Top Priorities With Presentations

  1. Brand appropriately. Make sure your presentations have the appropriate branding in place, including logos, colors, messaging, etc. It’s critical that all of our materials fit together, both through appearance and content.
  2. Be engaging. Audiences come to a conclusion on what level of engagement is necessary within the first 90 seconds of your presentation, so it’s important to be engaging. Keep things concise and understand your audience. Give them what they want and keep them interested.
  3. Complement the presenter with your slides. Presentation slides should not simply display text that is read by the presenter. The two roles should work together. Audiences should be able to listen to the presenter, hear what they’re saying, and get a complementary visual through the slide, making the entire experience coherent. It’s best practice to limit your word count and avoid text-only slide decks.
  4. Focus on your content. It’s important to understand how your presentation fits into the larger offering of presentations on campus. Keep your content focused on your unit/services. Encourage sign-ups for other available presentations, such as an admissions info session or a financial aid info session, to get more information.
  5. Offer multiple viewing options. The most important thing is to make sure presentations are available for all audiences. Offer in-person and virtual presentation options. Virtual presentations can be offered live or through recordings. Regardless of the option, make sure that you take the opportunity to collect student data, such as email address.

OUA’s Presentation Strategy

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions presents information to prospective and admitted students on a regular basis, both in-person and virtually. We present both on and off campus.

Presentations are yet another component to our overall marketing strategy, offering a unique opportunity to share information and engage with our audiences. Our job is to make sure the content is appropriate, concise, and accessible. The presenter is the focus, and the slide content complements the information that the presenter is sharing.

We also create all of our presentations through an online platform so slides are available through the web. This avoids duplicating files and allows us to easily share our content with audiences.

How to Measure Success

First and foremost, success can be measured in the moment by the presenter themselves. A presenter should be in tune enough with the audience to know whether or not they’re engaged.

A more objective way to measure success with presentations is to survey the audience afterward. Make sure you collect useful data, take the time to analyze it, and adapt your presentations in the future.