When a presentation doesn’t work, it’s rarely the design. Much more often, it’s trying to say too much at once. Twelve important points, three target groups, five products, and in the end the audience remembers none of them.
Fewer messages mean more impact. This article shows how many there should be and how to find the one that matters.
How many messages can a presentation take?
The short answer: one. One key message, supported by no more than three arguments.
That sounds radical, but there’s a simple reason. Your audience hears a presentation only once. They can’t flip back, look things up or ask questions whenever they like. In our experience, what sticks after a presentation is one sentence, one image and one feeling. If you don’t decide which sentence that is, chance will.
So more messages don’t mean more information, they mean less impact. Every extra point competes with the most important one for the same attention.
What a key message is and what it isn’t
The key message is the one sentence your audience should pass on after the presentation. It isn’t a topic and it isn’t a title. It’s sometimes called the core message, which means the same thing.
| Topic | Key message |
|---|---|
| Q3 results | We’re ahead of plan and can now approve the new site. |
| Our new software | With the new software, your team saves a full working day every week. |
| Digital sales | If you’re not sending your quotes digitally by the end of the year, you’ll lose your younger customers. |
The difference: a topic is a keyword. A key message is a complete sentence with a point you can argue about.
How to write your key message in 4 steps
1. Clarify the goal
Before you think about content, answer one question: What should be different after your presentation? Should your audience decide, buy, approve, understand or do something differently? Without a clear goal, there’s no clear message.
2. Think from the audience’s side
Write the key message from the point of view of the people listening. Not “We’ve developed a great product”, but “With this product, you solve problem X”. The question every audience asks is: what’s in it for me?
3. Write a full sentence
A sentence with a subject, a verb and a point. No keyword, no list. If you find you need an “and” to join two ideas, you probably have two messages. Pick one.
4. Run the test
A good key message passes three tests:
- The 15-second test: you can say it in 15 seconds without taking a breath.
- The pass-it-on test: someone in the audience would tell a colleague exactly this over coffee.
- The disagreement test: someone could disagree with it. A message nobody could disagree with is usually too general to achieve anything.
No more than three arguments
The key message needs support: arguments, examples and evidence that make it credible. Three has proven to be the right number. An audience can remember three arguments, they feel complete and they give your presentation a clear structure.
An example for a pitch:
- Key message: With our platform, farmers find used machinery in minutes instead of days.
- Argument 1: The problem is big and costs every farm a lot of time today.
- Argument 2: Our solution is simpler than anything that exists so far.
- Argument 3: The first customers are already using it and want more.
Anything that doesn’t support one of these three arguments goes. That’s the hardest part, because it often hits the content you’re proudest of. Details belong in the appendix, the handout or the Q&A.
Where the key message goes in your presentation
A key message that appears only once gets lost. It belongs in three places:
- At the beginning: after your opening, your audience knows where everything is heading.
- In between: after each argument, you link it back to the key message.
- At the end: the last sentence of your presentation is the key message, not “Thank you for your attention”.
Prezi is particularly good at showing this: the key message sits at the center of the canvas, with the arguments around it. After every zoom into a detail, the presentation returns to the overview, and the key message is visible again. Our Prezi example for farmlifes shows what that looks like.
The key message in the House of Speaking
In his book “3, 2, 1… Reden ist jetzt Deins”, MCPREZI founder Michael Sinnhuber describes the key message as part of the House of Speaking method. It belongs to the “planning & building” phase: before a single slide is created, the goal, key message and storyline are in place. That’s exactly how every presentation we build for clients begins.
Conclusion
A presentation doesn’t need more content, it needs a clear decision. One key message, three arguments, everything else in the appendix. Write it as a full sentence from your audience’s point of view, test it out loud and repeat it at the beginning, in between and at the end. Then your audience knows exactly what to take away.
Frequently asked questions
How many messages should a presentation have?
One key message, supported by no more than three arguments. The shorter the presentation, the more important this limit. Anything that doesn't support the key message belongs in the appendix or the handout.
What's the difference between a topic and a key message?
The topic says what you're talking about, for example “Q3 results”. The key message says what follows from it, for example “We're ahead of plan and can now approve the new site”. A topic is a keyword, a key message is a full sentence.
How do I write a key message?
As one complete sentence from your audience's point of view that describes what they should think, feel or do afterwards. Test it: can you say it in 15 seconds, and would someone in the audience pass it on in exactly those words? Then it works.
Where does the key message go in a presentation?
At the beginning, in the middle and at the end. Early on, so the audience knows where everything is heading. In between, whenever you wrap up an argument. And at the end, as the last sentence that sticks.
