Am I really writing this article? If you would look at my Spotify play list you would find Joe Rogan (well, duh) but also lots of music of course. Mostly Punk Rock, Soul, and Hip Hop from the 90s and 2000s, the odd pop song from back then (Natalie Imbruglia 💔) and maybe a few current ones (go Miley!). Most certainly however you wouldn’t be able to find any Taylor Swift in there. So why write an article about her? Well, her success is undeniable and when somebody does something very well there most likely are some lessons to be learned. This also goes for TSwift – and here are the lessons Digital Marketers can take away from Taylor’s success.
We all know Taylor Swift not only since her latest surprise coup that got even Kanye shook but obviously because of her everlasting presence in all the music charts around the world. She quite likely might go down as the most selling (streamed?) female artist ever and might even take it to the all-time greats. So what are those digital marketing learnings I’ve been talking about? Find them below
Try something different
I can’t stress that one enough. When teaching at Uni I always tell students to BE CREATIVE. This is obviously easier said than done but eventually your creativity and boldness to try something new will be what will make you stand-out. We all know the basics of digital marketing by now, we can learn them, look them up, and internalize them but if we all just stick to what we learn from books (or great blogs) we all end up doing similar things.
Taylor Swift started out as a country music star with a completely different look compared to what we are used to seeing now (and just when I say that she’s going back to folk/country – great example of doing things differently).
Sometimes it just makes sense to change direction even if you’re doing ‘well enough’ – changing things up will get you more excited as well as your audience and enable you to find a bigger audience with your new kind of content. As long as the quality fits, people will want to hear from you.
Don’t be afraid to collaborate
Remember when Taylor became famous? She was the cute girl that wrote her own songs and played it all by herself. That was pretty cool! Over time however she worked with lots of other amazing stars that helped her to cross over to other audiences and she wasn’t afraid to share the shine with those who helped her create those always new sounding pop master pieces.
That’s a great learning we can take from her. Obviously you have to create your own content, provide great services, run successful campaigns and so on. Once you have something to show for though you shouldn’t fall into the ‘we gotta get bigger, faster, and keep all the success to myself’ trap. Sure, it feels good to have success by yourself, but how much better would it feel to a) share the success with others, b) increase your own success by reaching new audiences, and c) help others to achieve what you already mastered?
Collaborations are a great way to achieve all the above mentioned and so much more. Important however is that you always bring something to the table and don’t just wait for others to simply help you out. It’s always a give and take and you shouldn’t be afraid of giving what might seem to be ‘more’ as you never know how big the return might be in the end. So don’t just hide the steps to your successful campaign or how you made successful pitches. Share your story, share your steps, educate others, dare to go into collaborations and embrace the change and challenges collaborations bring.
Know yourself
Remember when Taylor Swift removed her music from spotify and everybody was hating on her? Why did she do that? Several reasons come to mind such as Spotify isn’t paying very well and she doesn’t need the ‘promotion’ spotify brings to artists as she’s got the Taylor Swift army firmly behind her on social media. Back then she gave an interview and said ‘I’m kind of just doing whatever I feel like” – and that’s what made her even more successful.
Back when she removed the content from Spotify the album still went platinum, the tour still got sold out and she obviously still dominated the charts, news, etc. The lesson here? Just because your choices aren’t popular doesn’t mean they’re not good.
In digital marketing terms: Just because everybody and their grandma are on TikTok (not for much longer if more countries start banning them though) doesn’t mean you also have to be there. Know your brand, your audience, your goals, and do what is right for you, not what others are doing. Sure it’s easy to follow the popular game plan and then say ‘hey, I did what everybody else did, it should have worked’ – but it will taste and feel so much better if you did it on your own + who’s to say that the popular choice will always work? When everybody is doing the same over-saturation among the target audience will become a thing rather sooner than later.
Haters gonna hate
That’s just a quick reminder that you can never please everyone. No matter how amazing your work is, there’ll always be people hating. Taylor Swift receives criticism basically 24/7. For he political views, for moving from Spotify, for who she’s dating (or not), and so on. She even wrote way back when the line ‘people throw rocks at things that shine’ which is a great way of looking at it. If you’re doing well, haters will come.
So if you’re running campaigns on different platforms, with different audiences, goals etc you will encounter haters. Negative comments, mean messages, etc. This also shows you that you’re doing something right though as nobody comments on posts they don’t care about
The most successful digital marketing campaigns in history faced criticism, ridicule, and threats. As long as you and your conscience (and your client / boss) are feeling good about what you do, keep going and shake it off.
And then? Back to step 1, repeat & succeed.
After I read this blog it make me think about the digital marketer in the new way because it does not matter that we have to use the expert technique to do a marketing just be yourself and be unique, also Taylor Swift is the famous singer that her success in her occupation. Moreover, I might use the strategy that I learned form her to adapt in digital marketing, it’s very worthy as well.
Yes, This content is so good for me, I am a swiftie(TSwift’s fanclub), Unbelievable, She can make change and teach in very circle including digital marketing as well. By swiftie, she teach me how to live and how to get through the obstacle. I agree with you in very word and she get the most selling and streaming as well.
This article is very beneficial for everyone who wants to learn digital marketing. It is easy to understand due to the adaptation of stories from ,a famous singer, Taylor Swift in digital marketing terms. The readers can easily be educated by this article.
This blog is so amazing. I never know before that Taylor Swift’s life can teaches me a lot of things. It seem like her experience will help us to be better in marketing way. I think if I bring these tips to work in the future, I will definitely be successful like her. And the last one, at the last point, If there are people hate me because I think or do something different, I’ll ignore them to live my life. Thank you for the blog.
Wow! This blog about Taylor Swift is very inspirational. I follow her music since I was young but didn’t know much of her information. This content give four point of examples that was really clear. Those market strategies may inspire me for my future not only in marketing but also studying.
Thank you for this blog, this information reminds people to be successful in digital marketing. It encourages people to push yourself. It is good that Taylor Swift uses her own experiences to teach us.
This article encourage me and other readers, not only she was sharing the digital marketing things for us, she also give us a confidence of doing things that you wanted to do without caring or following others. Just don’t care about the critism or the haters because haters gonna hate, therefore just focus on what will lead you to success.
This content is so useful to the marketers. If I were them, I would use this method to adapt to my career. Besides, this content is not only for the marketers but also everyone that can adapt to everyday life activities.
I like this article very much because it is express about her experience through her life that maybe impetus or influence someone and help or inspired them on their life and for the future.
This is very useful and fun to read. Thanks for sharing. I like the way they use Taylor Swift for an example for this. I’m a fan.
Taylor Swift lastest album is pretty interesting, you know. But that topic is for another day. Still can’t believe that this article can bring up Taylor Swift in a useful business way. The 4 digital marketing learnings are very pratical and I think that it could be use in many other fields than just digital marketing.
Thanks for your blog. I have never thought how the most successful singer’s life like Taylor Swift’s can teach us in terms of digital marketing. It’s quite useful. In addition, I’ll definitely use her tips adapting to my life as she has self-confidence to do whatever she want and think not only her albums but also her political position. Even though how many haters and bullies like Kanye are, she still wrote new songs and do her career better and better.
This article is very useful for encouraging people because it use the experiences of one of the most famous celebrities Taylor Swift. It can inspire many people including me that we every thing that we experienced can make us stronger. I like the part hater gonna hate the most, it reminds me that we cannot makes everyone like us.
This article is quite informative than I ever think! Thank you for giving new perspectives of using celeb’s situations to apply our digital marketing plans or even our daily life.
This article is beneficial, I got more perspective and knowledge that I could adapt for creating something new. I will use one of these techniques.
This is a good article. I knew about Taylor Swift perspective that becoming superstar isn’t easy. It must have a good attitude. Moreover, I received 4 digital marketer which is very useful.
This blog is very interesting ! I agree with this article but I think the reason that all for this are affective is because of Taylor Swift. If other people did like Taylor, they wouldn’t be as interested
I’m a Swiftie and I appreciate this article so much. I have seen her perspective and experience about the digital market that can bring it to improve and adapt in daily life. She is such a strong woman and good attitude person!
Personally, I am a Taylor Swift fan and am quite excited to see and read this blog. What a helpful blogger for the bloggers and I love using Taylor’s experiences to teach them to create new knowledge.
This article is one of my favorite blog. It shows her experience and opinion which is very benefit for us.
That’s interesting. I think we all know her as a singer for long time but didn’t expect we can learn marketing from her personal point of view. Really appreciate it.
This article is very impressive. Because it gives us pictures and examples of what the writer wants to convey through a familiar person like Taylor Swift
I can’t believe at first that you are not the Swiftie because this article can make me understand how Taylor Swift inspired many people and I never think that we can learn the marketing from the people from entertainment industry and adapt to use it in life this article will inspired me to look things from other perspective.
This article give many advice to digital marketers. We should be different and unique to stand out from others, be yourself is the best way to produce a good result to audience moreover, sometime working with other people may make it more successful and gain more people’s attention.
Because of the adaptation of stories by Taylor Swift into digital marketing terms, this article is extremely useful for anyone interested in learning about digital marketing. It is simple to follow. This article has the potential to educate the readers.
This article is very useful and inspiring because Taylor Swift was shared her own experience to teach people to know more about digital marketing and also to believe in themselves. Thank you so much Taylor Swift for sharing this useful information.
This blog is so interesting, I’m also a fan of her. I feel inspired by this blog ! I’ll try to apply it with my digital marketing . This is useful for people who want to learn digital marketing !
That’s very new for me! I didn’t expect that Taylor will give us a digital marketing lesson. I knew that she is a talented, and great singer but this is unexpected! I like how you emphasize and explain by using her lyrics it is very easy to understand. By the way, This blog is very informative, fun, and easy to get along with at the same. I’ve gained a lot of useful information.
P.S. Kanye and Taylor’s moment on VMA is ironic, Lol.
First of all, I’m really surprised that there’s a blog wrote about marketers learn something from singer and that singer is Taylor Swift ( I’m swiftie ) This article is really useful for someone who want to start learning digital markerting and I think people tend to understand digital marketing from this easily because this article refer to well-known singer.
I really love this article, Taylor Swift has shared her life and her own experiences. Also, it can make benefits to people who read this blog.
I love this article! It does make me feel that learning about digital marketing does not have right or wrong and it doesn’t have to always be perfect. Adapting and learning new things for a better change is challenging but also worth it. Moreover, I agree that in the end, we can not please everyone. Btw I love Taylor Swift!
As a Taylor fan (since elementary school), I totally agree to all of what you have mentioned above. She becomes one of the most successful artists in the world. The lessons she taught us is valuable not only in digital marketing but also what lead to success. I love how she handles with hates, criticism, or even threats in a skillful way.
This is interesting! Actually I’m a big fan of Taylor swift. I’ve never realized the key to successful from the Taylor stories. But I agree with you that trying something new / different can make us accomplish our goals. To be successful is to get out from our comfort zone..