Communicating with Your Tea Audience: Which Medium?
Which medium should you use for reaching tea drinkers? Most people would say a blend of media. But let’s face it- how many people have time and resources to maintain an email, Twitter, blog, and other campaigns?
Here’s some analogies to help you understand how/when to use media for reaching tea drinkers:
Email is like a flyer you get handed on the street.
- It may have some good info or a sweet offer, or it may not.
- The receiver may be getting so many flyers (i.e. email) that she can’t or doesn’t read them all. Imagine walking down a street filled with people handing out flyers. In fact, these eager people are stuffing them into your hands, gently sliding them into your coat pockets, dropping them into an open bag you’re carrying, etc. People get so easily overwhelmed with email that all email gets ignored.
Conclusion: use email sparingly, and for people who are already customers, or at least very interested.
Twitter is a cocktail party.
- Twitter allows everyone to briefly comment on what they like and listen to others in a short conversation.
- As in a party, no one wants to talk to a person who only talks about themselves
- You can eavesdrop on other conversations. Listen to any buzz about other brands or items people like. Respond to needs/likes in an appropriate manner.
- Like a cocktail party, your Twitter may be a smaller audience, but you have a chance to get more individual feedback. Don’t discount the Twitter cocktail party’s influence to spread to other areas.
Conclusion: Engage by giving your followers something to say about you while listening and spreading the news of those you follow.
The blog is your stage, library, and help desk rolled into one.
- If your content is interesting, people stop and look. By creating your own stage, you have more control over the audience you attract.
- Other tools, like Facebook and Twitter ultimately drive people to a blog or website. Why use Facebook or Twitter if you can’t drive people to more content? How many times can you repeat: “look at my goods” before people feel you have nothing else to say?
- Your blog is your customers’ first stop for information about you. The will use your blog to find resources or just get to know you. Without your own blog, you are relying on other bloggers to spread a message (or lack thereof) about you.
- Your blog content gets “borrowed” and put in other libraries. With a little bit of cooperation with other bloggers, you create links and connections to other blogs. A post you wrote months ago can still bring in traffic (if the content is still considered valuable). Compared to email, Facebook, or Twitter, blog content has the highest potential “staying power.”
Conclusion: Keeping an active, interesting, and useful blog will generate more return visitors while giving you more control over the message you deliver.
Want more info? Contact me at: jasonowalker@gmail.com
