How2Day: Marketing Presentation Ideas

In many industries, marketing presentations are necessary to sell ideas, products and services. Whether you are working with an audience of potential clients, vendors, investors or partners, an effective and memorable presentation can give your words an added level of credibility. As you plan, consider ways that you can make your ideas stick in the minds of the audience.

When you are putting on a presentation that includes a slide show, keep the text as simple as possible. When you use a presentation that is crowded with words, attendees may be more likely to spend time reading instead of listening to you. Use the presentation as a prompt and include photos to illustrate concepts and add depth to your ideas. When using bullet lines of text, keep each line short and to the point, and avoid filling the page with too many items so that the audience stays focused on the topic at hand.

Humans use stories for a variety of purposes. In a marketing presentation, a story can help make your message more relevant and memorable. As you lay out a presentation, figure out the common thread that links each topic together. Work that idea through the entire speech so that the audience can see the relationships between ideas. Use an anecdote to frame the presentation, for example, or pose a possible situation that puts the client directly into the story.

In a marketing presentation, don't make your audience work to understand how your ideas will help them. Instead, start your presentation by telling the people in attendance exactly how they will benefit from your service or products. Then, with the seeds planted, you can work to back up your claims in the rest of your presentation. By beginning with benefits, you will give your audience a chance to think of questions throughout the presentation.

At the end of a presentation, leave your audience with something to remember you by. If you are presenting an idea for a new product offering, for example, leave a spec sheet and a color cross section showing the inner workings. A marketing firm presenting a proposal to a potential client, on the other hand, may leave a brief print version of their portfolio to give the client something to leaf through. Make sure the leave-behind item is branded and includes your contact information for reference.

To make your presentation more powerful, show the results of your research as support for the ideas. If you are marketing a product that you believe will streamline a manufacturer's process, for example, give before and after numbers for output and production rates. By demonstrating that your ideas are grounded in fact, you can establish credibility and convince the audience that you have a solid understanding of background issues that will affect the project.

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