Help The Audience Remember
What was that presentation about? What presentation?
How many presentations can you remember anything about?
Oh, that bad!
Do you want to make yours memorable? Then help the audience remember you!
Bang!
Have impact! Grab the audience’s attention from the start. Have a single clear subject. A single clear subject of interest to your audience.
This is about them, not you. But you want them to remember you. And the single clear subject.
The most effective technique to ensure an audience remembers your presentation is repetition of your core subject.
But First …
To help the audiece remember, first you need clarity of purpose. Without knowing who is your audience and what they want to hear from you, you can’t create useful content. Think about that when planning your presentation.
Relevant details need to be explained. Irrelevant details should be left out. Aim to be concise.
And Then …
“Tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you’ve told them.” (Often accredited to Winston Churchill, but apparently incorrectly.)
Techniques To Help Your Audience Remember
Use rhetorical techniques to help the audience remember your presentation. Let’s take a look.
Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.
We come across examples as children: Pepa Pig, Micky Mouse and Donald Duck.
And in marketing they are used to make company names stand out: PayPal, CocaCola and KitKat.
To engage your audience you need to give a “powerful presentation performance”.
Lists of Three
Repetition of the same word means we are much more likely to recall it than if a single word is used.
As any estate agent will tell you, the most important aspect of a property is:
“Location, location, location.”
Alternatively, it can be three different words, such as when we train young children to cross the road and tell them they should:
“Stop, Look and Listen.”
When explaining his fondness for pigs, Winston Churchill took use of the list of three a stage further:
“Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.”
Note Churchill’s use of three short, broadly similar length sentences to make them easy to comprehend and remember.
Rhetorical Questions (and Answers)
By arousing curiosity in the audience with a rhetorical question, you can make your point more powerfully. You can help your audience to remember what you’ve said.
In a business presentation you might list the problems a potential customer has revealed. This could be an effective way to demonstrate you’ve been listening to what they’ve told you. And then the question and answer:
“We’ve heard the problems that you are experiencing. Now, how can we help you to fix them?”
You can then go on to identify the solutions you can offer.
And don’t be afraid to take a well-known quote and recycle it.
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
President John F Kennedy
The recycled version could be: “Ask not what your speakers club can do for you, ask what you can do for your speakers club.”
Perhaps the simplest and most commonly used rhetorical device is the question you ask which you do not expect the audience to answer.
“Why have we all come here tonight? Is it because we want to become great orators? Or simply that we want to speak more effectively in everyday situations?”
Contrast
When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, he might have been forgiven for standing in silent astonishment. Or perhaps exclaiming, “Good grief, it isn’t made of cheese!”
While Armstrong’s, “One small step for man; one giant leap for mankind” may have sounded a little artificial in the circumstances, they’re certainly words we still associate with that extraordinary day in July 1969. Or we do if we are old enough to remember it!
Of course, there’s another use of contrast that many of us may have spoken: “For better or for worse; for richer or for poorer …”
Repetition
Help the audience remember key points with repetition. Repetition of the same word or phrase spread through a speech works in different ways.
In the case of the repeated word, it makes it stand out from the other words surrounding it.
With a phrase repeated throughout a presentation, the audience starts to anticipate it, to listen out for it. And so it imprints itself on their minds. It helps them to remember.
In a speech following the New Hampshire primary in 2008, Barack Obama used the phrase “Yes, we can” a number of times. It went on to become a cornerstone of his presidential election campaign.
Help Your Audience Remember
Can you use rhetorical techniques in everyday talks and presentations?
Yes, you can.
Will they add sparkle to your speeches and pep up your presentations?
Yes, they will!
This post was rewritten and published on 19th March 2026
For a more in-depth study of rhetorical techniques, plus guidance on all other aspects of speaking, Professor Max Atkinson’s book, Lend Me Your Ears, is recommended reading.
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