🎶 It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me! 🎶

Listen, I’ll be honest with you: I’m not a fan of Taylor Swift’s music, so these are the only lyrics of hers I know. Nothing wrong with the music per se, it’s just not my genre.

You know what I’m very familiar with regarding Taylor Swift? The impressive empire she’s built. Like me, Taylor is a business person. Unlike me, she can sing too, but that’s beside the point.

Whether you like her music or not, you can’t deny that Taylor Swift is a marketing powerhouse. I mean, you could, but why deny the evidence when you could learn from it?

Swiftonmics 101: How on Earth Does Taylor Swift Make That Much Money?

I know, I know, all pop stars make a lot of money. But none like T-Swizzle (and perhaps Beyonce).

Taylor Swift stands to make over $4 billion from her Eras Tour. There were hospitality shortages in every city she’s played. Her fans don’t just pay as much as she wants for tickets and merch, but they start global movements like exchanging friendship bracelets. 

Swiftonomics isn’t just a buzzword — it turns out Taylor Swift single-handedly raised the GDP of most places she played. One study estimates that two Swift performances could boost Colorado’s GDP with $140 million in consumer spending.

Did you know that she is only the fourth singer to reach billionaire status? 

I don’t care how good your music is, to reach billionaire status, you need to hit more than the right notes.

So let’s see what exactly does Taylor Swift hit so well and what part of her magic you can replicate.

4 Lessons in Marketing Brilliance from Taylor Swift

You don’t have to be a pop star to have a well-oiled cash machine. But, since pop stars usually have enough money to pay the best teams to manage their business and their marketing for them, we could “borrow” some tactics from them.

You don’t mind, do you, Tay?

Thanks! I knew you rocked!

1. Always Put Your Audience First

Taylor Swift has taken very few big risks with her artistic approach. She knows the experiences her audience wants and delivers precisely that.

Sure, she may surprise them occasionally, but I don’t think she will see her switch to death metal any time soon.

This kind of consistency creates loyal fans and brand advocates. They have clear expectations, and Taylor Swift delivers.

How you can use this

Businesses change with time (even Taylor’s), and that’s perfectly normal. Just don’t spring these changes on your clients or prospects out of the blue.

If you’re planning a significant pivot, let them know. Even better, bring them on board and ask for their feedback.

The same goes for price changes, product upgrades or downgrades, re-branding, and more. Whether you’re changing your logo by using a logo maker, or completely altering your product use some type of teasing to not only let them know but also make the whole process even more exciting.

Not sure what your audience wants? Get to know them better by combining your email and CRM insights. Integrate Salesforce and NetSuite with Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Active Campaign, and more. 

Start here for $0. 

2. Diversify Your Portfolio

This is good advice for your stock portfolio and your business portfolio, and Taylor Swift knows it.

Yes, she’s a musician first and foremost, but she also makes money with:

• Showmanship — her concerts are amazing displays of multimedia art and in-depth knowledge of how entertainment works.
• Merchandise — she even sues people who use their image to create unofficial (but much cheaper). If you want a T-shirt with Tay’s face, you have to buy it from her.
• Endorsement deals
• Real estate investment trusts
• Spotify (not anymore, though) and YouTube

I have a hunch she’s just getting started, too.

How you can use this

Think of diversification as a two-fold approach:

1. Can you add more marketing channels to your mix so you can generate more leads/sales? Perhaps affiliate marketing, influencer marketing, or a new social media platform you don’t have a profile on yet?
2. Starting from your core offer, can you diversify your product portfolio?

The second approach is where the real gold lies. Except for real estate investment, Taylor’s every stream of revenue can be traced back to her career as a musician or her core skill.

What about you?

• Your SaaS could add more features or a new mini-product that you could charge for.
• You can organize a paid or sponsor-fueled event for the professionals in your industry.
• You could charge for some of the content you now offer for free (webinars, courses, and so on).

The sky is the limit here!

3. Stay Ahead of the Trends (and Capitalize on Them)

Taylor Swift stood up for herself and took her music off Spotify — a bold move that many people criticized and saw as an end to the Taylor era.

But they were wrong. She didn’t just make up for the lost income, she made even more money. In the process, she drew attention to a thorny issue — artists don’t get paid enough by streaming platforms.

This alone made her even more likable, which, in turn, made more people buy her music and her merchandise.

How you can use this

Don’t be afraid to stand up for what you believe in. Our nonprofit clients are our inspiration here, even more so than Taylor Swift (sorry, Tay!). 

That’s why we continue to support their missions with 25% off yearly plans. It’s our small contribution to each of their causes.  

But I digress.

The big takeaway here is to experiment as much as possible. But don’t just throw spaghetti at the wall, hoping something will stick. That’s just messy.

Make data-driven decisions.

First, make sure all your data lives in a single place. With the SyncApps integrations, you can get a bird’s-eye-view of your customers’s journeys across platforms in a single dashboard. 

This way, you can figure out what they want now and how their preferences have changed and evolved in the last year. By anticipating their needs, you can deliver the right solution at the right time.

4. Don’t Assume — Use Data-Driven Insights to Give Your Audience Exactly What They Want

Taylor Swift and her team mastered the art of social listening. They pay attention to her fans and use the information they gather to keep them close to her brand.

For Swiftmas (that’s Christmas in Swiftonomics), she sent her fans gifts. Pretty ordinary, right?

Not so fast! Each gift was unique and personalized using information from their interactions on social media. This initiative got her a lot of earned media and word-of-mouth because, as you’d expect, all the lucky fans bragged about their gifts online.

How you can use this

This one’s obvious: personalize your campaigns as much as you can. Don’t just blast your entire list with the same message. Ask yourself WWTD (What Would Taylor Do?).

A few examples from our clients:

• Use Salesforce tags to send warm leads a nurturing campaign via Mailchimp. With SyncApps, Salesforce tags are automatically synced in Mailchimp, so you don’t have to lift a finger.
• Have your sales reps call everyone who clicked on a relevant link in your most recent campaign (they can access this data in their SyncApps dashboard. Do it quickly while their interest is still fresh!
• Use the information in Salesforce (buyer behavior, purchase history, and so on) to create relevant messages in real-time. You just have to assign them a specific tag in Salesforce, and it will be automatically synced to Constant Contact, Mailchimp, or another email marketing solution via SyncApps.

Please Don’t Become a Stranger

I couldn’t help it — I had to end this with a Taylor Swift lyric. But I’m serious: if my team and I can help you build an empire that rivals Taylor’s, please know that we’re just one email away.

Drop us a line anytime and tell us about new features you’d like to see in SyncApps or any improvements that would help you!

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