PowerPoint with PowerPass: Ingredients of a good PowerPoint presentation

Did you know that approximately 350 PowerPoint presentations are given every second around the world? And approximately 99% are not even up to the mark.

A good Powerpoint presentation does half the job for you - whether that’s to sell a product, present a plan, or showcase your wins. So, if you want to walk into any room with an unbeatable edge and killer confidence in your work, ensuring you’ve put 100% into your presentation is the way to go!

And while it takes effort to create a deck that WOWs people, having a method, structure, and overall design basics in place will help reduce effort without compromising on quality. Kool Kanya’s PowerPass is where you get to learn all of this and much more.

All you have to do is sign up for our course on PowerPoint that’s called- Make power-packed presentations: The 8-step approach. This course will empower you to design decks that you’re super proud of, and help you enthral your audience!

Before that, here are some elements to keep in mind about everything that goes into a good presentation.

Table of contents:

1. Who is your target audience?
2. How to keep your target audience engaged
3. Defining the purpose of a PowerPoint presentation
4. Identifying the visual tone of presentations
5. 4 ways to set the visual tonality of presentations
6. What makes a PowerPoint presentation great

1. Who is your target audience?

Your target audience is the demographic that you're aiming to convince, educate, or inspire with your presentation. Knowing who your target audience helps you craft a presentation that resonates with your intended audience.

For instance, if you'd like to educate teens about a product meant for them, you can use relatable situations and slang to get your point across.

The target audience may be dictated by:

• Age
• Gender
• Income
• Location
• Interests

2. How to keep your target audience engaged - from start to finish

• Make sure you know everything about your audience, including their thought process: What are their problems? How will this help them?
• Start with an entertaining introduction. It should serve as a hook that grabs their attention.
• Use data visualisation, statistics, or graphs to create an impact, but focus more on your learnings from the data.
• Choose fonts that are easier to read.
• Consider using GIFs and memes, especially when targeting a younger audience.
• Ask questions while presenting to ensure your audience is actively engaged.
• Embrace white space. Cluttered slides are hard to focus on because the brain goes into overdrive trying to focus on particular information.
• End with a strong call-to-action. If your deck isn’t direction-led, the audience won’t know how to proceed once you’ve finished presenting.

3. Defining the purpose of a presentation

Everything that we do in life has a purpose, including why we’re creating a PowerPoint presentation. What does the deck aim to do? Knowing this will help bring your deck to life. Connect the dots of your presentation’s story, in a manner that your target audience understands what you’re trying to convey.

So, how will you identify the core message/purpose of your presentation?

In most common scenarios, the intention or purpose of doing a presentation includes:

• To inform (give relevant information about a topic)
• To instruct (to explain how to do something)
• To persuade (to convince your audience to do, buy, or believe in something)
• To entertain (to present humour or other entertaining material)

Identify what your core message is- Is it a product that you’re trying to sell or an idea that you want others to incorporate?

4. Identifying the visual tone of presentations

Now, how do you decide the tone of your presentation?

Tone and purpose go hand in hand.

When people think about establishing a presentation’s tone, oftentimes, the discussion turns straight to the text in it.

While the text is important, neglecting the impact of visual elements can be fatal for your messaging or storytelling. The PowerPoint course takes you step-by-step through the process of building a visual-led deck- but here’s some information to get you started.

5. 4 ways to set the visual tonality of your presentation

• Choose the right colour
  Stick to 2- 3 colour choices, within your deck. Colours influence emotions. For example, darker shades of red evoke anger, while mid-to-dark blues signify calm and wonder.

 Let’s say your department hit its quarterly goals. At the next staff meeting, inject  yellow into the presentation design colour scheme to set a joyful tone.

• Texture
  To create texture, a designer might use photography, illustrations, or even text. Texture can be used to emphasise a specific component of the slide or an important piece of information.
• Alignment
  Alignment controls how your paragraph is displayed on the slide. PowerPoint offers four types of paragraph alignment: Left, Right, Centre, and Justify.
  
  If the tone of your presentation is dynamic and progressive, consider varying text alignment to produce movement on the slide and the overall deck.
• Typography
  Although text might be minimal if your presentation design is simple, clean, and modern typography remains a powerful conveyor of the overall tone of your message.

 For example, if you are going for a conservative or professional tone, use the Baskerville font for section headers and slide titles. And if you’re heading down a more creative route, go for a font called Ribbon.

Bonus tip: Match the tonality of your deck with the age group of your target audience. For example - if you’re preparing a deck for teenagers or a younger crowd, maybe use pop-culture references that they can relate to.

6. A great PowerPoint presentation is

1. Prepared to win
   Research, plan, and prepare your presentation professionally. It helps you deliver an effective message to your target audience.
2. Designed correctly
   Your visual points should stand out without overwhelming your audience.
3. Practised to perfection
   Rehearse your timing and delivery so that your points land as practiced with a live audience.
4. Delivered with poise
   Present in a relaxed but confident manner. Give your audience warmth, excitement, and energy.
5. Free from mistakes
   Avoid typos, cheesy clip art, or reading directly from your slides.

The next time you fear PowerPoint, know that we’ve got your back with these expert-led tips and insights on designing that perfect deck. Follow these and it will be slay-day every day at work!