13 marketing lessons you can learn from Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift is not only one of the most influential and successful artists of the past decade, but she is also a master of marketing. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated an exceptional ability to connect with her audience and remain relevant in an industry that is constantly evolving. But…how has Taylor Swift managed to keep her career continuously growing despite the passing of years and the obstacles in her path?

Over 200 songs, 11 albums, another on the way (“The Life of a Showgirl”), and every city she visits is sold out. We are witnessing the swiftie phenomenon and how Taylor Swift has broken all the molds and is revolutionizing the economy of every city she visits, as well as that of her fans. It can be said that Taylor Swift is the music industry, which continues to grow and create, turning everything she touches into gold. What is the reason for this growth and success? As with any marketing strategy, it comes down to attracting and building loyalty.

Here are 13 marketing lessons you can learn from her career.

Are you ready for it? 

1. Build Your Brand

This may seem basic and Marketing 101, but in reality, few brands truly develop their branding well. Since the beginning, Taylor Swift has put significant effort into her personal brand, with that cowgirl essence and well-defined values, which she displays in the lyrics of her songs and during her performances.

Three core pillars can be highlighted:

• Feminism, as the song The Man demonstrates: “I am tired of running as fast as I can, wondering if I would get there quicker if I was a man.” She refers to the fact that, typically, due to the sexist and patriarchal society we live in, women are questioned much more than men, simply because they are women.
• Self-love and rebirth, as heard in Shake It Off. In this song, she encourages her fans not to let their problems defeat them and to keep moving forward, being the best version of themselves. This came at a time when she was facing intense public criticism for nearly everything she did.
• Advocacy for LGTBIQ+ rights, with songs such as You Need to Calm Down. In this song, she addresses all people who post offensive comments online towards others, with a special emphasis on the LGTBIQ+ community. In one lyric, Taylor says, “Why be mad when you could be GLAAD?”—a play on words, as “glad” is pronounced the same as GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

2. Storytelling

Taylor Swift has built a consistent brand by weaving a captivating storytelling throughout her career, turning each album into a chapter of her personal journey. Her lyrics, which address romantic experiences, fictional stories, and personal challenges, deeply resonate with her followers, especially young listeners. 

This generates a great deal of hype among fans every time she releases a new song: they want to know whom she is referring to and what point in her life she is in. Her presence on social media and various digital channels, thanks to a comprehensive omnichannel strategy, has helped create a unique identity. 

For example, she is currently on the Eras Tour, a world tour that symbolizes the transition through different personal eras of the artist. These “eras” tell stories from her life. Stories ranging from falling in love, to personal growth, regaining her reputation, experiencing heartbreak, and being reborn. This is something her fans love to interpret and understand. 

3. Emotional connection

This ability to weave personal stories into her songs creates an emotional connection that resonates directly with her audience, who seek authenticity in an increasingly digitalized and depersonalized world. Brands can learn from this storytelling capability, engaging consumers on an emotional level and establishing a strong foundation for loyalty and commitment.

@taylorswiftHi! Well, so, basically I have a birthday coming up and I was thinking a fun way to celebrate the year we’ve had together would be to make The Eras Tour Concert Film available for you to watch at home! Very happy to be able to tell you that the extended version of the film including “Wildest Dreams,” “The Archer” and “Long Live” will be available to rent on demand in the US, Canada & additional countries to be announced soon starting on … you guessed it, December 13 🧑‍🤝‍🧑💋♬ original sound – Taylor Swift

4. Reinventing the brand

If you take a step back, you will notice that Taylor Swift started out making country music. However, today most of her tracks are pop, and she has even included some Indie songs. She has transitioned through different colors, aesthetics, or, as she calls them, different “Eras.”

Throughout her transition process, she has shown remarkable skill in reinventing herself, keeping up with trends and understanding what her fans need. The best way for a brand to remain relevant over time is to be open to learning about, and understanding, new market trends and changes in customer demand. Being willing to evolve can open new opportunities and attract different market segments.

5. Know your audience

Taylor has demonstrated exceptional mastery in understanding and attending to her audience: also known as swifties. She studies their preferences, habits, and desires, thus cultivating a unique emotional connection that goes beyond the typical artist-fan relationship.

She frequently holds “secret sessions” where she invites a group of fans to various locations and shares songs from her new album before its official release.

Another example is when Taylor disclosed in an interview that her song All Too Well was originally 10 minutes long. After revealing this, social media was inundated with requests for her to publish the full version, which she did when she re-recorded the album in 2021, including a short film. In doing so, she fulfilled her fans’ wishes.

She knows her audience so well that at the concert on May 29, 2024, during one of her performances, she handed the microphone to one of her dancers so he could say the phrase “No way” in the song Never Getting Back Together, since many fans had been requesting it on social media. Although, it may also be the result of having excellent linguistic advisors.

Realmente es porque las fans nos juntamos en masa a decirle a Kam por Instagram q dijera «ni de coña» ajajaja. Hemos conseguido tener el mejor meme del concierto 🧑‍🤝‍🧑🏽

— Lau TV (@LPG26496) May 29, 2024

6. Use social media to connect with your community

Taylor Swift uses social media as a tool for genuine interaction, not only for self-promotion.

An example of this is her active presence on platforms such as TikTok, where she directly interacts with her fans under the hashtag #SwiftTok. This creates a continuous, proactive, and two-way feedback cycle: on one hand, leveraging user-generated content, and on the other, proactively responding to her audience by including hidden clues in her videos or by tailoring surprises at her concerts based on her followers’ preferences.

@taylorswift Burnin’ it down 🔥 #wildestdreamstaylorsversion #slowzoomeffect #swifttok ♬ original sound – Taylor Swift

7. A Strategy for Every Channel

Do not copy/paste; each channel has its own audience, and Taylor understands this well. She adapts the tone, style, and language used. By tailoring her approach to each medium, she diversifies her content and provides her audience with what they expect and consume on each channel.

For example, to launch her album The Tortured Poets Department, she created a hidden feature on Instagram.

All you needed to do was visit her Instagram profile, pull down to refresh the content, and hold it until the words of the album’s title began to appear. At that moment, the app would automatically redirect you to a countdown that would end with the album release. But what was most interesting? That countdown, in addition to the launch, would coincide with the opening of Taylor Swift’s profile on Threads.

For the launch of the album Midnights, she created for TikTok a series of videos filled with hidden messages, presenting the album’s songs.

8. In every crisis…an opportunity

Swift’s journey has not been entirely smooth. In 2009, fellow singer Kanye West grabbed the microphone at the MTV VMAs and publicly declared that Swift did not deserve the award she had just won.

Furthermore, West released a song titled “Famous” in which he insulted Swift in one of the lyrics. Kim Kardashian (Kanye’s wife at the time) posted a video on social media showing a phone conversation between Taylor and Kanye that supported her husband’s side of the story, though Taylor claimed the footage was manipulated and asked to be excluded from “that narrative.”

Public opinion then turned against Swift, and an army of West and Kardashian fans flooded Taylor’s social networks with hateful messages, accompanied by the word “Snake”.

Faced with such a wave of hate, Swift closed her social media accounts because of the harassment. This reputational crisis led her to step out of the public eye and away from social media for an entire year.

However, things did not end there. What did Taylor do? She released an album called “Reputation,” filled with snake symbolism and subliminal messages responding to the attacks she had endured over the previous year. Without doubt, an excellent example of how to manage a crisis and make the most of it.

9. Loyalty to your values

Taylor Swift enjoys unwavering support from her fans. She has earned this by building a strong relationship with her audience, and her loyalty to them is what has cemented this connection.

Last year, she performed for three and a half hours in the rain at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts. She did not want to disappoint her fans who had queued for hours to see her. Postponing or canceling the concert was not even considered. She stayed true to them and gave her all.

10. Economic impact surrounding her

In 2024, she launched her 6th world tour, The Eras Tour, after a four-year break during which she continued to record music. In these last five years, she has released five albums, with another on the way.

To be clear, attending a Taylor Swift concert is not inexpensive. That being said, the numbers she generates for the cities she visits are astronomical. In May 2023—when she performed three concerts in the state of Philadelphia—hotel revenues reached their highest point since the pandemic began. The reason? Swifties booked accommodation for three days of concerts that had a capacity for 68,000 people each night.

With her arrival in Europe, many fans had to travel to cities away from their own to see her perform. Once again, this resulted in increased hotel and tourism activity across Europe.

11. Be consistent

Every two years, Swift releases a new album, updating the message and aesthetic (those Eras we mentioned earlier). With this, she has a well-orchestrated plan to provide her fans with new content just when the impact of the previous release begins to fade. Although, admittedly, being a swiftie never goes out of style!

In the two years between albums, she leverages the content from her latest release and begins building anticipation for what is coming, introducing clues in her outfits, social media, or website that prompt her fans to speculate on what her next Era will be.

12. Strategic collaborations

Swift has established key collaborations with artists (Ed Sheeran, Florence, Post Malone, Shawn Mendes) and with brands.

Additionally, she has demonstrated an openness to reinvent herself without losing her identity: from reimagining her past hits to experimenting with new sounds. In 2019, she faced a legal controversy due to the acquisition of her song rights by a third party. This prompted her to re-record previous albums, such as Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version), thereby regaining creative and financial control over her music. This strategy generated publicity and media attention, capitalizing on the love and nostalgia of her fans. The result: a significant increase in sales and streaming of these new versions.

13. Leverage the Swiftie phenomenon

Given the artist’s extraordinary reach, many brands have taken advantage of her fans’ loyalty by launching products designed specifically for the last Eras Tour.

Disney+ released The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version) as a concert film on its streaming platform. To connect with its users and capture the attention of swifties, they changed the names in their catalog to make a nod to Taylor’s Version and her various albums. 

Google was not far behind—just a few months before launching her 11th album, when searching for “Taylor Swift” on Google, a “secret trunk” would appear on the search results page. Clicking it would open a puzzle to be solved. Fans had to enter the answer in the search bar and, if correct, the global puzzle counter would increase. What was the goal? To reach 30 million puzzles solved worldwide. And yes, swifties achieved it once again.

Now with the arrival of her 12th studio album, even Threads has joined the show:

And that is all, marketer. I hope some of these 13 lessons will inspire you to create campaigns and build a community as loyal as Taylor’s. As you see, embrace these lessons, and—most importantly, as Taylor Swift does—connect deeply with your audience so you can begin your own Love Story.

Image: Depositphotos