The fall of the "Thank you for your attention" slide era didn't happen overnight! Let us tell you how to replace this cliché, why it is outdated and will only harm even the most thoughtful speech.
Normally, speakers use the "Thank you for your attention!" slide for two reasons:
- to thank the audience,
- to end the presentation smoothly.
These reasons are certainly important, but the problem is in the way speakers decide to solve it: a slide with such a cliché contains no crucial sense and, sadly, irritates the audience.
And if to translate this cliché from rhetorical to human language, it means: "I didn't have enough time to button up with something fancy, so just get by with this senseless formality".
How to Thank Your Audience or to Finish Your Presentation in a Correct Way?
Firstly, it's not necessary to prepare a separate slide just to say “thank you”; instead, a few sincere thanking words would be more than enough.
Secondly, at the preparation stage, it's essential to anticipate the reaction of the audience after your speech is done. For example, eventually, you expect people to subscribe to your social media, or to click the relevant link, or just to save some useful checklist. Any of such goals would greatly and naturally fit the idea of your last slide, as well as accomplish your speech. Let’s look closer at 5 better ways to finish the speech.
Summing-Up
Every speech has its key messages — the thoughts a speaker wants to convey to their audience. The challenge here is that too much content or too many follow-up questions often blur the focus and make it difficult to identify the main points of the speech.
To bring the audience back to the main message at the end of the “show”, just sum it all up briefly and transparently.
You can achieve the necessary effect through a clear conclusion.
"The main appeal of my presentation is: start courageously, proceed with discipline, and finish vigorously. This is your key to success!"
Or you can also use storytelling to link the beginning with the end of your performance by telling a story of some character.
"Remember, at the beginning of my presentation, I told you about the student who wasn't doing well in her speeches? Within a couple of months, she passed an argumentation bot, took part in various debates, and completed a communications course. She also recently made a speech at TED talks! Let's check out the video and afterwards I'll answer all of your questions"
A tip: If you decide to use storytelling, we advise you to do the final slide in darker colors — it will help focus people on the narrative. Otherwise, there is a risk that the light background, various pictures, and text will distract the audience from the speaker's speech ending.
Make an Outline of the Speech
At the beginning, speakers often make a summary, telling you point by point what their following speech will be about. The same technique can be used at the end of the performance in order to highlight the answers to questions that were revealed along the performance.
A tip: Place a camera icon on the last slide and invite the audience to take a pic or a screenshot. In this way, your speech outline, condensed to the main points, will be saved and thus — more helpful.
The beginning:
What shall we talk about today?
1) How to begin a performance?
2) How to continue?
3) How to finish?
4) What's next?
The end:
What was today’s speech about?
1) To begin — make audience familiar with the context.
2) To continue, state the main point along with some arguments.
3) To conclude — sum it all up.
4) To give a hint of "what comes next," just explain what the goal and the benefits are.
Call To Action
The closure of the speech is the perfect place for a CTA.
What can you call for?
For interaction:
Place a QR-code or some links which will bring people directly to those communication channels where it’s really convenient for you to respond quickly and stay in touch.
For further study of the issue:
Present links to exact and verified sources (articles, videos, relevant projects)
For changes:
Tell your audience what steps they need to take in order to achieve the desired result. The format can be different: a timeline with major milestones or a piece of advice from personal experience.
Use Metaphor
- in quotes;
- in images;
- in visuals.
Metaphor is a great guide. By using it, one can easily incorporate stories and images into a speech, so that it sounds perfectly clear and natural. At the same time, metaphors also is used to put an impressive end to a speech.
The main thing is not to overdo with it, just as not to introduce any new topics when finalizing your narrative. This can dilute the focus, distract or even confuse.
It is also helpful to use a verbal or visual metaphor that has already been mentioned in the presentation, so that the last slide will summarize the speech and give you an opportunity to "quit" through a revealing image.
Let's say the main part of your presentation was dedicated to the virtual assistant called Keanu, then it would be nice to insert a picture of him with a motivational phrase at the end.
Recall the Centerpiece
Here we suggest two ways.
First: recall the problematic that you started your presentation with. You can link it to the main idea of the presentation and conclude in one phrase:
"If you want always to stay in a good shape and not feel thirsty, just drink healthy stuff!"
Second: If the main idea can be illustrated in a diagram or through some algorithm, it wouldn't go amiss to visualize it on the last slide and emphasize its importance.
"Before the speech, I thought to myself: if you had an opportunity to memorize just one thing today, what should it be? So, I decided that, in such case, what I definitely would like you to keep in mind is this diagram. If you really understand it and learn how to implement it, then all the rest will start working just automatically. So, may your implementations be successful!"
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