Taylor Swift Marketing Strategies: 5 Key Lessons for Marketers

Have you ever heard of Taylor Swift? Of course you have!

We’re assuming you want to know why Taylor Swift’s marketing influences so much of our everyday conversations.

So, let’s get into 5 Key Lessons Marketers can learn from Taylor Swift’s marketing strategies.

Just in case you don’t know who Taylor Swift is, here is a quick run down.

She is an American singer-songwriter that is recognized globally for her talent. 

Taylor Swift is one of the highest-earning musicians and due to the Eras tour, her net worth has seen a significant increase coming in around $740 million. 

In the past 19 years, Taylor Swift has received countless awards and nominations within the music industry. But if you want to talk numbers, she has won 603 awards and has been nominated for 1,179.

 To name a few of her wins, Taylor Swift has 12 Grammys, 14 MTV Video Music Awards, and many American Music Awards in multiple categories. 

Taylor Swift's marketing strategies are the foundation for her worldwide success.

Today, we’re deep diving into why Taylor Swift has had so much success within the marketing and music industry, unlocking the secrets behind the mastermind, Miss Americana.

Taylor Swift Marketing Lesson #1: Pay Attention to Your Audience (or fans)

Taylor Swift continues to grow strong connections with her fan base, who are known as Swifties. From her music to her persona, Taylor Swift has built a community of fans that pay attention to her every move and support her through all endeavors.

Taylor Swift knows her demographic and caters to them. 

Swifties support Taylor Swift's marketing by staying connected through social media, buying her merchandise and talking about her on social media. 

Taylor Swift doesn't necessarily need to always market herself because so much of her audience does it for her.

There is a massive discourse revolving around Miss Swift at almost all times. Many of her songs are used as TikTok sounds, bringing more attention to them since the sounds are constantly trending. 

In many of Taylor Swift's music videos, she includes Easter Eggs, which are essentially hints to future plans that she is going to release to the public.

In the “I Can See You" (Taylor’s Version) music video, in the final scene you can faintly see 1989 TV, which many Swifties used as proof that she would release 1989 (Taylor’s Version) soon.

Speculations were correct as she announced the release of 1989 TV on October 27 2023.

Taylor Swift’s marketing influences the industry through her connected fan base or Swiftie community, as her fans play a huge role in growing and maintaining her brand image. 

Taylor Swift Marketing Lesson #2: Focus on Storytelling 

Taylor Swift is known for her music worldwide. Since the beginning of her career she has used her music to tell stories and many of her songs have become a personal soundtrack for her fans.

Her music includes stories about her personal love life, her relationship with friends, family and has also created fictional characters and created their stories in her songs.

In her album Folklore, she created a teenage love triangle that connected the 3 characters' perspectives at different times. The love triangle includes Betty, James and Augustine.

This is an excerpt of the bridge in the song “Betty”. This song is about James and his regret towards his relationship with Betty. 

Taylor Swift Marketing Lesson #3: Pick the Right Partnerships 

Taylor Swift has always taken into consideration her personal values and if a brand aligns with them.

Taylor Swift has teamed up with many other artists and large brands to drive fan engagement, increase brand awareness, and reach wider audiences. 

One of Taylor’s biggest and longest brand partnerships is with Target. This has allowed Target to sell many of her CD’s and Vinyls of her released albums, especially Target exclusive ones that tend to be limited editions.

This gives fans easy access to purchase her music as Target is one of the biggest chain corporations in the US. 

One of the most popular and most talked about partnerships Taylor has is with AMC Theaters. In the past she has released her All Too Well: Short Film through AMC, along with her recent theatrical release of the Eras Tour Movie on Friday October 13th, 2023.

Taylor Swift Marketing Lesson #4: Create Buzz and Hype 

This year, Miss Americana started her Eras Tour. This tour included performances from all of her albums, hence the name, “The Eras Tour”. Taylor Swift has always remained relevant, and that is due to her reinventing herself to stay relevant since the beginning of her career. 

Getting tickets to the concert was nearly impossible with rising prices never seen before, Tickets cost between $500 and $6000. The Eras Tour is the most sought after Tour as 72,000 people filled each and every US stadium.  

Taylor Swift did market her tour through her social media platforms, including Tiktok and Instagram, however because of her popularity, the marketing on her part was not needed, as her fan base did it for her. 

She released the original US tour dates and then announced that she would be Touring in Mexico, Europe, South America, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and Asia and then returning to North America in 2024 after her world tour. 

Many fans shared their experience at the tour through live streams on Tiktok and Instagram, which reached thousands of views and comments from Swifties unable to attend. 

Along with this, Taylor Swift sang two acoustic songs each concerts, also known as Surprise Songs in which fans tried to guess what she would be singing each night of the tour.

Many fans also tracked the surprise songs on excel spreadsheets.

Taylor Swift Marketing Lesson #5: Embrace Change and Evolution 

Taylor Swift has always reinvented herself to stay relevant. From her first album, Debut, released in 2006 to her most recent album Midnights released a year ago, you can see not only the change in her music but also in Taylor herself.

Taylor Swift has always been a singer-songwriter, but she began her career as a country singer and later transitioned to pop. Her versatility has allowed her to reach a much larger audience over the years and her reinventing herself has shown her ability to embrace change. 

So… Taylor Swift IS a marketing genius, and we hope after reading this blog you learned something new about Miss Americana and can understand how big it is that one person can make such an impact. 

Taylor Swift marketing influences the music industry with her unique personality and tactic to maintain her brand and image. 

✍️ Written by Ahmei Thevoz