Whether you’re giving a live presentation or a webinar — or creating a video — you’ll often use slides. And the slides that you show to people matter!

You can choose to create boring slides or instead create powerful, persuasive ones. Which will you choose?

The power of images

Over 40 years of research has shown that images trump text. Images

• Help people remember more
• Help people understand batter
• Are more persuasive

You see how professional marketers use images on commercials, on billboards and in magazine ads.

Use the Tell ‘n’ Show^SM technique

The Tell ‘n’ Show^SM technique puts a title on a slide that tells the point you’re trying to make and then an image or other graphic (chart, map, etc) that shows the point. It’s just like the boy’s picture book in the above image — one side tells the story and the other shows it with a B-I-G picture.

Keep your slides simple with as little text as possible. Remember that you’ll be speaking, so most of the text doesn’t need to be on the slide. If you put what you say on the slide, people read the slide and don’t listen to you.

Find powerful, persuasive images

Make your images large and find ones that illustrate your point powerfully. Research has shown that people can’t make a decision without emotion and images of people can portray emotion powerfully. Remember that you cannot legally take any image from the Internet!

To find great, legal images, see my blog post, “Free photos and images for your blog, social media, and slides.”

Resources for creating great slides

I have several resources to help you create slides that will keep your audience entranced:

• Slide Design for Non-Designers
• 1-on-1 Presentation Coaching
• High-Persuasion PowerPoint Presentation Program

So, there’s no excuse for boring, lame slides!

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