visual storytelling presentation

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What Is Visual Storytelling? How to Engage and Inspire Audiences

Like a seasoned artist painting with colors, you too can craft a compelling narrative with effective use of images. It’s not just about pretty pictures; it’s about stirring emotions that moves viewers to action.

Through this article, you’ll learn the elements of effective visual storytelling and how to use them to drive emotions.

Let’s dive into the exciting world of visual narration and discover how you can transform your content into an interactive masterpiece.

You can also jump right into creating visuals with Piktochart by accessing our template gallery. Sign up for free to get started.

Table of Contents

Key takeaways, what is visual storytelling: a visual journey, why visual storytelling matters, elements of effective visual storytelling, types of visual storytelling, how to craft an effective visual story, tips to up your visual storytelling game.

• Engagement and user experience should be prioritized in visual storytelling by aligning techniques with the target audience’s expectations and providing a clear narrative journey.
• Strategic use of interactive elements can elevate your visual stories, but it’s important to maintain a balance to avoid overwhelming viewers.
• Data can be effectively presented in visual stories through infographics, charts, and graphs, creating compelling and reader-friendly content.

It’s the art of using images, graphics, and other visual elements to tell a story that engages and inspires whoever is attending your presentation.

The power of visual stories lies in their ability to immerse viewers into a different world while delivering a message effectively.

The core elements of any story include:

Balancing these elements can create compelling narratives that engage viewers. In films or series, you’re trying to create tension as viewers follow the hero’s journey.

Beyond consumer series, visual storytelling plays a large role in the workplace as well.

However, using the right image or employing enhanced graphics isn’t just nice-to-haves.

They’re an essential tool for learning and retaining information.

So why does visual storytelling matter?

Because 65% of people are visual learners by nature.

An effective image can convey a complex idea instantly, sparking emotions or reactions that long-form content alone may fail to ignite.

In fact, we only have 10 minutes to get the audience’s attention and communicate our story. During that time, we need to keep it short and snappy while luring readers to become more invested in the core message.

One way to hold someone’s attention is using using the right images. They can change the entire experience and create lasting impressions by appealing directly to our senses.

The aspects of visual learning – seeing, interpreting, understanding – allow for deeper connections with the material presented.

Whether it’s children’s picture books or a brand’s content marketing strategy, the best narratives follow the same principles and employ the same elements.

Imagery, composition, colors, and typography are all essential components of this art form. Visual storytelling works when these elements are combined together.

Let’s dive deeper into each element so we understand how they work on their own and in tandem with each other.

Using imagery in presentations or reports can simplify or enhance textual information, adding a layer of relatability and context.

Images can evoke emotions and drive engagement. It makes data-heavy presentations relatable, ensuring key messages resonate deeply with audiences.

Consider you present a slide on diversity. Instead of a simple pie chart, it showcases diverse employee portraits surrounding the chart, instilling both an emotional connection and clearer understanding of the company’s demographic makeup.

Composition

Composition is basically how you structure your layout of visuals and text in an organized manner.

It’s the roadmap that guides an audience’s eyes through a slide or report, establishing a hierarchy of information.

There’s a hierarchy in visual representation based on how we process information. It defines the order in which viewers perceive what they see. A well-organized composition offers clarity, reducing the time spent deciphering complex data, and makes communications more efficient.

Imagine a slide showing quarterly turnover rates. A central, larger figure represents the company average, with smaller, peripheral figures showcasing departmental rates. This composition immediately emphasizes the overarching data while still providing a detailed breakdown.

Colors act as silent narrators in visual storytelling.

Think of visual content as a symphony and colors as its melodies.

When presenting reports or sharing data, choosing the right colors can amplify your message. Picking the right color in your visual narrative can evoke emotions, highlight priorities, and segment information.

For example, a presentation detailing employee engagement using varying shades of blue and red can indicate the level of engagement. A deeper hue is a strong visual cue for senior leaders to see what’s working, while rows with a lighter one might indicate areas that require attention.

If you’re uncertain which colors to use, try applying the Rule of 3 Colors . Start with a primary color, then pick two more to compliment it.

This color palette can start as your foundation, and you can use additional colors as a contrast to accent certain statistics or points when needed.

Typography goes beyond just choosing a font. You also have to take into account font choice, spacing, size, and hierarchy.

Effective typography ensures clarity, sets tone, and emphasizes important messages, making reports and presentations more digestible. As part of brand storytelling, it conveys mood and tone, giving voice to your tale in ways words alone cannot.

To start, consider picking from one of seven main types of fonts :

They each have their own purpose and effect. Choosing the “best” font depends on your brand voice and style.

Let’s say you held a presentation on company values. A bold, large typeface could emphasize core values, while a refined script underneath provides a brief description, guiding eyes and emphasizing importance seamlessly.

Remember, graphic design is more than aesthetics. Typography is a powerful way to guide readers through your story visually.

From the concise clarity of infographics and the revealing patterns in various charts and graphs to the sequential coherence of timelines, storyboards, flowcharts, and diagrams, these visual mediums provide unique insights that can transform data into compelling narratives.

To give your visual narrative structure, there are several types of visual mediums, each with its own nuances.

For you to use visual storytelling effectively, it helps to know what formats you can use in different situations.

Let’s start with infographics.

Piktochart has hundreds of infographic templates for you to choose from. Get started with a free account .

Infographics

With infographics, you can present complex data in an easily digestible and visually appealing manner.

Infographics use visuals to simplify intricate details, making it easier for audiences to comprehend.

You can transform a large passage of text that might take 30 minutes to an hour to understand into an interesting story that maintains the central focus on a core topic but only takes 20 seconds to communicate.

As a staple of visual storytelling examples, infographics are versatile and can be used in many situations. We discovered there are ten types of infographics , and each can tell a different story.

Within the same infographic, you can seamlessly blend multiple types of images or data visualization diagrams to reorient your audience’s perception around your main message.

But when creating your own visual content, it doesn’t have to be complex. An infographic can be as simple as a “Men at Work” construction sign, indicating that a construction project is going on.

Different types of charts and graphs

There’s no better way to transform raw data into visual forms that make comparisons and spotting trends intuitive.

When it comes to data visualization, there’re various types of charts and graphs that can be used effectively, such as:

• Line diagrams

These data visualization diagrams could become your best allies in visual storytelling efforts.

However, it’s worth keeping in mind that your goal is to convey a story or idea efficiently. To this end, including the right type of chart or graph can clearly and quickly share information.

In your next project, consider using a timeline to neatly arrange events in chronological order. It’s an effective way to present historical data or the progression of an idea.

For example, you might highlight key moments in a company’s history or illustrate the development of a groundbreaking product using visual media such as photos, videos, or infographics.

Try our timeline maker to access professionally designed templates for a variety of purposes for free.

Storyboards

Storyboards are exceptional for planning and organizing your presentation, offering a preview of how the story unfolds. They give you room for experimentation with different types of images, allowing you to perfect your tale before it reaches your audience. A presentation maker can help you cover all your bases and provide you with a variety of outlines to work with.

Storyboards are particularly effective for visual learners, helping them grasp complex ideas more easily. Remember, a good story isn’t just about words; it’s about creating a compelling visual media experience effectively too.

Like a visual GPS, flowcharts guide audiences through complex information, making it easily digestible and memorable. The diagrams often use standardized symbols connected with arrows to signify flow or sequence.

Few diagrams beat flowcharts when you need to show how a system or process works.

The beauty of flowcharts is that they simplify complex processes.

By mapping out what the different steps in a process are and who is responsible for each step, they clarify responsibilities, improve efficiency, and identify potential bottlenecks or redundancies.

Consider onboarding procedures. A flowchart can visually outline the journey of a new employee, from initial orientation to various training sessions, ensuring no step is missed and clarifying the progression for all stakeholders involved.

Video storytelling

Videos are a flexible way of getting a viewer’s attention and sharing a story by using great visual metaphors and elements, staged with an emotional visual media experience.

The great thing about videos is that you don’t even need text or speech to communicate your message. From filming angles to color grading, every detail contributes to the narrative.

Consider silent films, commercials, or music videos where no words are spoken yet a story is told effectively.

With all the tools in place, let’s explore how to craft a powerful visual narrative.

Once you’ve crafted the copy in your presentation, you might be at the juncture of adding some visual aids.

The best way to approach this is to think of your presentation or report as a jigsaw puzzle, with each piece of the overall image seamlessly fitting together.

Every element you add needs to help the story unfold.

Let’s start with making sure your target audience is at the heart of your story.

Understand the viewer’s needs

It’s not enough to just produce the raw stats and information in presentation slides. You must tailor the content that matches your audience’s needs.

As mentioned earlier, you only have 10 minutes to really capture your viewer’s attention and get the point across. To increase the odds of your message landing, reframe the presentation so the viewer understands what the problem is, how it affects them, and what the potential solutions are.

Creating a better presentation with effective visual storytelling starts with understanding your audience.

Here are four ways to prepare:

• Conduct in-depth research : Learn who the audience is, what their current challenges are, and what ideal outcome they’re looking for.
• Gather feedback : Use surveys or interviews to learn more about their situation and what expectations they have of your presentation.
• Segment your audiences: If you’re presenting to a larger demographic with a diverse range of participants, it could help to segment the groups and create separate presentations that address the needs of each segment based on their expectations and needs.

Make sure your message is clear

There’s nothing more frustrating than sitting in a presentation that you’ve tried to make sense of but struggle to understand.

To spare your attendees from this type of headache, ensure the main message of the presentation is clear. However, when you create your presentation, knowing what to include and what to cut can be tricky when you’re editing your content.

A good rule of thumb to keep the central focus clear is to ask yourself, “does this image/text help the audience understand the problem better?”

Crafting a clear message is crucial when conveying your story. It’s what’ll resonate with the viewer and prompt them to take action. You’re painting a picture with words, so make sure each sentence contributes to that image.

To that end, your text and images should guide the viewer along a narrative.

You don’t need to spell everything out—sometimes, you can let visual graphics or diagrams do some of the heavy lifting. But remember, every image should have purpose.

They’re not just there for decoration. They should enhance your story, add depth and context.

Emotional Connection

We’re all hardwired for stories that touch our emotions. It’s not just about sharing information; it’s about sharing it in a way that resonates. Here’s why and how:

Humanize the data : Raw data can feel distant. Instead of writing out progress updates on various projects, consider pairing the numbers with images of real team members or anecdotes of personal growth and challenges. By doing so, you’re not just sharing numbers; you’re sharing human experiences.

Visual metaphors work wonders : Metaphors can bridge the gap between the abstract and the concrete. If you’re discussing the concept of team unity, an image of different instruments coming together in a symphony can be more evocative than mere words.

Relevance is key : Put yourself in the shoes of attendees and ask yourself, “Why should I care?”. When presenting to employees about a new policy or system, use images and stories that highlight how it directly impacts their daily lives. Instead of saying, “We have a new time-tracking system,” show an image of an employee enjoying more personal time, signifying efficient work hours.

You’re not just communicating policies or data. You’re interacting with people’s lives, aspirations, and concerns.

While conveying the right information is essential, doing it in a way that touches the heart ensures that the message is not just heard, but deeply felt and remembered.

User-Centered Design

As an HR professional, your role is pivotal in shaping an inclusive and effective workplace. When crafting presentations, a user-centered design isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a necessity. Here’s how you can make your presentations more intuitive:

• Empathy first : Put yourself in the shoes of the viewer. Understand their needs, preferences, and pain points. If you’re presenting a new work-from-home policy, use an image or graphic that reflect an employee’s home setting—perhaps a kitchen table turned into a workspace, to make the connection real.
• Keep it simple : Complex layouts can be off-putting. Go for simple designs that guide the eye naturally from one point to another. Use arrows, lines, or contrasting colors to direct attention where you want it.
• Personalization pays off : People respond better when they feel the content is tailored for them. If presenting about career development, use real-world success stories of employees within your organization. Show their progression through simple visuals, like a ladder or growing plant.
• Accessibility matters : Ensure your visuals are inclusive. Use clear fonts, contrast-rich colors, and consider alternative text for images to ensure that the content is accessible to all employees, including those with disabilities.
• Test and iterate : Don’t assume what works; test it. Share your presentation with a small group first, collect feedback, and make necessary changes. Look for points where they seemed engaged or disengaged.

As an HR professional, you’re not just sharing information; you’re shaping an employee’s experience with the organization.

A user-centered design means creating presentations that resonate with your audience, making them feel seen, understood, and valued. In doing so, you’re not just conveying information, you’re building trust and fostering a positive work environment.

What makes visual storytelling important is that you can enhance your presentation by including a few tasteful graphics or images. Combined with basic storytelling techniques, viewers will buy into your story from the beginning.

That said, there are other ways you can level up your presentation or report beyond the basics.

You can jump right into using our presentation-maker and give the tips below a try for free.

Use different unordered list layouts

The beauty of presentations lies not just in the content, but also in its delivery.

An unordered list, often represented by bullets or icons, breaks down complex information into digestible chunks. However, there’s more to these lists than mere dots. By experimenting with different unordered list layouts, you can add depth and variety to your slides.

• Understanding the basics : Traditional bullet points list information in a linear, top-to-bottom manner. It’s straightforward and serves most purposes. An unordered list layout, on the other hand, allows for creative variations, using icons, images, or varying indents to signify different types or levels of information.
• Choose meaningful icons : Instead of standard dots, opt for icons that reflect the content. Discussing benefits? Use a checkmark. Highlighting challenges? Consider an exclamation point. The visual cue adds another layer of understanding.
• Play with spacing and position : A centered list or one that zigzags across the slide can capture attention. This format can be particularly useful when you’re contrasting two sets of ideas or presenting a flow of thoughts.
• Use graphics for elaboration : Instead of just text, pair each bullet with a relevant image or a short infographic. This provides a dual layer of information, engaging both textual and visual learners.
• Grouping and segmentation : Use different shapes or color-coded bullets to group related points together. This helps viewers quickly grasp the structure and relationships between the points.

Presentations often involve sharing heaps of data, guidelines, and updates. Using varied unordered list layouts can break the monotony, making information absorption easier.

Remember, it’s not just about listing the facts, but doing so in a way that ensures clarity, engagement, and retention.

By varying list formats, you enhance comprehension while adding creativity to your presentation.

Use templates

Time is of the essence. But efficiency shouldn’t come at the cost of effectiveness.

This is where ready-to-use stickers and templates shine.

They not only save time but elevate the aesthetics and coherence of your presentations. Let’s delve deeper:

The power of familiarity: Using templates ensures a consistent visual theme across slides, fostering a sense of familiarity and cohesion. It sends a subliminal message of stability and organization to your audience.

Stickers and icons add personality : Think of stickers or icons as the emojis of presentations. They can convey emotions, emphasize points, or simply add a touch of flair. A sticker of a light bulb next to an innovative idea or a thumbs-up alongside a best practice can make your slide pop.

Tailored to suit the mood : Different presentations demand different vibes. A template designed for a festive company announcement will differ from one discussing quarterly reviews. By having a variety of templates at hand, you can easily match the tone of your message.

Remember that your aim is to ensure clear communication, but with an emotional touch. Stickers can provide that touch, making presentations feel more human and relatable.

Templates, on the other hand, ensure structure and consistency. In scenarios like onboarding sessions, policy updates, or team meetings, the use of these tools can enhance understanding, retention, and engagement.

A well-crafted presentation can inspire, motivate, and inform, and having the right tools at your disposal makes this task infinitely easier.

Embrace negative space

An often-overlooked element, using negative space is where your creativity has room to stretch.

• Don’t fear emptiness: Negative space isn’t just empty space; it’s a powerful tool that can add depth and balance to your visual storytelling.
• Balance is key: Too much clutter can overwhelm your audience. Use negative space effectively to provide visual relief.
• Emphasize what matters: Strategically placed negative space can draw focus toward the most important elements of your story.
• Create intriguing shapes: Negative space isn’t always ‘negative’. It can form interesting shapes or patterns, adding another layer of intrigue.

Color psychology

Colors aren’t just about aesthetics; they speak a silent language, evoking emotions, driving actions, and setting the mood.

Harnessing the power of color psychology can amplify their visual storytelling and make presentations memorable.

Understanding color emotions : Different colors invoke different feelings. Blue conveys trust and calm, red signifies passion and urgency, while green often represents growth and peace. Recognizing these associations can help set the tone of your presentation.

Tailor to your viewers : Consider the cultural nuances of color when addressing diverse audiences. A color that’s considered positive in one culture might not have the same connotation in another.

Consistency is key : Maintaining a consistent color scheme not only looks professional but also aids in reinforcing brand identity and message continuity.

Creating focus : Use contrasting or bold colors to highlight key points or call-to-action elements. This can draw the audience’s attention to crucial areas of your slide. Using contrast can highlight key points when done well alongside your brand colors .

Maintain readability : While playing with colors can be fun, it’s vital to ensure text remains legible. Ensure there’s enough contrast between background and text colors.

Microinteractions

You’re likely to find microinteractions quite useful in enhancing user experience and building a connection with your audience. These little design elements, often unnoticed, add richness to the overall story you’re painting for your viewers.

Imagine sliding a toggle on a website or the satisfying click of a button—these are examples of microinteractions. They might not seem like much, but they can have an outsized impact on how users interact with your visual narrative.

Incorporate these subtle cues into your visual storytelling journey. Let them guide your audience through the narrative, providing feedback, direction, or simply delighting them along the way.

Data annotation

Incorporating data annotation in your content, you’ll be able to deliver a more comprehensive and detailed narrative. Think of it as the secret ingredient that adds depth and context to your visual storytelling.

It’s not just about presenting raw numbers or facts, but connecting those data points in a way that paints a vivid picture for your audience.

Imagine creating an interactive map on climate change. Through data annotation, you’re not only pinpointing areas most affected, but also weaving in compelling narratives about how it impacts local communities.

You’re giving life to otherwise static information, making your audience not just viewers but active participants in the story.

With data annotation, you turn complex concepts into relatable stories that inspire understanding and action.

The right tool to craft the best story

At the heart of every compelling presentation lies the art of visual storytelling. It’s not just about relaying facts but weaving them into a narrative that resonates deeply with your audience.

However, a story is only as powerful as its delivery. The right visual design tool can elevate your storytelling, transforming static data into dynamic narratives.

Want to craft presentations that captivate, communicate, and convert?

Consider giving Piktochart a try. Dive into a platform designed to breathe life into your stories, ensuring every slide leaves an indelible mark.

Join the Piktochart family today and see the difference firsthand. All you need is a free account to get started!

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Presentation Storytelling Examples & Techniques (2024)

Learn techniques for telling a story in a presentation . Get narrative presentation examples and learn to apply storytelling in business presentations .

Joanne Camarce

8 minute read

Short answer

What should a presentation storytelling structure include?

Introduction

Rising Action

Falling Action

Storytelling in business presentations matters (a lot)

Stories convey a deeper meaning, idea, or lesson. They make us feel, experience, identify, and understand.

Most importantly for storytelling in business presentations, telling a story in a presentation makes people more likely to remember the message.

Researchers Dean and Chip Heath found that after a presentation, 63% of attendees could remember the story told by the presenter.

However, only 5% could recall specific statistics from the event.

Because stories allow audiences to visualize and imagine an idea or message, stories also make them better able to make decisions.

In other words, stories bring buyers, stakeholders, and decision-makers to better understand and remember your message. Which in turn enables them to make a decision and increases the chance they’ll act on it.

What is presentation storytelling?

Presentation storytelling is the art of using a narrative structure to convey information instead of dry facts. It delivers a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end that aligns with the presentation's objectives, making the content more relatable and memorable.

Storytelling in business presentations involves 2 complementing aspects: (1) textual presentation narrative, and (2) visual storytelling.

What is a narrative presentation?

A narrative presentation is a style of delivering information where the content is structured as a relatable story. It typically includes characters, a setting, a conflict, and a resolution, and weaves complex ideas, processes, and metrics into the narrative.

What is a visual storytelling presentation?

A visual storytelling presentation tells a story or multiple anecdotes using visual elements like videos, animations, and interactive content.

Modern storytelling presentations apply scrollytelling design which combines visuals and text seamlessly to let readers interact with the presentation as they scroll down the content.

How to use the 4 storytelling archetypes

Storytelling is the art of describing vivid ideas, beliefs, experiences, and life lessons through stories and narratives.

These stories stimulate a listener's imagination as you take them on an emotional journey. There are many ways to tell a story.

These story structures have been shown to work for narrative presentations and corporate storytelling, and they will work for you.

The Hero's Journey: Communicates a transformation from struggle to success

The Story Mountain: Builds tension and anticipation

Story loop: Joins multiple perspectives into a single narrative

In-Media Res: Grabs attention quickly

There are timeless narrative frameworks that have worked for storytellers throughout the ages from the methodologies of old, through Shakespearian plays to Apple commercials.

1) Hero's Journey

The hero's journey narrative archetype involves a hero who goes on a journey and returns as a changed person.

This storytelling template consists of three distinct parts, or "acts," that include a setup, confrontation, and resolution. It makes for a well-structured and engaging narrative.

2) The Mountain

The mountain storytelling structure strategically maps the tension and drama in a story. This archetype is represented visually as a mountain, with each section building to a complex obstacle that characters need to overcome.

Think of the protagonist at the bottom of the mountain. They must climb the mountain to reach their goal (your business goals in this case). They face obstacles along the way, and they must overcome those obstacles before they can reach the top.

3) Story loop

The story loop structure contains stories within another story. However, they aren't standalone stories.

Your first story is the most important. It's the core of your message, and you use the other stories to elaborate or explain your central point.

But you stop some of the way through it, leaving the audience in suspense. Then, you share part of the second story before moving on to the last.

Eventually, in the end, you bring it all together to make one cohesive point. The purpose of this storytelling technique is to provide context, background, or a different perspective to a central narrative.

Types of anecdotes you can use in your story loop presentation

• Customer success stories
• Personal experiences by clients
• Inspirational stories
• Fictional or hypothetical stories
• Historical or factual stories

Here's a short video explaining how to use a story loop:

4) In medias res (begin from the middle)

In medias res is Latin for "in the middle of things." With this storytelling archetype, the narrative begins in the middle of a scene. It skips over the background of the story and gets straight to the action.

To choose the right type of story for your presentation, consider your audience, the purpose of the presentation, and the emotional impact you want to create.

No matter what narrative structure you choose, include visuals, sensory details, and precise language to bolster your message.

If you want to learn more about this storytelling archetype, check out the video below:

Effective presentation storytelling structure

A well-structured story can engage and persuade your audience, making your corporate presentation much more effective and memorable.

Stories can be applied in any type of business presentation, such as a pitch deck, sales presentation, white paper, report, or business proposal.

A single document can include multiple stories that make up a joint narrative.

5 basic elements of a story structure:

1. Introduction

• Sets a relevant context with background information.
• Introduces the protagonist (business or product) and the current problem or challenge.

2. Rising Action

• Builds tension by detailing the obstacles and complications faced.
• Engages the audience with the steps taken to address the challenge.
• The turning point where the main tension or conflict peaks.
• Highlights the moment of greatest challenge and the decisive action taken.

4. Falling Action

• Shows the aftermath of the climax.
• Begins to lead towards the resolution, detailing the business solution and results of actions taken.

5. Resolution

• Wraps up the story with the outcome of all actions.
• Provides a clear ending, showing how the challenge was overcome and what was learned.

After developing your story structure, be sure to connect it to your core message by creating parallels and reinforcing it with examples.

Most importantly, don’t leave your audience with the realization that they need to take action without offering them an immediate way to act.

Effective storytelling techniques for presentations

The beauty of storytelling is that the possibilities are endless. There are so many ways to tell a story in presentations. It's just a matter of finding the right one for your unique needs and goals.

1) Build your stories around your audience’s pain points

Stories establish connections. But don’t confuse your story with your audience’s story.

Your audience doesn’t care about your story, and they don’t care about your product.

But they will care if they feel you care about them.

Understanding the audience's pain points, values, and opinions can help you weave a story into a narrative that aligns with their interests. It gives you the chance to be part of THEIR story.

Stop talking about yourself. Do this and see engagement blow up, conversions increase, and greater brand loyalty .

2) Establish common ground with your prospects

One effective presentation storytelling technique is to find common ground and share experiences with your audience to establish a connection and make them care about what you say.

These commonalities are what resonate strongest with your target audience.

Common-ground stories tell your audience a satisfied client of yours overcame a particular challenge they are experiencing themselves, and offer the lessons learned while overcoming it.

3) Tell stories that foster peer envy

Peer envy is one of the strongest motivators you can flame in sales presentation storytelling.

Simply put it just means telling the story of a known industry player that achieved remarkable results with the help of your product or service.

A peer envy story should present the initial challenge, the journey to overcome it, and the final enviable outcomes. Yet the reader should feel they can attain similar or better results by following a similar journey.

Here's a fragment of a podcast where Michael Bosworth touches on this very topic:

Business presentation storytelling examples

Here are some examples of famous brands that incorporated personal stories to convey a powerful message in their business presentations.

Zuora sales deck

The Zuora sales deck was aptly named the best sales deck ever . It is truly a best-in-class example of a transformation narrative set within the story mountain framework.

It masterfully narrates the shift to a subscription economy, emphasizing evolving consumer behavior.

And by highlighting the challenges businesses face in this new economy, Zuora positions itself as the essential solution.

The deck's use of data, visuals, and testimonials weaves a compelling story of transformation, urging businesses to adapt and thrive with Zuora or stay behind and decline.

Mign sales deck

Mign’s sales deck highlights the digital shift in musculoskeletal injury recovery, emphasizing the transformation from mass production to personalized care.

Mign applies the hero’s journey story framework and positions itself as the trusted guide in this transformation.

The deck contrasts "winners," who embrace new technologies like additive manufacturing and virtual care, with "losers," traditional manufacturers stuck in outdated processes.

Tinder pitch deck

Tinder's pitch deck effectively narrates the universal challenge of meeting new people and the fear of rejection.

By introducing a hypothetical user named "Matt," Tinder gives the reader a peek into the mind of their target user - an everyday nice guy scared to approach a girl he's interested in.

This concrete personal experience gives life to a basic human need that investors can understand intuitively and even relate to.

Tinder leverages this emotional understanding to make a compelling case for its solution - a platform that eliminates the fear of rejection.

The deck also applied great data storytelling showcasing Tinder's impressive statistics, emphasizing its global reach and popularity among Gen Z.

They also nail the one-liner. Their slogan "It Starts With A Swipe™" encapsulates the simplicity and effectiveness of the app, positioning Tinder as the modern solution to traditional dating challenges.

Brothers Pub restaurant pitch deck

Brothers Pub's pitch deck presents a captivating local business story, emphasizing the need for a fresh, community-focused social pub venue.

The deck tells the story of the owners’ journey, from the initial concept to securing a prime location in Northampton, highlighting their dedication and vision for the future.

The deck outlines the challenges faced by traditional pubs, with 7000 closures in the last decade, and positions Brothers Pub as the innovative solution.

LKE proposal

Legends Kratom Co. (LKE) creates a narrative around the origins and benefits of kratom. By telling the exotic tale of the medicinal tropical evergreen tree and its transformation into a beneficial supplement, the deck creates a vivid backdrop.

They take the reader on their discovery journey to Indonesia to find a supplier for the coveted plant.

This adds authenticity and allure, while their commitment to education and community showcases a heartfelt mission.

Testimonials provide real-world validation, making LKE's story relatable and positioning them as a trusted leader in the supplement industry.

Genius Workshop Event pitch deck

Genius's pitch deck for their storytelling workshop is a masterclass in selling an experience. The deck introduces Gabrielle Dolan's expertise, setting a foundation of trust.

The workshop's structure is presented as a narrative journey, guiding attendees from novice to storyteller.

The deck mixes video, scrollytelling, and vivid language to give rich detail to the experience it promises to provide.

The 90-day follow-up program adds an element of continued growth, while alumni testimonials serve as real-world success stories.

By framing the workshop as a transformative experience, the deck engages and entices potential attendees, showcasing the power of storytelling in action.

Barbie recruitment pitch deck

Barbie's recruitment deck immerses candidates into Barbie's vibrant world. With playful greetings and whimsical descriptions, it sets a creative tone.

The deck focuses on Barbie’s story as a human being (doll in her case), her values, and her experience, instead of focusing on the recruiting company.

The deck lists attributes and responsibilities that align with Barbie's ethos, such as "spreading positivity" and "rocking a pink wardrobe."

Nokia brand guidelines

Nokia's brand guidelines deck uses visual storytelling to effectively communicate the essence of the brand. It lets the visuals tell the story since they speak louder than words.

The deck begins by anchoring the audience in Nokia's mission and values, creating a narrative foundation.

It then unfolds the brand's visual identity, from color schemes to typography, weaving a cohesive story of what Nokia represents.

By providing clear dos and don'ts, Nokia ensures that its brand story remains consistent and impactful across all touchpoints.

This storytelling approach not only educates but also engages, making it easier for stakeholders to internalize and adhere to the guidelines.

nSure one-pager

nSure's one-pager effectively uses visual data storytelling to convey the benefits of their AI fraud protection for digital gift card purchases.

Introducing the challenge of ambiguous transactions, nSure lets the numbers tell the story.

With impressive numbers like their AI solution’s 98% approval rate. They can afford to.

The deck's visuals, combined with endorsements from industry leaders like AXA, make a compelling narrative that instills confidence in nSure's expertise.

Healthy.io proposal

Healthy.io's proposal uses video storytelling with real practitioners who tell the story of their experiences using Healthy.io’s solution.

The video testimonial from a practice nurse adds a personal touch, showing the positive impact on patient care. This brings the user's experience to the front and adds credibility to the proposal’s claims.

The proposal uses a transformation narrative to showcase Healthy.io’s remote kidney screening solution.

They highlight the challenges of legacy ACR testing against their modern home-based test using a smartphone app.

Principles of visual storytelling in business presentations

Storytelling allows you to simplify complex or abstract information and address any objections or resistance. As a result, listeners can better retain and remember the message, which improves the decision-making process.

Here are the main principles that can transform your narrative:

Authenticity

Authentic visuals resonate more with audiences. In an era where people are bombarded with staged and polished images, authentic, candid photos that reflect the reality of your work can make your message stand out and be memorable.

Your visuals should evoke a sensory experience. The goal is to cut through the noise and trigger a stronger emotional response.

For example, you can make the experience more immersive by adding interactive clickable elements, embedding videos, or images that highlight details or visual textures.

Scrollytelling can also play a crucial role here, allowing the story to unfold through interaction, as the audience scrolls through the narrative, engaging them in a multi-sensory journey.

You can see the difference that interactivity makes below. Which presentation would you rather read?

The stories told by your images must be relevant to your audience. Personalized visual storytelling, supported by data to understand what motivates your audience, can turn your story into an experience that resonates deeply.

Every story has characters that fit certain archetypes, such as the caregiver, the explorer, and the creator. Identifying with these archetypes helps your audience connect with the story on a deeper level, making your organization's mission more relatable and memorable.

Make your own storytelling presentation

We've curated an extensive collection of templates to help you achieve effective storytelling for whatever business presentation you need to make.

The business storytelling presentation templates below have been rigorously tested across various devices and refined with insights gleaned from real-world feedback.

They were designed with interactive storytelling at their core. They’ll serve you as handy visual storytelling aids to make your presentations engaging, memorable, and highly converting.

Grab a template!

Why the human brain loves storytelling presentations

According to neuroscientist Uri Hasson , storytelling fosters deep social interactions through brain-to-brain connections.

He found that when we hear stories, our brains mirror each other, helping us understand what the storyteller is feeling.

Called neurocoupling or mirroring, this process occurs across many areas of the brain, including the ones that are responsible for processing and understanding narratives.

So the human brain loves stories. But why?

The short answer is that ‌neural activity in the brain increases when we hear a captivating story. Our brains are made up of neurons, which are nerve cells that send messages throughout the body.

These neurons release neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) that transmit signals from nerve cells to target cells.

The most common neurotransmitters in the brain include:

When we hear a story, the neurons in our brain light up with activity. And according to neuroscientists, "neurons that fire together wire together."

This means that as we hear stories, the neurons in our brains are wiring together. As a result, we're more likely to remember the information we receive from a story.

Storytelling also triggers the release of dopamine ("the brain's form of candy") and oxytocin ("the love drug"). In other words, stories make us feel good.

Here's an infographic showing how storytelling affects the brain:

This can influence buying behavior because it helps to create an emotional connection with potential customers or buyers.

Telling a story, instead of making a sales pitch , is less intimidating to an audience.

The company or product you're describing is easier to understand, seems less complex, and provides relevant information in a format that's easy to digest and remember.

As a result, the buyer can relate to the product or service and will eventually want to purchase it.

Joanne Camarce grows and strategizes B2B marketing and PR efforts @ codeless.io . She loves slaying outreach campaigns and connecting with brands like G2, Wordstream, Process Street, and others. When she's not wearing her marketing hat, you'll find Joanne admiring Japanese music and art or just being a dog mom.

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The Power of Visual Storytelling

Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.

Michael Lee November 14, 2022

We’ve all seen those presentations. You know the ones — way too much text, barely decipherable charts, corny clip art. But that’s not how you capture your audience’s attention, especially in a virtual-first world where people can easily find something else to focus on. 

In a recent webinar, Jole Simmons — the Senior Art Director at Workday , as well as a LinkedIn Learning instructor and longtime presentation designer — explained the importance of visual storytelling with the help of Prezi (he actually imported an existing PowerPoint presentation into Prezi Video for a virtual audience). Even something normally full of text and slides can be turned into something compelling and memorable. 

Check out his on-demand webinar, or read on to get some of his top tips for creating visual stories.  

What is visual storytelling, exactly?

Visual storytelling involves using pictures, images, and videos with little or no text— an effective way to capture the audience’s attention and help them understand the information being put across. This method is greatly employed in marketing, education, and entertainment— as it helps in creating immersive experiences that are also easy to remember later on. The real power behind visual storytelling is its ability to draw out emotions from the viewer; this makes it more likely for people to remember what they’ve seen, therefore effective not only as a communication tool but also for persuasion purposes.

Understanding the elements of a good story

Before you can tell a story, it’s important to know what parts make up a good one. Jole breaks down the elements you need (particularly in the context of giving a presentation) to craft your story: 

• Setting . This is where the story is being told, or the broader context of your content. Make sure you establish what you’ll be focusing on early to set the stage for your audience. 
• Characters . In other words, your audience. Who are you talking to? Is your content catered to them? 
• Conflict . This seems counter-intuitive, especially if you’re presenting something that is mostly positive, but having some kind of conflict makes your story memorable. For example, even if you have positive news to share, you can frame the story around some of the challenges you had to overcome first. 
• Resolution . The key thing here is to not just tie a happy bow on your story and leave it at that. Instead, you should also provide an action item for your audience to take after they leave your presentation. 

The next time you create a presentation, make sure you create it with these story elements in mind. If you do this from the get-go, you’ll ensure you have a more cohesive narrative in the final product. 

8 top tips on how to tell a story in a presentation

To help you maximize your storytelling techniques, we’ve put together 8 tips and tricks to assist with visual storytelling in a presentation:

• Start with a hook: Grab attention from the get-go by using a surprising fact or a personal anecdote to set the stage for your story. 
• Be relatable: Share experiences or examples that your audience can relate to. 
• Keep it simple: Avoid overloading your presentation with too much information. Focus on the key parts of your story so your audience can follow along easily.
• Use visuals: Incorporate images, graphs, and videos that complement your narrative. Visuals can help illustrate your points and make your story more memorable.
• Build suspense: Create a sense of anticipation by building up to the key moments in your story. This way, your audience will be eager to know what happens next.
• Be authentic: Share your story in a genuine way, and don’t be afraid to show your personality or emotions.
• Incorporate dialogue: Including dialogue can bring your story to life. It helps your audience connect with the meaning and characters.
• End with a strong conclusion: Leave a lasting impression by concluding your story with a powerful message or call to action. This reinforces the main points of your presentation and gives your audience something to remember.

By using these storytelling techniques for presentations, you can hold your audience’s attention with a captivating story and create a truly memorable experience.

What the best presentations should do 

Of course, even with a story in mind, you need to make sure your presentation can support and enhance that story. Jole shares what the best presentations need to do to keep an audience’s attention: 

• Inform . This one may seem obvious, but it’s worth repeating. You need to make sure you’re delivering value to your audience — otherwise, why should they give you their precious time and attention? 
• Be memorable . This goes back to the slides full of text or dense charts — all of that information will vanish the second your presentation ends. Being visual goes a long way in getting your audience to remember what you’re saying. 
• Entertain . Speaking of being memorable, a great way to do that is by being entertaining. You definitely don’t need to be cramming your presentation full of jokes (remember: know your audience/characters!), but some light levity and authenticity can do wonders for engagement. 
• Support . Ultimately, you’re the speaker, not your presentation. Your content should be there to support and complement your message, so try not to share your screen and cover your face if you can help it (which is where a tool like Prezi Video can help), and don’t let boring slides take the wind out of what you want to say. 

Visual storytelling examples for your inspiration

Explore some examples from the Prezi library that are great visual storytelling presentations. 

The civil rights movement 

This Prezi presentation on the Civil Rights Movement is a solid example of visual storytelling. It’s structured well, guiding the audience through key events and milestones clearly. By highlighting important events like Brown v. Board of Education and the March on Washington, the presentation helps the audience grasp the key points. It also features notable figures like Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which personalizes the history. Using a chronological flow like this makes it easy to follow the movement’s progression. 

Visuals, videos, and an image gallery enhance engagement, making the story more memorable. The interactive elements keep the audience interested, and the strong conclusion reinforces the Civil Rights Movement’s importance. This combination of clear organization and multimedia engagement makes the presentation both informative and memorable.

Why leaders need to get out of their own way

This Prezi presentation on why leaders need to get out of their own way is an excellent example of visual storytelling. The red and white color theme, combined with spacious and simple slides, creates a clean and engaging visual experience. The presentation effectively breaks down complex concepts into clear, digestible sections. Each slide focuses on one key idea, making the content easy to follow. Visual analogies, such as comparing team-building to drafting a hockey team or hiring a Formula One driver, make abstract ideas more concrete and relatable.

International women’s day

This Prezi presentation on International Women’s Day is another great example of visual storytelling. The pink theme and spacious, simple slides create an inviting and visually appealing experience. It utilizes Prezi’s open canvas and zooming interface to smoothly transition between different regions and issues. Each section focuses on specific issues and solutions relevant to different parts of the world, making the content easy to follow and understand. 

Readers can take inspiration from this Prezi by adopting a clean, consistent color theme and using spacious layouts to avoid clutter. Leveraging Prezi’s zooming interface can help smoothly guide the audience through different sections, keeping the presentation dynamic. Breaking down complex topics into regional segments with clear issues and solutions helps maintain focus and clarity,

Hopefully, these narrative presentation examples from Prezi have given you some ideas for your own storytelling presentations. 

The best tool for mastering visual storytelling in presentations: Prezi

Prezi is not just any presentation tool; it changes the way you share your story without having to flip through slides. Instead, Prezi offers an open-space canvas where coherence and connections between ideas can be laid out spatially — helping you to bring more fluidity to your visual storytelling.

Dynamic zooming capabilities

One feature that makes Prezi unique is its zooming abilities. You can zoom in to see the details clearly and zoom out to have an overview of the whole picture. This helps in maintaining audience engagement while also aiding better comprehension of the points you’re presenting. It’s like leading your audience through a visual journey.

Transforming information into visual stories

With Prezi, you can turn any information into a visual story. It helps you avoid the common problems of traditional presentations, like too much text and boring delivery. Instead, Prezi encourages a more interactive and engaging approach.

Seamless integration and easy to use

Prezi works well with other tools and platforms. You can use it in webinars, virtual meetings, and with other presentation software. This makes your communication more effective.

Even if you’re new to Prezi, you can quickly get started with its intuitive interface because it’s so easy to use. There are plenty of templates and customization options, so you can create presentations that fit your needs and audience. You can make anything from simple presentations to complex visual storytelling.

Introducing Prezi AI

Prezi AI is designed to aid in developing good presentations without the need for design skills. It recommends layouts, color schemes, and visual elements from prompts inputted by the user. This allows you to concentrate on the message you wish to deliver rather than worry about what each section will look like. Because of its user-friendly format, Prezi AI is suitable for all those who desire visual storytelling and a professional look, without having to grapple with design work.

Prezi AI text editing

Prezi AI’s text editing tool is a great asset for visual storytelling. It can take long pieces of content and shorten them, making your slides concise and to the point. This is perfect for avoiding the common pitfall of having too much text on your slides. The AI text editing tool can also transform your text into readable bullet points which is useful for visual storytelling. 

A breakdown of how Prezi AI can transform visual storytelling:

• Text summarization : Converts long text into concise bullet points.
• Language suggestions : Offers phrasing and wording improvements for clarity and impact.
• Key phrase highlighting : Identifies and emphasizes important points.
• Design suggestions : Recommends layouts, color schemes, and visual elements.
• Visual integration : Enhances slides with images, videos, and animations.
• Interactive storytelling : Utilizes zooming and an open canvas for dynamic presentations.
• Content structuring : Helps organize information logically and coherently.
• Template customization : Provides customizable templates to suit different presentation styles.

With Prezi AI , creating a visual storytelling presentation doesn’t have to be a complicated process. With so many smart features available, every presentation you create with Prezi will be dynamic, interesting, and immersive for your audience.

Bringing visual storytelling to your presentations 

Once you have all the necessary elements for a great story and presentation, it’s time to put it all together. Jole explains that it’s not enough to just slap some images in there — you need to merge your visuals and story together to create the biggest impact. 

Prezi is a great tool for this. You can make use of its open canvas and zooming features to create a dynamic flow that easily connects different parts of your narrative. If the text happens to be too long, Prezi AI tools will help you transform it into bullet points and bring out the key phrases. In addition, it offers suggestions on language, helping you keep your slides concise yet interesting. Be sure to take full advantage of what Prezi can offer to enhance your visual storytelling experience.

In particular, Jole recommends less text per slide, more (high-quality) images, and moving visuals such as videos, GIFs, and animations. He also warns against overusing things like funny GIFs. Again, the visuals (and your presentation as a whole) are there to support you vs. overshadow you. 

By applying these tips, you can take a presentation that looks like this:

Into something that looks like this:

If you want to see Jole go even more in-depth on how he transformed a fairly unassuming slide deck into a more visually impactful story, watch his on-demand webinar . You can also see how other people have used visual storytelling to great effect in the Prezi Presentation Gallery .

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Home Blog Presentation Ideas The Power of Storytelling in Presentations: A Guide to Captivate Your Audience.

The Power of Storytelling in Presentations: A Guide to Captivate Your Audience.

Presentations happen daily in corporate meeting rooms, hybrid sessions, fully remote summits, seminars, and weekly check-ins. What was once referred to as “Death by PowerPoint” has become “This could have been an email.”

In a survey about the current work state, 91% of workers admitted that they daydream during meetings . They’re creating stories in their minds because they’re not concentrating on the meeting or the presentation on their screen. 

Nobody wants meetings that go nowhere; aim for efficiency and less time wasted. Mindful communication and some good old storytelling techniques are the best ways to reach that goal. On the other hand, stories present a different point of view on how to tell a story to an audience and disclose large chunks of data without losing the audience’s interest.

Research by the Journal of Neuroscience (2019) discusses the importance of using storytelling in business presentations to disclose information to the public in a more accessible format. Our brains are wired to process stories more effectively than raw data or facts. When we hear a story, our brains release oxytocin, a hormone associated with empathy and trust, which helps us connect emotionally with the speaker and the content. Hence, the importance of curating the script to deliver your story to the audience as stories have the power to inspire, worry, heal, and even to attract a negative impact, as suggested by the American Psychological Association .

You can harness this phenomenon in your presentations regardless of their scope. In this guide, we share storytelling techniques you might not have thought of and reinforce the classics with new ideas. This article is for weekly report presenters, sales agents presenting to clients daily, and anyone looking to improve their PowerPoint storytelling training skills. 

Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

Benefits of Using Storytelling in Presentations

Understanding the audience and tailoring the story to their interests and needs, data storytelling, storytelling structures for crafting a compelling story for a corporate presentation, practical techniques to improve storytelling in presentations, how storytelling enhances the effectiveness of the presentation.

• The Power of Visual Metaphors and your Stories

Strategies For Overcoming Storytelling Challenges in a Corporate Setting

The power of storytelling.

Communication through storytelling is the intersection between informing, connecting, and persuading. Stories have been the foundation of human connection since the beginning of human history. Before the advent of written language, history was shared through spoken storytelling. Then came books, plays, movies, and storytelling modalities that united people through communication.

Findings demonstrate that storytelling is essential for presenting innovative ideas and gaining interest and support from others. In any scenario, from academic to corporate, when people are engaged with a story, they are more likely to pay attention, ask questions, and participate in the presentation. This engagement can lead to better outcomes for the presenter and the audience.

Storytelling breaks the ice through empathy and relatability. Short, rapid-fire associations help overcome communication obstacles and connect the speaker to the audience, especially when the presenter doesn’t know the audience personally. 

Imagine that you’re about to present to a college audience of students, scholars, and teachers. Tap into what they can all relate to: the room you’re in, the event you’re all attending, the weather, and create a quick story or comment about it. If you’re a visual storytelling master, tie it into your presentation’s intro.

Stories motivate. It’s what they’re most appreciated for. Stories help people understand complex ideas or data by providing context, relatability, and a structure familiar to the human brain.

Using stories improves the memorability and strength of the message while creating a connection between the speaker and the audience. Practicing storytelling in presentations increases confidence in the speaker and, therefore, the audience. 

Research by Stanford University suggests that people remember stories better than simple facts, and incorporating stories into presentations can lead to better retention. A story also has the potential to turn a presentation into a conversation, opening up the possibilities of communication even further. 

Incorporating Storytelling into Corporate Presentations

The average corporate worker is involved in presentations at least twice a week. Incorporating storytelling into those presentations, no matter how small, improves efficiency and results. 

But simply telling a random joke isn’t going to cut it; your content has to be tailored to the audience, finding the right balance between story and data and incorporating structures for storytelling slides , and visual, textual, and auditory storytelling techniques. Storytelling techniques span from small touches like quotes, GIFs, or memes to a full-scale story spanning every presentation slide.

Corporate Storytelling is the branch by which we apply storytelling techniques to business environments, which can happen in the format of writing mission & vision statements, presentations, marketing, sales proposals , product design, etc. Its company-wide application ensures that communication is clear across all levels but also reflects on overcoming obstacles with real-life applications of what the corporation is producing. 

Audiences can be vertical or horizontal. Vertical audiences are people with more or less knowledge than you. Horizontal audiences have the same knowledge as you. This distinction matters because it directs your decision-making toward the terminology and story arc you incorporate into a presentation.

For example, the communication is horizontal in a small meeting with your peers where you present a roadmap for a project launch. You can use industry jargon freely because they’ll all understand. Here’s a possible storytelling technique for a roadmap presentation.

• Create avatars for each team member with a funny accessory or cool background. Place each avatar on their tasks and move them along every week when you have check-ins. Make it fun and build a story around it. Your plan succeeds if people are talking about it outside the meeting room.

In a hybrid orientation session with new employees and interns . There’s less room for jokes than in a horizontal team environment. Use storytelling to train and inspire 50+ people in a hybrid setting.

• Open the presentation with real success stories of employees who came into the company and thrived over time. Don’t just show this employee at work doing tasks; also show them in situations where they enjoy themselves and feel a sense of accomplishment. 
• Incorporate dialogue simulations into the presentation. Choose participants randomly and ask them to have a guided conversation about something they might encounter at work. 
• Separate the audience into break-out rooms and ask participants different “what if” questions. Afterward, have a group discussion and create possible user stories from the answers.
• Your storytelling plan succeeded if at least ¾ of the audience participated and there was some laughter and enjoyment during the session.

Presentations to large audiences, like keynote speeches and TED talks, are the easiest to add storytelling techniques to. Communication is typically a combination of vertical and horizontal in these cases. Here are some PowerPoint storytelling training ideas:

• Tell a story that happened to you that ties into the content you’re sharing. Use unifying and stringing techniques to bring the idea from the story to the content and vice versa. 
• Separate the presentation into parts and tell one story per section . Select tales that people can relate to, like overcoming obstacles, reaching goals, and surviving traumas. Everyone can relate to those.

Some scenarios present a particular challenge for presenters: how to implement storytelling if the presentation heavily relies on data? Certainly, text cannot replace factual information, not visual metaphors, so in such cases, we highly recommend you follow a methodology like the one exposed in our article about data storytelling .

A storytelling structure will always help create better presentations by captivating your audience’s attention and engaging them more deeply. Sequential steps build a sense of suspense, transforming mere information into a compelling narrative that resonates. By learning how to structure your presentation like a story , you can effectively convey your message and leave a lasting impact. Here are some of the most effective storytelling techniques tailored to their specific scopes:

SCQA – Situation, Complication, Question, Answer 

The SCQA framework is an essential tool for analytic storytelling in presentations. It’s a practical tool in business communication that audiences relate easily to. As it follows a logical flow to present a situation and the steps to its resolution, it is one of the easiest methodologies for implementing storytelling in presentations. In our detailed case study, we shall expose a step-by-step process for applying this framework.

These are the sections of SCQA:

• Complication

We introduce this case to quickly represent this model: A furniture exporter has found customer complaints regarding the parcel delivery system. Using the SCQA, they can pinpoint the story behind the situation: some third-party vendors don’t use the platform-approved parcel delivery service, which implies an extra charge for the vendors, and opt instead for their own systems. In turn, some orders get lost, and customers cannot retrieve information on the shipping status until it’s delivered.

SCQA offers the advantage of helping presenters to structure complex concepts in a story format, which benefits situations like technical or scientific presentations as jargon can be reduced to easy-to-relate life situations.

Story Mountain

The story mountain or story arch is a literary structure for telling stories. It also works for medium size business presentations. It is a visual metaphor that illustrates the path to transit a mountain, from one point to the other end, and lists key points along the road, as well as the differences in the pace for each stage.

These are the stops in a story mountain:

• Opening: Start by introducing the main characters, the setting, and the context of your story, which, in terms of business situations, reflects the company, product, or service, then the problem your organization intends to address.
• Build-Up: This is the core problem to resolve. It should be disclosed in a manner that builds expectations and drives interest from the audience on which solutions are proposed and how they will work.
• Climax: The Climax can also be interpreted as an inflection point by which a direction change is introduced after an action is taken. This can be represented in the form of speaking about a strategic management shift that led your company into a successful path or an innovative solution later presented as a product or service that solves the core problem.
• Resolution: In this section, we illustrate how the core problem is solved due to the selected solution that arose from the Climax stage. Using testimonials is a great method to validate your authority on the topic and break the barrier between theoretical models and actual solutions. Other alternatives can come from case studies or introducing fact-based data.
• Ending: We conclude the story mountain structure by summarizing the key takeaways on the path to the mountain and highlighting how the organization solved the problem. Implement CTAs in this section, as it is where you should encourage prospective buyers to acquire your product/service. In the case of academic/scientific presentations, list down your contact information for possible collaboration projects.

We can showcase this model with a case like this: A manufacturing company producing paint cans is looking to implement production monitoring software on its shop floor. The aim is to increase efficiency, track real-time production, and better understand error codes.

• Opening: The company acknowledged its production needed more efficient, identifying hidden gems in their production process. They decided it was time to implement production monitoring software to take its production rates to new levels.
• Build-Up: As the company looks for different technology solutions, it can categorize the options offered by factors such as cost, features, and ease of implementation. They also ran an audit to get insights on which technology suits their production line the best.
• Climax: After a careful evaluation, the company chose a production monitoring software solution within its needs and budget. They opted to run a pilot on a limited number of machines, comparing the output results after 3 months. The implementation phase is handled by the software provided in terms of software, access points, and hardware required.
• Resolution: Over the first three weeks, the company observed significant improvements in its production process. They could locate bottlenecks that hindered the throughput rate, making the required changes to address them. This led to increased efficiency and brought cost-saving benefits to the company.
• Ending: The production monitoring software became an integral part of the company’s daily operations, influencing when maintenance tasks should be scheduled, providing insights about hidden production potential, and helping operators understand the consequences of each action taken more clearly. Due to the quick implementation process and the reports on cost-savings, especially from the scrap count reduction and energy-saving perspective, the company opted to install this production monitoring solution across all machines on the shop floor.

The Hero’s Journey 

The Hero’s Journey is a storytelling technique that fits neatly into a long-form presentation or keynote speech. This framework became popularized by Joseph Cambell’s book “The Hero with a Thousand Faces ,” it’s longer than the previous examples and can get quite elaborate. We can identify these sections in the Hero’s Journey:

• The Call to Adventure: The challenge/opportunity that initiates the path to the journey.
• Resisting the Call: The hero’s inner struggle to embark on the journey out of fear of failure or inadequacy.
• Meeting the Mentor: The encounter between the hero and a wise figure who provides advice on the journey.
• Crossing the Threshold: Moving from the comfort zone into the “Unknown,” walking into danger or uncertainty.
• Quests, Allies, and Enemies: The hero must transit obstacles and interactions to gather experience to face the key challenge of its journey.
• Approaching the Cave: In this stage, the hero faces the story’s main conflict.
• The Abyss: Where the hero experiences an internal crisis, inducing a transformation as it faces its deepest fear or a life-or-death choice.
• The Reward: After emerging victorious from The Abyss, our hero gains a valuable element (tangible or not) relevant to transit the rest of the quest.
• The Road Home: This stage represents the path back to their daily life, but finds new obstacles or challenges.
• The Rebirth: A final challenge emerges, where the hero is confronted with its greatest fear and must put all the knowledge to the test. This point showcases how much the hero has truly changed throughout the journey.
• Return: The hero is now back in its ordinary life, with the gained knowledge and a better understanding of the world. Now, that newfound knowledge is applied to benefit others.

That is a basic outline of the steps to cover in this road. If you wish to know more about this storytelling technique, we recommend you check our guide on The Hero’s Journey and its application.

Some presentations encompass various styles, functions, and objectives, each catering to specific communication goals. Internal and external presentations serve distinct purposes, requiring tailored approaches to effectively convey information. To enhance your storytelling prowess within presentations, here are some ideas that incorporate PowerPoint storytelling examples :

On Presenting Projects, Plans, Reports, etc.

Suppose you regularly present plans, project roadmaps , and reports to higher management. In that case, you can tap into what you intend to produce from the project and craft a success story, presenting the winning moments and obstacles your organization had to transit. Say, for example, a laptop manufacturer is presenting their newest model release plan. One of the main points to highlight in the marketing strategy is why this model is a flagship for the company. Well, since the product is due to be released in Q3 2023 and there were major differences in previous laptop designs by this company, the marketing team can build a narrative on how the Pandemic affected the initial design they had in mind due to the microchip shortage, the restrictions to work in shopfloor, and how they were presented with a new paradigm in terms of work. Those learnings were applied after noticing what customers needed regarding power and portability to work from anywhere in the world, not just a shared office. And that’s the background why this new laptop model is the solution for digital nomads and a brand new concept in the company’s strategy.

Introducing an Ideal Persona

For OKR sessions with newer employees , tell stories to inspire team members to feel invested in their objectives and key results. You can create one “ideal employee” model and craft a narrative around it to present common challenges, what objectives to aim for, and the benchmarks by which the company shall measure the new employees’ success rate. Express how this “ideal employee” came to the company fresh out of university, heading for a trainee role. How asking the mentors for advice helped the employee better understand their strengths and weaknesses and how to adapt them to perform at a greater level. Then, you can use this same narrative to cultivate the constant-learning mindset, as the “ideal employee” joined for extra-hours workshops that coach how to work with new frameworks, a well-paid sacrifice as it helped the employee to land an in-company promotion in less than 1 year. Use examples of other teams in the company and expose how they overcame new challenges or set new success metrics by collaborating as a team while staying true to your company’s mission & vision.

Strategies for Sales Meetings

Your best storytelling tactic for those presenting during external meetings like sales and proposals is the trusty “get to know your audience” technique . If it’s a big group, study the average person in attendance and direct your stories toward them. For smaller groups, research the client and mention things they’re interested in. Tie it into your presentation with stories, analogies, and metaphors. As an example of this tactic, let’s place ourselves in a sales professional’s shoes, presenting robotic vacuums to a group of investors and guaranteeing higher profits than they would make if investing in competitor brands like iRobot. The sales professional must gather information about the audience’s background, their individual investing profile, which projects similar to this product caught their interest, their expected ROI, and their threshold for risk. Then, the sales professional has to craft a narrative that attends to the needs of the average member in the meeting, with juicy details to spike the interest of the best 3 potential investors in the room. You can ask then what happens if there’s a conflict of interest in contrasting expectations. Step 1 is to stay true to your facts: do not present information your product or service cannot produce. Step 2 is to debate which position is more favorable to your interests and who is your ideal investor candidate. Step 3 is to calmly expose the facts that may drive the interest away from one/several investors and how your proposal aims to solve the problem in a different format than they expected. If, by chance, no consensus is reached, move towards Step 4, which is thanking the investors for their time and wishing that you can reach a business deal in another project.

Repurposing Customer Testimonials

In some cases, users crave tangible results from an innovative product. Talk to the customer satisfaction team at the company and ask them to tell you stories from the customers they talk to. Take notes of those experiences, remembering to write down the name in case you opt to cite a customer and need to ask for permission. 

By working with your customers’ testimonials, your organization can learn about flaws your product or service may present. Such information can later be repurposed as the ground research of a new product line and even be used in the product presentation as a punch line when to introduce “Why did we create this product?” – it is a powerful resource to count with, and automatically validates your efforts by working on suggestions made from real-life customers on what they expect from a product or service.

This approach is also used in the format of surveys held by the customer satisfaction team, as we count on valid insights to work from.

Creating a Dialogue

Turn the presentation into a conversation . Incorporating storytelling into a conversation can feel more manageable than in a speech. This process can be done by following these steps:

• Simplify the language: Avoid any unrequired jargon when transforming the presentation into a conversational format. If you must use industry-exclusive terms, introduce them in the context and with an explanation as if speaking with a colleague. Overly format language should be discarded as the aim is for a conventional business conversation, as it would happen in a coffee break during an event.
• Structure the narrative: Make it a back-and-forth conversation where questions and comments can be added by any of the two interlocutors (the presenter and, in this case, the audience). Write down any aspect of the conversation that you feel might be left out if you don’t follow a strict outline.
• Use examples: As you would in any normal conversation, have some references at bay. Working with your case study in the presentation as an example can help in most cases, as you are already familiar with the ins and outs of that example. If not, opt for an example that is relevant and easy to structure for your talk.
• Be adaptable: It is not a presentation format but a more relaxed take on delivering a topic. With this, we imply unexpected changes can emerge like a member of the audience raising a series of consecutive questions or making it a lengthy monologue to express an idea. Go with the flow and only return to your speech if you divert too much from your intent.
• Highlight key points: Don’t dwell too much on specific details that may consume much time. Instead, push the key points into the conversation early on so you can reference them later as the conversation goes on.

Case Study of Storytelling in a Corporate Presentation

A software provider for the retail industry, TechEase, seeks to win a large contract from a potential client, a major retail chain, to implement a new inventory management system. The client, MoreIsLess, has expressed interest in TechEase’s software but has yet to make a final decision. 

TechEase knows they are competing against several other software providers and must make a compelling sales presentation to set them apart.

First, the TeachEase team concretizes the client’s pain points to use them as a basis for a compelling story. TechEase must show how its software will meet the requirements to ease the client’s unique pain points.

• MoreIsLess needs an inventory management software solutionthat is more effective than the one they use now. 
• The current software is unstable and is constantly making employees frustrated. 
• It has also created issues with inventory data, making the company lose clients from its e-commerce platform due to undelivered orders and product sorting and packaging mistakes.
• MoreIsLess managers have previously had a negative experience with a software implementation project and are hesitant to take on another project that could potentially disrupt their operations.
• The client is concerned about the software’s complexity and whether it would be easy for their employees to use. 

To address these challenges, TechEase’s sales team develops a sales story that will resonate with the client. One easy way to understand this problem is by implementing a metaphor. In this case, TechEase interprets the inefficiency in the system used by MoreIsLess as a bottleneck problem, given that new orders are added to the queue. However, unresolved/failed orders still hang there, altering the inventory data. In graphical terms, it resembles a car jam on a high-traffic road, where at a certain point, all elements get stuck.

Using the SCQA framework, the team sets up a structure for their sales presentation with the client company. They’ll build a compelling story with this as the foundation. The slides follow this outline and the structure for a sales presentation. Our SCQA Slides Template for PowerPoint is used to illustrate this case.

• Situation = MoreIsLess needs an inventory management software solution that will be more effective than now.

• Complication = Their current system creates bottlenecks in the supply chain, causing behavioral and financial problems. MoreIsLess managers are worried about disrupting operations to implement new management software. They are also worried about the software’s complexity.

• Question = How will TeachEase offer an inventory management solution that will solve the bottleneck issue quickly and efficiently without disrupting operations? How will they ensure timely employee training?

• Answer = TechEase offers to implement the new software over one weekend and train all involved employees within a week. Bottlenecks will ease within two weeks with a full-scale fix at three weeks max. The TechEase team also works with the customer success team to inform customers of the changes when necessary. They will offer a discount code to clients as an incentive if they have any issues in those two weeks.

The story uses a visual metaphor, the bottleneck. In this case, a long-term inventory bottleneck with mistaken shipments and unsent orders is caused by the current software.

Ineffective inventory management software = a traffic bottleneck on a highway intersection

Everyone hates it when traffic becomes a bottleneck that makes drivers change routes, get lost, arrive late to their destination, etc. TechEase’s software solves the problem by creating more efficient inventory systems that relieve bottlenecks by “creating different lanes and making some of them wider.” 

TechEase uses the bottleneck visual metaphor in the presentation slides by turning an inventory flowchart into a traffic bottleneck. In the following slides, the bottleneck eases up, and the presenter explains how the software solves that problem. During the conversation, they use analogies and metaphors that tie back to the idea of the traffic bottleneck.

Storytelling can be a powerful tool for persuasion. A well-crafted story can help the audience relate to the presenter’s point of view and see the value in a proposed solution, idea, or product. Using the bottleneck visual metaphor, TechEase connects with the audience in a plane beyond what they’re immediately discussing. 

Finally, the TechEase team mentions a previous client with a similar issue. In a quick story, they explain how the software eased its bottlenecks without affecting daily productivity.

Tying the metaphoric story with a real story brings the idea home, from fiction to reality.

Resulting in MoreIsLess closing the deal and implementing TechEase’s software.

The Power of Visual Metaphors and Your Stories

Data and storytelling have many ways of working together to incentivize creative communication. One particular technique we’re fond of is visual metaphors and associations.

Relevant visual metaphors help you add storytelling to data without confusing the audience. It tends to do the opposite. Say you intend to represent what’s missing from a process to satisfy the customer’s needs. We can represent this situation as the following case study: a language learning application intends to compete on the same tier as top-industry solutions like Duolingo. They found out that users struggle to improve their pronunciation levels in some languages due to their way of pronouncing vocals and consonants in their native language. Take a look at this slide for a gap analysis. The broken road over a crevasse is the visual metaphor for the gap. It’s simple, it makes sense, and it’s effective. Using the gap analysis, the company can represent how the current state of their app is not helping users overcome pronunciation mistakes, as there’s no system to evaluate that in the app.

In another example, a company faces communication issues due to workers creating immense email threads due to the “Reply All” function. Instead of replying to the team members who should be aware of the answer, workers keep replying to all, creating email chains of over 20 emails that may not be relevant to the members listed in the initial email, as the current messages include specific instructions for one team. Instead, a wiser solution would be to reply only to those who find that communication pertinent or create a new email thread with the members interacting. Using the 3D square peg metaphor, we can represent how the “Reply All” option is forced into the organization rather than opting for individual email threads per topic or testing communication solutions like Microsoft Teams or Slack. This slide has an adaptable visual metaphor for explaining that something isn’t working as it should and that you’re forcing a solution where it isn’t fit to work.

The funnel is a classic and highly effective storytelling technique in marketing and business. We can drive the attention from hard-to-understand data into visual cues. Instead of using numbers to express how a media channel brings users to our company and turns them into prospective buyers, we can represent the funnel and categorize from contacts through the next filtered stage of qualified leads, then to prospects, and finally, opportunities. And we can also filter out the users who partially meet the criteria, reformulating solutions to their needs. Make yours unique by using colored dots, icons, and a legend to pinpoint where your team needs to work harder and what areas are strong.

As we’ve seen, there are multiple methods to implement metaphors to tell a story . The problem lies in pairing the aesthetic of your visual slides with the rest of the content you are delivering; otherwise, it feels disconnected. A tool like the SlideModel AI Presentation Maker help to bridge the gap by creating an entire slide deck based on a pre-selected design style and theme.

Overcoming Challenges in Storytelling for Corporate Presentations

There are always challenges and obstacles when using storytelling in corporate presentations. They’re the reason why so many presentations could have been emails. And also why deals aren’t closing, sales aren’t being made, and internal meeting presentations are unproductive. These are some of the most common:

• The company doesn’t have a brand story, no corporate storytelling strategy, nor does its communication culture have any stories to tell. This foments a culture of basic communication that doesn’t inspire action and growth.
• Everyone just keeps doing “what works.” When faced with something new, they say, “We’ve always been doing it this way.” If a new idea for a presentation comes up, they say, “We’ve used this report presentation template for the past year. Why change now?”
• It takes time to craft relevant stories and practice them. Many presentations must be finished fast and then presented at a meeting nobody wants to attend.
• Sometimes, a story used means nothing, and the effort is wasted .

The number one strategy to overcome storytelling challenges is to understand and share that storytelling is worth the time it takes to implement.  

Here are some strategies for overcoming storytelling challenges in a corporate setting.

• Hire a brand storyteller to build a story from which the entire company can build more stories.
• Build detailed user personas and create stories around them.
• Hire a creative director to lead important presentation projects and client communication.
• Challenge your employees to get creative when building presentations and think of other ideas to implement instead of reusing the same report template every Friday. If your company has a brand story, share it with them. Involve the Learning and Development department and offer storytelling workshops for everyone to build their skills.
• Don’t create a story for each presentation. Keep a folder of potential stories to use in the future and reference it regularly. 
• Make the stories mean something. Stories that don’t relate to your audience are as good as nothing. 

Be ready for every situation; you never know when your in-person presentation will turn into a hybrid session at the last minute. If you practiced a presentation for a stage, with some walking around and eye contact, you’ll have to bring it all in and adapt it for the camera. 

In a few steps, you can adapt the storytelling from an in-person meeting into a hybrid session. 

• Set up a camera to record the front of the room where the presenters will be.
• Connect it to the webinar or meeting software and test it.
• Send attendees a digital copy of the presentation slides.
• When the session starts, don’t just show the front of the room to the virtual attendees; change views and show the slides fullscreen, especially those with the visual metaphor.
• During the session, have someone in charge of the chat box and motivate attendees to participate in the discussion.

The power of storytelling is undisputed. It differentiates between a presentation considered “this could have been an email” and a presentation that positively impacts the audience. 

Stories in a corporate setting are the glue that humanizes business meetings, making them more entertaining, effective, compelling, memorable, and successful. 

In this guide, we shared some storytelling techniques you can incorporate at different levels of your organization. Try them out and see what works better. Part of getting to know your audience is trying out stories with them and seeing how they react. Check out our storytelling templates for PowerPoint to create your next presentation.

Here’s to much better presentations in your future.

Zacks, J. M., Speer, N. K., & Reynolds, J. R. (2009). Segmentation in reading and film comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 138(2), 307–327. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015305

Source: Zak, P. J. (2014). Why inspiring stories make us react: The neuroscience of narrative. Cerebrum: The Dana Forum on Brain Science, 2014, 2. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4445577/

Green, M. C., & Brock, T. C. (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(5), 701–721. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.5.701

Hinyard, L. J., & Kreuter, M. W. (2007). Using narrative communication as a tool for health behavior change: A conceptual, theoretical, and empirical overview. Health Education & Behavior, 34(5), 777–792. https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198106291963

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