It's time to bury "tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them." This old saw is, in a word, WRONG!
Remember that audiences these days have all around them streaming media, voice and text messages, websites, video games, feeds, and on and on. They are savvy and quick to get the message from many sources at once. Repeating your points three times in the course of one speech is the surest way to bore them to death and turn them off. Ken Levine, the Emmy Award winning writer, writes according to the belief that the audience is smarter than they are too often given credit for.
Replace this out-of-date rule with a fresh, audience-friendly perspective: Preview, The View, Review.
It's up to you to make each of these elements new and interesting.
Preview: Whet the audience's appetite, just like a great hors d'oeuvre awakens your taste buds at a meal. Use attention getting openings that put the audience first. A well-crafted story works as long as the story is relevant to the call-to-action.
The View: This encompasses your two or three key points and helps drive you to the call-to-action close. Narratives, colorful references to popular culture and multi-media are great ways to keep the audience engaged. When they're engaged they'll hear and remember your points.
Review: Caution is needed here--do not say, "so in wrapping up let me recap what I just said." You must craft your review to support your call-to-action close which is coming up. A review that deeply and strongly answers the question "What's in it for me?" is very effective as a precursor to the call-to-action. You want to make the audience eager to wonder "what's next," not sit there thinking, "what's new?"
Read some examples of great Previews here...
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