Can Your Powerpoint Presentation Rival Tv Advertising

Writen by Sean D'Souza

Do you ever wonder why some PowerPoint Presentations are so much better than others? Why do some have amazing powers of persuasion, while others simply bore you to death? TV commercials use these marketing strategies to hold and fascinate their viewers. You can too, if you follow these tried and proven techniques.

Step 1: Kaboom Them Into Waking Up!

Ever noticed how most presentations start with, "Welcome to this presentation...blah, blah, blah." You don't see too many TV ads do that. They slam into you at a zillion miles an hour and make sure you're paying attention.

So How Do YOU Do That When You Don't Have A Moving Picture?

The trick is to start with something that's totally disconnected with the presentation. For instance, you could be selling cars yet you could start with, "One day in heaven..." That's a good wake up call for an audience that's half asleep.

You're selling cars aren't you? What has heaven got to do with cars? The dissonance of the idea has forced their attention. Now that you've got their attention, you've got to gently massage your message into it. For example, you could simply suggest that God created man, woman, and then gave them a car.

And that is only the start.

Step 2: Always Tell A Story

Did you see Titanic, directed by James Cameron? Couldn't you tell that story with reasonable accuracy? Most people can. All our movie and great TV commercials are in a story format.

Do the same with your presentation. Think it through. Build up a story first, then work your presentation into it. It will not only give your presentation some focus (and storyline), but will make it easier for your audience to remember the sequence of what you're saying. For instance, where are Adam and Eve going in the car? Did they have a breakdown? How well does the air-conditioning work as they drive through the desert?

Step 3: Use Suspense, Not Mystery

Alfred Hitchcock was a master of suspense. He told you who the murderer was right at the start. So you and every one in the audience knew who was going to kill whom. Everyone in the theatre knew, except the hero (or heroine), who was going to get killed.

And that drove you crazy.

How could they be so dumb? You all knew who the killer was. Why couldn't the hero see it? That's what kept you riveted to the screen the whole 90 minutes. If you establish the characters in your presentation early and work in an element of suspense, you can keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

Step 4: Don't Bore Them with Your Solutions. Bring Up the Problem!

Most communication harps languidly around solutions. You don't want to do that.

Look around you. People are obsessed with problems. They don't walk around all excited and happy. Most people walk around with their heads in their hands. When you bring up their particular problem they snap out of their slumber in a mighty hurry, and pay attention to what you're saying.

What you need to do first is bring up that problem -- and bring it up in all its glory! Paint a gory picture. You might want to read my article: Is your solution your biggest problem? Only after you have made them feel the pain, should you bring out the solution. The best TV commercials always make you feel the pain.

As they say, "No pain, no gain." Learn that, and use it.

Step 5: Reduce Risk

Why do people say, "I'd like to think about it?" The only reason is because you haven't reduced the risk to minus fifty. While there is risk, my brain is still doing a RAM check. If there is no risk, I've got nothing to lose.

So, how can you reduce risk? TV ads give money back guarantees, trial periods, free test drives. Surely you can be more imaginative than some ad guy.

Get that risk down low, like a limbo rocker. How low can you go?

Step 6: Let Your Audience Know They're Not Guinea Pigs

Hey! If you've got a product to sell, and you're not using testimonials, you're missing out big time. Even if the product is yet to be launched, you can have pre-launch tests. It all builds up expectations for your final pitch.

This is also another form of risk reduction. If someone else has used your product or service and fallen in love with it, you need to go into the nitty gritty of that love story.

Step 7: Close the #@US$%*&^ Sale!

I don't know how many times I've seen a wonderful presentation that takes me to cloud nine, and leaves me there wondering, how I'm going to get back to earth.

You've got to close the sale! Every presentation should end with a call to action and decision on the client's part. There are a zillion books and tapes on closing a sale out there. Brian Tracy has some amazing audio tapes on Winning Closing Techniques (www.nightingale.com). Learn from the pros, and turn a la dee dah presentation into a full blooded sale!

Step 8: Bring on a Quirky Finale!

Every movie and every ad does it. They wrap it up in a way you never expect.

There's nothing worse than building up expectations, answering all the questions, and then having a weak ending. Your end has to be like lightning -- unexpected, brief and brilliant! It will ensure that your product or service (or quarterly report for that matter) gets maximum attention.

Otherwise you're just making a point with no power!

Wouldn't you love to stumble upon a secret library of small business ideas? Find simple, yet electrifying ideas onmarketing strategy,psychological tactics and branding. Head down to http://www.psychotactics.com#smallbusinessideas today and judge for yourself.

Free Clip Art

Writen by Kristy Annely

Creating artful presentations, crafting interesting articles, and making readable documents could be made more visually exciting if clip art is used. In fact, many people are using clip art to decorate boring write ups and projects, make their own cards, and even make a point more interesting. Most people who use clip art at present use free clip art.

What is free clip art?

Free clip art are copied or cut images that are made available for any person or organization to use. People who are interested in using these clip art images need not provide their credit card numbers or shell out some cash. These images are free of charge. If these are printed clip art images, people could simply cut them out and paste them wherever they need the images. If these are electronic clip art images, simply downloading them from the website or copying them to your document would do the trick.

What are the designs or drawings of free clip art?

Free clip art come in a wide range of designs and drawings. In fact, one could access thousands of free clip art images, and all these can easily be downloaded from a number of quality web sites. What's more, these free clip art images are organized according to theme.

There are free clip art designs and drawings that show animals, cartoons, computer images, flowers, education, food, holidays, celebrations, icons, plants, logos, people, countries, business images, religious images, clip art on science, love, science fiction, sports, kids, nature, weddings, transportation, travel, medicine, music, smileys, movies, politics, and many others.

Where can one find free clip art?

The World Wide Web is the most popular source of free clip art. You could simply use your favorite search engine and you will then be led to a long list of results for free clip art. You can simply download them from the site and use these free clip art images to jazz up your documents or presentations.

Clip Art provides detailed information on Clip Art, Free Clip Art, Birthday Clip Art, Wedding Clip Art and more. Clip Art is affiliated with Free Catalogs.

Dump That Overhead Projector

Writen by Robert Abbott

What is it about overhead projectors that causes us to become lousy communicators? Why do our speeches or presentations lose much of their steam when we use overheads?

Well, for starters, we often give more attention to the overheads than the audience. It can't be helped. After all, we have to pick up the right overhead, separate it from the next one, get it on the projector properly, check it out on the screen, and so on.

While doing those things, we're taking our eyes off the audience. At the same time, the audience spends a lot of time looking at the screen, rather than at us. And, nothing detracts from good communication like loss of eye contact with the audience.

We're also taking our mind off the audience. Instead, we're focusing our thoughts on the technical issues involved in showing the overhead, including our explanations of the visuals.

Then there's the amount of material. Almost every time I see a speech with overheads, I see way too much content. One of the best lessons I've learned in several years at Toastmasters is that less is more. Don't try to explain everything to your audience, just pick one small sliver of an issue and explain it well - a speech is not a book or a written article!

And, then there's the simple fact that the projector gets between you and the audience. There's noise and the size of the projector, which mean a projector can be a more powerful presence at the front of the room than you.

Perhaps there should be a 12-step program for getting over overhead projectors. While they're unlikely be an addiction, they can be a crutch, one that allows us to make presentations without adequate thought or preparation.

Personally, I like the idea of giving up overheads and projectors altogether. A colleague recently asked if we should use overheads when we do some upcoming presentations together. I expressed my opinion firmly. Need I say what that was?

If you're not ready to give them up, use your overheads in a supporting role. Don't ask them to carry a substantial part of the message; you should deliver the message, and the overheads should reinforce what you say.

For example, if your presentation involves numerical information, a simple bar or line graph might help the audience get the point. Or, if you're talking about a sequence of events and their order is critical, a numbered list might help.

But the best bet may be to go without. Before the presentation, think hard about the message or messages you want to convey. Boil them down into no more than three points, and then look for stories, analogies, metaphors, and anything else that will illustrate and reinforce each point. Try to create mental images with words, like good radio ads.

In summary, overhead projectors put serious communication barriers between speakers and audiences. Get rid of them. You'll be glad you did - and your audience will, too.

Robert F. Abbott writes and publishes Abbott's Communication Letter. Learn how you can use communication to help achieve your goals, by reading articles or subscribing to this ad-supported newsletter. An excellent resource for leaders and managers, at: http://www.communication-newsletter.com