MARKETING A TEA BUSINESS

© by Lisa Drake; all rights reserved

One way of marketing a tea business is to begin a mailing list. This gives you an avenue to contact people who are truly interested in what you have to offer.

You can begin by gathering names of the many different types of groups and people who attend functions in your tea business. Starting a free mailing list for everyone that comes into your tea business to sign up is a primary step.

Things to include in the mailing list handout is their name, mailing address, e-mail address and birthday. This way you can send e-mails to everyone on your list of the upcoming events and send out a birthday card for everyone's birthday.

Sending an e-mail is free and, along with the mailing of a postacard or newsletter to each person's mailing address, can bring more people into your tea business. Sending e-mails and mailing items to people in the mail costs a lot less than marketing and advertising your tea business in your local newspaper!

Once or twice a year it is nice to announce in the local newspaper a complimentary event, such as a Green Tea Tasting or other special event, that can catch the eye of a new customer, but advertising in your local paper is quite expensive compared to other forms of contact such as sending e-mails or mailing postcards/newsletters.

A great database program to use is Microsoft Software "Access." You can create many different fields to customize each customer's identity.

You can keep track of how many times each customer visits by gathering dates of each customer making reservations. You should also make note of each customer's family members and birth dates so a postcard reminder can be sent to celebrate birthdays.

You can also keep track of favorite menu items that each customer orders to insure the client's personalized favorites. There is no limit to ideas to personalize each customer's experience at your tea business. In the first issue of your newsletter or postcard you should include at least three or four upcoming events, a tea quote or poem, and a personal note from the owner thanking everyone for their attendance at a past event or sharing special information about things happening at the tea business. You can print your mailing article in black and white, but your article on colored card stock is much more effective. Not only do you save money on printing costs, but color stock catches the eye. Try to use images that are simple and easily recognizable.

Have fun and be creative marketing your tea business!

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Guest author, writer, and student, Lisa Drake, is majoring in Information Systems and minoring in Marketing at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is the Graphics Designer for Belle's Tea Cottage and can be reached at clognlady@sbcglobal.net for any additional information.

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