It’s pretty safe to say that Taylor Swift is today's reigning queen of pop. Between bringing in an estimated $57 million last year and releasing a brand new (amazing!) album this week, things are going pretty well for Tay.
Behind the curtain of success, Taylor is doing a lot of things right from a business perspective, making her a great role model for small business owners. From wowing fans on stage to posting cat pictures on Instagram, we’ve pulled together five big lessons that entrepreneurs can learn from Her Greatness, Taylor Swift.
1. Over-Promise and Over-Deliver
Anyone who doesn’t crawl under a rock while Taylor is touring knows that she’s infamous for surprising and delighting fans anew every night. With such rave reviews resulting from every concert, it’s safe to say that fans’ expectations are super high for every show.
Such inflated promises can sometimes outshine the actual experience and lead to ultimately disappointed fans. So what does Taylor do about these crazy high expectations? She exceeds them.
Taylor makes sure to bring her A game to every single performance, and she incorporates different elements so no two cities see exactly the same show.
How You Can Do It:
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Whatever you do, work hard to be amazing at it.
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Listen to customer feedback and decide what works, what doesn’t, and how you can improve what you offer. Depending on your business, you can use various social media and review sites like Yelp to hear from customers.
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Focus on customer service above all. Constantly surprise customers with how far above and beyond you’ll go for them.
2. Mix Your Energy With Commitment
Taylor has delighted fans with her music and work from the very beginning of her career. She’s always showed a lot of energy and passion for what she does.
Unlike many musicians and artists, Taylor has channeled this energy into commitment to her craft. Over the years and spanning all of her albums, she’s stayed dedicated to writing her own music and pleasing her fans.
The difference between music’s short-lived “one-hit wonders” and megastars like Taylor is the ability to continue producing quality, popular music despite one’s success and fame.
How You Can Do It:
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Look at the big picture.
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Take a few minutes to write down what your goals are for the next year. Think about the skills and support you’ll need to attain them, and then a few small ways to start working on achieving your goals.
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Don’t let a little success distract you from working hard on your business.
3. Be Open, Real, and Flawed
“Authentic” and “genuine” are two huge marketing buzzwords right now and few brands can master them the way Taylor Swift has.
As one of the few celebrities who manages her own social media accounts, Tay runs them in very human way. To read her Twitter, you would scarcely even know that she’s a celeb worth many millions of dollars.
My phone photo library is SO STALKERY. #TS1989 #taylurking pic.twitter.com/1v3N1ZvBVG
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) October 29, 2014
The key to this impression is that Taylor is willing to share parts of her life with her fans, and she isn’t afraid to be vulnerable and expose her flaws.
How You Can Do It:
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When it comes to social media and customer reviews, don’t delete what your customers have to say. No company is perfect or has a 100% satisfaction rate, so don’t hide the few unhappy customers.
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Admit your mistakes. As a business, you aren’t going to get everything right, and that’s okay. Just admit to your mistakes when they happen.
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In general, just conduct your company’s dealings with honesty and candor. Your customers will notice and love you for it.
4. Care About The Little Things
As a small business owner, it’s sometimes good to sweat the small stuff. Between Twitter and Instagram, Taylor has over 45 millions followers, so when she takes the time to share or reply to a fan’s photo or Tweet, it’s a huge deal. She’s renowned for commenting on fans’ Instagram pictures and replying to fan Tweets on a pretty regular basis, but she’s also known for being meticulously involved with every decision.
A photo posted by Taylor Swift (@taylorswift) on
When it comes to planning concerts and tours, Taylor is involved in everything from the set list to the number of steps on the stairs.
How You Can Do It:
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Focus on the little things your company can do to surprise and serve your customers.
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Listen to and engage with your customers. Find out how you can make their lives easier, then go and do it.
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Don’t take an immediate ROI or bottom-line look at this one. Happy customers will lead to gains in the long-term.
5. Stand Out and Find Your Niche
Any business is hard to break into when there are a hundred people doing the same thing. When Taylor was first starting out, her style was a mix of country and pop genres. At the time, she was one of the only person occupying this space.
Tay was writing songs, playing guitar, and singing, as well, which was rare. She recognized what made her unique, and she leveraged it to become the phenomenon she is today.
Everything that made Taylor different is what got her noticed and allowed her to become as successful as she is. But even though Taylor has some key differences, essentially she's creating music, something that has been done for centuries.
How You Can Do It:
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Think about your target market. Are you trying to reach too many people? Or is your business better suited for serving a smaller, niche demographic?
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Take a look at what your competitors are doing. You should be doing something that differentiates your business from the competition.
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Embrace your uniqueness!
How You Get the Customer
There’s a lot you can learn from Taylor Swift and her meteoric rise to fame. She’s done a lot of things right and handed down lessons for the rest of us. So if you go take the whole afternoon to listen to 1989, remember, it’s for your business!
Your Turn: Are you a Taylor Swift fan? What have you learned from her journey?
