How often will you work on the presentation with a team?
• Do you need to use special effects like animation?
• Do you need to import audio or video files?
• Will you be exporting your presentation to another file type?
• Do you often forget to save your files?
• Do you use a Mac or a PC?
• Do you ever need to work offline?

Remember your answers to these questions. We’ll revisit this quiz at the end of the chapter to help you find the right software tool for you.

Now let’s compare three of the most popular business presentation software packages. Let’s examine PowerPoint vs. Google Slides vs. Keynote .

Take a look at this  Google Trends chart for a quick look at how these three tools compare. The chart measures how many searches there were for each of the three major tools worldwide:

Let’s explore the differences between Keynote, PowerPoint, and Google Slides. Let’s look at each software tool independently.

1. Microsoft PowerPoint (Popular With Companies)

Estimates place the number of Microsoft PowerPoint users at over 500 million (via  BBC News ). PowerPoint is, without question, the most popular business presentation software.

If you work for a company, your business likely uses PowerPoint. If you’re required to use PowerPoint, your decision is already made.

You may already be somewhat familiar with PowerPoint. Maybe you’ve even already created a business PowerPoint presentation. That familiarity means you’ll be able to learn to use this powerful presentation tool fast.

Are you new to PowerPoint? Learn more about what PowerPoint is and how to get started quickly here:

Study the Envato PowerPoint Ultimate Tutorial Guide to learn even more about using PowerPoint.

Try This: If you created your outline in Microsoft Word and saved it on your PC, you can import it directly into PowerPoint. With PowerPoint open, click Open > Browse . Go to the file where your outline is stored. To the right of the File name field, switch from All PowerPoint Presentations to All Files . Click on your outline file and then click Open . PowerPoint creates a new presentation, with each paragraph of your outline in the title field of a new slide.

Advantages of Microsoft PowerPoint

Now, let’s look at the advantages of Microsoft PowerPoint and its disadvantages .

Even though it’s popular, its popularity isn't all there is to PowerPoint. Here are some of the many advantages of Microsoft PowerPoint: 

• It's part of Microsoft Office 365 (works with Office productivity tools like Word, Excel, and more).
• It can export PowerPoint files to over a dozen different file types, ranging from .pdf to .rtf.
• It can import (embed) audio and video files .
• It includes 50 animations and special effects.
• Collaboration is possible through OneDrive.
• Offline access is possible in PowerPoint.
• It's got free iOS and Android mobile apps.

Disadvantages of Microsoft PowerPoint

Now that we’ve looked at the advantages of Microsoft PowerPoint, it’s time to look at the disadvantages. One disadvantage is that it can be difficult to collaborate with others.

Recently, PowerPoint has improved the ability to collaborate in real-time. But there are still more steps than with Google Slides. To work with another user, you must save the presentation to OneDrive and invite the people you want to collaborate with.

Professional Microsoft PowerPoint Templates

One final advantage of Microsoft PowerPoint is the number of professionally designed presentation templates available. Here are some great business PowerPoint templates to help you create great presentations, as well as info on how to customize them quickly:

2. Google Slides (Great Collaboration & Great Price)

Do you need professional productivity tools? Is real-time collaboration part of your job? Is your budget limited?

Consider using Google Slides. It’s a readily available presentation software tool that’s part of Google’s productivity suite, which includes Sheets and Google Docs. Best of all, it’s free when you create a Google account.

Are you new to Google Slides? Learn more about what Google Slides is and how to get started quickly here:

Study the Envato Google Slides Ultimate Tutorial Guide to learn even more about Google Slides.

Try This: Did you know that you could copy a Google Slides slide from one presentation to another? To do this, open the Google Slides business presentation with the slide design you want. Click the desired slide and click Control-C to copy the slide to your clipboard. Open a second business presentation that you want to copy the slide to. Click the slide before where you want to insert the copied slide. Click Control-V to paste the copied slide into the second presentation.

Now, let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of Google Slides .

Advantages of Google Slides

• It's free with a Google account.
• Share online for real-time editing and collaboration.
• Your work is saved automatically in Google Slides.
• It keeps a revision history, making it possible to go back to an earlier version.
• It's part of Google Drive (works with Google Drive’s productivity tools like Google Docs, Sheets, and more).
• Export Google Slides files to several different file types (although not as many as with PowerPoint).
• You can insert audio or video  files.
• Includes animation and special effects (although not as many as PowerPoint).
• Free iOS mobile app.

Disadvantages of Google Slides

One of the disadvantages of Google Slides is that you must have a Google account to use it. And there are also fewer choices for effects and themes.

Professional Google Sides Templates

Discover professionally designed Google Slides templates and learn how to quickly create a great business presentation with them:

3. Apple Keynote (Great for Mac Users)

You may be wondering: what is Keynote? Keynote is Apple’s presentation software tool. It’s part of Apple’s iWork productivity suite that includes Pages and Numbers.

To choose between Keynote and PowerPoint, read on to learn the difference between them.

If you’ve got a Mac, remember that Keynote already comes with your computer. Learn what Keynote is and how to get started quickly here:

Study the Envato Apple Keynote Ultimate Tutorial Guide to learn how to use Keynote.

Try This: Did you know you can stream a Keynote presentation using Keynote Live? Click the Keynote Live button on the menu at the top of the screen. You’ll be prompted to save your presentation to your iCloud account. Then, click the Continue button. Send the URL to the viewers you want to share your presentation with. Press Play to start streaming your presentation.

Now, let’s look at  Apple Keynote advantages and disadvantages .

Keynote Advantages

• It comes with your Mac computer.
• Keynote is part of the iWork productivity suite (works with productivity tools like Pages, Numbers, and more).
• Export Keynote files to several different file types (including Apple-specific file types like QuickTime).
• Insert audio or video files.
• Share and collaborate through your iCloud drive.
• Includes about 30 animation and 40 special effects (although not as many as PowerPoint).
• Work on the files offline.

Keynote Disadvantages

Keynote also has some disadvantages, the main one being that it’s for the Mac only. PC users can’t work on Keynote files.

Professional Keynote Templates

Create great presentations using Keynote with these great business Keynote templates and helpful tutorial:

Your Final Decision—Choose the Right Presentation Software for You

Let’s revisit the Business Presentations Software Quiz. Your answers to the questions on the quiz reveal which presentation software you’ll like.

PowerPoint May Be the Right Business Presentation Software for You If:

• You answered “PowerPoint” to questions 1, 2, and 4.
• You answered “PC” and “Windows” to question 3.
• For question 5, you had over $150 in the budget for a single user.
• For question 6, you answered “occasionally” or “rarely”.
• For questions 7, 8, 9, or 12, you answered “yes”.

PowerPoint is ideal for businesses that use the Microsoft Office productivity suite. It's also great for companies whose workers create business presentations independently.

Google Slides May Be the Right Business Presentation Software for You If:

• You answered “Google Slides” to questions 1, 2, and 4.
• For question 5, you had little to nothing in the budget.
• For question 6, you answered “often”.
• For questions 7, 8, and 10, you answered “yes”.

Google Slides is ideal for businesses that use the Google Drive productivity suite. It's also great for companies whose workers rely on real-time collaboration.

Keynote May Be the Right Business Presentation Software for You If:

• You answered “Keynote” to questions 1, 2, and 4.
• You answered “Mac,” “Apple,” “macOS,” or “iOS” to question 3.
• For question 11, you answered “Mac”.

Keynote is ideal for businesses that work on Macs and use the iWork productivity suite.

For a more in-depth comparison of these three software presentation tools, look at:

For even more software presentation tools, look here:

Now that you’ve selected a presentation software tool, read on to learn how to design your business presentation.

Chapter 6. How to Design a Killer Business Presentation Like a Creative Professional

You know your message. You’ve researched your topic and your audience. You’ve created your outline. And you’ve chosen a presentation software tool.

But for an effective business slideshow that moves people to action, you need a visually appealing presentation. Want a presentation your audience will remember? A good presentation design makes the difference.

The presentation slide design tips here will show you what to do (complete with PowerPoint presentation examples).

Get the Right Kind of Attention With These 6 Presentation Design Basics

Pay attention to these six presentation design basics as you design your presentation:

• Slide Layout
• Font Choice
• Special Effects

Let’s look at each element individually:

1. Slide Layout

A slide's layout is the organization of your content and the visual elements on each slide. Think about your presentation content as you design the layout of each slide of your presentation.

Look at what you've written. Imagine what type of slide design would be effective for each point. Some points may fit naturally on a slide with text alongside an image. Other points may be best shown through a slide with a chart or graph.

Keep each slide design as simple as possible. A cluttered design will draw attention away from your content. Also, for complicated points, you may need more than one slide. And that’s okay.

Try This: Draw thumbnails or create a storyboard to show a visual picture of the type of slide designs you need. ( Don't confuse these thumbnails with the Thumbnail view in many software presentation tools. ) These thumbnails are simply rough sketches of what various slides in your presentation will look like. You don't have to be an artist. A simple drawing will do. 

2. Font Choice

When choosing a font , think about both font type and font size .

Font type refers to the look of the font. Some fonts work for casual use, but not for a professional presentation. Choose a font that’s easy to read. San serif fonts like Tahoma or Gil Sans work well, especially for headings.

Font size is also important when creating a presentation. The font needs to be large enough for an audience to read from across the room. Use at least a 24-point font.

Don’t use too many different fonts in your presentation. Fonts should coordinate with each other and not be distracting.

Learn more about fonts here:

Try This : Pull out your branded business materials such as stationery, brochures, and business cards. List the fonts used. (If you’re not sure, ask your marketing department.) Replace the current fonts in your slide presentation with these fonts if they work well on screen.

Learn how to change your presentation fonts here:

3. Color Choice

Color plays a big part in any presentation. Colors send powerful visual messages. Choose the colors for your slide background, fonts, and accent text carefully.

The wrong colors will give listeners the wrong idea about your brand or message. Too many colors or clashing colors make your presentation appear garish and amateurish.

Color also lets you brand your presentations. When designing your presentation, think about your business color and design scheme.

Re-examine your branded materials (your website, stationery, and business cards). Compare them with the colors you plan to use for your presentation. It should all work together.

Learn all about color in the Envato Tuts+ tutorial:

4. Graphics

To help your listeners remember your main points, make wise use of graphics. Remember that the right visuals can help your listeners retain up to 65% of what you say (according to  Brain Rules ).

Consider using these types of graphics to give your business presentation a visual edge:

• illustrations
• infographics

It's important to use graphics wisely, though. Putting too many images on a slide or using unprofessional graphics will actually leave listeners with a negative impression.

Try This: If you've got an Envato Elements  subscription, you've got unlimited access to various design resources. Browse through the  photos , illustrations , infographics , and icons to find professionally designed visuals that meet your needs.

5. Media Choice

Embed a short video or audio into your presentation to provide some variety for your audience.

But be careful. Too many videos or audio messages will overpower your presentation and distract your audience. Limit your use of embedded media.

The media you choose should be professionally produced. Don’t embed sloppy, amateurish video or audio into your presentation.

Also, keep the embedded video or audio short. Under a minute is best, but don’t let it go longer than two minutes.

Find the best media to enhance your business presentation by asking these questions:

• Is this media related to my goal?
• Is the media professional?
• Does the media fit our company’s image?
• How long is it?

Try This : Play a royalty-free soundtrack on a loop before your presentation starts. Download professionally produced royalty-free music files with your Envato Elements subscription or for a single low fee from  AudioJungle .

6. Special Effects

Use the special effects that come with most presentation software to add extra interest to your presentation design.

The two types of special effects are:

• transitions

Animations are used to move the elements of your slide. Animations can move the slide body text, images, and other objects of your slide design. 

Transitions are a specialized type of animation that are used between slides.

Don't overuse special effects. Too many special effects distract from your main message. But sprinkling in a few special effects can add interest to your presentation.

Learn how to use animations in your presentation here:

How to Use a Presentation Template: 3 Easy Steps to Follow

A professionally designed business presentation template gives you a head start at making visually appealing presentations. Some of the other advantages of using a professional presentation template include:

• makes the most of your presentation software
• includes a ton of presentation design options
• updated often to current standards and trends

Are you wondering how to use a template? Here are three easy steps to get you started:

1. Search for a Pro Presentation Template Design

Find a professionally designed template at Envato Elements, which has thousands of presentation templates available. Use the Search bar and filters to find the right template for you, whether that's for PowerPoint, Google Slides, or Keynote.

If you're having trouble finding the right presentation template, there are some great PowerPoint presentation template choices in these articles:

No matter what presentation software you're using, you'll find visually appealing presentation choices in these curated lists.

2. Download a Great Presentation Template Design

When you’ve found the right presentation design template for you, download it.

In this example, we’re using The X Note PowerPoint Template . This template has a dark and light version. It also has 43 unique presentation slide designs included.

3. Customize Your Template

You’ll receive a zip file containing a presentation folder. Extract the files. Use your presentation software to open the template.

You’re now ready to customize the presentation slide design template with your own details. You can quickly add your presentation content, photos, and graphics, change the colors, and fully customize it to your needs. 

Learn more about customizing a PowerPoint template:

5 Top Business Presentation Examples (With Powerful Visual Designs)

Let’s look at how using a professional template design can quickly transform your presentation material from dull to interesting. Here are five before and after business PowerPoint presentation examples:

1. The Our Story Slide

In most business presentations, there’s a slide that tells the audience what a company is about. Here’s a before example of this type of slide using one of the standard basic templates included in PowerPoint:

As you can see, it’s very basic. It tells the story, but it’s not a visually appealing design.

Now let’s look at the same information, but this time we’ve used slide #4 from  The X Note PowerPoint Template  (dark version) . We’ve also added  an image from Envato Elements  to grab the viewer’s attention.

Try This : Make your company story come to life. Add a photo of your product or service in action to your slide design. 

2. The Our Services Slide 

Businesses use the Our Services Slide (or Our Products Slide) to explain what they've got to offer. Here’s a before example of this type of slide using the same standard template as before:

This time, we’ve used the light version of The X Note PowerPoint Template , slide #16,  to redo the slide design. Look at what a difference the template makes in this after example:

The icons we added here to the professionally designed slide came with the template. They dramatically transformed our presentation content!

3. The Timeline Slide 

Many default presentation slide templates lack a timeline graphic. Without a graphic, a bulleted list is often the best you can do.

But premium templates give you the option to display your timeline data visually. Here’s a look at the same timeline using  slide #14 from the dark version of The X Note PowerPoint Template :

4. The Awards Slide 

If your business has received awards, you’ll want to show those off in your presentation. Without many graphic options for showing your data, you may be forced to resort to bullets again. Here’s a before example using a default PPT template:

Look at the difference that a creative slide design can make (based on slide #15 of the light version of The X Note PowerPoint Template ) :

5. The Pie Chart 

Reading a list of statistics is dull. But if your slideshow template design is limited, a list may be all you’ve got to show your listeners. Here’s a before example of some key data using a standard template design:

A chart, like a pie chart, brings boring data to life. (Based on slide template #25 from the dark version of  The X Note PowerPoint Template .) :

For more PowerPoint presentation design techniques, review:

Should You Hire a Designer? (Handy Checklist)

You've just learned the key design elements for creating an effective presentation.

Professional presentation templates make it easy for nearly anyone to create an attractive and impactful presentation. But there are times when hiring a designer to create your presentation might be best.

Use the list below to decide whether you need to hire a professional designer to create your presentation:

• You’re too busy to create a presentation.
• You’re in the middle of branding. You want the designer to create a unique presentation look you’ll use again and again.
• You’ve got a generous budget for presentations.
• You don’t know how to use presentation software (and don’t have time to learn).
• The stakes for this presentation are high.
• You’re not confident in your ability to communicate your message to your audience.
• You need someone to provide professional input on what you’ve done so far.

A professional designer can create a unique presentation theme that fits well with your branding. A presentation designer also has experience and graphic design training to draw upon. They can present you with great design options.

Chapter 7. Get Maximum Audience Impact: Give (Deliver) Great Business Presentations

You want your business presentation to make a difference. You want your audience to remember it. You want them to act on what they hear.

You may think you can’t control this aspect of your speech. But you can. Stay tuned to learn how to give a great presentation with the most audience impact.

Let’s start with a look at the art of giving a good presentation.

6 Top Tips for Giving a Good Presentation

Use these powerful public speaking techniques to deliver a presentation that makes a difference . In this chapter’s tips for giving a presentation, you’ll learn how to:

• Project confidence through body language.
• Manage your speaking voice.
• Captivate your audience by telling a story.
• Have a good start (and killer close).
• Use strategic pauses for effect.
• Win your audience over with a smile.

Let’s examine each tip separately:

1. Project Confidence Through Body Language

Your body language (also known as non-verbal communication) tells your audience as much as your words. What your audience sees needs to match what you’re saying.

Most experts agree that non-verbal communication is as important as ( if not more important than ) the words you say (Source: The Nonverbal Group ).

The body language you use as you give your presentation includes your:

• expressions
• eye contact

Standing stiffly before your audience, reading from cards or a computer screen—as so many speakers do—doesn’t inspire confidence in your message.

Instead, stand naturally. Don’t be afraid to move. It’s okay to make hand gestures or move across the stage. Don’t overdo it, though. Keep your movements natural and relaxed.

Your expressions also play a big role in your non-verbal communication. If your expression makes you look uncomfortable, your audience will feel uncomfortable too. 

A quick fix for an uncomfortable expression is a smile. Try a friendly smile just before you start your speech and after you pause. We’ll talk more about the importance of a smile later.

For more detailed information on body language, study this Envato Tuts+ tutorial:

Try This : Once you’ve learned your speech, practice presenting a “dry run” in front of a friend or colleague. Ask them to notice the impression your body language leaves rather than the actual words you’re saying. Also, ask whether you’re slouching or standing stiffly. They can also tell you whether your movements are distracting or effective.

2. Manage Your Speaking Voice

How you sound also makes a huge impact on your audience. If you’re going to deliver a presentation that makes an impact, you need to pay attention to the way you speak.

Common speaking mistakes include:

• speaking too quickly
• speaking too softly
• speaking in a monotone voice
• mumbling or otherwise not speaking clearly
• overusing unnecessary interjections like “um,” “like,” and “you know”

Your voice leaves a big impression on your listener. It also determines whether they can understand what you’re saying . If your listener must work too hard to understand you, they’ll give up. You’ve lost their attention.

Managing your voice improves with practice. But first you’ve got to know what to work on.

Try This : Use a webcam, smartphone, or other device to record you practicing your presentation. As you play it back, look for problem areas where you need to improve. Take notes on the tone of your voice, how fast you’re speaking, and the volume of your voice. Also, notice how often you use interjections. These are all details you can work on improving.

3. Captivate Your Audience: By Telling a Story

It’s a scientific fact that people love stories. Studies show that messages with a story are 35% more effective than messages without a story. (Source: Inc. ) The same source indicates that the most popular TED Talks are over half narrative.

According to a study from neuroeconomist Paul Zak , we love stories because they cause our brains to produce:

• oxytocin, a neurochemical associated with empathy
• cortisol, a neurochemical that helps us focus

This is particularly true for stories with a dramatic arc. Learn more about Zak’s work and about how stories affect behavior in this YouTube video:

If your product or service has dramatically changed someone’s life, tell that story. Your presentation will be more effective because of it.

4. For a Presentation That Sticks: Have a Good Start (And Killer Close)

How you begin and how you end your presentation means the difference between a talk that sticks with your audience and one they forget.

The opening of your business presentation sets the tone for the rest of the presentation . Like it or not, the audience decides within seconds whether they want to pay attention or not. This Time magazine article puts the human attention span at less than ten seconds.

And once you’ve lost your audience’s interest, you’ll have to work twice as hard to capture it. In fact, you may never get their interest. Here are five effective ways to start a business presentation:

• Be bold. A bold statement, spoken with confidence, will capture your listener’s attention.
• Be contrary. Get people to pay attention by saying the opposite of what most people expect.
• Make them wonder. Curiosity is a powerful way to get your audience to focus on what you say.
• Ask questions. Questions are a great way to engage your listeners.
• Use storytelling. You just learned about how effective stories are. A good story makes a good opening.

Just as the beginning of your presentation is important, so is the end. If your audience is still listening at the end of your speech, that means they’re interested. Don’t blow it with a weak ending!

Three great ways to end your business presentation powerfully include:

• A call to action. Tell your audience what to do next.
• A vision of the future . Leave them with a dream of what could be.
• Close loops. While your presentation opens with a story or sparking imagination, your conclusion is where to pull all those open threads together into a killer ending.

For a detailed lesson on how to start and end a presentation powerfully, turn to this Envato tutorial:

5. How to Use Strategic Pauses for Effect

Using pauses to give a presentation may seem illogical. After all, you’ve got a limited amount of time to talk, and you want to say everything you need to say.

Yet, used correctly, pauses work. Some of the most effective bits of your speech are when you’re not talking. If you want to know how to give a killer presentation, learn when and how to pause.

Some of the advantages of strategically placed pauses:

• Audience connection . Remember what Dan Pallotta said about the power of silence and audience intimacy in Chapter 3 .
• Refocus listeners . Pauses give listeners a chance to gather their thoughts and refocus on your presentation.
• Better pace . A pause helps you control the pace of your presentation.
• Human needs . It’s good to give your audience a chance to stand up, stretch, and so on.

So, when should you pause? Here are some great times to pause:

• You’ve just made a major point.
• You’ve just asked a question.
• Your audience is laughing or otherwise making noise.
• For dramatic effect when telling a story.

Most pauses don’t need to be long. A few seconds to a minute is often all it takes to be effective.

A longer pause can serve as a transition to break a long speech into chunks your viewers can appreciate and are more likely to retain. 

6. Win Your Audience Over With a Smile

Facial expressions are a specific type of body language. And one facial expression is more important than the rest. Enter the smile.

Smiling during your presentation makes a difference for you and for your audience.

Smiling can help improve your mood and relieve stress (Source:  Psychology Today ). If you start your presentation with a smile, you’re less likely to be anxious.

A sincere smile is also catchy. If you smile, your audience is more likely to smile back. Also, a genuine smile is perceived as positive. People who smile are seen as friendly and more trustworthy.

Learn more about the power and benefits of smiling in this YouTube video from Ron Gutman.

Another secret to delivering an effective presentation is learning to deal with your nerves.

Get Comfortable: Deliver a Presentation With Confidence (And Without Anxiety)

It’s no secret that many people hate giving presentations. Even experienced speakers get presentation anxiety.

If you’re one of the many, many people who struggle with a fear of public speaking (also known as glossophobia), you’re not alone. You can still give an effective presentation.

Occasionally, your speaking anxiety will be so obvious that it distracts from your message. But most of the time your listeners will understand that you’re nervous. They’ve likely given speeches themselves, so they know what it feels like.

Your listeners will forgive you if you make a few mistakes.  They know that you’re only human and that humans make mistakes.

In fact, you’re probably more critical of your speaking ability than your audience is.

Here’s your go-to list of tips for giving a presentation with confidence :

• An hour or so before the presentation, imagine that your speech is already over, and you nailed it. Repeat the visualization of a successful outcome several times.
• A half hour or so before, plan on doing some light exercise. A brisk walk fits the bill perfectly.
• As you begin speaking, focus on various audience members. But don’t stare at any one person for too long. (If looking at people makes you uncomfortable, look at various spots on the wall directly behind your audience.)
• If you do happen to make a mistake, pause. Take a deep breath and collect your thoughts. Sip some water if you’ve got some. Then, keep going. Don’t make a big deal about the mistake.
• Some public speakers find that glancing at a friendly face in the audience helps. If this is you, make a mental note of where your friendly face is located before you begin speaking.

For more information on how to overcome the fear of public speaking and how to speak confidently, study these Envato tutorials:

One Final Tip : Practice works! The more you practice, the easier giving a presentation will be for you. Organizations like Toastmasters International and professional meetups can help you to practice and improve your speaking skills.

Not only is speaking confidently to your audience important, but so too is choosing the right venue to present in and getting familiar with it.

Use This Checklist to Find the Perfect Venue for Your Business Presentation Quickly

Where you give your presentation does make a difference. Choosing the right speaking venue means a better experience for both you and your audience.

As soon as possible, learn everything you can about the facility where you’ll give your presentation. If you can, pay a pre-presentation visit. Find out what’s available at the speaking location and what you need to bring with you.

To choose a good speaking venue, use the following bullets as a checklist:

• The facility is easy for audience members to find.
• There are enough chairs for all the members of your expected audience.
• Audience members can hear (and see) your presentation regardless of where they’re seated.
• There are restrooms convenient to the main speaking area.
• Get a specific list of provided equipment.*
• Make sure there are enough electrical outlets.
• The room has a place for you to project your slideshow (either a screen or a blank wall).
• The room will be heated (or cooled) to a comfortable temperature.

* Provided equipment can include cables, computer with keyboard and mouse, microphone and other sound equipment, a remote, a video adapter, and a working projector.

If you’ve got any questions about the facility before the date of your presentation, ask. Most venues are happy to work with you.

On the day of your presentation, bring any equipment that won’t be provided by your venue. Also, bring a laptop or phone charger.

You’ve just learned the best way to deliver a presentation with the most impact. Next, we’ll discuss those extras that can add something special to your presentation.

Chapter 8. 7 Creative Ideas That’ll Add Extra Oomph to Any Business Presentation

For a truly impactful presentation, you need to go above and beyond the expectations of your audience. Here are seven creative presentation ideas you can put to good use right away to make your presentation more memorable.

1. Give Away Some Swag

People love getting free stuff. A swag bag full of branded items means they’ll remember your organization each time they pick up that branded pen or pencil, keychain, folder, or other branded item.

Here’s a list of easily branded items, perfect for a swag bag:

• pens and pencils
• coffee mugs

Make sure that each swag bag item displays your company name and phone number. If you’re wondering how your logo would look on a promotional item, you can create mockups using Placeit .

Try This : Put together a book or pamphlet of tips related to your product or service. Give it away to audience members as part of your swag bag, or by itself.

2. Use an Infographic in Your Slides

Infographics present facts, figures, and other concepts in an attractive, visual way. Keep your listeners interested while you present data that might otherwise seem boring.

Notice how the colorful infographic below catches your eye:

Learn more about infographics in these Envato Tuts+ articles:

3. Add a Human Element to Your Presentation

Adding a human element is another creative presentation idea for extra oomph. People love stories, and they’re especially drawn to stories about people.

We’ve already talked about how effective storytelling can be. Learn more about storytelling in these Envato Tuts+ articles:

Try This : Poll your top 20 customers. Ask each one whether your product or service has made a difference in their life. Also ask whether they’d be willing to share their story. Contact the customers who said “yes.” Use their responses to create a powerful human impact story for your presentation.

4. Involve the Audience: Try a Q&A

Many presentation software packages include a question and answer tool. For example, with Google Slides you can let audience members ask questions online. This can be helpful for large audiences or if some of your audience members are remote.

Here’s a peek at how the Google Slides Q&A tool works. First, the audience is provided with a URL where they can ask questions:

If an audience member clicks on the link, they’re prompted to ask their question:

Learn more about the Google Slides Q&A feature in this article:

Here are more ways to involve your audience:

• Ask for a show of hands if the audience agrees or can relate to your question.
• Ask for an audience volunteer for a visual representation.

5. Show a Compelling Image

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The right image can speak volumes.

Images are powerful when they:

• Stir an emotion.
• Stimulate the imagination.
• Capture an important moment.

The most effective images are those that tell a story. Look at the image below:

When you see this image, you realize this person has run out of gas for their car. You may wonder:

• How long have they been walking?
• How far do they have to go?
• Why are they alone?

The image can also be used symbolically to illustrate concepts like:

• the need to be prepared
• hitting a road bump in a journey
• dealing with the unexpected

Try This : When you use a compelling image in your presentation, pause for a moment to let your audience absorb the image. Then, move on to your point.

6. Add a Video or Animation

An animation or video can add interest to a presentation. Be sure to add an animation or video that’s professionally done and relevant to your presentation.

Be careful about letting your video take over your presentation. The video you choose should enhance your message, but not overpower your presentation.

To learn more about using videos and animations, study these Envato Tuts+ articles:

7. Be Available

A valuable extra you can add to your business presentation is to be available after it’s over. 

If the speaking venue permits, stick around for at least 30 minutes. Use the time to network with audience members and answer questions that didn’t come up during the question and answer session.

Those who approach you after the presentation are more likely to be serious prospects for your product or service.

Remember This: Don’t Add Too Much Oomph!

Adding one or two of these creative elements to your presentation will help capture your listener’s attention. Yet using an 'oomph' element on every slide in your presentation will most likely just overwhelm your audience. Apply these enticing elements judiciously.

You’ll find even more creative presentation ideas in these Envato Tuts+ articles:

Remember, one of the best ways to add 'oomph' to your business presentation is to be prepared. And being better prepared is what this guide is all about.

Chapter 9. 2024 Business Presentation Checklist: To Prepare for Your Next Business Presentation (Step by Step)

To help put all these presentation tips and techniques into practice, we've created a handy PDF checklist attachment that'll walk through everything you've learned. 

You can download this checklist as part of a FREE PDF set . This free download includes the 69 page Making Great Presentations eBook and quick-action Checklist. 

Download it now, then simply use it to check off each item as you prepare your next presentation. 

You've just learned about all about business presentations. You've discovered how to make great presentations and how to avoid common business presentation mistakes. It's time to act on what you've learned. The next step is up to you.

Do you want to learn more about presentations? You'll find many more helpful tutorials about making great presentations and using top presentation tools at Envato Tuts+ .

Also, be sure to grab a copy of The Complete Guide to Making Great Business Presentations in 2021. Download this FREE guide now  as a convenient 69 page eBook PDF with quick-action checklist.

For a truly effective presentation, you'll want to use a professionally designed business presentation template . Download the templates you need from Envato Elements or Envato Market .

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Grow » thrive, how to give a killer business presentation (even if you're nervous).

Improve your slideshow or demonstration by learning how to wow your audience with an engaging presentation and seamless experience.

A typical business presentation includes a slide deck and speech presented virtually or in person. However, an excellent presentation incorporates storytelling and data visualization techniques. It should engage your audience and encourage them to take action.

Give a great presentation by designing an aesthetically pleasing slide deck in the right format for your needs. Next, work on your storytelling skills and take your presentation software for a test run. Plus, don't forget to prepare for the unexpected.

Consider the presentation type and format

A business presentation can refer to keynote speeches, investor or sales pitches , and project status reports. You may want to teach your audience about your products or persuade them to purchase. Alternatively, your presentation may kick off a new project by defining the steps needed to progress.

According to SlideModel , there are three general presentation types:

• Informative: Educate your audience during a team briefing, business plan presentation, or stakeholder report.
• Persuasive: Sway your audience and prompt them to act with an effective sales, business case, or investor presentation .
• Supporting: Convey your action plan to decision-makers during a business meeting with leadership or a public speaking event.

Your business presentation format will vary according to your audience and topic. For instance, demonstrating a product at your client's business may play out differently than virtually walking them through an online demo. Think about the presentation tools you will use and any supplementary materials you will hand out or send digitally.

Use storytelling techniques

Bring your speech and slideshow to life through storytelling. Elena Valentine, the CEO and co-founder of Skill Scout Films , told Relevance , "As presenters, good stories allow us to be both an expert and a human at the same time." Storytelling involves sharing relatable details that help you forge a connection with attendees.

Your presentation is a journey with a set arc, including a clear beginning, middle, and end. It should guide your audience to a conclusion and speak to their emotions. Keep your topic, central message, and purpose in mind when crafting the narrative.

[ Read more: 7 Ways to Improve Your Public Speaking Skills ]

Also, consider having a second person help with your in-person or virtual presentation. They can work behind the scenes to assist attendees with audio or video problems, moderate the chat, or troubleshoot technical issues.

Create a compelling slide deck

Define your main point with a headline on each slide and make them scannable. According to Zoho , the 10-20-30 rule is an effective way to create a business presentation. This method uses 10 slides for a 20-minute presentation with 30 points or larger font sizes. In addition, American Express recommends centering text and using high-contrast slides.

Use data visualization tools to turn vital statistics into bar graphs and pie charts. Also, consider ditching the bullet points and replacing them with infographic-style graphics. Many software tools, including PowerPoint , provide slide layouts and font templates, which can be a time-saver. Don't forget to summarize your presentation's main takeaways and tell your audience what to do next with a call-to-action (CTA).

Get familiar with your presentation technology

Although your audience may be patient, you lose precious minutes fumbling with devices and software. If possible, set up your system beforehand and run through your presentation several times. Play around with different presentation modes and views to create an optimal experience.

If you're presenting outside your office or home, try arriving at the venue early to connect your devices and explore the technical setup. Also, consider having a second person help with your in-person or virtual presentation. They can work behind the scenes to assist attendees with audio or video problems, moderate the chat, or troubleshoot technical issues.

[ Read more: 6 Virtual Event Platforms For Small Businesses ]

Prepare for the unexpected

Presenting to an audience can be stressful, and those feelings are amplified when something goes wrong. Your presentation software won't load, or an in-person event switches to virtual. However, the show must go on.

Follow these tips to avoid problems at the last minute:

• Bring backup devices in case of hardware failures, such as a tablet or laptop.
• Have a mobile hotspot and login details ready as a backup internet connection.
• Keep a PDF version of your presentation on your device.
• Save a backup copy on a drive not connected to the cloud.
• Upload supplementary materials to your website and keep the links handy.
• Run through your backup presentation methods, so you're comfortable with them.

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16 Corporate Presentation Templates to Highlight Your Company

Written by: Gijs Ooijen

At a corporate level, you’re going to have to effectively communicate your vision, strategy or solution with different stakeholders.

Whether you’re presenting to investors, management, potential partners, or customers, your corporate presentations should leave an indelible impression.

Engaging and professional corporate presentations can have a great impact on your business. It does a great job of showcasing your brand in its best light and establishing credibility.

However, creating great corporate presentations isn’t a walk in the park, especially if you’re not a design expert.

That's why we've put together a collection of 16 corporate presentation templates that will help you effectively highlight your company's strengths and accomplishments.

But that’s not all. In this article, we’ll take a look at what a corporate presentation is, what it is used for, and how you can create yours using our extensive collection of premade templates

So, let's dive in and explore our selection of corporate presentation templates that will take your business to the next level!

Table of Contents

What is a corporate presentation, what should a corporate presentation include, 16 corporate presentation templates to make your own, how to give a corporate presentation.

• A corporate presentation is a visual tool used by companies to showcase products, services or ideas.
• Corporate presentations typically include elements like introduction, overview, products/services, market analysis, testimonials, financial overview and future roadmap.
• When creating corporate presentations, thoroughly research your audience's preferences and interests, then tailor your presentation to resonate with them.
• Create a compelling narrative using a problem-solution format and storytelling to engage your audience throughout the presentation. Use visual aids like icons, images and videos to enhance information understanding and retention.
• To capture the audience's attention and make your presentation effective, have an in-depth knowledge of the subject and practice beforehand.
• Visme offers an extensive library of corporate presentation templates. With a range of styles, layouts, and color schemes to choose from, you'll find the perfect template to fit your company's unique identity and messaging.

Corporate presentations are slideshows or demonstrations used by companies to showcase their products, services or ideas in a compelling and structured manner. It is a visual representation that combines text, images and other multimedia elements like charts and graphs to communicate information effectively.

Let's say you're the CEO of a tech startup seeking investors for a new app. A corporate presentation could be your key to success during pitch meetings. With an engaging presentation, you can confidently introduce your company, explain the app's features, demonstrate its potential and present financial projections.

By simplifying complex ideas and incorporating visuals, corporate presentations enhance understanding and leave a lasting impression on the audience. They also contribute to a professional image, boost brand consistency and offer versatility for various communication needs, making them a valuable tool for any company's success.

A corporate presentation is one of those types of things where the information included really depends on the goal of your presentation. However, there are several key elements you should include in your corporate presentation deck to effectively convey your company's message.

Let's take a look at them.

Made with Visme Infographic Maker

Introduction

Start your presentation with an engaging introduction. Introduce yourself and your company, providing a brief overview of your mission, values and achievements, or your company’s.

Next, it’s a good idea to offer an overview of your company, also known as a company profile , including its history, core offerings and target audience. Showcase your unique selling points and emphasize what makes your company truly unique.

Products and Services

In this section, highlight your key products or services and explain how they address the needs and challenges of your target market. Use visuals, such as images or short product demo videos, to showcase their functionalities.

Market Analysis

After introducing your products and services, provide a brief market analysis to demonstrate your understanding of the industry and its potential. Share relevant data, trends and insights that support the demand for your offerings.

Testimonials

Testimonials work. About 37% of people believe testimonial videos are effective because they’re more authentic than a business’ pitch. Whatever the goal of your presentation is, incorporating customer testimonials helps build trust and credibility. In this section, share success stories that highlight the positive impact your products or services have had on clients.

Financial Overview

Present key financial data and projections to demonstrate the company's stability and growth potential. Use data visualizations like charts or graphs to illustrate revenue, profits and any notable milestones. Visme makes it super easy for anyone to create beautiful charts and graphs without any design knowledge.

Roadmap For the Future

After your presentation, your audience will be left with the question: What’s next? To leave the audience on a good note, let them know about your company’s future plans and initiatives. Share exciting projects or product developments that demonstrate your commitment to continuous innovation.

RELATED: How to Write an Effective Presentation Outline

In this section, we’ll showcase a wide range of essential corporate presentation templates in eight different categories. Each example of a corporate presentation comes with actionable tips you can use to polish your template and make it your own.

General Corporate Presentation

A general corporate presentation should give an all-encompassing overview of the company, its operations and notable accomplishments.

Corporate Slideshow Presentation Template

This template is perfect for any general corporate presentation. It features a clean and modern design, making it visually appealing. With its concise text, users can effortlessly skim through the content.

If you want the presentation to match your brand, you can easily use Visme’s brand wizard . Just insert your website URL and Visme can then automatically copy those colors, logos and fonts to the template.

Strategy Presentation Template

This corporate presentation template offers a touch of fun with its vibrant design, showcasing multiple colors like purple, orange and white. It provides an excellent platform to introduce your mission in an engaging way on the second slide, starting your presentation off on the right note.

The fonts in this design are very modern, but you might want them to be a bit more old-school. If so, don’t worry! Visme has hundreds of different fonts , all within the editor.

Marketing Corporate Presentation

A marketing corporate presentation is specifically crafted to highlight and advertise products, services or brand initiatives to the intended target audiences.

Business Case Presentation Template

This corporate presentation template offers 16 fully designed slides customizable to suit your specific needs. Whether you’re presenting a business case study or sharing a personal success story, this template is ideal for professional and personal use.

This template includes many 3D elements. If you don’t like the ones that are currently in the template, you can simply swap them out for one of the many 3D assets available within Visme.

KPI Presentation Template

Impress your audience with a professional and visually appealing presentation using this template. This template is perfect for sharing detailed end-of-year marketing KPI reports with managers. Its use of icons and charts allows for clear and efficient communication of key topics.

Creating visually appealing charts and graphs as a non-designer may sound hard, but it’s actually not. Visme actually has a robust data visualization tool that does almost all the work for you. You can easily build eye-catching charts, graphs, maps and widgets into your presentation.

Sales Corporate Presentation

A sales corporate presentation is created to help the sales team communicate effectively and strategize sales plans. This could be a sales deck or just a general sales presentation.

Sales Budget Presentation Template

This template showcases project financial plans and ambitions, specifically for sales budgets.

Its modern design and layout enable you to present your company's financial strategy in an impactful manner, leaving a lasting impression on your audience.

If you have live data, such as live financial reports, you can connect and import the data it to your presentation.

Once you customize the template and are happy with it, you can easily download it in many formats, including PDF, PPTX and MP4. You can even share it online with a live link or generate a code to embed it on your website.

Sales Report Presentation Template

This corporate presentation template features a captivating design with a color scheme of blue, white and yellow. The use of interesting graphs and a minimalist layout enhances the visual appeal and keeps the focus on the content.

If you want to make the minimalist design a little more playful, you could do so by adding animations . Have text move in and out of the screen, have colors change, have charts move—whatever you can imagine, it’s possible in Visme.

Tech Corporate Presentation

A tech corporate presentation is aimed at presenting technological innovations, products or services to clients and investors.

Technology Company Presentation Template

This corporate presentation template boasts a modern and futuristic startup-style design, creating a visually impressive experience for your audience. With its spacious layout, there is enough room to showcase and present information effectively.

If you have a lot of data to deal with, consider adding a table. Visme makes it very easy to do so. This tutorial explains how you can do that within Visme, step-by-step, so you can have it done in just a few clicks.

Technology Presentation Template

This technology corporate presentation template features a delightful and fun design, adding an element of excitement to your presentations. The beautiful combination of bright yet soft colors creates a visually appealing and harmonious aesthetic.

Sports Corporate Presentation

The sports corporate presentation is designed to showcase events, sponsorships or partnerships to stakeholders.

European Football Team Sponsorship Presentation Template

This corporate presentation template is specifically-made for European football team sponsors but can be used for many other things. It comes with a rich selection of images, capturing the essence of the football world. The simple yet striking red and black design adds a touch of professionalism to the presentation.

This template includes many images. But if you want other images that match your presentation, Visme has 1,000,000+ free stock images that will do the job for you.

Sports Team Sponsorship Presentation Template

This template, similar to the previous one, targets sports team sponsors. However, it offers a distinct design with a simpler layout, featuring a dominant blue overtone for a refreshing visual experience.

This template, again, features a lot of images. If Visme’s stock library doesn’t quite do it for you, there’s an alternative. Visme also has a free AI image generator . Just tell it what you want the image to look like and the image generator will create it for you in seconds.

Non-Profit Corporate Presentation

A non-profit corporate presentation is created to communicate the mission, projects and impact of the organization to donors and volunteers.

Poverty Alleviation Presentation Template

This template embraces simplicity, allowing the content and heavy themes to take center stage. Its minimalist design is ideal for serious and impactful topics, ensuring the focus remains on the message being conveyed. If you need to add additional information, make your presentation interactive . Instead of cluttering this design, use interactive features to link to documents or add pop-ups with more information or context. Visme offers easy-to-use interactive features to successfully complete this.

Nonprofit Event Presentation Template

This non-profit presentation template follows a minimalist design approach, just like the previous template. Its captivating 2D icons add a touch of visual appeal to your content and make it really simple to follow the content being talked about.

Visme has a rich library of design assets, including animated graphics, icons, illustrations, shapes, fonts and so much more, that can take your presentation to another level.

Product-Focused Corporate Presentation

A product-focused presentation is centered around highlighting a specific product or a group of products and providing in-depth information to potential customers or other potential stakeholders.

Design Tool Presentation Template

This product-focused presentation template offers a fun and futuristic design that takes your presentations to the next level. The vibrant combination of bright blue and pink colors adds an exciting touch to your content. With a focus on visual elements and minimal text, this template ensures an easy-to-follow corporate presentation.

This template includes a few bar graphs, which are actually super easy to create within Visme. With the free bar graph maker , you can create one in seconds just by providing it with the right data.

Fashion Design Presentation Template

This template is perfect for fashion-related presentations but can be modified to fit anything. With professionally stylish layouts and modern fonts, it offers a visually appealing and professional platform to showcase your fashion ideas and concepts or any other ideas and concepts you might have.

Once your presentation is done, you can easily record it using Visme’s presenter studio. Just hit record and start presenting.

Start Up or Agency Corporate Presentation

A startup or agency corporate presentation is created to introduce the company, its unique offerings, capabilities and success stories to potential clients, investors or partners.

Atmoluxe Marketing Plan Presentation Template

This agency presentation template uses contrasting blues and whites to make your content stand out. With diverse icons, images and visuals, it ensures an even distribution of information, leading to a clear and engaging presentation.

Often, multiple people work on a marketing plan at the same time. Visme makes this really easy with its collaboration tools . Just work on the same document simultaneously, see the edits your team makes and leave comments where necessary.

Watch this video below to see how the collaboration feature works

Airsns Pitch Deck Presentation Template

Elevate your pitch with this visually impressive template. This startup presentation template is a fully customizable pitch deck , offering various useful slides with high-quality vector icons and data visualizations. The breathtaking slide layout with geometrically stylized content blocks is designed to captivate and engage your audience effectively.

RELATED: 85+ Best Free Presentation Templates to Edit & Download

We’ve talked a lot about corporate presentations, but now it’s time to put it all into practice. Here are some actionable tips that will help you give the best corporate presentation of your life.

Know Your Audience

Before creating your corporate presentation, thoroughly research your audience's preferences, interests and knowledge level. What do they like? What do they not like? How can you touch them? Tailor your content to resonate with them and address their specific needs.

If you're presenting to potential investors, focus on financial projections and growth opportunities. If your audience consists of clients, you might want to highlight the benefits of your products and how they can address their pain points.

Craft a Compelling Story

Structure your presentation as a compelling narrative to engage your audience from start to finish. Incorporate a problem-solution format to captivate their attention and maintain their interest. Storytelling can truly take your presentation to the next level.

Use Visual Aids

Use visual aids, such as icons, images and videos, to enhance the understanding and retention of information. Keep the design simple to avoid overwhelming the audience.

Instead of using dense paragraphs of text, create slides with key points and complement them with relevant images or icons. This approach helps convey the message effectively and leaves a lasting impact.

Practice, Practice, Practice

In the end, a presentation is only effective if you manage to capture the audience. The most surefire way to do that is to truly know what you are talking about.

Practice your presentation multiple times to ensure smooth delivery and build confidence. Rehearse in front of a colleague or record yourself to identify areas for improvement.

Create Professional Corporate Presentations With Visme

A corporate presentation is a structured visual tool companies use to showcase products, services or ideas in a compelling manner. It effectively communicates company information to stakeholders, clients and investors, aiming to inform and create a positive impression about the company.

Ready to get started with creating your presentation? Choose from any of these 16 corporate presentation templates or browse Visme’s robust template library to find the perfect match for creating your own presentation .

Visme has everything to make your presentation pop with cutting-edge features like the intuitive editor, presenter tool, data visualizations and rich library of design assets.

Sign up to start creating engaging corporate presentations.

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How to Give a Business Presentation: Guide, Tips and Examples

Consistently nailing business presentations can be challenging, with recurring obstacles often popping up to scupper your chances. While some factors are beyond our control, many are not. Discover here how to consistently excel in preparation, creation, and delivery to boost your chances of ongoing success.

James Moffatt

April 23, 2024

It is inevitable that at one point in your professional life, you will be tasked with giving a business presentation. Making this presentation powerful and effective is something someone in this scenario would aspire for, and therefore the ability to deliver a business presentation well is an invaluable skill. Today, we will master this skill by honing in on the art and science behind crafting and delivering outstanding presentations, backed up by examples and tips that have proven effective in the corporate world from some of the most reputable businesspeople.

What are Business Presentations?

A professional’s tool for communicating new ideas and inspiring, persuading audiences or investors, and kicking off discussions, the business presentation is a collection of information that is prepared and shared in a business setting. Traditionally occurring solely within a boardroom or in-person workplace, recent developments in working styles and setups have meant that more business presentations than ever are being carried out remotely.

Common within both formats is a range of supporting content such as data visualizations, text, images, and other multimedia, that can be shown on slides, different tabs, or a pitch deck. To give a good presentation, the vocal and visual aspects have to be faultless individually, but must also intertwine seamlessly. Achieving this often poses challenges, whether presenting in-person or online, but the root of this challenge is poor preparation, or ineffective use of presentation software. By following the advice within this guide, you will unearth this root, replacing it with a new and improved seed containing invaluable information on top-tier business presentations and how to consistently deliver them.

On the note of ineffective presentation software use, and before we get stuck into our full guide for creating great business presentations, this seems like an apt place to give our first tip. 

Tip 1: Use Bubbles for Online Presentations

If you are in a position where you need to give a presentation remotely, you don’t want to fall into that trap of misusing or entirely neglecting software that can elevate your presentation and its aftermath. By using Bubbles, you are able to either present using just video recording software if a PowerPoint presentation isn't necessary, or present using screen recording and video recording, to get the best of both worlds.

This is the view you will see before starting your presentation. Working within an asynchronous team, there have been countless times where I have had to record a presentation to share with my teammates. Often, my presentations involve going through and sharing various sets of data, all recorded in different areas. The beauty of Bubbles is that the transition between tabs, pitch deck slides, or PowerPoint slides is super slick and easy, meaning no focus is taken away from the content or the verbal element of the presentation. Try using Bubbles for free, and start to drive some positive change into your online presentations.

Now, let's get our teeth into the presentation itself, and how you can set yourself up for success.

Crafting an Effective Business Presentation

1. planning and preparation.

• What are the Objectives: You don't want to meander along without a clear central idea for your business presentation, so begin the whole process by clearly defining the purpose of this presentation. What do you want to achieve by doing it? Who is the audience and how can you cater to them? Without realizing, you will go a long way towards shaping the future content and delivery of the presentation here. 
• Research: You want to be seen as reputable! Even if you find it boring, you need to research thoroughly to make sure every claim in your presentation is backed up by accurate, up-to-date data, stats or information. This can be especially useful for persuasion in a pitch or presentation where the audience are highly experienced and knowledgeable.

2. Structuring Your Presentation

• Create an Outline: As I said, your objectives will mostly ghost-write this for you, at least mentally. The next stage is to jot the outline of your presentation down and draft it into a blueprint. Get an introduction down in a brief but attention-grabbing format, then bulk out the presentation's main body and arguments, before drafting how you want to conclude. By outlining, you will make any necessary PowerPoint slide design a quicker and easier process, and your presentation slides will be more coherent from start to finish by establishing a structure.
• Develop a Script: When it comes to the business presentation itself, you won't want to be sticking to this verbatim, and you wouldn’t see that in the presentation examples we will look at later, but it helps elsewhere. Having a script will help you practice and will help you to create a presentation template at a later stage, with prompts that you can use to prompt yourself in the presentation.

Read on for the final 3 stages in our guide, more tips, and interesting examples of great business presentations.

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3. Designing Your Slides (Where Applicable) ‍

• Choose the Right Template:  As we know at this stage, the spoken element of the presentation is not the only important element. A good PowerPoint template or Google Slides template can, and will set the tone for your entire presentation. Unless you’re a lone wolf, make sure your slide design aligns with your company’s branding.
• Effective Use of Visuals: Visuals should always be quality over quantity, as you don't want presentation design to be too busy. Incorporate some charts, graphs, and infographics if they are needed to explain complex data or add context. Also, throw in images and videos where it makes sense, to break up the monotony of text and to give yourself a break from speaking.
• Consistent Style: Match the style you choose throughout for your presentation to be as professional as possible, whether that be fonts, color schemes, or the frequency of non-text elements like videos.

4. Delivering the Presentation

• Practice Makes Perfect: Rehearse until you can't handle more rehearsing. A good presentation doesn't just happen overnight, and you need to practice to find areas that should be improved before the big moment. If you struggle with presentation anxiety, you will be doing yourself a favor by committing to rehearsing. Bubbles is great for practicing presentations, as you can record yourself presenting, before watching it back and analyzing the areas that need more work.
• Engage with Your Audience: Eye contact, natural hand gestures, varied voice tones... all of the above with help the maintain interest in your presentation. Try to involve the audience by putting questions within your presentation template and inviting guest participation.
• Handle Questions Intelligently: Questioning comes with a territory. Make sure you are prepared to answer the questions that you anticipate being asked.

5. Using Technology and Tools

• Presentation Software: You don't want to look like a rookie when it comes to handling your PowerPoint presentation, for example, so familiarize yourself with your chosen tool and make sure you know how to troubleshoot any common issues (slide transitions etc).
• Remote Presentation Tools: It's more common than ever before to present virtually, so pay equal attention to your virtual meeting platform, and make sure you know how to record a Zoom meeting, for example. Luckily for you, this is quick, easy, and free with Bubbles Notetaker.
• Asynchronous Presentation Tools:  It might also be required for you to present asynchronously before sending it to whoever needs to hear. You can use the same tactic as you did for practicing here, and record your presentation with Bubbles. By doing so, you will allow yourself to invite the audience to comment and offer their input.

Examples of Effective Business Presentations

1. steve jobs' iphone launch (2007).

Overview: In 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone in a landmark presentation that would set the standard for product launches in the technology industry. The presentation was not only about revealing a new product but about introducing a revolutionary idea. Below, you can see how Bubbles can be used to record presentations, and you can also watch Steve Jobs' presentation in the bubble!

Why It Was Great: Steve Jobs excelled in creating a narrative that was both simple and compelling. He used clear, concise language and presented the iPhone as a revolutionary combination of three devices: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communicator. This approach helped the audience easily grasp the uniqueness and value of the iPhone without overwhelming technical details.

Key Elements: Jobs' presentation was highly effective due to his impeccable timing, use of suspense, and the staged reveal of each iPhone feature. He connected with the audience on an emotional level, making them feel they were witnessing the start of a new era. His minimalist slide design and charismatic delivery focused attention on the message, making the technology both relatable and desirable.

2. Mary Barra at CES 2021 (General Motors)

Overview: Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, delivered a pivotal presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in 2021, where she outlined GM's vision to transition to an all-electric future. The presentation marked a significant shift for the automotive giant, traditionally known for gas-powered vehicles.

Why It Was Great: Barra’s presentation was notable for its clear commitment to sustainability, a critical issue that resonated well with contemporary global concerns. She effectively communicated GM's long-term goals, including launching 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025 and aspiring for carbon neutrality by 2040.

Key Elements: The use of high-quality visuals and futuristic video demonstrations helped illustrate GM’s forward-thinking approach. Barra presented complex technological and environmental plans in an accessible manner, which helped stakeholders understand and align with GM's strategic direction. The presentation was also successful in reinforcing GM’s image as a leader in innovation and environmental responsibility.

3. Simon Sinek’s “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” (TED Talk 2009)

Overview: Simon Sinek’s TED Talk, where he introduced his concept of the "Golden Circle" and explained why "people don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it," remains one of the most viewed TED Talks. It's effectively a presentation on how to present.

Why It Was Great: Sinek’s presentation stands out due to its insightful analysis of successful leaders and organizations. His core idea—that people are inspired by a sense of purpose or 'why' behind actions—helped many viewers rethink their business strategies and leadership approaches.

Key Elements: The simplicity of Sinek’s Golden Circle model, which starts with 'Why,' then moves to 'How,' and finally 'What,' made a complex concept easy to understand and apply. His engaging storytelling and use of real-world examples like Apple and Martin Luther King Jr. helped illustrate his points vividly. The talk’s clear, thought-provoking message combined with Sinek’s passionate delivery made it a transformative experience for many leaders and entrepreneurs.

These examples showcase not just the content of the presentations but also the strategies and delivery methods that made them stand out. Each presentation was tailored to its specific audience and designed to drive home a compelling message in a memorable way.

Tips for Giving Presentations Well

Storytelling.

Weave your data and statistics into a narrative that relates to your audience's experiences or challenges.

Interactive Elements

‍ Use polls, live demos, or interactive slides to involve your audience actively.

Psychological Engagement

‍ Techniques like the 'rule of three' or strategic pauses can enhance understanding and retention.

Delivering compelling business presentations requires careful preparation, thoughtful content organization, effective slide design, and engaging delivery. By integrating these elements, and staying on top of the latest technology that can help with presentations, such as Bubbles, presenters can captivate their audiences and achieve their communication objectives. Remember, the key to success lies in your ability to connect with your audience and convey your message powerfully and persuasively.

⚡️ Supercharge your meeting productivity Learn how in under 2 mins:

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9 tips for more powerful business presentations.

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When delivering presentations to a general audience, senior management in your company, or even a venture capitalist, a successful presentation isn’t about the PowerPoint slides you create – it’s about much more than that.

These nine points will help you deliver a powerful presentation.

1. Establish Your Credibility Right Up Front

Lets face it, your audience is more likely to listen to what you have to say if they know you are credible. And it’s not about a lengthy intro with your career highlights.

Instead, whether giving a public presentation or an internal presentation, start your presentation by establishing credibility before you give them information.

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You can use a short story about your background related to the topic, share an experience that shaped the presentation or conclusion, or even reveal the legwork or other references that support your information and is directly related to what you are about to tell them.

Make a point about establishing credibility -- don’t just hope it happens.

2. Include a Goal Early in the Presentation

If your audience knows the purpose or goal of the presentation from the start, they are more likely to relate what you have to say with that purpose as you present your material. This makes it easier at the end to get the action you want, whether it’s funding, approval to proceed with an initiative, to change their minds, or simply get agreement and understanding.

It will also help you shape your presentation by focusing you on that goal rather than straying from the primary purpose.

3. Use Supporting Material Liberally

Even if you establish your credibility, you also need to establish the credibility of what you say during your presentation. Instead of just presenting the material, accompany it with information that supports it and gives it credibility. You don’t have to include it in your slides, but make sure it is in your speaking notes.

For instance, you can tell a story, give statistics, reference research, or even provide quotes from well-respected figures that support your message.

And don’t be shy about addressing credibility. You can even say “you may be sceptical about this, but ...” or “I know this is surprising, but ...”

4. Begin Separate Ideas with Powerful Quotations or Images

For more impact, introduce each separate topic or idea with a relevant quotation or full-screen image that evokes the topic instead of using a stock title slide. Add a word or two about the topic if you have to, or simply say it out loud and let the quote or image support it.

This gives your topic more impact since a strong quote or image will stick in their minds as they listen to the related material. It also breaks up the presentation, particularly if you have no choice but to include dry material like sales graphs or bullet points in your PowerPoint presentation.

5. Ask Thought-Provoking or Rhetorical Questions

An effective way to convey information is to ask a question first instead of launching into the presentation material. This will get them thinking about the material in the context you want.

For instance, you could say “You might wonder why ...”; “When I started to look at this issue, I asked myself ...”; or “How much longer should we ...?”

Be sure to consider your audience and the things they would wonder about, and phrase your questions so you answer those things for them, while at the same time advancing your message and your goals for the presentation.

6. Make Startling Statements

Sometimes the best way to get attention about information you are presenting is to make startling statements. It gets their attention and if you can back it up with your information, you will drive home your point.

If necessary, you can pull one fact out and use it, even if it isn’t your main point. It is simply a catalyst for your message.

7. Be Prepared for Difficult Questions

Questions may come up during your presentation or even at the Q&A session, so you need to be prepared for the most difficult ones, particularly ones that may derail your presentation or subvert your goal. Since you should know your topic and your audience, you should plan for these kinds of questions.

Consider all the objections the audience might have or questions they may raise about your points and information. Include the most critical ones within your presentation to sideline objections, or be prepared to answer them when they come up.

This can be as simple as being able to justify statements or address concerns about an approach from subject matter experts like finance, IT, HR, etc., who may be part of your audience.

8. Have Your Own Questions Ready in Case Nobody Asks One

Regardless of whether you are doing a public presentation or a focused business presentation, you should leave time for questions and answers at the end. If nobody asks a question, be prepared with your own questions that you can then answer. Ease into them by saying something like “I’m usually asked…” or “One thing you might still be wondering about is ...”

Of course, your questions should be directly related to getting your message across and achieving your goal, so use them strategically. Even if you get questions, you can still use yours at the end of the Q&A.

9. Have a Second (Short) Closing After the Q&A

Just like an encore or a curtain call, you should include a short closing after the questions. This is the time to summarize (again) and drive home your key messages and points, including your call to action.

If you need to, you can prepare a slide for this, but you should be able to do the final closing without a slide to support you.

Read all of Michel Theriault's articles on AllBusiness.com.

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8 Tips for a Winning Company Presentation

A company presentation is a vital tool for management and sales departments . This type of presentation plays a huge part in promoting the corporate brand – it’s layout and structure need to be professional and convincing . In this article, we’ll show you what goes into a successful company presentation.

Your company presentation in PowerPoint 

Today’s dynamic market requires companies to adapt and continually seek out new partnerships and clients. Creating a compelling and versatile presentation of products and services is essential . Here are 8 useful tips for designing your company presentation in PowerPoint .

First impressions are everything – and that goes for company presentations, too. It takes people a fraction of a second to form an initial opinion and all too often, that initial opinion is hard to change. This makes it all the more important to set the right tone at introductory meetings.

At face value, a company presentation serves the simple purpose of presenting a company in the best possible light . You want to list key figures and detail services, but you also want to convey emotions and mission statements. The other party wants to learn about who you are .

Your company presentation needs to be tailored to your brand, your business, your products and your services . Although there is no ideal blueprint for a company presentation, there are principles and rules to guide the process.

Tip 1: Preparation and design: The first impression counts

A company presentation is often the first step in connecting with important stakeholders . It lays the groundwork for further discussions and meetings and other objectives, such as closing a contract, establishing a partnership or inviting the client to a follow-up meeting.

You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression and your company presentation is no exception to this rule. To truly be effective, every presentation needs a professional design . And that starts with the corporate design (CD) .

Take a look at your existing company presentation. Is it consistent with your CD?

If not, you need to tailor the font, color scheme and visual language to your corporate identity. Establishing a consistent and meaningful design will help you make a lasting impression on potential clients and partners.

In addition, high-quality images are a must. Professional preparation and great design mean being able to win over even the most critical managing director or the most demanding customers.

✔ Keep the design of your company presentation timeless, elegant and appealing . Avoid overwhelming your audience with cluttered slides and too many bells and whistles. Clean and modern flat design (a large selection of graphics, icons and diagrams can be found here ),as well as isometric design (found here ) are currently on trend.

Tip 2: The 20-minute rule. Your audience’s time is precious!

Most executives and leader are pressed for time and as a result, attention spans can be short. For this very reason, keep your company presentation short:

Spend a maximum of 20 to 25 minutes on the introduction section (“about us”). Then it’s time to get to the point and present your business concept, specific offer, products and/or services in detail. Better yet, keep you presentation short and start a dialogue .

Studies have proven that during a presentation, attention levels drop sharply after just 15 minutes . Your audience will be grateful that you value their time. In most cases, they already know more about your company than you think.

Tip 3: Structure: What belongs in a professional company presentation?

The art of a successful company presentation is, among other things, to condense the most important content of your business plan (business model, market, strategy, finances, etc.) onto a few slides . But it’s even more important to know which facts are truly relevant to your target audience and which are not.

1. Always start by answering the most important W questions :

Who? Contacts, management, staff, partner companies

What? Services, products, etc.

Where? Locations, industries/markets, business areas

How? Goal, vision, mission statement

Why? Advantages for new clients or partner companies

Emphasize the “What?” and ” Why?” of your presentation; this is what your audience will be most interested in.

2. Competition is fierce. Most markets are flooded with competitors and attractive alternatives. That’s why unique selling propositions and individual advantages are so important. What makes you special? Why are you better at meeting the needs of your audience?

3. Always include references from satisfied clients and customers . Concrete references help your audience better understand why your services or products are the right choice.

4. Call-to-action: The last slide of your PowerPoint presentation should motivate your audience to act . You’ve presented your company in detail and with conviction – now you want a reaction from the audience. You can formulate this call to action in more general phrases along the lines of “Let’s get it done!” or “Let’s go!”, package it as a targeted question about the content or use it as a prompt for follow-up contact.

Tip 4: Highlight benefits to your target audience

Knowledge about your target group is power . The first question your audience will ask themselves when you give a presentation is, “How will I benefit from this?” Here are some questions that will help you tailor your content to your audience :

• What are the driving factors for purchasing/collaborating?
• How much prior knowledge about your company is available?
• What follow-up questions are you likely to receive?
• What key messages do you want to convey in your presentation?
• What is your unique selling point (USP) and how do you differ from your competitors? Check out this blog article for more information.
• What kind of design and layout is right for your (business) presentation?
• Storytelling: How do you best get your story across?
• Is the company history really interesting to your audience? Maybe it’s the new innovative solutions you’re about to launch that will deliver real added value?
• Does it matter how many locations and employees you have or is how your customer service process works more important?

A good start to developing your presentation is a team brainstorming session followed by a workshop with key decision-makers from management, marketing, and sales. You can also bring editors, copywriters or a specialized agency on board.

Tip 5: Convince with more than just text

The presentation design needs to be just as convincing as the content. Most presentations we see consist of 70-80% text. But bullet points and sprawling text alone aren’t enough to make an impact .

The design process begins when you stop focusing on writing statements and start creating a presentation that supports your content visually. Here’s a good rule of thumb: 50% of your slide’s area should be text, 50% should be images, graphs and charts .

Obviously, you don’t have to follow this rigidly on all slides, but presentations with rich visual content are always a success . The most important thing is to keep written content short – keywords and short sentences are usually enough .

The following slides (screenshots from our Company Presentation Toolbo x ) provide vivid examples of layouts and designs.

If you’re pressed for time or need some professional design inspiration, check out our PowerPoint templates . Or ask a graphic designer or a professional PowerPoint or presentation agency like PresentationLoad for support.

Tip 6: The customer is king: Give them what they want

Before you start your presentation, ask your audience what information they need. Are they familiar with your company? Have they already gone to your website for information? Knowing this might help you tailor it more to your audience’s needs by editing or even completely omitting sections of your presentation. The key is to remain flexible while presenting and only include what is really relevant to your audience.

The first step is to make sure your presentation is completely up to date .  A slide master is the easiest way to make any universal changes to your presentation, update key figures, contact information, etc., without sacrificing formatting or layout.

Even in a completely updated presentation, you may find there’s information that just isn’t relevant to your target audience. PowerPoint helps you with this by providing a quick and easy option to hide slides . In the thumbnail pane, right-click the slide you want to hide and select Hide Slide .  You can also hide multiple slides by holding down the Ctrl key , clicking on them and then selecting Hide Slide with a right-click. The hidden slides will now appear greyed out. To reverse this option, simply click Hide Slide again and you slides will be visible.

Another technique to make your PowerPoint company presentation more flexible and interactive is to use hyperlinks . For example, you could hyperlink all the titles of individual sections on your agenda slide so that you can jump from the agenda slide directly to the relevant section with a simple click. This also allows you to respond dynamically to your audience’s reactions or interests.

Pro tip : Use your company logo as a home button. Adding a small logo to the corner of each slide not only strengthens your branding, but also allows you to add a hyperlink to the agenda slide. Click on the logo and you’re back to your PowerPoint presentation overview.

Tip 7: Present like a pro

A company presentation lives and dies by its delivery . Even a perfect presentation is of little value if the delivery isn’t convincing. As a presenter, you need to communicate the passion and enthusiasm you feel for your brand through your presentation.

But don’t go overboard! Be authentic . If you can do this, your company presentation will not only reinforce your company’s positive image but will also excite your audience.

Arouse emotions by using images that speak to your audience . Involve your audience by starting with words such as “Imagine…”. Focus less on “we” (your company) and more on “you” (your audience) . These techniques will help you open the door to your audience’s subconscious – which is where most decisions are made.

 ✔ Leave enough time to rehearse your presentation . Ask your colleagues if they would be willing to serve as a test audience and give feedback on your presentation.

Tip 8: Post-presentation best practice

Always prepare a ready-to-email format of your presentation . When your customers and partners are impressed, they’ more likely to ask for a digital copy.

Never send your presentation as a PowerPoint file; always send it as a PDF to preserve its formatting and layout. Be sure to pay attention to the file size , too. A company presentation in PDF format should be no larger than about 3MB. An email attachment containing a 30MB company presentation will come across as anything but professional. There’s also a risk that the email won’t even reach the recipient’s inbox due to a limited attachment size.

✔ Create your company presentation PDF before you present . This way, you can offer it as a digital copy directly after the presentation.

Win customers with your company presentation

On just a few slides, your company presentation summarizes all the pertinent facts and ideas with which you want to convince your audience. This makes it all the more important to truly understand your audience before you start designing your presentation .

The first impression counts – adhering to your corporate design will elevate your presentation to a higher, more professional level. Be concise and to the point and highlight the benefits your audience will derive from working with you and your company. A modern presentation is designed with a 50:50 ratio of text to images ; avoid too much text and unnecessary facts.

As the presenter, you represent your company. That’s why it’s especially important to be flexible and provide your audience with the information that matters most to them .

The aim of this blog post is to provide you with a general idea of how to create a practical and convincing company presentation in PowerPoint. These tips are based on years of proven professional expertise.

Need help creating an even better company presentation?

Feel free to post a comment here or contact me directly by sending an email to [email protected] .

I’d be happy to answer your questions or, along with my team, help you with the concept, structure, content and design of your company presentations. It can really help to have someone with a different perspective take a look at your presentations.

We have been creating PowerPoint presentations for mid-sized companies and international corporations for almost 20 years. As a result, we have a wealth of experience with corporate sales and strategy presentations.

Additional services:

• Non-binding consultation for your presentations.
• Send me your presentations for review.
• Professional support with concept and design.
• Revision of your existing company presentations.

Good luck with your presentations!

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Home Blog Business How to Make a Presentation: A Guide for Memorable Presentations

How to Make a Presentation: A Guide for Memorable Presentations

A presentation goes beyond the idea of crafting a catchy document to present in front of an audience. It is an art in which a person relies on communication skills to introduce a topic relevant to a group of people, regardless of its size. Different elements participate in this communication process, such as body language, presentation skills, visual tools, etc. and are key in delivering an effective presentation.

In this article, we shall present a detailed guide on how to make a presentation, intended both for newcomers in this subject but also for professional presenters who seek to improve the performance of their presentations. Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

What is a presentation?

What is a powerpoint presentation.

• The Importance of a good PowerPoint presentation
• Choosing a topic

Consider the audience & presentation goals

Gather data, references, and source.

• Define the storyline
• Define the outline  

Using one idea per slide

Choose the presentation format, colors & styles, determine the use of metaphors and visual slides, proofreading and polishing process, prepare your speech, rehearse, rehearse and rehearse.

• How to give a memorable presentation

Start strong

Hook your audience, close your presentation.

• Selecting a PowerPoint template
• Add or delete slides in PowerPoint
• Adding images to slide templates
• Adding notes to your slides
• Adding animations to your slides
• Adding transitions to your slides
• Adding audio narration to your slides
• Ideal typeface and size

Color scheme

Printing your powerpoint presentation, powerpoint presentations tips, closing thoughts.

What is a presentation, and what is a PowerPoint presentation?

It is essential to highlight the difference between Presentation and PowerPoint Presentation, often interchangeable terms. One thing is a presentation, an audiovisual form of communication to present information. A PowerPoint presentation is a subset of a presentation. Since PowerPoint remains the leading tool in the market for creating presentations, the term was coined by both spectators and presenters. Let’s begin by checking the main differences between the two terms.

A presentation is any situation in which a person or group has to transmit a message in front of an audience. The format by which the audience attends can answer the following categories:

• Live crowd: A presentation in which the average number of spectators exceeds 100 people. 
• Massive event: Similar to the format above, but we speak about thousands of spectators. This format has specific requirements regarding scenario setup and logistics, and the usual presenters are influencers in worldwide conferences or corporate events (like All-Hands meetings).
• Private event: A selected number of attendants can listen to the presenter. Coaching sessions are the leading kind of private event for presenters, but multiple other categories can fit into this format.
• Online event: Following the trends of remote working and what the pandemic has left us in terms of digital immersion, multiple events shifted their large attendance numbers in favor of online settings. This has the advantage of a narrowed setting, as the area in which the presenter has to stand is considerably reduced – with simpler A/V inputs. Attendees are given a link to the event and watch from their computers or mobile devices.
• Offline event: This medium is what we consume via YouTube videos. Behind each and every YouTube video is countless hours of content development, editing, rehearsing a presentation, and so forth. We call it offline because attendees can browse the content at any time, replaying as desired, unlike Online Events in which the attendees must be logged in to a specific platform. No interaction with the presenter.
• Hybrid event: This is a format coined by large tech companies, the automobile industry, and even fashion brands. The idea is to create an event where a selected number of attendees are allowed to participate (using the Private Event model). Still, at the same time, the event is streamed for users worldwide (Online Event) and/or available on the official social media networks of the brand (Offline Event).

Each one of these formats exposed above has specific requirements in terms of interaction with the audience. For example, in-company presentations will differ from common presentations that seek to capture the interest of new consumers. It is vital to establish the presentation’s intent from the very first moment and then narrow it down according to the topic to present, as well as the knowledge level of your target audience.

A presentation does not necessarily requires to create a slide deck . It is a tool presenters use to make the content more interesting for the audience and also memorable. However, it is well-known that influencer speakers such as Tony Robbins or Warren Buffet ignore PPT documents altogether, preferring to articulate their narrative on the go.

A PowerPoint presentation is a specific type of presentation, which involves the usage of a slide deck crafted with Microsoft PowerPoint. This kind of tool allows presenters to communicate a message through a vast range of mediums, such as images, graphs & charts, audio, and video for a better impact.

Creating a PowerPoint presentation is an easy process, and there are two routes for it: working from a blank slide or using PowerPoint templates .

Some of the advantages of building a PowerPoint presentation:

• Better information retention by the audience, thanks to visual cues.
• Improves the audience’s focus.
• Easy to create powerful graphics.
• Templates are editable, meaning you can repurpose the original designs to meet your standards.
• Saves time to create presentations thanks to its user-friendly UI.
• Encourages teaching and learning processes.

The Importance of a Good PowerPoint presentation

There are some elements that presenters must take into account when making a PowerPoint presentation . It’s not just drag-and-drop, then magic happens. Creating a PowerPoint presentation involves a process of generating the graphic content to display and the narrative around it. The purpose of PowerPoint is to serve as a tool to enhance communication, not to make it overly complex.

We emphasize the relevance of working the speech and graphic content together since the speech itself gives the timeframes for each slide, what elements it contains, or whether it is relevant to use a slide or not to speak about a topic. 

Some points to highlight when preparing a presentation:

• Presenters often use the element of surprise. This means a presentation can start without a slide, use a video, or involve a discussion between two parties, then jump to the slide deck presentation. More on this topic later on.
• A good PowerPoint presentation can be your introduction card in multiple professional settings. The effort you put in terms of design and content shall pay back over time in contacts or business deals.
• Having a spare copy of your presentation, preferably in Google Slides presentation format, is a safe-proof technique in case the PPT file gets corrupted. The aesthetic remains the same and can be browsed by any computer with internet access.

How to Make a Presentation (5 Essential Points)

1. planning your presentation.

The first step in making a presentation is to plan the content according to our personal/business goals and the audience’s interest. Let’s break down each part in more detail.

Choosing the topic of your presentation

There are two situations for this. The first one is that you are open to presenting any topic of your preference. This usually happens in business presentations, inspirational presentations, product releases, etc. The second scenario is restricted, by which you have to pick a topic among a selected number of references. That’s the typical situation in which presenters see themselves when taking part in significant events – as not all topics are suitable for the main content of the event, and this is where creativity comes to play.

How to choose a topic, you may ask. Brainstorming is a good technique as long as you remain within the boundaries of this formula:

What you know and feel confident about + What is relevant to the current moment + What can resonate with your audience = Quality Content.

Again, if you experience restrictions due to the nature of an event, but your objective is to share specific information about your business, here are some tactics that can come to play:

• Do keyword research about the topics your business is involved. See the common patterns in your activity compared with the keywords. Then research the 15 articles on the 5 biggest volume keywords. Narrowing the possibilities in your business is a different take.
• Research whether there’s room for sponsored advertisement. That’s an alternative when directly speaking about your business is a no-no in a presentation.
• Turn your presentation into an inspirational story. That works in most events and brings the audience’s interest.

Another vital point to consider is how passionate you can be about the topic of your choice. Nothing speaks more about professionalism than a presenter being deeply involved with the topic in discussion. It sparks curiosity and gives validation as a reliable authority on the content. On the other hand, when a presenter delivers a talk about a topic they don’t connect with, body language usually betrays the presenter. Spectators feel that the speaker wished to be elsewhere, hence dooming the presentation’s performance (and badly impacting the presenter’s reputation).

Consider the purpose of the content to present. Is it going to be informative? Educational? Inspirational? That shall set the tone of your speech later on.

Like with any project, you can estimate the ROI of your presentation with two verifiable metrics: the behavior of the audience and how many contacts did you build after delivering an effective presentation.

Making a presentation has the implicit purpose of helping you construct your network of professional contacts. Even when the presentation has no explicit financial purpose – as in the case of non-profitable organizations, there is still the acknowledgment component. People want to feel validated for the work they do. People want to build long-lasting contacts that can later on turn to be part of a new project.

Considering the audience is imperative, and often one of the pitfalls many presenters fall prey to. You must be aware of the following:

• The knowledgeability of your audience about the topic to discuss. This filters the option of using technical jargon during a presentation.
• The age range and demographics of your audience. It is not the same to discuss a methodology to reduce financial risk to a group of corporate workers in their 40s than to a group of students in their early 20s. The language is different, the intention behind the message is different, and so is the information retention span.

On regards to presentation goals, they can be classified as professional goals (those who seek conversions or valuable business contacts), influential (to establish a brand in the market), educational (to inform a group of people about a topic you researched), etc. Depending on the presentation goals, you can then structure the content to list and the tone in which you speak to your audience.

2. Preparing content for your presentation

No presentation can be made without reference material. Even when you believe you are the most prominent authority about a topic – you have to prove it with valuable, referenceable material. For some niches, this is critical, such as scientific poster presentations, educational presentations, and other areas in which copyright might be an issue.

References for the material you used can be listed in different formats:

• If you are citing a book/article, you can do a bibliography slide, or screenshot the excerpt you want to cite, then include a proper source format below the image.
• You have to credit the author for images/videos that are subject to intellectual property rights. Depending on the context where the image is presented, you may even have to inquire the author about using the image. If the photo in question is yours, no citation is required. Learn more about how to cite pictures in PowerPoint .
• Graphs and charts should include a reference to what they mean, explaining in a short sentence their context. Cite the source if the graph is extracted from a book or article.

As a tip, prepare a document in which you jot down the references used to create the presentation. They can serve whenever a question is asked about your presentation and you must research extra material. 

Define the presentation storyline

We interpret the storyline as what is the connecting thread of your presentation. What do you wish to discuss? What motivated you to present this topic in this particular setting and in front of an audience? What can your message deliver in terms of new information and quality to your spectators?

All those questions are worth asking since they shape the narrative you build around your presentation. The storyline is the step before building an actual outline of your presentation.

Define the presentation outline

Now that you have a clear idea of your reference material and the story to tell behind your presentation , it is time to list down your presentation structure in a Table of Contents format. Keep in mind this is for internal reference, as the outline is a tool for writing the speech and creating the slides. You don’t have to list the outline in a presentation; if you desire, you can do a simplistic version with an agenda slide.

Be specific. Don’t let any topic be broad enough to lead to confusion. Sometimes, it is best to list many elements in a presentation outline, then trim them down in a second iteration.

This is perhaps the biggest mistake presenters make in the professional context when creating a new presentation. Slides are free; you don’t have to jam everything in, wishing people get an instant idea about EVERYTHING you will discuss in one slide. Not only does it become overwhelming for the audience, but it is also a faux pas in terms of design: when you use too many elements, the hierarchy does not seem clear enough.

Opt for the “one-idea-per-slide” technique, which, as the term refers, implies using one slide per concept to introduce. Work with as many slides as required, but just one main idea by slide. Your presentation becomes clearer, easy to digest for a non-knowledgeable audience, and also serves as reference material on how to pace your presentation.

3. Designing your presentation

The following section contains guidelines about the different aspects that shape a presentation structure . If you are looking for an all-in-one solution that implements these teachings into presentation design, try SlideModel’s AI Presentation Maker . A time-saver AI-generation tool for presenters powered by Artificial Intelligence.

Event organizers have a saying in the presentation format, which can be online or a live event. Depending on which, users have to structure the elements of their presentation to match the final output. An example of this: it’s not the same to create a PPT slide deck for an event in which you stand on a stage, in front of a live audience, than when you present via Zoom call, using your computer screen to cast the presentation. 

The format is different because text usage and images are perceived differently. For starters, an online presentation is most likely to draw users to read the entire content of your slides than a live presentation. The audience may not get your body language in an online presentation, merely watching slide after slide with the presenter’s voiceover. In some conditions, it can be incredibly dull and hard to follow. 

Do your research with the event organizers about which format shall be used. When it comes to in-company presentations or educational presentations, the format is usually live, as the audience is selected and part of the same organization (that being a company or a school/university). If a webinar is required for an in-company format, ask the organizers about the length of the presentation, if it is possible to interact with the audience, deliverable requirements, etc.

The aspect ratio for a presentation format usually follows the 16:9 format or 4:3 format. Presentations built in 16:9 aspect ratio are the standard , rectangular format PPT templates, which also serve to be printed without many distortions in regular A4 files. As we work with a rectangular format, there are two axes – horizontal and vertical, in which presenters can arrange the content according to its importance (building a hierarchy). Working with a 4:3 format is more challenging as it resembles a square. Remember, in a square there are no visible tensions, so all areas have the same importance. 

As a recommendation, the 4:3 aspect ratio is a safe bet for all projectors & beamers. When working with a 16:9 slide and the projector is 4:3, the content gets squeezed to fit the required ratio, and for that very reason, it is advised to increase the font size if you use a 16:9 slide on a 4:3 projector. Be mindful about logos or photographs getting distorted when this conversion happens.

The 16:9 ratio looks more visually appealing these days as we get used to TVs and mobile devices for browsing content. New projectors are usually intended for 16:9 format, so you won’t experience any inconvenience in this regard.

No, not every color works harmonically with other colors. Colors have a psychology behind their usage and impact, and to not make this guide extensive, we highly recommend you visit our article on color theory for presentations . You can find suggestions about which colors you should use for different kinds of messages to deliver and what each color represents in terms of color psychology.

The color you use in your presentations must be in accordance with your branding. For example: you should definitely not build a presentation with a bright, bold magenta neon tone when your logo contains green neon-like hues. If you work with a PPT presentation template that doesn’t match the color of your branding, we recommend you check our guide on how to change color themes in PowerPoint .

Regarding typefaces, do never use more than 3 different typefaces per design. It is best to stick to 1 or 2 typefaces, using the variations each font offers in terms of weight.

An example of this:

You create the heading title (H1 size) with Open Sans bold. Subtitles should be done in H2 size using Open Sans regular. Body text in paragraph size, using either Open Sans Regular or Light. Words to emphasize shall be bolded for important terms and italics for foreign terms to be explained.

Use a cohesive color scheme that fits the background, graphics (such as charts and bar graphs), text, and even images. It helps the audience to understand concepts more naturally and gives a pleasant experience to the sight.

Just as badly a slide deck filled with text is felt by the audience, the exact impact can be attributed to a slide deck that only contains images. The audience may feel disconnected, not understanding the purpose of the presentation. A second side-effect is when the spectators wish to browse the slides to study, as in the context of an educational presentation. If the presenter does not include any text guidance, the slide deck is a mere collection of images without any reference that helps remember the presentation.

Work in balance, like a 3:1 ratio between graphic elements and text. For every 3 graphic elements, a text box must be included.

Using metaphors in presentations is a great idea to introduce complex topics or to tell a story. Say, you want to make the audience aware of your company’s challenges to reach its current standing in the industry. Using a roadmap template that depicts a mountain is an excellent idea as it reinforces the ideas of “challenge” and “teamwork.” 

4. Final touches and polishing your presentation

Before giving any presentation, you should dedicate at least one day to this polishing process. Let’s break down the process for easier understanding.

• Do a first iteration of your slides. The objective here is to grasp how everything looks in terms of design. Check the alignment of images and text, any color inconsistencies, typos, etc.
• Rehearse your presentation one time, tracking how much time it takes to perform the presentation.
• If any information is missing that’s worth adding to the slides, proceed to add it. If there are elements that can be reduced, trim them.
• For time-restricted presentations, get a clear idea about how much time it takes to complete your presentation, plus 5 extra minutes for a Q&A session.
• The second iteration should check the tone of your writing, and double-proof any spelling, punctuation and grammar errors. 

After two complete iterations, your presentation is ready to go to the next stage.

Even though we believe the speech is partially built as you prepare your presentation slides, you should dedicate an extra section of time to prepare your speech correctly. This process involves the following steps:

• Identifying the purpose of your presentation. The core element of why you are speaking to this audience.
• Get to know your audience, their interests, their challenges, and what can they possibly wish to overcome.
• Adding value. This is vital – your presentation has to leave a lasting message to your audience on what they are interested.
• A strong start and a strong finish. Don’t neglect any of these elements.

Writing down your speech in notes is a must. It is the tool you can use to rehearse your presentation, and -in case you feel anxious- you can include some speaker notes in your presentation (which won’t be visible to your audience) to help you structure the speech.

Practice makes perfect. Rehearsing does not imply memorizing the entire presentation, as that would make your speech robotic, and prone to errors. How? Imagine a person asking you a question in the middle of your presentation, a question you didn’t expect. A prepared presenter can easily manage the situation because of the background built around the topic. A presenter that memorized a speech and robotically repeated its content can feel unease, losing focus for the remainder of the presentation.

Some valuable tips on the rehearsing process:

• Record your rehearsing sessions. You can use tools like Presenter View in PowerPoint to track your time. 
• Make it a memorable event. Creating an engaging presentation requires creativity, so consider brainstorming for new takes on adding exciting elements to your presentation for attention retention.
• An exercise recommended by Tim Ferris is to mimic the conditions as closely as possible. This helps to reduce presentation anxiety, and also to get used to cameras and spotlights or evaluate your body language.
• If possible, ask a friend for feedback on your presentation performance. This is particularly helpful for new presenters to get used to interacting with the audience.

5. Presenting (your presentation)

Now it’s time to talk about the presentation and your performance when delivering it in front of an audience. Giving a presentation has many aspects to discuss, from start to end, the techniques to keep your audience interested in the topic, and also recommendations to make a memorable event. Let’s get started.

How to give a Memorable Presentation – Delivering an Impactful Presentation

There are multiple methods to approach a presentation and deliver an impactful presentation. Let’s be honest, not everyone feels comfortable when standing in front of an audience. For that reason, we want to lay out some fresh ideas to help you bring your best to your spectators.

The first element you ought to be aware of is body language . It has to feel natural, not overly acted but also not stiff. Think of a presentation as a similar scenario in which you have a deep conversation with a group of people about a topic you are passionate about. That mindset helps to ease anxiety out of the equation. Avoid crossing arms or constantly pacing across the stage – that only shows impatience and lack of interest.

Keep the concepts simple. Don’t overload your presentation with unnecessary jargon; if you feel something cannot be easily explained, go break down concept by concept until the whole idea is understandable. Graphics are a fantastic asset to help you in this process and boost your performance as a presenter. 

Be mindful of not doing any of these common pitfalls:

• Including large chunks of text on a single slide.
• Using intense background colors that make it difficult to understand the contents of the slide.
• Don’t read every single element in your slides – this is perceived as boring by your audience.

One particularly interesting approach is by Guy Kawasaki, author of the book “The Art of the Start.” He considers the best presentations to be handled using 10 slides, lasting no longer than 20 minutes, and using a 30pt font size. That’s known as the 10-20-30 rule in presentations . It helps you to condense the content for the sake of information clarity.

In case you don’t use a PowerPoint presentation, there are multiple ways to make a presentation memorable:

• Tell a story, but connect with your audience in terms of body language. Play with the elements on the stage (much like TED presenters do), and let the audience feel the experience of your story by being as detailed as possible within the time frame.
• Using a video is an incredibly engaging tool, as it lets you introduce a topic you will discuss in more detail later.
• Use a visual impact in the form of an image with a dramatic element (i.e., climate change consequences, technological advancements, children engaging with technology or studying, etc.). This allows to hook the audience into what’s due to come next.

Knowing how to start a presentation is a critical skill all presenters ought to master. There are several approaches for this behalf, but for the sake of this guide, let’s stick to the following ones.

Using the Link-Back formula

This consists of throwing a story in front of your audience that explains who you are, what your background is, and why your speech should make a difference in the life of the spectators.

The Link-Back formula is beneficial for creating an emotional connection with the audience.

Using a Hook

Asking a rhetorical question, using a powerful fact, or other well-known hook techniques is a plus when starting a presentation. We shall talk about hook techniques for presenters in the next section.

Using a captivating visual

Much like the power of storytelling , visuals impact the audience’s psyche, especially if the presentation is about a trendy topic. Create a quality graphic with any of our designs at SlideModel, a graphic designer’s help, an AI Image Generator, or work with a video.

A hook is a tactic used by presenters as an opening statement but can be used in different areas of the presentation if it has an ample length. Much like the metaphor suggests, they serve to attract the audience to what you are communicating.

Research on attention span during lectures suggests a gradual decline in the audience’s interest in the presentation. That’s exponentially increased if you miss the chance to give a powerful first impression. Check this list of hook techniques to enhance the performance of your presentation skills:

• Asking rhetorical questions – better if a series of them on the topic to discuss.
• Using catchy phrases.
• Using a contrarian position, explain why such thinking harms the topic you wish to introduce.
• Historical event referencing.
• Making a powerful statement, best if data related. (i.e., “Every year, 8 million tons of plastic gets into the ocean, which equals to a truckload being dumped every minute” )
• Using the word “imagine”. It’s one of the powerful words in you can use in presentations .
• Add the comedy element – NB: be careful not to overdo it.
• Apply a “what if” scenario – this hook is similar to the “imagine” but with more data added.
• Tell a story.
• Spark curiosity.
• Smartly use quotations. Do not stick to text-book quotations but give your insight on why the quote is relevant for your speech.

Photo 9: Slide using a hook

Most people assume that ending a presentation equals doing a recap. It is a bad idea since your audience feels as if you haven’t planned a conclusion for your presentation. 

Another bad practice is to end with a Q&A format. Although questions and answers are often a required part of any presentation, they shouldn’t be the end of your presentation. You can include questions during your presentation or opt for a proper closure of the presentation past the Q&A session.

There are some powerful strategies to give a memorable ending to a presentation:

• Include a CTA on the lines like “Join our journey!” or similar that make the audience part of a bigger story.
• Close using a relevant quote. The idea is to deliver something that can linger, so the audience remembers your content.
• Use a story to close your presentation, as long as you avoid using a case study. The idea is to close with a meaningful thought, not with boredom.

We recommend you check our article on how to end a presentation for more ideas before reaching this stage of your presentation.

How to Make a PowerPoint Presentation (Quick Steps)

In this section, we will see how to use PowerPoint to make a presentation . Starting from creating a blank presentation or choosing a pre-defined PowerPoint template to preparing the presentation structure by adding PowerPoint slides and then working on the design of the presentation, we will explain how to make a visually-appealing and eye-catching PowerPoint presentation and how to create a slideshow in PowerPoint.

1. Selecting a PowerPoint template

When making a PowerPoint presentation, Professional PowerPoint Templates bring the advantage of not needing to think about complex graphic design decisions. However, there are certain aspects worth considering prior to picking the perfect PowerPoint template.

• Color aesthetic : If your presentation has to be done quickly, stick to PowerPoint templates that resemble your company’s branding palette. Although color can be changed, it is best not to lose time with extra adjustments.
• Opt for minimalistic designs : It is one of the most suitable ways to remain elegant in the professional world. You won’t be signaled for using a template that speaks seriousness on its design – and take for granted everyone shall badly remember the presentation that overdid color or graphics (or even worse, typeface effects).
• Avoid using heavy transition effects : Not all computers are as powerful as the ones you own. The simpler you make your presentation, the best it shall play on any PC.

As in life, there are advantages and disadvantages of using Premium or Free PowerPoint Templates vs. starting from a blank slate.

Advantages of PowerPoint templates when making a presentation

• Speed up the presentation design process.
• Reusable designs, ready for any situation.
• Helps to present data in an understandable format.
• Complex design decisions are made for users.
• Color pairing and font pairing are done for users.
• Helps to reduce the usage of text in slides.

Disadvantages of PowerPoint templates

• We are not learning to use advanced PowerPoint tools, as designs come pre-made for users.
• It can hinder creativity.
• Not every presentation template for PowerPoint is suitable for any topic.
• A professional team of PowerPoint template designers must be behind those templates to ensure quality.

2. Add or delete slides in PowerPoint

When we create PowerPoint Design ideas , not every slide makes the cut for the final presentation. Users then feel overwhelmed about those slides: will they be visible in the final presentation? Should you make a new PPT file without those extra templates? How to clone the “good” slides into a new file?

Instead of worrying about that process, we have here a guide on how to add, delete and rearrange slides in PowerPoint that explains, step by step, how to get rid of the unwanted slides or add more content to your presentation.

3. Adding images to slide templates

Some presentation templates and slide decks include entirely editable placeholder areas, and those boxes do not imply text only – they can include images, graphs, videos, etc. Say you want to add more images to your slides – it is as easy as replicating one of those placeholder areas with CTRL+C / CTRL+V (CMD for Mac users) or going to Insert on the Ribbon’s menu, then Picture . 

If you plan to move elements in your slide design, we recommend you get familiarized with how to lock an image in PowerPoint , so the images that shouldn’t be altered remain in position. This technique is ideal when your images are surrounded by plenty of editable graphics.

4. Adding notes to your slides

Presenters often struggle to remember key pieces of information due to performance anxiety or because they were moved from focus by an unexpected question. Using speaker notes in PowerPoint is the answer to prevent becoming stuck, since those notes won’t be available to the viewers – they remain visible only on the computer where the presentation is being streamed.

Keep in mind this technique works when the presenter is sitting next to the computer. If you have to stand in front of a crowd, opt to use different memory-recalling techniques when you feel out of focus.

5. Adding animations to your slides

Another technique presenters use adding animated objects or effects. This is as easy as following these steps:

• Select the object/text you desire to animate.
• Go to Animations in the Ribbon and select Add Animation .
• You can stack animations on a simple object to make unique effects.

Using animated presentation templates is an alternative when you don’t feel confident about adding animations. 

6. Adding transitions to your slides

Transitions are animated effects that happen when you change between slides during a presentation. Some people love them, while others prefer to stay away from them. 

If you want to add transitions to your slides, follow these steps:

• Select the slide you want to add the transition effect.
• Go to Transitions in the Ribbon, and choose a transition.
• If the transition allows the Effect Options menu, you can alter that transition’s direction and behavior.
• Click on Preview to visualize the effect.
• To remove a transition, select Transitions > None .

7. Adding audio narration to your slides

Sometimes, presenters opt to add audio narrations to the slides. The advantage of using this medium is to increase accessibility for visually impaired users. We created a guide on how to add audio narrations in PowerPoint that explains the procedure in detail.

Considerations for your PowerPoint presentation

Ideal typeface and font size.

There are multiple opinions on which typeface is ideal for presentations. Experience tells us the ideal typeface to work with is one that is system-available, meaning you don’t have to install a new font in the computer used to present. Why? You may ask. Simple: If the font used is not available on a computer, PowerPoint will automatically render a different font (sometimes even a different typeface) to replace and display the text appropriately. That action, which is replicated by other software such as Google Slides, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Apple Keynote, etc., can drastically change your design. 

Font size for titles should be between 36-44 pt. Paragraph font size between 24-28 pt. Use bold to emphasize concepts, and italics to insert foreign terms or quotations. Alternatively, you can make quotations to be displayed on a single slide, using 36 pt size, in italics.

Remember, these recommendations about size are intended for presentations in a live format. If the presentation is streamed through Zoom, using screen sharing, reduce the font size by 10-15% to avoid incredibly large texts. Test your presentation beforehand to be on the safe side.

The color scheme used is a primary part of your presentation design. When defining the presentation color palette , we recommend working within the colors that make part of your branding scheme. 

If we speak about a personal presentation or a presentation with no logo, then opt for pastel tones that don’t create harsh contrast between text and background.

Above all things, avoid these conflictive color combinations:

• Yellow and green
• Brown and orange
• Red and green
• Neon colors combined
• Purple and yellow
• Red and purple
• Black and navy
• Navy and red (unless you use a muted red tone or control the amount of red used)

Sometimes, printables are a requirement by event organizers, which represents a challenge to many presenters. We want to give a helping hand on this behalf, offering tips that can improve your printing experience:

• Always work within margins when adding content. It helps not to downsize the presentation, which often renders the text illegible. 
• If you have to print a presentation that uses intense background colors, opt for laser printing instead of inkjet. Laser printing won’t make the paper look odd when it is full-color print. The extra price is worth it when presenting a quality product.
• On the same lines about color-heavy presentations, ask for thicker printer paper than the average. This option is often advised when opting for laser printing.
• Run a print proof before ordering a large printing order. Colors can significantly change due to the RGB to CMYK conversion.

In this section, we want to list valuable tips to power up your presentations for their best performance. Some of these tips are tailored to presentation skills, others to design ideas, but ultimately, you can take in mind these tips the next time you need to make a powerful presentation in PowerPoint.

Tip #1. Using Video Presentations

An alternative to conventional presentations is to work with video presentations . These are particularly useful in academic and educational environments since they can convey large chunks of information in a memorable, easy-to-digest format. 

If we consider that social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok are transitioning into professional content for creatives, you should consider using video presentations when the situation arises. As a plus, you can repurpose that presentation on your website or other official social media channels for your company.

Tip #2. Drop Shadows and Text Shadows

When we intend to create interesting contrasts between elements, color isn’t the only option to try. Learn how to work with drop shadows in PowerPoint to make images and objects stand out from the presentation. It is an effect that boosts a tri-dimensional feeling in the presentation.

Using text shadows in PowerPoint – with extreme caution – is an excellent method to highlight titles instead of using fancy colors or other 3D effects. Do not overdo the text shadow, as it makes the text illegible. 

Tip #3. Working on your Presentation Skills

Giving presentations in front of an audience is, as we have seen, a process that involves many factors. One of those is the human element and the speaker’s ability to resonate with the audience. Therefore, we advise presenters to work on their presentation skills early, especially for mastering different kinds of presentation approaches, such as persuasive presentations (used in sales).

Tip #4. Editing Background Graphics in PowerPoint

Sometimes, PPT presentation templates include quality backgrounds that make the design pop from the screen. Yet, some of those backgrounds may not be suitable for all brands in terms of color, textures, etc.

Learn today how to edit background graphics in PowerPoint and create outstanding presentations in just minutes.

Tip #5. Google Slides compatibility

Finally, we want to remind users that almost every PowerPoint template has compatibility with Google Slides – if you intend to upload the presentation into the Cloud. Google Slides is an online tool for creating slideshow presentations, and one of its features is that we can convert PowerPoint presentations into Google Slides format. The converted slides are entirely editable, allowing presenters to count with a backup plan in case the PPT file doesn’t work or the computer to use doesn’t count with PowerPoint.

This is not an exhaustive list of presentation tips, but they offer a starting point for those who want to create attractive and effective PowerPoint presentations. You can also create presentations in other ways, and leveraging AI, for example. Check out the article how to create a PowerPoint presentation with ChatGPT to learn how to use Large Language Models to prepare presentations.

As we have seen, making a presentation is a complex process involving different skills, from knowing how to deliver a speech to having essential graphic design criteria. 

While it is true that PowerPoint presentation templates make the process far more manageable, we shouldn’t entirely rely on them. A PowerPoint presentation isn’t a presentation on its own. It is a medium by which presenters showcase their ideas and structure the speech, but one cannot live without the other.

We hope this guide can give you a better understanding of how to create a successful presentation. See you next time!

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23 presentation examples that really work (plus templates!)

• 30 Mar 2023

To help you in your quest for presentation greatness, we’ve gathered 23 of the best business presentation examples out there. These hand-picked ideas range from business PowerPoint presentations, to recruitment presentations, and everything in between.

As a bonus, several of our examples include editable video presentation templates from  Biteable .

Biteable allows anyone to create great video presentations — no previous video-making skills required. The easy-to-use platform has hundreds of brandable templates and video scenes designed with a business audience in mind. A video made with Biteable is just what you need to add that wow factor and make an impact on your audience.

Create videos that drive action

Activate your audience with impactful, on-brand videos. Create them simply and collaboratively with Biteable.

Video presentation examples

Video presentations are our specialty at Biteable. We love them because they’re the most visually appealing and memorable way to communicate.

1. Animated characters

Our first presentation example is a business explainer video from Biteable that uses animated characters. The friendly and modern style makes this the perfect presentation for engaging your audience.

Bonus template:  Need a business video presentation that reflects the beautiful diversity of your customers or team? Use  Biteable’s workplace scenes . You can change the skin tone and hair color for any of the animated characters.

2. Conference video

Videos are also ideal solutions for events (e.g. trade shows) where they can be looped to play constantly while you attend to more important things like talking to people and handing out free cheese samples.

For this event presentation sample below, we used bright colours, stock footage, and messaging that reflects the brand and values of the company. All these elements work together to draw the attention of passers-by.

For a huge selection of video presentation templates, take a look at our  template gallery .

Business PowerPoint presentation examples

Striking fear into the hearts of the workplace since 1987, PowerPoint is synonymous with bland, boring presentations that feel more like an endurance test than a learning opportunity. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Check out these anything-but-boring business PowerPoint presentation examples.

3. Design pointers

This PowerPoint presentation takes a tongue-in-cheek look at how the speakers and users of PowerPoint are the problem, not the software itself.

Even at a hefty 61 slides, the vintage theme, appealing colors, and engaging content keep the viewer interested. It delivers useful and actionable tips on creating a better experience for your audience.

Pixar, as you’d expect, redefines the meaning of PowerPoint in their “22 Rules for Phenomenal Storytelling”. The character silhouettes are instantly recognizable and tie firmly to the Pixar brand. The bright colour palettes are carefully chosen to highlight the content of each slide.

This presentation is a good length, delivering one message per slide, making it easy for an audience to take notes and retain the information.

Google slides examples

If you’re in business, chances are you’ll have come across  slide decks . Much like a deck of cards, each slide plays a key part in the overall ‘deck’, creating a well-rounded presentation.

If you need to inform your team, present findings, or outline a new strategy, slides are one of the most effective ways to do this.

Google Slides is one of the best ways to create a slide deck right now. It’s easy to use and has built-in design tools that integrate with Adobe, Lucidchart, and more. The best part — it’s free!

5. Teacher education

Here’s a slide deck that was created to educate teachers on how to use Google Slides effectively in a classroom. At first glance it seems stuffy and businessy, but if you look closer it’s apparent the creator knows his audience well, throwing in some teacher-friendly content that’s bound to get a smile.

The slides give walkthrough screenshots and practical advice on the different ways teachers can use the software to make their lives that little bit easier and educate their students at the same time.

6. Charity awareness raiser

This next Google slide deck is designed to raise awareness for an animal shelter. It has simple, clear messaging, and makes use of the furry friends it rescues to tug on heartstrings and encourage donations and adoptions from its audience.

Pro tip: Creating a presentation is exciting but also a little daunting. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed — especially if the success of your business or nonprofit depends on it.

Prezi presentation examples

If you haven’t come across  Prezi , it’s a great alternative to using static slides. Sitting somewhere between slides and a video presentation, it allows you to import other content and add motion to create a more engaging viewer experience.

7. Red Bull event recap

This Prezi was created to document the Red Bull stratosphere freefall stunt a few years ago. It neatly captures all the things that Prezi is capable of, including video inserts and the zoom effect, which gives an animated, almost 3D effect to what would otherwise be still images.  

Prezi has annual awards for the best examples of presentations over the year. This next example is one of the 2018 winners. It was made to highlight a new Logitech tool.

8. Logitech Spotlight launch

What stands out here are the juicy colors, bold imagery, and the way the designer has used Prezi to its full extent, including rotations, panning, fades, and a full zoom out to finish the presentation.

Sales presentation examples

If you’re stuck for ideas for your sales presentation, step right this way and check out this video template we made for you.

9. Sales enablement video presentation

In today’s fast-paced sales environment, you need a way to make your sales enablement presentations memorable and engaging for busy reps.  Sales enablement videos  are just the ticket. Use this video presentation template the next time you need to present on your metrics.

10. Zuroa sales deck

If you’re after a sales deck, you can’t go past this example from Zuora. What makes it great? It begins by introducing the worldwide shift in the way consumers are shopping. It’s a global phenomenon, and something we can all relate to.

It then weaves a compelling story about how the subscription model is changing the face of daily life for everyone. Metrics and testimonials from well-known CEOs and executives are included for some slamming social proof to boost the sales message.

Pitch presentation examples

Pitch decks are used to give an overview of business plans, and are usually presented during meetings with customers, investors, or potential partners.

11. Uber pitch deck

This is Uber’s original pitch deck, which (apart from looking a teensy bit dated) gives an excellent overview of their business model and clearly shows how they intended to disrupt a traditional industry and provide a better service to people. Right now, you’re probably very grateful that this pitch presentation was a winner.

You can make your own pitch deck with Biteable, or start with one of our  video templates  to make something a little more memorable.

12. Video pitch template

This video pitch presentation clearly speaks to the pains of everyone who needs to commute and find parking. It then provides the solution with its app that makes parking a breeze.

The video also introduces the key team members, their business strategy, and what they’re hoping to raise in funding. It’s a simple, clear pitch that positions the company as a key solution to a growing, worldwide problem. It’s compelling and convincing, as a good presentation should be.

13. Fyre Festival pitch deck

The most epic example of a recent pitch deck is this one for Fyre Festival – the greatest event that never happened. Marvel at its persuasion, gasp at the opportunity of being part of the cultural experience of the decade, cringe as everything goes from bad to worse.

Despite the very public outcome, this is a masterclass in how to create hype and get funding with your pitch deck using beautiful imagery, beautiful people, and beautiful promises of riches and fame.

Business presentation examples

Need to get the right message out to the right people? Business presentations can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.

Simply press play and let your video do the talking. No fumbling your words and sweating buckets in front of those potential clients, just you being cool as a cucumber while your presentation does the talking.

Check out two of our popular templates that you can use as a starting point for your own presentations. While they’re business-minded, they’re definitely not boring.

14. Business intro template

Modern graphics, animations, and upbeat soundtracks keep your prospects engaged as they learn about your business, your team, your values, and how you can help them.

15. Business explainer template

Research presentation examples.

When you’re giving a more technical presentation such as research findings, you need to strike the perfect balance between informing your audience and making sure they stay awake.

As a rule, slides are more effective for research presentations, as they are used to support the speaker’s knowledge rather can capture every small detail on screen.

With often dry, complex, and technical subject matter, there can be a temptation for presentations to follow suit. Use images instead of walls of text, and keep things as easy to follow as possible.

16. TrackMaven research deck

TrackMaven uses their endearing mascot to lighten up this data-heavy slide deck. The graphs help to bring life to their findings, and they ensure to only have one bite-size takeaway per slide so that viewers can easily take notes.

17. Wearable tech research report

Obviously, research can get very researchy and there’s not a lot to be done about it. This slide deck below lays out a ton of in-depth information but breaks it up well with quotes, diagrams, and interesting facts to keep viewers engaged while it delivers its findings on wearable technology.

Team presentation examples

Motivating your team can be a challenge at the best of times, especially when you need to gather them together for….another presentation!

18. Team update template

We created this presentation template as an example of how to engage your team. In this case, it’s for an internal product launch. Using colorful animation and engaging pacing, this video presentation is much better than a static PowerPoint, right?

19. Officevibe collaboration explainer

This short slide deck is a presentation designed to increase awareness of the problems of a disengaged team. Bright colors and relevant images combine with facts and figures that compel viewers to click through to a download to learn more about helping their teams succeed.

Recruitment presentation examples

Recruiting the right people can be a challenge. Presentations can help display your team and your business by painting a dynamic picture of what it’s like to work with you.

Videos and animated slides let you capture the essence of your brand and workplace so the right employees can find you.

20. Company culture explainer

If you’re a recruitment agency, your challenge is to stand out from the hundreds of other agencies in the marketplace.

21. Kaizen culture

Showcasing your agency using a slide deck can give employers and employees a feel for doing business with you. Kaizen clearly displays its credentials and highlights its brand values and personality here (and also its appreciation of the coffee bean).

Explainer presentation examples

Got some explaining to do? Using an explainer video is the ideal way to showcase products that are technical, digital, or otherwise too difficult to explain with still images and text.

Explainer videos help you present the features and values of your product in an engaging way that speaks to your ideal audience and promotes your brand at the same time.

22. Product explainer template

23. lucidchart explainer.

Lucidchart does a stellar job of using explainer videos for their software. Their series of explainers-within-explainers entertains the viewer with cute imagery and an endearing brand voice. At the same time, the video is educating its audience on how to use the actual product. We (almost) guarantee you’ll have more love for spiders after watching this one.

Make a winning video presentation with Biteable

Creating a winning presentation doesn’t need to be difficult or expensive. Modern slide decks and video software make it easy for you to give compelling presentations that sell, explain, and educate without sending your audience to snooze town.

For the best online video presentation software around, check out Biteable. The intuitive platform does all the heavy lifting for you, so making a video presentation is as easy as making a PowerPoint.

Use Biteable’s brand builder to automatically fetch your company colors and logo from your website and apply them to your entire video with the click of a button. Even add a  clickable call-to-action  button to your video.

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8 Best Tips for Business Proposal Presentations [+Examples]

Updated: May 24, 2022

Published: October 18, 2014

Business proposal presentations are the culmination of a long sales process between you and your clients. If you don’t structure it correctly or take the time to craft one with care, you risk losing the client’s buy-in for your solution. So getting it right is essential.

In this article, we’ll look at several ways to improve your business proposal presentation (and pitch) and increase the odds that you’ll walk away with a new customer.

Business Proposal Presentation

A business proposal presentation is a document that outlines a business solution for a customer after a lengthy consultation process. It is presented to the customer in either PDF or PowerPoint format, and can be paired with a contract for immediate signing.

Other formats that may be accepted include Google Docs or Google Slides, but PowerPoint is the industry standard. The presentation is then delivered in person or through a video conferencing tool such as Zoom.

Rarely, if ever, is a business proposal presentation sent to the customer for asynchronous perusal. Rather, it’s presented live in a customer meeting . That will give you the opportunity to sell them even more on the solutions you offer and persuade them to make a decision within a reasonable time frame.

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If you let the customer review the presentation on their own, it’s likely that they’ll lengthen the sales process and even put off making a decision.

When crafting your proposal presentation, there are a few quick best practices to keep in mind.

• Personalize the presentation . While it’s totally fine to reuse a PowerPoint presentation template , you don’t want to accidentally include another business’ name on the deck. So be sure to go through every slide and personalize it for the customer’s goals and pain points.
• Send a pre-meeting email with an agenda. To prepare your customer for the presentation, it’d be wise to send a pre-meeting email with a quick, scannable sales agenda detailing how the meeting will go. That way, you can set the right expectations and keep you both on track.
• Plan your in-person customer visit. If you’re meeting the customer in person, there will be a few more elements at play, such as an office tour and even a colleague introduction. That can quickly lead to lost time, so use this guide to plan a customer visit that stays on track and helps you effectively sell your solution.
• Pay attention to the design of the deck . Your clothes and demeanor may be in tip-top shape, but if your deck is messy and poorly designed, then the effectiveness of your points will be diminished. Use a PowerPoint template and check out a few sales presentation examples to inspire you.
• Keep the presentation short and precise. Keep your presentation as short as possible, about 15 to 20 minutes. The longer you speak to your clients, the less they’ll remember.

Now, it’s time for your presentation. Let’s go over how you can execute it flawlessly.

How to Present a Business Proposal

• Optimize your meeting time from the start.
• Have a clear agenda.
• Open up with the customer’s problems and challenges.
• Pause and ask questions.
• Lead with stories, not data.
• Don’t read off of your PowerPoint slides.
• Present your solution — and sell them a vision.
• Establish a clear follow-up timeline at the end of the meeting.

1. Optimize your meeting time from the start.

When presenting a proposal, it’s important to remember that your clients are busy. They have other meetings to attend, phone calls and emails to return, and problems to solve. Time is their most precious asset. Here are a few tips to optimize the time you spend with your customers:

• Arrive early . This is a no-brainer, but arrive to the meeting with at least ten minutes to spare, especially if it’s in person. Use this buffer to use the bathroom, rehearse your introduction, and even set up the meeting space.
• Rehearse setting up the projector or sharing your screen before the meeting . If you’re carrying out a meeting in person, you don’t want to waste ten minutes figuring out how to project your laptop’s screen. Carry several adapters with you and have a fail-safe plan, such as bringing a tablet with a copy of the presentation. If the meeting is over Zoom, practice sharing your screen so that your notes aren’t visible.
• Keep your introduction short. Leave space for banter and rapport, but keep your personal introduction short. Small talk should be reduced as much as possible — you shouldn’t spend twenty minutes talking about the weather, unless you sell a weather-related solution.

2. Have a clear agenda.

Your presentation must have a clear and compelling agenda, which you can share right at the start (in addition to having shared it over email before the meeting).

The meeting should begin with compelling reasons to consider your proposal and culminate with a specific request for the business. Here’s an agenda template you can use to structure your meeting:

• Challenge/Opportunity. Begin your presentation by illustrating the opportunity or challenge that your client is overlooking. Make sure it’s compelling enough to motivate your client to listen to the rest of your presentation.
• Benefits . Discuss the benefits that your client will achieve by adopting your solution. Use a customer case study or testimonial to support your point.
• Plan . Present your plan or options to resolve the client’s challenge/opportunity.
• Company . Briefly share your company’s background, including who your company helps with these issues.
• Recommend . Before closing your presentation, be sure to ask for the client’s business. You might close by asking the client, “Do you believe that the solution that I’ve presented will effectively help you overcome your challenges and achieve your goals?”

In the presentation, include a few bullet points that outline these parts of the meeting, so that the client knows what to expect.

3. Open up with the customer’s problems and challenges.

As mentioned, you’ll begin the meeting with a challenge or opportunity. Don’t walk into the meeting and immediately start talking about yourself or your company or your products. If you do this, your client will immediately focus on cost and product features, often ending the meeting before you’ve had a chance to finish.

Instead, focus on re-emphasizing the customer’s challenges and pain points. Your clients want to know how they can beat their competitors, reach new customers, retain existing customers, and increase profit margins. But before you can sell them your product, you have to emphasize the graveness of the issue they’re facing and illustrate how their challenges will prevent them from achieving these goals.

For instance, if 30% of their customers are churning, and you sell a business solution that can help reduce churn, you might open up your presentation with how their revenue will continue to be impacted by this loss. This will emphasize the urgency of the problem and help you create a stronger pitch later.

4. Pause and ask questions.

After you’ve spoken for a few minutes, stop and ask your client a question. This is a great way to stay in control of the meeting while allowing your client to interact with the sales presentation.

Here are some questions that you might ask:

• Have I summarized your challenges correctly?
• Is there anything I’ve missed that you’d like to add?
• Am I right in saying that you want to solve this problem in the next quarter?

5. Lead with stories, not data.

While clients value data, they are also realistic about what data can — and cannot — tell them. They’ve seen many projects fail despite the glowing research results, and they’ve seen projects succeed despite the lack of any data to back it up.

So, introduce stories first, then the data to back it up. Come to the presentation armed with customer experiences and competitor moves. Your clients are far more interested in what other businesses like them have experienced and what their competitors are doing. They’re not all that interested in the latest research study, but you can use a study to support your points and lend credence to an anecdote.

6. Don’t read off of your PowerPoint slides.

Let the deck complement your points. If you read directly off the slides, you’ll quickly bore your customer, and the impact of what you’re saying won’t land.

Keep your slides simple, too, so that you’re not tempted to read off of them. Most slides are far too complex — too much text, distracting designs, and unrelated images.

You should only put one picture and one line of text on a slide. No more. Your clients can only absorb so much at once, and if they’re too busy trying to sort out paragraphs upon paragraphs on the screen, most of what you’ll say will be missed.

7. Present your solution — and sell them a vision.

After you’ve re-established the business challenge and spoken to the customer’s pain points, it’s time to present your product or service as a solution. But it’s important to not stop here — you have to also sell them a vision of what their business will look like after they take care of the problem.

Will they experience increased sales? Streamlined processes? Better customer retention? And what will that look like a few years from now? Don’t exaggerate, but don’t be afraid to show them how your product can create a much positive future for their business.

8. Establish a clear follow-up timeline at the end of the meeting.

This is maybe the most important part of your business proposal presentation. Tell your customer what will happen after the presentation, so that there’s no ambiguity regarding next steps.

We highly recommend establishing a clear follow-up date. Don’t say, “I’ll follow up in about a week.” Instead, try, “Is it okay if I call you on Friday, May 10th?”

We also recommend creating a timeline after the follow-up call. For instance, you might say you’ll call on a certain date, and then you’ll send the contract over using a tool such as PandaDoc , Qwilr , or Proposify . Your contract will be in your customer’s hand for a week, and then on the following Wednesday, you’ll follow-up once again to see if the customer has any questions.

Adjust this timeline depending on your customer, sales cycle length , and industry. Such a short timeline might not suit a product that costs thousands of dollars and requires a yearly commitment. However, it might suit a product that only costs a few hundred dollars a year.

Feeling stumped? No worries. Below, we share some business proposal examples you can glean inspiration from.

Business Proposal Presentation Examples

1. moving malta forward.

This compelling presentation proposes a metro system for the city of Malta. It opens with a “Case for Change” and uses graphics and visuals to argue for the creation of a metro in the city. While it is text heavy, it includes plenty of information for Malta’s government to make a decision. That’s why it’s important to know your audience. If you’re proposing to a gubernatorial entity, then being comprehensive is important.

2. The Big Picture

This is another presentation that argues for the urban development of a district. Its most notable feature is its “At a glance” spread, which shows an overview of the plan from top to bottom, down to the impact the proposed changes will have on the city. In the same way, you can include at an at-a-glance slide in your presentation.

3. AMW Tech

This deck presents a business as opposed to a product, but it does everything right: It opens with an agenda and closes with a call-to-action (“Keep in touch with us”). Even something as simple as providing your contact information can be enough to prompt your customer to continue the conversation.

4. Microsoft Advertising

This deck by Microsoft Advertising takes a slightly different approach: It starts with a quote from the Microsoft CEO, and then provides details about how the brand helps its customers. This works for a major brand like this one because the client may be interested in Microsoft as a whole as opposed to just one service. It’s important to know your audience in this respect, as well.

Creating a Compelling Business Proposal Presentation

Being able to effectively present proposals is key to your success. To be effective, get to the point and focus on vision and stories. Use PowerPoint or Keynote as supporting material and be sure to keep it short. Finally, your presentation should begin with compelling reasons to consider your proposal and culminate with a specific request for the business.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in July 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Don't forget to share this post!

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5 Things Every Marketer Needs to Include in a RFP

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How to Give a Presentation

Last Updated: May 19, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Patrick Muñoz . Patrick is an internationally recognized Voice & Speech Coach, focusing on public speaking, vocal power, accent and dialects, accent reduction, voiceover, acting and speech therapy. He has worked with clients such as Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, and Roselyn Sanchez. He was voted LA's Favorite Voice and Dialect Coach by BACKSTAGE, is the voice and speech coach for Disney and Turner Classic Movies, and is a member of Voice and Speech Trainers Association. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 531,425 times.

Giving a presentation terrifies most of us, especially when talking before a crowd of people about an unfamiliar topic. Never fear! There are ways to make a good presentation. The more presentations you do, the easier they will become!

Preparing For the Presentation

• It's best to have 1 main thesis statement or overarching theme and 3 main points that back-up or flesh-out your main theme. Any more than that and your audience is going to start losing interest. This means that any facts and information that are a part of your presentation should back up these 3 main points and overarching theme.
• For example: If you're giving a presentation about 17th century alchemy, bringing up the history of alchemy is fine (and probably necessary), but don't mire your audience in its history instead of focusing alchemy in the 17th century. Your 3 points could be something like "alchemy in public opinion," "famous 17th century alchemists," and "the legacy of 17th century alchemy."

• Pick your very best supporting facts, information, or quotes for your presentation. Don't bury your audience in information.

• Make sure you're using media to enhance your presentation and not to drown it out. The presentation is key. Anything else is just accessorizing.
• For example: to get back to 17th century alchemy, to back up your information about alchemy in the public opinion, you might want to show images from public pamphlets about the dangers of alchemy and see what people of the time period had to say about it and see what the more famous alchemists had to say about it.
• Also, you want to make sure that you pick a medium that you are comfortable in and thorough in knowledge. If you don't know a thing about PowerPoint, maybe consider writing your main points on a white board, or passing out handouts with your main points and evidence on them. [3] X Research source

• A good tip is to film yourself or audiotape of yourself giving your practice presentation so you can see what distracting verbal and physical tics you have, so that you can work on eliminating them before the presentation itself. (Verbs tics would be things like "um..." and "uh..." and using "like" inappropriately; physical tics are things like shifting your weight from foot to foot or messing with your hair.) To stop yourself from saying "um" or other unwanted tics, be aware you're doing it first, then speak more slowly and deliberately. Breathe deeply and feel free to pause and appreciate the silence. These will all help you to have mastery over your tics.
• Just remember that rehearsals usually run about 20% shorter than your actual presentation, so take that into account if you're running on a time limit.

• For example, if you aren't comfortable wearing heels, don't wear them just for the presentation. You'll be distracted by your discomfort and that will come across in the presentation. There are plenty of good shoe choices that have no or a low heel.
• Clean, nice slacks or a skirt and nice, button-down shirt in neutral colors are always good choices for presentation wear. You also don't particularly want your clothing choice to distract from the presentation, so perhaps avoid that brilliant hot pink shirt.

Giving the Presentation

• Before the presentation, clench and unclench your hands several times to deal with the adrenaline and then take 3 deep, slow breaths.
• Call up a smile, even if you feel like hurling. You can trick your brain into thinking that you're less anxious than you actually are and you'll also be able to hide your nervousness from your audience.

• Make eye contact with your audience. Don't stare at one particular person, but section up the room and make eye contact with someone in each section on a rotational basis.
• Have a big, welcoming smile on your face, with lots of energy, so you start out from a strong and engaging place.
• Ask questions of your audience and take questions during your presentation. This will make it more of a conversation and therefore more interesting.
• Tell an amusing anecdote to illustrate your point. From the above examples about 17th century alchemy, you could find an amusing alchemical anecdote from the time period, or you could talk about your own forays into alchemy.

• Move around, but make your movements deliberate. Don't nervously shift your feet (in fact, it's a good idea to imagine that your feet are nailed to the floor except for those times you deliberately choose to move).
• Use your vocal inflections to create a more dynamic presentation. Vary your voice as you're talking. Nobody ( ever ) wants to sit there and listen to someone drone on and on in dull monotone, no matter how interesting the material (think Professor Binns from Harry Potter; that's what you don't want).
• Try to create a balance between rehearsed and spontaneous. Spontaneous, on the spot, movement and asides can be great as long as you are really comfortable, otherwise they can sidetrack your presentation and make it rambling. Mess around with spontaneous and rehearsed when you're practicing and you'll get a feel for it.

• Quickly introduce your topic and don't assume that your audience is familiar with all the terms, especially if your topic is one that isn't widely known.
• Figuring out why you want (or have to) give this presentation will help you work with an overarching story/theme. Maybe you want to pass the class. Maybe you're convincing people to give you money or join you in a philanthropic endeavor or act for a social or political reason. Channel that desire into your presentation. You're answering the question of why they would want to pass you or why they would want to fund you. That's the story you're telling.

• Make use of pauses, and learn to be comfortable with silences. Silence can be a powerful presentation tool and gives you a chance to take a moment to recompose. By taking pauses, you can slow down your breathing and be more deliberate in your speech, avoiding speaking too quickly.
• Have water with you and take a sip when you feel you're going too fast.
• If you have a friend in the class or meeting, arrange with them beforehand that they will let you know with a signal whether you're talking too quickly. Look over their way occasionally and check your progress.
• If you find that you're running out of time and you haven't finished, simply drop or summarize your leftover material. Acknowledge the leftover material as something that can be discussed later or in the Q&A.

• Make it clear what the listeners now know and why it is important that they have this new information.
• Conclude with examples or stories about your main point and take home message. You might want a slide which summarizes your presentation. For example, you might conclude with a story about the nature of alchemy in the modern era (perhaps in a film) to show its malleable nature.

What Is The Best Way To Start a Presentation?

Community Q&A

• Have a short Q&A session at the end of each subtopic. Q&A sessions will improve audience engagement. It also acts as a welcome break for audience in case of long presentation. For this though, you will need to know the subject you choose well. Make sure you understand and have more than just the basic knowledge about the topic you choose. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• Use pictures or visuals. Pictures and visuals show that you know what you're talking about, and it gives the audience a picture of what you're talking about. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Try to have a "leave behind" message, something that your audience can take away that reminds them about your presentation, like a flyer or a book, for example. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

Tips from our Readers

• Use pictures! A good way to use pictures is through PowerPoint. If you don't have PowerPoint, you can print the pictures onto a board (paper, card board, or larger paper).
• Don't be nervous. Practice and do just like you did in practice. If you are nervous, the audience will know.
• Try to do some hand jesters. Speak loud and clear. Make eye contact with them. Be confident.
• Let the audience have an opportunity to interact with you.

• Don't make your speech too long, unless it is really good, and you have to have done speeches for a long time to have them be that good and long. Stick to short and sweet. Thanks Helpful 50 Not Helpful 11
• Don't put off work to the last minute. Then your work will be most likely sloppy. If you do well under pressure, do your project a bit at a time and maybe it will get done. Or, try doing it all at the beginning, so then you have the whole rest of the time to play or check your assignment. Thanks Helpful 36 Not Helpful 16
• Jokes are usually not okay, especially in a professional setting. A light hearted comment is fine, but don't make it seem like a comedy show. Thanks Helpful 12 Not Helpful 3
• If you speak in a too fast/slow or monotone voice, people will not want to hear you! Aim for a conversation voice (but slightly louder) with natural pauses (commas and periods). Develop a tone depending on what you're talking about. It's more interesting and engaging to hear someone speak in a serious tone rather than a monotone when speaking about world hunger. Thanks Helpful 9 Not Helpful 2
• If you suffer from twitchy fingers, be mindful to move your hands during your presentation only when necessary, or the audience may notice and feel you are unprepared. Thanks Helpful 8 Not Helpful 3

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/young-entrepreneur-council/13-tips-for-giving-a-kill_b_3728093.html
• ↑ https://www.niu.edu/presentations/prepare/index.shtml
• ↑ https://algonquincollege.libguides.com/studyskills/creating-presentations
• ↑ https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-prepare-the-presentation
• ↑ http://www.washington.edu/doit/TeamN/present_tips.html
• ↑ https://counseling.uiowa.edu/self-help/30-ways-to-manage-speaking-anxiety/
• ↑ https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/centers/oralcommunication/guides/how-to-engage-your-audience-and-keep-them-with-you
• ↑ http://hbr.org/2013/06/how-to-give-a-killer-presentation/ar/1
• ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-slow-down-your-speech-when-presenting-sharon-maree-jurd-cfe/
• ↑ https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-conclude-a-presentation

About This Article

Before you give a presentation, spend some time crafting what you will say. Most presentations should center on a thesis, or main idea, and contain about 3 supporting points. Cutting unnecessary content will ensure your presentation is impactful. Once your presentation is done, practice delivering it in front of a mirror or while recording yourself so you can identify and correct any issues. To calm your nerves before you present, try clenching your fists a few times and taking several deep breaths. For more advice about giving presentations, like whether to use visual aides, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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