7 Ways To Boost Your Presentation Skills

Read Time: 4 minutes

1. Styles & Templates

This is probably the most crucial point if you want to improve your presentation skills, which is why I’ve put it at number one! Pick a template and style that is appropriate for your audience. In Scenes we have a range of templates to choose from – something more fun and funky to something still cool but for a more corporate audience. Scenes are also so easy-to-use and quick to learn. All the templates are ready made, all you have to do is insert the text you want and even this is automatically formatted for you.

Impress your coworkers with stunning design and this will improve your presentation skills no end. You’ll also look much cooler and cutting edge by using an animated presentation tool like Scenes. Who wants to send an audience to sleep?!

2. Embed Pictures & Videos

Do not pad out your presentation if you’ve got nothing to say! However, to emphasize key points embed images and videos. There’s nothing better than a short video clip to keep your audience’s attention! This is such an easy tip to improve your presentation skills. And with #Slides patent-pending Clip-A-Vid technology you can now take your presentation production to a whole new level with this feature. Th Clip-A-Vid technology from Powtoon allows you to create quick clips within your presentation by cropping and seamlessly embedding any YouTube or personal video into your slideshow, giving it that extra splash of Awesomeness!

In Powtoon Studio if you want to use animation to keep your audience excited then why not use one of our ready-made templates. There are a whole range to choose from everything from ones suitable for investor pitches and sales presentations to product launch videos or ones for teachers such as lesson plans and school rules. This is such an easy way to boost your presentation skills!

3. Less Is More for Improving Your Presentation Skills

This is a crucial tip if you want to boost your presentation skills. Don’t put too much text on a slide. Remember a picture tells a thousand words so why not instead fill each slide with a big picture that represents what you want to present and then talk around it.

4. Colors

Remember some colors are harder to read than others. If you’re color blind (more prevalent in men as it’s carried in the Y chromosome) it’s likely that you can’t distinguish between red and green. This means do not use red and green if you want to improve your presentation skills. An orange and blue presentation can be rather garish so stick to blues and/or greens. Not only this, but some colors are naturally easier to read than others such as black on yellow – this is why the’Yellow Pages’ were called the yellow pages! Keep the colors consistent if you want to boost your presentation skills.

5. Fonts to Use to Improve Your Presentation Skills

Use easy to read fonts such as Ariel and Times New Roman as a boost to your presentation skills. Italics are also hard to read so avoid script like fonts. Remember font sizes are not necessarily the same, for example, a size 24 in Ariel Narrow may look different to a size 24 in Avenir Light. Choose a big contrast between your font and color background. No contrast = difficult to read. Be consistent with your fonts and do not use more than two different types in a presentation. Don’t use capital letters, it looks like you’re shouting and they’re harder to read as it takes your brain longer to digest them – so bear this in mind to boost your presentation skills.

6. KISS

No, don’t go around kissing your audience (well you could but you might not get the reaction you want!) but ‘Keep it simple stupid’ – especially if you know so much about your subject. You may have a tendency to go off on tangents or meander through too many stories. Just stick to three or four key points.

7. Do a Recce

There’s nothing worse than a light bulb blowing or the projector not working or other hardware malfunctions. This is why Powtoon is so good as it’s based on the Cloud so no need to set up complicated equipment – perfect to improve your presentation skills. And if you really want to improve your presentation skills, do a recce beforehand! This means see the space in which you’re going to be presenting. Check out whether the blinds shut so your audience can see your presentation. Ask a friend to stand at the back to tell you how loud you need to speak in order to be heard. But remember, people absorb sound so you’ll need to speak even louder than that if the room is full.

So just follow these seven simple tips if you really want to improve your presentation skills and engage and impress your audience!

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Anna

Chief Marketing Scientist at PowToon

Anna is an award-winning marketer with over twenty years' experience. She has worked across the whole marketing mix and in many different verticals. She has grown many brands such as Match.com, Coca-Cola, Currys & PC World (DSGi) as well as working for ad agencies such as JWT and media companies such as the BBC, NBC and Universal. She enjoys helping startups achieve the success they deserve and LOVES PowToon! Anna's an intrepid traveller/explorer (has just about survived to tell her many tales!) and is also passionate about dancing, music, film, theatre, art and playing sports (often quite badly!).