Effective Presentation Techniques – The Top 10


We have condensed all of the presentation techniques down to the most effective. Here are the Top 10 effective presentation techniques.

1. Use visual aids

Using pictures in your presentations instead of words can double the chances of meeting your objectives.

2. Keep it short and sweet

There is an old adage that said – “No one ever complained of a presentation being too short.” Nothing kills a presentation more than going on too long.

There are some college professors who will penalise a short presentation (most lecturers see no problem in droning on) , but for most people a shorter presentation is better. Keep your presentation to under 22 minutes if you can.

3. Use the rule of three

A simple technique is that people tend to only remember three things. Work out what the three messages that you want your audience to take away and structure your presentation around them. Use a maximum of three points on a slide.

4. Rehearse

Practice makes for perfect performance. Many experts say that rehearsal is the biggest single thing that you can do to improve your performance. Perform your presentation out loud at least four times. One of these should be in front of a real scary audience. Family, friends or colleagues. Even the dog is better than nothing.

5. Tell stories

All presentations are a type of theatre. Tell stories and anecdotes to help illustrate points. It all helps to make your presentation more effective and memorable.

6. Lose the bullet points – don’t put your speaker notes up on the screen

Bullet points are the kiss of death for most presentations. Most people use bullet points as a form of speaker notes. To make your presentation more effective put your speaker notes in your notes and not up on the screen.

7. Video yourself

Set up a video camera and video yourself presenting. You will see all sorts of mistakes that you are making, from how you are standing, if you are jangling keys, to how well your presentation is structured.

8. Know what slide is coming next

You should always know when presenting which slide is coming up next. It sounds very powerful when you say “On the next slide [Click] you will see…”, rather than than a period of confusion when the next slide appears.

9. Have a back-up plan

Murphy’s law normally applies during a presentation. Technology not working, power cuts, projector blowing a bulb, spilling coffee on your front, not enough power leads, no loudspeakers, presentation displays strangely on the laptop – all of these are things that have happened in presentations that I have given.

Have a back-up plan. Take with you the following items – a printed out set of slides – (you can hold these up to the audience if you need to), a CD or data stick of your presentation, a laptop with your slides on it. Just in case it goes wrong.

Guess what? When you have back-ups – you seldom need to use them.

10. Check out the presentation room

Arrive early and check out the presentation room. If you can make sure that you see your slides loaded onto the PC and working on the screen. Work out where you will need to stand.

Do you agree or disagree with any of these effective presentation techniques? Have you have any experiences like this? Add it in to the comments box below.

 

Published On: 2nd Sep 2012

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107 Comments
  1. thanxxx alott for the informationn
    they r very usful…

    maryam 14 Sep at 4:59 pm
  2. They are truly powerful which everyone should apply to make his/her presentation a complete success.

    Mona 19 Sep at 4:45 pm
  3. Thank you! Really interesting and important material.

    Anonymous 29 Oct at 9:47 pm
  4. thank you for the top 10 effective presentation techniques

    waqas 3 Dec at 9:11 pm
  5. Simple yet very powerful

    Bopanna S U 19 Dec at 9:04 am
  6. One thing to add to point 6
    Indeed, speaker notes should not be on the slides. Nothing is more boring when sombebody reads exactly what is on the slides, I’d better take a copy home and read it in quietness then.

    Benjamin Kietzmann 31 Mar at 5:06 am
  7. well….i thought i wouldn’t be lucky but im just da luckiest person in the world who know these different presentation techniques…. but well done i will use these tips while preparing my presentation for accounting…
    thank you …
    Nice day…

    Simoa Vitale 16 Apr at 12:16 am
  8. thts really an amazing to have these presentation techniques.i’ll do my best to follow it while delivering my presentation.

    Uzma 29 Jul at 3:54 am
  9. i shall teach these techniques to my students when insha Allah i will be an instructor of spoken English.

    Uzma 29 Jul at 4:37 am
  10. Great!
    Anything on stage fright?

    Anonymous 15 Aug at 7:19 am
  11. A speaker should keep an eye contact with all the people in the room while giving the presentation .

    Rest the tips are useful .Thank u

    Pushpita Dhar 28 Aug at 7:17 am
  12. i think all the technique are excellent

    abhijeet 31 Aug at 9:12 pm
  13. Its really helpful.

    Thanks & Regards
    Shiva.

    Shivakumar 10 Sep at 8:20 am
  14. this is corny

    ur mom 25 Sep at 7:26 pm
  15. very interesting for me, when you prepare a presentation

    mpz 27 Oct at 6:52 pm
  16. According to me you have missed the most vital thing “Know your audience”

    Vishy 31 Oct at 11:32 am
  17. Nothing has been said about the element of interaction. It’s clear that a presentation is being made, but, if the audience is engaged, there might be greater attention to the entire presentation.

    This is just my take, views may vary.

    Lesha 3 Nov at 5:35 pm
  18. I am a facilitator in community forestry.these points are powerful materials. However I would like if you can explain more about the number 6. What to use instead of bullets. I have in my mind that slides are the guide of my presentation so I have to use bullets?.
    On the other side, could you please send me a short presentation prepared with these techiniques and observe the application. at least, one slide I can to observe how is a slide well prepared.

    Thanks a million from Colombia

    Fernando Ortiz 5 Nov at 6:12 pm
  19. Thank for this 10 points!

    Viviana 12 Nov at 9:33 pm
  20. I have been training and I feel these are the 10 most important points as well

    Raji 20 Nov at 1:18 pm
  21. I find these techniques quite useful, I have to do a presentation on Vending Machines to my head teacher – and you made very strong and strategic points. I’m only in Year 7…

    Hamz 9 Dec at 7:21 pm
  22. This is highly informative and without doubt, very effective

    SUNDAY ADEBOWALE 5 Jan at 5:21 pm
  23. very good and effective…use this techniques to have a successful presention

    Akshay Singh (FIJI) 14 Jan at 10:49 pm
  24. I was just making a presentation & I have come to know that my presentation is simply boring & killing.
    Any way, very effective & informative points.

    Adnan 7 Feb at 12:00 pm
  25. Life changing, thank you.

    Group 6F 27 Feb at 1:47 pm
  26. I am going to be facilitating a parenting course in a few weeks and loved the idea of of the rule of three to present my message.

    Ruby 6 Mar at 8:00 pm
  27. tanks fot the info is so important to my life

    bati 23 Mar at 7:41 pm
  28. thankx 2 you for providing me such an informative material. . .

    but u forget to mention about dressing of a presenter and can u plzzzzzzzzzzz send me a slide which is one of d perfect one’s. . .

    shamma 24 Mar at 9:41 am
  29. thanks alot………
    you khnow i will try to do all these tips
    in my presentations….

    mohmd belel 2 Apr at 9:53 am
  30. […] a site which has the top ten effective presentation techniques and they make sense to […]

    Intuitech -NGOs & Tech 4 Apr at 1:48 am
  31. Like mpz I also think there should be a section/point on knowing your audience.

    Roughly (and shortly) speaking there are three styles of learning that each might influence an otherwise excellent presentation: Visual, auditory and sensitive.

    The visual learners prefer imagery (Seeing is believing) and requires few words to every slide. Use images, diagrams, tables and such.

    The auditory prefers verbal explanations and responses. Encourage questions during the presentation and be prepared to go outside the presentation if it is appropriate. Watch your tone, pitch and volume of voice. Don’t drone 😉

    The sensitive learners needs to be connected to you. Use brief statements and demonstrations immediately followed by Q&A. Don’t focus on logic and external elements. Share personal values and experiences. Show empathy and understanding.

    Just a short remark 😉

    ArchMarV 6 Apr at 10:10 am
  32. Thanks a lot. Its really very helpful for update and improving my life.

    Priyatosh Gupta 10 Apr at 8:38 am
  33. these are realy good tips for presentation.i think there should be some more easy tips which can make our presentation more effective.

    noor-ul-ain 16 May at 7:48 pm
  34. It is really nice and helpful

    Shoaib 28 May at 4:36 am
  35. Thank you, it was really helpful, I used to put bullets in my slides, now not anymore, thanks again!

    claudia 5 Jun at 9:27 pm
  36. thank u.. that’s really powerful

    nesss 6 Jun at 12:25 am
  37. Guess this is really useful..as we say nothing is perfect but this can go to a great extent forming base, helping individual to build further on these lines!!

    Ajit Garve 21 Jun at 6:18 pm
  38. i hope my presentation would go well

    aesha 26 Jun at 2:58 pm
  39. Thanks a lot, really helpful!

    Osas 22 Jul at 10:20 am
  40. Very good points the 10 ones; also
    Know the subject, know your audience, be confident when you present your concise presentation which might be effective if you add spice to it (related stories / jockes…) and wake up calls (sudden questions at randomly picked up person from the audience), and for better memorisation, make your objectives clear at beggining and summarise the essential points at the end(using primacy and recency effects at work)… I mostly liked the Murphy’s law, the worst sure happens to the one who does not have a back up plan. Thanks a million…
    From Ethiopia

    Anonymous 2 Sep at 1:09 pm
  41. Brilliant trigger points. How can I overcome shyness in students who have the Knowledge but can’t present? It is so frustrating.

    Bobby 5 Sep at 8:32 am
  42. thanks to you, i won my pitch for the new coca cola commercials they are releasing over here in the states! i make that about $4.5 million U.S i owe you for these tips:)!

    joe 25 Sep at 12:26 pm
  43. Congratulations for your tips on effective teaching presentation!
    However , how can a teacher in a remote area of Burundi or Malawi get access to some of the materials you have earlier mentioned such as CD, Laptop,… Fine !
    May you please suggest what may replace those HITechs that are not available to most of Third World School?
    May God bless you!
    Nayingunge from Burundi.

    Anonymous 27 Sep at 6:45 pm
  44. thank you, i believe that with practice i will get better.

    Mugisha Jonathan 12 Oct at 8:57 am
  45. thanks to providing perfect informatiom about presentation techniques ,they are really so usefull while preparing any kind of ppt or presentation,its everything

    brijkishor bhopal 24 Oct at 7:58 pm
  46. Experience…
    Great

    Levon 11 Nov at 10:12 pm
  47. Very nice Techniq
    Great Jobs

    Imam Tech 25 Nov at 1:42 pm
  48. very well instructions

    sagar gite 7 Feb at 2:59 pm
  49. thanks ..tomorrow is my presentation I’ll apply all the points.IT REALLY BOOST ME UP!!!!!!
    thanks again

    sumina 7 Mar at 6:27 pm
  50. good presentation advice

    al 17 Mar at 11:36 am
  51. AWESOME ADVICE & IT REALY WORKS

    DANIEL 29 Apr at 8:35 am
  52. thank you, i believe that with practice i will get best of the best.

    Soeb Shaikh 14 May at 5:52 am
  53. thanks for the information, now i know how to make a good presentation ..

    josh 20 May at 8:20 am
  54. THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR SHARING YOUR KNOWLEDGE!!!GODBLESS YOU AND YOUR LOVE ONES:)

    anonymous student that struggle in his presentation 3 Jun at 3:44 am
  55. thank you for the information ,its really helpful.

    brenda 9 Jun at 1:59 am
  56. wow they r really helpfulx

    Aaron j 1 Oct at 2:01 pm
  57. thank you from Saudi Arabia

    Anonymous 9 Oct at 6:13 am
  58. very awesome that is

    swapnil 16 Oct at 12:30 am
  59. thanks it was very useful to me

    Anonymous 14 Nov at 6:14 am
  60. yes…..
    very nice because i fully unaware about these techniques ….
    bye the way i am MBA student ….therefor it is very usefull for me….

    mahesh 7 Feb at 10:36 am
  61. Great advice. Thanks

    Adrian 15 Feb at 4:41 pm
  62. Thanks… Good Tips.

    Anonymous 17 Mar at 2:36 pm
  63. Its was great list of advice about presentation. Thanks.

    Domaining 5 Apr at 6:41 pm
  64. It’s really useful to have these 10 points when doing presentations. I’m a teacher and this will help me to present things well.

    Thanks a lot

    Regards
    Nimal

    Nimal 30 Jun at 12:56 pm
  65. this has been really helpful 4 me i mean this step is very good it help me out at my presentation and i got all mos 90% on my presentation. i think more people should take time reading this 10 tip

    tcs 7 Jul at 4:04 pm
  66. THNKS MUCH 4 BRIEF SUMMARY ON PRESENTATION TECHNIQUE,MAY U INCLUDE ATLEAST DRESSING CODE

    Devis 2 Aug at 10:19 am
  67. thanks for the info regarding presentation techniques,,,it help me out for my presentation some day.

    Anonymous 19 Oct at 3:37 am
  68. thank u alot realy it is an important material!

    kaniz 22 Oct at 3:23 pm
  69. Thank yo verry much for all the4 informtions which i enjoyed-am practicing..However at one point where you state that “Keep your presentation to under 22 minutes if you can.”
    As a technical trainer in my organisation(a tire industry in India)where I have a 5 day sessions (9.00-5.30 p.m)this 22 mts. concept is hard to follow. But inadvertently I don’t dwell on a single topic/concept more than 20 mts, Is it O.K.
    Thangarajan.P.K.

    ponnusami kasi thangarajan 26 Jan at 5:06 am
  70. its really nice for understanding

    dhriti 24 Apr at 6:46 am
  71. nice presentation skills

    dhriti 24 Apr at 6:48 am
  72. This is just brilliant

    mike 4 Jul at 1:46 pm
  73. This is good stuff. I was a trainer in Zimbabwe so to the gentleman from Burundi I would say that you don’t need fancy aids to make an effective presentation. Pre-prepare a series of flip chart pages with your main points on and use a separate blank flip chart for points made by your audience. Also on visual aids I find that so often every slide looks the same – same font, background, company logo in the corner and so on. For the bits you want them to remember, change the slide completely so it stands out.

    Brian Steane 25 Sep at 8:02 pm
  74. gostei muito das técnicas

    SHIRLEY SOUZA 5 Oct at 1:23 pm
  75. I LIKE THE THECNIQUES,THANK YOU

    shirley souza 5 Oct at 1:24 pm
  76. Nice techniques……..

    Bilal 16 Nov at 7:13 pm
  77. thanksfor thes points

    rabi 3 Dec at 10:09 am
  78. This was very helpful… not only for our Philosophy class, but for all college courses. All 10 recommendations were very good. However, the 2 that seemed the most useful of all were to (1) video record yourself to find out how you look… and (2) have a back-up plan ready.

    Daniel Davidenas 22 Jan at 8:42 pm
  79. Hey,
    Hatts off to you man, they are very useful for a layman going for his / her first presentation.

    Jas 20 Apr at 5:41 pm
  80. wonderfull stuff!!!

    ali 17 Jun at 6:33 pm
  81. these tips maked me to know more about presentation

    sudhin machad 22 Jun at 2:43 pm
  82. tanks .it is very useful in my life

    sm farhan 29 Aug at 7:49 am
  83. Thanks for the advice… 🙂

    Namitha 17 Sep at 2:47 am
  84. this website is amazing thanks so much xx

    Anonymous 1 Oct at 7:29 pm
  85. Ya , friend …..
    My Father also likes Powrpoint preaentations & doing commentary …… He & I both likes this two tasks ….. & he is expert explaining ppt presentation in public .. I too wanted to become like him & the tips u had given r the same as what my father always follows ……… So , Thanks

    Hare Krishnapatel 5 Jan at 7:57 pm
  86. its good 4 me

    sakib khan 23 Apr at 4:38 pm
  87. thank you very much this was very helpful

    abu 30 May at 10:10 pm
  88. great

    annonymous 20 Aug at 4:29 pm
  89. Thanks a lot for wonderful ideas. I do hope it will be very helpful in my upcoming presentation.
    May God bless you!

    Erona 30 Oct at 8:19 am
  90. I’ll try to do this for my report on Monday. Thank you.

    YoungJ 6 Nov at 1:37 pm
  91. WORTHY

    LUN DUN 23 Nov at 9:01 pm
  92. When using beamer or slides please also look from audience side! As the outside sun might blind them.

    John 30 Nov at 9:42 pm
  93. dont be over confident be confident

    bawani 21 Aug at 5:02 pm
  94. Highly appreciated your tips on business presentation.they will be of my great help in my agribusiness forum next week.
    Regards

    Peter mwita 5 Sep at 8:46 pm
  95. rely great!

    abdure 12 Dec at 7:53 pm
  96. Really useful tips, looking forward to have these kinds of tips in future.

    Haroon Sadat 23 Apr at 7:05 am
  97. Superb info… Tqz

    meena 2 Jan at 3:23 pm
  98. very helpful and valuable points

    michael sean 4 May at 7:00 pm
  99. Very useful info….

    Pooja kadam 11 Aug at 4:00 pm
  100. these are very informative tips.any perhaps very effective ones

    stephen 23 Sep at 8:55 am
  101. Thanks , very useful

    Anil 27 Oct at 6:17 am
  102. tell stories really helped

    Loading.... 11 Jan at 3:04 pm
  103. The rule of three is something which Id like to try. I would do presentations using bullets as keys — just learned that it’s not advisable to do it.

    serge 23 May at 7:33 am
  104. Thank you very much it has greatly helped.Blessed all the content is useful and with this i hope to get better

    Benson wanjau 5 Jul at 8:44 am
  105. Wonderful, l suggest you need to talk like a thought leader as well.

    Lwandle 22 Sep at 5:46 pm
  106. I’m so grateful for this opportunity of visiting this site. I find them so interesting, all the points outlined in this writing. I so much like the self-videoing part of it. This gives you the clear picture of how bad or good your presentation style is. And also gives you the chance to know if your recent pattern is better than the former or not.

    From Nigeria

    DeOptimist 16 May at 8:39 pm
  107. All the points are valid, but particularly like point # 5 which talks about stories. Stories bring life and authenticity to your presentation. Great job!

    Glen 2 Sep at 8:27 pm