althist.info

All eyes are on you. Yes, it’s true. In business presentations, you are in charge. You are the leader. As the leader in a presentation, you are in charge of the pace, flow, and impact of your story.

In business presenting, a lot of professionals confuse their audiences by multi-tasking. This is a really bad idea. Instead of giving your audience a clear direction, multi-tasking points them in 15-directions at once.

Let’s look at the common (but awful) practice of talking while changing PowerPoint or Keynote slides.

If you talk, change slides and keep on talking, what should the audience do? Should they listen to your words? Should they focus on the slide? What is the right place to look? They aren’t sure.

The audience doesn’t know what is the top priority. Simply put, if your audience is confused, they will check out. Instead of staying connected to your message, their attention will drift.

Next thing you know, people will be checking email, daydreaming or having side conversations. This is NOT how to command attention.

What can you do differently? Slow down. Do one thing at a time.

Here’s the simple tip: Announce where you are going. Pause. Then change the slide. Next, describe where you are.

This is just the same kind of step-by-step approach that you need to take when giving a tour, or managing the attention of a young child. Only now, you’re acting as a patient tour guide for your audience.

Here’s the break down in precise detail.

Tip 1: Tell Where You Are Going

Announce where you are going in advance. This tip applies to your entire presentation, each slide, and the next action.

For the whole presentation: always give an overview. This helps participants get oriented for the entire journey. Even if everyone is familiar with the topic and you’ve met before, give an overview.

For each slide: prepare participants for what’s in the next slide – before you go there. This is important. The mind can wander. It’s your job to tell people where you are and what’s coming next – before you go.

For each action: tell people what you want them to do. Announce this in advance.

Then…

Tip 2: Change The Picture

After you have alerted participants, it’s time to do what you promised. Change the slide.

If you are not using slides, you can still do this step. Change to a flipchart. Change to a video. Or change to a whiteboard. You also might be changing to an exercise or activity.

Whatever you promised to do, do what you have announced.

Tip 3: Show Where You Are

Now that you are in a new slide, or a new whiteboard discussion — show people around. Familiarize them with the new part of the presentation.

I like to think of this as playing the tour guide. It doesn’t take a lot of time, but it shows how much you care about your audience. It shows you care deeply about their experience.

Are you commanding attention in client and prospect presentations? Get the skills you need to focus attention with visual storytelling. 

New product advertising looks a little different from what it did 10 years ago. In the past, when a company began new product advertising, they would spend ridiculous amounts of money on marketing through newspaper advertisements and radio spots. Companies would submit a press release and product description to a newspaper or magazine and hope the publication wrote a review. Since then, the practice has changed drastically.

In some ways it has become a little easier. In other ways it is far more complicated. These days, much of the advertising for a product or service is done online. Advertisers are finding that better results are coming from Internet and mobile marketing than through traditional means.

However, with this change, companies that are developing products and services can spend a lot less money on advertising if they have a strong in-house team. The face of new product advertising is changing. While web page and clickable in-app adverts are extremely successful, there are several free alternatives.

Offering Products for Review

Companies can offer a complimentary sample of their product in exchange for a review. For example, a company marketing an organic face cream might submit their press release and product description to a beauty blog or a blog that focuses on green living. There may be a fee for a post, but some bloggers will post a product review in exchange for free samples or promotion of their website.

Using Free Webimercial Services

Another free way to advertise is through producing a webimercial and posting it to sites like YouTube and Vimeo. This allows advertisers and product supporters to share the video with their friends and family without paying for a 30-second television spot. In fact, unlike a television spot, it can’t be missed. Advertisers don’t have to choose the best times to air their commercial, and they don’t have to worry about paying top dollar during primetime or special events. This is a crucial new product advertising method.

Using Social Media

New product advertising has also changed in that companies can choose to purchase pay-per-click adverts or sponsored posts on Facebook or Twitter. While this is a little more complex than free blog posts, it can also be much more successful. Advertising Directors and Marketing Managers can target certain demographics such as age group, location and even taste in music.

There’s no doubt that new product advertising strategy should be based on the product and its target market. If your company’s demographic is more likely to pick up a newspaper than a laptop, traditional methods still apply. When developing a strategy for marketing a new product, advertising executives must use the most cost effective way to advertise the product while also yielding the most lucrative results.

The best practices of new product adverting haven’t changed much. It’s still important to develop a press release, and still important for a marketing department to know what’s best for their product. Much of marketing has, however, gone online. Whether marketing a new product online or through traditional methods, having a strong strategy in place is crucial.