2 min readEnhancewell
When Taylor Swift took the stage at the 66th Annual Grammys on February 5 to accept her Best Pop Vocal Album award, Swifties worldwide held their collective breath, waiting for her to announce her latest (Taylor's Version) album. Instead, she revealed something even more exciting: "The Tortured Poets Department."
When TTPD was released on April 19, the album didn't just break records. It shattered them. Billboard compiled a list of all the records broken, which include:
- Fastest Album to 1 Billion Streams on Spotify
- Biggest Streaming Week of All Time
- Historic Hot 100 Debut (claiming every single spot in the top 14)
- Spotify's Most Pre-Saved Countdown
- Single-Week Vinyl Sales (since data tracking began in 1991)
- Single-Day Spotify Album Streams
- Single-Day Spotify Song Streams
Even if you're not a Swiftie, you've got to agree that she's doing something right. Today, we'll look into a few of Taylor Swift's magic marketing moves that helped her TTPD album achieve unprecedented success and talk about how you can replicate her strategies for your own marketing gain.
Add value by expanding your product
On April 29, The Washington Post revealed that 859,000 copies of "TTPD" were sold on vinyl. That's the largest sale of any vinyl album in the modern era since Taylor's "1989" sold 693,000 copies. The record comes with a bonus track and a collectible 24-page book-bound jacket, three replicas of Taylor Swift's handwritten lyrics, and never-before-seen photos. That's a value-add in an era of digital.
Her strategy for Midnights was even more brilliant. She created four vinyl albums, retailing for $29.99 each, making a clock when combined. No one needs four of the same album, but with different-colored records and a collector's item, she can quadruple her revenue without much extra effort.
How can you repackage your current offerings to increase sales and profits?
Overdeliver
We all knew TTPD was set to drop on April 19. Swifties were met with a special surprise when the album drop day arrived. Taylor Swift posted on Instagram, "It's a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album. ✌️ I'd written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here's the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn't mine anymore… it's all yours."
Taylor is the master of "build the hype, then overdeliver." Do you tease your new products and services? Or simply launch when ready? Consider building excitement à la Taylor with your next launch.
Collabs
I'm going to go out on a limb here and make an assumption that Post Malone doesn't show up in most Swifties' Spotify Wrapped. However, their collab, "Fortnight," achieved the Single-Day Spotify Song Streams record and hit #1 on the Billboard 100.
By collaborating, you'll leverage two audiences, enabling you to go further than you could alone.
You don't need to be a billionaire with 283 million Instagram followers to achieve success with Taylor's marketing moves. Need help transferring these tips to your business? Enhancewell Consulting can help. Get in touch today for a free discovery call to discover how you can achieve Swift-level success in your business!