What content would you like to be created by tea companies?

Clearing through all the clutter that is the internet, I still strongly believe that adding a personal touch to your company is high priority. Most tea people, well, all people in general, want to know who is/are the person(s) behind the company they want to throw money at.

If you take a look at the darlings of Steepster, (Butiki, Whispering Pines, 52Teas, White2Tea, just to name a few.) they are very diverse in what they sell. But they do have this in common; There are personalities and names attached to their companies. It’s like we have a friend who just happens to supply our addiction. They are like, chummy drug dealers, basically.

What I personally like to see in tea companies is A) Personal-ish things, like what tea you are drinking today and/or pictures. B) Informational blog-type posts. A short, Top 5 Historical teas blah blah blah list or whatever. C) Pictures! Instagram is heaven to most tea nerds, I have found.

Good luck with your company! I really like what you have put out so far, and would like to see you grow!

It does seem like quite a Sisyphean task.

http://steepster.com/discuss/10236-everyone-on-steepster-please-read-this-dot-dot-dot

I feel like tea is still very much a word of mouth type of product. Most companies can’t afford to put out ads on television, and ads on computers are blocked by the majority of potential customers. Being on a site like this will definitely boost sales. Being on facebook is also free advertising. If you have something worth looking for, people will find it and then tell their friends.

I would say that what I really want to see out of a tea company is to have them offer me something I can’t really get elsewhere. I suppose people who buy quality loose leaf teas could already be considered a niche, but there are definitely smaller portions within it, sub-niches if you will. I suppose good examples of companies that fill a niche would be 52teas, as far as I know they are the only company that will mail a new flavor to you every week. Another example of a niche is whispering pines. They put as much effort and expensive quality ingredients as possible in to their teas, and then sell them to those who have the money.

It seems like with adblock, it’s less important to get ads everywhere, and more important to improve your search ranking. If you are on the first page when people type in “online tea store”, that alone will bring in tons of sales. Most people never go much more than two or three pages in to their search results, and that’s generally only done if they can’t find anything.

I enjoy content like interesting lists (top five etc), infographics, insights into the tea industry, insights into who is behind the company, practical info that’s unique in its content or delivery, debunking myths, side by side comparisons. Stuff that’s short and easy to consume. I almost never watch videos, so blog posts and images are more interesting to me.

Hi Tippy’s,

I’m a freelance writer who blogs for several clients, and, as a Steepster member, I like to think I know my stuff about tea. I’d love to talk to you about helping you with your content marketing efforts – could you follow me so we could toss some ideas around via PM?

Thanks!

Personally, I really enjoy following you here on Steepster because not only do you review teas from other companies, you’re respectful and don’t rate them. But I love seeing what teas you’re drinking and what teas inspire you. And I enjoy seeing companies involved in Steepster discussions and adding to the conversation (not trying to peddle their own wares, but being part of the community.) Here on Steepster, that’s really the best thing you can do, Steepsterites will go to great lengths to support their darlings like Whispering Pines, 52teas, etc.

There are so many tea companies I am getting personally a little lost with all the content being pushed at me. For example I have ignored the last 10 or so tea companies that have followed me on Instagram. People are being constantly advertised to everywhere on the internet and I think a lot of it gets tuned out.

I would say before you worry about content, worry about what you can do to make your existing customers happy, and provide exemplary customer service. If you do a good job with the last part you will get a lot of your orders from repeat business.

Having said that, I went to your website and it is not that compelling, I can’t see any reason why I would want to buy tea from you vs. the competition. I have no idea who you are. Maybe focus some more on getting your value proposition articulated. Once you sort that out the content should write itself because you will have some kind of a story to tell.

I spend more time looking at insta now, and I agree with TeaBrat… companies constantly follow me, but I rarely follow them back. If I check your feed and it’s just staged pics of your teas/wares… that’s kind of boring.

But if you’re creating beautiful pics making tea, using your wares, and creating a setting that I want to be a part of, well… then I want to be a part of it :p

As far as website content, I very much enjoy sellers who spend time telling the stories behind their teas – the farmers, production, how they walked 20 miles up a mountain to procure said tea, etc. :)