In today’s business world, presentations are an essential part of one’s daily jobs. For client-based companies, presentations form an essential part of convincing a potential client of the quality of the product or service that you offer. Many organizations require you to give a presentation of the work that you (or your team) did in a particular month or quarter to the senior management.
Irrespective of what the presentation is or who it is intended for, video is an effective tool to improve its impact. Not only do people concentrate more on a presentation with video, but the impact of such a presentation stays longer with the audience. In this piece, we shall discuss how you can incorporate video in your presentations and make them stand out.
Break the Monotony
Complex business presentations (particularly those centering around finance or technical subjects) often end up getting ‘too serious for comfort’. Start by reviewing your presentation and identifying places where things get monotonous. Ideally, that is after a complex concept has been introduced or segments where there are too much data.
Post anticipating the tough spots, you try to come up with distinct clips that will be relevant to the concept being discussed. That way, you break the chain of monotonous thoughts of the viewer and give them the time to evaluate the message you are putting forth.
The video will be something that the viewer will consider worth holding on to, and thus you make your way to the visual part of the viewer’s memory. There are several tools that you can use to edit videos online and reiterate the core concepts of your presentation in a way you want people to remember it by.
Build an Air of Drama
No matter how serious the topic of your presentation may be, everyone loves a little bit of drama, and video is the best way to incorporate that. A simple example in this regard would be the fact that a line of text over a motion background will be much more interesting than a standalone text.
Depending on the topic and the audience you are catering to, you need to select the background. Make sure that it does not get too overpowering as that may distract the audience or keep them for taking you seriously. Try to look for textures or graphics that have built-in Copyscape, as that way, you can include relevant bullet points in your video and drive the central idea of your presentation in a more effective manner.
Insert Video into The Presentation
While videos are an effective way to drive home the core ideas expressed in a presentation, it is your duty to make the experience a seamless one for the viewer. Minimizing a presentation to play a relevant video is very unprofessional and can get the viewers to question your credibility.
Most tools like MS PowerPoint, Prezi, or Apple Keynote, allow videos to be incorporated into the presentation. Make sure you leverage the power of such tools to ensure the maximum impact of your verbal presentation.
Videos to Evoke Emotional Response
While you may be totally engrossed in your presentation, it is important to realize that for the person listening to it, the presentation may look like a boring one where every slide simply resembles the other one. To ensure that your viewers are as engrossed in the presentation as you, opt for some form of visual accompaniment.
The combined effect of changing video along with supportive audio will reel the user in the presentation. This is especially useful if you are doing a presentation wherein you talk about your goals, vision, approach, CSR missions, or other places where emotions are the driving force.
Keep it Authentic
For sales or marketing presentations, authentic videos are the key to a successful presentation. Genuine, barely-edited videos showcasing real problems are taken more seriously in the boardroom than the highly styled videos you find online. Having authentic clips also establishes your honesty and dedication to the project, thereby increasing the odds of you bagging the deal or convincing a potential customer to make a purchase.
Use Video to Shorten the Length of your Presentation
The average audience has a short attention span, and after the first few minutes, it becomes challenging for you to hold on to their attention. This is where video comes to the picture. If you can use videos to illustrate a process, the chances of your audience retaining it is much higher.
Motion graphs are an effective way of conveying business growth or signal an upward (or downward) trend. Similarly, having a complex technical demonstration for someone from a business background (or plot lines structure to a technical person), the use of video will bridge the knowledge gap and speak more in less time. There are several free tools that you can explore online to come up with animations, interactive graphs, and a lot more for your presentation videos.
Balance your Time
While videos can improve the effectiveness of your conventional slideshow
Ideally, you should speak for at least five times the duration of the video you are playing. If time is a constraint, you can play the video in the background and speak through it. This approach is particularly useful if you are trying to get funds (or permission) based on the work you have accomplished. Talking about what you will do when given the opportunity while a silent video of what you have achieved in the given opportunities will be extremely impactful.
Thus, you see that irrespective of the product or idea that you are trying to see, videos will be a useful aid. From holding the attention of the viewer to helping you establish a point, the power of video is diverse, and it is for you to explore its full potential.
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