Business presentations play a massive role in success. Whether you are a business owner, consultant or freelancer, knowing how to deliver compelling live online presentations is an absolute must. We’ve put together 11 tips to help you create rich presentations that get you the results you need.
Before we go through each of the live online presentation tips for your success, let’s just start by acknowledging this – preparing a business presentation is not easy. First of all, it’s live, so there’s always a chance that something might go wrong. Second, it relies heavily on technology. Therefore something always goes wrong.
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What can you do about it?
Two things come to mind:
- Enough preparation, tests and backup equipment will definitely give you better odds in succeeding on your live online presentations.
- Keep your expectations in check. Accepting that some things might go wrong is liberating, and it also helps create contingency plans accordingly.
11 Tips to deliver compelling live online presentations
1.Bust out that “Do not disturb” sign and place on your door
Same goes for your phone. Distractions and interruptions can annoy your audience, and they might lose focus entirely. But, that’s not even the main reason why you should do this.
Not being disturbed during live online presentations is essential for you to keep your own focus. If you get lost and start repeating something you already said, your audience will be disengaged. Or, you’ll go “Where were we?” and it could harm your credibility.
2. Pay attention to the audio quality
When it comes to live video, whether it’s a video call, web conference or live stream, audio is one of the most significant elements. Low-quality audio will hurt your presentation.
To improve your live presentation’s audio quality, you can either use a headset with a microphone built-in or use an external microphone and earphones. If you don’t use earplugs, the sound of your computer will go back into the mic. Attendees will get that high-pitched feedback sound and hear themselves, which is far from an ideal online live presentation.
A great way to avoid that is through testing with different pieces of equipment.
3. Is everything you might need within reach?
If you have any material that you plan to show on camera, don’t forget to lay them out in front of you and within reach before your live online presentations. Shuffling through piles of documents and folder, live does not make for good entertainment, nor does it look good for your business.
This comes back to preparation. Apart from materials, think about anything else you might need, such as a glass of water, pen, and paper, or even props. The goal here is to not get up during a presentation to go look for something while attendees wait.
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4. Doing dry-runs is better than rehearsing
Many people suggest that you should rehearse before live online presentations, but rehearsing doesn’t help you in all aspects of a presentation. In live online presentations, apart from your performance, there are many tools and equipment involved.
If you do a dry-run, which you can actually record, instead of a rehearsal, you’ll be practicing your presentation, as well as, all your gear and software applications. You can, later on, watch the recording and figure out what can be improved.
5. Tailor your message to your audience
Regardless if you are doing a sales pitch, a marketing presentation or product demonstration, you should always have your audience’s best interest in mind. Think about it this way, if your presentation is on a technical subject, like AI applications from machine learning and your attendees aren’t particularly tech-savvy, delivering tech jargon won’t help you at all.
Whenever you create an online presentation, keep your audience in mind and tailor your message accordingly, to gain focus and engagement.
6. Taking questions will maximize engagement and value
When calculating the length of your online live presentations, you should account for Q&A time. Many presenters forget that one of live video’s most significant advantage is interaction and getting your audience to ask questions is crucial.
Encourage the attendees to ask questions and take the opportunity to get to know them a bit better.
7. Punctuality is deeply appreciated
During any video conference, whether it’s a one-on-one talk or you have thousands of viewers, punctuality remains vital. During online business presentations, when you start and end on time, it gives you credibility. Plus, punctuality shows that you are prepared and you value people’s time.
8. Simples slides work better
Before you go off on a tangent of trying to create the perfect slide deck with tons of cool information, make sure you have a solid outline of your business presentation. Most importantly, intricate and information-packed slides don’t tend to resonate well with viewers.
Don’t get us wrong, your slides should look nice and represent your brand, but instead of crunching in all your text, just the bullet points will suffice. Otherwise, instead of focusing on you, your audience will be stuck reading your slides.
9. Prepare for the key moments
Some presenters prefer to write an entire script while others work better with a rough outline. Plus, there are always the more adventurous ones that thrive on improvisation. Though you can leave some room for improv, we recommend having at least, preparing for key moments.
- Plan your introduction – How are you going to captivate your audience right from the start?
- Create interest points throughout live online presentations to keep viewers engaged.
- Prepare your “closing arguments” – How can you end on a high note that leaves your audience wanting more?
10. Close with a call-to-action
During your closing, don’t forget to reinforce a call-to-action. What do you want your viewers to do next? In other words, why did you the presentation in the first place? Maybe you want them to hire you, change a company process or just bring awareness to a new marketing opportunity. Either way, a final CTA will reinforce that action.
11. Humans are highly visual, so should your presentation be
This is very straightforward but easily forgotten. Using visual aids can help you get your point across. Here is how you can create a visual presentation:
- Think about the topics you want to address during your live online presentations
- From those topics, what can be exemplified with images or videos?
- Talking about statistics and numbers? Show them the graphs.
- Discussing the impact of global warming? – Images and videos can get your message across.
- Presenting a new software application that can help the business? – Let them see it in action.
Some people might wonder, how can you do all that during live online presentations? The secret is – having the right tools. That’s where ManyCam comes in. It allows you to add multiple video sources, such as videos, images, your screen, apps, and slide deck presentations. During your live online presentations, you can simply switch from one source to the next seamlessly.
It will enhance your live online presentations and help you get the outcome you were hoping for. You can download the free version and give it a try here.
Key Takeaway
Live online presentations can be time-consuming, but if you put in the extra effort, it will definitely show. The attendees will be in awe with your skills and resources, while the “ask” at the end of the presentation might get you an even better outcome than you first envisioned.
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