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If you can tailor your presentation to fit the experience level and interests of your audience, they will retain much more, get more value out of it, and be more apt to take action at the end.
Now you might be asked by your boss, your
0:00
manager, or your team to deliver a talk
about something.
0:03
It all happens to, to us every once in a
while.
0:07
Now maybe it's a progress report of some
kind, or you're outlining a
0:10
project that you are working on or maybe
you want to work on.
0:15
Now, regardless of how you decide to
0:19
deliver this information, you generally
know three things.
0:22
You know how much time you have to prepare
your talk,
0:25
whether it's tomorrow or next week, or a
few months from now.
0:29
You know how long your presentation should
be, whether
0:34
you've got five minutes to give this talk,
20.
0:36
You know, you're gonna be key noting or an
hour.
0:39
And the third thing is you should have a
pretty good
0:44
idea of who your audience will be, and its
this third
0:46
point that is key.
0:51
Understanding who your audience is needs
to be a huge part of your preparation.
0:53
If you can tailor your presentation to fit
the experience level and
0:58
the interest of your audience, they're
going to retain so much more.
1:04
They're gonna get so much value out of it.
1:08
And in the end, they'll be more apt
1:10
to take action, whatever action you
present there.
1:12
Now as I was preparing this presentation,
I wanted to reach out to
1:17
some people that have given lots of talks
on their on their own.
1:19
Whether it's you know, with their
different teams or on stage.
1:25
So I reached out to some friend of mine on
Twitter to get their advice.
1:29
One of the first people I heard back from
is Aleyda Solis.
1:33
Aleyda is Head of Digital Strategy at
WooRank, and the one tip that
1:37
she wanted to share with people giving
presentations is to know your audience,
1:42
and shape your presentation accordingly to
make it useful and actionable to them.
1:48
Also, leverage storytelling.
1:54
Now basically, this echoes that first
point that I made.
1:56
If your presentation isn't relevant to the
audience, it's not going to be effective.
1:59
Now, let's take a, a real
2:05
business scenario where preparation like
this becomes a real factor.
2:07
So, say you're a freelancer and a friend
of yours
2:11
tells you about a local business that
needs a new site.
2:14
I mean their, you, you look at their site
and it's woefully out of date.
2:17
And you know that you can do so much
better, and I think this
2:21
is kind of a classic example for a lot of
devs and developers out there.
2:23
All right, so you decide to approach them.
Right.
2:27
So I'm gonna pick on
2:30
a local business here which I actually
love, no disrespect to the
2:32
Beefy King, but here in Orlando the Beefy
King website is not responsive.
2:36
The images and the usability could be
improved, maybe.
2:41
You know, they can add some nice features
like an online ordering app.
2:46
That might be something that they could
use
2:50
that I know maybe some other restaurants
have.
2:53
Now, the mistake that some freelancers
2:56
make, if they wanna approach a business
like
2:57
this, is to fire off a general boiler
plate.
3:00
Sort of pitch.
3:04
Where they talk about who they are, maybe
a couple of the skills they have.
3:05
And then they, you know, they leave it
with,
3:09
you know, contact for, contact us for a
quote.
3:11
This isn't all that compelling.
3:15
Alright, you're, what you're really doing
is taking this
3:16
sort of lean back approach and you're
relying on
3:20
the potential client to put all the pieces
together.
3:23
To come to the same conclusion that you
did.
3:27
Right?
3:30
That they need a new site, and that you're
well suited to it.
3:31
You know, don't make them do all the work
here, all right.
3:35
If you know your audience and of course
you know, here they are on their website.
3:40
Why settle for a generic pitch when you
can tailor something specifically
3:45
for them.
Okay.
3:49
Research your audience and identify their
needs.
3:51
These are two key points that I wanna
3:54
make about preparation of any presentation
or pitch.
3:56
Research the potential client.
4:01
Check out their website.
4:04
You know, take a look at everything on
there.
4:05
And then take a look at their industry.
4:08
Look at their competitors.
4:10
See what their competitors have on their
websites.
4:11
What features they have, what content.
Stuff like that, right?
4:15
And then speak to some of the needs that
4:18
you identify within the pitch that you
send them.
4:21
So, You know, you may do your research and
you may discover that
4:26
the customer at the Beefy King don't
4:30
necessarily care about an online ordering
app.
4:33
You know, it's an idea you had.
4:36
It was worth pursuing, but you know,
unless it's
4:37
safe for catering and large parties or
4:40
events, these guy don't specifically need
it.
4:42
But what they really want when they hit
the
4:45
site, I'm talking about potential
customers here for them, is
4:48
you know, if they are on a mobile device
4:52
say, is they want quick access to location
information, right?
4:53
So, maybe putting the map in the location
on the
4:57
home page is better than burying it within
the site.
5:01
This could be a conclusion that you
5:05
come to because you understand the
potential client.
5:06
And by understanding the audience, you
know, and
5:11
the, their needs, you can better plan your
approach.
5:14
The same type of approach could be used
during a job search.
5:18
You know, you don't wanna send a generic
cover letter
5:22
to everyone, to every company, about every
opening that's out there.
5:25
You should be customizing
5:29
it based on the job description.
Their company, website, and so on.
5:30
You know, another example, here on
Authentic Jobs.
5:35
They have a job opening from Charity
Water.
5:39
And there's a lot of detail in
5:42
it, especially this section here, the
must-haves.
5:43
Right, you can see point by point what
5:47
kind of skills they're looking for in an
applicant.
5:49
They, they just, they're spelled out for
you right here.
5:53
These are their needs.
And this is fantastic.
5:55
If only you knew.
5:58
If only all potential clients put out
their, what their
5:59
must-haves are, what their needs were,
this would be amazing, right?
6:03
So when you pitch them you know, if you're
going for this job, for
6:06
example, on your qualifications, you don't
ignore
6:10
this stuff, especially when it's labeled
must-haves, right?
6:13
So refer to this or address it in some way
so
6:16
that they realize that you understand
their needs.
6:20
So, are client pitches and job
applications
6:24
over email necessarily presentations in
the classic sense?
6:29
Not really, but the principles are very
much the same.
6:33
Knowing you audience, who they are, what
they're interested
6:37
in, is extremely important in this process
of preparing something.
6:40
Otherwise the presentation is not going to
resonate.
6:46
It won't be as effective.
6:49
And you won't get as many people to do
what you want them to do.
6:50
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