The Pitch Avatar team creates an image of the perfect promoting online content, taking into account the established trends.
Despite the emergence of new formats for working with potential clients on the Internet, online presentations remain one of its foundations. But, at the same time, keeping up with the times, they are constantly changing and improving, moving further away from presentations and seminars that presenters and speakers conduct for viewers sitting directly in front of them.
There is nothing surprising in the fact that modern online presentations are becoming less and less like their predecessors from the real, not digital world. Viewers on the other side of the screen require a completely different approach. It would be appropriate to compare theater and cinema, which, being close “relatives”, today are very different from each other.
The main difference between a presentation and an online presentation is that in the second case, it is much more difficult to capture and hold the viewer’s attention. By agreeing to go somewhere for a presentation or inviting a team of presenters to your office, the viewer will find a window in his work schedule for viewing. And that means he will almost certainly watch the presentation from beginning to end and be minimally distracted from it. At least out of politeness.
It’s different with online presentations. They are often watched spontaneously, while doing other things, and not always watched to the end. There is too much information pressure on people these days and too many distracting factors.
We hope that our tips and recommendations will help you create highly effective online presentations that will never end up in the category of “unwatched and forgotten” under any circumstances.
An online presentation should solve a specific problem.
To successfully accomplish this task, you need to understand which target audience you are addressing your material to. After that, you need to study their tasks and understand which one exactly you can help solve with your proposal. Based on this, build an online presentation from mentioning the problem that is really facing your viewers to its solution. According to our observations, this approach is optimal for the vast majority of online presentations.
An online presentation should start immediately with something important and interesting.
According to various estimates, most viewers have about 5-15 seconds to decide whether to continue watching the online presentation. It is during this period of time that you need to “hook” a potential client. Therefore, when creating an online presentation, do without long introductions, greetings, and the like. At the beginning of the presentation, you should immediately “take the bull by the horns” and not let go until the very end.
An online presentation should be short.
“Trim, think, and trim again” – this is the motto of modern online presentations. The times when you could simply transfer a 20-minute presentation according to Guy Kawasaki’s formula or an 18-minute TED-style speech to an online format are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Even the “preacher’s principle”, according to which the speaker has ten minutes before the audience “falls asleep”, is already outdated. In the case of the Internet, all three of the mentioned formats are more suitable for webinars, educational events, and discussions of professional issues by small teams of specialists
Studies show that the average viewing time of a modern online presentation does not exceed 4.30 minutes on desktop and slightly more than 3.30 minutes on smartphones. Considering the prevalence of mobile devices, we recommend aiming for a duration of no more than 3 minutes, leaving yourself 30 “spare” seconds.
Of course, we are talking about the main part of the presentation. You can communicate with the audience for half an hour or an hour.
An online presentation should be such that it is convenient to watch on a smartphone.
Continuing the topic touched upon above, we note that all elements of an online presentation should be subordinated to the convenience of mobile device owners. The smartphoneization of the world has reached an impressive level of 68% of the world’s population, and this cannot be ignored. From our point of view, modern online presentations (and any online content, product, application, or content in general) should be created primarily with a focus on smartphones, their capabilities, and functions, and then adapted, if necessary, for desktops.
An online presentation should be as visual as possible.
Our brain processes visual information – both images and videos – 60,000 times faster than text. Three days after the presentation, viewers remember about 10% of the information said or read during it. But they remember 85% of what they saw. This means that you need to forget about long speeches that are accompanied by one slide in one and a half to two minutes and about text slides. Video and images are what should form the basis of your presentation. Captions and subtitles, if any, should be no longer than 5-6 words and should not take up more than a quarter of the slide area. At the same time, you should use a large, easily readable font. As a result, the text will look like a picture – it will not be read, but “grasped” at a glance.
An online presentation should be based on video, not static slides.
Video presentation is one of the main modern trends. From a commercial point of view, video works much better than static images. The probability of purchasing a product with video in an online presentation is 85% higher. Therefore, if you haven’t already done so, change your approach and try to get rid of static content as much as possible. For example, replace regular slides in your online presentation scripts with video slides. Fortunately, modern technologies offer presenters a lot of new, convenient, and inexpensive tools for working with video, animation, and special effects. Including AI-based ones. Be sure to add them to your “toolbox”.
An online presentation should be interactive.
This thesis does not require statistics or research to prove it. Since time immemorial, successful salespeople have allowed potential customers to touch, try, or taste the product they are presenting. And, of course, they were always ready to answer potential buyers’ questions. Similarly, traditional presentations are built, during which presenters and speakers communicate directly with the audience in the hall. Accordingly, online presentations should also work. Moreover, most viewers believe that interactive online presentations are better remembered, and the level of audience engagement in interactive online presentations exceeds 90%.
When creating an online presentation, it is worth taking care of at least establishing a direct dialogue with the audience, promptly answering questions and comments. In addition to this, it is worth adding contests, games, surveys, and interactive slides to the online presentation, with which viewers can perform various manipulations. For example, getting to know products. Special attention is recommended to be paid to the use of virtual and augmented reality. While this format is not particularly widespread yet, in the near future, its popularity is expected to grow.
The recording of an online presentation should not differ in communicative capabilities from a live broadcast.
Until recently, the main disadvantage of online presentations was that viewers who watched it in a recording did not have the opportunity to communicate with the speakers as freely and dynamically as the live audience did. Modern technologies have corrected this shortcoming. Therefore, be sure to equip your online presentation with a feedback system that establishes contact between the viewer and the presenter as promptly as it does during a live broadcast. Of course, we recommend our product for this purpose.
An online presentation should be adapted for use on social media.
Approximately 4.76 billion people in the world use social media. This fact alone is enough to create online presentations that can be partially or completely posted on social media. In addition to this, it should be noted that people usually “walk” on social networks while resting and trying to communicate. Therefore, an online presentation oriented towards use on social media should be easy to perceive and, from the very first words, offer to communicate in a non-intrusive way.
An online presentation should be part of a chain or tree of content.
After watching an online presentation, an interested client should be able to continue studying the topic to which it was dedicated quickly and without problems. Therefore, an online presentation must be linked to other content of your brand. Not only with other online presentations, but also with articles, posts on social networks, recordings of webinars, and others. This will help both to retain the client’s attention to your company and its products and to push him towards making a deal.
An online presentation should be equipped with an AI assistant.
Modern AI-based presenter assistants can perform a lot of tasks both during the preparation of an online presentation and during its conduct. Firstly, they can help with writing the script and editing the presentation. Secondly, they can answer simple and standard user questions, redirecting only those questions that go beyond their competence to people. And finally, they can act as speakers, co-hosts, and even main hosts in the form of digital avatars. At the same time, their images can be both digital doubles of real people (for example, the author of the presentation himself) and represent fictional characters. In short, AI assistants make online presentations brighter and more diverse, take on a solid part of routine work, and help ensure the operation of an online presentation in round-the-clock live broadcast mode.
An online presentation should end with a call to action.
We conclude our list of recommendations with a rule that, if forgotten, can reduce the effectiveness of even the best presentation by 50%. Let’s say you have created and conducted a brilliant online event. The viewers are impressed, conquered, and ready to continue working with your brand right now. If they need to search for something in a search engine, fill out long questionnaires, go through multi-step registration, and perform other complex actions to do so, they will have time to cool down. Yes, the modern customer is lazy. Nothing can be done about it. Therefore, at the end of the online presentation (and preferably also at the beginning and in the middle), offer them to take one simple specific action that will allow them to effectively continue communicating with the brand. For example, a one-click transition to your online store. Or downloading (again, with just one click) a trial version of the product. In short, you got the idea. A warmed-up lead must make a click before cooling down.
We are confident that by following our recommendations, you will definitely ensure a successful 2024!
Good luck and high income to everyone!
