The purpose of any presentation is to inform your audience and persuade them to see your points. Unfortunately, many business presentations and company PowerPoints fall flat because they don’t engage the audience. In a recent survey, half of the respondents admitted to doing other things during a company presentation because they were bored. If your presentation isn’t engaging and compelling, you find it very difficult to hold an audience’s attention and get your point across.

Excellent presentations revolve around well-designed slides with exciting content and a compelling message. If you are the presenter at the next business meeting or conference, you’ll want to create an excellent presentation that is both engaging and informative. To create a great presentation, there are a few things that you’ll want to consider. From your first slide, future clients, accounts, and deals could be on the line. You’ll want to make sure that you can deliver a presentation that can seal the deal.

Given that the stakes are pretty high for some of these business presentations, every point is important, and every slide should make a statement. There are some basic principles for crafting a compelling custom presentation, from using graphics and illustrations to presenting concise text. Let’s look at some of the things you can do to make your presentation design more engaging.

Consider your audience.

While you will probably incorporate many facts, figures, and details into your slides, the most important aspect of any presentation is the audience. You will need to consider your audience and what they already know when crafting your presentation. Each slide should speak to your audience and persuade them to see your points. If you present a bunch of information that your audience already knows, they will lose interest quickly and abandon your presentation. Every PowerPoint presentation should avoid extraneous information and present details that are fresh and new.

Create a visual message.

A crucial element of an engaging PowerPoint presentation or other custom presentation is the storytelling aspect. Your slide show should incorporate illustrations and infographics to create an engaging visual story. Studies show that visual elements aid with understanding and learning and can increase your audience’s engagement. Elements like graphs and charts help with comprehension and allow your audience to see data in a way that is easier to understand. Your presentation should include illustrations and visuals to help tell the story of your data and information.

Focus on simplicity.

If you are presenting to a group of business investors or potential clients, they want to know the bottom line. If your presentation takes forever to get to the point, then you will have lost most of your audience. One of the most important principles for creating powerful slides is to keep your presentation simple. Keep your message clear and concise by eliminating extra text and sticking to your color palette and presentation design templates.

Don’t read your slides.

The slides for your custom presentation should support your points but not overwhelm your audience. This means that you shouldn’t create slides that you need to read. Reading each of your slides can insult your audience and make your presentation seem disingenuous. The presentation should highlight your main points and serve as a backdrop for what you are saying. Develop thoughtful points to put on your slides that support what you are saying.

Great presentations highlight key messages and help the audience to see your point. If you want to create an engaging slide show, you’ll want to keep them simple, incorporate visual elements, and present new information. Whether you are speaking to a board room of a few people or an auditorium with hundreds of people, it will be important to create engaging PowerPoint presentations that speak to everyone in the room.