Studies have revealed that most audiences are involved in various activities while being on a conference call. They may be engaged in other work, having food, or even adding things to cart online (source).
The question is: if audiences can engage in other things while being on conference calls, how many of them would stay when it comes to attending a remote presentation?
Unlike an in-person presentation, you can’t have the same loudness and mobility in remote presentation. In remote presentations, engagement is more important than anything else.
So, how can you keep your audience engaged during a remote presentation? Let’s find out!
Keep Audiences Engaged During Remote Presentations With These Tips
Here are a few tips that you can follow to keep your audience engaged during your remote presentation.
1. Increase Visibility
Did you know that almost 93% of our communication involves the nonverbal cues, our body language, and gestures? Therefore, one of the simplest ways of increasing engagement in your remote presentation is to increase visibility by using a webcam. Don’t make the mistake of not showing your face as you’re presenting, as audiences would tend to lose attention soon.
If you’re one of those shy individuals who rather not have their webcams open during a presentation, you can put up a picture with your credentials on a slide, and show it as you start and end your presentation.
2. A Clear Voice With Effective Pronunciation
When there is no in-person interaction, your voice becomes an arsenal for effective remote presentations. When your voice will be unclear or too low to be heard, your audience will feel disconnected and will slowly drift off. Therefore, it is a must to ensure that your voice is crystal clear during your presentation and that your pronunciation is effective.
You can ensure an effective voice and pronunciation by practicing for the presentation and recording it. As you listen to yourself, you’ll know where you’re making mistakes and what you can improve. You may even practice in front of a friend—on a video call—so that they may let you know where you’re falling short.
Before your presentation, you can do a vocal warm-up to exercise those vocal chords of yours!
3. Engaging Audiences With Great Visuals
According to a research, people tend to remember 80% of what they see, as compared to only 10% of what they hear.
Therefore, you want to create presentation templates that have great visuals to engage your audience. The way you incorporate colors and graphics in your presentation should reflect your topic, your objectives, and your company. You can add interactive animations, or even a lighthearted joke to give people a break from all the intense conversations. A way to increase the visual appeal in your presentation, you can have vibrant PowerPoint backgrounds. Presentation backgrounds ensure that there is uniformity in your presentation slides.
The human brain thinks faster than we speak. Therefore, think about adding a little more text to each slide and talk a little less in order to maintain the focus of the audience. Blur or change your background to make viewers focused only on you and your content.
4. Make Sure All Your Online Tools Are Working Fine
Nothing is more frustrating than losing your internet connection in the middle of your remote presentation!
Not only is it frustrating for the presenter, the loss of connection breaks the tempo of the entire presentation for the audience as well.
Therefore, it is important that you have the right tools and software ready for your remote presentation. Even when you’re all not present in a room together, technology can fill the gap by giving your audience a clear voice and crisp visuals. Moreover, with a fast and smooth internet connection, you’ll be able to share screen and present with your slide decks seamlessly.
5. Set Some Ground Rules At Home During Conference Calls
All of us have had our concerns while Working from Home (WFH) or doing remote work. The constant chatter, the ringing of the doorbell, somebody barging in while you’re on the call with your boss are all things we have experienced and despised.
When you’re giving a remote presentation, it is crucial that you don’t get any external disturbances so that you can give all your attention to your audience.
To be able to achieve this, you’d have to set a few ground rules in the house while you’re on conference calls. Let everyone know the time you’ll be on the call so that they won’t disturb you. Moreover, turn your phone off so that you don’t get distracted with notifications.
6. Involve Your Audience
Now it is time to dig through the meeting’s nitty-gritty. Try and make it an affair of collaboration. Don’t just spend the time talking throughout the presentation, but pause and connect with the audience. If you’re presenting, pause and see if there are any questions or if all your audience is already following. Keep anyone interested by alternating duties, such as recording the action terms and taking minutes, if there are daily sessions.
Enable any group engagement in the conference if there is a silence looming. Remote participants may also be more active by referring questions to every other participant on the line, only if it makes logical sense. It could be as easy as asking for their suggestions and input as the meeting draws to an end.
Wrapping Up
In this article, we discussed the ways to have more engagement in a remote presentation.
This guide gave you the best practices to make your remote presentation engaging and worthwhile. The tips involved increasing visibility, having clear voice and pronunciation, having internet tools at your disposal, using great visuals, setting ground rules at home, and engaging your audience by asking for feedback or questions.