Presentation Writing 101: Takeaways

Writing a presentation is like composing a short symphony. All elements need to combine in order to make your finished piece engaging, memorable, and valuable. This is why creating an outline is so important. Also important? Coming up with key “takeaways” for your audience to leave remembering. These are short, important pieces of information that are the main points or headers of your presentation.

Trust Us, You Need Them

There has to a be a point to your presentation. What is it? A takeaway removes the fluff and forces you to consider the need-to-know content. You can think of them as chapter headings in a book, or paragraph headers in an outline. Make sure that you know what those takeaways are long before you even begin crafting the content, otherwise your audience will be lost in an unmemorable, pointless presentation.

How Many is Too Many?

Let’s say you are a bread company introducing a new loaf of French bread, and you are making a presentation to all of the board members telling them why this French bread will blow their minds. You might only have one takeaway: this is our new French bread. However, consider that you could leave them with three takeaways:

1. This is our new French bread

2. It is delicious

3. It’s going to make us a ton of money

You will need to back these up with subpoints and information, but it’s as simple as that. Here at Ethos3, we try not to expand past three key takeaways, keeping in mind that people’s memory is short and their patience is shorter. In fact, we have a whole blog post about it. If the human brain can only retain so much information during a speech, what do you need them to walk away knowing?

How Will They Know?

So, you have your key takeaways and you want to find a way to visually make them stand out in your presentation. There are a few design-based ways to achieve this, as well as some verbal queues. Consider using the following slide-based elements:

1. Header Slides – Give your takeaway its very own slide

2. Bold Font – Make sure that the font you use makes the “big ideas” even bigger

3. Numbers – List the takeaways numerically or add a number on their header slide

4. Iconography – Use a symbol for the key takeaway that repeats through the subpoints after you’ve introduced them.

As far as delivering a takeaway, the important thing to remember is repetition. Make your point, say it again, and then repeat what you said back to them during the course of the talk. Don’t let them walk away without being completely clear about the presentation’s goal.

You have all of the information to support your main points, so be sure to make those takeaways clear, loud, and unavoidable during your next presentation.

Question: What are your key takeaways?

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