In order to persuade people, it doesn’t just matter what you’re saying, but how you’re saying it, as well. This is why presentations are an incredibly important part of the business world. The validity of your arguments and efficiency of your plan are definitely important, however, given the fact that a person on Kickstarter has managed to gather $55,492 to make a potato salad, it’s clear just how potent a great presentation actually is. With that in mind, you need to become a master at creating business presentations and here are several tips that will help you exploit this concept to your own benefit.

Download a template

Coming up with a presentation layout that is immersive and innovative is definitely possible, but it’s something that takes too much time and energy. Matching colors that will subconsciously attract the attention of your audience, choosing a readable font/color and making a contrast that will help them prioritize presentation elements is incredibly difficult. Fortunately, you can just go online and pick a presentation template to download. As for the selection process, this one is fairly simple – if it works on you, it should work on your audience, as well.

Graphically depict facts and concepts

Our brain reacts to numerical information in a funny way. For instance, saying that something’s 50 percent is quite straight forward, seeing as how everyone can visualize that it’s a half, however, saying that something is 14 percent is not so simple to pull off. Also, saying 1 in 5 people does have a nice ring to it, but showing this with five human silhouettes (one of which is singled out) is a lot more effective as a persuasion and immersion tool. Therefore, you shouldn’t miss out on an opportunity to graphically depict facts and concepts.

Use a variety of mediums

Nowadays, a lot of people see the term “presentation” as a synonymous with a PowerPoint presentation or a slideshow, when, in reality, you can use traditional graphs or miniature models just as effectively. With the help of a dense whiteboard marker, you can make a spontaneous graphic presentation. By making a figure in front of your audience, you can attract their attention much more easily and make them more included in the process. Needless to say, it’s probably for the best if you were to combine various method. Fortunately, there are so many office resources that you’ll be able to use in this process.

Keep it interesting

Keep in mind that the focus of your audience naturally declines over the course of time. This is why it’s important that you include as many different formats, fonts, shapes and types of presentation sheets into the mix. By being unable to adjust to a model, your audience will subconsciously start paying more attention to what they’re looking at. Moreover, your presentation should, by default, have comparisons, statistics, statements, images, roadmaps and structural representations, all of which makes it a lot easier for you to keep things diverse and interesting.

Have an agenda

How do you measure the successfulness of your presentation? Well, this depends on what you’re trying to achieve. Look at it this way, a presentation is just a means to an end, which is why you need to know what the end is. Are you trying to increase team loyalty, persuade your shareholders to support your plan or attract investors? Depending on your agenda, you’ll be able to establish reliable and measurable metrics based on which you’ll determine the efficiency of your actions. All in all, this is definitely something worth keeping in mind.

Maintain a certain continuity

Previously, we’ve talked about the prospect of using various formats, mediums and resources in order to graphically portray the message that you’re trying to send. The problem with this idea lies in the fact that this makes it quite easy for your presentation to digress too far from the topic. Remember, in order to stay persuasive, you need to be direct and stick to the point. Make a list of all the topics and arguments that you need to cover and make sure that they’re all tied to the main objective of the presentation (something we’ve already discussed in the previous section).

When it comes to getting other people on board with your idea, there’s really nothing that can outshine a great business presentation. Therefore, you need to start learning how to make one and how to make it effectively. All in all, this isn’t just about conveying your ideas and methods, it’s about persuading people to provide you with necessary support, resources or, at very least, approval.