Written By: Tom Ogg, Co-Owner – Travel Professional NEWS
Video conferencing, meetings, webinars and other presentations have become a favorite way for travel professionals to communicate with existing and new potential clients. The world of online presentations has changed dramatically from the early days before using PowerPoint, video and graphical images, but the future promises even more engaging technologies like Virtual Reality, embedded 3-D models and Leap Motion Controllers that will allow the speaker to convey emotional qualities in the way they interface with the presentation itself. The level of audience interaction is a key factor in evolving technologies that will change the presentation experience from a one-way communication to a completely interactive one by enabling the audience to participate openly in the discussion.
There are some very compelling reasons to creating and using online travel presentations to market your travel niche. Here are just a few.
Global Reach
No matter what your individual travel specialty or niche is, there are potential clients worldwide for it. If you can define your niche in keywords, your online presentation can be found by anyone using those keywords to find your content.Being able to maximize your reach to the largest possible audience is what online presentations are all about. In addition to keyword search potentially feeding you new potential customers, the same online content may be used throughout social media to reach even more potential clients wherever they are located.
Residual Accessibility
Once your initial presentation is finished, you can upload it to your website, YouTube, Vimeo and a host of other video hosting sites. As long as your content is not time sensitive, you can make it work for you until it becomes irrelevant. In fact, having online presentations working 24/7 should be one of you main considerations when launching your concept.
Build Confidence and Credibility
Preparing a high quality presentation that is engaging your potential clients is a great way to build the client’s perception of you and also gain authority and trust. By presenting yourself as the expert on your specific travel niche, you gain an advantage over your competitors who are not using online presentations to reach new potential clients.
A Visual Environment
By combining graphics, video, photographs and sound, the overall learning experience for the audience is greatly enhanced and engagement soars.
8 Elements of a Successful Presentation
Before we get into exploring for the type of online travel presentation that would be right for you and your business, let’s take a look at what makes a successful presentation to begin with. I am sure we have all been to presentations that were completely unfulfilling and others that we hung on every word. What makes the difference and how can you make your presentation one that people engage in and find extremely beneficial? Here are 8 critical points to remember.
Your Attendees Time is Valuable
Don’t waste their valuable time by lengthy introductions and irrelevant stories, jokes, history or other extraneous dialog. Your audience came to learn about the topic, so get right to it.
The First 120-Seconds Count
You only have one opportunity to make a great first impression and the first 120-seconds of your presentation are by far the most important. You should do everything possible to engage your viewers. The very best way to do this is to share what challenges that your audience have that you are going to solve for them in this presentation. 120-seconds equals about 200 to 260 words and this is what you should spend the first 200 words of your presentation should be focused on sealing the engagement with your audience and guaranteeing their participation in your presentation.
Save Introductions Until Later
We have all been to online presentations where the speaker rattles on and on about how they have this and that degree, worked here and there and did this or that. There is no better way to lose an audience than to come off as self important and talking about what you did instead of why you are someone that your audience would want to listen to. Given the reality of the first 120-seconds of your presentation being the most important, don’t waste it on introductions. Instead, work the knowledge and benefits you offer into your presentation. If you are doing a webinar or other hosted presentation ask the host to not introduce you, but insist that you want to take immediate control of the presentation.
Start and End Your Presentation On Time
One of the most irritating experiences audiences can endure is a presenter who says when the presentation is supposed to begin is “let’s give late arrivals another 5-minutes to get here before we start.” This not only disrespects those that are on time, but leads to the belief that now the presentation is going to go over time. The fact is that the people that made the commitment to attend the presentation and show up on time are the most engaged audience and should be rewarded for their actions.
Know Your Audience and What They Want
You should always know exactly who your audience is and what they want from your presentation. Only by knowing this information can you really deliver an excellent presentation. Always avoid any online presentation opportunity where the potential audience does not meld with your specific expertise.
Dress for Success
Once you know your audience, you will then be able to define the way you should dress for your audience. It would be just as big of a mistake to wear a formal business suit to a presentation to surfers as it would be to wear shorts and sandals to a presentation to a corporate presentation where everyone will be dressed in a suit. Dressing for success means dressing in the way your audience will find most acceptable.
The Last 120-Seconds Are the Most Important
When you committed to do an online presentation you obviously wanted some result. During the last 120-seconds of your presentation you should focus solely on achieving the exact result you want from the presentation. You should deliver a strong and clear call to action and validate it by restating the reasons that the audience should take action. You call to action should tell the audience what you want them to do, why they should do it and how to do it in no uncertain terms.
Types of Online Presentations
There are actually a good number of types of online presentations that can be done and each one has its own pros and cons. Picking the right type of presentation is critical to the success of the overall project. Graphical slide presentations made by PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides and a myriad of other tools are generally used for webinars and other training events. Video is used in a good number of ways and may be perfect for your travel niche. Animated White Board presentations are great for explainer presentations and some training applications. Doing Live presentations such as on social media, webinars or video conferencing is yet another popular and effective way of doing compelling presentations. Using a compound format (some, or all of the above formats) is an excellent way to engage your audience who will not know what to expect next.
Graphical Slide Presentations
I think everyone has created a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation at one timer another and many of us use them all the time. Creating a stunning presentation with these tools is both fun and rewarding. Both PowerPoint and Keynote are easy to use and have an almost unlimited amount of tutorials on social media for free.
Video Presentations
Anyone with a current smart phone is quite capable of doing a “Talking Head” video of themselves presenting on just about every travel topic under the sun. Shooting travel destinations, cruise ships, resorts and hotels is now in the hands of every travel professional who has a smart phone and computer to edit the footage. Creating video presentations has never been easier.
Animated White Board Presentations
Once used by only the wealthiest companies for presentations, today anyone can create their own animated white board presentation. While the software to build your own presentation is now readily available, you are much smarter to engage one of the professional animated white board creators. Visit fiverr.com to find numerous people that will create your presentation for you.
Social Media Live
Facebook Live, Vimeo Livestream, YourTube Live, ReStream, BoxCast and a host of other video streaming services have made doing live presentations on social media very easy and a great way to promote your agencies’ niche. The trick is to make it seem impromptu yet professional.
Video Conferencing
While streaming live video is a great way to do presentations, using video conferencing technology is a great way to communicate with clients near you or far away. While the COVID pandemic got everyone video conferencing on platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, SKYPE, Facebook Messenger Rooms and many others, video conferencing is here to stay.
Webinars
Everyone has probably attended many webinars, they cannot be overlooked as a great way to present content to many people at a time. Best of all, they can be recorded and put on video channels such as YouTube, Vimeo and more. Webinars are great for organizing longer presentations made to hundreds of people at a time.
Online presentations are an effective way to create demand for your products and services and will reward you generously if you engage your clients and potential clients with them.