Marketing and Music: Taylor Swift Gives Her Fans a Merry Swiftmas

What happens when the rock star treats her fans as if they were the real rock stars?

Happy Thursday, y’all! Welcome to this month’s edition of Marketing and Music, featuring the one and only Taylor Swift! Please Like and Restack this issue to help increase its visibility on Substack. Thank you! And if you haven’t already, please consider subscribing to Backstage Pass. Free subscribers get access to all new articles as they come out, for one month. Articles older than one month are paywalled. Paid subscribers have access to all Backstage Pass content with no paywalls.

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“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” - Carl W. Buehner

Let’s say you’ve taken your two daughters to a Taylor Swift concert and your seats are in the infamous ‘nosebleed’ section, and it seems the stage is a mile away. The seats still cost you a small fortune, but your girls are loving the show anyway as the concert goes to intermission.

After a few minutes in the darkness suddenly the fans in your section start cheering and you turn around to see a spotlight guiding Taylor herself walking down the stairs just a few feet away, as she takes her guitar and begins performing! Just like that the worst seats in the house have become front row, and what was already a great concert for your little girls, just became a night they will remember for the rest of their lives.

If there’s one rock star who has always understood the importance of making her fans feel special, it’s Taylor Swift. Some of Taylor’s efforts to connect directly with her fans are legendary. During her Fearless tour, Taylor was known to leave the stage during intermission, only to reappear at the back of the arena, where she began playing for fans in those seats farthest from the stage.

In 2010, Taylor agreed to sign autographs for fans at an event held by the Country Music Association in Nashville. Artists signing for fans was a staple of these events, and typically, an artist would sign for 2 hours. Taylor agreed to sign for *13* hours, starting at 8:00 am in the morning. Almost *15* hours later, she finally signed her last autograph. The only breaks she took during the marathon session was to stand up and play music for the fans in line.

But perhaps my favorite example of Taylor delighting her fans came around 10 years ago while promoting her 1989 album and tour. Taylor began to ‘stalk’ her most active fans online, especially via Tumblr and Facebook. She would study their social media profiles, figure out what their interests were, and buy them Christmas presents!

Watch this video NOW. This is Taylor showing how she surprised her fans and then you get to see how the Swifties reacted to receiving her gifts. I promise you it is the best thing you will see today.

The gifts would also include a handwritten note from Taylor (which is honestly about the best gift you could give a Swiftie), explaining why she selected that particular gift for each fan. It’s incredibly touching to see their reaction to what Taylor has written to them.

It’s one thing to acknowledge fans as a group, but it’s a completely different experience when your favorite rock star connects with you as an individual. It clearly communicates that they see you, they appreciate you, and they love you.

Reward the Behavior You Want to Encourage

This is one of my favorite sayings and I try to live it every day. Decide what behavior you want your readers/customers/clients to engage in, and reward them when they do engage in that behavior. Throughout her career, Taylor’s fan-engagement efforts have centered on rewarding fans who were the most enthusiastic about Taylor.

Early in her career, Taylor would have ‘T-Partys’ where she and her band would arrive early at an arena for her next concert. Once the band was set up, they would pick an isolated space inside the arena where she and the band could chill, hang out, and relax. Once Taylor had set up her ‘chill zone’ in the arena, her team would then go out into the arena and pick a few fans from those that had arrived early and would let them join Taylor and her band in their chill zone. By doing this, Taylor was rewarding the most passionate and supportive fans. Those that were selected to join the T-Party would tell everyone about it, and that would simply encourage more fans to try to get picked next time.

You Don’t Have to Be Taylor Swift to Do This

You don’t have to be a rock star to act like one. All Taylor does is she identifies her fans who are being supportive, and she finds a way to reward (thank) them.

Years ago when my book Think Like a Rock Star came out, I would find ways to reward readers who were promoting my book online. One time, I took a page directly out of Taylor’s Christmas Stalkings idea. I found someone promoting Think Like a Rock Star on Facebook. So I ‘stalked’ her Facebook profile, found out she loved a particular kind of cookie, and send her an autographed copy of the book, along with a bag of her favorite cookies.

Valentina was surprised and delighted with the book and cookies! She then wrote a post about it and posted it on her blog, as well as an update post on both her personal and business Facebook profiles. Finally, she wrote a 5-star review on Amazon! That’s not bad ROI for rewarding the behavior you want to encourage from fans.

Another example: A few years ago I was giving my Think Like a Rock Star presentation to a group of rural broadband internet providers. Not exactly the type of company you think of having raving fans.

I talked to them about how Taylor had ‘stalked’ her fans, and said this would be very easy for any of you to do. All it would take is simply writing a personal note to a customer who leaves a kind comment on your social media post.

About a week later, I got an email from a woman who explained that she had attended my presentation. She said she took my advice about ‘reward the behavior you want to encourage’ and she had just sent a small ‘thank you’ swag package and a personal note to a customer who frequently left compliments on her company’s Facebook page.

She then added “I don’t know if this will work, but I do know I feel good doing it!”

And that’s so true! Connecting with your most passionate customers/fans doesn’t just make good business sense, it’s fun! It’s a joy to spend all day connecting with happy customers who love you! Rock stars like Taylor Swift understand this.

Thank you for reading this month’s edition of Marketing and Music! So next month is my birthday, and I’ve decided to give myself a present: January’s edition of Marketing and Music will feature my favorite band, Led Zeppelin! It turns out, Led Zeppelin had a pretty solid marketing and PR strategy that helped the band reach super stardom status. I’ll break that down next month in Marketing and Music: The Man Who Built Led Zeppelin.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Mack

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