Many speakers today offer to e-mail their presentation to their audience. It saves them the time and cost of printing and is an environmentally good thing to do. But you may feel your audience would get the most benefit from your presentation if they had a paper copy. What do you put in your handouts? Here are 7 tips:
- Handouts should be attractive, simple and easy-to-read. Use large fonts in a dark colors with a light background.
- Have a cover page with your name, company name, tag line, phone number, address, e-mail address and the title and date of your presentation. Some people keep things for a long time, you want to make sure people can still reach you long after your seminar is over.
- Put your name and contact information on the bottom of each page. It keeps your name in front of the audience and should they, for some reason, just keep a page or two of your handout, they will still know how to reach you.
- Include all of the PowerPoint slides or copies of your overheads. People sometimes have trouble seeing a screen. Print 2 or 3 slides per page and leave room for people to take notes.
- Have a few blank pages for any additional notes they may want to take. Title one blank page “Action Items” or “Next Steps” and suggest they write down what they plan to do as a result of hearing your presentation.
- If you sell products and services, include a list of information about the benefits of each.
- Make the last page an order form that they can easily tear off and take to the back of the room to make their purchases. Or make it a “questions” page and have your staff gather them and bring them back to you to answer from the podium.
