Fighting for Their Attention: Your Audience Will Never Get Bored If You Learn and Implement These 7 Strategies

Audiences can be hard to please. If you’re not an exciting speaker or presenter, they can even be hard to keep awake! That’s one of the reasons many people fear giving public presentations. They think attendees will fall asleep, walk out, or leave with a bad impression of them. However, you can put these fears to rest if you learn what audiences want and like and incorporate these things into your presentation. Let’s look at some of the strategies you can implement.

Use slide presentations well

Some speakers can keep an audience’s attention without using any visual aids. For some, this comes naturally but others take time to develop this skill. If you’re not very confident yet, slides can come in very handy. They give the audience something to look at and they help you to stay on track. Make sure your slides are beautiful to look at and you choose an easy program to work with. Beautiful. AI is becoming a popular choice and your slides always look modern with this presentation software.

Tell a story

Depending on the topic and the audience, you may be able to make your presentation one big story. Otherwise, sprinkle little anecdotes throughout your presentation. Start at the beginning, the end or in the middle of the story. It really doesn’t matter once you craft narratives that keep the audience wondering what happens next. Just make sure the stories are relevant to your topic.

Start with something unexpected or shocking

You can lose your audience very quickly so start on a high note. Make a surprising statement, quote a shocking statistic or create some intrigue which makes listeners want to stay with you until the very end. Think about creating suspense and curiosity when you craft your opening lines. If you get the audience eating out of the palm of your hand at the beginning, you will begin to feel more comfortable as you progress through the presentation.

Change things up

If there’s one thing that makes people bored, it’s monotony. If you want to keep your audience alert, keep things moving. Change slides, show a video, picture or chart or play a relevant audio recording.  Try speeding up when you’re going over information that’s already known and slowing down when introducing new concepts or things that are harder to understand. Experiment with lowering or raising your voice at key points.

Make it about them

Why should the audience be interested in your speech? Make sure you make it clear how the information you’re presenting is going to help them. Do you want to inspire, persuade or inform? Make direct links between what you’re saying and how it relates to the audience’s needs, fears or goals. Even if you’re telling a personal story, they need to be able to see themselves in it somehow. Whether you present a solution to a problem, a warning about the future or simple encouragement, remember to make it more about them than you.

Encourage audience participation

Your audience can’t fall asleep if they’re engaging with you. Encourage them to ask questions or share their perspectives at intervals during your speech. If you want to try something a little more unpredictable, invite a participant on stage to interact with you.  Done correctly, this can inject a little humour into the presentation.

Tell a joke

Don’t underestimate the power of a well-crafted, well-timed joke. Of course, whether you can incorporate a joke depends on the subject matter and occasion but there’s often a moment in which you can inject some humour. If you can get your audience laughing, you’re more likely to get them to listen.

Facing an audience can be hard. However, preparing a good speech or presentation and practising your delivery can go a long way. The next time you need to speak in public, consider using some of these strategies to ensure your audience stays engaged.