It can be challenging to keep your audience attentive while you’re speaking during a presentation. According to a recent study, 50% of those studied admitted to getting busy in other tasks, like sending text messages, checking emails, or falling asleep, when a co-worker was presenting.
This only proves what we already know: it’s essential to make your presentations interactive. An interactive presentation is more memorable for the audience, helps build rapport with them, and keeps them focused on what you’re saying. But this is easier said than done.
According to research, your audience will likely lose their focus within the first 30 seconds of you starting. This means you only have half a minute to get their attention and make them focus.
Why Should You Engage Your Audience?
Listening to any kind of presentation can be challenging. It’s challenging to present, but it’s equally difficult to be an audience member. This is why presenters should involve the audience, so they feel like they are contributing in some way to the presentation. If you don’t, they might be compelled to check their phones, talk to each other, and lose focus on what you were saying.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways you can make your presentation interactive and engaging. A successful presentation comprises three elements: the presentation structure, an understanding of the audience, and how the message is delivered.
Read on to discover how you can improve all three of these to deliver a winning presentation:
Structure The Presentation:
It’s essential to plan your presentation in a way that will keep the listeners engaged. This means creating visually pleasing slides, asking questions that get everyone thinking, and offering a gripping narrative.
Define The Beginning, Middle, And End:
All great presentations follow a simple storyline with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Dividing the presentation this way allows you to create a compelling narrative that keeps listeners hooked to the next part.
The story’s beginning acts as a call to adventure, where you explain the baseline reality and the problems associated. The middle of the presentation discusses contrasts and shows the audience a prospective future. Showing the audience what could be, helps build interest and creates desire. The end of the presentation provides a proper solution for the audience, leaving them with the urge to perform an action that gets them closer to the desired prospective future shown in the middle.
Connect With The Audience Before You Begin:
If you can’t connect with your listeners, they won’t relate to you and will lose interest while you’re speaking. You can create maximum audience engagement by talking about similarities you have with those in the audience. Finding common ground creates empathy, and empathetic people will care more about what you’re saying.
Interact With The Audience From The Start:
Your presentation should be well-thought-out in terms of what the audience will see and perceive. A presentation is better than a speech in some ways since it allows the presenter to interact with the audience. Take the first two minutes to build a connection with the people in front of you by telling a joke, a quick story, or an anecdote.
Remember, you can always make your presentation memorable if you have the will to do so. With our free PowerPoint templates, you can now create appealing presentations that have your audience gripped from start to end. Visit our website to browse through our templates.