Business students, entrepreneurs and moguls-in-the-making often idolize people like Steve Jobs and Richard Branson. But there is a new force to be reckoned with in the business world… and her name is Taylor Swift.
Surprised? You shouldn’t be.
Swift’s new album, 1989 sold almost 1.3 million copies in its first week. It is the only album of 2014 to go platinum, a milestone that is increasingly difficult to reach in the music industry.
These sort of numbers haven’t been reached since 2002 when “The Eminem Show” sold over 1.3 million copies in its second week.
Breaking a barrier that hasn’t been reached in over a decade in an industry that has been suffering major profit losses is not an easy feat. But it’s not just the numbers that make this milestone so impressive.
Swift has shown the sort of business savvy that could teach even the most seasoned CEOs a thing or two.
Take a moment to get “Shake It Off” out of your head (its catchiness is so powerful that the mere mention of Ms. Swift’s name has probably caused it to start playing in your mind). When your head is clear, learn about how Swift has become such a powerhouse and how you can apply her strategies to your business.
People don’t want to be sold to. They want to be told a story. Swift knows how to keep her audience engaged, something that all businesses should aspire to do.
Content marketing is the practice of giving customers and potential customers content that makes them care about your brand, your company and your products or services. And Swift is a master of making the audience feel connected.
It isn’t just her lyrics that are so relatable. Swift makes her fans feel like part of her life through her brilliant use of social media and smart television appearances.
She furthered that connection with this album, encouraging people to buy physical copies of the album by offering exclusive songs, memos and personal photos. She made the album into an experience.
Using content marketing can help your business become something that people truly care about. Offering unique content to the right people creates an audience that becomes ambassadors for your business.
If you aren’t using content marketing to the fullest, you really should.
To have a successful business, courage and conviction are really important. You have to know when to make a stand and how to do it without compromising the business.
Swift gets it. During an era when downloads and streaming are the norm, she has managed to sell physical albums through content marketing and standing up for her beliefs.
When Spotify publicly criticized Swift for not allowing her new album to be available to stream right away, she swiftly removed all of songs from the music streaming service. Bold move, but one she had every right to make.
By making a stand, Swift was able to control the sales of her album. It paid off.
Now, not just anyone could afford to do what Swift did with Spotify. Businesses should always have principles, but it is important to spend your time fighting the right battles.
A brand new artist, for example, could lose out on a huge potential audience by ignoring Spotify. Swift knew that most of her fans would follow her, even if it meant buying a CD instead of streaming the songs.
For businesses, being able to wisely pick your battles is really important for success. Every business has stakeholders, some of whom may have different ideas on what is best for the business. If you fight them on every last thing, it will be very difficult to get anything done.
When you do have to put your foot down, make sure you have the data and strategy to back it up. Going into a meeting with an idea that you feel strongly about isn’t enough. You need to have the research showing why the idea is important, how you can implement it, what it will cost the business and what the desired results would be.
One of the most buzzed about parts of Swift’s new album is how different it is from her earlier work. She left the country artist behind and fully embraced pop music.
Though it was risky to transition out of the genre that made her a superstar, Swift knew that she had to stay true to her voice and vision.
If Swift forced herself to keep making the sort of music that she did when she started out, it probably wouldn’t be nearly as impactful anymore. She is no longer a teenage girl. She is no longer an emerging artist. Her new music has to reflect who she is today, not who she used to be.
Evolution is something that businesses often struggle with. Resolutely staying the same while the world around you changes is not a smart business model.
Think about how businesses have changed in past ten years. Technologies continue to develop, making consumers grow and change. Stagnancy can be a business killer. Don’t let it get yours.
So before your next board meeting or when you are brainstorming about your next business venture, you may want to channel Taylor Swift.
And when you start having doubts, just shake, shake, shake, shake, shake them off.
Erin Palmer is a writer and editor who has had “Shake It Off” in her head for weeks. Her work has appeared in numerous publications and websites, including The Chicago Tribune and The Huffington Post.
