Data is a vital element of most every type of presentation. It’s absolutely crucial to present credible statistical evidence to explain results of marketing, advertising or public relations campaigns convincingly.
Collecting valid data, analyzing it thoroughly and uncovering the insights that lead to actionable recommendations – all those are critical elements in making a convincing presentation about the success of a marketing or PR project.
But many marketing and PR folks often bungle the final step – the presentation. Eager to present their findings to their client or corporate executives, they quickly throw together some slides.
That’s a big mistake. Putting together a convincing presentation is just as important as doing the project, assembling and analyzing the data and drawing conclusions. How the data is presented will affect future decisions about the project and similar projects. A shoddy presentation can obscure or even misrepresent the data and undermine your analysis and recommendations. (Shoddy presentation techniques also may affect the presenter’s career.)
Experts offer these tips on using data to improve the quality of your presentations and persuade your audience.
Establish presentation objectives. Presentation content should be aimed at achieving a focused objective. What is it that you want to achieve with the presentation? Is it to prove the success of a project? Is it to obtain additional funding? Is it to convince the audience to undertake a different direction? Set up the slide order and content to meet the objective(s).
Determine the story you want to tell. Data should help tell a story. If you tell your audience a story, they are more likely to listen carefully and agree with your conclusion. Ask yourself: “What is the story in this data?” Design the slides to disclose the story you want to tell. Hint: The most spellbinding stories have heroes, villains, suspense and emotional impact.
Provide background. Don’t just start presenting to a group by throwing charts and graphs on a screen. First, spend time to take people through what you did, advises Adam Singer in a Search Engine Watch article. If you ran an A/B test, show a slide of each, and list your goals and explain why you collected data in the first place.
Avoid data overload. People often present all data on one slide, thinking they need to present everything upfront. The more data, the better, they think. That’s a mistake. Too much data overwhelms and confuses the audience. First, decide what point you want to get across. Present one chart and one clear conclusion per slide.
Keep it simple. Trying to become to too fancy can confuse viewers. Present data as simply and cleanly as possible. For instance, to compare changes in to items over time, simply plot the data in a simple line graph. Avoid 3D bars, which are confusing.
Label all chart elements. Be sure to clearly title the chart, label each axis and appropriately label each trend line or other chart element. The latest software for presentations and PR measurement enables pop-up labeling of chart elements.
Present data with context. For instance, compare numbers to a previous time period. If needed, call attention to the percentage change to highlight the comparative change. Tell viewers what the data means. Explain both what happened and why. You can use annotations in Google analytics to add callouts to significant web traffic events.
Pick your numbers carefully. Specific numbers add credibility. In addition, odd numbers are more believable than even numbers, writes content expert Pat Friesen in 8 Tips on How to Make Your Copy More Engaged with Numbers. A statistic of 27%, for example, seems more exact than 30%. You can add a decimal point to make numbers appear more precise.
Chose the appropriate chart. Using the appropriate chart type is an essential element of data visualization. For showing trends over time, line charts and bar charts are best. Bar charts are ideal for comparison and ranking because they include values on baseline, making it easy to compare values. Scatter plots are ideal for showing correlations between two factors – but remember that correlation does not prove a relationship.
Follow best practices. Follow the industry best practices when using statistics, as published by the Public Relations Society and American Statistical Association. .Be clear on how the information was collected and disclose who performed and paid for the work. If survey results are included, show the survey question.
Bottom Line: The ability to present data clearly and persuasively is an essential skill in PR and marketing. These tips can help you create presentations that persuade clients and corporate executives to accept the correctness of your insights, conclusions and recommendations.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
One of my big pet peeves when giving a presentation is when the presenter puts too much information on their slide. It happens all the time with bullet points but is even worse when data is being presented. I think a good rule of thumb is thinking about how long it took to sort through the data. You might have even used some software to help you figure it out. So, if it took you more than a couple of seconds to understand the data or graphs then you need to simplify it.
I agree that in a presentation of this kind, you need to focus on a few pieces of data. If you overload, people stop remembering it and it also gets boring. The context is also really important, thank you for that tip.
Keeping a presentation concise will really help your content stand out. Don’t add any fluff or unneeded material, and make sure your audience stays engaged. This will help you get your story to the intended audience effectively. Thanks for sharing.
Hello
I’m a speaker.
One of the important points is that:
In a presentation using graphs instead of tables is much better.
Because it is easier to understand.