When it comes to presentations, the first thing your audience sees is the title of each slide. A well-crafted title not only grabs attention but also gives your audience a clear idea of what to expect from each slide. Contrary to this, a poorly-written title can leave your audience confused or disinterested.
Even though slide titles are simple, they are an effective addition to your presentations. However, they are often missed or ignored by the presenters, and eventually, their presentations fail to grab the attention of the audience.
In this article, we’ll delve into the art of creating the perfect titles for each of your slides. Whether you’re giving a presentation for work, school, or a personal project, these tips will help you effectively communicate your message and keep your audience engaged.
1. An Action
One of the most important aspects of an effective slide title is what it tells the audience. Basic slide titles, such as “introduction” or “progress report,” disappear into the background when you add them on top of a slide.
Titles for your slides should ideally describe the actions or tasks that your audience will be taking on each slide. This will be a much better guide than just telling them the contents of the slide. Examples of this can be, “get to know the team” or crafting a title for reporting progress like “our efforts paid off!” and more.
2. Create a Title, not a Description
It is well-known that a powerful title is the most effective way to hook the audience. This does not just refer to the content or intention of the title, but rather, how you display the title. The most basic rule here is to make it look apart. You can do so by increasing the size of the text and making it bold. You can also use a serif font (optional). Another way is to use contrasting colors for the title, making it pop.
A simple act of making this visual shift will have a major impact on how people perceive your slide titles.
3. Make it Succinct and Simple to Understand
A slide title, like a title for an article or blog, needs to be simple, clear, concise, and easy to understand. As its main purpose is to help the audience understand the point of the slide, a simple and crisp title works best. It does not take the audience away from the essential information.
A perfect slide title fits in one line and is not too wordy. You can achieve this by removing any extra words. If you need help, take inspiration from the titles of your favorite blogs and see how they form their titles.
4. Consider the Context and Tone
Titles set the tone; you know that. What you might miss is how much impact a fitting title can have and how catastrophic an out-of-place title can be.
Picture this; you are giving a regular update in a corporate meeting room. You begin your professionally created presentation with the slide titles in funky fonts, emoticons, and clichéd puns. It will make your audience disinterested right from the beginning. On the other hand, formal and solemn titles would fail to grab the attention and interest of students in a classroom. Thus, your slide titles must be perfectly crafted to fit your particular use case.
Keeping these tips in mind when deciding on slide titles is sure to help you ace your presentation. However, there might be some cases where you might have to let go of one or more of these rules. That may be required where the content of the slide is either too crucial to add a title, which may be distracting, or if the slide is part of a sequence and does not require a separate title.
In a nutshell, crafting the perfect titles for your slides is an important aspect of giving a successful presentation. By following the tips outlined in this article, you can set the stage for each slide. Remember to keep your titles concise and to the point, use strong action verbs, and avoid using jargon or cliches.
We hope this article was informative and helped you improve your slide titles.
