Remember when you used to say ‘Boom!’ after doing something awesome, like delivering a kick ass pitch, hitting someone with a great comeback to a comment or after closing the deal of the month? Good for you. Well, ‘Boom!’ is out and ‘Mic drop!’ is in. Mic drop is the new Boom. The only difference between the two: The term mic drop actually means something.
What is a mic drop, you ask?
“A ‘mic drop’ is the rap/comedy parallel to spiking a football. It says, “My performance was so definitive that there’s nothing more to say.”
The expression started in the 1980s to mean delivering a performance or speech in such a great way that you can just drop microphone and walk away victorious.”
In today’s super-competitive marketplace with consumers and business moving more and more towards a research driven purchase behavior where high quality content is key, marketing campaigns (whether it be social, native content marketing or traditional website copy) need to achieve a ‘mic drop’ impact in order to resonate with your target audience and not get drowned in the noise.
Here are some questions to consider when making sure your marketing campaigns are ‘mic droppingly’ awesome:
- The target audience:
Who are you trying to reach with your campaign and are you communicating with them efficiently through the right channels? Are you sure you will find them on Facebook or could they also be found on Snapchat? Is a targeted email blast maybe the best way to reach passive consumers?The key here is to have insight into the demographic of major social networks and other marketing channels in order to make informed decisions regarding where and how to best invest the campaign budget. - The why:
Why should a client buy your product or service instead of your competitors’ equivalent (or cheaper) alternative? Are you talking about the right USPs in order to drive your prospective clients towards a sale or conversion?For the why, you want to make sure you know both your own product’s features and benefits as well as your competitor’s product offering. Also make sure you have a decent idea of what UPSs your target audience is most interested in. - The copy:
Is your copy so clear, targeted and strong that it most likely will remove all doubt about the value of your company, product or service?Why not take your copy for a beta-spin and show it to a few trusted clients and maybe a few team members? This is a great way of collecting feedback and ensure that people both within and outside your organization understand the features, benefits and offer you are trying to convey. - The ROI:
Ultimately; once your campaign has run its course, will you be able to present ROI figures that speak for themselves and shows that you gave the your company fantastic bang for their buck and afterwards, in theory, end your presentation with a mic drop and walk out of the room?First of all, before the campaign is launched, set goals for how to measure success. During the campaign, stay close to the data and ensure that conversions are happening at a steady pace. If results are dipping, be prepared to take action, tweak, adjust and rethink.
Lastly - I will leave you with this reversed mic drop story:
“Honey, can I buy a pair of Bose $400 earphones?”
A friend relayed a (very brief but oh so mic dropping) conversation he had had with his wife, whom he has joint finances with. My friend, who is a sales executive by day, wanted to buy a pair of $400 Bose noise cancelling earphones that he had been pining over. The conversation, however, came to a complete halt when his wife said this:
“If you can answer me this, you can buy those earphones: These $400 earphones you are talking about, besides playing music, what else do they do?” *mic drop*
My friend couldn’t and had to admit defeat. Had he instead known all the USPs of the earphones and what features his wife could have been interested in, he would probably could have ‘sold’ the purchase to his wife so much better.
You live, you learn, you mic drop.