Step 1: Set Goals

Step 2: Develop Core Messages

By starting with your goals, you are then able to plan the best way to meet those goals with your content.  In our case study, the physician wanted to persuade woman to get regular health screenings.  She decided that her the core message that she wanted to communicate was “Ask you doctor for age appropriate screenings becuase heath screenings can save your life!”  Her secondary goals was to have her audience  understand what typically happens in each decade of life.

Make Appeals to Logic and Emotion to Influence Action
Since her primary goals was  to move her audience to action, or to influence the listeners to ask for health screenings, it was critical appeals to primarily to the emotions of the heart, but also to the logic of the brain.

So we transformed a “brain” presentation (an academic facts presentation) into an “infotainment” presentation- a combination of information and entertainment. We chose this approach because the primary goal was to appeal to the emotions of her audience.

Use Stories to Appeal to Emotions
To achieve that goal we chose to tell real patient stories (without disclosing real identities).  We highlighted the importance of typical health screenings by sharing stories of dire consequences of failing to get screening. This amplifies the fears of the listener.

However, we also mixed-in uplifting stories of prevention to amplifies the hopes and dreams of the listener. We also added an element of fun through the use of relevant cartoons (used with permission).

Again, our main goal was to use story create a wide swing in emotions and at the same time provide the information needed to make a rational decision. We needed to appeal first to the heart and then to the brain.

Use Strong Graphic To Efficiently Convey Complex Information
I prefer to use very strong graphic visuals for all of my presentations and especially when creating presentation that I plan to reuse. Strong photographs or visuals are the most efficient ways to convey complex information. The old saying really is true, “A picture is worth a 1,000 words.” And not only does it make the presentation more powerful and meaningful it makes it easier to create and easier to reuse!

Keep Slide Text to a Minimum
Finally, although text should be kept to a minimum on the slides themselves, extensive notes in paragraph form are recommended in the notes section. This way, these notes can be used for e-book or PDF creation.  Although text could also be created from transcriptions of live delivery of your presentation.

Here’s the bottom line.  Marketing collateral, by definition, is the most efficient communication of your core messages and by reusing or re-purposing you proven  content you can rapidly and cost-effectively create additional marketing materials.

Step 3: Organize and Divide Your Content (Click for details…)