presentation and types

We use essential cookies to make Venngage work. By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.

Manage Cookies

Cookies and similar technologies collect certain information about how you’re using our website. Some of them are essential, and without them you wouldn’t be able to use Venngage. But others are optional, and you get to choose whether we use them or not.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

These cookies are always on, as they’re essential for making Venngage work, and making it safe. Without these cookies, services you’ve asked for can’t be provided.

Show cookie providers

• Google Login

Functionality Cookies

These cookies help us provide enhanced functionality and personalisation, and remember your settings. They may be set by us or by third party providers.

Performance Cookies

These cookies help us analyze how many people are using Venngage, where they come from and how they're using it. If you opt out of these cookies, we can’t get feedback to make Venngage better for you and all our users.

• Google Analytics

Targeting Cookies

These cookies are set by our advertising partners to track your activity and show you relevant Venngage ads on other sites as you browse the internet.

• Google Tag Manager
• Infographics
• Daily Infographics
• Template Lists
• Graphic Design
• Graphs and Charts
• Data Visualization
• Human Resources
• Beginner Guides

Blog Beginner Guides

8 Types of Presentations You Should Know [+Examples & Tips]

By Krystle Wong , Aug 11, 2023

From persuasive pitches that influence opinions to instructional demonstrations that teach skills, the different types of presentations serve a unique purpose, tailored to specific objectives and audiences.

Presentations that are tailored to its objectives and audiences are more engaging and memorable. They capture attention, maintain interest and leave a lasting impression. 

Don’t worry if you’re no designer —  Whether you need data-driven visuals, persuasive graphics or engaging design elements, Venngage can empower you to craft presentations that stand out and effectively convey your message.

Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop interface, extensive presentation template library and customizable design options make it a valuable tool for creating slides that align with your specific goals and target audience. 

Click to jump ahead:

8 Different types of presentations every presenter must know

How do i choose the right type of presentation for my topic or audience, types of presentation faq, 5 steps to create a presentation with venngage .

When it comes to presentations, versatility is the name of the game. Having a variety of presentation styles up your sleeve can make a world of difference in keeping your audience engaged. Here are 8 essential presentation types that every presenter should be well-acquainted with:

1. Informative presentation

Ever sat through a presentation that left you feeling enlightened? That’s the power of an informative presentation. 

This presentation style is all about sharing knowledge and shedding light on a particular topic. Whether you’re diving into the depths of quantum physics or explaining the intricacies of the latest social media trends, informative presentations aim to increase the audience’s understanding.

When delivering an informative presentation, simplify complex topics with clear visuals and relatable examples. Organize your content logically, starting with the basics and gradually delving deeper and always remember to keep jargon to a minimum and encourage questions for clarity.

Academic presentations and research presentations are great examples of informative presentations. An effective academic presentation involves having clear structure, credible evidence, engaging delivery and supporting visuals. Provide context to emphasize the topic’s significance, practice to perfect timing, and be ready to address anticipated questions. 

2. Persuasive presentation

If you’ve ever been swayed by a passionate speaker armed with compelling arguments, you’ve experienced a persuasive presentation . 

This type of presentation is like a verbal tug-of-war, aiming to convince the audience to see things from a specific perspective. Expect to encounter solid evidence, logical reasoning and a dash of emotional appeal.

With persuasive presentations, it’s important to know your audience inside out and tailor your message to their interests and concerns. Craft a compelling narrative with a strong opening, a solid argument and a memorable closing. Additionally, use visuals strategically to enhance your points.

Examples of persuasive presentations include presentations for environmental conservations, policy change, social issues and more. Here are some engaging presentation templates you can use to get started with: 

3. Demonstration or how-to presentation

A Demonstration or How-To Presentation is a type of presentation where the speaker showcases a process, technique, or procedure step by step, providing the audience with clear instructions on how to replicate the demonstrated action. 

A demonstrative presentation is particularly useful when teaching practical skills or showing how something is done in a hands-on manner.

These presentations are commonly used in various settings, including educational workshops, training sessions, cooking classes, DIY tutorials, technology demonstrations and more. Designing creative slides for your how-to presentations can heighten engagement and foster better information retention. 

Speakers can also consider breaking down the process into manageable steps, using visual aids, props and sometimes even live demonstrations to illustrate each step. The key is to provide clear and concise instructions, engage the audience with interactive elements and address any questions that may arise during the presentation.

4. Training or instructional presentation

Training presentations are geared towards imparting practical skills, procedures or concepts — think of this as the more focused cousin of the demonstration presentation. 

Whether you’re teaching a group of new employees the ins and outs of a software or enlightening budding chefs on the art of soufflé-making, training presentations are all about turning novices into experts.

To maximize the impact of your training or instructional presentation, break down complex concepts into digestible segments. Consider using real-life examples to illustrate each point and create a connection. 

You can also create an interactive presentation by incorporating elements like quizzes or group activities to reinforce understanding.

5. Sales presentation

Sales presentations are one of the many types of business presentations and the bread and butter of businesses looking to woo potential clients or customers. With a sprinkle of charm and a dash of persuasion, these presentations showcase products, services or ideas with one end goal in mind: sealing the deal.

A successful sales presentation often has key characteristics such as a clear value proposition, strong storytelling, confidence and a compelling call to action. Hence, when presenting to your clients or stakeholders, focus on benefits rather than just features. 

Anticipate and address potential objections before they arise and use storytelling to showcase how your offering solves a specific problem for your audience. Utilizing visual aids is also a great way to make your points stand out and stay memorable.

A sales presentation can be used to promote service offerings, product launches or even consultancy proposals that outline the expertise and industry experience of a business. Here are some template examples you can use for your next sales presentation:

6. Pitch presentation

Pitch presentations are your ticket to garnering the interest and support of potential investors, partners or stakeholders. Think of your pitch deck as your chance to paint a vivid picture of your business idea or proposal and secure the resources you need to bring it to life. 

Business presentations aside, individuals can also create a portfolio presentation to showcase their skills, experience and achievements to potential clients, employers or investors. 

Craft a concise and compelling narrative. Clearly define the problem your idea solves and how it stands out in the market. Anticipate questions and practice your answers. Project confidence and passion for your idea.

7. Motivational or inspirational presentation

Feeling the need for a morale boost? That’s where motivational presentations step in. These talks are designed to uplift and inspire, often featuring personal anecdotes, heartwarming stories and a generous serving of encouragement.

Form a connection with your audience by sharing personal stories that resonate with your message. Use a storytelling style with relatable anecdotes and powerful metaphors to create an emotional connection. Keep the energy high and wrap up your inspirational presentations with a clear call to action.

Inspirational talks and leadership presentations aside, a motivational or inspirational presentation can also be a simple presentation aimed at boosting confidence, a motivational speech focused on embracing change and more.

8. Status or progress report presentation

Projects and businesses are like living organisms, constantly evolving and changing. Status or progress report presentations keep everyone in the loop by providing updates on achievements, challenges and future plans. It’s like a GPS for your team, ensuring everyone stays on track.

Be transparent about achievements, challenges and future plans. Utilize infographics, charts and diagrams to present your data visually and simplify information. By visually representing data, it becomes easier to identify trends, make predictions and strategize based on evidence.

Now that you’ve learned about the different types of presentation methods and how to use them, you’re on the right track to creating a good presentation that can boost your confidence and enhance your presentation skills . 

Selecting the most suitable presentation style is akin to choosing the right outfit for an occasion – it greatly influences how your message is perceived. Here’s a more detailed guide to help you make that crucial decision:

1. Define your objectives

Begin by clarifying your presentation’s goals. Are you aiming to educate, persuade, motivate, train or perhaps sell a concept? Your objectives will guide you to the most suitable presentation type. 

For instance, if you’re aiming to inform, an informative presentation would be a natural fit. On the other hand, a persuasive presentation suits the goal of swaying opinions.

2. Know your audience

Regardless if you’re giving an in-person or a virtual presentation — delve into the characteristics of your audience. Consider factors like their expertise level, familiarity with the topic, interests and expectations. 

If your audience consists of professionals in your field, a more technical presentation might be suitable. However, if your audience is diverse and includes newcomers, an approachable and engaging style might work better.

3. Analyze your content

Reflect on the content you intend to present. Is it data-heavy, rich in personal stories or focused on practical skills? Different presentation styles serve different content types. 

For data-driven content, an informative or instructional presentation might work best. For emotional stories, a motivational presentation could be a compelling choice.

4. Consider time constraints

Evaluate the time you have at your disposal. If your presentation needs to be concise due to time limitations, opt for a presentation style that allows you to convey your key points effectively within the available timeframe. A pitch presentation, for example, often requires delivering impactful information within a short span.

5. Leverage visuals

Visual aids are powerful tools in presentations. Consider whether your content would benefit from visual representation. If your PowerPoint presentations involve step-by-step instructions or demonstrations, a how-to presentation with clear visuals would be advantageous. Conversely, if your content is more conceptual, a motivational presentation could rely more on spoken words.

6. Align with the setting

Take the presentation environment into account. Are you presenting in a formal business setting, a casual workshop or a conference? Your setting can influence the level of formality and interactivity in your presentation. For instance, a demonstration presentation might be ideal for a hands-on workshop, while a persuasive presentation is great for conferences.

7. Gauge audience interaction

Determine the level of audience engagement you want. Interactive presentations work well for training sessions, workshops and small group settings, while informative or persuasive presentations might be more one-sided.

8. Flexibility

Stay open to adjusting your presentation style on the fly. Sometimes, unexpected factors might require a change of presentation style. Be prepared to adjust on the spot if audience engagement or reactions indicate that a different approach would be more effective.

Remember that there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and the best type of presentation may vary depending on the specific situation and your unique communication goals. By carefully considering these factors, you can choose the most effective presentation type to successfully engage and communicate with your audience.

To save time, use a presentation software or check out these presentation design and presentation background guides to create a presentation that stands out.    

What are some effective ways to begin and end a presentation?

Capture your audience’s attention from the start of your presentation by using a surprising statistic, a compelling story or a thought-provoking question related to your topic. 

To conclude your presentation , summarize your main points, reinforce your key message and leave a lasting impression with a powerful call to action or a memorable quote that resonates with your presentation’s theme.

How can I make my presentation more engaging and interactive?

To create an engaging and interactive presentation for your audience, incorporate visual elements such as images, graphs and videos to illustrate your points visually. Share relatable anecdotes or real-life examples to create a connection with your audience. 

You can also integrate interactive elements like live polls, open-ended questions or small group discussions to encourage participation and keep your audience actively engaged throughout your presentation.

Which types of presentations require special markings

Some presentation types require special markings such as how sales presentations require persuasive techniques like emphasizing benefits, addressing objections and using compelling visuals to showcase products or services. 

Demonstrations and how-to presentations on the other hand require clear markings for each step, ensuring the audience can follow along seamlessly. 

That aside, pitch presentations require highlighting unique selling points, market potential and the competitive edge of your idea, making it stand out to potential investors or partners.

Need some inspiration on how to make a presentation that will captivate an audience? Here are 120+ presentation ideas to help you get started. 

Creating a stunning and impactful presentation with Venngage is a breeze. Whether you’re crafting a business pitch, a training presentation or any other type of presentation, follow these five steps to create a professional presentation that stands out:

• Sign up and log in to Venngage to access the editor.
• Choose a presentation template that matches your topic or style.
• Customize content, colors, fonts, and background to personalize your presentation.
• Add images, icons, and charts to enhancevisual style and clarity.
• Save, export, and share your presentation as PDF or PNG files, or use Venngage’s Presentation Mode for online showcasing.

In the realm of presentations, understanding the different types of presentation formats is like having a versatile set of tools that empower you to craft compelling narratives for every occasion.

Remember, the key to a successful presentation lies not only in the content you deliver but also in the way you connect with your audience. Whether you’re informing, persuading or entertaining, tailoring your approach to the specific type of presentation you’re delivering can make all the difference.

Presentations are a powerful tool, and with practice and dedication (and a little help from Venngage), you’ll find yourself becoming a presentation pro in no time. Now, let’s get started and customize your next presentation!

The 6 types of presentation (and why you need them)

Hrideep barot.

• Presentation , Public Speaking

We all have been exposed to different types of presentations right from school years.

Group presentations, lectures by teachers and professors, seminars, webinars or online presentations, e-learning, e-conferences, etc., are all different types of presentations that we come across in our daily lives.

But each of them work for different settings.

In this article, we will take a look at 6 such types of presentations and when and why you need them.

1. Informative Presentations

This is the most common type of presentation, be it in an educational setting or business or corporate setting.

The aim of an informative presentation is to give detailed information about a product, concept, or idea to a specific kind of audience.

They are often analytical or require a rational analysis of the data presented.

Training sessions or one-day workshops are good examples where this kind of presentation is used.

Here is an example of an informative presentation on public speaking and presentations.

Now, there are different situations where you can use informative presentations.

a) Reporting

Although a report is a written explanation of an event, it can also be verbal.

A perfect place to use informative presentations is news reporting , as it requires the presenter to present information systematically.

b) Briefing

This involves explaining both positive and negative aspects of a particular topic in a few words.

It is providing information quickly and effectively about an issue to influence decisions or to come to solutions.

Hence, the decision-making bodies of an organization can make use of this kind of presentation to save time and effectively come to conclusions.

c) Research

Informative presentations are often used to present research findings to a specific audience , as it involves reporting the findings and briefing it to the audience.

Hence, almost everywhere where research takes place, be it in an educational context or occupational , can make use of this kind of presentation.

Tips for giving informative presentations

• As there would be a lot of technical information and statistics, focus on the main points or agenda first and if you have more time, you can add them at the end
• Keep your presentation simple and clear . Avoid complex sentence structures and graphics
• Tell the outline of your presentation briefly in the introduction for a better flow
• Make sure that your presentation does not stretch for too long. 10-15 minutes is what your audience can concentrate on
• Restate your keyphrase at the end and briefly summarize all the important points of your presentation

Speech topics for an informative presentation

• Cropping techniques
• Organic Farming
• Corporate Farming
• Hydroponics
• Sustainable Agriculture, etc
• Climate change
• Environmental issues
• Eco-friendly ways of management
• Eco-politics
• Eco-feminism, etc
• Gender studies
• Gender and education
• Religious studies
• History of education
• Philosophy of education, etc
• Ethnic cultures
• Indigenous cultures
• Multiculturalism
• Popular culture
• Cultural trends, etc
• Business administration
• Business ethics
• Business models
• Promotion and marketing communications
• Finance, etc

2. Persuasive presentations

Persuasion is the art of motivating or convincing someone to act or make a change in their actions or thoughts.

If you are planning to give a persuasive presentation, and are looking for how to give a persuasive speech, check out our article on A Comprehensive Guide to Writing a Persuasive Speech to gain in-depth knowledge about the art of giving persuasive presentations.

Persuasive presentations are also widely used form after informative presentations.

There are various circumstances where persuasive presentations can be used.

a) Policy-making

Government bodies make use of persuasion almost every time, be it the legislative or decision-making bodies, executive bodies, or even courts.

Even election campaigns involve using persuasive presentations as an instrument of their pre-determined goals of swaying the citizens.

For that matter, any executive or management body of an organization can make use of these kinds of presentations.

b) Value judgment

This kind involves answering the question “why” and supplementing it with possible benefits.

Most Ted talks and YouTube videos try to persuade the audience and fall into the persuasive presentation category.

Even religious heads use this as a means of persuading their believers to follow their belief system.

Deciding on a procedure or telling an audience the correct procedure of doing something is another situation.

An example of a persuasive presentation

Bailey parnell: is social media hurting your mental health.

This TED talk by Bailey Parnell is a good example of a persuasive presentation.

She starts strong by asking rhetorical questions that set the mood for her further points.

We can also see how the speaker is genuinely concerned regarding the issue, engaging the audience till the end.

Tips for giving a persuasive presentation

• Start your presentation with a relevant quote or statistics about your topic to establish credibility
• Tell personal anecdotes and examples wherever necessary to develop an emotional connection with your audience
• Deliver your presentation with passion and genuine interest to motivate your audience to think
• Answer the question “why” for better understanding and clarity in your presentation
• State your viewpoint clearly and clarify doubts if your audience seems to have any

Speech topics for persuasive presentations

• Is animal testing ethical?
• Should cosmetic surgery be banned?
• Can the death penalty be the only solution to the rising crime rates?
• Should the legal age be 18?
• Should immigration laws be revised?
• Why you should never add your parents on Facebook
• Guys are more interested in gossip than girls
• It is your major duty to annoy your parents
• You are not enjoying student life if you are not procrastinating
• Endless memes can be made on my life, etc
• Is taming wild and exotic animals ethical?
• The importance of emotional support animals
• Why are bunnies the perfect pet?
• Why do animals make the best companions?
• Why there is a need for patients to have emotional support animals, etc
• How and why there is a need to do business analysis before opening your business?
• Why small businesses are successful and more profitable?
• Why do sales and customer service departments need to be paid more?
• Why does the HR department need to be polite and understanding?
• Why should you not do business with a family member?
• How charity is a means of converting black money to white?
• Why is detaining people on the suspicion of terrorism justified?
• Should euthanasia be made legal?
• Should violent crime offenders be sentenced to death?
• Should foreigners be allowed to buy a property?

3. Demonstrative presentations

This involves demonstrating a process or the functioning of a product in a step-by-step fashion.

So, a master class on communication skills or making a product model is an example of a demonstrative presentation.

Usually, the audience is an active part of such presentations and these can work in any context where you want the audience to learn a new skill.

a) Instructions

This involves giving guidelines or steps of a process or work .

Teaching how to make a car model step-by-step is a good example where you can use this kind of informative presentation to guide your audience.

Another instance can be at the workplace , to train the employees or introduce them to a new product at work.

This type also works with demonstrating recipes and cooking workshops.

An example of demonstrative presentation

The easy guide on making just about any smoothie.

In this recipe demonstration, he tells his audience how many ingredients are involved and briefs them about the outline of his presentation at the start of his speech.

He also shows all steps in real-time so that the audience have a better understanding of the process and keeps them engaged.

Tips to give a demonstrative presentation

• Introduce your product and its function to your audience before telling them how to go about with the steps
• Explain the steps with diagrams or show them in real-time along with the audience
• Give equal time to every person in the audience for clearing doubts, if any
• Keep your introduction short. Not more than 5 minutes
• Discuss options or variations that the audience can try at the end of the presentation

Speech topics for demonstrative presentations

• How to administer CPR
• How to wrap a gift professionally
• How to budget your monthly income
• How to choose a car insurance
• How to restore a piece of antique furniture

4. Inspirational presentations

As the name suggests, this type of presentation involves inspiring others!

The main aim of an inspirational presentation is to motivate or move your audience and is also known as a motivational presentation.

Using techniques like storytelling, narrating personal anecdotes , or even humor work wonders as your audience develops an emotional connection to the message.

This TED talk by Luvvie Ajayi Jones is humorous but a lot more inspirational. Check it out!

Tips for giving an inspirational presentation

• Start with a question that will leave the audience thinking. Pause for some time and then begin with your presentation
• Develop a sense of connection by narrating personal incidents and experiences to grow empathy
• Have some main points that you want to emphasize on
• Make use of humor ! It instantly builds a connection with the listener
• Non-verbal elements like paralanguage, body language, speech modulations, tone, etc., makes a huge difference

Speech topics for an inspirational presentation

• Importance of diversity and inclusion
• Building mental resilience
• Need for change management
• Valuing small victories in life
• How procrastinating is your enemy

5. Business presentations

In the corporate world, presentations are the go-to solution to do anything: planning or strategizing, articulating company goals, screening candidates, status reports , and many more.

Let us take a dive into the different types of business presentations.

a) Sales presentation

Also known as sales pitches , sales presentations involve providing information about a product or a service to sell it.

It has a pre-defined strategy of initiating and closing the sales deal.

This can be done in person or nowadays, on the phone, or via e-communication .

b) Training sessions

Often employees have on-the-job training sessions that are aimed to increase the knowledge and skills of the employees.

This kind can also involve the audience to participate , like in demonstrative presentations.

c) Meetings

Meetings can be called for for different reasons and can be of different forms as well.

Conferences ( both video and in-person), board meetings, informal team meetings, daily reporting, etc., are all various contexts of meeting in a business setting.

d) E- presentations

E- presentations existed before the COVID pandemic as well but were used seldom.

But, with the ongoing pandemic, e-presentations or remote presentations have replaced all other types of presentations and will be with us for a while longer.

However, on the brighter side, it is an eco-friendly alternative to normal face-to-face kind of a set-up, and it also saves transportation and other costs !

e) Seminars

Seminars are widely used in the health sector , usually involving a panel of speakers on a topic. The audience is anywhere between 10 to 100.

It ends with a question and answers session , and the audience gets to take handouts with them.

f) One-on-one or 1:1

Interviews are usually one-on-one and involve presenting your achievements and capabilities to your prospective employer.

Apart from interviews, 1:1 meetings are also used in sales and marketing to crack a business deal.

Tips for giving business presentations

• Include key phrases and other important details on your slides and make them bold
• Avoid casual slangs and informal tone of speech
• If you are giving a sales presentation, explain your product or service in simple and clear words , and list the reasons why it is beneficial for your potential clients
• Make sure to be on time ! Delaying your audience will work against you and leave a bad impression on you and your company
• Know your material or content thoroughly to answer the questions asked by your audience

Speech topics for business presentations

• Implementing an Agile Project
• Introduction to data modeling
• Introduction to UML(Unified Modeling Language)
• Social Media strategies for a successful business
• Business writing for managers

6. Powerpoint presentations

PowerPoint presentations or PPTs are the most effective ones among all types of presentations simply because they are convenient and easy to understand .

They are available in different formats and are suitable to use in practically any type of presentation and context, be it business, educational, or for informal purposes.

There are various types of PowerPoint presentations that you can use depending on the context.

a) PPTs for general audience

• For general audiences, avoid using jargon terms

If you feel that you need to use them, provide the audience some background information about the field or topic being covered

• Avoid using more than 8 words per line, as anything more than that becomes difficult to remember
• Use bullets or a numbered list for better retention
• Try not to read from your PPT
• Give handouts or record your presentation in case anyone wants it

b) PPTs for teaching

• In this case, the PowerPoint is content-based
• Make sure that the words on the slides are visible
• Use bigger font and avoid fancy fonts
• Add relevant pictures and graphics to keep your audience engaged
• You can also add documentaries or relevant videos to aid in understanding

c) Repurpose PPTs

• This involves reinventing an earlier ppt or combining 1 or more than 1 PowerPoints
• Giving new touches to an earlier PPT or changing the format
• You can take any slide of your PPT and upload it on social media for growing your brand or business
• You can even convert your PPT into mp4 , i.e, video format
• You can even add voice and save the mp4 format, and you have a good marketing plan!

d) PechaKucha

• This type of PowerPoint presentation comes from the Japanese word PechaKucha meaning sound of a conversation or chit-chat
• This involves changing slides every 20 seconds
• There can be a maximum of 20 slides , which means your presentation lasts for only 6 minutes and 40 seconds
• The PPT mostly has graphics and fewer words
• This type of presentation is best suited for telling a story or a personal anecdote

e) Multimedia presentations

• This is the best kind of PPT to engage your audience
• It contains texts along with pictures, videos, infographics, music, illustrations, GIFs , and many more
• Add higher resolution images and videos , or even a 360-degree snapshot if you are in the sales and marketing industry
• Adding infographics such as charts and graphs makes the process of understanding easier and saves time
• Music in a PPT helps your audience to be relaxed, at the same time making them alert and engaged

Types of slides in a presentation

PowerPoint presentation slides are broadly classified into 3 categories: Text, Visual, and Mixed slides.

1. Text slides

As the name suggests, this category of slides involve words or texts.

You can format the text as plain sentences or pointers.

You may even arrange them all in a single slide or one line per slide.

The slide seen below is an example where every point is mentioned in a single slide.

2. Visual slides

This type of slide has visual elements such as images or videos , and are better known as conceptual slides since they are a better option than text slide to explain a particular concept.

You can use them at the start of the presentation to better visualize and grasp the meaning of the presentation.

The slide right below is a good example of a visual slide.

3. Mixed slides

Mixed slides combine the texts and visuals to give a comprehensive understanding of any concept or a speech.

Graphs and charts are the best examples of mixed slides.

Mixed slides have an advantage over the other slides; they keep your audience engaged, listening and participating more actively!

Types of Oral presentations

So far we came across 6 types of presentations, and they all share one common feature. They are all one of the types of oral presentations.

Oral presentations involve the use of verbal and non-verbal elements to deliver a speech to a particular or general audience.

All the types we discussed fall into these 4 broad categories:

1. Extemporaneous presentations

This type of presentation involves making short pointers or key phrases to aid while speaking.

You do not memorize, but organize the points and structure the speech way in advance.

Hence, on the day of your presentation, by just looking at the key points , you expand on them and move to the next point.

2. Impromptu presentations

Impromptu presentations are spoken without any preparation . It can be nerve-wracking for many, and hence not many are in favor of it.

There is a valid reason for their fear, as you have to make your speech as you say it!

However, those who are experts in their fields and are called upon to share a few words can easily give this type of presentation.

3. Manuscript presentations

The other extreme of the spectrum is manuscript presentations.

Here you have a script and you speak from it, word by word.

News anchors and show announcers usually engage in this type, since there are a lot of specific details that cannot be said wrong, and also, time constraints.

Usually, a prompter is used, from which the speaker speaks to their audience.

Nowadays, there are teleprompters , that are heavily used in the entertainment and media industry.

It is a digital screen that displays the contents, and the speaker speaks from it.

4. Memorized presentations

This type does not have any notes or cues , but you memorize or rote learn the whole speech.

School and some presentations at the workplace involve using this kind of presentation.

In most cases, we recommend not to memorise your speech in most cases. We’ve made a video on the same and how it could lead to you potentially blanking out on stage. Highly recommend you view this quick vid before choosing memorisation as a presentation path:

But, if you do choose it for whatever reason, since you are free from notes, you are free to focus on other aspects, such as body language and gestures.

Types of presentation styles

There are various presenting styles, but they do not work for all types of presentations.

Let us get familiar with them, and know which style works with which type.

a) The storyteller

This style of presentation involves the speaker narrating stories and engaging the audience emotionally .

This technique works best with persuasive and inspirational types of presentation.

So, how to tell a story in a presentation?

• Understand and know your audience : Knowing your audience will help you with how you will frame your story, at the same time gauging the relevance of your narrative
• Know your message : Be clear with what you want to convey through your story or how you are connecting the story with your actual presentation
• Try narrative a real-life story : Inspiring presenters often take their own stories or the stories of people whom they know as a supplement to their presentation. When the audience listens to your real-life examples, they become genuinely interested in your story
• Add visual aids : Using visual aids such as pictures, videos, multimedia, etc., increases the memory retention and engagement of your audience
• Use the “you” attitude : Tell the story keeping your audience in mind because ultimately they are going to be the receivers and hence, the story should be relevant and should include their point of view as well

Want more storytelling tactics? Mystery, characterisation and the final takeaway are some more key elements of a good story for your next presentation. We’ve gone deeper into this topic in this video if you would like to know more:

b) The Visual style

Most of us are visual learners, making visual information easy to understand and retain.

Visual aids like graphics, images, diagrams, key pointers or phrases , etc., are very useful when giving any type of presentation.

Some tips of presenting with visual style:

• Include only important pointers in your PowerPoint presentation and highlight or bold them
• Try including visuals that complement what you are saying and use them as a supplementary tool to aid in understanding your audience
• If you are giving a business presentation and want to include visuals, instead of plain texts, include graphics and charts to make information simpler to present and understand
• Avoid overly complex visuals as it will confuse the audience more
• Avoid using more than 6 lines per slide

c) Analytic style

If you have data records or statistical information to be presented, an analytic style will be more helpful.

It works best for Informative and Business types of presentations.

Tips to deliver in analytic style:

• Give handouts so that the audience is on track with your presentation and the information will be easier to comprehend
• Focus and speak on selected data as too much data statistics can be overwhelming for the audience
• You can make use of humor and personal anecdotes to keep the presentation interesting and engaging
• If you have too much data and are worried that you will not be able to explain it in the time frame given, avoid writing content of more than 2000 words

Quick tip: In case you have a PDF to present and want to edit the data points, there are multiple software programs that you can use to allow you to easily do this. Check out this list of the Best Free Recording Software Programs to know more.

d) The Connector

The connector style of presentation involves the speaker establishing a connection with the audience by pointing out similarities between them and the listeners.

This style works well with Sales and marketing presentations.

How to give a presentation using connector style?

• Have a Q & A round with the audience at the end of your presentation for clarifying any doubts and avoiding miscommunication
• Use audience polls at the start of your presentation to know your audience and tailor your speech accordingly
• Make use of body language and gestures for delivering your presentation effectively. If you are confused or want to know more about the aspects of how to use body and gestures, check out our article on To walk or stand still: How should you present when on stage?
• Ask questions to your audience at regular intervals for a better audience engagement
• Make use of multimedia sources to keep your audience engaged and entertained

Which type of presentation is best?

Although all the presentation types have their own bonuses and are suitable for certain circumstances, some are universal and can be used with a little bit of modification almost everywhere!

These are persuasive presentations!

You can use them in various settings; from political, business to educational.

Just remember to choose the right topic for the right audience, and a style that you think is the most suitable and you are good to go!

Level up your public speaking in 15 minutes!

Get the exclusive Masterclass video delivered to your inbox to see immediate speaking results.

You have successfully joined our subscriber list.

To conclude

We saw 6 types of presentation and understood it in detail.

We also gained some tips on how to make our presentation more engaging and also came across things to avoid as well.

We then explored the types of slides that you can use, and also the types of presenting orally.

We also gave you some tips and a few topic ideas that you can incorporate in your next speech!

Enroll in our transformative 1:1 Coaching Program

Schedule a call with our expert communication coach to know if this program would be the right fit for you

8 Ways to Rise Above the Noise to Communicate Better

How to Negotiate: The Art of Getting What You Want

10 Hand Gestures That Will Make You More Confident and Efficient

• [email protected]
• +91 98203 57888

Get our latest tips and tricks in your inbox always

Copyright © 2023 Frantically Speaking All rights reserved

Kindly drop your contact details so that we can arrange call back

Select Country Afghanistan Albania Algeria AmericanSamoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Rwanda Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Tajikistan Thailand Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Wallis and Futuna Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe land Islands Antarctica Bolivia, Plurinational State of Brunei Darussalam Cocos (Keeling) Islands Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Cote d'Ivoire Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Guernsey Holy See (Vatican City State) Hong Kong Iran, Islamic Republic of Isle of Man Jersey Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Lao People's Democratic Republic Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Macao Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Mozambique Palestinian Territory, Occupied Pitcairn Réunion Russia Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Sao Tome and Principe Somalia Svalbard and Jan Mayen Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tanzania, United Republic of Timor-Leste Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, U.S.

The 8 Types of Presentation Styles: Which Category Do You Fall Into?

Updated: December 16, 2020

Published: September 24, 2018

Types of Presentations

• Visual Style
• Freeform Style
• Instructor Style
• Coach Style
• Storytelling Style
• Connector Style
• Lessig Style
• Takahashi Style

Everyone on the internet has an opinion on how to give the “perfect” presentation.

One group champions visual aids, another thinks visual aids are a threat to society as we know it. One expert preaches the benefits of speaking loudly, while another believes the softer you speak the more your audience pays attention. And don’t even try to find coordinating opinions on whether you should start your presentation with a story, quote, statistic, or question.

But what if there wasn’t just one “right” way to give a presentation? What if there were several? Below, I’ve outlined eight types of presentation styles. They’re used by famous speakers like Steve Jobs and Al Gore -- and none of them are wrong.

Check out each one and decide which will be most effective for you.

Types of Presentation Styles

1. visual style.

What it is: If you’re a firm believer slides simply exist to complement your talking points, this style is for you. With this speaking style, you might need to work a little harder to get your audience engaged, but the dividends can be huge for strong public speakers, visionaries, and storytellers.

When to use it: This style is helpful when speaking to a large audience with broad interests. It’s also great for when you need to throw together slides quickly.

Visual style presenter: Steve Jobs

2. Freeform Style

What it is: This impromptu style of presenting doesn’t require slides. Instead, the speaker relies on strong stories to illustrate each point. This style works best for those who have a short presentation time and are extremely familiar with their talking points.

When to use it: Elevator pitches, networking events, and impromptu meetings are all scenarios in which to use a freeform style of speaking. You’ll appear less rehearsed and more conversational than if you were to pause in the middle of a happy hour to pull up your presentation on a tablet.

Freeform style presenter: Sir Ken Robinson

3. Instructor Style

What it is: This presentation style allows you to deliver complex messages using figures of speech, metaphors, and lots of content -- just like your teachers and professors of old. Your decks should be built in logical order to aid your presentation, and you should use high-impact visuals to support your ideas and keep the audience engaged.

When to use it: If you’re not a comfortable presenter or are unfamiliar with your subject matter (i.e., your product was recently updated and you’re not familiar with the finer points), try instructor-style presenting.

Instructor style presenter: Al Gore

4. Coach Style

What it is: Energetic and charismatic speakers gravitate towards this style of presenting. It allows them to connect and engage with their audience using role play and listener interaction.

When to use it: Use this presentation style when you’re speaking at a conference or presenting to an audience who needs to be put at ease. For example, this style would work well if you were speaking to a group of executives who need to be sold on the idea of what your company does rather than the details of how you do it.

Coach style presenter: Linda Edgecombe

5. Storytelling Style

What it is: In this style, the speaker relies on anecdotes and examples to connect with their audience. Stories bring your learning points to life, and the TED’s Commandments never let you down: Let your emotions out and tell your story in an honest way.

When to use it: Avoid this style if you’re in the discovery phase of the sales process. You want to keep the conversation about your prospect instead of circling every point or question back to you or a similar client. This style is great for conference speaking, networking events, and sales presentations where you have adequate time to tell your stories without taking minutes away from questions.

Storytelling style presenter: Jill Bolte Taylor

6. Connector Style

What it is: In this style, presenters connect with their audience by showing how they’re similar to their listeners. Connectors usually enjoy freeform Q&A and use gestures when they speak. They also highly encourage audience reaction and feedback to what they’re saying.

When to use it: Use this style of presenting early in the sales process as you’re learning about your prospect’s pain points, challenges, and goals. This type of speaking sets your listener at ease, elicits feedback on how you’re doing in real time, and is more of a dialogue than a one-sided presentation

Connector style presenter: Connie Dieken

7. Lessig Style

What it is: The Lessig Style was created by Lawrence Lessig , a professor of law and leadership at Harvard Law School. This presentation style requires the presenter to pass through each slide within 15 seconds. When text is used in a slide, it’s typically synchronized with the presenter’s spoken words.

When to use it: This method of presentation is great for large crowds -- and it allows the speaker to use a balance of text and image to convey their message. The rapid pace and rhythm of the slide progression keeps audiences focused, engaged, and less likely to snooze.

Lessig style presenter: Lawrence Lessig

8. Takahashi Style

What it is: This method features large, bold text on minimal slides. It was devised by Masayoshi Takahashi , who found himself creating slides without access to a presentation design tool or PowerPoint. The main word is the focal point of the slide, and phrases, used sparingly, are short and concise.

When to use it: If you find yourself in Takahashi’s shoes -- without presentation design software -- this method is for you. This style works well for short presentations that pack a memorable punch.

Takahashi style presenter: Masayoshi Takahashi

Slides from one of Takahashi’s presentations:

Whether you’re speaking on a conference stage or giving a sales presentation , you can find a method that works best for you and your audience. With the right style, you’ll capture attention, engage listeners, and effectively share your message. You can even ask an  AI presentation maker  tool to create presentations for you in your preferred style

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

10 Best Sales Presentations To Inspire Your Sales Deck [+ 5 Tips]

15 Sales Presentation Techniques That Will Help You Close More Deals Today

9 Ways to End Your Sales Presentation With a Bang

7 Apps That Help Salespeople Become Even Better Speakers

7 Secrets of a Winning Capabilities Presentation

Insight Selling: The 8-Slide Framework for a Better Pitch

The Best Work-Appropriate GIFs to Use in Your Next Sales Slide Deck

How to Make a Business Presentation in 7 Easy Steps [Free Business Presentation Templates]

How to Handle Difficult Sales Calls Like a Pro

Technology Give You the Middle Finger in a Demo? 7 Reactions to Avoid

Download ten free PowerPoint templates for a better presentation.

Powerful and easy-to-use sales software that drives productivity, enables customer connection, and supports growing sales orgs

Presentation Types and Styles Explained

Table of Contents

From high school, then all through college, and now in the workplace — presentations have been a pillar of passing down knowledge to various audiences. 

But, what are presentations? 

They are a tool used to inform and educate audiences in a fun and informative way. 

Well, that is the simple way of explaining their purpose and meaning. 

We want to dig in deeper, and that is what this article will bring to you — a deeper understanding of different types and styles of presentation, so you never get overwhelmed or confused when you need to make a presentation. 

We will discuss: 

• Different types and styles of presentations,
• The purpose of using presentations in the workplace, and 
• How to utilize and recognize types and styles of presentations.

We will also show you: 

• Famous presenters for each style, 
• How you can use each presentation style, and
• A quote for each style to work as a useful reminder if you ever get confused.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

What are the purposes of presentations?

Sometimes, when a term is widely used, to the point where we subconsciously know the meaning and its purpose, it’s hard to pinpoint the true definition from memory. 

So, let’s start with the basics — what is the definition of presentations? 

Presentation is a manner of passing down knowledge from the speaker to the audience. A presentation can be a: 

• Demonstration,
• Lecture, or 
• Speech. 

The purpose of a presentation is whatever goal you set up to achieve. Those goals can be:

• To educate, 
• To persuade, and/or 
• To entertain.

According to LinkedIn’s article 4 goals for any speech, pitch or presentation , when you combine the goals we mentioned, your presentation will become powerful, meaningful, and impactful. The goals mentioned above are general and can be applied to any situation. Different types and styles of presentation can lead to different results. With the right type and style, you can: 

• Better your work and image with clients,
• Be more effective when presenting new ideas or solutions, and
• Ensure more progressive career growth.

These are only some of the business goals you can achieve with the right presentation type and presenting style. The more types and styles you try out, the more skillful you become, which helps you achieve your goals more efficiently.

Free team communication software

Try Pumble, a secure, reliable, and easy-to-use communication tool.

FREE FOREVER • UNLIMITED COMMUNICATION

What are the different presentation types?

Presentation types illustrate the way you structure your presentation . 

We’ve mentioned the 4 purposes of presentations — every goal or purpose corresponds to a certain type. Before you can choose a structure, you need to answer the question “ What is the purpose of this presentation? ” 

And methods and techniques, which we’ll talk about later, help you maintain that structure.

Once you know what you want to achieve with your presentation, you can choose its type. 

Here’s what you need to know about each presentation type:

Type #1: Informative presentations 

Informative presentations are analytical and, as the name states, informative. With this type of presentation, your end goal is to inform and educate . 

Your audience only has to listen and soak up all the knowledge that is given by you. 

With this type of presentation, you can report on new findings and new data or deliver a lecture. 

Since the goal is to educate, your presentation must be precise and correct. Make sure that the information you are communicating has real value. When presenting, try to engage your audience with visuals of your data to help them understand.

Type #2: Persuasive presentations

To use persuasive presentations, you must answer the question “ What do I want my audience to do after listening to me ?”

The point of this type of presentation is to persuade your audience, change their minds, or offer a new point of view, so that they take action .

Persuasive presentation comes in handy if you are presenting a new product or a service and you want your audience to feel the urge to buy said product.

When you use this presentation type you must exude confidence, since you are your audience’s only source of information for your product. 

Type #3: Motivational presentations

You’ve probably heard of motivational speakers, and if you haven’t, here’s a quick crash course. Motivational presentations have a purpose to inspire and change people’s minds . 

Most people who use this type of presentation have a story to tell. These people use their own experiences as key points in their presentations to help the audience to relate to them. 

Since the goal is to inspire and change people’s minds, you have to have a powerful topic to discuss. 

Remember to cater to your audience and adjust your presentation to them and their level.

Type #4: Instructive presentations

Instructive presentation is technical, precise, and often longer than other types we mentioned. This type is here to offer instructions to an audience. 

So, if your goal is to explain step by step how to achieve a goal or do a task— an instructive presentation should be your choice. 

When you are delivering this type of presentation you need to make sure that every instruction is clear, understandable, and easy to follow.  

How to determine which presentation type you should use?

To choose the correct type for your presentation, you must determine your goal. Once you have your goals clear, it will be easy to see which type works best with your presentation. 

Here are some helpful questions that will help you to narrow it down to one type: 

• What do I want the audience to take away from my presentation?’
• What am I trying to give the audience? Is it information, a lecture, or a look into a new product/feature?
• What obstacles are keeping me from delivering my presentation effectively?

Determining the correct type for your presentation is a trial-and-error process. You will find that some types are more your speed, while others might give you trouble. But, keep in mind that the end goal should always be to give your audience what they came for. 

No matter which type you prefer, they all exist for a reason. Give them all a chance, and remember that practice makes perfect.

Presentation methods and techniques

When you define the type of your presentation, it’s time to get into methods and techniques for delivering a presentation. 

There are a lot of ways you can deliver your presentation, and here is our take on it. 

Presentation methods

A method is how you approach your problem . 

When it comes to presentation methods, we linked them with public speaking. Methods cover:

• How you choose to deliver your presentation and 
• How you structure your speech. 

Here are the 4 main methods:

Method #1: Impromptu or unscripted 

The impromptu method applies to speeches that are: 

• Not prepared , 
• Emotionally charged, and 
• ‘Given on the spot’. 

This method of speaking is purely done by improvising, so there are no written rules on how it should be done. 

Improvising and making up your speech as you go is not a wrong way to deliver your presentation. Still, instead of basing your entire speech on your ability to ramble on, incorporate this method in segments where you see fit or feel inspired to do so. 

Method #2: Memorizing 

The memorizing method implies that the speaker needs to know their speech word for word. 

It is mostly used in oratory contests for high school and college students. This method is difficult, and you would need to spend a lot of time reading and memorizing your text.

But, this method is the easiest when it comes to performance anxiety. Since the text is perfectly constructed and your only job is to memorize and relay it to the audience, it’s less nerve-racking. 

💡 Pumble Pro-Tip  

If you struggle with anxiety before a presentation, we have an article to help you with that: 

• How not to be nervous for a presentation

The memorizing method, while being challenging at its core, can be freeing once the speaker is on stage. With this method, you can practice your body language to go with the text. And since the text is scripted and perfected, the speaker can move around the stage as they see fit.

Method #3: Extemporaneous

Extemporaneous is a synonym for impromptu and unscripted — so why is a synonym to a method we’ve already covered, now a completely new method? 

Well, that is because when it comes to the extemporaneous method, we think of a speaker that allows help during their performance . 

The extemporaneous method is a combination of the first two methods we mentioned. This method allows the speaker to prepare their speech and use notes and key points as an aid to keep on course. However, they will not learn their presentation by heart, but use their own words and speak in a conversational manner.

Method #4: Scripting 

The scripting method used to require a written speech from which the orator reads to the audience. Nowadays, we can see this method used by news outlets, with a teleprompter. 

So, to make use of this method, you need to write down your speech and read it proficiently to your audience. 

When it comes to in-person presentations and public speaking, this method is not the go-to. 

You shouldn’t spend the whole presentation just reading off of papers. When we present, we need to maintain eye contact and overall connection with the audience — and holding a piece of paper in front of the audience will get in the way of that connection.

Presentation techniques 

Presentation techniques are what you use before and during the presentation to make it compelling, informative, and easier to understand . 

Here are some of the techniques that we find quite useful: 

Technique #1: Practice

As a presenter, you want to make sure that everything goes smoothly — and for that to happen, you need to practice. The key to giving the best presentation is to practice relentlessly. 

Some useful tips to help you make the most of your practice are to: 

• Practice in front of a friend. — Practicing in front of a friend will not only help you with performance anxiety, but a friend might also have some useful tips on how to perform better. 
• Film yourself practicing. — When you film yourself giving your presentation aloud, it will help you to get used to cameras and the spotlight. Also, the camera will capture every mistake you make, and from there you can see what needs to be worked on.
• Practice in the auditorium. — It will do you good if you can practice giving your presentation in a meeting room or the auditorium. If you practice in the place you will be presenting, you will get used to the space, and it will be familiar to you on the day of your presentation.

Technique #2: Use visuals 

There is no need to overwhelm your audience with endless blocks of text. Think about how you can transform the data or information into a simple visual . 

The important thing to remember is that your audience might not be on the same level of knowledge as you. So, use visuals to help them follow your point. 

Technique #3: Incorporate stories 

No matter how informative and to the point your presentation is, including a story that is illustrating your point can be very helpful to your audience. 

Not only is storytelling a great way to engage and entertain your audience, but it is also a great way to show how your information is relevant to real-world events.

If you are curious to see what more you can do to prepare for your presentation, check out our article: 

• How to prepare for a presentation: Your 9-step guide to a successful presentation

Technique #4: Incorporate appropriate style 

Your presentation style is how you choose to deliver your presentation as a speaker. Style builds on the methods we have mentioned earlier, and it comes down to how you choose to speak to your audience. You can be a storyteller or a coach to your audience, and with each style comes a different influence. 

Methods and techniques are a great starting point when you are approaching your presentation structure and topic. 

But, there are different styles of presentation that you also should consider before walking up to that stage. Let’s learn more about them.

What is a presentation style?

A style is your preferred way of doing things, and when it comes to presentations, a style is how you choose to deliver your speech . Everything from your vocabulary to your tone defines your presenting style. 

If you are not sure what your personal presentation style is, you can always pick and choose from the already-established styles. Those include: 

• Storyteller, 
• Instructor, 
• Closer, 
• Connector, 
• Coach, 
• Lessig style, and
• Visual style.

Let’s get into more detail about each one of them.

Style #1: The Storyteller

The storytelling style consists of a (usually personal) story or anecdote. 

This style is used when the presentation doesn’t have any data or numbers that need to be explained. 

You can use this style to emphasize your point and to easily relay your goal to the audience. 

The storytelling style is great for the beginning of the presentation, as it is there to capture the audience’s attention. 

Formality level for the Storyteller style: Low

Since this style uses the speaker’s personal experiences and anecdotes to help the audience relate to the topic easily, the language used is conversational. There is no need for any excessive formality , and the speaker can address the audience in a friendly and familiar tone.

The Storyteller style characteristics

What characteristics should you be aware of when you want to utilize this style? 

The vocabulary that storytellers use is simple and conversational. Think about how you tell a story to your friends, colleagues, or family. Once you have that in mind, becoming a storyteller on stage won’t be a problem. 

Since the formality level is low, there is no need to overcomplicate things or to use synonyms for words that already have simpler and more known versions. 

Your story should have an introduction, where you will introduce the problem. Then, you can move into the main plot point that explains your topic. And finally, you should have a conclusion where you can circle back to the beginning and where you will untangle the web you cast and leave your audience with a final thought.

The pros of the Storyteller style 

Now let’s look at some of the pros of this style: 

• It’s easy to follow. 
• It illustrates your problem and solution in a creative way.
• It’s relatable and, therefore, more influential to the audience.

The cons of the Storyteller style 

Here are the cons of being the storyteller type: 

• A story that’s too long or not interesting enough can leave your audience bored. 
• Getting too caught up in the story can make your presentation longer than it should be.

Who is the Storyteller style best suitable for?

This style is great if you want to truly connect with your audience and have them feel as if you speak to them, rather than at them. Many people don’t like to be lectured, and if you are trying to make a point or a message stick out, try out the storytelling style.

Famous presenter with the Storyteller style

The storytelling style is preferred among TED talk speakers. 

But, when we think of storytelling, one particular speaker comes to mind — Nick Vujicic. He overcame great obstacles and has learned how to take what’s best from life. So now, when he tries to spread his message of endurance, he puts his trust into the storytelling style and lets his emotions and experiences speak to his audience. 

Quote by Nik Vujicic that embodies the Storyteller style

“ What really matters are the lives you touch along the way and how you finish your journey .” ― Nick Vujicic

Secure, real-time communication for professionals.

Style #2: The Instructor

The instructing style of presenting shares some traits of the storytelling style. It still uses the power of metaphors to get the message across to the audience. 

But, the difference is that the instructing style has more of a commanding voice . The instructor can carefully align the story and the data in a logical and compelling manner, leaving the audience convinced and educated.

Formality level for the Instructor style: Medium

A lot of politicians use the Instructor style when they are trying to influence a larger crowd. Since this style has a higher formality level than the storytelling one, it allows the speaker to use more serious vocabulary and address the audience as superior. 

The Instructor style characteristics:

The Instructor’s style is characterized by logic and command. As we mentioned, the speaker who is fond of the Instructor’s style needs to be able to handle the facts and connect with the audience. 

So, the main characteristics of this style would be: 

• More formal use of language, 
• Commanding voice, and  
• Persuasive nature.

The pros of the Instructor style 

Let’s take a look at some of the pros of this style: 

• It helps get a complicated message across. 
• It’s persuasive. 
• It’s fairly easy to use. 

The cons of the Instructor style 

Here are some of the cons to be aware of: 

• The speaker could be deemed distant or cold. 
• The audience can lose interest if the presentation is too focused on pure data. 

Who is the Instructor style best suitable for?

This style is great if the speaker has a complicated topic to discuss with a less knowledgeable audience. This style is used mainly for lectures and political speeches. 

Famous presenter with the Instructor style

A famous presenter with the Instructor style is none other than the former Vice President of the United States, Al Gore. He uses metaphors, data, his own personal experience, and even visuals to bring complex issues closer to a wide audience.

Quote by Al Gore that embodies the Instructor style

“ When you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. When you have neither, holler. ” — Al Gore

Style #3: The Closer style

The Closer style of presenting is a style that demands action from the audience . Presenters who opt for this style want their audience to not only learn something new but to get up from their seats with a newfound urge to make a change. 

This style is a personification of a call to action. The presentations made in this style are short, since the speaker has a goal in mind. They then use this style to convincingly reach said goal.

Formality level for the Closer style: Medium

This style is a great tool to connect with the audience. So, to make a connection between the speaker and the audience, the formality level drops. But instead of treating the audience as friends, the speaker simply talks to them. 

The Closer style characteristics

The Closer style is persuasive and somewhat commanding. People who are fond of the Closer style cut right to the chase and make their audience get to a decision. With this presentation style, there are no boring statistics or data. The key points are clear and delivered with a short and clear explanation.

The pros of the Closer style 

Here are some of the pros of the Closer style: 

• The presentation is short.
• The Closer is confident and knows how to deliver a point.
• The audience rarely gets bored with this style.

The cons of the Closer style 

Take a look at some of the cons of this style: 

• Some audiences aren’t ready to make a quick decision.
• Some audiences might feel that this style is too harsh or rash.

Who is the Closer style best suitable for? 

The Closer style is best to use when you need your audience to make a decision or to give them the urge to make things happen. 

This style is mainly used by CEOs and salesmen.

Famous presenter with the Closer style

Many presenters use this style, but the one that stands out the most is the philosopher Ruth Chang. She has delivered great presentations on how to make hard decisions. She keeps her presentations short, sweet, and straight to the point. 

Quote by Ruth Chang that embodies the Closer style

“A world full of only easy choices would enslave us to reasons.” — Ruth Chang

Style #4: The Connector style

The Connector style speaker is most comfortable engaging with the audience . Some could say that the storytelling style is very similar to the Connector in that sense. Both styles base their presentations on the connection with the audience. The difference here is that the Connector is both a presenter and a member of the audience — and they are comfortable in both roles. 

This style of presentation (as the name suggests) allows the speaker to connect to the audience, and therefore deliver the materials easier. One way that this style connects the speaker and the audience is through Q&A.

Formality level for the Connector: Low 

Since this style’s main purpose is to connect the speaker to the audience, the formality level is low. The speaker appears as one of the audience, even though they are on stage. To keep the audience engaged and get them to ask questions, the Connector treats the audience as friends and acquaintances. 

The Connector style characteristics

The user of this style needs to appear as if they are one of the members of the audience, but they just happen to be on the stage instead in a seat. One of the main characteristics that stand out for this style is the eagerness of the speaker to engage with the audience. When a speaker is a Connector, they will constantly ask questions and listen to the audience’s opinions.

The pros of the Connector style

Let’s take a look at the pros of this style: 

• The audience is engaged and encouraged to participate.
• The presentation flows at a relaxed pace.
• The audience feels connected to the subject.

The cons of the Connector style

• Audience might not be comfortable with asking questions.
• The presentation might be longer than planned. 
• Too many opinions will derail the presentation.

Who is the Connector style best suitable for?

The great thing about the Connector style is that it can be used in any presentation and any setting. Since the main goal of this style is to connect the speaker and the topic with the audience, there are no rules or limits as to where it can and where cannot be used.

Famous presenter with the Connector style

Padraig Hyland is a TED Talk speaker and a specialist in audience engagement, so it is only natural that he uses the Connector style. He has delivered countless speeches on how to be a great presenter and how to connect with any audience.

Quote by Padraig Hyland that embodies the Connector style

“ To successfully navigate the current disruption, organizations need to nourish their authentic leadership voice and create a new story that engages their people on the journey .” — Padraig Hyland

Style #5: The Coach style

What is a coach? In every sense of the word, a coach is a person who guides you, teaches you, and helps you achieve your goals. 

It is the same with the coaching style. The person who uses this style guides their audience with their own enthusiasm for the subject. The Coach style is mainly used in motivational speeches, as it allows the coaches to interact with the audience and share knowledge on a topic they feel passionate about.

Formality level for the Coach style: Medium

The Coach style serves as a guide . It gives the speaker freedom to use their knowledge and personal experience to drive the audience to feel the same passion about the subject as the speaker does. To achieve that level of familiarity with the audience, the formality level drops, and the speaker talks to the audience as a teacher and, well, as a coach would.

The Coach style characteristics

The Coach style allows the speaker to guide their audience from point A to point Z, through knowledge and passion, which makes the presentation interactive and informative. 

This style of presentation can be seen in motivational speeches, lectures, and speeches delivered by sports coaches. The main characteristic that follows this style is that it is delivered by enthusiastic speakers.

The pros of the Coach style 

Here are some of the pros of this style to look into: 

• It allows the speaker to connect to the audience through enthusiasm. 
• Presentations in this style are interactive and engaging. 
• It gives the audience step-by-step instructions on the topic.

The cons of the Coach style 

Let’s examine some of the cons: 

• The speaker’s passion can be overwhelming to the audience.
• The speaker can forget to ask for feedback . 

Who is the Coach style best suitable for?

The Coach style, since it serves as a guide, is commonly used by motivational speakers and in self-help presentations. 

They tend to choose this presentation style because it allows them to connect with the audience while still delivering a detailed step-by-step on the topic they are discussing.

Famous presenter with this style

There are a lot of motivational speakers today that are a fan of the Coach style, but the one that caught our attention is Mel Robbins. She is a lawyer and a motivational speaker that helps her audience to form healthy habits and attain discipline to achieve their goals.

Quote by Mel Robbins that embodies the Coach style

“ You have been assigned this mountain so you can show others that it can be moved .” — Mel Robbins

Style #6: The Lessig style

If you are in a time crunch, but you have a lot of material to cover, then the Lessig style is the perfect style for you. 

The Lessig style was invented by Lawrence Lessig, and it states that a speaker should spend only 15 seconds on each slide or point during a presentation . This style usually agrees very well with the visual style. 

Since not all presentations have slides, this style cannot be used with any type of presentation. However, if you have too many slides and too many points to make, then the Lessig style can help you use your time slot well.

Formality level for the Lessig style: Depends

The Lessig style is not a style of speaking per se, but a style for presentation time management . So, the formality of the language you use will be up to you and your topic. You can decrease or increase the formality level and the Lessig style would still be the same.

The Lessig style characteristics

The main characteristic of this style is that it includes slides or at least some visual aid. 

This style is also the one that is not concerned with your verbal cues and style of speaking. If you choose to try out this style you can combine it with any of the styles we previously mentioned.

The pros of the Lessig style 

Here are the pros of this style: 

• It’s easy to use. 
• It helps you keep track. 
• It saves time.

The cons of the Lessig style

Here are some of the cons of this style: 

• It is not applicable to presentations without slides. 
• Sometimes the suggested 15-second rule isn’t enough. 
• The presentation may feel rushed or unfinished.

Who is the Lessig style best suitable for?

The Lessig style bases its rules on slides and visual aids, so it’s best suitable for presentations that consist of slides. The topics for this style are endless, and it is up to the speaker to see where this style works best in their presentation.

The most logical choice is, of course, the founder of this style — Lawrence Lessig, a lawyer and a political activist. 

Quote by Lawrence Lessig that embodies the Lessig style

“ Technology means you can now do amazing things easily .” — Lawrence Lessig

Style #7: The Visual style

Presentations can be all about the slides, data, or videos, and there are also powerful presentations that are delivered with only the speaker on the stage. But, technology is not something to shy away from . There are great advantages to using technology and feeding your audience with visuals that will support your claims. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. 

Formality level for the Visual style: Depends

The formality of this style doesn’t depend on the visuals used, but on the speaker and the topic. The great thing about the visual style is that it can be used with almost any topic and type of data. So, when using this style of presentation, you can choose the level of formality you feel comfortable with.

The Visual style characteristics

The Visual presentation style’s main characteristics are the visuals, as the name suggests. The visuals can be anything from a picture, video, or creatively shown data and statistics. 

This style can be used together with any other style that we mentioned, as long as you add some pictures or other visual elements.

The pros of the Visual style 

Here are the pros of the Visual style: 

• Visuals help the audience understand the presentation better — sometimes, they can illustrate your point better than your own words. 
• Visuals can help you move your presentation forward. 

The cons of the Visual style 

Here are some of the cons of the Visual style: 

• Overusing visuals in your presentation can take focus away from you. 
• Visuals can be redundant. 

Who is the Visual style best suitable for?

If you are creative enough or confident enough to not let the glamor of visuals take over your spotlight, you can incorporate visuals into any workplace presentation. Visuals can be helpful almost everywhere, and they can aid your audience if the topic is too complicated for them to follow.

Famous presenter with the Visual style

One of the best visual presenters is Steve Jobs. He was one of the founders of Apple, and every year he used to give a great visual presentation or a rundown of Apple’s new product releases.

Quote by Steve Jobs that embodies the Visual style

“ For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through .” — Steve Jobs

How to determine which presentation style to use?

If you are wondering which style to use, first you need to ask yourself what kind of audience will be attending your presentation . Once you have an idea of who you will be talking to, you can start to think about your presentation style. 

Also, you need to know what is the purpose of your presentation and what you wish to achieve. 

Beyond that, try out different styles until you find the one you are comfortable with.

Collaborate easily with Pumble — Even when creating presentations

If you’re working on a presentation with your colleagues — no matter what type of a presentation it might be — you’ll probably find yourself in need of an efficient communication tool. 

Luckily, Pumble, a team communication app , makes your collaboration more simple and efficient, while keeping communication lines open at all times. 

Here are all the ways Pumble can help you create various types of presentations:

• Thanks to the voice call feature, you can stay connected to your colleagues while you work together on the presentation. 
• If there is a problem you have to address , you can always give them a quick video call and share your screen with them so you can brainstorm or problem-solve together. 
• If you need a second (or third, fourth, etc.) opinion , you can always ask for it on some of the Pumble channels . 
• If you have to provide further explanations or continue the discussion without cramming the channel space, you can continue your conversation in threads or reach out to particular colleagues via direct messages .   

Finally, one of the best things about Pumble is that you can never lose important information or shared files because it has unlimited history . 

If all these features look appealing to you, don’t waste time! Try Pumble for free today !

Jana Pavlovic is a communication author and researcher. She enjoys educating herself and others on various team collaboration and technology topics. She found that working from home in a hybrid-type company is her perfect combination for work-life balance, and she’s eager to share her new-found knowledge with you.

What's on your to-do?

START COLLABORATING

with Pumble

Related posts

60+ absurdly funny meeting memes to share with your work buddies.

The next time you’re stuck in a meeting that has no end, feel free to peruse our compilation of funny meeting memes. …

10+ Tips for Conducting an Effective Job Interview 

Learn how to conduct an effective job interview and improve a candidate’s experience with expert tips. …

60+ Hilarious Quips to Use As Your Joke of the Day for Work

Looking for the perfect joke of the day for work? Here are 60+ hilarious jokes for work. …

Who Gets a Write-Up at Work and Why? Everything You Need to Know

Our guide to dealing with a write-up at work will help you understand the disciplinary process better….

What Is a Skip-Level Meeting & How Do You Prepare for One?

How should you prepare for your next skip-level meeting? Read this article to find out. …

Leadership vs Management: 11 Fundamental Differences

Are all leaders managers? Find out in our full guide on leadership vs management where we go over the key differences between the two. …

Need better team communication??

Pumble is an all-in-one team collaboration app. Send messages and files, and start video conferencing with one click, and reduce emails. Free forever.

Free team chat app

Improve collaboration and cut down on emails by moving your team communication to Pumble.

Unlimited users • Unlimited chat history • Free forever

10 Types of Presentations (With The Best Tips) You Need to Know in 2024

Leah Nguyen • 05 Apr 2024 • 10 min read

Benjamin Franklin has a famous quote that ‘nothing can be said to be certain except for death and taxes’. Well, there’s another thing we’d like to throw in…

Death by PowerPoint…

Presentations seem to follow us along in life. From children in school to suited salary people, we’re expected to use different types of presentations to make presentations that delight our audiences.

Executing a well-rounded presentation is by no means an easy task. There are many things to consider, but before we head to finer details, you must know what type of presentation you should deliver to your audience so that they get the message just right .

In this article, we will explore the most common types of presentations you’ll come across in your life, plus a few helpful tips to create them.

Let’s jump in 💪

Table of Contents

• Business Presentations
• Product Presentation
• Marketing Presentation
• Data Presentation
• 5-minute Presentation
• 10-minute Presentation
• Webinar Platforms
• The 10 20 30 Rule
• The 5/5/5 Rule
• The 7×7 Rule

Business Presentation s – Types of Presentation

In the business world, you’ll undoubtedly need presentations for anything, from product launching and strategy planning , to company trend reports and many more.

Let’s take a glance at the different types of presentations you might encounter in the business world 👇

Check out our guide on ‘How to Nail A Presentation Like Apple’ , or tips to host a business presentation successfully.

More Tips with AhaSlides

Start in seconds.

Get free templates for your next interactive presentation. Sign up for free and take what you want from the template library!

In different presentation styles, a product presentation is a great opportunity to show off your newly built or renovated product features to the world.

Unlike other types of business presentations, the main purpose of this presentation is either to build hype around your product with users or to outline the idea of your product to your own team and shareholders.

Tips for delivering a product presentation

• Demonstrate it live . How does the audience know what you’re talking about when all you’ve given them is some vague speech about the product? For a product presentation to reach its full potential, it’s best to demonstrate the features visually so the audience can truly believe in them.
• Present with passion . When it comes to types of presentations in business, this is not the time to instruct or educate your audience about something. You want to introduce a new thing that no one has heard about, penetrate a new segment/market and either get people to incorporate your product into their lives or convince stakeholders that it’s worth a punt. The best way to do that? Make as much noise as possible. 
• Offer a bonus at the end . Give the audience something to walk away with for a powerful ending; this can be an incentive for ordering the new product early or a bit of fun trivia to excite the crowd.

Hosting a product presentation can be big pressure. Our all-rounded guide with real-life examples can help.

Marketing Presentation – Types of Presentation

No matter how solid your product or service is, you’ll have to come up with a proper plan to make it known and sell it to your intended audience.

This is where marketing presentations come into play. They introduce how, when and where you plan to sell your product to the board of directors or other shareholders. They will decide if those strategies are good to go.

Tips for delivering a marketing presentation

• Match your theme with the audience . There’s nothing wrong with being business-boring, but if your company is selling toys for children, your audience won’t understand the fun, bubbly spirit you’re trying to convey. Try to centre the slide designs and the attitude around the target audience.
• Show real-life data . No matter what styles of presentation you choose, back up your bold statements with facts. Don’t rely on a hunch or people will doubt what you’re claiming.

You’re just one step away from creating an awesome marketing presentation. Nail the talk by checking our guide .

Methods of Data Presentation – Types of Presentation

In a world where every business relies on data analysis to make a difference, turning hard digits into meaningful and understandable insights is the role of a data presentation .

Make informed decisions, see the gap, and take the risky leap; all are possible if you have the ability to make sense of your data through various visualisation methods like bar charts, line graphs, histograms, and such.

Tips for delivering a data presentation

• Communicate the numbers clearly . You’ll have to stop assuming that everyone, including your boss, knows what you’re talking about. More often than not, they don’t, and it’s not their job to dig below the surface. Explain to them what the numbers mean and why this is important before presenting any data; the audience will surely appreciate that.
• Avoid presenting too many different things on one slide . We’ve seen people tackling four to five different types of charts on a single slide and it’s not nice. It’s overwhelming to process all of the data across all the different formats, so next time, go through one thing at a time to give the audience a chance to understand and remember it.

We’ve got these 10 methods of data presentation to make your numbers as clear as day. Examples and great tips included!

Timed Presentation – Types of Presentation

Do you know that the most impactful presentations in the world never exceed 20 minutes?

Real-life cases have proven that a lengthy one-hour talk is not as effective or memorable as a shorter one. That’s why more presenters are shifting to timed presentations where they are compelled to deliver concise content within a specific time block.

The most common time presentations that you often meet in business or education settings are 5-minute presentations and 10-minute presentations . They are short, and will push you to make the most out of them.

5-minute Presentation – Types of Presentation

A 5-minute presentation is made for busy people who don’t want to waste half an hour listening to someone ramble. However, this type of presentation is one of the most difficult forms of presentation to master, because being concise but also informative is harder than you think.

Tips for delivering a 5-minute presentation

• Plan the timing . There’s not much room for procrastination when you’ve only got 5 minutes, so divide what you’re going to say into different time blocks. For example, make an introduction no longer than 1 minute, then dedicate the most time to explaining the main points.
• Remember that less is more . As you have such a short timeframe, don’t cram too much information like you’re stuffing a turkey; be selective with the content you choose…Try the 5-5-5 rule if you have trouble turning your back from a maximalist lifestyle. 
• Practice flowing . If you’re stuttering or giving out spaces of prolonged silence, you’re already losing so much precious time. Set the timer, practice speaking at a normal speed and see if there are any parts in which you should speed up, consider cutting or say in another way.

Check out our comprehensive guide on how to hold a 5-minute presentation , including free topics to get you started.

10-minute Presentation – Types of Presentation

When you want to introduce a new topic, perspective, or study to your audience, a 10-minute presentation is enough to bring all the new, exciting information to the table without exhausting them.

Even though they are longer than 5-minute presentations, one can still fumble at fitting the material during the 10 minutes. However, you can get over the fear of going overtime with our tips:

Tips for delivering a 10-minute presentation

• Know your structure . Typically a 10-minute presentation format includes an introduction (1 slide) – a body (3 slides) and a conclusion (1 slide). Your presentation should contain no more than three ideas as that’s the optimal number for the audience to remember. 
• Start with a bang . In the first few seconds the audience can already decide if your presentation is worth listening to, so use any means necessary to grab their attention. It can be a provocative statement, a “what if” scenario, or a hard-hitting question that you plan to address during the talk.
• Get interactive . A 10-minute presentation exceeds the average attention span of humans, which is 7 minutes . Counter that by adding interactive activities that actively engage the audience in the talk like a fun poll, word cloud , or live Q&A session.

You can’t turn your presentation into gold without a proper topic. Check out our 50 unique topics for a 10-minute presentation .

Webinar Platforms – Types of Presentation

A webinar is an online event hosted by an individual or an organisation. The keynote speaker will give a presentation and interact with the audience entirely online.

With the shift to remote working, training and learning, webinar platforms have become a popular choice for many organisations due to their convenience. You can join virtually anytime, anywhere in just a few clicks. 

No need for costly set-up, all you need is a video conferencing platform plus the type of presentation software that ensures you get all the interaction you need.

Tips for delivering a webinar presentation

• Test out the equipment beforehand . “ Wait, I don’t know why it’s like this”; “Please wait a few minutes since we’re having minor issues” – these are phrases that turn the audience off immediately after they join. Recheck everything and have a backup plan whenever a technical issue arises.
• Define a plan to create engagement . The biggest problem with having a webinar is the audience won’t be able to engage as much as they can in a physical space. Try having an ice-breaker game as the base, with quizzes , word clouds, or open-ended questions as the icing on the cake, and wrap up with a sentiment poll or a Q&A as the cherry on top for a robust and dynamic webinar.

Check out 10 best practices for a webinar presentation that’s sure to keep people coming back for more.

The Golden Rules of Presentation – Types of Presentation

Are we implying that a successful presentation has a holy grail formula to follow? – Yes, we are!

If you are still learning the ropes of storytelling and presentation design, and have always fantasised about delivering an impeccable presentation, then these simple, easy-to-follow rules should keep you nicely on track.

The 10 20 30 rule – Types of Presentation

This may sound like a collection of gibberish numbers, but honestly, they make total sense.

The 10 20 30 rule states that your presentation should…

• Contain a maximum of 10 slides
• Be a maximum length of 20 minutes
• Have a minimum font size of 30 points

With the 10-20-30 rule, you can say goodbye to hour-long presentations that have everyone mentally checked out.

Tips for delivering a 10 20 30 rule presentation

• Follow the guide wholeheartedly . Don’t just sneakily sneak a couple more slides into the 10 presentation slides you have already; the science says that people can’t process more than 10 concepts in a presentation. Go over that and the chances of you losing the crowd drastically increases.
• Mind the idea . No presentation rule in reality is going to save you if your idea is terrible. Focus on researching what piques the audience’s interest, reach out to them beforehand if necessary and let them know how you can address their big questions.

Here’s the full guide: The 10 20 30 Rule: What it is and 3 Reasons to Use it .

The 5/5/5 rule – Types of Presentation

A 5/5/5 rule is one of the types of presentation that:

• Contains no more than 5 words per line of text
• Has 5 lines of text per slide
• Has no more than 5 text-heavy slides in a row

The 5/5/5 rule is incredibly effective for people who are struggling with measuring how much text is enough. You can focus on your main points with ease and end up with more professional-looking presentations (aka make use of negative space and emphasise what really matters).

Tips for delivering a 5/5/5 rule presentation

• Use data and images to tell the story . With just a chart or line graph you can draw out so many key points and takeaways from it. Replace texts with visuals if possible since it’s a more powerful way to communicate. 
• Make use of headings, short phrases, and common abbreviations . For example, instead of writing The website’s overall click-through rate increased by 10% compared to last year , you can rephrase it to The website’s CTR ↑10% YOY (CTR: click-through rate, YOY: year-over-year, which are common abbreviations in business). You can elaborate more on the numbers in the talk, so don’t throw everything on the slide.

Here’s the full guide:​​ The 5/5/5 Rule: How and Why to Use It (With Examples) .

The 7×7 rule – Types of Presentation

The 7×7 rule is a presentation design guideline that suggests no more than 7 lines of text per slide. This can include bullet points or short phrases and no more than 7 words per line.

Why the 7×7 Rule?

• Focus:  It forces you to present the most essential information, making your slides less overwhelming for the audience.
• Clarity:  Concise text improves readability and helps your audience quickly grasp your key points.
• Memory:  People can better process and remember short bursts of information.
• Visual appeal:  Slides with less text create more space, making them cleaner and more visually engaging.

Tips for delivering a 7×7 rule presentation

• Focus on the big picture: Since you’ll be limited with text, prioritise communicating the core concepts of your presentation. Use your spoken words to expand on the key points on your slides.
• Needing more tips? Here’s a more detailed guide for the 7×7 rule presentation .

The Takeaway

Presentations come in all shapes and sizes, and the key to creating an outstanding experience for your audience is matching them with the right type of presentation. Once you’ve got it right, you’ve established yourself on a solid platform that can launch your successful speech🚀

The best type of presentation engages the audience and makes it memorable. Try AhaSlides today.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are presentation styles important.

Presentation style is important because it helps with communication effectiveness, enhances audience engagement, shows professionalism and credibility

What is the most important in a presentation?

A presentation should deliver a message with clarity to the audience. They should know what it is about, and the actions to take after the presentation.

What are the 4 key elements of a powerful presentation?

The 4 keys of a powerful presentation are content, structure, delivery and visual aids.

Leah Nguyen

Words that convert, stories that stick. I turn complex ideas into engaging narratives - helping audiences learn, remember, and take action.

More from AhaSlides

Like what you're reading?

Different types of presentations

Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.

Meghan Ryan July 29, 2022

Before you start building a presentation, you need a good structure. Ask yourself the purpose of your presentation – why are you getting in front of your audience? Are you trying to convince them to care about an issue and take action? Who are you speaking to – colleagues, customers, or investors? Asking yourself these questions will help you start to determine the type of presentation and structure it accordingly. Read on to discover different types of presentations and how to structure them.

Persuasive presentations

What is a persuasive presentation.

A persuasive presentation is one that tries to convince the audience to accept a certain position and to take action. It uses facts, logic, and emotion to help the audience understand the impact of a certain situation and see it from a different perspective.

How to make a persuasive presentation

• Start your presentation off strong and make the first 30 seconds of your presentation count. This presentation type needs a good hook that draws the audience in and starts getting them invested in the topic.
• Introduce the problem that needs to be solved and compare it with your solution.
• Build a narrative around your solution. Use evidence, back up your ideas with statistics and findings, and use emotion to pull your audience through the narrative. You should be building to a strong conclusion at this point.
• End with a summary of your points and relate them back to the actions that your audience takes.

This type of presentation requires confidence. Show that you feel passionate about your topic and believe in your solution to your audience. They need to feel trust in you to follow your ideas. Rehearse your presentation, but not to the point that you have every single line memorized. You want to sound authentic, not as though you’re rattling off facts and figures.

Persuasive presentation examples

Some of the most common types of persuasive presentations are product or business pitches, but there are so many more out there. Seeing how someone persuades their audience might give you some inspiration, so here we’ve compiled a few of our favorite examples of this type of presentation.

Watch this product pitch by Thriftplan, a workspace-saving solution helping companies retain their talent and employees manage their long-term savings.

This presentation on deforestation shows the effects that deforestation has had on the planet and introduces ways to become a “tree hugger” and combat it:

Learn more about what goes into an effective persuasive speech by reading our article on the topic.

Informative presentations

What is an informative presentation.

An informative presentation is a type of presentation that is just there to provide information. Unlike a persuasive presentation, you’re not necessarily delivering it to get your audience to take action or change their minds. This type of presentation is often analytical. It may just “report the facts,” but you might also want to include some analysis of the information.

How to make an informative presentation

• This type of presentation needs to be about a specific topic, so research your topic thoroughly. Whether that means gathering data from your team or colleagues, or going to the library or interviewing experts, you’ll want to take every step you can in order to seem like an expert in front of your audience.
• Consider your crowd and write this presentation type for them. If your audience knows a lot about your topic, you can skip some of the background information, like when you deliver a report to your team. A teacher will want to go into much more detail if they’re preparing a lesson plan, though.
• Write a thesis statement and organize the presentation around that. This will help you structure all the data and information that you’re discussing, rather than just doing a data dump.
• End on a call to action. This type of presentation is of course different from a persuasive presentation, but it’s good practice to give your audience something to do with the information you just presented.

Informative presentation examples

You have likely come across this type of presentation often throughout your workday. Here’s one by Devin Banerjee describing parental leave policies in the financial sector.

Motivational presentations

What is a motivational presentation.

Motivational speaking might be one of the most enviable types of presentations for people. Motivational presentations can turn a mere story into an inspiring tale. Very similar to a persuasive presentation, a good motivational presentation will convince you to do something, rather than just waiting for it to happen. It has a clear purpose, often pulling from a personal story written for a specific audience, and inspires the audience to make a change in their lives.

How to make a motivational presentation

• Know your purpose. This is important for any type of presentation, but none more so than for this presentation type. You need to know the purpose of your presentation and build upon a singular message.
• Understand your audience and write your content for them.
• Start your presentation with a strong hook, like a question, a personal story, or a compelling statistic.
• Include a personal narrative or a story that your audience can closely relate to. This helps them understand the core message of your presentation and feel more compelled to take action at the end.
• Conclude your presentation with a call to action. Your audience is motivated to make a change, so they need an outlet to do so.

Motivational presentation examples

There are so many motivational presentations out there, and many of them live here on Prezi. Look at this presentation on climate change, which compels you to take action and combat climate change on your own.

Instructive presentations

What is an instructive presentation.

An instructive presentation provides specific directions to accomplish a task. It might be a little longer than most types of presentations because you’ll need to discuss it step by step. In the end, your audience should walk away from this type of presentation more informed and with a new skill.

How to make an instructive presentation

• Determine exactly what you want your audience to learn at the end of your presentation. This type of presentation goes beyond just sharing facts. People want to learn how to do something, so make sure you have a clear idea of what that is.
• Map out the steps. Be clear about all ideas and information that is packed into your presentation.
• Have an understanding of your audience’s level of knowledge. Are they an informed audience or fresh to the topic you’re presenting? This type of presentation will be different depending on the audience you’re with.
• Use visuals and examples throughout your presentation so people new to the topic can more easily follow along.

Instructive presentation examples

Teacher Nucleo Vega teaches how to play and understand eighth-note subdivisions in his instructional video:

For even more examples of instructional presentations, read our article on the best instructional videos on Prezi.

Training presentation

What is a training presentation .

A training presentation is like a lesson that uses pictures and talking to teach something. People use it to help others learn about a specific topic or how to follow a certain process. It’s like a teacher’s tool to share information, show examples, and make sure everyone understands. You might see these types of presentations in school, at work, or in workshops to help people get better at something or understand new subjects. 

How to make a training presentation

• Start by clarifying the main goal of your presentation. Are you teaching a new skill, explaining a process, or sharing important information? Understanding your purpose will help you structure your content effectively.
• Consider who your audience is and what they already know about the topic. Tailor your presentation to their knowledge level, interests, and needs. This will make your training more relevant and engaging.
• Structure your presentation logically with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Use headings, subheadings, or an outline to create a coherent flow of information. Make sure your key points are easy to follow.
• Use visuals like images, charts, and diagrams to complement your text. Visuals help explain concepts and make your presentation more visually appealing. However, keep visuals simple and uncluttered to avoid overwhelming your audience.

Discover more insights and tips on online training and Prezi’s impact.

Training presentation examples

This Prezi on effective onboarding for PMs is a great example of a training presentation. It goes into detail about onboarding methods. This would be useful training material for product managers or their supervisors looking to provide instructional advice when taking on a new role. 

Status update presentation

What is a status update presentation .

A status update presentation typically includes information about what has been done, what is currently being worked on, and any challenges or issues that need attention. It’s a way for a team or organization to communicate openly about the state of their projects and ensure everyone is on the same page. These types of presentations are often given in meetings to keep stakeholders informed and make decisions based on the project’s progress.

How to make a status update presentation

• Clearly communicate the specific timeframe covered in your status update, whether it’s a weekly, monthly, or project milestone report. This ensures your audience understands the context and timeline of the information presented.
• Identify and focus on the most relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for your project, such as completion rates, milestone achievements, or budget status. These metrics should succinctly convey the essential aspects of your project’s progress.
• Employ charts, graphs, or visuals to illustrate progress effectively. Visual representations, like Gantt charts depicting project timelines and task dependencies, aid in conveying complex information clearly and concisely.
• Proactively address potential risks or challenges that may impact the project’s timeline or goals. Clearly communicate any issues and provide mitigation strategies to demonstrate transparency and preparedness in managing project uncertainties.
• Clearly outline the next steps for the project and assign responsibilities. Summarize key action items, including upcoming milestones, tasks, and deadlines, to make it easy for your audience to understand what requires attention or action in the upcoming period.

Example of a status update presentation

The structure of this Prezi provides a comprehensive year plan. It includes dynamic segments that offer a creative outlet for setting goals. The presentation covers setting goals, tracking progress, and getting started with your plans, which also makes a great base structure for a well-rounded status update presentation.

Pitch presentation

What’s a pitch presentation .

A pitch presentation is like a quick talk where someone explains their business idea, product, or service to persuade others to get on board. It shows why the idea is good, who it helps, and how it can succeed. People often use these types of presentations when they want support, financial investments, or to team up with others. They share key details about the problem their idea solves, who it’s for, and why it’s a great opportunity. The goal is to grab the audience’s interest and convince them it’s worth backing or investing in. You often see these types of presentations in startups or when someone is trying to get support for a new project.

How to make a pitch presentation

• Start with a strong intro to grab attention. Clearly state the problem your idea solves, keeping it brief and impactful.
• Explain the problem your idea tackles and introduce your solution. Keep it straightforward, emphasizing how your idea provides a solution.
• Present info about the market opportunity, including target audience, market size, and relevant trends. Use data to show that there’s a real need for your solution.
• Highlight your idea’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP). Clearly state the benefits your solution offers, focusing on what makes it stand out.
• End with a clear call to action. Summarize key points and provide a way for your audience to follow up or get involved.

Remember, keep it simple, engaging, and tailored to your audience’s interests and needs. Discover more tips on how to create a successful pitch presentation and investor pitch deck .

Pitch presentation examples

The Elevator Pitch Prezi is a good example of a pitch presentation. The presentation starts by stating the problem and then providing a solution, ending with a call to action – which is great for persuading potential investors. Discover more good sales pitch examples in this article.

Crisis communication presentation 

What’s a crisis communication presentation .

A crisis communication presentation is like a talk that happens when there’s a serious issue or emergency. It’s a way to share important information and updates with people who need to know—like employees, stakeholders, or the public. In these types of presentations, you’d cover what the crisis is, what steps are being taken to deal with it, and what the next moves are. It’s about keeping everyone informed and on the same page during challenging times. The goal is to be transparent, provide clarity on the situation, and let people know what’s being done to handle the crisis. It’s a crucial tool in managing and addressing unexpected and difficult situations.

How to create a crisis communication presentation

• Identify the nature of the crisis and tailor your message to the concerns of your specific audience.
• Your presentation should address what happened, its impact, ongoing resolution efforts, and preventive measures for the future. Keep the language simple and direct.
• Demonstrate understanding and empathy for those affected. Maintain transparency about the situation, including uncertainties, and commit to providing updates.
• Anticipate and prepare for potential questions, including difficult ones, to maintain control of the message.
• Support your message with helpful visuals like charts or timelines. Practice delivering your presentation confidently, with attention to non-verbal cues like body language.

By combining these elements, you can create a sense of trust with your audience and convince them you’re handling the situation effectively. Remember, honesty is key when it comes to these types of presentations. 

Prezi for all types of presentations

Prezi is a presentation platform that stands out for its dynamic features, making it ideal for various presentations. Its unique zooming user interface allows presenters to create visually engaging presentations, moving easily between ideas and topics.

The versatility of Prezi enables presenters to convey various moods and emotions effectively. Whether you’re delivering a corporate report, an educational lesson, or a personal story, Prezi’s array of templates and design options can be tailored to fit lots of different types of presentations. This flexibility means that your presentation aligns perfectly with your content, from serious and formal to playful and informal.

Moreover, different types of presentations require different presentation styles. Learn about presentation styles and explore what suits best for you and your presentation type by watching the following video.

Prezi Video

Prezi Video adds another layer of engagement by allowing you to present live alongside your content virtually. This feature is particularly useful in today’s hybrid work environments, as it fosters a more personal connection with your audience. With Prezi Video, you can interact with your visuals in real-time, creating a more immersive experience across all types of presentations. This blend of visual storytelling and live presentation helps to keep the audience engaged and improves the overall impact of your message.

Prezi’s AI text editing tool

Creating Prezi presentations just got even easier! With Prezi’s AI text editing tool , you can easily create all types of presentations in less time. This feature helps you shorten, expand, highlight, and summarize content to help you communicate your ideas better. It simplifies the process by offering relevant suggestions, making it easier to create cohesive presentations. 

Prezi with all its accessible features makes it easy to create content for any industry, from different types of business presentations to classroom and learning environments, Prezi’s versatility makes it a great platform for all. 

Final thoughts on different types of presentations

There are a lot of types of presentations out there, but they’re only effective if you understand the structure of each and utilize the structure to your advantage. Find more examples of presentations in our presentation gallery , or check out Prezi to start creating your own presentation today.

Give your team the tools they need to engage

Like what you’re reading join the mailing list..

• Prezi for Teams
• Top Presentations

• PowerPoint Themes
• Latest PowerPoint Templates
• Best PowerPoint Templates
• Free PowerPoint Templates
• Simple PowerPoint Templates
• PowerPoint Backgrounds
• Project Charter
• Project Timeline
• Project Team
• Project Status
• Market Analysis
• Marketing Funnel
• Market Segmentation
• Target Customer
• Marketing Mix
• Digital Marketing Strategy
• Resource Planning
• Recruitment
• Employee Onboarding
• Company Profile
• Mission Vision
• Meet The Team
• Problem & Solution
• Business Model
• Business Case
• Business Strategy
• Business Review
• Leadership Team
• Balance Sheet
• Income Statement
• Cash Flow Statement
• Executive Summary
• 30 60 90 Day Plan
• SWOT Analysis
• Flow Charts
• Gantt Charts
• Text Tables
• Infographics
• Google Slides Templates
• Presentation Services
• Ask Us To Make Slides
• Data Visualization Services
• Business Presentation Tips
• PowerPoint Tutorials
• Google Slides Tutorials
• Presentation Resources

6 Types of Presentation You Must Know (+ Tips)

Are you tired of giving the same old boring presentation, using the same format every time? Have you ever wondered if there are different types of presentations to achieve different objectives?

If any of these questions resonate with you, this blog is the perfect resource.

In today’s world, presentations are an essential part of almost every profession. At some point in your life, whether you are a student, business professional, or teacher, you will have to deliver a presentation. But do you know there are different types of presentations, each with a specific purpose and objective?

This blog will cover the six essential types of presentation that you should be familiar with. We will explain each type, its purpose, and some tips to deliver it effectively.

Let us delve into the different types of presentation and explore them together.

Why Do We Need Different Types of Presentations?

Different types of presentations effectively communicate ideas and information in a variety of settings and for different audiences. The purpose of a presentation can vary depending on the goals of the presenter and the needs of the audience. For example, a sales pitch may require a persuasive and visually appealing presentation to convince potential customers to buy a product, while a training session may need a more instructional and detailed approach.

The choice of presentation type depends on several factors, such as the purpose of the presentation, audience’s needs and preferences, and the presenter’s strengths and weaknesses. By selecting the appropriate type of presentation, the presenter can effectively communicate their message and achieve their desired outcome.

What are Different Types of Presentations?

To effectively communicate ideas and information, it is important to understand the different types of presentations that can be used for different purposes and audiences. Below is a list of different types of presentations:

Informative Presentations

Demonstrative presentations, persuasive presentations, instructional presentations, inspirational presentations, entertaining presentations.

Let’s explore them one by one:

Informative presentations, as the name implies, provide information or knowledge to the audience about a specific topic.

This type of presentation is often used in educational settings or business environments where information needs to be communicated clearly.

Tips for Creating Effective Informative Presentations:

• Know Your Audience: Understanding your audience is the key to creating an effective informative presentation. This means knowing their level of knowledge on the topic and what information will be most relevant and useful to them.
• Choose a Clear Topic: A clear and concise topic is essential for an informative presentation. This ensures that the audience understands the presentation’s focus and helps keep the content organized and easy to follow.
• Organize Your Content: Organizing your content into a logical structure can help to make the presentation easier to follow and understand. This means starting with an introduction, providing background information, and then moving into the main content of the presentation.

Demonstrative presentations are one of the many types of presentation methods that aim to show or demonstrate how something works or how a particular process is completed. 

These presentations are highly effective in technical or scientific fields but can also be used in other industries where hands-on demonstrations are necessary.

Tips for Creating Effective Demonstrative Presentations

• Choose the Right Props: Choosing the right props or models is essential for an effective demonstrative presentation. Ensure that the props accurately represent the topic and are easy to understand and use.
• Highlight Key Points: To make a demonstrative presentation effective, it is crucial to emphasize the critical points. This can help maintain the audience’s attention and concentration on the presented topic.
• Use Visual Aids: Incorporating visual aids like videos or images can significantly improve a demonstrative presentation. They can assist in simplifying intricate procedures or processes and increase audience engagement.

The purpose of persuasive presentations is to convince the audience to take a specific action or adopt a particular point of view. This type of presentation is focused on influencing the audience’s beliefs or behavior by presenting arguments, evidence, and emotional appeals.

These types of PowerPoint presentations are often used in sales, marketing, and advocacy, but they can also be used in other industries where persuasion is necessary.

The key to creating an effective persuasive presentation is to know your audience and tailor your message to their needs and interests.

Tips for Creating Effective Persuasive Presentations

• Use Emotional Appeals: Emotional appeals such as fear, guilt, or empathy can effectively persuade the audience. Ensure that your emotional appeals are relevant and not manipulative to the topic.
• Use Statistics and Facts: Using statistics and facts can add credibility to your persuasive presentation. Ensure that your statistics and facts are accurate and relevant to the topic.
• Use Stories: Using stories can be effective in persuading the audience. Stories can help to create an emotional connection with the audience and make your message more memorable.
• Provide a Clear Call to Action: Ensure your call to action is clear, actionable, and directly related to the topic.

Instructional presentations provide step-by-step instructions on how to perform a task or complete a process.

These presentations are often used in training, education, and technical fields.

Whether you’re teaching a new software program, demonstrating a manufacturing process, or explaining a complex concept, instructional presentations can be an effective tool for breaking down information into digestible pieces.

Tips for Creating Effective Instructional Presentations

• Identify Your Objectives: Identifying your objective is important for an effective instructional presentation. This helps you to focus your presentation on the most critical information and ensure that you are meeting the needs of your audience.
• Keep It Simple: Use simple language, avoid technical jargon, and break down complex procedures into manageable steps.
• Provide Examples: Use real-world examples relevant to your audience and demonstrate how the concepts or procedures can be applied.

Inspirational presentations are those types of presentations that aim to motivate, inspire, and uplift the audience. These presentation types are often used in business, education, and personal development.

These presentations are meant to help the audience see things from a new perspective, feel empowered to take action, and believe in their ability to make positive life changes.

Tips for Creating Effective Inspirational Presentations

• Use Personal Stories: Personal stories can help connect with the audience personally and inspire them to take action. Share your own experiences and struggles, and demonstrate how you overcame challenges and achieved success.
• Use Quotes and Examples: Using quotes and examples can help to reinforce your message and inspire the audience. Use quotes from influential personalities and provide examples of successful individuals who have achieved their goals.
• Provide Actionable Steps: Provide specific steps for the audience to achieve their goals and overcome challenges.

As the name suggests, entertaining presentations are meant to engage and captivate the audience with humor, storytelling, or other entertaining elements.

The primary goal of this type of presentation is to entertain the audience, leaving a lasting impression and making the presentation memorable.

Different types of PowerPoint presentations have specific goals, and entertaining presentations are often used in settings such as events, social gatherings, etc.

Tips for Creating Effective Entertaining Presentations

• Use Humor: Humor is a powerful tool that helps to engage and entertain the audience. Use jokes, puns, and witty remarks to add a touch of humor to your presentation.
• Tell a story: Use anecdotes, personal experiences, or fictional stories to create a narrative the audience can relate to.
• Use interactive elements: Incorporating interactive elements such as quizzes, polls, and games can effectively interrupt the monotony of the presentation and enhance audience engagement. Use these elements to encourage audience participation and create a more dynamic experience.
• Practice timing: Timing is everything when it comes to entertaining presentations. Make sure your presentation is well-timed, and avoid going over time, as this can disrupt the flow of the presentation and cause the audience to lose interest.
• Engage the audience: Engage the audience throughout the presentation by asking questions, encouraging participation, and creating a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere.

READ MORE: 10 Practical Ways To Improve Your Presentation Skills Today

Wrapping It Up

Understanding the different kinds of presentations is crucial for delivering an impactful and compelling message. By knowing the forms of presentation and their specific goals, you can tailor your content and delivery to achieve your desired outcome.

Whether you’re looking to inform, demonstrate, persuade, instruct, inspire, or entertain, the key is to know your audience and engage them through your content and delivery. By implementing the tips for each type of presentation, you can create a powerful and engaging presentation that leaves a lasting impression.

Remember, practice makes perfect. Take the time to rehearse and refine your presentation to ensure you deliver it confidently and clearly.

People Are Also Reading:

• PowerPoint Presentation Tips: How To Make A Good PowerPoint Presentation
• 9 Best Presentation Ideas That Your Viewers Will Adore
• 3 Most Important Presentation Tips To Make Your Presentation StandOut
• How To Make A Presentation: A Comprehensive Guide
• How To Start A Presentation: Make A Strong First Impression

Privacy Overview

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

6 Different Types of Presentations

Presentations should be as unique as your business and the information you’re trying to present. However, there are certain types of presentations that are common across industries and teams. Before you worry about which slides to include or how to organize your information, you’ll need to determine which type of presentation is best for your audience. 

To figure this out, ask yourself: Are you entertaining or informing? Are you speaking to colleagues, investors, or potential customers? Asking these questions will help you choose the type of presentation that supports you best. Beautiful.ai is here to make this even easier with a description of different types of presentations to help you choose.

Informative Presentations

An informative presentation is educational, concise, and to the point. While other presentations may entertain or inspire, the main goal of an informative presentation is to share information.

A good example of an informative presentation is a human resources benefits presentation. Human resources needs to explain what benefits employees receive, how benefits work, which important dates employees need to remember, where employees can find more information, and so on. 

An HR benefits presentation for new hires (or any informational presentation) should be short, straightforward, and easy to understand so that new employees will remember the information they’re given. 

Instructive Presentations

A presentation that teaches something is similar to an informative presentation, but it goes beyond sharing facts. It also instructs the audience on a specific topic. People attend or view an instructive presentation with the intention to learn, and they leave with a better understanding of the topic of the presentation.

There are many examples of instructive presentations. Workshops, training sessions, or webinars teach audiences a new skill or procedure by offering specific information or instructions. Explaining new policies to a company is another type of instructive presentation. For example, an HR benefits presentation for new employees may be informative, but a presentation for existing employees about policy changes might lean more towards instructive, especially if employees have to take action or need to ask questions.     

Persuasive Presentations

Many presentations hope to sell something or persuade the audience to take certain actions. Persuasive presentations often present a problem and explain their solution using data. Examples of persuasive presentations include business pitches or sales proposals.

For example, a startup company looking for initial funding may need a startup pitch deck or a Series A presentation to convince investors to back their idea. A startup pitch deck would explain a problem in the market, how their startup will solve that problem, and how they’ll monetize their business. A Series A presentation can help a startup secure more rounds of funding to grow their company and pursue further goals.

Motivational Presentations

One of the most prominent examples of inspiring presentations? TEDTalks. Many motivational speakers use TEDTalks to inspire people to think or change their behavior. 

Motivational presentations in the business world may not be as dramatic or life-changing as a TEDTalk, but they still aim to generate interest or gain an audience’s approval. A company overview presentation is a good example of a motivational presentation. It may present the information of a company — how it was founded, who is leading it, what the company does — but more importantly, it tells the company’s story. 

A company overview presentation connects with the audience. A manager may use it to boost morale at a team meeting. Or an executive may present a company overview to convince potential customers or investors to work with them. Or, an HR rep may use it to make new hires feel welcome and excited to join the company.

Decision-making Presentations

Need to make a decision within the company? A presentation that shares a problem, solution options, and their outcomes can help speed along the process. Decision making presentations might be found in business meetings, government meetings, or all-hands meetings.

For example, let’s say a company wants to improve engagement on their social media channels. There are many ways they might achieve their goal, including hosting giveaways, dedicating more resources to creating Facebook posts or Instagram stories, and researching their audience or competitors to see how they can improve. A marketing campaign plan template for a presentation would keep details of the problem, different options, and possible outcomes organized in one place. It would inform and guide everyone involved in the meeting, helping them make informed decisions on how to move forward.

Progress Presentations

Imagine our hypothetical company decided on a marketing strategy to meet their goals. Now that they have a campaign in place, they need to report on the progress of said campaign. This sixth presentation type shares status updates, progress towards deadlines, collected data so far, any obstacles popping up, and tasks that need to be added or adjusted.

A team stand up presentation is a great example of this type of presentation. Team stand up presentations usually include an agenda, talking points, deliverable updates, discussion topics, and time for questions at the end. This presentation keeps everyone organized and focused, ensuring that everyone is still on the same page and working towards the same end goal.

Whichever Presentation Type You Choose, Create it With Beautiful.ai

Now that you know which presentation type is right for your project, it’s time to create a beautiful and effective presentation. With Beautiful.ai , you don’t need to set aside hours of time to build your presentation, nor do you need design expertise to do it. Use one of our many presentation templates that can be customized for your needs in minutes. No matter what type of presentation you create, Beautiful.ai can help you do it.

Beautiful.AI Team

Beautiful is an AI-powered presentation tool that makes it fast and easy for anyone to build clean, modern and professionally designed slides that they can be proud of.

Recommended Articles

25 creative topics for ai presentations, how to advance your career by improving your public speaking skills, 7 interactive presentation ideas to keep your teams involved, video for sales: how teams can use multimedia to supercharge sales assets across the organization.

How it works

Transform your enterprise with the scalable mindsets, skills, & behavior change that drive performance.

Explore how BetterUp connects to your core business systems.

We pair AI with the latest in human-centered coaching to drive powerful, lasting learning and behavior change.

Build leaders that accelerate team performance and engagement.

Unlock performance potential at scale with AI-powered curated growth journeys.

Build resilience, well-being and agility to drive performance across your entire enterprise.

Transform your business, starting with your sales leaders.

Unlock business impact from the top with executive coaching.

Foster a culture of inclusion and belonging.

Accelerate the performance and potential of your agencies and employees.

See how innovative organizations use BetterUp to build a thriving workforce.

Discover how BetterUp measurably impacts key business outcomes for organizations like yours.

A demo is the first step to transforming your business. Meet with us to develop a plan for attaining your goals.

• What is coaching?

Learn how 1:1 coaching works, who its for, and if it's right for you.

Accelerate your personal and professional growth with the expert guidance of a BetterUp Coach.

Types of Coaching

Navigate career transitions, accelerate your professional growth, and achieve your career goals with expert coaching.

Enhance your communication skills for better personal and professional relationships, with tailored coaching that focuses on your needs.

Find balance, resilience, and well-being in all areas of your life with holistic coaching designed to empower you.

Discover your perfect match : Take our 5-minute assessment and let us pair you with one of our top Coaches tailored just for you.

Research, expert insights, and resources to develop courageous leaders within your organization.

Best practices, research, and tools to fuel individual and business growth.

View on-demand BetterUp events and learn about upcoming live discussions.

The latest insights and ideas for building a high-performing workplace.

• BetterUp Briefing

The online magazine that helps you understand tomorrow's workforce trends, today.

Innovative research featured in peer-reviewed journals, press, and more.

Founded in 2022 to deepen the understanding of the intersection of well-being, purpose, and performance

We're on a mission to help everyone live with clarity, purpose, and passion.

Join us and create impactful change.

Read the buzz about BetterUp.

Meet the leadership that's passionate about empowering your workforce.

For Business

For Individuals

6 presentation skills and how to improve them

Jump to section

What are presentation skills?

The importance of presentation skills, 6 presentation skills examples, how to improve presentation skills.

Tips for dealing with presentation anxiety

Learn how to captivate an audience with ease

Capturing an audience’s attention takes practice. 

Over time, great presenters learn how to organize their speeches and captivate an audience from start to finish. They spark curiosity, know how to read a room , and understand what their audience needs to walk away feeling like they learned something valuable.

Regardless of your profession, you most likely use presentation skills on a monthly or even weekly basis. Maybe you lead brainstorming sessions or host client calls. 

Developing effective presentation skills makes it easier to contribute ideas with confidence and show others you’re someone to trust. Although speaking in front of a crowd sometimes brings nerves and anxiety , it also sparks new opportunities.

Presentation skills are the qualities and abilities you need to communicate ideas effectively and deliver a compelling speech. They influence how you structure a presentation and how an audience receives it. Understanding body language , creating impactful visual aids, and projecting your voice all fall under this umbrella.

A great presentation depends on more than what you say. It’s about how you say it. Storytelling , stage presence, and voice projection all shape how well you express your ideas and connect with the audience. These skills do take practice, but they’re worth developing — especially if public speaking makes you nervous. 

Engaging a crowd isn’t easy. You may feel anxious to step in front of an audience and have all eyes and ears on you.

But feeling that anxiety doesn’t mean your ideas aren’t worth sharing. Whether you’re giving an inspiring speech or delivering a monthly recap at work, your audience is there to listen to you. Harness that nervous energy and turn it into progress.

Strong presentation skills make it easier to convey your thoughts to audiences of all sizes. They can help you tell a compelling story, convince people of a pitch , or teach a group something entirely new to them. And when it comes to the workplace, the strength of your presentation skills could play a part in getting a promotion or contributing to a new initiative.

To fully understand the impact these skills have on creating a successful presentation, it’s helpful to look at each one individually. Here are six valuable skills you can develop:

1. Active listening

Active listening is an excellent communication skill for any professional to hone. When you have strong active listening skills, you can listen to others effectively and observe their nonverbal cues . This helps you assess whether or not your audience members are engaged in and understand what you’re sharing. 

Great public speakers use active listening to assess the audience’s reactions and adjust their speech if they find it lacks impact. Signs like slouching, negative facial expressions, and roaming eye contact are all signs to watch out for when giving a presentation.

2. Body language

If you’re researching presentation skills, chances are you’ve already watched a few notable speeches like TED Talks or industry seminars. And one thing you probably noticed is that speakers can capture attention with their body language. 

A mixture of eye contact, hand gestures , and purposeful pacing makes a presentation more interesting and engaging. If you stand in one spot and don’t move your body, the audience might zone out.

3. Stage presence

A great stage presence looks different for everyone. A comedian might aim for more movement and excitement, and a conference speaker might focus their energy on the content of their speech. Although neither is better than the other, both understand their strengths and their audience’s needs. 

Developing a stage presence involves finding your own unique communication style . Lean into your strengths, whether that’s adding an injection of humor or asking questions to make it interactive . To give a great presentation, you might even incorporate relevant props or presentation slides.

4. Storytelling

According to Forbes, audiences typically pay attention for about 10 minutes before tuning out . But you can lengthen their attention span by offering a presentation that interests them for longer. Include a narrative they’ll want to listen to, and tell a story as you go along. 

Shaping your content to follow a clear narrative can spark your audience’s curiosity and entice them to pay careful attention. You can use anecdotes from your personal or professional life that take your audience along through relevant moments. If you’re pitching a product, you can start with a problem and lead your audience through the stages of how your product provides a solution.

5. Voice projection

Although this skill may be obvious, you need your audience to hear what you’re saying. This can be challenging if you’re naturally soft-spoken and struggle to project your voice.

Remember to straighten your posture and take deep breaths before speaking, which will help you speak louder and fill the room. If you’re talking into a microphone or participating in a virtual meeting, you can use your regular conversational voice, but you still want to sound confident and self-assured with a strong tone.

If you’re unsure whether everyone can hear you, you can always ask the audience at the beginning of your speech and wait for confirmation. That way, they won’t have to potentially interrupt you later.

Ensuring everyone can hear you also includes your speed and annunciation. It’s easy to speak quickly when nervous, but try to slow down and pronounce every word. Mumbling can make your presentation difficult to understand and pay attention to.

6. Verbal communication 

Although verbal communication involves your projection and tone, it also covers the language and pacing you use to get your point across. This includes where you choose to place pauses in your speech or the tone you use to emphasize important ideas.

If you’re giving a presentation on collaboration in the workplace , you might start your speech by saying, “There’s something every workplace needs to succeed: teamwork.” By placing emphasis on the word “ teamwork ,” you give your audience a hint on what ideas will follow.

To further connect with your audience through diction, pay careful attention to who you’re speaking to. The way you talk to your colleagues might be different from how you speak to a group of superiors, even if you’re discussing the same subject. You might use more humor and a conversational tone for the former and more serious, formal diction for the latter.

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses when it comes to presenting. Maybe you’re confident in your use of body language, but your voice projection needs work. Maybe you’re a great storyteller in small group settings, but need to work on your stage presence in front of larger crowds. 

The first step to improving presentation skills is pinpointing your gaps and determining which qualities to build upon first. Here are four tips for enhancing your presentation skills:

1. Build self-confidence

Confident people know how to speak with authority and share their ideas. Although feeling good about your presentation skills is easier said than done, building confidence is key to helping your audience believe in what you’re saying. Try practicing positive self-talk and continuously researching your topic's ins and outs.

If you don’t feel confident on the inside, fake it until you make it. Stand up straight, project your voice, and try your best to appear engaged and excited. Chances are, the audience doesn’t know you’re unsure of your skills — and they don’t need to.

Another tip is to lean into your slideshow, if you’re using one. Create something colorful and interesting so the audience’s eyes fall there instead of on you. And when you feel proud of your slideshow, you’ll be more eager to share it with others, bringing more energy to your presentation.

2. Watch other presentations

Developing the soft skills necessary for a good presentation can be challenging without seeing them in action. Watch as many as possible to become more familiar with public speaking skills and what makes a great presentation. You could attend events with keynote speakers or view past speeches on similar topics online.

Take a close look at how those presenters use verbal communication and body language to engage their audiences. Grab a notebook and jot down what you enjoyed and your main takeaways. Try to recall the techniques they used to emphasize their main points, whether they used pauses effectively, had interesting visual aids, or told a fascinating story.

3. Get in front of a crowd

You don’t need a large auditorium to practice public speaking. There are dozens of other ways to feel confident and develop good presentation skills.

If you’re a natural comedian, consider joining a small stand-up comedy club. If you’re an avid writer, participate in a public poetry reading. Even music and acting can help you feel more comfortable in front of a crowd.

If you’d rather keep it professional, you can still work on your presentation skills in the office. Challenge yourself to participate at least once in every team meeting, or plan and present a project to become more comfortable vocalizing your ideas. You could also speak to your manager about opportunities that flex your public speaking abilities.

4. Overcome fear

Many people experience feelings of fear before presenting in front of an audience, whether those feelings appear as a few butterflies or more severe anxiety. Try grounding yourself to shift your focus to the present moment. If you’re stuck dwelling on previous experiences that didn’t go well, use those mistakes as learning experiences and focus on what you can improve to do better in the future.

Tips for dealing with presentation anxiety 

It’s normal to feel nervous when sharing your ideas. In fact, according to a report from the Journal of Graduate Medical Education, public speaking anxiety is prevalent in 15–30% of the general population .

Even though having a fear of public speaking is common, it doesn’t make it easier. You might feel overwhelmed, become stiff, and forget what you were going to say. But although the moment might scare you, there are ways to overcome the fear and put mind over matter.

Use these tactics to reduce your stress when you have to make a presentation:

1. Practice breathing techniques

If you experience anxiety often, you’re probably familiar with breathing techniques for stress relief . Incorporating these exercises into your daily routine can help you stop worrying and regulate anxious feelings. 

Before a big presentation, take a moment alone to practice breathing techniques, ground yourself, and reduce tension. It’s also a good idea to take breaths throughout the presentation to speak slower and calm yourself down .

2. Get organized

The more organized you are, the more prepared you’ll feel. Carefully outline all of the critical information you want to use in your presentation, including your main talking points and visual aids, so you don’t forget anything. Use bullet points and visuals on each slide to remind you of what you want to talk about, and create handheld notes to help you stay on track.

3. Embrace moments of silence

It’s okay to lose your train of thought. It happens to even the most experienced public speakers once in a while. If your mind goes blank, don’t panic. Take a moment to breathe, gather your thoughts, and refer to your notes to see where you left off. You can drink some water or make a quick joke to ease the silence or regain your footing. And it’s okay to say, “Give me a moment while I find my notes.” Chances are, people understand the position you’re in.

4. Practice makes progress

Before presenting, rehearse in front of friends and family members you trust. This gives you the chance to work out any weak spots in your speech and become comfortable communicating out loud. If you want to go the extra mile, ask your makeshift audience to ask a surprise question. This tests your on-the-spot thinking and will prove that you can keep cool when things come up.

Whether you’re new to public speaking or are a seasoned presenter, you’re bound to make a few slip-ups. It happens to everyone. The most important thing is that you try your best, brush things off, and work on improving your skills to do better in your next presentation.

Although your job may require a different level of public speaking than your favorite TED Talk , developing presentation skills is handy in any profession. You can use presentation skills in a wide range of tasks in the workplace, whether you’re sharing your ideas with colleagues, expressing concerns to higher-ups, or pitching strategies to potential clients.

Remember to use active listening to read the room and engage your audience with an interesting narrative. Don’t forget to step outside your comfort zone once in a while and put your skills to practice in front of a crowd. After facing your fears, you’ll feel confident enough to put presentation skills on your resume.

If you’re trying to build your skills and become a better employee overall, try a communications coach with BetterUp. 

Elevate your communication skills

Unlock the power of clear and persuasive communication. Our coaches can guide you to build strong relationships and succeed in both personal and professional life.

Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

The importance of good speech: 5 tips to be more articulate

The 11 tips that will improve your public speaking skills, learn types of gestures and their meanings to improve your communication, show gratitude with “thank you for your leadership and vision” message examples, why it's good to have a bff at work and how to find one, why we need to reframe potential into readiness, what is a career path definition, examples, and steps for paving yours, goal-setting theory: why it’s important, and how to use it at work, love them or hate them, meetings promote social learning and growth, similar articles, how to write a speech that your audience remembers, 8 tip to improve your public speaking skills, 30 presentation feedback examples, your guide to what storytelling is and how to be a good storyteller, how to give a good presentation that captivates any audience, 8 clever hooks for presentations (with tips), how to make a presentation interactive and exciting, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

3100 E 5th Street, Suite 350 Austin, TX 78702

• Platform Overview
• Integrations
• Powered by AI
• BetterUp Lead
• BetterUp Manage™
• BetterUp Care™
• Sales Performance
• Diversity & Inclusion
• Case Studies
• Why BetterUp?
• About Coaching
• Find your Coach
• Career Coaching
• Communication Coaching
• Life Coaching
• News and Press
• Leadership Team
• Become a BetterUp Coach
• BetterUp Labs
• Center for Purpose & Performance
• Leadership Training
• Business Coaching
• Contact Support
• Contact Sales
• Privacy Policy
• Acceptable Use Policy
• Trust & Security
• Cookie Preferences

• Blog Details
• Business Proposal
• Presentation Coaching
• Presentation Design
• Presentation Software
• Presentations
• Press Release
• Sales Engagement
• Sales Productivity
• Uncategorized

10 Types of Presentations: From Elegant to Persuasive

Shahid shahmiri.

Presentations are a crucial part of any business, and understanding different types of presentations can significantly enhance how well your ideas are received, whether you’re presenting to colleagues or the board of directors.

Having a great presentation on hand doesn’t just help you do better work—it can also help you get more work. 

However, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to creating effective presentations . In this guide, we’ll cover some basic types of presentations and give some examples for each one so that you can create engaging content for the needs of your audience at any given moment.

Elegant Presentations

Elegant presentations are more than just a pretty picture. They’re visually appealing and aesthetically pleasing, but they also have substance. A good creative presentation will catch the eye, draw you in and compel you to learn more about what it has to offer.

Elegant presentations use design principles like simplicity (less is more), balance and harmony to create an overall aesthetic that feels clean and crisp yet still engaging. 

They integrate multimedia elements like video clips or soundtracks into their designs seamlessly so that these elements don’t distract from but rather enhance the overall experience of viewing them.

Learn more about the elegant presentations here: https://www.customshow.com/elegant-presentations/

Persuasive Presentations

The art of persuasion is one of the most powerful tools you can have in your presentation toolkit.

The first step to persuading an audience is finding out what motivates them, and then appealing directly to those motivations. 

Persuasive presentations are designed to influence the audience’s beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors, often encouraging them to take a specific action or adopt a new perspective. Here are a few examples:

Community Project Funding: A community leader pitching to local authorities and stakeholders to secure funding for a neighborhood improvement project, using persuasive arguments about community benefits and long-term positive impacts.

Technology Adoption: An IT professional advocating for the adoption of new software within their company, highlighting efficiency gains and competitive advantages to persuade management and colleagues.

Educational Reform: An educator or school administrator presenting to a school board or parent-teacher association, advocating for curriculum changes or new teaching methodologies, using success stories and research findings to persuade the audience of their effectiveness.

Read more on Persuasive Presentations here: https://www.customshow.com/persuasive-presentations/

Sales Presentations

Sales presentations have a unique passion for persuasion, aiming to convert enthusiasm into tangible business outcomes. 

In the sports industry, a sales presentation might involve a sports marketing team presenting a sponsorship proposal to potential corporate partners. 

This type of presentation would typically showcase demographic data on fan bases, engagement statistics, and success stories of previous sponsorships, all aimed at illustrating the potential return on investment for the sponsor. 

In the media & entertainment sector, sales presentations often revolve around pitching new projects or content distribution deals. 

For example, a production company might present a new series concept to streaming platforms or networks. Such a presentation would highlight the project’s creative aspects, like the storyline and talent involved, and market analysis, projected viewership, and alignment with the platform’s brand and audience demographics.

Read more on effective sales presentation tips and ideas: https://www.customshow.com/effective-sales-presentation-tips-ideas/

Informative Presentations

Informative presentations are foundational in public speaking, designed primarily to educate and enlighten the audience on a specific topic. 

These presentations are factual, clear, and often rely on data and research to accurately convey the information. The key is to present the material in an organized manner, typically following a logical structure that starts with an introduction, followed by the body where the main information is presented, and concludes with a summary or conclusion. 

It’s crucial to keep the language clear and straightforward, avoiding jargon that could confuse the audience, and focus on the relevancy and applicability of the information presented.

Examples of informative presentations include a company’s annual report delivered to employees, a lecture on recent scientific findings, or a workshop explaining new software features. 

In each of these instances, the primary goal is to impart knowledge or share information rather than to persuade or inspire action. 

For instance, in an academic setting, a professor might give an informative presentation on the historical impacts of a significant event, focusing on presenting the facts and findings. 

In a business context, a financial analyst might deliver an informative presentation on market trends, providing detailed analysis and statistics to inform strategic decisions. 

The success of these presentations is measured not by the immediate action of the audience but by their enhanced understanding and knowledge of the topic.

Read more on informative presentations here: https://www.customshow.com/informative-presentations/

Instructional Presentations

Instructional presentations are a cornerstone in educational and training settings, aimed at teaching or instructing the audience on a specific process, concept, or skill. 

The primary focus of these presentations is to facilitate learning and understanding. A successful instructional presentation breaks down complex information into digestible, manageable parts, often using a step-by-step approach. 

The presenter acts as a guide, leading the audience through the material with clarity and precision. It’s crucial to engage the audience, ensuring they are not just passive recipients of information but active participants in the learning process. 

This engagement can be achieved through interactive elements, practical demonstrations, and question-and-answer sessions.

For example, in a corporate training session, an expert might deliver an instructional presentation on using a new software tool, walking employees through each feature with live demonstrations and hands-on exercises. 

In an academic context, a professor might give an instructional presentation on a scientific method, using detailed slides, real-world examples, and interactive experiments to enhance understanding. 

Another example could be a fitness trainer conducting an instructional presentation on proper exercise techniques, incorporating demonstrations, and encouraging audience participation to ensure correct form and understanding. 

Each of these scenarios underscores the instructional presentation’s goal: not just to present information, but to foster learning and practical application.

Read more on the four states of Instructional Presentations

Inspirational Presentations

Inspirational presentations help motivate, uplift, and spark positive change in audiences. These presentations often hinge on the power of storytelling, using personal narratives, success stories, and emotional appeals to connect deeply with the audience. 

In sports, for instance, a motivational speech by a renowned athlete can be profoundly impactful. They might share their journey of overcoming adversity, setbacks, and injuries to achieve success, thereby inspiring budding athletes to persevere and strive for excellence. 

The narrative usually highlights themes of resilience, dedication, and the power of a positive mindset, resonating with individuals in both sports and other life areas.

In the media and entertainment industry, inspirational presentations often take the form of keynote speeches at award shows or industry conferences. 

A celebrated filmmaker or actor might share insights about their creative journey, discussing the challenges of the creative process and the importance of artistic integrity and innovation.

These speeches can inspire artists and professionals in the industry to pursue their passions relentlessly and think outside the box. Another example can be a TED Talk by a media mogul discussing the evolution of digital media and its power to enact social change, encouraging listeners to harness media platforms for advocacy and global connectivity. 

In both sports and entertainment, the crux of inspirational presentations lies in stirring emotional responses and motivating audiences toward personal and professional growth.

Read more on Inspirational Presentations: https://www.customshow.com/inspiring-presentations/

Technical Presentations

A technical presentation is a “how-to” demonstration that uses visuals and demonstrations to explain how something works. 

It’s an effective way of communicating complex information to diverse audiences, from internal employees who need to know how the company’s new accounting software works, to potential investors who want details on your latest innovation in robotics technology.

Technical presentations often require significant preparation time because they require you to navigate the intricacies of your topic while making it understandable for others who may not have as much background knowledge as you do. 

A good approach is starting with research: identify key points in your topic area, then organize them into sections based on their relationship with one another (e.g., first we’ll talk about X; then we’ll move on to Y). 

Make sure each section includes some visual aids like graphs or charts if possible, these will help simplify complex information so everyone can follow along easily!

Read more on the technical presentations here: https://www.customshow.com/technical-presentations/

Team and Stakeholder Presentations

A team or stakeholder presentation is a great way to share your ideas with colleagues who are working on similar projects, but it can be challenging to get people excited about new initiatives. 

When you’re presenting in front of your team members, it’s important to consider their interests and needs before diving into the details. 

If you want them on board with your plan, they must understand why this project matters for them, not just for the company as a whole.

Interactive Presentations

Interactive presentations have revolutionized the way information is shared and received, moving beyond traditional one-way communication to a more engaging, two-way dialogue. 

The essence of these presentations lies in their ability to actively involve the audience, turning passive listeners into active participants. 

This engagement is achieved through various means such as real-time polls, Q&A sessions, interactive quizzes, and even augmented reality experiences. 

For instance, in a corporate setting, a manager might use an interactive presentation during a team meeting to gather instant feedback on proposed initiatives using live polling. This not only gauges the team’s opinion but also fosters a sense of involvement and collaboration.

Learn more on interactive presentations here: https://www.customshow.com/interactive-presentation-software-7-great-ideas-great-companies/

Problem-Solution Presentations

Problem-solution presentations are a strategic approach often used to address specific challenges or issues within an organization or in a client-focused setting. 

The structure of these presentations typically involves first identifying and analyzing a problem, and then proposing one or more solutions. 

This format is particularly effective in consulting scenarios, where a consultant might present to a client company facing operational inefficiencies. 

The presentation would detail the identified issues, perhaps through data analysis or market research, and then propose tailored solutions, such as new technologies or process improvements.

In the tech industry, problem-solving presentations are frequently used to pitch new software or tools. A tech company might present to a potential client the challenges of data management and security, and then introduce their software as a solution that enhances data security and efficiency. 

Suggested tools and software for various presentation needs.

In the world of presentations, having the right tool can make all the difference. Whether you’re delivering a sales pitch, an educational lecture, or an inspirational talk, there’s a software solution that can elevate your presentation. 

Here are some of the top tools and software, each suited for different types of presentation needs:

CustomShow: CustomShow stands out for its business-centric approach, focusing on brand-specific presentation needs. It’s ideal for companies looking to maintain brand consistency across all presentations. With its rich multimedia integration and robust analytics, CustomShow is particularly for sales and marketing presentations that need to leave a lasting impact.

Prezi: Known for its non-linear presentation style, Prezi is great for creating dynamic presentation and visually engaging presentations. Its zooming user interface offers a unique way to capture your audience’s attention, making it suitable for persuasive and instructional presentations.

PowerPoint: A classic in the presentation software realm, Microsoft PowerPoint is versatile and user-friendly. It’s a reliable choice for almost any presentation type, from business and educational to inspirational talks, thanks to its wide range of templates and customization options.

Google Slides: For those who value collaboration, Google Slides is a go-to. Being cloud-based, it allows multiple users to work on a presentation simultaneously, making it perfect for team projects and presentations that require frequent updates.

Keynote: For Mac users, Apple’s Keynote is best for its sleek templates and smooth animations. It’s ideal for elegant presentations where design and aesthetics are key.

Read more on: What do you Need to Think About Before Designing the Presentation?

We hope that you now have a better understanding of the different types of presentations and the tools that are available to help you create them. Take a look at how CustomShow could help in your B2B sales situations .

Read more on : When Creating a Presentation Based on Lots of Data, What Principle Should You Bear in Mind? Read more on : What is the Best Way to Deliver Presentations with Authenticity ?

Ready for a demo?

Let us show you how customshow does so much more than powerpoint & google slides for your business presentations..

Find the images you need to make standout work. If it’s in your head, it’s on our site.

• Images home
• Curated collections
• AI image generator
• Offset images
• Backgrounds/Textures
• Business/Finance
• Sports/Recreation
• Animals/Wildlife
• Beauty/Fashion
• Celebrities
• Food and Drink
• Illustrations/Clip-Art
• Miscellaneous
• Parks/Outdoor
• Buildings/Landmarks
• Healthcare/Medical
• Signs/Symbols
• Transportation
• All categories
• Editorial video
• Shutterstock Select
• Shutterstock Elements
• Health Care
• PremiumBeat
• Templates Home
• Instagram all
• Highlight covers
• Facebook all
• Carousel ads
• Cover photos
• Event covers
• Youtube all
• Channel Art
• Etsy big banner
• Etsy mini banner
• Etsy shop icon
• Pinterest all
• Pinterest pins
• Twitter all
• Twitter Banner
• Infographics
• Zoom backgrounds
• Announcements
• Certificates
• Gift Certificates
• Real Estate Flyer
• Travel Brochures
• Anniversary
• Baby Shower
• Mother’s Day
• Thanksgiving
• All Invitations
• Party invitations
• Wedding invitations
• Book Covers
• Editorial home
• Entertainment
• About Creative Flow
• Create editor
• Content calendar
• Photo editor
• Background remover
• Collage maker
• Resize image
• Color palettes
• Color palette generator
• Image converter
• Contributors
• PremiumBeat blog
• Invitations
• Design Inspiration
• Design Resources
• Design Elements & Principles
• Contributor Support
• Marketing Assets
• Cards and Invitations
• Social Media Designs
• Print Projects
• Organizational Tools
• Case Studies
• Platform Solutions
• Generative AI
• Computer Vision
• Free Downloads
• Create Fund

8 Types of Presentations and Examples of When You Can Use Them

Presentations help you communicate ideas in a simple way that sticks with your target audience. here’s what you need to know to have success with all types of presentations..

For your presentation to be effective, you need to choose the right format and recognize the nuances of each one. Here’s a look at eight types of presentations you can use to share your knowledge.

8 Types of Presentations

1. Providing Information

The primary purpose of any type of presentation is to provide information to an audience. The difference between this method and others is that there are many elements you have to consider in order to be effective. That includes slide design , talking points, and usually, a time limit.

2. Teaching

When you’re educating, use several examples to illustrate your points. If your audience doesn’t understand something you’re talking about, give them specific examples so they can see for themselves what you mean.

Repetition is key when you teach a new concept. It’s important to include a variety examples throughout your slide deck to reinforce your information. This helps combat your audience getting bored or tired from hearing the same thing over and over again.

3. Reporting

You can use presentations when reporting by showing research findings and conclusions. The most important thing to remember is that you need to design your slides to highlight your most critical data. That way, your audience will walk away understanding its high points.

It’s important to know your audience before you jump into your presentation and start selling. Research must be the first step of the process, so you can design a presentation that speaks to your people.

Also, be sure to not overwhelm yourself or others by packing too much information into one slide.

5. Problem-Solving

While it’s a less common use case, you can also use presentations to sort out problems. This is especially useful when you’re working with a team. It acts as a simple way to get everyone on the same page before making a decision.

6. Decision Making

Once you come to an agreement that something is an issue and discover some ways to solve it, there are still choices you need to make. You can use presentations to explore and explain different options before you finalize your next step forward.

7. Entertaining

Creating a presentation with entertainment in mind is a nice way to break up any potential monotony and deliver important information, at the same time.

The entertainment factor doesn’t necessarily have to be goofy or fun, but it should be compelling for the audience and capture their attention. Visuals are particularly important here.

8. Motivational

Stories are good tools for bringing any message home. Use personal anecdotes and examples that illustrate points. This will help people remember your message when they need it most, and it also makes it easier for the audience to connect with you.

3 Presentation Use Cases

Want to take your information and put it in presentation format for your audience? Before you start, use these examples to gain inspiration.

1. Business Presentation Examples

Business presentations don’t have to be boring. Take these tips to wow your colleagues and your audience. 

Conferences

There are many different companies and ideas competing for attention at conferences. Use storytelling and bold design choices to stand out.

Raising Awareness

Getting a new initiative going in an organization is no easy feat. Use a presentation to fill in stakeholders on what you want to do and get their approval.

Sales Decks

Selling has a direct impact on revenue goals, so it’s critical for your presentation to support that. Include questions, pain points, and supporting data to let your potential customers know you “get” them.

2. Presentation Ideas for Kids and Students

Education requires a lot of listening and absorbing information. Help kids and students show what they know with these presentation formats.

All About Them

For younger or new students, this is an easy presentation idea. They can create slides that explain details about themselves to learn the art of public speaking. It also helps their peers get to know them better.

Charts and Graphics

Facts and data play a key role in understanding a concept. However, keeping track of them all can be intimidating. Take them through the process of communicating complex ideas visually, with this presentation idea for students.

Storytelling

Stories are an important part of early learning but, eventually, we all learn there’s a place for stories outside of a book. Students and kids can create presentations that focus on this skill.

3. Virtual Presentation Ideas

Virtual presentations are more prevalent than ever, but engaging an audience when you aren’t in the same room isn’t easy.

If you’re sharing ideas with a group, make it interactive by giving a workshop-style presentation. Be sure to leave room to ask and answer questions, as well as save space for group discussions.

Ask Me Anything

The question and answer format is a popular presentation type, but you can add even more interest with slides. Use images, fonts , and colors that are on brand and increase engagement. 

Information and Gamification

Gamification results in 14% higher scores on skill-based assessments. To amplify people’s understanding of the concepts you present, use gamification throughout your slide deck.

How to Put Together Presentation Ideas without PowerPoint

If you’re looking for creative presentation ideas without PowerPoint , Shutterstock Create’s slideshow presentation maker is easy to use. Our designer-crafted templates are super-simple to customize and make your own in just a few clicks. 

We have thousands of graphics in a multitude of styles, shapes, and sizes you can use to create designs that others will notice. We also offer gorgeous stock photos to help you communicate exactly what you need to with each visual. Everyone has something to teach, now it’s your turn. Use these ideas to create all types of presentations and communicate effectively.

Need some more presentation inspo? We’ve got you covered:

• How to Make a Professional Video Presentation
• 10 Fun “Presentation Night” Ideas
• Google Slides vs. PowerPoint: Which Is Best to Make a Slideshow?

License this cover image via AlexandrWell .

Recently viewed

Related Posts

The Best Fonts for YouTube Thumbnails

Boost your YouTube channel branding with these free fonts for…

10 Creative & Inspiring Earth Day Poster Ideas

Celebrate our planet and encourage others to conserve and protect with these 10 Earth Day poster ideas. Customize any design for free!

How to Design Podcast Cover Art

Your podcast’s visual identity is just as important as its content. Try seven tips to make your podcast covers stand out from the crowd.

How We Show It: Authentic Sustainable Imagery

Sustainability has an image problem. Here’s how we can start thinking about the big picture and get people motivated for change.

© 2023 Shutterstock Inc. All rights reserved.

• Terms of use
• License agreement
• Privacy policy
• Social media guidelines

• SUGGESTED TOPICS
• The Magazine
• Newsletters
• Managing Yourself
• Managing Teams
• Work-life Balance
• The Big Idea
• Data & Visuals
• Reading Lists
• Case Selections
• HBR Learning
• Topic Feeds
• Account Settings
• Email Preferences

How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

• Guy Kawasaki

Remember: Less is more.

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

• Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and was the former chief evangelist at Apple. Guy is the author of 16 books including Think Remarkable : 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.

Partner Center

Home Blog Education Presentation Skills 101: A Guide to Presentation Success

Presentation Skills 101: A Guide to Presentation Success

Getting the perfect presentation design is just a step toward a successful presentation. For the experienced user, building presentation skills is the answer to elevating the power of your message and showing expertise on any subject. Still, one can ask: is it the same set of skills, or are they dependable on the type of presentation?

In this article, we will introduce the different types of presentations accompanied by the skillset required to master them. The purpose, as always, is to retain the audience’s interest for a long-lasting and convincing message.

Table of Contents

The Importance of Presentation Skills

Persuasive presentations, instructional presentations, informative presentations, inspirational presentations, basic presentation skills, what are the main difficulties when giving a presentation, recommendations to improve your presentation skills, closing statement.

Effective communication is the answer to reaching business and academic goals. The scenarios in which we can be required to deliver a presentation are as diverse as one can imagine. Still, some core concepts apply to all presentations.

 We define presentation skills as a compendium of soft skills that directly affect your presentation performance and contribute to creating a great presentation. These are not qualities acquired by birth but skills you ought to train and master to delve into professional environments.

You may ask: is it really that evident when a presenter is not prepared? Here are some common signs people can experience during presentations:

• Evasive body language: Not making eye contact with the audience, arms closed tightly to the body, hands in pockets all the time.
• Lack of interest in the presenter’s voice: dull tone, not putting an effort to articulate the topics.
• Doubting when asked to answer a question
• Irksome mood

The list can go on about common presenter mistakes , and most certainly, it will affect the performance of any presented data if the lack of interest by the presenter is blatantly obvious.  Another element to consider is anxiety, and according to research by the National Institute of Mental Health, 73% of the population in the USA is affected by glossophobia , which is the fear of public speaking, judgment, or negative evaluation by other people.

Therefore, presentation skills training is essential for any business professional who wants to achieve effective communication . It will remove the anxiety from presentation performance and help users effectively deliver their message and connect with the audience.

Archetypes of presentations

Persuasive presentations aim to convince the audience – often in short periods – to acquire a product or service, adhere to a cause, or invest in a company. For business entrepreneurs or politicians, persuasive presentations are their tool for the trade.

Unless you aim to be perceived as an imposter, a proper persuasive presentation has the elements of facts, empathy, and logic, balanced under a well-crafted narrative. The central pillar of these presentations is to identify the single factor that gathered your audience: it could be a market need, a social cause, or a revolutionary concept for today’s society. It has to be something with enough power to gather critiques – both good and bad.

That single factor has to be backed up by facts. Research that builds your hypothesis on how to solve that problem. A deep understanding of the target audience’s needs , concerns, and social position regarding the solution your means can offer. When those elements are in place, building a pitch becomes an easy task. 

Graphics can help you introduce information in a compelling format, lowering the need for lengthy presentations. Good presentation skills for persuasive presentations go by the hand of filtering relevant data and creating the visual cues that resonate with what your audience demands.

One powerful example of a persuasive presentation is the technique known as the elevator pitch . You must introduce your idea or product convincingly to the audience in a timeframe between 30 seconds and less than 2 minutes. You have to expose:

• What do you do 
• What’s the problem to solve
• Why is your solution different from others 
• Why should the audience care about your expertise

For that very purpose, using engaging graphics with contrasting colors elevates the potential power of your message. It speaks professionalism, care for details, and out-of-the-box thinking. Knowing how to end a presentation is also critical, as your CTAs should be placed with care.

Therefore, let’s resume the requirements of persuasive presentations in terms of good presentation skills:

• Identifying problems and needs
• Elaborating “the hook” (the element that grabs the audience’s attention)
• Knowing how to “tie” your audience (introducing a piece of information related to the hook that causes an emotional impact)
• Broad knowledge of body language and hand gestures to quickly convey your message
• Being prepared to argue a defense of your point of view
• Handling rejection
• Having a proactive attitude to convert opportunities into new projects
• Using humor, surprise, or personal anecdotes as elements to sympathize with the audience
• Having confidence
• Be able to summarize facts and information in visually appealing ways

You can learn more about persuasive presentation techniques by clicking here .

In the case of instructional presentations, we ought to differentiate two distinctive types:

• Lecture Presentations : Presentations being held at universities or any other educative institution. Those presentations cover, topic by topic, and the contents of a syllabus and are created by the team of teachers in charge of the course.
• Training Presentations : These presentations take place during in-company training sessions and usually comprise a good amount of content that is resumed into easy-to-take solutions. They are aimed to coach employees over certain topics relevant to their work performance. The 70-20-10 Model is frequently used to address these training situations.

Lecture presentations appeal to the gradual introduction of complex concepts, following a structure set in the course’s syllabus. These presentations often have a similar aesthetic as a group of professors or researchers created to share their knowledge about a topic. Personal experience does tell that course presentations often rely on factual data, adequately documented, and on the theoretical side.

An example of a presentation that lies under this concept is a Syllabus Presentation, used by the teaching team to introduce the subject to new students, evaluation methods, concepts to be learned, and expectations to pass the course.

On the other hand, training presentations are slide decks designed to meet an organization’s specific needs in the formal education of their personnel. Commonly known as “continuous education,” plenty of companies invest resources in coaching their employees to achieve higher performance results. These presentations have the trademark of being concise since their idea is to introduce the concepts that shall be applied in practice sessions. 

Ideally, the training presentations are introduced with little text and easy-to-recognize visual cues. Since the idea is to summarize as much as possible, these are visually appealing for the audience. They must be dynamic enough to allow the presenter to convey the message.

Those key takeaways remind employees when they revisit their learning resources and allow them to ruminate on questions that fellow workers raise. 

To sum up this point, building presentation skills for instructional presentations requires:

• Ability to put complex concepts into simpler words
• Patience and a constant learning mindset
• Voice training to deliver lengthy speeches without being too dense
• Ability to summarize points and note the key takeaways
• Empathizing with the audience to understand their challenges in the learning process

The informative presentations take place in business situations, such as when to present project reports from different departments to the management. Another potential usage of these presentations is in SCRUM or other Agile methodologies, when a sprint is completed, to discuss the advance of the project with the Product Owner.

As they are presentations heavily dependent on data insights, it’s common to see the usage of infographics and charts to express usually dense data in simpler terms and easy to remember. 

Informative presentations don’t just fall into the business category. Ph.D. Dissertation and Thesis presentations are topics that belong to the informative presentations category as they condense countless research hours into manageable reports for the academic jury. 

Since these informational presentations can be perceived as lengthy and data-filled, it is important to learn the following professional presentation skills:

• Attention to detail
• Be able to explain complex information in simpler terms
• Creative thinking
• Powerful diction
• Working on pauses and transitions
• Pacing the presentation, so not too much information is divulged per slide

The leading inspirational platform, TEDx, comes to mind when talking about inspirational presentations. This presentation format has the peculiarity of maximizing the engagement with the audience to divulge a message, and due to that, it has specific requirements any presenter must meet.

This presentation format usually involves a speaker on a stage, either sitting or better standing, in which the presenter engages with the audience with a storytelling format about a life experience, a job done that provided a remarkable improvement for society, etc.

Empathizing with the audience is the key ingredient for these inspirational presentations. Still, creativity is what shapes the outcome of your performance as people are constantly looking for different experiences – not the same recipe rephrased with personal touches. The human factor is what matters here, way above data and research. What has your experience to offer to others? How can it motivate another human being to pursue a similar path or discover their true calling?

To achieve success in terms of communication skills presentation, these inspirational presentations have the following requirements:

• Focus on the audience (engage, consider their interests, and make them a part of your story)
• Putting ego aside
• Creative communication skills
• Storytelling skills
• Body language knowledge to apply the correct gestures to accompany your story
• Voice training
• Using powerful words

After discussing the different kinds of presentations we can come across at any stage of our lives, a group of presentation skills is standard in any type of presentation. See below what makes a good presentation and which skills you must count on to succeed as a presenter.

Punctuality

Punctuality is a crucial aspect of giving an effective presentation. Nothing says more about respect for your audience and the organization you represent than delivering the presentation on time . Arriving last minute puts pressure on the tech team behind audiovisuals, as they don’t have enough preparation to test microphones, stage lights, and projector settings, which can lead to a less powerful presentation Even when discussing presentations hosted in small rooms for a reduced audience, testing the equipment becomes essential for an effective presentation.

A solution for this is to arrive at least 30 minutes early. Ideally, one hour is a sweet spot since the AV crew has time to check the gear and requirements for your presentation. Another benefit of this, for example, in inspirational presentations, is measuring the previous presenter’s impact on the audience. This gives insights about how to resonate with the public, and their interest, and how to accommodate your presentation for maximum impact.

Body Language

Our bodies can make emotions transparent for others, even when we are unaware of such a fact. Proper training for body language skills reduces performance anxiety, giving the audience a sense of expertise about the presented topic. 

Give your presentation and the audience the respect they deserve by watching over these potential mistakes:

• Turning your back to the audience for extended periods : It’s okay to do so when introducing an important piece of information or explaining a graph, but it is considered rude to give your back to the audience constantly.
• Fidgeting : We are all nervous in the presence of strangers, even more, if we are the center of attention for that moment. Instead of playing with your hair or making weird hand gestures, take a deep breath to center yourself before the presentation and remember that everything you could do to prepare is already done. Trust your instincts and give your best.
• Intense eye contact : Have you watched a video where the presenter stared at the camera the entire time? That’s the feeling you transmit to spectators through intense eye contact. It’s a practice often used by politicians to persuade.
• Swearing : This is a no-brainer. Even when you see influencers swearing on camera or in podcasts or live presentations, it is considered an informal and lousy practice for business and academic situations. If you have a habit to break when it comes to this point, find the humor in these situations and replace your swear words with funny alternatives (if the presentation allows for it). 

Voice Tone plays a crucial role in delivering effective presentations and knowing how to give a good presentation. Your voice is a powerful tool for exposing your ideas and feelings . Your voice can articulate the message you are telling, briefing the audience if you feel excited about what you are sharing or, in contrast, if you feel the presentation is a burden you ought to complete.

Remember, passion is a primary ingredient in convincing people. Therefore, transmitting such passion with a vibrant voice may help gather potential business partners’ interest.  

But what if you feel sick prior to the presentation? If, by chance, your throat is sore minutes before setting foot on the stage, try this: when introducing yourself, mention that you are feeling a bit under the weather. This resonates with the audience to pay more attention to your efforts. In case you don’t feel comfortable about that, ask the organizers for a cup of tea, as it will settle your throat and relax your nerves.

Tech Skills

Believe it or not, people still feel challenged by technology these days. Maybe that’s the reason why presentation giants like Tony Robbins opt not to use PowerPoint presentations . The reality is that there are plenty of elements involved in a presentation that can go wrong from the tech side:

• A PDF not opening
• Saving your presentation in a too-recent PowerPoint version
• A computer not booting up
• Mac laptops and their never-ending compatibility nightmare
• Not knowing how to change between slides
• Not knowing how to use a laser pointer
• Internet not working
• Audio not working

We can come up with a pretty long list of potential tech pitfalls, and yet more than half of them fall in presenters not being knowledgeable about technology.

If computers aren’t your thing, let the organization know about this beforehand. There is always a crew member available to help presenters switch between slides or configure the presentation for streaming. This takes the pressure off your shoulders, allowing you to concentrate on the content to present. Remember, even Bill Gates can get a BSOD during a presentation .

Presentations, while valuable for conveying information and ideas, can be daunting for many individuals. Here are some common difficulties people encounter when giving presentations:

Public Speaking Anxiety

Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, affects a significant portion of the population. This anxiety can lead to nervousness, trembling, and forgetfulness during a presentation.

Lack of Confidence

Many presenters struggle with self-doubt, fearing that they may not be knowledgeable or skilled enough to engage their audience effectively.

Content Organization

Organizing information in a coherent and engaging manner can be challenging. Presenters often grapple with how to structure their content to make it easily digestible for the audience. Artificial Intelligence can help us significantly reduce the content arrangement time when you work with tools like our AI Presentation Maker (made for presenters by experts in presentation design). 

Audience Engagement

Keeping the audience’s attention and interest throughout the presentation can be difficult. Distractions, disengaged attendees, or lack of interaction can pose challenges.

Technical Issues

Technology glitches, such as malfunctioning equipment, incompatible file formats, or poor internet connectivity, can disrupt presentations and increase stress.

Time Management

Striking the right balance between providing enough information and staying within time limits is a common challenge. Going over or under the allotted time can affect the effectiveness of the presentation.

Handling Questions and Challenges

Responding to unexpected questions, criticism, or challenges from the audience can be difficult, especially when presenters are unprepared or lack confidence in their subject matter.

Visual Aids and Technology

Creating and effectively using visual aids like slides or multimedia can be a struggle for some presenters. Technical competence is essential in this aspect.

Language and Articulation

Poor language skills or unclear articulation can hinder effective communication. Presenters may worry about stumbling over words or failing to convey their message clearly.

Maintaining appropriate and confident body language can be challenging. Avoiding nervous habits, maintaining eye contact, and using gestures effectively requires practice.

Overcoming Impersonal Delivery

In virtual presentations, maintaining a personal connection with the audience can be difficult. The absence of face-to-face interaction can make it challenging to engage and read the audience.

Cultural and Diversity Awareness

Presenting to diverse audiences requires sensitivity to cultural differences and varying levels of familiarity with the topic.

In this section, we gathered some tips on how to improve presentation skills that can certainly make an impact if applied to your presentation skills. We believe these skills can be cultivated to transform into habits for your work routine.

Tip #1: Build a narrative

One memorable way to guarantee presentation success is by writing a story of all the points you desire to cover. This statement is based on the logic behind storytelling and its power to connect with people .

Don’t waste time memorizing slides or reading your presentation to the audience. It feels unnatural, and any question that diverts from the topic in discussion certainly puts you in jeopardy or, worse, exposes you as a fraud in the eyes of the audience. And before you ask, it is really evident when a presenter has a memorized speech. 

Build and rehearse the presentation as if telling a story to a group of interested people. Lower the language barrier by avoiding complex terms that maybe even you aren’t fully aware of their meaning. Consider the ramifications of that story, what it could lead to, and which are the opportunities to explore. Then, visualize yourself giving the presentation in a natural way.

Applying this technique makes the presentation feel like second nature to you. It broadens the spectrum in which you can show expertise over a topic or even build the basis for new interesting points of view about the project.

Tip #2: Don’t talk for more than 3 minutes per slide

It is a common practice of presenters to bombard the audience with facts and information whilst retaining the same slide on the screen. Why can this happen? It could be because the presenter condensed the talk into very few slides and preferred to talk. The reality is that your spectators won’t retain the information you are giving unless you give visual cues to help that process. 

Opt to prepare more slides and pace your speech to match the topics shown on each slide. Don’t spend more than 3 minutes per slide unless you have to introduce a complex piece of data. Use visual cues to direct the spectators about what you talk about, and summarize the principal concepts discussed at the end of each section.

Tip #3: Practice meditation daily

Anxiety is the number one enemy of professional presenters. It slowly builds without you being aware of your doubts and can hinder your performance in multiple ways: making you feel paralyzed, fidgeting, making you forget language skills or concepts, affecting your health, etc.

Meditation is an ancient practice taken from Buddhist teachings that train your mind to be here in the present. We often see the concepts of meditation and mindfulness as synonyms, whereas you should be aware that meditation is a practice that sets the blocks to reach a state of mindfulness. For presenters, being in the here and now is essential to retain focus, but meditation techniques also teach us to control our breathing and be in touch with our body signals when stress builds up. 

The customary practice of meditation has an impact on imagination and creativity but also helps to build patience – a skill much needed for connecting with your audience in instructional presentations.

Having the proper set of presentation skills can be quite subjective. It goes beyond presentation tips and deepens into how flexible we can be in our ability to communicate ideas.

Different presentations and different audiences shape the outcome of our efforts. Therefore, having a basic understanding of how to connect, raise awareness, and empathize with people can be key ingredients for your career as a presenter. A word of advice: success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes dedication and patience to build communication skills . Don’t condition your work to believe you will be ready “someday”; it’s best to practice and experience failure as part of the learning process.

Like this article? Please share

Business Presentations, Presentation Approaches, Presentation Skills Filed under Education

Related Articles

Filed under Design • March 27th, 2024

How to Make a Presentation Graph

Detailed step-by-step instructions to master the art of how to make a presentation graph in PowerPoint and Google Slides. Check it out!

Filed under Presentation Ideas • February 29th, 2024

How to Make a Fundraising Presentation (with Thermometer Templates & Slides)

Meet a new framework to design fundraising presentations by harnessing the power of fundraising thermometer templates. Detailed guide with examples.

Filed under Presentation Ideas • February 15th, 2024

How to Create a 5 Minutes Presentation

Master the art of short-format speeches like the 5 minutes presentation with this article. Insights on content structure, audience engagement and more.

Leave a Reply

Improve your practice.

Enhance your soft skills with a range of award-winning courses.

How to Structure your Presentation, with Examples

August 3, 2018 - Dom Barnard

For many people the thought of delivering a presentation is a daunting task and brings about a  great deal of nerves . However, if you take some time to understand how effective presentations are structured and then apply this structure to your own presentation, you’ll appear much more confident and relaxed.

Here is our complete guide for structuring your presentation, with examples at the end of the article to demonstrate these points.

Why is structuring a presentation so important?

If you’ve ever sat through a great presentation, you’ll have left feeling either inspired or informed on a given topic. This isn’t because the speaker was the most knowledgeable or motivating person in the world. Instead, it’s because they know how to structure presentations – they have crafted their message in a logical and simple way that has allowed the audience can keep up with them and take away key messages.

Research has supported this, with studies showing that audiences retain structured information  40% more accurately  than unstructured information.

In fact, not only is structuring a presentation important for the benefit of the audience’s understanding, it’s also important for you as the speaker. A good structure helps you remain calm, stay on topic, and avoid any awkward silences.

What will affect your presentation structure?

Generally speaking, there is a natural flow that any decent presentation will follow which we will go into shortly. However, you should be aware that all presentation structures will be different in their own unique way and this will be due to a number of factors, including:

• Whether you need to deliver any demonstrations
• How  knowledgeable the audience  already is on the given subject
• How much interaction you want from the audience
• Any time constraints there are for your talk
• What setting you are in
• Your ability to use any kinds of visual assistance

Before choosing the presentation’s structure answer these questions first:

• What is your presentation’s aim?
• Who are the audience?
• What are the main points your audience should remember afterwards?

When reading the points below, think critically about what things may cause your presentation structure to be slightly different. You can add in certain elements and add more focus to certain moments if that works better for your speech.

What is the typical presentation structure?

This is the usual flow of a presentation, which covers all the vital sections and is a good starting point for yours. It allows your audience to easily follow along and sets out a solid structure you can add your content to.

1. Greet the audience and introduce yourself

Before you start delivering your talk, introduce yourself to the audience and clarify who you are and your relevant expertise. This does not need to be long or incredibly detailed, but will help build an immediate relationship between you and the audience. It gives you the chance to briefly clarify your expertise and why you are worth listening to. This will help establish your ethos so the audience will trust you more and think you’re credible.

Read our tips on  How to Start a Presentation Effectively

2. Introduction

In the introduction you need to explain the subject and purpose of your presentation whilst gaining the audience’s interest and confidence. It’s sometimes helpful to think of your introduction as funnel-shaped to help filter down your topic:

• Introduce your general topic
• Explain your topic area
• State the issues/challenges in this area you will be exploring
• State your presentation’s purpose – this is the basis of your presentation so ensure that you provide a statement explaining how the topic will be treated, for example, “I will argue that…” or maybe you will “compare”, “analyse”, “evaluate”, “describe” etc.
• Provide a statement of what you’re hoping the outcome of the presentation will be, for example, “I’m hoping this will be provide you with…”
• Show a preview of the organisation of your presentation

In this section also explain:

• The length of the talk.
• Signal whether you want audience interaction – some presenters prefer the audience to ask questions throughout whereas others allocate a specific section for this.
• If it applies, inform the audience whether to take notes or whether you will be providing handouts.

The way you structure your introduction can depend on the amount of time you have been given to present: a  sales pitch  may consist of a quick presentation so you may begin with your conclusion and then provide the evidence. Conversely, a speaker presenting their idea for change in the world would be better suited to start with the evidence and then conclude what this means for the audience.

Keep in mind that the main aim of the introduction is to grab the audience’s attention and connect with them.

3. The main body of your talk

The main body of your talk needs to meet the promises you made in the introduction. Depending on the nature of your presentation, clearly segment the different topics you will be discussing, and then work your way through them one at a time – it’s important for everything to be organised logically for the audience to fully understand. There are many different ways to organise your main points, such as, by priority, theme, chronologically etc.

• Main points should be addressed one by one with supporting evidence and examples.
• Before moving on to the next point you should provide a mini-summary.
• Links should be clearly stated between ideas and you must make it clear when you’re moving onto the next point.
• Allow time for people to take relevant notes and stick to the topics you have prepared beforehand rather than straying too far off topic.

When planning your presentation write a list of main points you want to make and ask yourself “What I am telling the audience? What should they understand from this?” refining your answers this way will help you produce clear messages.

4. Conclusion

In presentations the conclusion is frequently underdeveloped and lacks purpose which is a shame as it’s the best place to reinforce your messages. Typically, your presentation has a specific goal – that could be to convert a number of the audience members into customers, lead to a certain number of enquiries to make people knowledgeable on specific key points, or to motivate them towards a shared goal.

Regardless of what that goal is, be sure to summarise your main points and their implications. This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there.

Follow these steps:

• Signal that it’s nearly the end of your presentation, for example, “As we wrap up/as we wind down the talk…”
• Restate the topic and purpose of your presentation – “In this speech I wanted to compare…”
• Summarise the main points, including their implications and conclusions
• Indicate what is next/a call to action/a thought-provoking takeaway
• Move on to the last section

5. Thank the audience and invite questions

Conclude your talk by thanking the audience for their time and invite them to  ask any questions  they may have. As mentioned earlier, personal circumstances will affect the structure of your presentation.

Many presenters prefer to make the Q&A session the key part of their talk and try to speed through the main body of the presentation. This is totally fine, but it is still best to focus on delivering some sort of initial presentation to set the tone and topics for discussion in the Q&A.

Other common presentation structures

The above was a description of a basic presentation, here are some more specific presentation layouts:

Demonstration

Use the demonstration structure when you have something useful to show. This is usually used when you want to show how a product works. Steve Jobs frequently used this technique in his presentations.

• Explain why the product is valuable.
• Describe why the product is necessary.
• Explain what problems it can solve for the audience.
• Demonstrate the product  to support what you’ve been saying.
• Make suggestions of other things it can do to make the audience curious.

Problem-solution

This structure is particularly useful in persuading the audience.

• Briefly frame the issue.
• Go into the issue in detail showing why it ‘s such a problem. Use logos and pathos for this – the logical and emotional appeals.
• Provide the solution and explain why this would also help the audience.
• Call to action – something you want the audience to do which is straightforward and pertinent to the solution.

Storytelling

As well as incorporating  stories in your presentation , you can organise your whole presentation as a story. There are lots of different type of story structures you can use – a popular choice is the monomyth – the hero’s journey. In a monomyth, a hero goes on a difficult journey or takes on a challenge – they move from the familiar into the unknown. After facing obstacles and ultimately succeeding the hero returns home, transformed and with newfound wisdom.

Storytelling for Business Success  webinar , where well-know storyteller Javier Bernad shares strategies for crafting compelling narratives.

Another popular choice for using a story to structure your presentation is in media ras (in the middle of thing). In this type of story you launch right into the action by providing a snippet/teaser of what’s happening and then you start explaining the events that led to that event. This is engaging because you’re starting your story at the most exciting part which will make the audience curious – they’ll want to know how you got there.

• Great storytelling: Examples from Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma

Remaining method

The remaining method structure is good for situations where you’re presenting your perspective on a controversial topic which has split people’s opinions.

• Go into the issue in detail showing why it’s such a problem – use logos and pathos.
• Rebut your opponents’ solutions  – explain why their solutions could be useful because the audience will see this as fair and will therefore think you’re trustworthy, and then explain why you think these solutions are not valid.
• After you’ve presented all the alternatives provide your solution, the remaining solution. This is very persuasive because it looks like the winning idea, especially with the audience believing that you’re fair and trustworthy.

Transitions

When delivering presentations it’s important for your words and ideas to flow so your audience can understand how everything links together and why it’s all relevant. This can be done  using speech transitions  which are words and phrases that allow you to smoothly move from one point to another so that your speech flows and your presentation is unified.

Transitions can be one word, a phrase or a full sentence – there are many different forms, here are some examples:

Moving from the introduction to the first point

Signify to the audience that you will now begin discussing the first main point:

• Now that you’re aware of the overview, let’s begin with…
• First, let’s begin with…
• I will first cover…
• My first point covers…
• To get started, let’s look at…

Shifting between similar points

Move from one point to a similar one:

• In the same way…
• Likewise…
• Equally…
• This is similar to…
• Similarly…

Internal summaries

Internal summarising consists of summarising before moving on to the next point. You must inform the audience:

• What part of the presentation you covered – “In the first part of this speech we’ve covered…”
• What the key points were – “Precisely how…”
• How this links in with the overall presentation – “So that’s the context…”
• What you’re moving on to – “Now I’d like to move on to the second part of presentation which looks at…”

Physical movement

You can move your body and your standing location when you transition to another point. The audience find it easier to follow your presentation and movement will increase their interest.

A common technique for incorporating movement into your presentation is to:

• Start your introduction by standing in the centre of the stage.
• For your first point you stand on the left side of the stage.
• You discuss your second point from the centre again.
• You stand on the right side of the stage for your third point.
• The conclusion occurs in the centre.

Key slides for your presentation

Slides are a useful tool for most presentations: they can greatly assist in the delivery of your message and help the audience follow along with what you are saying. Key slides include:

• An intro slide outlining your ideas
• A  summary slide  with core points to remember
• High quality image slides to supplement what you are saying

There are some presenters who choose not to use slides at all, though this is more of a rarity. Slides can be a powerful tool if used properly, but the problem is that many fail to do just that. Here are some golden rules to follow when using slides in a presentation:

• Don’t over fill them  – your slides are there to assist your speech, rather than be the focal point. They should have as little information as possible, to avoid distracting people from your talk.
• A picture says a thousand words  – instead of filling a slide with text, instead, focus on one or two images or diagrams to help support and explain the point you are discussing at that time.
• Make them readable  – depending on the size of your audience, some may not be able to see small text or images, so make everything large enough to fill the space.
• Don’t rush through slides  – give the audience enough time to digest each slide.

Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur and author, suggests that slideshows should follow a  10-20-30 rule :

• There should be a maximum of 10 slides – people rarely remember more than one concept afterwards so there’s no point overwhelming them with unnecessary information.
• The presentation should last no longer than 20 minutes as this will leave time for questions and discussion.
• The font size should be a minimum of 30pt because the audience reads faster than you talk so less information on the slides means that there is less chance of the audience being distracted.

Here are some additional resources for slide design:

• 7 design tips for effective, beautiful PowerPoint presentations
• 11 design tips for beautiful presentations
• 10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea

Group Presentations

Group presentations are structured in the same way as presentations with one speaker but usually require more rehearsal and practices.  Clean transitioning between speakers  is very important in producing a presentation that flows well. One way of doing this consists of:

• Briefly recap on what you covered in your section: “So that was a brief introduction on what health anxiety is and how it can affect somebody”
• Introduce the next speaker in the team and explain what they will discuss: “Now Elnaz will talk about the prevalence of health anxiety.”
• Then end by looking at the next speaker, gesturing towards them and saying their name: “Elnaz”.
• The next speaker should acknowledge this with a quick: “Thank you Joe.”

From this example you can see how the different sections of the presentations link which makes it easier for the audience to follow and remain engaged.

Example of great presentation structure and delivery

Having examples of great presentations will help inspire your own structures, here are a few such examples, each unique and inspiring in their own way.

How Google Works – by Eric Schmidt

This presentation by ex-Google CEO  Eric Schmidt  demonstrates some of the most important lessons he and his team have learnt with regards to working with some of the most talented individuals they hired. The simplistic yet cohesive style of all of the slides is something to be appreciated. They are relatively straightforward, yet add power and clarity to the narrative of the presentation.

Start with why – by Simon Sinek

Since being released in 2009, this presentation has been viewed almost four million times all around the world. The message itself is very powerful, however, it’s not an idea that hasn’t been heard before. What makes this presentation so powerful is the simple message he is getting across, and the straightforward and understandable manner in which he delivers it. Also note that he doesn’t use any slides, just a whiteboard where he creates a simple diagram of his opinion.

The Wisdom of a Third Grade Dropout – by Rick Rigsby

Here’s an example of a presentation given by a relatively unknown individual looking to inspire the next generation of graduates. Rick’s presentation is unique in many ways compared to the two above. Notably, he uses no visual prompts and includes a great deal of humour.

However, what is similar is the structure he uses. He first introduces his message that the wisest man he knew was a third-grade dropout. He then proceeds to deliver his main body of argument, and in the end, concludes with his message. This powerful speech keeps the viewer engaged throughout, through a mixture of heart-warming sentiment, powerful life advice and engaging humour.

As you can see from the examples above, and as it has been expressed throughout, a great presentation structure means analysing the core message of your presentation. Decide on a key message you want to impart the audience with, and then craft an engaging way of delivering it.

By preparing a solid structure, and  practising your talk  beforehand, you can walk into the presentation with confidence and deliver a meaningful message to an interested audience.

It’s important for a presentation to be well-structured so it can have the most impact on your audience. An unstructured presentation can be difficult to follow and even frustrating to listen to. The heart of your speech are your main points supported by evidence and your transitions should assist the movement between points and clarify how everything is linked.

Research suggests that the audience remember the first and last things you say so your introduction and conclusion are vital for reinforcing your points. Essentially, ensure you spend the time structuring your presentation and addressing all of the sections.

Ace the Presentation

7 Different Types of Presentation

The passionate art of presentation – where you stand in front of an audience, take a deep breath, and talk about something you’ve prepared on. It can be on anything and everything under the sun – the global economic crisis, the history of the Renaissance, a story of how you overcame hardships in life, you name it. These are all presentations, yet each of them is a different kind. So, exactly how many kinds of presentations are there?

There are 7 different types of presentations that are most common. They are Educational, Instructional, Motivational, Problem-solution, Progress, Storytelling , and Visual. Each of these has its own unique delivery style and techniques, which are part of its structure. 

If you’re someone who truly wishes to master the art of presentation, it is quite important that you learn in-depth about each and every one of these 7 styles. In this article, we’ll cover all of these in detail so that you’ll know exactly which techniques to apply and go about for each one. Are you ready to be a master of presentations? Let’s begin.

In-depth Look Into The 7 Different Types of Presentation

Without making you wait, let’s jump right into the 7 different types of presentation that we mentioned previously and see how each one is unique in its own way.

1) Educational Presentations

Use Cases: To present new or existing ideas, share ground-breaking research, and discuss innovative concepts.

Tone: Informative, engaging, inspiring.

Educational presentations are perhaps the most common type of presentation. This is where you try to teach your audience about a specific topic and help them to gain a better understanding of it. It can be on science, technology, culture, history, psychology – basically, anything you can think of. 

Often, you’ll see these kinds of presentations being used in academic settings such as conferences, lectures, and seminars. We’re sure you must have sat through quite a few of these presentations during your time at school or university. The idea of these presentations is to share knowledge, provide information, and also inspire the audience to learn something new. 

Key things to keep in mind while delivering educational presentations:

• The information that you’re providing should be well-researched and accurate. You can’t give an educational presentation based on opinions, you have to ground it in facts and data.
• The delivery has to be engaging, otherwise, the audience will not learn anything. A boring educational presentation is as good as no presentation, so make sure you’re keeping your audience intrigued by what you have to say.
• Avoid information overload. It’s possible that you might give too much information at the same time and confuse your audience. Keep the presentation organized and concise, and make sure you put focus on the main points.

Examples of educational presentations:

• TED Talks are a fantastic example of educational presentations. You have speakers from all walks of life who come onto the stage and talk about their field, and the audience is all ears.
• University lectures where professors take their students through presentations on their field of expertise, depending on the course the students have applied for.
• A doctor taking a session on health and well-being and informing their audience about proper nutrition and exercise for a long-lasting life.

2) Instructional Presentations

Use Cases: To train people, provide instructions for a certain task or process, and teach how to use some product or service.

Tone: Detailed, organized, and patient.

Sometimes, you don’t just want to give your audience a bunch of information on some topic. You want to take them through the process of something, step-by-step. This is where instructional presentations come into play. Whether it’s for learning a new language, coding software, or even something as simple as using your new washing machine, instructional presentations are what help.

These presentations are designed in such a way that they help your audience learn how to perform specific tasks or achieve a particular goal. You’ll often see these being used in workshops, training sessions, and even tutorials. The instructor will give detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to do something, and the audience is expected to follow along. 

Key things to keep in mind while delivering instructional presentations:

• Make sure to explain each step in the process so that the audience knows exactly what to do.
• Allow your audience to practice what they’ve learned, either during the presentation (with the help of props or demos) or after the presentation.
• Make use of visual aids as much as possible since this will help your audience to learn better what you’re doing.

Examples of instructional presentations:

• A cooking show where the chef is showing you exactly how to sear a perfectly medium-rare steak or bake a moist and fluffy cake. 
• A makeup or DIY program (especially on YouTube where you can find tons of these), that takes you through a step-by-step process of achieving the look you want.
• A workshop on how to use Microsoft Excel, where the instructor will take you through the different options, functions, and steps on how you can input data and create graphs and charts.

3) Motivational Presentations

Use Cases: To inspire or motivate your audience to take action, overcome adversity, or offer practical tips for achieving goals.

Tone: Informative, uplifting, emotional.  

Presentations are not always about teaching something new. You can even use presentations to inspire and encourage your audience to take action, chase their dreams, and even overcome some of the challenges that they’re facing in life. These kinds of presentations are called motivational presentations.

A lot of corporate events and personal development seminars use this particular type of presentation to get their message across. If used properly, it’s quite effective in getting a call to action across to your audience. 

Key things to keep in mind while delivering motivational presentations:

• Use the power of emotions, as it will help connect with your audience better.
• Body language and tone of voice are quite important in striking a chord with your audience, so utilize them effectively.
• A great idea is to start with an inspiring story or anecdote (from your personal life, which will make it even better) so that your audience gets some sense of what to expect.

Examples of motivational presentations: 

• A sports coach delivers a passionate speech to their team before the big game (especially in college football) to get them pumped up.
• A TEDx Talk delivered by a famous entrepreneur about how to make it big in the business world. 
• Motivational speakers take their audience through some helpful, practical topics (such as Jordan Belfort from Wolf of Wall Street. Watch one of his best motivational presentations here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjj9qOxGCgkandpp=ygUbam9yZGFuIGJlbGZvcnQgcHJlc2VudGF0aW9u ).  

4) Problem-Solution Presentations

Use Cases: To address a specific issue and then come up with good solutions.

Tone: Analytical, solution-oriented, persuasive.

It often happens that you might find yourself in a situation where there’s some problem you need to address, and it’s your job to come up with solutions. Here’s where you can use a problem-solution presentation. Doesn’t matter if you’re a team leader wanting to fix a project issue or even a scientist giving an innovative solution to an age-old conundrum – these presentations are your go-to.

You can find these kinds of presentations usually used in business meetings, science conferences, and sometimes also in political debates (such as the election face-off between the presidential candidates), where they identify problems and argue for solutions.

Key things to keep in mind while delivering problem-solution presentations:

• It’s super important that you clearly define the problem at hand. A well-defined problem is half the solution. 
• When you propose solutions, make sure they’re not only practical but also feasible. It should be relevant to the problem at hand.
• Persuasion is your best friend here because you need to let your audience know that your solution is the best one.

Examples of problem-solution presentations:

• A company board meeting where the CEO presents a strategic plan to overcome a financial crisis or mentions how to address the problems with a merger.
• A climate scientist presenting at a conference talking about some new technology that can address the climate crisis. 
• A political debate where the candidate outlines their policy to address a pressing social issue (think Biden vs. Trump in the last election).

5) Progress Presentations

Use Cases: To provide updates on a project, outline the progress made so far, and discuss future plans.

Tone: Informative, precise, forward-looking.

When you are knee-deep in a project, it’s important that you keep all your stakeholders in the loop. Enter progress presentations! These are handy little things that serve as a status check on what’s happened so far, highlight achievements, and even go into the roadblocks faced and the way ahead.

Most business managers and project teams use these progress presentations to keep everyone updated on what’s been happening. It helps a lot in managing expectations and making sure everyone’s on the same page.

Key things to keep in mind while delivering progress presentations:

• Don’t beat around the bush, be super clear. Your audience needs to know exactly where you (or the project) stand.
• Try to talk about both successes and failures. This makes it more realistic, and your audience is more likely to accept what you’re saying.
• Always end with the next steps. Don’t stop with whatever’s happened. Make sure you show your audience the next step forward.

Examples of progress presentations:

• Research students and doctoral students present their thesis progress to their advisors.
• Project managers, especially in IT companies, presenting progress reports to their clients.
• Scientists talking about their research updates at conferences.

6) Story-telling Presentations

Use Cases: To share personal experiences, narrate historical events, or even tell a story that conveys a particular message.

Tone: Engaging, emotional, captivating.

Here’s a presentation that’s neither strictly educational, instructional, nor motivational, yet all of these at the same time. Story-telling presentations are narratives. It’s how you use the power of a pretty great story to engage, entertain and even convey some message you have to your audience.

There’s really no particular place where these presentations are seen more. From classrooms to corporate seminars, and even in casual social gatherings, you’ll see story-telling presentations connecting with people.

Key things to keep in mind while delivering story-telling presentations:

• Choose a compelling story. Your story should not be boring and monotonous, it needs to be engaging and relevant.
• Emotions are super important. You can’t have a good story if it does not make your audience feel something.
• Use visuals and sounds to enhance your story and make it more captivating.

Examples of story-telling presentations:

• Keynote speakers are at graduation ceremonies talking about their personal journeys and weaving stories for their audience.
• History teachers talk about some great historical battles that happened to engage their students.
• TEDx speakers narrate their life stories and challenges they had to overcome.

7) Visual Presentations

Use Cases: To present complex data, illustrate trends, or when need your visuals to be the primary source of information.

Tone: Informative, engaging, visual.

In a visual presentation, images are king. Here, your words take a backseat to make way for diagrams, charts, graphs, infographics, and other visual elements. The goal is simple – show your data and ideas in the most understandable and engaging way to your audience.

When it comes to scientific research, market analysis, or even something like architectural design, you need to use visual presentations to break it down and make it easy to understand for your audience. Even for fields like graphic design and photography, these presentations ensure that your work speaks for itself.

Key things to keep in mind while delivering visual presentations:

• Visuals should be clear and easy to understand. The goal is to increase comprehension, not confuse your audience even more.
• While visuals are a major part, don’t neglect your verbal communication aspect. Your explanations and commentary of what’s on the screen can make a lot of difference.
• Before making any visual presentations, learn a little about design principles. It’s as important for your presentation to be aesthetically pleasing as it is to be informative.

Examples of visual presentations:

• A data analyst presenting market trends and forecasts using graphs and charts to present before a senior team.
• An architect showcasing to their clients a building design using 3D models and digital renderings.
• A graphic designer presenting their portfolio in a job interview in order to impress the recruiters.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, each of these 7 presentation styles is unique in its own way and have its own set of situations where they are effective. We hope this article has helped you get a deeper understanding of how different presentation styles work and how to use them to make your message understood. Make sure you practice a lot for whichever presentation style you’re opting for, and we’re sure you’ll wow your audience. All the best!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Even after reading through this article, you might still have a few questions surrounding the types of presentations. Let us answer some of the most common ones. 

Q.1. What is the most common type of presentation?

A. Educational or Informative presentations are usually the most common types of presentations that you’ll find. This is because from primary school onwards, you’re exposed to these presentations almost every single day from your teachers!

Q.2. Which is the hardest type of presentation?

A. The hardest presentation is subjective because it depends on your skills as a presenter and also on the topic that you’re speaking about. Generally speaking, motivational presentations are considered pretty hard because you have to connect deeply with your audience, which requires a lot of experience to do well.

Q.3. How to give a good presentation?

A. If you want to learn how to give a great presentation, there’s a fantastic guide from Harvard Business Review that can help you out. Check it out here – https://hbr.org/2013/06/how-to-give-a-killer-presentation . 

Similar Posts

An Easy Guide to All 15 Types of Speech

We keep learning that there are three types of speeches, informative speeches, persuasive speeches and special occasion speeches. However, I believe and know that there are many more such as debates, motivational speeches, forensic speeches, impromptu speeches, eulogy, and so on. Here’s a growing list of over 13 types of speech and tips on how to deliver them.

Top Free Online Public Speaking Classes

Public speaking is an art form that many people have not perfected yet. For you to master public speaking, you will need strenuous practice and years of dedication. You require constant monitoring, refinement and mentoring because you can’t become great by just “doing it” on your own. Professional public speaking trainers can offer the required…

The 10 Key Elements of a Great Presentation Explained

Whether we’re at a team meeting or making a presentation for an audience, we all have to speak in public once in a while.  We can do it well, or we can do it badly, but one thing is sure: the result will affect what other people will think about us. That’s why public speaking…

The Purpose of Speech Explained

If you ever find it unnecessary, out of fashion, dull, or even have no idea what speeches are for, this article is undoubtedly for you. With each word of this article, you will understand the real purpose of the speeches, how they arose, and what usefulness they bring to our day-to-day lives. What is a…

Communication Skills Guide: Examples of 11 Good and 8 Poor ones

Having effective communication skills is essential to every aspect of life, from going through school/college, to simply sharing ideas, speaking in public, nailing an interview, for better prospects in bidding proposals and whether we like it or not, we sometimes have poor communication skills. Well, it is not wrong to accept it; in fact, it…

The 7 Basic Elements of Public Speaking

Remember that time you had to present a topic in front of a crowd? Probably it was a proposal at work or an oral report in grade school. You took the time to prepare and gather materials, after which you climbed the podium and started talking. There are seven basic elements of public speaking that…

5 Unique Types Of Presentation - Which Suits Your Purpose Best

Table of contents.

In today’s fast-paced world, effective communication has become an indispensable skill. Whether in the classroom, the boardroom, or on a global stage, the way we present our ideas can make all the difference. While traditional presentations certainly have their place, it’s essential to explore new and innovative approaches to captivate your audience and convey your message with impact.

In this blog of the art of presentation, we will journey beyond the conventional, shedding light on five types of presentations that show the way we share information, tell stories, and engage our audience. Each of these presentation types harnesses the power of creativity, technology, and human connection to leave a lasting impression and drive meaningful change.

Why Are Different Presentation Styles Needed?

Different types of presentation styles are needed because they serve diverse purposes, engage various audiences, and are suited to specific situations. Here are several reasons why various styles are necessary:

Audience Diversity

Audiences vary in terms of their interests, knowledge levels, and preferences. Some may respond better to data-driven informative presentations, while others may be more receptive to inspirational or entertaining presentations. Using different styles allows you to cater to the needs and preferences of different audience groups.

Communication Objectives

Different presentations serve different communication goals. Informative presentations aim to educate, persuasive presentations aim to convince, and motivational presentations aim to engage and inspire. Using the appropriate style aligns your presentation with your specific objectives.

Content Complexity

The complexity of the content being presented may dictate the presentation style. Complex technical information might require a demonstrative or how-to style, while a simple and emotionally charged message may be best conveyed through an inspirational or storytelling approach.

Engagement and Retention

Varied presentation types help keep audiences engaged and improve information retention. Mixing up presentation formats prevents monotony and boredom, making it more likely that your audience will stay focused and remember the key talking points.

Context and Setting

The context and setting of a presentation matter. A formal business presentation may require a more structured and data-driven approach, while a casual team meeting might benefit from interactive discussions. Adapting your style to the context enhances the effectiveness of your communication.

Audience Feedback

Presenters often adjust their styles based on audience feedback. If you notice that your audience is disengaged or confused, you may choose to switch to a different style or incorporate more interactive elements to address their concerns and create genuine interest.

Cultural and Regional Differences

Different styles can also be influenced by cultural and regional norms. What works in one culture may not be as effective in another. Being aware of these differences and adapting your style accordingly is essential for effective cross-cultural communication.

Technology and Innovation

As technology evolves, new styles and tools emerge. Virtual reality presentations, for example, have become increasingly popular for their immersive qualities. Staying up-to-date with technological advancements can open up new possibilities for engaging your audience.

Personal Style and Strengths

Every presenter has their own strengths and preferences. Some may excel at delivering data-driven presentations, while others may be more comfortable with inspirational or interactive styles. Adapting your style to your strengths can enhance your confidence and impact.

What Are The Different Types Of Presentations?

Educational/informative presentations.

The educational or informative presentation types are meant to provide the audience with new information about a topic. They aim to educate and enhance the audience’s understanding of the subject matter. These presentations often use visual aids such as charts, graphs and data to support the information being shared.

Instructional Presentations

An instructive presentation, often referred to as a how-to presentation, is a type of presentation that is designed to teach the audience a specific skill, provide step-by-step guidance on completing a task, or impact knowledge on a particular topic. The primary purpose of this presentation method is to facilitate learning and help the audience acquire new information or abilities. These are often used in training with new employees to give them a better understanding of a job they are expected to do.

Motivational Presentations

A motivational presentation aim to entertain, motivate or inspire the audience. They may include storytelling, humour, and emotional appeals to engage and uplift the audience. This inspirational presentation style is often seen in speeches with motivational speakers, at TED Talks or keynote addresses.

Persuasive Presentations

A persuasive presentation is designed to convince the audience to adopt a particular viewpoint, take specific actions, or make decisions in line with the presenter’s goals. They often involve the use of compelling arguments, emotional appeals, and persuasive techniques to sway the audience’s opinions.

Progress Presentations

The progress presentation method is a type of presentation that provides an update on the status, development or advancement of a project, task or any ongoing work. These presentations are usually delivered at regular intervals throughout the duration of a project to inform stakeholders, team members or decision makers about the current state of affairs.

What Are The Benefits To Using Different Types Of Presentations?

Using different types of presentations has several benefits, depending on the context, audience and goals of your presentation. Here are some advantages of incorporating diverse presentation styles:

Audience Engagement and Response

Varying presentation styles cater to different audience preferences. By adapting your style to the preferences of your audience, you can capture their attention more effectively, and keep the audience thinking throughout your presentation. Varied presentations types allow you to convey information from multiple angles, making it easier for the audience to grasp complex concepts. Some people may respond better to visual aids, while others prefer interactive discussions or storytelling.

Improved Quality And More Memorable

Different presentation styles can stimulate different parts of the brain, which can enhance memory retention. Engaging visuals, emotional storytelling, and interactive activities can all contribute to better recall of your message.

Having a repertoire of presentation types makes you a more versatile and adaptable communicator. You can choose the style that best fits the message, situation, and audience, increasing the chances of successful communication.

You Can Adapt To Connect With The Nature Of The Topic

Different situations require different approaches. Whether you’re giving a formal business presentation, a training workshop, or a casual team meeting, choosing the appropriate style helps you align with the context and achieve your goals effectively.

Are There Only 5 Types Of Presentation?

No, we’ve simply selected the most common types we see. The five most common types of presentations— educational/informative, instructional, motivational, persuasive, and progress—are popular because they serve fundamental communication needs and are versatile in various contexts.

These five presentation styles are the most popular because they address fundamental communication objectives and cater to diverse audience needs. Their versatility allows presenters to adapt to various situations, whether it’s delivering critical information, influencing decisions, inspiring change, teaching skills, or fostering collaboration. Additionally, these styles can be combined or customized to suit specific goals and audiences, further contributing to their widespread use and popularity.

Wrapping Things Up On Types Of Presentations

Learning and using different presentations can be a valuable skill for personal growth and professional development. It challenges you to become a more versatile and effective communicator. By choosing the right style for your message and audience, you can maximize the impact of your presentations and impactful presentations are more likely to achieve their intended goals.

In summary, the benefits of using different types of presentations lie in their ability to make your communication more effective, engaging, and adaptable. Being able to switch between styles allows you to connect with various audiences, convey your message more convincingly, and achieve better outcomes in your personal and professional endeavours.

As we conclude our journey through these versatile approaches, it becomes abundantly clear that the power of presentation lies not just in what we say, but how we say it.

Each presentation style, in its uniqueness, encapsulates a facet of the human experience—a story to tell, a lesson to learn, a cause to champion, a skill to acquire, or a problem to solve. While the styles themselves are distinct, they are not mutually exclusive; they interweave and overlap, offering a rich tapestry of communicative tools for us to master.

So, as you embark on your next presentation, remember the versatile repertoire at your disposal. Tailor your approach to your objectives, your audience, and the unique message you wish to convey. Embrace the power of creativity, technology, and human connection. For in the realm of presentations, it is not merely the words spoken or the slides displayed that matter most; it is the lasting impact etched into the hearts and minds of those who bear witness.

What Ever Type Of Presentation You Need, Create It With The Geeks!

At Presentation Geeks, we live and breathe PowerPoint presentation design . We have designed over 50,000 slides for a wide variety of clients and pride ourselves on having a 100% 5 star review rating.

If you’re looking for a design agency to take your presentations off your hands, work with the geeks at Presentation Geeks and be sure that the slide deck will exceed your expectations!

Contact us today to see how we can help you reach your business goals.

Author:  Content Team

Related posts.

FREE PROFESSIONAL RESOURCES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX.

Subscribe for free tips, resources, templates, ideas and more from our professional team of presentation designers.

• Google Slides Presentation Design
• Pitch Deck Design
• Powerpoint Redesign
• Other Design Services

• Business Slides
• Guide & How to's
• Types of presentations

Presentations are used in almost every sphere, be it business presentation, education, or even entertainment. Naturally, there’s no single solution for a presentation. In fact, there’s a lot of things to consider when you choose the types of presentation . While your presentation’s goal certainly matters, there’s also the visuals, the lengths, the type of presentation style and a lot of other features to consider. In other words, that’s a lot to choose from. How to figure out what suits you best among the types of PowerPoint presentation ? Let’s review some of the common ones and you’ll certainly get some fresh ideas!

Type 1: Elevator Pitch

One of the most common types of presentations in business , the elevator pitch is quick, informative, and incredibly versatile. It derives its name from the business world, where sometimes you only have time during the elevator ride to present your idea and persuade your potential investor. The initial type of presentation in business doesn’t actually require slides, since it is basically a speech lasting up to three minutes that explains your idea and its benefits. However, in a broader sense, it is a name used for short presentations up to 10 slides, describing the main points and having minimal visual support, mostly centered around simple infographics or graphs.

Type 2: Informative presentation

This type of presentation is usually a longer one, and naturally it contains a lot of information, since its goal is to inform the audience on a subject. This is probably the most common type of presentation style for college, but it is widely used in business as well, mainly for internal tasks, like explanation of the changes in company’s structure etc. This type of presentation usually features a lot of text and may also include rather complex visuals. So, there’s naturally a risk of being really boring. A good thing to do in this presentation type is to try to make it interactive – ask questions, add some videos and so on.

Type 3: Storytelling

Another great type of presentation in business (or actually any other sphere) is the storytelling presentation type. In essence, it is a presentation built like a story — where your points are illustrated by examples, either from your life or from life in general. This presentation type is usually heavy on text content, but using visuals in support can make for a much better experience. Even the most interesting story might be rather dull when it is too long. Using media may present a great distraction for your audience that would, however, still keep them on track.

Type 4: Visual presentation

This presentation is where the text part gives way to the visuals. Graphs, infographics, videos and pictures, visualization powerpoint — everything that can illustrate your point properly will fit. This type of PowerPoint presentation is probably the most captivating for the audience and certainly the most good looking. To succeed with this presentation, you’ll have to use visuals that would require minimum explanation. To a certain extent, such presentations can actually present themselves with little participation of a speaker. Your task as a presenter here is to guide the audience through your amazing visuals.

Type 5: Roadmap presentation

A rather innovative and mostly a type of presentation in business , the Roadmap is built to show how to get to the objective. For presentation design service an objective is usually presented at the beginning, and the whole presentation basically consists of the milestones that should be achieved on the way to said objective. Among the different types of presentation , this one is really heavy on infographics. What is more, there’s plenty of opportunities here to experiment with unusual slide layouts and the continuity of images on slides, since such presentations tend to follow the “road” structure and use the road imagery in the design.

Type 6: Problem solving presentation

As you have probably guessed, in this presentation your content would be built around a certain problem for which you then design a solving strategy. It is a pretty universal type of presentation since it can be used in pretty much every sphere. What is especially good about this presentation is that you can apply any of the problem-solving techniques to it, which makes you really flexible in terms of structure. What is more, the problem might (and actually should) resonate with the audience, increasing the involvement and interest in what you are talking about.

Type 7: Instructor presentation

This presentation type is quite similar to the informative presentation: there’s lots of content and a lot of text to deliver in your speech. It is a perfect type of presentation for really complex topics that require high levels of understanding from both the audience and the presenter. Instructor presentations usually feature quite a lot of visual support and are longer than the average presentations. While it may be hard to make the presentation as light as for example the elevator pitch or a visual presentation, it is better to reserve this style for the subjects in which both you and your audience are greatly interested. You can also use professional presentation services to help you with it.

Type 8: Text only presentation

At first glance it may seem like a really bad idea, but who said that text can’t look beautiful? Text only presentation allows you to throw away all the unnecessary elements and make the audience focus entirely on your content. Keep in mind that this presentation type doesn’t suggest that you should use walls of text and bore your audience to death. On the contrary, you can conveniently organize your text into bullet points and one-sentence statements that can be a great backbone to your speech.

In conclusion

There’s no shortage of presentation types and creative ideas. Depending on the type of your content and the message that you convey you can choose any of them. But what is more, you can combine them as well, creating a unique and engaging work that would really impress your audience!  We really hope that this article will give you some ideas of where to start with your presentation and what path to choose .

#ezw_tco-2 .ez-toc-widget-container ul.ez-toc-list li.active::before { background-color: #ededed; } Table of contents

• Presenting techniques
• 50 tips on how to improve PowerPoint presentations in 2022-2023 [Updated]
• Keynote VS PowerPoint
• Present financial information visually in PowerPoint to drive results

How to create a business plan presentation?

Writing an outline: creating a presentation blueprint

Business case presentation: how to prepare, write, and present

• PRESENTATION SKILLS

What is a Presentation?

Search SkillsYouNeed:

Presentation Skills:

• A - Z List of Presentation Skills
• Top Tips for Effective Presentations
• General Presentation Skills
• Preparing for a Presentation
• Organising the Material
• Writing Your Presentation
• Deciding the Presentation Method
• Managing your Presentation Notes
• Working with Visual Aids
• Presenting Data
• Managing the Event
• Coping with Presentation Nerves
• Dealing with Questions
• How to Build Presentations Like a Consultant
• 7 Qualities of Good Speakers That Can Help You Be More Successful
• Self-Presentation in Presentations
• Specific Presentation Events
• Remote Meetings and Presentations
• Giving a Speech
• Presentations in Interviews
• Presenting to Large Groups and Conferences
• Giving Lectures and Seminars
• Managing a Press Conference
• Attending Public Consultation Meetings
• Managing a Public Consultation Meeting
• Crisis Communications
• Elsewhere on Skills You Need:
• Communication Skills
• Facilitation Skills
• Teams, Groups and Meetings
• Effective Speaking
• Question Types

Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and start improving your life in just 5 minutes a day.

You'll get our 5 free 'One Minute Life Skills' and our weekly newsletter.

We'll never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.

The formal presentation of information is divided into two broad categories: Presentation Skills and Personal Presentation .

These two aspects are interwoven and can be described as the preparation, presentation and practice of verbal and non-verbal communication. 

This article describes what a presentation is and defines some of the key terms associated with presentation skills.

Many people feel terrified when asked to make their first public talk.  Some of these initial fears can be reduced by good preparation that also lays the groundwork for making an effective presentation.

A Presentation Is...

A presentation is a means of communication that can be adapted to various speaking situations, such as talking to a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team.

A presentation can also be used as a broad term that encompasses other ‘speaking engagements’ such as making a speech at a wedding, or getting a point across in a video conference.

To be effective, step-by-step preparation and the method and means of presenting the information should be carefully considered. 

A presentation requires you to get a message across to the listeners and will often contain a ' persuasive ' element. It may, for example, be a talk about the positive work of your organisation, what you could offer an employer, or why you should receive additional funding for a project.

The Key Elements of a Presentation

Making a presentation is a way of communicating your thoughts and ideas to an audience and many of our articles on communication are also relevant here, see: What is Communication? for more.

Consider the following key components of a presentation:

Ask yourself the following questions to develop a full understanding of the context of the presentation.

When and where will you deliver your presentation?

There is a world of difference between a small room with natural light and an informal setting, and a huge lecture room, lit with stage lights. The two require quite different presentations, and different techniques.

Will it be in a setting you are familiar with, or somewhere new?

If somewhere new, it would be worth trying to visit it in advance, or at least arriving early, to familiarise yourself with the room.

Will the presentation be within a formal or less formal setting?

A work setting will, more or less by definition, be more formal, but there are also various degrees of formality within that.

Will the presentation be to a small group or a large crowd?

Are you already familiar with the audience?

With a new audience, you will have to build rapport quickly and effectively, to get them on your side.

What equipment and technology will be available to you, and what will you be expected to use?

In particular, you will need to ask about microphones and whether you will be expected to stand in one place, or move around.

What is the audience expecting to learn from you and your presentation?

Check how you will be ‘billed’ to give you clues as to what information needs to be included in your presentation.

All these aspects will change the presentation. For more on this, see our page on Deciding the Presentation Method .

The role of the presenter is to communicate with the audience and control the presentation.

Remember, though, that this may also include handing over the control to your audience, especially if you want some kind of interaction.

You may wish to have a look at our page on Facilitation Skills for more.

The audience receives the presenter’s message(s).

However, this reception will be filtered through and affected by such things as the listener’s own experience, knowledge and personal sense of values.

See our page: Barriers to Effective Communication to learn why communication can fail.

The message or messages are delivered by the presenter to the audience.

The message is delivered not just by the spoken word ( verbal communication ) but can be augmented by techniques such as voice projection, body language, gestures, eye contact ( non-verbal communication ), and visual aids.

The message will also be affected by the audience’s expectations. For example, if you have been billed as speaking on one particular topic, and you choose to speak on another, the audience is unlikely to take your message on board even if you present very well . They will judge your presentation a failure, because you have not met their expectations.

The audience’s reaction and therefore the success of the presentation will largely depend upon whether you, as presenter, effectively communicated your message, and whether it met their expectations.

As a presenter, you don’t control the audience’s expectations. What you can do is find out what they have been told about you by the conference organisers, and what they are expecting to hear. Only if you know that can you be confident of delivering something that will meet expectations.

See our page: Effective Speaking for more information.

How will the presentation be delivered?

Presentations are usually delivered direct to an audience.  However, there may be occasions where they are delivered from a distance over the Internet using video conferencing systems, such as Skype.

It is also important to remember that if your talk is recorded and posted on the internet, then people may be able to access it for several years. This will mean that your contemporaneous references should be kept to a minimum.

Impediments

Many factors can influence the effectiveness of how your message is communicated to the audience.

For example background noise or other distractions, an overly warm or cool room, or the time of day and state of audience alertness can all influence your audience’s level of concentration.

As presenter, you have to be prepared to cope with any such problems and try to keep your audience focussed on your message.   

Our page: Barriers to Communication explains these factors in more depth.

Continue to read through our Presentation Skills articles for an overview of how to prepare and structure a presentation, and how to manage notes and/or illustrations at any speaking event.

Continue to: Preparing for a Presentation Deciding the Presentation Method

See also: Writing Your Presentation | Working with Visual Aids Coping with Presentation Nerves | Dealing with Questions Learn Better Presentation Skills with TED Talks

• Create a presentation Article
• Save Article
• Design Article
• Share and collaborate Article
• Give a presentation Article
• Set up your mobile apps Article
• Learn more Article

Create a presentation

Create a presentation in PowerPoint

Create presentations from scratch or start with a professionally designed, fully customizable template from Microsoft Create .

Open PowerPoint.

In the left pane, select New .

Select an option:

To create a presentation from scratch, select Blank Presentation .

To use a prepared design, select one of the templates.

To see tips for using PowerPoint, select Take a Tour , and then select Create , .

Add a slide

In the thumbnails on the left pane, select the slide you want your new slide to follow.

In the  Home tab, in the  Slides  section, select  New Slide .

In the Slides section, select Layout , and then select the layout you want from the menu.

Add and format text

Place the cursor inside a text box, and then type something.

Select the text, and then select one or more options from the Font section of the Home tab, such as  Font , Increase Font Size , Decrease Font Size ,  Bold , Italic , Underline , etc.

To create bulleted or numbered lists, select the text, and then select Bullets or Numbering .

Add a picture, shape, and more

Go to the  Insert  tab.

To add a picture:

In the Images section, select Pictures .

In the Insert Picture From menu, select the source you want.

Browse for the picture you want, select it, and then select Insert .

To add illustrations:

In the Illustrations section, select Shapes , Icons , 3D Models ,  SmartArt , or Chart .

In the dialog box that opens when you click one of the illustration types, select the item you want and follow the prompts to insert it.

Need more help?

Want more options.

Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.

Microsoft 365 subscription benefits

Microsoft 365 training

Microsoft security

Accessibility center

Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.

Ask the Microsoft Community

Microsoft Tech Community

Windows Insiders

Microsoft 365 Insiders

Find solutions to common problems or get help from a support agent.

Online support

Was this information helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

The Types of Colleges: The Basics

Find the right college for you., sorting out colleges by their types.

Is a college the same thing as a university? What does "liberal arts" mean? Why are some colleges called public and others private? Knowing the basics in regard to different types of colleges is imperative to making the right decision.

Public and Private Colleges

Public colleges are funded by local and state governments and usually offer lower tuition rates than private colleges, especially for students who are residents of the state where a college is located.

Private colleges rely on tuition, fees, and non-government funding sources. Generous financial aid packages for students are often available thanks to private donations.

For-Profit Colleges

For-profit institutions are businesses that typically offer career training. Although these colleges offer a variety of degree programs, it's wise to exercise caution when applying to a for-profit school. The degree programs often come at a higher cost, meaning students graduate with more debt. Credits earned may not transfer to other colleges so be sure to check with the admissions office at each institution.

Four-year and two-year colleges

Four-year institutions are referred to as undergraduate colleges. Four-year colleges specifically offer bachelor's degree programs. These include universities and liberal arts colleges.

Two-year colleges offer certificate programs that can be completed in under two years. They also offer two-year associate degrees. These include community colleges, vocational-technical colleges, and career colleges.

Liberal Arts Colleges

These institutions offer numerous courses in liberal arts in areas such as literature, history, languages, mathematics, and life sciences. Most of these institutions are private and offer four-year bachelor's degree programs. These colleges prepare students for a multiplicity of careers as well as graduate studies

Universities

Universities are larger institutions that offer a wider variety of academic majors and degree options. These schools provide bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. Most universities contain several smaller colleges, such as colleges of education, engineering, or health sciences. These colleges can prepare you for a wide range of careers or for graduate study.

Community Colleges

Community colleges offer two-year associate degrees that prepare undergraduates for four-year institutions offering bachelor programs. They also provide career-specific associate degrees and certificates. Community colleges are an affordable option because of their low tuition costs. 

What is the difference between a college and a university?

A college is a smaller school that may offer a wide variety of educational programs or more focused specializations for those seeking undergraduate degrees. Standing alone or as part of a larger institution, a college is often a private institution with a lower student population and smaller class sizes. On the other hand, a university is a larger school offering both undergraduate and graduate-level degrees. Because they’re a component of a university's doctoral programs, such institutions also serve as research facilities for educational advancement.

Vocational-Technical and Career Colleges

Vocational-technical and career colleges offer specialized training in a particular industry or career. Areas of study include the culinary arts, firefighting, dental hygiene, and medical-records technology. These colleges usually offer students certificates or associate degree programs.

Colleges with a Special Focus

Some colleges focus on a specific interest or student population. These include:

• Arts colleges
• Single-sex colleges
• Religiously affiliated colleges
• Specialized mission colleges

Arts Colleges

Conservatories and colleges of this variety focus on the arts. In addition to regular coursework, these institutions provide training in areas such as photography, music, theater, sculpture, drawing, or fashion design. Most of these schools offer associate or bachelor's degrees in the fine arts or a specialized field.

Single-Sex Colleges

Some private colleges are specifically for men or women.

Religiously Affiliated Colleges

Some private, higher-education institutions are connected to a religious faith. Such connections may simply be historic in nature. Others incorporate religious study into day-to-day student life.

Specially Designated Colleges

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) focus on educating African American students. Colleges and universities are designated Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) when at least 25% of the full-time undergraduate students are Hispanic. HBCUs and HSIs may offer programs, services, and activities targeted to the underrepresented students they serve.

What is better, a university or a college?

Those who prefer a more intimate experience with a greater connection to faculty may prefer a college. However, a university may be better for those looking for a broader range of programs and more learning facilities. The ultimate answer will depend on your personal preferences and the school in question. Both colleges and universities can provide a rewarding educational experience.

What to Do Now That You Know About the Different Types of Colleges

Now that you’re familiar with the types of institutions available, you should decide which one will suit your future goals. It’s often helpful to create a vision board of what you plan to achieve before deciding how you plan to achieve it. Take some time to think about your trajectory while keeping the knowledge of these various types of schools in mind. If you need direction after you assess your needs, you may find it helpful to talk to your school's guidance office, a college recruiter, or a college alum to work through any other questions you might have.

Embarking on a journey through higher education can be both exciting and challenging. Using the information presented here should help you sift through your options so the decisions you make today will serve you better in the future. For more help finding the right colleges for you, check out College Search .

Related Articles

View, manage, and install add-ins for Excel, PowerPoint, and Word

When you enable an add-in, it adds custom commands and new features to Microsoft 365 programs that help increase your productivity. Because add-ins can be used by attackers to do harm to your computer, you can use add-in security settings to help protect yourself.

Note:  This article only applies to Microsoft 365 applications running on Windows.

View installed add-ins

You can directly install add-ins from this page or select  More Add-ins  to explore.

In the Office Add-ins dialog, select  My Add-ins  tab.

Select an add-in you want to view the details for and right-click to select  Add-in details  option.

Click a heading below for more information .  

Add-in categories explained

Active Application Add-ins      Add-ins registered and currently running on your Microsoft 365 program.

Inactive Application Add-ins      These are present on your computer but not currently loaded. For example, XML schemas are active when the document that refers to them is open. Another example is the COM add-in: if a COM add-in is selected, the add-in is active. If the check box is cleared, the add-in is inactive.

Document Related Add-ins      Template files referred to by open documents.

Disabled Application Add-ins     These add-ins are automatically disabled because they are causing Microsoft 365 programs to crash.

Add-in      The title of the add-in.

Publisher      The software developer or organization responsible for creating the add-in.

Compatibility      Look here for any compatibility issues.

Location      This file path indicates where the add-in is installed on your computer.

Description This text explains the add-in function.

Note:  Microsoft Outlook has one add-in option in the Trust Center: Apply macro security settings to installed add-ins . InfoPath has no security settings for add-ins.

Permanently disable or remove an add-in

To disable or remove an add-in follow these steps:

Select  File > Get Add-ins . Alternatively, you can select  Home > Add-ins .

In the Office Add-ins dialog, select  My Add-ins  tab.

Select an add-in you want to remove and right click to select  Remove  option.

View or change add-in settings

You can see and change add-in settings in the Trust Center, descriptions of which are in the following section. Add-in security settings may have been determined by your organization so not all options may be available to change.

Select  File  >  Get Add-ins .

Select  More Add-ins > Manage My Add-ins.

Select  Trust Center  >  Trust Center Settings  >  Add-ins.

Check or uncheck the boxes you want.

Add-in settings explained

Require Application Add-ins to be signed by Trusted Publisher      Check this box to have the Trust Center check that the add-in uses a publisher's trusted signature. If the publisher's signature hasn’t been trusted, the Microsoft 365 program doesn’t load the add-in, and the Trust Bar displays a notification that the add-in has been disabled.

Disable notification for unsigned add-ins (code will remain disabled)      When you check the Require Application Extensions to be signed by Trusted Publisher box, this option is no longer grayed out. Add-ins signed by a trusted publisher are enabled, but unsigned add-ins are disabled.

Disable all Application Add-ins (may impair functionality)      Check this box if you don't trust any add-ins. All add-ins are disabled without any notification, and the other add-in boxes are grayed out.

Note:  This setting takes effect after you exit and restart your Microsoft 365 program.

While working with add-ins, you may need to learn more about digital signatures and certificates , which authenticate an add-in, and trusted publishers , the software developers who often create add-ins.

Manage and install add-ins

Use the following instruction to manage and install add-ins.

To install a new add-in:

You can directly install popular add-ins on the page or go to More Add-ins  to explore. 

Select the add-in and select  Add . Or browse by selecting  Store  tab in the Office add-in dialog to find other add-ins to install and select Add for that add-in.

To manage your add-ins:

Select  File > Get Add-ins and from the bottom, select More Add-ins.  Or select  Home  >  Add-ins > More add-ins.

In the Office dialog, select My Add-ins tab. If you are not able to see your add-ins, select  Refresh to reload your add-ins.

Select  Manage My Add-in  to manage and select  Upload to browse and add an add-in from your device.

How to cancel a purchased add-in

If you've subscribed to an add-in through the Microsoft 365 Store that you don't want to continue, you can cancel that subscription.

Open the Microsoft 365 application and go to the Home  tab of the ribbon.

Select  Add-ins  and then select  More Add-ins > My Add-ins tab   to view your existing add-ins.

Select the app you want to cancel and select  Manage My Add-ins .

Under the Payment and Billing section choose Cancel Subscription .

Select  OK and then Continue .

Once that's complete you should see a message that says "You have cancelled your app subscription" in the comments field of your apps list.

Why is my add-in crashing?

Some add-ins might not be compatible with your organization's IT department policies. If that is the case with add-ins recently installed on your Microsoft 365 program, Data Execution Prevention (DEP) will disable the add-in and the program might crash.

Learn more about DEP

Get a Microsoft 365 Add-in for Outlook

Get a Microsoft 365 Add-in for Project

Taking linked notes

If you're looking for Help on linking notes in OneNote to a Word or PowerPoint document, see Take linked notes .

Excel Windows Add-ins

If you're looking for Help on specific Excel Add-ins, such as Solver or Inquire, see Help for Excel for Windows add-ins .

If you're looking for additional help with Excel add-ins using the COM Add-ins dialog box, see Add or remove add-ins in Excel .

Get a Microsoft 365 Add-in for Excel

Need more help?

Want more options.

Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.

Microsoft 365 subscription benefits

Microsoft 365 training

Microsoft security

Accessibility center

Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.

Ask the Microsoft Community

Microsoft Tech Community

Windows Insiders

Microsoft 365 Insiders

Find solutions to common problems or get help from a support agent.

Online support

Was this information helpful?

Thank you for your feedback.

• Study Guides
• Homework Questions

2-1 types of innovation presentation - MBA580 -Horton