Love her or not, Taylor Swift has achieved world domination.
She’s enjoying—and embracing—the spotlight.
And yes, The Eras Tour is worth the hype. Even if you’re not a hardcore swiftie. (I’m a mid-range one. I don’t know the lyrics to every song or dissect them to the tiniest degree, but I do enjoy listening to her and reading her lyrics.)
As a content marketer, author of celebrity romances, amateur psychologist, and poet, I find her superstardom and career turnaround fascinating.
One of the keys to her success is her marketing strategy.
So what can we learn from Taylor Swift about content marketing?
Be shamelessly you
Taylor spent years hiding from the spotlight after the backlash she experienced in the mid-2010s. She might’ve needed that at the time, but now she’s being herself. And she’s become a billionaire.
When you’re shamelessly yourself, people gravitate to that.
Sure, there’ll be people who don’t like you. But that’s ok. Those people cut themselves out of your world, meaning it gets populated with people who love you instead.
And those people who love you will be your most vocal supporters.
Enjoy the creative process
When in Tokyo, Taylor said that she releases a lot of music because she enjoys creating it.
It’s a lot easier to create content when you enjoy it.
If it feels like a chore, you’ll put less energy and effort into it—and it will show in your results.
All forms of writing can be creative; it’s about how you look at them.
Part of creativity ties in with the point above. Bringing your shameless, unapologetic self into your creations. (Something which you have to be Fearless to do.)
When you inject your personality into your writing, you’re much more likely to enjoy the process than if you write to sound like everyone else and never take any risks.
Great content is comprehensive, takes risks, and tells stories. It leads you on a journey, much like how Folklore has three songs that explore a love triangle from different perspectives.
Telling the same story from different angles is vital to a successful marketing strategy. It ensures you don’t drain your energy on idea generation (which can be the hardest part), and you answer questions for different types of buyers.
While your video posts may perform well, some people don’t like watching video content or may be unable to. The more ways you express the same point, the more people you’ll reach.
Support the people who support you
No great show can be put on alone.
Taylor gave bonuses to the lorry drivers moving her stage from one location to the next. It was life-changing amounts of money to those drivers, but she probably didn’t even notice it missing from her bank account.
Showing how much she values the people who support her is what billionaires should do.
It’s what big businesses should do, too.
And there’s no reason you can’t do that in your content.
Give a shoutout to someone who contributed to your content or helped you think about it differently.
Tag your favourite content marketing tools.
Thank your hardcore swifties. Sorry, readers.
These things do get noticed, even when you’re a smaller business.
Treat your audience like friends
One of the things Taylor has done better than almost any other celebrity (and I should know—I write romance books about the psychology of celebrity culture) is create a parasocial relationship with her audience.
Swifties feel like we know her and what she’s been through, even though most of us have never met her.
In her music, she shares insights into her life, leaving breadcrumbs and Easter eggs for fans to piece together.
She’s trained her fans to read into her songs and activities from the very beginning.
Your business is never too young or too small to do something similar.
Any good content strategy ties each piece of content together in the same way, leading your audience on a journey as they get to know you and your business.
Be ready to bounce back
No one thought Taylor could bounce back from the damage Kim and Ye did to her Reputation.
And yet she’s now the biggest star on the planet while Ye lost all his lucrative brand deals and the Kardashians are starting to experience backlash (and diminished sales).
Just because you have a few pieces of content that don’t perform how you’d hoped, that doesn’t mean you can’t go on to create something that goes viral and introduces you to whole new audiences.
Success comes from failure, confidence, and tenacity.
Have confidence in yourself
It wasn’t until Taylor’s Folklore album that many people started taking her seriously as a songwriter.
Before that, she was often looked down on for writing songs about her love life. (How dare she write about romance? Insert eye roll here.)
But any form of good content—that connects with an audience on a deep, emotional level—is hard.
I’d like to see most of those people who look down their noses at her music write a micro poem that their cat approves of—let alone as many albums that resonate with millions of people as she has.
Reputation matters
She’s turned her Reputation around. It’s no longer Delicate or Down Bad. Yet somehow, she still manages to make her audience feel that parasocial relationship with her.
She still comes across as humbled by her audience’s love for her.
That’s a key part of her Reputation—and Superstar status as The 1 for so many of her fans.
As soon as it feels like a celebrity or business has lost touch with its audience, backlash can kick in.
Look at JLo—her recent album sales were terrible. She cancelled her tour because tickets weren’t selling. She made a huge loss and is experiencing backlash because fans don’t feel like they connect with her anymore.
She plays the Jenny From The Block angle but can’t name anything concrete about her childhood in the Bronx. Leading fans to question if she really is Jenny From the Block.
While Taylor, meanwhile, knows she’s in a position of privilege. She doesn’t hide from it, but she doesn’t write or brag about it either. She uses it to help people.
And continues to write about universal concepts like love and loss, further deepening her relationship with her fans. And continuing her path of world domination.
If you’re wondering, I got in seven song references. Make that eight.