Whether online or in the conference room, there’s a lot to consider when making a business presentation. Finding your unique presentation style that balances humor, confidence, approachability, and professionalism is no easy feat. Above all, capturing and retaining your audience’s attention is the most important and often the most difficult thing to juggle.
In this blog, we’ll share how to make a business presentation that’s compelling, engaging, persuasive, and memorable. We'll also share some expert advice for what to avoid when using video presentations so you can nail it every time.
Feel free to watch our recap video at the top, or jump right in and start creating your own business presentation with a professional template
TLDR: To create an effective business presentation, go beyond traditional slides and incorporate dynamic elements like video. Focus on a clear structure, keep your message concise, and use visual aids to engage your audience.
- Structure: Plan with an introduction, agenda, main content, key takeaways, and a clear call-to-action.
- Keep it Simple: Use storytelling, simple language, and visual elements to make your points memorable.
- Incorporate Video: Use video presentations to enhance engagement and provide more dynamic content.
What is a business presentation?
A business presentation is a communication tool used to inform, persuade, or instruct an audience on a specific topic. These presentations can take many forms, from a traditional speech to a dynamic video presentation, and are crucial for:
- Building confidence in the presenter.
- Improving audience engagement.
- Clearly communicating a message.
Common types include informative presentations (e.g., sharing quarterly results), persuasive presentations (e.g., pitching a new product), and instructive presentations (e.g., training a team on a new process).
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Types of business presentations
When creating a business presentation, it’s important to keep the desired action in mind. Are you presenting to inform someone about a topic? Maybe you are trying to persuade your boss to reallocate funds to your team, or maybe you are trying to demonstrate how to use a product or new software. These break down into three general types of business presentations:
- 1. Informative
- 2. Persuasive
- 3. Instructive
Informative business presentation
Informative business presentations are used to share valuable information with an audience. These types of presentations are primarily used internally to share newly generated information and insights, but they can also be used to share the results with clients.
Informative presentation examples:
- Quarterly business review
- Business plan presentation
- Team briefing presentation
Persuasive business presentation
Persuasive business presentations are exactly that; the main intent is to persuade your audience to take a particular action. To create a compelling persuasive presentation, not only must you instill confidence in your audience with your presentation skills, but the presentation itself must as well. A clean, polished, and captivating presentation will go a long way in persuading your audience.
Persuasive presentation examples:
- Sales presentation
- Sales outreach
- Pitch deck presentation
- Business proposal presentation
Instructive business presentation
Lastly, instructive business presentations are a type of supporting material. They can be used to teach your audience a new process, or explain your own vision and goals. These types of presentations are a great resource for your audience.
Instructive presentation examples:
- Employee training presentation
- Employee onboarding presentation
- Company policy presentation
Business presentation tips
There are lots of components of a great presentation. Below, we’ve compiled a list of 12 tips to make your best business presentations yet using the content and skills you already have.
- Storyboard your presentation: Plan the flow of your presentation from beginning to end, focusing on the story you want to tell.
- Keep it short and simple: Avoid overwhelming your audience with too much information. Focus on one core message per slide or scene.
- Add humor: A touch of humor can make your presentation more relatable and keep your audience engaged.
- Use visuals and video: Visuals and videos are far more effective than dense text. They help you tell a story and make complex information easier to understand.
- Incorporate an engaging introduction: Hook your audience's attention in the first few seconds with a compelling statistic, a question, or a short story.
- Use a call-to-action: Make it clear what you want your audience to do after the presentation.
- Know your audience: Tailor your message to the specific needs and interests of your audience.
- Record your screen and webcam: If you're creating a video presentation, show your audience what you're talking about by recording your screen.
- Keep your brand consistent: Follow your brand guidelines for colors, fonts, and logos to build credibility and recognition.
- Write a presentation script: Prepare a concise script to ensure you cover all your key points clearly and confidently. With Animoto’s Saved Brands, you just need to save your font, brand colors, and logo once then you can instantly apply them to all future videos.
- Prepare a Q&A session: Follow up with a Google form or email to compile questions then send out a short question and answer video so everyone has a chance to learn more.
- Practice, practice, pratice: Run through your presentation as many times as it takes to stick. Try recording yourself to identify any repetitiveness, ambiguity, or redundancies.
What to include in a business presentation
Your business presentation will vary depending on your audience, time frame, intent, and content. However, no matter what the topic, here are some elements worth including:
- Introduction slide
- Agenda or purpose slide
- Main information or content slides
- Key takeaways slides
- Call-to-action or next steps slide
Luckily, you don’t have to be in-person to share a business presentation. Today, you can create and share video presentations online. They can even include screen and webcam recordings to communicate more clearly and with less room for misinterpretation.
Common mistakes when using presentation videos
Video presentations can be a real win for your business, but beware these common mistakes! Here's some advice from the people who use presentation videos every day.
Mistake #1: Forgetting engagement
"One of the most common mistakes I see is using video as a one-way communication tool, essentially, a monologue wrapped in nice visuals. Businesses often pack in information, follow a strict script, and forget that engagement isn't just about what you say, it's about how it lands. A video presentation that doesn’t anticipate the viewer’s mindset ends up feeling disconnected, even if it’s technically perfect. Here’s a simple tip: before producing your video, imagine your audience asking, “So what?” after every statement. Then answer that question within the content. Address their pain points, ask rhetorical questions, pause to let ideas land. Making your video feel like a dialogue, even if no one else is speaking, goes a long way in building trust and keeping people tuned in."
- Arlyn Pabalate
Marketing Manager, Teleprompter.com
Mistake #2: Overshadowing the presenter
"A slide deck is meant to support the speaker with visual aids, not replace the speaker. People often put all of their points on a slide and the audience is forced to sit, bored, while they present what the audience has already read. And so it is with video. When the video is too long, too comprehensive or basically could have replaced the whole presentation, you've done it wrong. Use a video to present the problem you are about to solve with your presentation. Or use a video as a specific example. Or use a 5-second video to make the audience laugh, or cry, or present a point of view that isn't yours. Be in dialogue with the video to show that you know how to listen and respond to criticism. Don't use a video because it's better than you. If that's the case, you should have just emailed the video instead of bothering to take the stage."
- Stafford Wood
President, Covalent Logic
Mistake #3: Forgetting the CTA
"The single biggest mistake I see businesses make when using video is not utilizing multiple CTAs throughout their video. For example, we at Real Estate Bees work with many realtors who create informational video content on different social media platforms. However, the vast majority of them don't ask viewers to perform a single action during the video. This is a huge mistake that costs them tens of thousands of commissions a month.
My team and I teach our clients a simple, actionable tip that results in much greater engagement, which ultimately leads to higher ROI from video content. The tip is simple - to incorporate in a natural manner multiple engagement-driven CTAs throughout the videos. It starts with asking to like the video, then subscribe/follow, post a comment, share video with a friend, and more.
Of course, each CTA is being seamlessly integrated into each video making it 100% natural and organic. I believe this tip alone can transform any business, regardless of the industry, that create video content into powerful engagement opportunities."
- Oleg Donets
PropTech Entrepreneur, Real Estate Bees
Mistake #4: Using too much "presentation speak"
"People think slick editing will compensate for a lack of substance. It won't. The simple fix? Focus on clarity and connection. Say one thing well instead of ten things badly. If it doesn't feel like something you'd say in a real conversation, it probably shouldn't be in your deck."
- Bradley Keenan
Founder and CEO, DSMN8
Mistake #5: Info-dumping
"The most common pit-fall I find businesses making when they introduce video in presentation is trying to stuff an audience full of information. In many cases, this is done with videos that info dump a lot in a small time span with them overwhelming the viewers and watering down the message. This style makes the listeners tune out instead of listening to the material. The practical advice I would suggest to change it is to keep the videos short and on point about a single memorable point.
Videos should be less than 1-2 minutes so that the message should be easy to consume. Rather than presenting all the product characteristics or numbers, concentrate on the most valuable aspect or fact that most of the audience will evaluate and to make the message stronger, use the right visuals and some proper story telling. This does not only ensure that the viewers maintains interest but will also enable them digest the information better."
- Matt Woodley
Founder & Editor-in-Chief, InternationalMoneyTransfer.com
How to make a presentation video with Animoto
Now that you know how to make your best presentations yet, it’s time to start creating! With Animoto, you can create professional video presentations in minutes. No more finnicking with layouts or animations – Animoto’s easy-to-use templates do the presentation design work for you. The best part? You can get started for free!
- Choose a template: There are hundreds of templates to choose from! Check out our presentation templates to spark inspiration and start creating.
- Upload your photos and video clips: Easily upload then drag and drop your favorite photos and video clips into our templates to make them your own. Then fill in the gaps with our Getty Images stock library!
- Record your screen and webcam: Not only can webcam recordings make your presentations more personal and relatable, but screen recordings allow you to show your audience exactly what they need to see. Just click the Record button in your workspace, record your video, and drag and drop it into your project. This blog has all the tips and directions you’ll need to create a professional recording in minutes.
- Add your text: Time to add your story! In Animoto, you can control the timing of your text and sync it with the flow of your presentation. Sentence by sentence, you can tell your story and avoid overwhelming your audience with a wall of bullet points.
- Personalize your business presentation: Now it's time to add that extra something. Choose your own animations, add a licensed music track, record a talking head video to add personalized flair, and even display your recordings in a device frame! All of these options and more are available to you right in your workspace.
- Download and present your presentation: Once you’ve created your professional presentation, you’re ready to start sharing! Click the Share button to send to your desired social destination or embed in an email. You can also download your video to your laptop or a USB drive to carry with you to the conference room.
Business presentation examples to inspire you
Here are some popular, user-friendly business presentation templates so you can hit the ground running.
For more inspiration, check out our blog “11 Easy Video Presentation Ideas (For Your Business)” for a breakdown of our most popular video presentation templates. Or, you can start browsing our workplace templates to find one that suits your needs.
No matter where you start, Animoto makes it easy to create professional, engaging, modern business presentations, no experience required. Try it out for free!
