10 Tips on How to Give a Good Presentation Effectively

Presentation skills are essentially needed by almost all groups, from students to professionals.

In the business ecosystem, for example, presentations are often needed to attract new clients (pitching). This is why, you need to train your communication skills and learn how to give a good presentation properly.

cmlabs has summarized 10 tips, both for students and business presentations. So, make sure you pay attention to each step below.

10 Tips on How to Give a Good Presentation

In reality, presentations remain a challenge for some individuals, as they still feel afraid, lack confidence, and doubt their presentation materials.

However, you don't need to worry. You can learn how to give a good presentation and ensure your audience pays full attention to the materials you deliver. Here’s how:

1. Use an Engaging Deck Design

Before focusing on the material you present, most audiences will likely pay attention to the visualization and design of the presentation deck on the screen.

Therefore, you need to create an engaging design that is relevant to your audience. For example, if you are giving a business presentation, create a deck that is formal yet captivating.

Tips: Use colors such as black, white, gray, or navy to give a professional impression.

2. Ensure the Content is Short and Concise

The next step is to ensure that the text in your material remains concise and straightforward.

Avoid including too many words in the presentation deck so that the audience can focus on understanding the main point you want to deliver.

Tips: Ensure that one slide only contains 1-3 main points. Don't make the audience read the entire explanation on the same slide. Instead, write down the main points and elaborate on them verbally.

In addition to ensuring the text remains concise, you also need to pay attention to the following elements:

• Choose a font that is easy to read.
• Ensure text size is clear, even for audiences sitting at the back.
• Make sure the text color does not clash with the background color of your deck.

3. Add Multimedia Assets

To make the presentation material more engaging, you can also add multimedia assets, such as images or videos. You can use these presentation tips if you feel the presentation material needs additional information to make it much more effective.

4. Pay Attention to Your Appearance

Please remember that your appearance as a presenter is equally important. If you deliver the presentation material with a neat and pleasant appearance, the audience will likely pay more attention to whatever you are saying.

Moreover, maintaining appearance is also important to boost your confidence as a presenter.

Tips: Adjust your appearance to the audience, the event, and the material. If you are delivering a business presentation, wear formal and decent attire, such as a shirt for men or a blouse for women.

5. Avoid Memorization

Some people may think that memorizing every word in the presentation material will facilitate the delivery process. However, this is not entirely accurate.

Relying solely on memorization will just increase the probability of you getting forgotten and disrupted.

Instead of memorizing every sentence, it's better to read the material several times and ensure you understand it thoroughly.

6. Be Confidence

It cannot be denied that giving a presentation in front of many people can sometimes cause nervousness and discomfort. However, you can overcome this with the correct approach. 

Tips: Consider that all the audience members are ordinary people who are also not exempt from making mistakes. Please also note that confidence is a soft skill that will improve over time, which means the more often you give presentations, the less nervous you will become.

7. Master the Stage

Good presentation skills need to be performed with confident gestures, and you can demonstrate this aspect by mastering the stage.

Instead of staying still when delivering the material, try to move around occasionally. It will be better if you can also interact with the audience during the presentation.

8. Maintain Eye Contact

The professionalism of a presenter can be reflected in how they maintain eye contact with the audience.

If you want to learn how to give a good presentation, you should minimize looking at the screen and focus on building eye contact with the audience.

Tips: Don't speak if you're still looking at the screen. Take 3-5 seconds to read the text on the screen so that your gaze remains directed at the audience when you are speaking.

9. Pay Attention to Body Language

Although it may sound trivial, body language can help the audience better understand what you're conveying.

Tips: You can illustrate important points in the presentation with light hand gestures and limit unnecessary movements, such as avoiding shifting weight from one foot to another.

10. Manage Facial Expressions

Believe it or not, the audience's emotions can be influenced by how you express yourself while delivering the material.

Here are some tips for managing facial expressions during presentations:

• Show a warm smile at the beginning of the presentation.
• Ensure your expression matches the material being presented. If the material is light and informative, it's better to present it cheerfully. However, in the context of business presentations, a serious and formal expression will be more appropriate.

That was all the explanation of how to give a good presentation to keep the audience's attention focused on you.
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