The perfect marketing presentation

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

1. Clearly understand your presentation's objectives

Marketing presentations always have a clear objective. Sometimes the challenge is to stick with one objective only per presentation. It is sometimes tempting to clump several objectives into one presentation because it is not always easy to have an opportunity to speak live to the audience. Resist this temptation. You will be giving several messages in one marketing presentation. Your audience will have too much to consider, and you may not have enough time to cover any of your messages adequately if you squeeze too much in.

If you are not clear on the objectives of the presentation, find out right away. You or your manager can perform a mini needs analysis with the audience members. This can be done via e-mail, phone call or informal discussion during lunch break or other.

Knowing your presentation's goal right from the start will help you develop a presentation that meets the audience's needs and expectations. The following are just a few examples of presentation objectives that are commonly addressed by marketers;

If your goal is to MOTIVATE the audience, then you need to get the audience excited and pumped about what you are going to talk about. For example, you may be motivating your sales reps to stretch their sales objectives, or you may be re-energizing a fatigued sales force to continue pushing the existing key messages. There are many other instances where marketers need to motivate their audience members.

Your energy level should be high. You need to convince your audience that you are excited about what you are presenting, or they will not buy into it. To complement your presentation, you might want to prepare a memorable activity such as having a surprise special guest that is recognized and respected by the group, publicly rewarding top reps in front of the group, or even celebrating a past or anticipated future success by having a fun group activity.

If your goal is to PERSUADE the audience, then you need to gain the audience's trust and motivate them to take action. For example, you may be presenting a change in marketing messages based on new clinical studies which are either positive or negative for the brand. Or you could be trying to convince the senior management team to release more funds for your brands to support a tactic that you believe will deliver a substantial return-on-investment (ROI). Note that the latter is particularly challenging if your brand is not achieving its sales target. We could go on and on with examples of presentations meant to persuade the audience.

During these types of presentations, you need to give some background information to explain the situation, then you need to identify the action that you are looking for whicle clearly demonstrating what's in it for the audience if they do take the action. Sometimes, the audience also needs to understand what will happen if they don't take the proposed action.

If your goal is to INFORM the audience, then you need to gain the audience's trust so that they believe and trust what you are telling them. For example, you may need to update the sales force with data from a new clinical study either for your brand or your competitor's, or you may need to update senior management on your brand's market data or financial status.

For informative presentations, you need to be able to back up what you are saying. If you are presenting data from a clinical study, make copies of the study available, highlight the critical sections of the study in a PowerPoint presentation. For market data and financial updates, it is often easier for the audience to grasp your key message by looking at charts or graphs, but make sure to have the raw data at your fingertips because you know that somebody is going to ask detailed questions.