Framing in PowerPoint presentations: Here’s how it works!

Even though it often seems like PowerPoint presentations are mainly about conveying facts and data, there are other important factors. Besides the content of the presentation, connecting with your audience and framing is just as important.

If you have a connection with your audience from the beginning, you can make a better impression and ensure that your audience is listening attentively. We’ve already introduced you to storytelling and how to captivate your audience with emotion in existing blog articles. Feel free to check out these posts for more information on this:

• Use Feedback to Improve Your Presentations
• Call to Action for Your Presentations
• The Final Question in Presentations – That’s Why It’s So Important!
• The 5-Act Structure for Your Storytelling in Presentations!
• Presentation Hack: Consider the Attention Curve – Summarize Key Messages at the End!

Resonate – focus on connections with your audience!

In her book “Resonate”, author Nancy Durante illustrates the importance of audience attention and thus also of framing. Resonate means, in the context of PowerPoint presentations, to establish a close connection with the audience. This works best by using framing, storytelling, and emotions.

Framing – what is it?

Framing emphasizes Nancy Durante’s intention to get the audiences’ attention. In addition to storytelling, there is another way to create a strong connection with your audience: framing. The goal here is to create a desire in your target audience that can only be fulfilled with your idea or solution.

The structure of a framing presentation

When creating a framing presentation, especially focus on structure. How you structure your message and story has a big impact on the success of your presentation.

There are three different framing models which we’ll introduce in this article:

#1: Problem-/ Solution-Framing

Problem-/Solution-Framing focuses on a specific problem or challenge and then presents a solution to that problem. This way, you can convey a sense of urgency with your presentation and motivate them to action. A call-to-action can also help with this.

To learn more, read our “Call-to-Action in Presentations” article in our blog.

#2: Before-/ After-Framing

This framing model means comparing two different states or situations. It helps you highlight the change that occurs as a result of the story.

This type of framing allows you to convey a sense of progress while demonstrating the impact of your solution.

#3: Progress-/ Journey-Framing

This framing model tells a story of progress or change and highlights the challenges and successes along the way.

Progress-/Journey-Framing allows you to create a sense of connection and shared experience with your audience.

Conclusion: Work with feedback!

Which framing model works best depends on the individual goals of the presentation, the company, and the target group. It is best to test all models, get feedback and optimize the models on this basis.

You can read how to get feedback and use it to improve your presentation in our article “Use feedback to improve your presentations”.

Do you have any questions about framing in presentations or PowerPoint in general? Do not hesitate to contact us by mail at [email protected]. We are always happy to help!

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