The amount of content an organization must produce to satisfy competitors’ marketing efforts becomes overwhelming. Keeping up to date is a daunting task, but there’s at least one foolproof shortcut to follow – it’s easy to get your arsenal of good content right under your nose: your business presentation decks.
Here are my top tips for creating an overall presentation, such as a sales presentation or business summary, a tool that provides valuable information, builds leads with buyers, and can deliver results.
1. Set the information to the highest level
Unlike offers, on-demand sources have to work hard to get viewers’ attention. A good place to start is to re-edit the most important information, such as the title and anything else that appears initially.
For example, providers spend very little time on the title slide of their lists, so these slides are often very boring. If you want to improve this content for an online audience, you need to be convincing from the start. Try to present the piece with the most interesting or engaging imagery, or take something interesting from the body of the feature and place it at the beginning to create a new, more engaging introduction.
It’s also important to reconsider the title – it’s what will show up in the search results. And remember: you only get one chance to make a first impression. To be specific and relevant enough, roll your data to determine who heard you online and carefully craft a headline based on these findings. If you need help with the last part, look for services like Buzzsumo or Spike to help you come up with ideas.
2. Fill in and simplify any gaps that already exist
During a presentation, a lot of information is shared purely verbally, so if you’re considering an asset that can be viewed without a presenter, it’s important to fill in the gaps. Carefully look at your content to determine where it should be developed. If you are having trouble identifying these areas, share them with colleagues or friends who haven’t seen them and ask what is unclear or missing.
So simplify where possible. It might make sense for your presentation to have 50 slides, but with an average attention span of just 8.25 seconds, no one wants to go through all the content. View your information and group it into different categories. So get rid of the excess and reduce what’s left to clear concise statements. (A good data visualization is great to help your business!)
3. Close with a clear CTA
Most live presentations end with the presenter’s contact information, but online audiences are better prepared to get involved right after watching the content. Strategic purpose is absolutely crucial, so make sure your resource is complete to draw viewers straight into your company funnel.
The call to action should be simple and convenient, like a button that says “Book your spot now” or “Sign up on our blog for more tips.” Even a little ambiguity or a passive tone in this standalone content can make your efforts to generate leads and your audience ineffective.
4. Plan for agility
Once you’ve reused your ad, you can edit and recycle parts of it for an even greater amount. For example, if you’re promoting the item, instead of creating new content or paying an agency, you can drive traffic to your edited list by identifying some of the most interesting parts and posting them to social platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter.
You also don’t need to know how important it is for your content to be optimized for mobile viewing, but here’s a fact that made headlines last year: the time for mobile digital media is now greater than for desktop (more info here). And if we assume that many of the assets you want to send are sent to inboxes around the world, there’s another: according to email, more emails are read on mobile devices than on email clients of the desktop.
In other words, mobile can no longer be considered a separate channel, so make sure the experience is immersive and functional on a small screen like your computer and that you’re in good shape.
Whether you’re enhancing old PowerPoint decks, accurately switching from private to public, uploading your content to SlideShare, including a post on a landing page, exporting it as a video, or handing it over to a designer to become an infographic, you can do this successfully. Turn your assets into something that will generate leads and spread brand awareness using these tips.
And when creating new presentations, keep the visual focus in mind to make the transformation even easier. Interactive platforms, including the one I co-founded, help you get started right by focusing on visuals and other features (such as narration and multimedia support) right from the start.