Hidden rules of presentations that your boss didn’t tell you: The point is not whether they look good or not, but...
Presenters should be clear about the purpose and target audience/online images
This article is written by Liu Yiyou and is Presentation. Founder of Easy Presentation Workshop. He has more than ten years of experience in business presentations and is good at presentation structure, information visualization, strategic proposals and fundraising presentations. Thank you for authorizing “Content Hacker” to reprint. Thank you hereby.
We have all had this experience. When we see that a company or a public agency’s external briefing is not as good as expected, we will think to ourselves: “How could it be done like this? Isn’t it too unprofessional?”
Wait, what does “professional” mean to you? Content depth? Gold content? Or beautiful and ugly? These are actually related to your professional background and subjective cognition; more importantly, who is the target of the brief’s appeal?
Good presentations are only for the right people
A briefing will have set goals, objects and expected actions, and we hope that the target audience (TA) will [take action] as we expect (https://www.accupass.com/event/1712060907201820775696). Generally speaking, there are five stages in the target audience’s journey: I want to hear, I want to hear, I understand, I believe, and I act (actually similar to [Marketing Funnel](https://newbiedigitalmarketing.wordpress.com/2017/07/23/%E6%B7%BA%E8%AB%87%E8% A1%8C%E9%8A%B7%E6%BC%8F%E6%96%97%EF%BC%8C%E7%9C%9F%E7%9A%84%E6%9 8%AF%E6%9C%80%E6%B7%BA%E7%9A%84%E9%82%A3%E7%A8%AE%EF%BC%81/) concept). Therefore, the purpose of making the presentation eye-catching, easy to understand and persuasive is to increase the [conversion rate] at each stage (https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2684489?hl=zh-Hant).
On the other hand, what if you don’t want others to pay attention, understand, or elicit unnecessary responses? When an action is imperative and opposition from most people is foreseeable, what will you choose to do? You may ask: Isn’t the purpose of briefings to make the other party understand, communicate effectively, and then make the other party willing to act?
The attitude of the target audience determines the direction of the presentation
This sentence is correct! But this is only true under the premise that you must persuad the other party. In many fields, such as business and politics, there are many ways to achieve the goal. So, there is no need to make your presentation the level or way you want it to be.
And if “you” are not his target audience, then the briefer does not need to care about what “you” think. On the other hand, can making the presentation more professional change the target audience’s attitude? If it doesn’t work, it’s obviously a problem with the nature of the content, so why waste energy on the briefing?
Second, target subjects may not necessarily go through all stages from the beginning. Some loyal fans are ready to go straight to the last stage, while some opponents always stop at the door of “I believe”. In some organizations, prepare for a top-down briefing where you are “forced” to take action. For what most people are looking forward to, they will jump directly to the fourth stage “I believe”.
Please put the value in the right place
Large enterprises will develop [Corporate Identification System (CIS)](https://wiki.mbalib.com/zh-tw/%E4%BC%81%E4%B8%9A%E5%BD%A2%E8%B1 %A1%E8%AF%86%E5%88%AB%E7%B3%BB%E7%BB%9F) and briefing templates are provided to employees, and research institutions will require that research analysis reports must have a standard format, including the use of charts and colors. This is because the company hopes that the value you produce lies in professionalism and insight, rather than spending time on presentations. This part can be handled by relevant units or outsourcing.
Preparing presentations time is the cost, and if the job requirement for the company that invites you does not include “dedicated to producing presentations”, you should not spend too much time on it. This is your personal competitiveness, not a necessary cost for the business.
Enterprises measure the value of presentations: not only to achieve their goals, but also to save time and effort
When the briefer doesn’t have to bother putting the target audience through these stages, this naturally reflects in the presentation of the brief. You can certainly do more to show personal brand and height. But is it worth it? Comprehensive consideration may be required.
For enterprises, it means viewing all activities from a financial perspective, and reviewing whether the activities at hand are necessary with the preparation of “not only achieving the goal, but also saving time and effort”. Otherwise, after busying around for a long time, we may realize that our “necessity” may only be “unnecessary” in the eyes of others.
Before giving a presentation, think about it: “Can I achieve my goal without giving a presentation?”
Please first “Put yourself in others’ shoes” and think about what is the purpose of the presenter? What action do you want the target audience to take? What are the attitudes of the target audience? It is not difficult to understand why the briefing produced looks like this.
★This article is written by Liu Yiyou, for Presentation. Founder of Easy Presentation Workshop. He has more than ten years of experience in business presentations and is good at presentation structure, information visualization, strategic proposals and fundraising presentations. Thank you for the permission to reprint, hereby thank you.
★Recommended reading:
- Six major trends in business presentation design in 2018: from storytelling, negative space to design intelligence
- Master the five questions and the three mores to make an eye-catching annual plan presentation
- Top ten trends in presentation design in 2018: The era of reading presentations on mobile phones is here
- Become your boss’s right-hand man: Five tips for preparing meeting presentations for senior executives
★ Content Hacking Lecture Series (CHL4): Create a call to action for your content [Open for registration]
★ Content Hacker Book Club: The power of content: don’t sell products! Use “content marketing” to let customers come to you! [Registration now]
★ Picture source: Presentation． Easy Presentation
Further reading
- Three major trends in business presentation design in 2019: Scenario-based architecture, visual personalization and intelligent interface
- “Slow Reading to Understand in Seconds: Vista’s Digital Good Copy Analysis Time” New Book Launch Briefing: An Essential Guide to Appreciating the Essence of Text Communication 2.0
- The second meeting of “Lun Liu Lai Briefing”: the starting point of presentation design, starting from understanding the audience
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