The perfect marketing presentation - Know your audience

You are on your way to creating the perfect marketing presentation.

2. Know your audience

Who are you speaking to and what is the context? Marketers need to be flexible and versatile in their presentation style, because they tend to present to all sorts of audiences (ie. sales team, senior management, multi-disciplinary working team, customers and more). If you are giving a high-level marketing presentation such as a forecast update to the President and senior management, your tone and presentation focus will be quite different than when you are presenting to sales reps at a national sales meeting. Make sure the style and tone of your marketing presentation fits the audience.

What is your audience currently thinking and feeling, and where do you want them to be? If we use the examples above, the senior management team may need to be reassured of your forecast numbers. Your sales reps may be looking to you for motivation and enthusiasm around the brand. It is wise to know what the current sentiment of your audience is, and if you can cater to that in your presentation, you will better be able to engage them with what you are saying.

What is the expertise of the audience? If you are speaking to the Regulatory department, they may be interested in knowing if there is a proposal from Marketing to change or update the product monograph (labeling). If you are speaking to sales managers, they may want to know what the plan-of-action (POA) is for the upcoming cycle.

What is their experience with the company and the brand? If you are presenting to a group that is fairly new to the company or the brand, you should try to keep your message simple and ensure that you do not use company-lingo or abbreviations. Otherwise you will frequently be stopped midway through your presentation with requests for clarifications, or your message will not get across.

How many people will be present? Your marketing presentation will vary if you are presenting to 2 people versus 100 people. So will your technical requirements. When presenting new marketing materials to a small sales force of 10 or less, you might prefer to present in a cozy circular setting so that you can do a show and tell with the new tools and pass the tools around for everybody to see, touch and feel. This would not be possible with a large sales force of 50, 250 or 400. In this case, your show-and-tell would take place on-screen, in your PowerPoint presentation.

Will there be anybody external to the company present (ie. customers, co-promotion partners, or other). If so, know if you are expected to introduce them at the meeting or will somebody else take on this role. You want them to feel welcomed.

You’ll also want to be cognisant to not present any any confidential company information that should remain internal knowledge only. As the head of a marketing team, I oversaw the marketing for many brands, including several co-promotions brands. Sometimes these co-promotion partners were also competitors for other brands in our company, so it was important to not give secrets away. It is also important to ensure that other attendees at the meeting - including sales reps and managers, are made aware of the special attendee and are mindful of this fact in their discussions. Be sure your meeting attendees are clear on what information cannot be shared with the partner. This also includes using discretion in areas such as elevators. You never know who might be in earshot.

It is acceptable, in most situations, to clearly inform the external attendee when they are allowed in the room, and at which point they must exit. Most of the time they will understand and respect your wishes.