What are you likely to remember after watching a PowerPoint presentation? There’s no right answer to that. Nor is there a hard and fast rule. It varies from person to person. In fact, according to a survey, most adults retain close to 10% of what they see, 30-40% of what they see and hear, and 90% of what they see, hear and do. Let’s take cooking for an example. If I was to teach you how to make Chicken Tikka Masala, reading the recipe wouldn’t have you remember all the tricks now, would it? What if I showed you how to make it and encouraged you to make it yourself? You’d probably never forget.
Massage the Memory
Does retention mark the effectiveness of your PowerPoint presentation? Absolutely. Studies say that 10 minutes after every presentation, only 50% of the audience effectively remembers what was shared. And 24 hours later, the number drops to 25%. A week later, 10%. Considering that it ideally takes a week for business to take decisions, they’re likely to have forgotten your presentation by then. The solution? Target the 10% with key points you’d want them to remember. It could be via a catchy headline, or a relatable insight, or an infographic. Whatever sticks, really.
Crave for Clarity
I can’t stress enough on the importance of how clear your message should be. Your audience doesn’t really need to know every single detail. Fluffing up your slides with text that may or may not be relevant can be counterproductive. Instead, hard hit with key points. Ideally, you should try limiting your text to show one message per slide. The succinct the better. In isolation from all the details, your point will come across as a lot clearer. And if you’re a master on the topic, you’ll be able to answer all queries anyway.
Worship the Visuals
From the time when we were in kindergarten, our brain was conditioned to learn visually. Even A for apple wouldn’t have been as easy if it wasn’t for the picture of an apple next to it. Choose the right imagery to support your points. Or even better, replace the points with the imagery and say a lot more than words ever can. In fact, according to John Medina’s Brain Rules, retention rates spike from 10% to 65% when pictures and text are shown together.
Instil Interest
A clear message and captivating visual design is sure to keep your audience engaged. That too naturally. A more engaged audience is more likely to listen carefully and interact with you. And that interaction will make your presentation more and more memorable.
Hand Handouts
Seriously? Aren’t we living in a digital age? Well, you can always email the PPT soon after the presentation.
Will they download it? You can’t be sure. What you can be sure of is making your presentation remembered by offering hard copies of it. Which they can refer to during and after the presentation. Having said that, sending a PDF version post the presentation is not a bad idea either. Just so your audience can ponder upon to your message anytime in the future for decision support.
That’s how easy making memorable PPTs can be. Too much to do? Well, in that case, you can have someone do it for you. Someone professional. Someone like Fully Decked up. See how we can help.