How to create more impact – simple, fewer points & real examples
Have you ever done a presentation, or written a post, or simply had a conversation and had that feeling that you’ve just managed to confuse your audience?
I have!
A few weeks ago I gave a presentation to a business group on web strategy. I was pretty excited by the opportunity and it was a new presentation that worked well when I practiced…
What a difference an audience makes! I could feel them fluctuate between engaged and bored. I found 4 or 5 slides that I wished I could just completely skip. The sweat started to run on my forehead as I realised how vague some of my slides were… Watching an audience’s eyes glaze over is not a nice feeling!
Considering communication and content is such a huge part of what we do, I needed to practice what I preached and get back some impact!
So yesterday I had a presentation with Northern Beaches SWAP group and in the preparation I made some major changes in accordance with some key principles:
- Simplify – One of the reasons my first presentation hadn’t worked well was that I was trying to cover too many topics and make too many points. I changed my topic from web strategy in its entirety to focus only on strategy for websites. Much better than trying to jam everything I’ve ever learned into 30 minutes!
- Fewer points – by simplifying my topic, it meant I only needed to make a few key points. Much easier for the audience to digest and much easier for me to present.
- Real examples – Having fewer key points, meant I was able to re-enforce these using more real examples. It was much easier discussing sites that people are familiar with (like Google, Amazon, eBay etc) then talking in vague high level terms.
How does this apply to your website strategy?
- Look over every page of your website – is it simple to understand for an outsider? Even better – get someone outside of your business to look over your website and then give you honest feedback!
- Have you made a few key points or have you tried to explain everything at once about your product/service?
- Do you have plenty of real examples, real stories or real testimonials for people to reference and help them in their understanding?
If you can answer yes to all of these questions then keep up the good work!
Managed web strategy: Need a hand generating, organising and managing your website content? Give Bluewire Media a call on 1300 258 394.