12 Important Elements of a Successful Presentation

Updated September 30, 2022

Having the ability to deliver a successful presentation can generate interest in your business, help sell your product or advance your career. An effective presentation doesn't solely entail the transmission of information, as it's typically also a shared experience between you and your audience. If you want to deliver an effective presentation, it may be helpful to learn about personal preparation, including rehearsal and research, useful tools, such as a slideshow or video presentation, and other beneficial elements. In this article, we list 12 elements of a successful presentation along with descriptions of how to implement them.

Tips for implementing effective elements into your presentation

Here are some tips to consider when attempting to deliver effective presentations:

Determine your audience's needs: It's important to determine who your audience is prior to your presentation so you can tailor your information around their interests and desires. This fosters a more engaging and effective atmosphere.
Learn from experience: Consider reflecting upon each of your presentations, noting the most effective elements you used and why they worked. This allows you to streamline your preparation for future presentations.
Be creative: While some presentations are effective in a lecture format, it's also important to consider elements that engage your audience and make your presentation more memorable. Consider encouraging audience participation or using unique graphic design elements, for example.
Attend other presentations: Watching and learning from other presentations allows you to experience each one's unique elements and determine which ones work with particular audiences.

12 elements of a successful presentation

Here are 12 elements of a successful presentation that you may consider when creating your own:

1. Thorough preparation

One important element of a successful presentation is thorough preparation and ensuring that you tailor your presentation toward your audience and its needs. A presentation for a group of financial executives, for example, is likely to differ from one for a community environmental group. Research and preparation can help you create a presentation that appeals to the right audience. Also, if you're pitching a product or service, it's important to study your product and its competitors, which allows you to display expertise on your topic.

2. Rehearsal material

Rehearsing your material is an important step for any presentation and has several benefits:

Allows you to eliminate unnecessary information that may distract your audience
Uncovers issues with your content or equipment before presenting in front of others
Reduces stress
Increases confidence

Consider practicing your presentation in front of a mirror, recording yourself with a video camera or voice recorder or asking friends or family members to listen. This allows you to receive immediate feedback and eliminate unnecessary information. If possible, practice your presentation with the equipment you plan on using in front of your audience to familiarize yourself with the technology you want to use.

3. An effective hook

An engaging start to your presentation helps you quickly build rapport and connect with your audience's emotions. A hook to begin your presentation may include a surprising statistic or fact, interesting quotation, relevant question, joke or story. Whatever hook you choose, it's important to ensure that it clearly connects to your content.

4. Clear objective and agenda

A clear objective and agenda help you effectively outline your presentation and avoid any unnecessary information. Some presenters may choose to share their objective and agenda with their audience, which allows them to easily follow a presentation's narrative arc and understand how each section relates to the main topic. Consider determining your objective and agenda early in your preparation process.

5. Story-like structure

Most effective presentations have a clear beginning, middle and end. It's important to maintain a simple structure in your presentation but vary the technical language of your information according to your audience. Tailoring statistics, stories and product demonstrations to the experience level of your audience allows your information to remain understandable and relevant.

6. Audience engagement

Whenever possible, it's important to involve your audience members in your presentation. Here are a few of the most common audience engagement strategies for a presentation:

Use audience polls: Whether you are presenting online or in person, a poll is a great way to determine audience interest and receive feedback on your topic.
Ask direct questions: Asking direct questions helps build rapport with your audience and naturally builds interest in your subject matter.
Make eye contact: Direct eye contact creates a bond between you and your audience. This also fosters a more conversational format that an audience might appreciate.
Interactive activities: Activities, such as trivia or other team-based games, allow audience members to use your information to solve problems and collaborate. This can create a fun environment that makes your presentation memorable.

7. Effective delivery

An effective presentation delivery can keep your audience engaged. Some effective delivery techniques you can practice include:

Slowing down: Consider speaking more slowly or adding pauses into your presentation if your material is new to an audience. This technique allows an audience to absorb and understand the information you present without getting overwhelmed.
Avoiding monotone: Another effective presentation technique is varying the pitch and volume of your voice to emphasize keywords and main ideas.
Pacing yourself: It's important to maintain a proper pace when presenting to avoid either overwhelming your audience with a fast pace or boring your audience with a slow pace. Practicing in front of other prior to your presentation can help ensure proper pacing.
Using positive language: Positive language and phrasing can help maintain audience engagement and participation. This also helps to create a more enjoyable atmosphere for an audience.
Simplifying your material: A presentation that is straightforward, focused and avoids using complicated sentences or excessive statistics helps keep your audience engaged.
Adding humor: A humorous story, comment or joke can help foster a positive mood and relax your audience.
Using notes, not scripts: Reading from a script may feel impersonal, so simple notes are a great way to maintain pacing and focus throughout your presentation.

8. Multimedia tools

Slideshows or video presentations can be effective formats that maintain audience engagement, but it's important to follow certain tips to optimize your presentation. Here are some tips you can follow to create effective slideshows or videos:

Write short, simple lines of text rather than large paragraphs.
Include large text font that's easy to read for all members of an audience.
Use visual aids, such as pictures, whenever relevant to your topic.
Incorporate animation sparingly, as it may distract from your presentation if used too much.
Allocate a certain amount of time for each slide you present so your audience has time to read each one.

9. Contact information

Consider including your contact information, such as your phone number or email address, at the end of your presentation so audience members can request further information or ask questions after your presentation's conclusion. Prominently displaying your contact information is especially important when you're presenting at a conference or other professional event, as you can develop professional networks from these types of events.

10. Call to action

A clear call to action can help an audience engage with your presentation even after it ends. Effective calls to action often motivate your audience to act upon the information you presented or invite your audience into the next step of the process. Common calls to action include inviting audience members to buy a product, subscribe to a newsletter, learn more about a topic or join a group.

11. Comfortable setting

If you are conducting an in-person event, ensure that your presentation space has comfortable seating for your audience. When your audience is comfortable, they can focus on you and your material. If you're presenting in an unfamiliar place, consider requesting to see the presentation space beforehand and brainstorming ways to optimize its layout.

12. Question-and-answer session

A question-and-answer session with your audience can occur repeatedly throughout your presentation or as a separate session at the end of your presentation. Whichever method you choose, consider following these tips to optimize your question-and-answer session:

Inform your audience about the time in which they can ask questions at the beginning of your presentation.
Repeat questions for the benefit of all audience members.
Involve the audience by asking for their opinions on certain questions.
Spend time prior to your presentation preparing answers to commonly asked questions.
Remain updated on current issues related to your topic.