You can’t expect an audience to be invested in your presentation if it is disorienting and hard to follow. It’s essential that your presentation shares your ideas and information in a way that makes sense and tells a story.

With the help of professional PowerPoint presentation design services, you will be able to pace your presentation to make it engaging and impactful so that your audience — whether they be customers, prospects or investors — are immersed and invested.

According to Forbes, audiences tend to tap out of a PowerPoint presentation after about 10 minutes. Work with a PowerPoint design agency to make this an exception — not a rule.

If you are unsure if your presentation flows, it’s important to stop and ask yourself some essential questions:

Does It Use the Rule of 3?

The rule of thumb when it comes to pacing a presentation is to split it into three sections. This division helps you to tell a story by allowing you to separate unrelated ideas and group together like ideas to make them more cohesive.

This is a tactic used by many successful speakers, including Steve Jobs. After all, the Rule of 3 suggests that you can remember three things better than any other number of items.

Does it Tell a Story?

Storyboarding services from an experienced PowerPoint Design company will help you with the pacing of your presentation. This will help you to organize your slide sequence to tell a better, more cohesive story.

In his TED Talk The Magical Science of Storytelling, David JP Phillips explains that storytelling elicits an emotional response — which makes your audience emotionally invested in your presentation.

Are There Breaks?

Speaking without any breaks is exhausting for both you and your audience. Strategically placed pauses help you to pace your speech, and not run out of breath.

Do You Keep Stumbling on Words When Practicing?

Naturally, when preparing for your presentation, it’s a good idea to read your speech and maybe even your slides out loud for cohesion.

That said, if you find yourself fumbling on words when reading out loud, the sentence probably doesn’t flow properly.

If you are struggling to transition from one sentence to the next, chances are you need to make the transition simpler.

A PowerPoint design agency will provide copywriting services to help you ensure that your text is cohesive, concise, and transitions effortlessly.

Have You Answered All Posed Questions?

If you tease a question early on in your presentation and wait too long to answer it, it can confuse your audience. Posing a question and failing to answer it can cause your presentation to feel open-ended and disorienting.

Make sure any questions that come up during your presentation are addressed in a timely manner — you don’t want your audience dwelling and waiting for an answer that never comes.

Are Your Transitions Natural?

Moving from one slide to the next should not feel abrupt, which is why it’s essential to use verbal transitions. Verbal transitions will help you guide your audience by explaining your thought processes and making that verbal connection between two slides.

If you can’t follow your presentation, how can you expect someone else to? When you work with a professional PowerPoint design agency, you’ll be able to rest easy knowing that your ideas will be organized in a way that makes sense and is easy for your audience to digest.