Hey Reader. It may come as no surprise to you, or it may be news, that I'm a fan of Taylor Swift. If the sound of her name gives you ragey vibes, this email may not be for you.

But stick with me if you can, because her email marketing team has done something that I think deserves a closer look.

Last month I was interviewed for an upcoming podcast on the email marketing strategy for Taylor Nation. I had some positives and a decent amount of negatives and it was really a lot of fun.

But now, those negatives don't mean much because this release was yet again, masterful. I want to have a look at it from her launch emails subject line perspective on a very high level because you all need to wait to listen to the podcast when it comes out later this summer. That's going to break down her non-launch strategy and the episode has a lot of hits, so keep watch for its official release date.

I'm going to risk being thrown out of the Swiftyverse when I admit that on Thursday I had totally forgotten that it TTPD's release day. (The Tortured Poets Department) Until I got a frantic bunch of texts from my brother reminding me. In my defense, life has been pure chaos and I was in Chicago that day, which is not where I live LOL, so I was out of sorts.

Then I paid attention to the emails landing in my inbox. So now, let's have a quick peek at a very specific time frame I'd like to break down. The week of the album release.

When I speak on the topic of release sequencing, I always inevitably hear the gasps when I say I send about 12-14 emails in the 4 weeks prior to a release day.

Go ahead. I'll wait for you to also gasp and throw something at your screen. I'll tell you one thing. Those 12 emails are not heading to the same person over and over. I use segmentation to sort and send. But today, we're not talking about segmentation. We're talking about strategy and the few days before a release. Because during that week, all bets are off. Send a bunch of emails...but...you need to make it valuable.

Today we're going to look soley at Taylor's inbox data. Here's what my inbox looked like on Taylor's release week

I want to break down a few things.

1. We see an email sent to me 4 days before, 1 day before, the day of and 3 days after the release of her record. And not once did I think...enough! Please stop. You know why? A few reasons.

• I asked to be there and enjoy learning about what she's up to.
• I was very excited about her new release and wanted exclusive info.
• Outside of releases, she sends an email 2-4 times per month.
• Each of these emails had a different call to action focus.

2. These all landed in my inbox. Not my promo tab. Although once or twice they had landed in promo. And they have a wide variety of subject line styles with one common thread.

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT

Then in and around that are lowercase words.

3. They all have preview text. And it always starts with the same intro.

desk of Taylor Swift.

Beautiful connection to the album and the themes of the album there (typewriters, a department inside an office). And then after that intro, the preview text goes on to describe what's inside the email. So there is no doubt between the subject line and the preview text as to what you're going to get when you open the email.

As for what's inside, you'll have to wait to hear my thoughts on that when the podcast comes out. That's where things take a bit of a turn onto a different path. One that may not land in as many inboxes as they'd want.

Happy Emailing,

Holly

PS Want to work with me on your own strategy?

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