Targeting Bullets Effectively

What is it about bullet points that drive men and women to drink? Could it be that some presenters speak every word they put on the screen? Perhaps they’re just lazy. Or maybe it’s because they fire off so many at once that most miss their target. We’ve all fallen into the bullet trap at one time or another. Bullets aren’t evil. In fact, they can be very effective if targeted right. Aim is important and here are a few secrets to help you hit your mark in your next presentation.

Don’t Make Me Think

Keep each bullet clear, concise and to the point. If your bullets contain sentences, they are probably too long. Sentences are best spoken.

Like newspaper headlines, bullet points don’t need perfect grammar. Strip them down to their bare essential. You don’t need a verb and a subject. Leave out conjunctions (and, but, or) and prepositions (of, for, by, through). Keep them short and loaded for bear.

Avoid Eye Sweeps

This is one of the most common mistakes rookie presenters make. Your audience is sitting perhaps twelve to hundreds of feet away. They’re staring at a large screen full of words and images. From that distance every new line of information requires a head turn.

In the West we are trained to read from left to right and we follow a predictable “Z” pattern. The folks on Madison Avenue know this. Eye tracking studies prove it. When a slide first pops up on the screen (or ad appears in a magazine) the eye immediately focuses up towards the top left corner and begins scrolling across the top. From there it drops down diagonally and to the left usually to the bottom where it pauses for a fraction of a second (like the infamous magic bullet), and then continues across to the lower right. Only after the eye has gathered everything in, will it go back and begin processing the information.

Your job is to avoid forcing your audience to make physical “carriage returns” with their eyes and heads.  Keep each bullet point to a single line. If you have to use sub points, don’t go beyond the second level. Your audience will find it difficult to follow your train of thought much further.

Less is More

Studies show the human mind is capable of absorbing no more than 5 to 7 ideas at one time. I’ve seen presenter’s slides that use two long columns of bullet points, each column containing more than 9 bullets each along with sub points, headlines, and sub heads. It’s like being fired at by a machine gun! Am I expected to keep track of their entire list? Instead of impressing me with all their wonderful features, I am more likely to begin shutting down and running for cover.

For best effect, limit the number of words in each bullet point to 4 or at most 6, and the number of points on each slide to 4. By breaking up complicated information into 2 or 3 slides of concise points, and adding value by discussing and interpreting them for your audience, you will have a much more effective presentation.

When in Doubt Throw it Out

Enough said.