The idea of a presentation is relaying a message. To make that happen you need your audience's attention! This is why you need to start your speech strong with an attention-grabbing speech introduction.
If you feel a little bit lost in the matter, fear not! This tutorial is here to help you out. We'll go over:
- how to write a speech introduction
- what makes a speech introduction good
- good attention getters for speeches
- awesome speech introduction examples so you can open with a bang
Having the right tools can help you produce a riveting introduction and an even better presentation. Turn to Envato Elements, the ultimate subscription service to find premium digital assets.
Whether you're in need of presentation templates, logo stings, infographics, and more, you can get it all for a low monthly fee!
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A Good Speech Introduction: What, Why, and How
First, let's go over the basics.
But what makes a speech introduction good? An effective opener serves a few purposes:
- Start connecting with and engaging the audience.
- Outline the subject to be discussed.
- Let the audience know what to expect from the presentation.
- Establish your credibility and the topic's relevance.
Moreover, the introduction sets the tone for the rest of the presentation. It's in those first minutes when the audience will decide if this is worth paying attention to. One main purpose of a speech introduction is to get your audience's attention.
Wondering how to write a speech introduction? The simplest way to begin is to answer the basic questions:
- What are you talking about (review main ideas)?
- Who are you and why are you qualified to talk about it?
- Why is the topic important?
As you start answering those questions, there are a few things to consider. When preparing a speech introduction you should usually think about:
- Your audience. Who are you talking to and how can you tailor to them?
- The way you present those answers. Is there a hook you could use? Is there a particularly interesting piece of information? How can you pique your audience's interest?
Finally, a good introduction isn't just about the information you share. To make a good impression with your introduction, you should:
- Edit, edit, edit. Add ideas, move them around, and delete a few until you find the right flow.
- Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Go over the introduction a few times and even rehearse it in front of other people so you can perfect it.
All these pointers will set the foundation on which to build a great introduction to your speech.
9 Good Attention Getters for Speech Introductions
If you followed the steps above, that means you’ve worked hard on your presentation. You've spent time and energy gathering information, structuring precisely, and creating engrossing slides.
Keep your audience’s attention away from their phones. Follow these effective attention getters for speeches and presentations:
1. Play a Video
We're highly visual beings. Moving images can catch our eyes and attention easily. For this reason, one of the best ways to introduce your speech is to play a video.
This way you'll add voices to your presentation and assist in illustrating the subject you're about to present. Plus, it will give you a chance to take a deep breath before you begin.
To make the process of creating a video for your presentation easier, you can turn to premium assets. For instance, video templates, stock video, logo stings and royalty-free music can allow you to explore your creativity and come up with a fascinating audiovisual product.
If it is, it could have the opposite effect of what you're trying to achieve.
Are you unsure of how to embed videos to your PowerPoint presentations? Here you go:
2. Put Together Visually Appealing Slides
Expanding on the tip above, make sure you have powerful visuals in your presentation slides, especially in the title slide. A professional, clean, and appealing title slide will pull people in.
To make your presentation slides a success, employ the tools at your disposal. Use high-quality photos and readable, concise text.
Add interesting design elements, like a logo, shapes and the use of color. Increase the slide's appeal and present your message better.
You don't have to stress about your presentation's look and feel if you don't want to. Save time and energy and focus on the content with premium presentation templates from Envato Elements.
Work with professionally designed and easily customizable templates to make creating a presentation a breeze.
You can even learn to convert PPT to Google Slides to use the presentation software you feel most comfortable with. Take a look at this quick tutorial:
3. Tell a Story
Even today, our brains are constantly seeking for and creating narratives to understand the world around us better. Why wouldn’t you want to work with this to your advantage?
Introduce your subject with a story. It can be a personal story, a historical passage, a made-up narrative, a well-known story, and even a joke. Regardless, people will be more likely to remember it than a list of facts. Stories engage emotions, which facilitates connection.
Of course, you will need to find a way to tie the story to your presentation. As a speech introduction example, if you're talking about how to reach a goal, the popular story of the tortoise and the hare can be useful.
Just don't get carried away with the story! Word it well so you don't get lost on details and divert too far from the point you're trying to make.
4. Encourage Audience Participation
Do you want to make sure people are paying attention?
Ask them to participate from the get-go! "Show of hands", asking questions, and inserting your audience into "what ifs," "imagine thats," and hypothetical situations will get them involved with your presentation.
As a speech introduction example, a presentation about dehydration can benefit from asking the audience if they've already drank their eight glasses of water that day.
Keep this section short and sweet, so you can move on to your actual presentation. Additionally, avoid questions or situations that invite too much audience participation. They could result in the audience forgetting the main idea.
5. Start With Compelling Hard Data
Shock the audience with compelling hard data: numbers, statistics, and percentages.
Enthralling tidbits of hard data will bring abstract concepts to the real world, which can make them easier to digest. Plus, they'll be memorable and attention-grabbing.
Infographics, maps, timelines, graphics, and charts will give the eyes something to focus on and help the audience visualize your ideas more clearly.
For example, if you're looking for investors, open your speech by telling them the growth percentage of the area you work on. Or if you're talking about the environment you could work with graphic elements to create an infographic like the ones below:
Learn to make great infographics easily in PowerPoint and Google Slides with these tutorials:
How to Make Infographics in PowerPoint Using Infographic Templates + Video
How to Make a Great Infographic With Google Slides Using a Template (+Video)
6. Be Aware of Your Non-Verbal Communication
We’ve all sat through classes or presentations from people who were too nervous, unprepared, or simply weren’t great speakers. Those were masterclasses on what not to do if you want to get people interested in your presentation.
And a big way of doing that is through your non-verbal communication and body language.
Non-verbal communication refers to your voice (its volume, tone, and rhythm), eye contact, how you move around the space, hand gestures, facial expressions, how you stand, and more. You should be aware and in control of these aspects as you give your speech.
To improve your body language, record yourself going through your presentation. This way, you'll see what you look like and how you sound. With that information, you can find areas you can work on. Turning to friends and family and listening to their feedback can also be incredibly helpful.
Finally, you may want to read this tutorial to learn more about the subject and how to master your body language:
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7. Break the Ice With Powerful Quotes
“To be or not to be.”
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
“Imagine all the people…”
“E equals MC square.”
These are powerful quotes that anybody could identify with. And they can be a great ice breaker.
Harness the power of these sayings and use them to start your presentation. If you’re working with a popular saying, you’ll get the added advantage that people will know it by heart and will probably finish the quote with you. This means you'll increase engagement.
Find ways to link those quotes to your subject so you can get into it in a seamless way. Cliché quotes that don't make sense in the context will only lead to confusion and a disconnected audience.
Need help putting together a great quote presentation slide? We've got you covered:
8. Show and Tell With Props
Think back to Steve Jobs and the times he unveiled a new Apple device. He didn't just sit on his hands and gave a long, detailed description on how it looked, what it did, and how it worked. He grabbed the iPhone and showed the audience.
This goes to show the advantages of using props that relate to your presentation. They'll make complicated subjects easier to understand. An external element can also make the presentation more fun and entertaining.
As a speech introduction example, if you're in finance, illustrate the concepts you'll be going over with a piggy bank and coins. This adds something special to your speech, which will keep all eyes on you.
Here's another example. In the image below, a doctor employs a mannequin and a volunteer for a CPR demonstration:
9. State Importance
Finally, this is a tip we mentioned before but it bears repeating. Start by answering the main question: why should your audience pay attention? Are you trying to solve a problem? Do you have a request?
On that subject, be sure to answer the question, “who?” Not only, why is the presentation important, but why should they listen to you? What makes you an expert on it? This gives you and your presentation some validity.
It's a simple tip, but if you do it right, you can engage your audience.
Take Your Presentations to the Next Level With Envato Elements
Need presentation templates, infographics, videos or music to take your presentation to the next level? Look no further than Envato Elements.
Envato Elements has a unique and unbeatable offer. For a low monthly fee, you get access to thousands of premium digital assets. This means you can download as many presentation attention getters as you want!
And here are just a few examples of the type of professional and premium digital items from Envato Elements. These can take your presentation to the next level:
1. Modern Editable Infographics vol. 2
One of the best ways to get people interested in what you want to say is by sharing informative graphics. Instead of telling them what they want to know, show it to them with a premium infographic template like this one! Here are its features:
- AI and PDF file types
- 2 color themes
- fully editable charts and data
- vector objects
- fonts and help guide included
2. Bowman - Creative Keynote
If you're presenting a project or business that's in the creative sphere, you need to show that through your slides. Letting your personality shine through will help you reach the audience effectively. For instance, this template has interesting shapes, colors, elements, and features that help it stand out:
- 40 multipurpose slides
- 16:9 HD widescreen slide format
- based on Master Slides
- fully editable text, images, colors, shapes
3. Corporate Piano Royalty-Free Song
Some chill, subdued music can add to your presentation without overwhelming the audience. A royalty-free song like this one can even make any videos or logo stings you may have more powerful.
This main track comes in MP3 and is 2:24 long. It doesn't have any vocals that could interfere with your speech and can be looped as many times as you want.
4. Logo Reveal
If what you want to do is mesmerize your audience, make sure to do it with your logo! Share who you are in an impactful way with a logo reveal template like this one. You can easily customize it in After Effects, and you don't need any plugins to do it.
5. MURO - PowerPoint Minimal Template
Finally, here's another premium example of the power that can come from having the right presentation template by your side. In this case, we're looking at a minimal, modern, smart slide deck. Muro has:
- over 115 unique slides
- 16x9 full HD format
- over 500 vector line icons
- easily and quickly editable in PowerPoint
Enchant Your Audience!
We went through a bunch of good attention fetters for speech introductions, A speech introduction can be tough to get right. It has to capture the attention of the audience and make them want to hear more.
Hopefully, you’ll be a step closer to success with this tutorial and the ideas we shared:
- how to write a speech introduction
- what makes a speech introduction good
- good attention getters for speeches
- and speech introduction examples
Be sure to mix the tips up and play around with them to find the attention getters for speech introductions that work best for you.
