- Founder and CEO, Presentation Studio
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Emma is passionate about presenting big, bold and beautiful ideas. She is the founder and CEO of Presentation Studio, an Asia-Pacific presentation communication agency, and author of the book ‘Visual Thinking: How to transform the way you think, communicate and influence with presentations’.
Presentations are a marketer’s best friend. They can be a concise, targeted and effective form of communication with the potential to make a real impact on your audience.
However, so often, we fail to use them to their full potential. How many presentations have you seen, or given, where facts and figures drowned out any emotional impact? The fact is, often marketing presentations don’t take the audience on the journey, leaving them feeling like a spectator, rather than an active participant.
It doesn’t have to be this way. There is so much more presentations can do for you. Buy-in is the goal, and presentations can get you there. Here are five things marketers should be doing in their presentations to ensure better buy-in:
1. Be a storyteller
Buy-in is all about capturing your audience’s attention. You want them to not only pay attention, but really invest in what you have to say. The easiest way to do that is through narrative.
Learning to be a storyteller could be the key to gaining better buy in during your marketing presentations. This means structuring your presentations with a beginning, middle and end. It also means thinking about what your big idea is and how you can present it in a way which gives emotional depth and climax. How can you keep people on the edge of their seats?
By following this narrative structure, you engage your audience’s imagination and help them envision what life could look like with your product.
2. Be Relatable
Don’t walk into your presentation as a marketer, walk into it as someone your audience can relate to. Use your presentation to connect to your audience in meaningful ways. That’s where buy-in really comes from.
Relatability comes in all shapes and sizes. It can mean telling an anecdote you know your audience will understand. It might mean re-thinking how you dress, so you fit into your audience’s context. It could mean simplifying your language, or including specific technical language, which speaks directly to your audience’s world. People buy from people they trust and relatability is a big step in the right direction.
3. Be passionate
Your passion is your greatest tool for creating real buy-in during your presentation. Speak in a way which expresses your care and investment into the topic at hand. Marketing presentations should be exciting - because the person delivering them should be excited. Buy-in is much easier if you show your audience that you are convinced of what you are presenting. Think about the language you use, your tone of voice and your mannerisms. Are they communicating passion? If not, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
4. Be aware
If you know your audience inside out, buy-in is inevitable. You should know what they care about. You should seek to understand their concerns, their goals and their pain-points. Then, apply this knowledge to present something which speaks directly to these issues. Your awareness is key to a successful presentation which results in long-term buy-in. If you don’t know your audience, how will you be able to convince them? Preparation is essential for this piece of the puzzle.
5. Be connected
Remember, you need to present in a genuine way to get genuine results. The best presentations are those which connect with an audience. Get in the habit of making eye-contact and speaking to who is in the room, not just from the notes in front of you.
Tags: leadership