What are the most effective ways to build anticipation before your presentation?

1 Use a hook

A hook is a catchy opening that grabs your audience's attention and makes them want to know more. It can be a surprising fact, a provocative question, a relevant story, a shocking statistic, or a humorous anecdote. The key is to make it relevant to your topic and your audience, and to create a gap between what they know and what they want to know. A hook should arouse curiosity, emotion, or intrigue, and lead to your main point or thesis.

2 Preview your main points

After you hook your audience, you need to give them a roadmap of where you are going and what you are going to cover. Previewing your main points helps your audience follow your logic, understand your structure, and remember your key messages. It also builds anticipation by highlighting the benefits of listening to your presentation, and the challenges or problems that you will address or solve. A preview should be concise, clear, and coherent, and use signposts or transitions to connect your points.

3 Use teasers and cliffhangers

Another way to build anticipation is to use teasers and cliffhangers throughout your presentation. A teaser is a hint or a glimpse of something that you will reveal later, while a cliffhanger is a suspenseful moment that leaves your audience hanging until you resume. Both techniques create curiosity and tension, and keep your audience engaged and attentive. You can use teasers and cliffhangers to introduce new topics, to transition between sections, to end a segment, or to lead to a break. For example, you can say something like "I will tell you the secret to overcoming your fear of public speaking in a minute", or "You won't believe what happened next".

4 Use visuals and props

Visuals and props can also help you build anticipation before and during your presentation. Visuals and props can enhance your message, illustrate your points, and appeal to different senses and learning styles. They can also create interest, surprise, or curiosity, and make your presentation more memorable and impactful. You can use visuals and props to show your audience something that they have not seen before, to demonstrate something that they cannot imagine, or to reveal something that they did not expect. For example, you can use a slide, a video, a chart, a diagram, a model, a product, or a tool.

5 Use stories and examples

Stories and examples are another effective way to build anticipation before your presentation. Stories and examples can make your presentation more personal, relatable, and engaging. They can also illustrate your points, support your arguments, and inspire your audience. Stories and examples can also create anticipation by using suspense, conflict, resolution, and emotion. You can use stories and examples to introduce your topic, to explain a concept, to share a case study, or to motivate your audience. For example, you can use a personal story, a customer story, a success story, or a failure story.

6 Use questions and polls

Questions and polls are another way to build anticipation before your presentation. Questions and polls can involve your audience, stimulate their thinking, and gauge their interest, knowledge, or opinion. They can also create anticipation by challenging your audience, by inviting their feedback, or by revealing their results. You can use questions and polls to start your presentation, to introduce a topic, to check understanding, or to spark discussion. For example, you can use a rhetorical question, a quiz question, a survey question, or a poll question.