How to engage audience in PowerPoint presentation

When you are preparing a PowerPoint presentation on behalf of the company, it is important for your presentation to highlight all the important things and to engage the audience in the PowerPoint president.

In addition, knowing what you can or cannot include in your next PowerPoint presentation will help you connect with your audience. For instance, you can consider adding PowerPoint Gantt chart templates to make your presentation stand out. In this article, we will talk about more such things that you can include in your next PowerPoint presentation. 

Advantages of PowerPoints or no PowerPoints

There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to both. Let’s look at a few.

With PowerPoints

• Allows us to present visuals
• Allows us to stay on track
• Can be shared with audience members
• Slideshare allows us to share our PowerPoints online and is quite effective to continue sharing our message. To participate there, we do need a PowerPoint deck.

Without PowerPoints

Allows us not to be so tied to slides. The story’s presentation still needs to be practiced (assuming here that everyone practices their PowerPoints).

Read next: Virtual presentation tips: Keep these things in mind when presenting virtually at conferences

Some conference setups are just horrible for having an interactive presentation. You have to continuously look back (and away from the audience) to see what slide is up. That’s not good on many levels. A monitor in front of the stage can be super helpful here.

Not using PowerPoints can also give you some room to be creative in other ways – like what I did during a workshop: How to do a 2-hour workshop without PowerPoint

The evaluation

My process to determine PowerPoint use:

• Determine audience (what do they know and what are they likely to want to know from me)
• My topic and specific expertise to share with this audience
• Length of presentation
• I then create an outline and, in my head, walk through the pieces, including what stories, examples, and jokes (as applicable) I will share.
• If there are some authentic and original photos or images that are absolutely necessary, I might create some slides. Sometimes slides work well for dramatic effect, in which case I might use them even if there are no other slides.

Also, keep in mind that it’s not either-or. You could have some slides to show some visuals as necessary, and other parts of the presentation have no related slides with additional information.

Read next: How to create and publish web stories

Now let’s talk about specific steps on how to engage audience in PowerPoint presentations by creating good slide decks.

Use AI for your presentations

One of the things I never liked about putting PowerPoint together is because I’m not a visual designer of any kind. So now with the emergence of artificial intelligence, the options have become endless.

One is SlidesAI, which you can try to create presentation slides for you that get the job done and they don’t require you to be a designer.

1. Prioritize an agenda for your PowerPoint

An agenda will showcase the objective behind your presentation. In this manner, your audience will know exactly what they can expect from the presentation. Moreover, it will also help your audience keep track of what you are saying and not lose focus at any point in time.

2. Attractive images

When you are making a presentation for a meeting, you have to ensure that it is engaging. It means that it must have not only slides full of text but also include images. This is how you can create an impression on your audience.

Having Gantt chart templates along with images will make it look effective. In addition, your audience is more likely to take an interest in your presentation when you add images. So consider including some images in your next PowerPoint presentation to boost audience engagement.

Read next: Using better stock images for blogs

3. Input your contact information

It is vital to input your contact information in one of the slides of your next PowerPoint Presentation. For instance, if you are presenting for your company, you have to incorporate the contact information of your company. Your audience will then be able to take note of it and reach out to you or your company when they need it.

Including your contact information will also help you create a meaningful relationship with your audience. If required, they can contact you in case they have any queries. It will also enable you to keep in touch with them.

4. Focus on the title

One of the things that you need to pay attention to while working on your PowerPoint presentation is the title. Your title needs to be attractive and closely connected with the content of your presentation. However, take care while coming up with the title as it needs to be short.

Having a title will help you give a structure to your PowerPoint presentation. In addition, it will directly communicate to your audience regarding what your presentation is. You require ensuring that it receives your primary attention for making it engaging for your audience to whom you will be presenting. 

Read next: Should we use emojis in marketing?

5. Have a goal in mind for your PowerPoint

When you are planning your presentation, you will have to keep a specific goal in your mind. For this, you need to consider the kind of audience that you will be having in the meeting. Depending on these, you will need to focus on the following.

Your presentation can be persuasive or informative. For the former, you have to convince the audience to do something. In the latter’s case, you have to provide important information and enhance their knowledge about something. Also, for this, you can try including a Gantt chart template in your next presentation for your audience. 

6. Include backup

You can add some backup information on your slides for important questions. We stated earlier; your PowerPoint presentation needs to be short so that it is engaging for your audience. But, in the end, backup slides will help you address the questions in relation to your presentation with ease.

So, include these backup slides in your next PowerPoint Presentation. It will ensure that your slide remains accurate and concise. In addition, it will help your audience clear any doubts that they have regarding your presentation. As a result, you will not end up overcrowding the slides of your PowerPoint Presentation.

PowerPoint conclusion

We have discussed the things that you can include in your next PowerPoint presentation. Before you sit down to make your presentation, ensure that you have a clear agenda in mind that you want to highlight in front of your audience. It will not only help you to keep the interests of your audience in mind but also enable you to come up with a presentation that will be engaging for your audience.

Your next PowerPoint presentation can be informative with the help of PowerPoint Gantt chart templates. Also, try to input your contact information along with some backup slides to address the queries of your audience.