How to create a virtual presentation that wows

Sitting down to create your slide deck can be intimidating. Here are some expert tips on how to grab your audience’s attention and create a presentation that impresses and persuades your audience.

With current events forcing many workers to work remotely, virtual presentations are on the rise. As 65% of the population are visual learners, your slide deck is your most valuable tool for presentations. Statistics also show that presentations with effective visual aids are 43% more persuasive.

Additionally, virtual presentations don’t offer the luxury of body language and other visual cues, so creating a clear and concise slide deck is more important than ever. 

Here are some expert tips you can use to create a presentation that impresses and persuades your audience.

Keep information concise 

Creating a presentation that impresses your audience doesn’t mean that it has to be flashy. In fact, nearly 30% of working professionals struggle with disabilities, and flashy transitions and cursive fonts can be frustrating.

Use large, simple fonts and include no more than one image per slide. 

Additionally, use straightforward language that is clear and concise. While you may think that using complicated language adds a level of professionalism, it often confuses the audience and deters from your main message. 

Only about 50% of Americans read at an eighth-grade level, so speaking over their head will create tension in your relationship with the audience.

You can use a tool like Grammarly to check the reading level of your slide deck.

Add Audio or Video

Appropriately adding audio and visual aids can elevate the comprehension of your presentation as the change of pace recaptures wandering minds and increases engagement. 

Research shows that 75% of viewers will stick with a video for 60 seconds, making the ideal video length for a presentation 30-60 seconds. Videos should enhance your presentation, but not overtake it.

If you decide to repurpose the presentation adding in a video will also help increase content comprehension. 

Additionally, consider recording the presentation and breaking up main speaking points into audio clips to embed it into the presentation.

Use consistent branding

Before creating your slides, map out the colors, fonts, and styles you plan to use and save it in a doc that can be shared throughout the company.

While this may seem like a basic step, one survey showed that 48% of presenters use branded colors in less than 25% of their slides while only about 20 percent used branded colors in at least 80% of their slides.

Incorporate custom graphics

Most presentations use statistics to support a claim. Instead of just writing the statistic, consider creating custom graphics of each statistic.

Numerous studies have shown that graphics help increase comprehension and convey messages more meaningfully. 

Additionally, graphics with your branding can be repurposed in blog posts to help generate backlinks. If you’re operating on a budget, Canva is a fabulous resource to create beautiful custom graphics for free.

Create a slide deck that wows

Sitting down to create a presentation is an intimidating task as nearly half of all slide decks takes eight-plus hours to create. Fortunately, creating a virtual presentation that wows doesn’t require a flashy design and special effects.

By following these tips, you’ll have a slick slide deck that conveys your message and wows your audience.

Ljana Vimont is the managing director of Stinson Design, a design agency specializing in customized, professional, and on-brand presentations for companies across all industries.

Ljana’s leadership has taken Stinson from a hobby to a well-respected creative agency working with big global brands like NASA, Microsoft, Google, and Hilton.

Photo by Patrick Robert Doyle