{"id":827,"date":"2023-11-30T10:00:28","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T10:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thoughts.futurepresent.agency\/?p=827"},"modified":"2024-04-12T13:57:27","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T12:57:27","slug":"presenting-to-different-audiences-how-to-tailor-presentations-for-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thoughts.futurepresent.agency\/news\/presenting-to-different-audiences-how-to-tailor-presentations-for-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Presenting to Different Audience: Tailoring Your Deck for Success"},"content":{"rendered":"
You wouldn\u2019t wear the same shoes to Buckingham Palace as to Bondi (King Charles probably isn\u2019t a flip flop and tankini kind of guy), and you wouldn\u2019t bring your snorkel on a skiing holiday (not until climate change transforms slopes into splashzones, anyway). Why would you think the \u2018one size fits all\u2019 approach works for your presentations? Just as different occasions call for different outfits, presenting to different audiences demand unique decks.<\/p>\n
As any marketing minion worth their salt will tell you, precisely targeting your audience is a must for any successful campaign. If we look back over the history of advertising, every wannabe Don Draper has sought ways to get under the skin of their ideal audience, to discover what makes them tick, to get paint a picture of their aspirations and their fears to get them to do (or more likely to buy) what they wanted.<\/p>\n
But somehow when it comes to presentations, the basic commandments of marketing get forgotten.<\/p>\n
All too often, a presenter heedlessly charges in, clutching their pre-set agenda in their clammy fist, focussing entirely on what it is they want to say. They dish out dull details about company structure, laud the wonders of their own product and bang on about their impressive sales figures. They barely give a thought to the audience sitting on the other side of the projector.<\/p>\n
The result? Mark firmly missed.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s hard (rude, even) to expect an audience to pay attention to you rattling through your slides if you\u2019ve only given a cursory thought to their unique wants, needs and fear. You might as well be shouting into the void.<\/p>\n Your audiences is going to arrive in the presentation room with their own baggage. They might carry prejudices or misconceptions about your company. Maybe they\u2019re happy with their existing solution and can\u2019t see a reason to engage you at all. Maybe they\u2019ve dozed through three other pitches already and just want to go home and take a bath. Whatever the case, it\u2019s up to you to provide a reason for them to sit up and take notice.<\/p>\n You need to show them what\u2019s in it for them. Here are three tips to help you achieve that goal.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you started reading today hoping to find a template you could lift that outlined many different presentation shapes for investors, customers and internal stakeholders, then we\u2019re sorry but you\u2019re going to be disappointed. Because it\u2019s just not that simple. Shaping a deck to meet your audience\u2019s needs doesn\u2019t just mean using the right generic template \u2013 it goes far deeper than that.<\/p>\n If we told you that marketing\u2019s classic demographic search encompassing age, gender, income, hobbies and holiday habits would place Ozzy Osborne in the same little targeting box as King Charles, you might start to get what we mean. While the Prince of Darkness and the erstwhile Prince of Wales may have royal blood in common, it\u2019s probably safe to assume they don\u2019t share the same tastes in everything.<\/p>\n The point is that profiling your audience with a nothing more than a dry scan across job title and demographics just won\u2019t cut it. If you want your presentation to hit hard, you need to know exactly who you\u2019re talking to. And we mean really know \u2013 not just a superficial skate across the surface. You need to picture who your ideal audience will would be. You need to dig down into their DNA, understand what’s moving them and what’s in their way, round them out as flawed individuals with deep fears and hopes, and then work hard to hone your words so they hit the mark every time.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve answered the basic questions about your audience \u2013 which newspapers do they read, how do they spend their free time, what skills do they wish they had but don\u2019t have the time to hone, yadda yadda yadda \u2013 you need to explore what they really want from life. The temptation here is to look through the lens of the your own company and answering every question as if the product holds all the answers.<\/p>\n But guess what? It doesn\u2019t.<\/strong><\/p>\n The key to understanding your audience is to step back. You need to view them through objective eyes, to get an outsider\u2019s idea of their inner desires and frustrations without trying to crowbar your solution into the mix.<\/p>\n Only once you\u2019ve got this persona sketch can you start really considering what might be driving your audience into your waiting arms, and name the hurdles still standing in their way.<\/p>\n But why does all this matter, we hear you cry? Why does the fact my typical audience member reads The Sun, loves Jiu-Jitsu and dreams of retiring to Andalusia make the slightest difference when I\u2019m presenting them a tech product?<\/p>\n Because, dear reader, every presentation involves an act of persuasion. Whether your presentation is selling overtly, subtly reinforcing brand credibility, boosting company morale or consolidating your brand vision, you\u2019re always trying to persuade your audience. Persuasion\u2019s impossible if they just don\u2019t care about what you\u2019re saying. And you won\u2019t get them to care if you don\u2019t understand what\u2019s driving them.<\/p>\n By shaping your presentation to properly target your audience\u2019s pain points, they\u2019ll start to care about what you say, because it\u2019ll start to actually matter to them.<\/strong><\/p>\n So you\u2019ve dug deep, unearthed some rich details and some universal persona truths. You know your audience better than the back of your hand\u2026what next? Well, now it\u2019s time to craft your presentation so that you keep the audience rapt from the first attention-grabbing slide to the very last. Here\u2019s how:<\/p>\n Spin that spotlight and put your audience front and centre of everything you create. This should be easy now you\u2019ve got such a clear picture of who they are. Remember they\u2019re the Hero of your story, you\u2019re just the Guide (more about that here<\/a>). Weave in the right kinds of cultural references to be sure your message always hits home, and they leave the room feeling less Clark Kent and more like the guy in the cape.<\/p>\n Having the right messaging and the right framework is all well and good, but if your words sound wrong people will soon switch off. Achieving the perfect tone of voice is about thinking what effect you want to have on your audience and what emotions you\u2019re trying to excite in them.<\/p>\n The language you use is linked to the tone you choose. Think about how much (or little) the audience knows about your subject. Are they familiar with your brand acronyms? How elevated should your language be? Remember, a presentation isn\u2019t a written document, so keeping it simple usually makes sense.<\/p>\nTalk to the face, not the space<\/h2>\n
1. Find out who they are<\/h3>\n
2. Find out what they want<\/h3>\n
3. Find out how to make them care<\/h3>\n
But how, FP??<\/h2>\n
Make them the hero<\/h3>\n
Watch your tone<\/h3>\n
Language matters<\/h3>\n
Story shape<\/h3>\n