Step One: Make sure you’re comfortable with your topic.  Ideally, you’ll actually enjoy the topic and maybe even feel passionate about it.  It’s a lot more fun to listen to someone who is passionate about their topic.

Step Two:  Know whom you’re talking to. Who is going to be sitting in the audience?  This is important because you’re going to speak differently if you’re chatting with a room full of teenagers than if you’re chatting with a room full of business people.

Step Three:  Know how long you have to speak.  This will make a difference in how you prepare and how involved your speech will be.  A 10-minute talk on copywriting would be very different from an hour talk on copywriting.

Step Four:  Begin to prepare your speech.  Outline what you want to talk about and write your key points.  If you’re going to be citing data or statistics, make sure you write those down and do your research now.

Step Five:  A good speech is interactive.  It has the audience nodding, laughing, and raising their hands to participate.  Once your speech is outlined, make room for audience participation.  Ask questions, tell funny stories and leave room for your audience to interact.  Additionally, if your audience is participating, it takes some of the pressure off you – your speech becomes a bit of a collaborative process.

Step Six:  Create note cards.  Use note cards as cue cards.  They’re present to cue you to what you’re going to talk about next.  You may also want to jot your data on these cards so you don’t have to memorize statistics.

Step Seven:  Practice your speech.  This is perhaps the most important point of giving a good speech because if you practice correctly and enough times, you’ll be able to walk in front of your audience knowing deep down that you know your topic well enough to talk for the full time allotted.  However, practice doesn’t mean reading your speech over and over again.  It means standing up and talking.  Use your note cards to keep you on track.

Step Eight:  Smile.  Really, if it looks like you’re having fun then your audience will have fun too.  If you look like you’re going to pass out at any minute, your audience is going to be more focused on how much you’re perspiring than what you’re actually saying.

Step Nine:  Take a deep breath before you step on stage and then relax and go with the flow.  Take comfort that once you’re done, you’re done and plan to celebrate when you’ve completed.

Step Ten:  Once your speech is complete and the raucous applause has quieted thank your audience for their attention and take your leave.

Congratulations!  Giving a good speech is more about being comfortable with your topic and that requires a bit of relaxation and preparation.

Tip #1  Use PowerPoint slides as supporting material, not your entire presentation.  For example, if you’re giving a talk you can highlight important statistics or data on a PowerPoint slide. This makes it easier for you because you don’t have to memorize the data and it makes it easier for your audience to see.  And if you present the data in a nice chart or graph your audience can quickly ascertain the importance of the information.

Tip #2  KISS – Keep it simple, silly.  It’s easy to get carried away with all of the features and effects PowerPoint offers users.  However, the most effective graphics are often the easiest on the eyes.  That means using fonts that are easy to read whether you’re sitting in the front of the room or the back, using colors that stand out well in contrast to the other colors on the slide, and making the image large enough that everyone can see it.  Additionally, each slide will want to contain only one or two bits of key information.  You want your audience’s attention on you, not reading the projector screen.

Tip #3  When giving your PowerPoint presentation, use the slides as part of your speech rather than reading them.  When you get to the point in your presentation, where the slides are relevant, turn your audience’s attention to the graphic and continue talking.

Tip #4  Go outside of the box.  PowerPoint does offer some wonderful graphics and images however, you’re not limited to them.  Feel free to pull relevant images from appropriate sources online or scan them from print materials and include them into your presentation.

Tip #5  Make handouts of your PowerPoint slide available to your audience.  Because many of your key points will be integrated into your slides, you may want to give your audience access to them.  There are differing opinions on whether to hand them out before the presentation or afterwards, the complications being you’ll have to listen to shuffling papers during your presentation and you may not have your audience’s full attention versus your audience missing the information on a slide and falling behind in the presentation.

The essential thing to remember when delivering a PowerPoint presentation is to use PowerPoint slides as an aid to your presentation and not the foundation of the talk.  The idea is to keep the attention on you and to use a slide to demonstrate important data or information without breaking the flow of your presentation, distracting your audience.  When used correctly PowerPoint really amplifies the effectiveness of a speech and gives your audience the information they need.

Tip #1  Keep it simple.  Think about the Nike swish or the golden arches.  Those two visuals represent huge conglomerations and yet they evoke a personal experience, emotion, or thought.  Logos do not have to be complicated to be effective and too much going on will detract from the effect and power of your visual.

Tip #2  Place your logo consistently and continuously. Use your logo in all of your marketing materials from advertisements to emails it’s how people will begin to associate and identify with you.

However not all images are logo images.  If you’re selling products then it pays to display those products in photos.  You aren’t likely to buy a product without seeing it and your prospects aren’t either.  However, simply placing a photo of your products on your website or in your catalog may not inspire a purchase.  Sometimes you need to finesse it a little bit.

Tip #3  When displaying products, make sure they’re prominent in your photo and use good lighting.  That means there are no other items in the picture distracting the eye and no shadows obscuring the image.  If you’re selling clothing, sometimes it helps to have it worn by a model so people can see how the item fits a real person rather than a two dimensional photo.  An attractive model also taps into your customers desire to also be attractive and can actually influence a purchase.

Tip #4  Show people enjoying your products.  Hot tubs are a great example of this strategy.  Instead of showing an empty hot tub, show it with an attractive couple holding hands or show it full of smiling people – depending on your market.

Tip #5  Show people using your products.  Yes, a great set of colorful kitchen bowls may sell quite well with a photo of them sitting on a black marble table however what if someone is using those bowls or serving dip to a friend at a cocktail party or mixing a cake with a cute child?  Your audience and prospects are an important part of your graphics and your decisions and should represent their hopes, dreams and desires.

Images can tell a story, they can highlight the benefits and features of a product without saying a word.  They can brand a company, evoke emotions and inspire purchases.  Take the time to create a strategy with your visuals, logos, catalog images and website graphics, and reap the rewards.