PowerPoint presentations are indispensable in modern offices and businesses. However, monotonous presentations can often bore the audience, making it difficult for presenters to engage them effectively.
If a standard presentation consists primarily of text, even the most innovative product idea can quickly become boring for the audience. Incorporate visually appealing elements to engage your audience! Storytelling in presentations , which allows you to design lectures and story presentations in a modern and creative way , can help.
Even if you're more familiar with storytelling from newspapers or news reports, good stories often happen in everyday life. These moments can be exciting, funny, annoying, sad, or something else entirely—but they're always entertaining. So why not include something worth telling in your presentation?
What is storytelling?
Storytelling, literally translated, means nothing more than telling stories . PowerPoint storytelling, therefore, is about conveying information to your audience through the use of stories, making that information more engaging.
The future of presenting
Surrounded by tablets, smartphones, and artificial intelligence, it's easy to believe we no longer have much in common with our Stone Age ancestors. However, the leap from mammoth hunting to the boardroom isn't as far as many might think.
Whether, when, where, and why sales have risen or fallen may be relevant to us. But our brains still prefer to know how to kill the mammoth most quickly or how to escape the saber-toothed tiger.
Develop exciting stories for storytelling
Perhaps something happens in your daily life that you'd like to incorporate into your next presentation. You can first introduce your presentation idea and let it sink in during conversations with friends or relatives.
Besides conversations and everyday situations, photos also offer excellent inspiration for storytelling – they evoke memories and stimulate creativity. To emphasize the topic of your presentation, you can look through your own photos as well as use stock photos. Even stock images can help you find inspiration and thus help you bring your presentation to life.
Visualize what you want to achieve and convey with your presentation. If necessary, sketch this out on a piece of paper. You can find more tips and tricks on defining goals here .
When viewing your selected images, you may already be reminded of a significant experience that can then help you convey your narrative to the audience.
The structure of your storytelling presentation
The current sales figures might not sound as exciting as you'd hoped at first. But with a few tips on how to structure your storytelling, you can transform your information and facts into a captivating campfire tale in no time.
Most stories are based on a specific pattern, which we will explain below:
1. Initial situation
Begin your story with the initial situation. Here, your listeners learn about the background of the story, as well as the protagonists and their wishes and goals.
2. Plot
Once your audience is familiar with the initial situation, you can begin developing the plot of your story. Examples include a problem that arises or a mission that needs to be successfully completed. This may involve fighting and potentially require sacrifices to win the battle.
3rd Final
At the end of the story awaits triumph , or, if the efforts fail, disaster.
This storytelling framework can be applied to less spectacular situations. With a little creativity, the company's current situation becomes the starting point for your story, and your employees, competitors, and customers become heroes, antagonists, and prey.
The ultimate mission is to conquer market leadership . If this succeeds, corporate success awaits, which will also be a commendable triumph for the employees. So, let's embark on this adventure!
Such a structured narrative has a different impact than a simple discussion of company figures with the mundane conclusion that things could be better and more effort is needed.
4 effective storytelling methods
Storytelling can not only make your presentation more engaging, but it can also bring structure and order to your presentation. There are various methods you can use to leave a lasting impression on your audience.
These models can be used for various purposes…
…1: to inform
…2: to convince
…3: to inspire
…4: to entertain
…and look like this:
#1: Facts and Story
Presentations delivered according to this scheme move back and forth between facts and stories, describing what is and what could be.
To achieve this, begin your presentation by describing the current realities and facts . During the presentation, introduce contrasting content that describes what is and what could be. Conclude your presentation with a call to action that encourages your audience to work towards that potential. Learn more about motivating your audience in our blog article on "Calls to Action."
#2: The Pitch
This presentation structure is based on metaphorically climbing over an obstacle during the presentation and concluding with a positive resolution . Storytelling is used here to demonstrate that the presenter's ideas can make a difference.
To overcome this hurdle, also demonstrate the visions and options you intend to use to achieve them. You will best captivate your audience by concluding your presentation with an added benefit that shows how your listeners will profit from your idea.
You can learn more about how to create a pitch presentation in our blog post on "Pitch presentation: Your idea in a nutshell."
#3: Situation – Complication – Solution
In the fields of B2B sales and management consulting, most presentations follow this structure. Consisting of three different elements, this structure is characterized by the fact that the storyline is linked by words like "but" and "therefore" .
First, explain the situation your protagonist is currently in and provide your audience with a neutral overview. Then, address the complication the protagonist is facing, examining this problem from all angles.
Finally, explain to your audience how your product or service can help solve the problem of your story hero.
#4: Situation – Opportunity – Solution
This structure functions similarly to the one described in #3 . However, instead of creating a complication, such a presentation allows you to demonstrate that no problem in the world is impossible to solve . You can thus shine a light of hope on your story's protagonist's problem .
Facts get lost without emotions
We live in a society where communication and information dissemination are more important than ever. Presentations are a popular tool for this, even though in most cases a lot is said and little of it is actually absorbed. Considering how focused our brains can actually be, this is astonishing.
Think, for example, about the last film that really captivated you. Were you engrossed in the plot? Did your pulse quicken as the tension mounted? Even though the film was fiction and had nothing to do with your reality, you were still eager to find out what happened next.
Now think about the last few presentations you watched . The situation was probably different. Although what was happening was far more relevant than a film, you may have found it difficult to stay focused.
What is the reason for this?
Even if the content of the presentation is extremely informative, our Stone Age brain throws a wrench in the works.
Our brain evaluates relevant information on an emotional level, not necessarily on a logical or factual level . It wants to hear a good story and only finds information interesting when it's told through emotion. Therefore, anyone who wants to convey facts in their presentation should connect them to emotions and try their hand at storytelling.
Experiments at Stanford University have shown that we remember stories 22 times better than facts and that they can be marketed at least twice as successfully.
A story is only as good as its narrator.
When using storytelling presentations, you should always keep your own role in mind. Your own motivation and experience qualify you to set the direction and make you credible and trustworthy.
Credibility always requires a certain amount of passion. Stand behind your story and show it during your presentation.
Enhance your storytelling presentation with moving images.
If your presentation consists solely of text, you, as the presenter, quickly risk losing the audience's attention and causing them to mentally switch off. Using engaging infographics and dynamic video and image material will bring your presentation to life.
Excellent presentations do not have to be tied to specific trends or fashionable appearances, but rather possess a timeless elegance that can convince the audience.
A commonly used tool to make presentations more engaging is the Morph effect in Microsoft PowerPoint. This effect allows you to liven up your presentations with custom animations and transitions , giving them a professional look.
Discover how to effectively use the Morph effect in your presentations. You don't need to be a PowerPoint expert to use this feature. Even beginners can significantly enhance standard PowerPoint slides thanks to the Morph effect. This dynamic presentation style is particularly popular in content marketing and for tutorials.
Zoom effects
Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our society in recent years, webinars as a presentation format are currently very popular and enjoyed by both presenters and viewers. This allows presentations to be accessed and viewed from anywhere.
At the same time, webinars offer the opportunity to make content available to a broad audience cost-effectively, without having to present the content anew each time. The danger with webinars is that it makes it very easy for the audience to leave the presentation early if they don't like it.
To prevent this and refine your presentation, zoom effects are ideal, allowing your audience to easily zoom in on the infographics you use. You can find out how to use these effects in your presentation here . Another advantage of zoom effects is that they can be used not only for storytelling in presentations, but also on social media and for content marketing.
Marketing through storytelling
PowerPoint storytelling is also excellent for selling products and ideas. After all, anyone who wants to sell successfully needs to tell good stories and be able to convince and inspire potential customers.
Facts alone are often insufficient to evoke emotions in your buyers. Compelling stories, however, help your audience connect with the product and remember details more accurately. Therefore, if you can associate the product with positive emotions for your customers, your chances of making a sale increase significantly.
To achieve effective storytelling, apply the basic structure from the paragraph above, "The Structure of Your Storytelling Presentation," to your marketing presentation. It will then look like this:
Part 1: Getting Started – Make It Personal
The purpose of the opening is to create a context that helps your customers connect personally with the main character in your story . They should be able to identify with them. When telling customer stories to prospects, don't just mention your client's company name, e.g., Microsoft. Describe a similar person within the company to the person you're speaking with, including their name, title, and other relevant details. This could be the industry (retail, security), the size (companies with 500, 5,000, and 50,000 employees have significantly different challenges), or the location (global vs. a single office headquarters).
Be careful not to turn your story into gossip – don't give too many personal details so your listeners can't Google the person – but don't make it so general that it sounds like you're just making up random information.
Part 2: Middle – Describe the conflicts and their negative effects
Take your customers on the rollercoaster ride before describing the positive outcome. Explain the challenges the people in your story faced and describe the associated negative consequences. Too often, we don't build enough drama between the pain and the solution because we don't want to make someone feel bad.
This shortcut leads to a mediocre story. Instead, paint a picture of the conflicts and negative consequences that would arise for the company if they cannot resolve these challenges.
Part 3: The End – The Solution and Positive Effects
Your customers are the "hero" in your story, not your own company . Your ending must leave the impression that your company helped prospects, just as Yoda helped Luke Skywalker or Dumbledore helped Harry Potter. Describe how your customers fared after their problem was solved.
If you say, "After our company's support...", your story will only feel like a sales pitch. Instead, talk about the type of solution you helped provide to build curiosity and create a neural connection to the prospect's own experiences.
If done correctly, interested parties will ask you: "That's exactly what I'm looking for, how was that achieved?", to which the answer is of course your solution.
Learn from the best
There are many exemplary examples of successful storytelling in presentations: Steve Jobs or Barack Obama, for instance. Both inspired, or continue to inspire, their audiences with their presentations, relying heavily on storytelling.
Even Donald Trump, whose statements are not always considered intellectually sophisticated, successfully sells his followers the story of the wall against migrants as the solution to all the problems of the United States.
Extra tip #1: Data storytelling
Dashboards, tables, or charts are often used to present data. The problem here is that the visual interpretation of this data is often insufficient or too complex for the audience.
There is a solution for this: so-called data storytelling . But what exactly is data storytelling?
Data storytelling allows you to bridge the gap between purely visual information and effective, engaging communication. The art lies in piecing together data into an easily understandable narrative.
This image can be easily illustrated using LEGO bricks . Use compatible bricks; they can be assembled quickly and easily. This creates stories that everyone in your audience understands, regardless of their prior knowledge of the subject.
When telling these stories, focus more on "why" something happens, rather than "what" happens. The "what" is often already explained by the data visualization.
Data storytelling is a particularly important skill for leaders, contributing to both team development and revenue growth . In a 2021 survey of 500 executives and data experts, 93% agreed that:
"Decisions made based on successful data storytelling have the potential to increase revenue. "
And here's how it works!:
- Data collection: Gathering data to measure and understand performance or behavior
- Preparing data: Clean, organize, and combine data for analysis.
- Analyzing data: Examining and gathering insights for the target group
- Visualizing data: Create clear and understandable charts with numbers. For tips on which chart type is right for your needs, see the article "10 Chart Types".
- Data Storytelling: Sharing insights through a vivid story. Driving action and change.
Extra tip #2: Pay attention to the sound of your words/tone of voice.
Although it seems obvious that content is paramount in storytelling and presenting, in this extra tip we would like to point out that the sound of your words and your tone of voice are also crucial in storytelling .
One person known for his compelling storytelling was Steve Jobs . By speaking in a clear, confident voice and using tone of voice to emphasize key points, Jobs was able to captivate his listeners . This also made it much easier for him to win his audience over to his visions.
With the right amount of emotion in your sentences, you too can convey a clear message to your audience! Learn more about how to present confidently with the right rhetoric in our blog article on "Speaking Techniques" !
Bonus tip #3: Visual storytelling with infographics
You might stumble upon the following question when planning your storytelling: How do you present dry facts? In many business presentations, you simply can't avoid data, figures, and statistics. With this type of content, there's a risk that your audience won't stay engaged or might even doze off.
So how do you design your presentation so that even these facts are presented in a captivating, engaging way? The simple solution: visual storytelling.
It's not enough to simply place the data in a narrative context. You primarily help your audience by linking the facts with memorable images or graphics : create infographics specifically designed to convey your facts.
You'll find many professionally designed infographic templates in our shop. There's sure to be something for your (business) topic ► To the shop
We also regularly offer workshops on infographics . Here you'll learn how to create stunning infographics using simple techniques . This workshop is particularly suitable for assistants, product and marketing managers, sales managers, and consultants. Furthermore, this seminar is aimed at anyone who works professionally with PowerPoint and wants to explore new approaches to designing their business presentations.
The seminar will be held by experienced presentation designer and creative coach Tom Becker-Schweitzer, CEO of PresentationLoad.
With him as your trainer, you'll receive numerous professional tips and practical, time-saving techniques for successful presentations. Design expert Tom Becker-Schweitzer brings 25 years of experience and will show you the best examples from the world of presentations – clear, effective, and directly applicable.
Learn how to create professional infographics and slide layouts with PowerPoint in this one-day seminar. For current dates, please check here ► Dates
Conclusion: Convince your audience with storytelling in presentations!
Storytelling in presentations can work in almost any setting and allows you to actively engage and inspire your audience . It doesn't matter which industry the presentation is for or which target group you want to convince.
For further questions regarding PowerPoint storytelling or PowerPoint presentations in general, please feel free to contact us by email at becker@presentationload.de .
Feel free to use our free PowerPoint template with storytelling quotes:
Other articles that might also interest you: