What do fame and marketing have in common?

Everything.

Lady Gaga has mastered fame. As a marketer looking for inspiration and lessons of marketing greatness, look no further than Gaga. With nearly 10 million Twitter followers and 33.7 million Facebook fans, Gaga’s fame has become legendary. So how did a girl from New York City engineer fame in a way few have ever done?

As a marketer, you are constantly working to stand out in a crowded industry. Lady Gaga was trying to do the same thing in the over-crowded music industry. Gaga won where others lost because she obsessed about fame and connected the dots of her past experience. Here are some lessons every marketer can learn from Lady Gaga.

Marketing Lessons From Lady Gaga

1. Timing is Everything – It is the speed and pace of actions and words that make or break a performance. Look at any video of a Lady Gaga performance. She nails timing. She pauses and builds momentum at all of the right times.

Marketing Takeaway: As many learned during the recent Science of Timing webinar, when content is distributed at just the right moment, it can have a major impact on its reach and performance.

2. Humility Is Key – If you subscribe to HBO, you likely saw part of Gaga’s Madison Square Garden concert special. No matter which part you watched, you also likely heard her thank her fans. This is because Gaga understands that humility is key to building a rabid community of supporters.

Marketing Takeaway: Thank your customers and fans for their support. Conduct surveys to ask for input and demonstrate how that feedback is reflected in business changes. Offer free upgrades, perks, or surprise gifts for customers to show your appreciation for their business.

3. Details Matter – Lady Gaga doesn’t lip sync during her concerts. She is constantly training for her dance numbers. In other words, she obsesses over all the details related to her product and brand.

Marketing Takeaway: Remember that the little things matter. For example, if you’ve just conducted a website redesign, make sure your website’s links redirect to URLs that you may have changed during the redesign. Online marketing is about the compiled results of multiple efforts over time. If you stop paying attention to details, results will be lost in the long term.

4. Don’t Give Away the Magic – How much do you really know about Lady Gaga? Have you ever seen her wear jeans and a t-shirt? She intentionally hides her “normal” activities. She treats all of her time in public like a performance. She is a master of fame.

Marketing Takeaway: Your customers just want the magic. Customers don’t care how much R&D went into a product or all of the people it took to make it happen. For the most part, customers are selfish. They want something that will solve their problem in a simple way. When creating content and developing marketing strategies, amplify the magic of the product by down-playing how the magic happens.

5. Marketing Is a Lifestyle – Gaga has made fame and marketing her lifestyle. Every performance or song release had marketing as a part of its DNA. She doesn’t only focus on marketing a few months before an album is released; instead, it is an every day mindset.

Marketing Takeaway: Marketing campaigns are all well and good, but in an inbound marketing world, campaigns aren’t enough. Now, marketing needs to be in the DNA of your company. Employees in all departments should create content and aid in the company’s goal of market domination. Examine the daily activities of your business. How can you better integrate marketing into your business’ culture?

6. Standing Out Wins – Have you tuned into an entertainment awards show in the past year? If so, you’ve likely heard the constant chatter about the crazy outfits Lady Gaga has worn. She is a master of standing out and being controversial. This behavior is rewarded with an abundance of media coverage and attention.

Marketing Takeaway: Being controversial isn’t about taking risks. It’s really just about doing something unexpected and out of character for your industry. Write a blog post that takes a different stand on a topic than most others in your industry would take. Look at how others in your industry are doing inbound marketing, and take a different approach. It’s time to stand out.

For more lessons in fame and marketing from Gaga, check out this recent interview she did with Google: