An engaging presentation starts with designing your slide deck to keep your audience’s attention. We want to ensure that your audience is captivated during your presentation. You do that by creating engaging PowerPoint slides. Not only does the presentation need to flow together, but each slide needs to do its part in keeping the audience engaged. In this blog, I’ll go over the anatomy of an engaging slide, and provide a few examples of slides and why they work well.

The Anatomy of an Engaging Slide

Think about presentations you’ve sat through (I’m guessing there are a lot). Which ones stand out? Was the presenter cracking jokes? Did the slides have gifs, photos, or videos? I’m guessing SOMETHING about it was engaging and kept your attention. Otherwise, you wouldn’t remember it. Now, how many presentations do you think you have sat through that you remember? Hundreds? You don’t want to be one of those unmemorable presentations for your audience.

An engaging slide should follow these simple guidelines:

• Don’t make your audience read everything you’re saying. They aren’t going to read a block of text on a slide.
• Include a graphic. A photo, video, or gif will keep your audience’s eyes on your slide longer. They are taking in what this form of media is, which keeps them engaged with what you’re saying, too. The media should drive the point of the talk for that slide.
• Stay on-brand It’s confusing when each slide has a different color scheme and layout. Now, you should mix up the layout of slides but only between a few options. Each slide doesn’t need a unique layout.

Examples

Roadmap to Success

The layered text and the arrow pointing up take the audience on a journey. You read point #1 (gross margins), then go to point #2 (recurring revenue), etc. The arrow shows you what order to read the sections of text. Not to mention, the person on this slide tells you how you should feel about this information. You should be happy and excited that you now know the roadmap to success.
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B-Powered Ingredients

This slide has very clear branding. The background image is a honeycomb, and the yellow header text draws your attention. It’s bright and engaging. Let’s look at the images of each ingredient. You may not know what propolis looks like, so your brain is figuring out what it is. That keeps your eyes on the slide for a longer period of time. The bullets underneath each ingredient tell you the benefits. It’s quick, easy to understand information. You can look at this slide alone, without attending the presentation, and easily understand what it’s talking about.
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Costco Today

The numbers really stand out on this slide, right? That’s what the presenter wants you to pay attention to. Your eyes are drawn to the color on the slide because it pops against the black and white theme. What’s great about this slide is it’s not overloaded with information. There are three statistics that the presenter thought were important and wanted you to know. Keep your slides simple with only 1-2 key points.
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I hope showing you examples of great slide decks helped you understand how to create engaging PowerPoint slides. I know it can be a lot to remember. I’m happy to take this task off your plate and design a beautiful, engaging presentation. Simply book a free consultation with me. I look forward to bringing your vision to life!

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