There are more business presentations, sales pitches, conferences and meetings taking place online than ever before. But how do you make presentations more engaging online?
According to Microsoft, there were 2.7 million minutes spent in Teams meetings on 31 March 2020 – a 200 per cent increase on the minutes recorded just 2 weeks earlier.
As the business world adapted to remote working during the coronavirus pandemic, we swapped conference rooms for computer screens. And, while keeping audiences engaged in presentations has always been a difficult task, it got a whole lot harder without that ‘in person’ experience.
Since then, we’ve been asked by a lot of companies and individuals to help them make their presentations more engaging online.
Here are 3 tips to help you do the same!
1) Go live with your presentation
Live presentation experiences are the hottest new development on the presentation scene, with HubSpot identifying virtual events as one of the top marketing trends for 2021.
Since Apple embraced one for their latest keynote event, many companies are exploring the idea of bringing their most important conversations to a live stage. If it’s good enough for Apple, it’s good enough for us, right?
A live presentation experience allows you to deliver high-quality and high-impact presentations to audiences of all sizes, at any time, as if you are presenting in person. Even better, they give you complete control over the ‘set’ you’re presenting from, allowing you to present on an impressive, branded stage that will wow your viewers.
And crucially, they allow you to remain the focus of your talk, with your slides and other media content there to support you, not distract from you. This is a hugely effective way to make your presentation more engaging online.
A live presentation event can be streamed live in the meeting setting of your choice, whether that’s Webex, Zoom or Microsoft Teams. You can also record it to use it again later.
But you don’t need a budget as big as Apple’s to create a live presentation experience for yourself. There are agencies that offer live presentation experiences as a service to suit businesses of all sizes.
2) Involve your audience
When it comes to making presentations more engaging online, you need to involve your audience.
To keep your audience engaged, facilitate some form of interaction with them often. This could be a question, a poll, a mini-quiz, debate or anything else you can think of that they will enjoy being involved in.
If you’re embracing a live presentation experience, an effective way to encourage audience participation is to bring them into the experience. Dialling in a third, fourth of fifth party to your live presentation is a great way to help maintain your audience’s attention, as well as add new insights to your talk.
Another possibility is using a live audience chat, to help monitor input and facilitate online discussions during your presentation.
Schedule these moments in advance to keep your audience alert throughout your online presentation.
3) Visually demonstrate your messages
Whether you’re presenting in person or remotely, you need to ensure that you have a set of informative and visually impactful slides to engage your audience and help you stand out from the crowd.
In places where a verbal explanation alone isn’t enough, a visual representation of your key points helps increase audience understanding, especially when your presentation is online.
When you take your presentation live, your slides remain a key part of your talk, as you can present them as if you’re doing so in person with ease.
For webinars, sales pitches and other business presentations, presenting your powerful slides as part a live presentation experience is a sure-fire way to engage your audience. And, engaging your audience will undoubtedly help you to achieve your presentation goals.
Make presentations more engaging online
Keeping your audience alert and successfully delivering your message during an online presentation is as easy as embracing a few new presentation innovations.
Involving your audience in your presentation frequently and using your impactful slides to help visually demonstrate your message are great ways to make your online presentation more engaging.
Even better, a live presentation experience is an interactive and exciting alternative to standard remote meetings, pitches and conferences. It’s an effective way to encourage audience participation and a truly innovative platform upon which to display powerful slides and deliver your message.
Utilising this presentation service is the best way to make your presentations more engaging online.
Stand out from the competition with FP Live – live presenting experiences for businesses. Click here to find out more.