Make Your Online Presentations Memorable

The new way to market without going on the road is to offer online presentations to prospects.  It's attractive from a cost saving perspective.  But since you are not present physically, you can easily lose your audience's attention – and you're not there to catch body language that says “I'm bored and I'm not buying.”  In fact, in one recent survey, 65% of participants in online presentations admitted to multi-tasking while attending.

Soooooooo……how to capture and keep attention in online presentations made in Webinairs should be a topic of high interest.  Here are some tips and techniques to get your presentation attended and remembered.

• You've got about 20 seconds at the very begining to engage your audience.  Don't start off by introducing yourself with a big bio, citing everything you've done since getting out of high school.  In fact, don't focus on yourself at all.  Here's the mantra.  “This presentation is not about me, it is about my audience and what will benefit them.”  If you keep them captured they will find out who you are, and then you can point out your sterling credentials.  Meanwhile, mum's the word.
• Our brains remember what comes FIRST, anything after that, not so much.  So get your very best key point out there in a memorable way that invokes feelings.  And do it in the first 20 seconds of your talk.
• Create anticipation from the get-go.  Promise a reward at the end, or have your audience guess something in the first moments that you reveal at the end.  News stations do this with their “teasers” all the time.  Take note, and do the same thing.  People will respond to anticipation, it will grab and hold their attention.  Killers of anticipation include long introductory bios, text-laden Powerpoint presentations, information about your company, and a flat or monotone voice.
• Use visuals that create incongruity (a weight lifter whose arms are on backwards, for instance).  Our brains get caught up in the incongruity, holding our attention while we try to resolve it.  You can also use surprising facts to create interest.
• Participation is key.  Ask a question at the very beginning to get people involved and hold their attention.  Participation makes your presentation much more memorable and keeps people listening and involved.  The interaction gives the audience a chance to interact with you, and helps create the “know, like, trust” factor that is critical to successful marketing.

Tomorrow, I'll give you the rest of my tips for making online presentations memorable.  You'll learn about the Zeigarnick Effect, and see how I've used it here.  🙂

(c) Sue Painter