This is Grant: My clients call me The Webinar Guy. Welcome to episode 21 of “Zooming to Webinar Success!”
Last episode, twenty, I started talking about choosing and using software to create your slide deck. I mentioned some of the top platforms such as Prezi, Google Slides, Canva, Keynote, Microsoft PowerPoint and yes, there are more. Please go back and listen to episode twenty if you haven’t yet.
At the end, I sorta finished rant on keeping things simple and ended with Rule four. So onto Rule five!
Rule number five: NEVER, ever, ever… EVER read your slides.
Rule six, bullet points are good, paragraphs are bad. When I see paragraphs we know the speaker is likely going to read slides. One exception is when you must present legal or technical information and leave it on screen long enough for your audience to see/read. Back to rule 5; if you read the whole thing *unless required* is bad.
Think of it this way: Consider sitting through a 20 minute presentation where the slides are read verbatim. WHY do we need you?!
Okay, now that we’re past all THAT…
Generally speaking, a dark background with light text is preferred, especially when the presentation is longer, or when live is in a darker room. It reduces eye fatigue for your audience.
Use appropriate fonts (again, cute fonts are bad and sans-serif fonts are better in my opinion.
Next I’m going to talk about the way to think about your presentation. Some people write a script, hone that in, then create a slide deck. Some know the deck they want to create visually, then write a script. I do a hybrid of sorts.
“But Grant,” you say. “I KNOW my content! Why should I write a script?”
Because just like for this series, I don’t want to forget a point I need to make. I’m not saying you have to read it off a teleprompter (but you could), but writing it out and planning your presentation around that is just good practice. It helps you find the holes in logic, missed steps and more.
When you start putting your presentation together, here’s three questions to consider, beyond the rules above:
First, Just like Steven Covey’s Seven Habits; Begin with the end in mind! How do you want your audience to feel at the end/after your presentation or webinar?
Next question: Why should the audience care? If you’ve invited a built in social media audience, or promoted correctly, this is less an issue, but answer it. If your planned content can’t answer that, start over!
Finally, (and most importantly), what is it you want your audience to do at the end/after your presentation or webinar?
Buy? Sign up for something? Take some action? Your whole presentation has to be leading to this. If not you’re wandering around and your audience will also be lost.
Your points, slides, images— everything has to be working to your CTA. What’s a CTA? Your Call To Action! Click the button now! Join our expanded webinar! Call your mom! (Sorry, tossed that one in for free).
A lukewarm presentation with a lukewarm presenter and a lukewarm CTA will get you what kind of results? Well, IF your audience is still awake, or still on the zoom webinar or other virtual meeting, you’re going to have lukewarm response at best- likely you’ll have crickets.
If you need help with your presentation, need one evaluated, need training on slide decks or presentation skills, please hit TheWebinarGuy.com and use our contact form to request help!
This series is for smaller organizations and solopreneurs that may not be tech savvy, don’t know all the steps, or don’t WANT to know all the steps.
Over the series, I’m going to lead you through the significant decisions and capabilities you’ll need to “Zoom to Webinar Success!”
As always, if you need help now, don’t hesitate to reach out!
Thank you for watching! Would love to hear your questions and comments!
And if you’re listening to the Podcast audio, thanks for listening! Tell a friend!