The culture of real meetings and conferences to share knowledge and experience is increasing day by day especially in the digital marketing space. Few years ago, there used to be a few conferences like SMX and later Moz.com came into play; however, in today’s times, there are several different event companies and agencies that are investing in organizing conferences.
Attending such conferences can be beneficial as they not only give a branding boost to the one who is arranging it but they also contain a lot of business opportunities and in-depth knowledge for attendees. I have personally attended several different conferences as a speaker in my country and have observed many others speaking at the event.
As far as the art of speaking is concerned, I have learnt several things over the years, which will be shared in the following post. Here I will be discussing some do’s and don’ts that digital marketing speakers should consider as important.
Note: Thanks to Click Meeting for backing my experience with data.
According to the collected data, Slide share is considered to be the number one software for uploading and sharing presentations online and 35% of the business professionals see at least 1 presentation per day.
Keep your Audience Engaged with You
This is a general yet important tip that does not only apply to the digital marketing speakers but it usually works for anyone who is into public speaking or aspiring to become a speaker. The idea is to actively engage your audience with you and do not let them be bored because the moment they become tired of listening to your presentation, then it is almost impossible to deliver your message to them.
Digital Marketing is somewhat technical, and therefore, if you are speaking about subjects like data management or other complex titles, you need your presentation to be lively and interactive or else audience might ignore you.
According to a research, following are a few ideas that you should implement in order to constantly engage with your audience.
- Do remember to start and end your presentation on time. According to a research, 72% of the professionals quit their presentation in the middle because it turns out to be longer than the scheduled time. It is also important to value the time of others because if you are not going to value your audience, they will stop giving value to you or your content.
- Inject your own personality within the presentation. I have listened to several different speakers over the years but the reason why Ian of Portent and Wil Reynolds of SEER Interactive usually stand out from the rest is their ability to incorporate the elements of their personality within the presentation. According to the research being conducted by Click Meeting, it is proven that 42% of the people get bored of the presentation even if it contains all the facts and numbers and it’s just because the presentation is devoid of the human element. The idea is to include images, videos (if possible), humor and more that renders a personalized touch to your presentations.
- Use bullet points instead of long sentences. One of the main reasons why Rand Fishkin’s presentation usually stands out from the rest is its content being presented as bullet points rather than long descriptions. 48% percent of the professionals find full sentences and paragraphs being mentioned slides to be annoying.
Pay Attention to Design
No matter if you are preparing a presentation for a conference or for a potential client, the template design plays its part and one should not neglect it. No matter if your presentation contains some amazing facts and numbers, it is still important to have a convincing design to interact and engage with your audience.
According to stats:
- 17% of the presentations do not use visuals at all.
- 30% contain overly complex diagrams.
- 25% have poor color choices.
It is important to pay attention to design while creating presentations. One of the main reasons why you should consider incorporating design is because they allow complex data to be digested easily.
Don’t Read your Slides
This is the most common problem on speakers’ end who usually speaks about SEO, Content and Digital Marketing. Instead of explaining the slides, they simply read them out to the audience. According to a research, 72% of the professionals get annoyed when they find speaker to be reading the slides only instead of explaining the content being presented on the slide. The idea is to include bullet points on your slide while explaining the same to them ideally with examples and experiences.
Other Presentation Tips
There are some other mistakes being made by speakers that make them appear less professional in front of the audience, and therefore, it is important to avoid them. Following are a few things that should be avoided:
- Don’t bring your cell phones. While engaging with the audience and presenting your content to them, make sure that you do not answer your phone or check your messages as it usually serves as a distraction. According to a research, almost around 80% of the people find it inappropriate to answer calls or messages during the presentation or once you join the stage.
- Always test your equipments beforehand so that you don’t really have to feel embarrassed in the front of the audience. For instance, if your presentation requires users to use internet, make sure your Wi-Fi connection is working so that they can follow your presentation without a hassle.
- Talking from the experience, it is important to record your presentation before you actually present it to the audience and see if there’s something missing in your game. Be your own honest critic and this will help you deliver your best on stage.
- Always make sure that the data you are presenting is up-to-date. Digital marketing is a rapidly changing industry, and therefore, speaking to your audience on behalf of the outdated data will not only waste their time but will also lose your credibility in the eye of the audience.
There are several more ideas for delivering a successful presentation but the above-mentioned ones are considered to be the most important that one should always consider while presenting in front of the audience. If you are a digital marketer or a CEO of some agency, it is important for you to remember that conferences serve as a platform for securing and generating new business leads, and therefore, it is necessary for your presentation to be well-crafted and well-delivered eventually helping you close more deals than the rest, which is almost impossible otherwise.