Why It Is Important to Prioritize Your Audience for a Presentation

When you’re preparing your presentation, do you think about what you want to say, or what your audience needs to hear? You see, there’s a big difference between inadvertently preparing your presentation for yourself rather than your audience. And this can translate to whether your presentation will be a hit or a miss. It is important to prioritize your audience for a presentation. Something a presenter can often forget!

Many presenters or speakers, even seasoned veterans can often fall into this trap of creating presentations for themselves instead of for their audience. And the results can be counter-productive. Speakers may tend to like to hear themselves talk and would then unwittingly overdraw a topic or become redundant. However, if their focus is on the audience on the get-go, they can avoid these pitfalls. You can also avoid these pitfalls too by following these tips.

How to Prioritize Your Audience in Your Presentations

Ask the following questions:

1. Who will attend? Even if your topic is specific, you can’t expect your audience to be homogenous. They would definitely come from diverse fields of expertise, as well as cultures, traditions, and backgrounds. Therefore, you have to consider how you use jargons or present an anecdote so that your message clearly comes across. By first figuring out your audience, you will understand what you need to do as you plan and prepare your presentation.
2. What is the core message of each slide? In order to be clear and concise in your presentations, you have to figure out the main message, as well as core messages for each slide. All these messages must remain intact and in sync throughout your slideshow.
3. What are they going to remember afterward? The most effective presentations are those that not only resonate with your audience but also leave a lasting impression on them.
4. Have a core message for each slide. Every single slide must not just make sense and interconnect. Each slide must tell its own story in a concise yet compelling way.
5. Prepare for the unexpected. There will be times that things may not go as planned. Your presentation may start late, there may be problems with the projection or equipment, or your time may run short. You have to learn how to work under pressure and manage your time. If your time may come up short, you have to fast forward to important points, reshuffle your slides if needed, or think up better ways to deliver your message.

Some expert presenters may train to achieve their status as professional public speakers and PowerPoint creators. However, with practice, determination, and a dash of creativity, you don’t have to get formal training to achieve what the pros have. You just have to apply these communication and presentation techniques and continue to hone them with every presentation.