How to Sell Tea Online With a Blog – Serve a Rich Content

Tea, as we know it, is one of the most traditional beverages consumed by people of all ages. It’s a fascinating niche that has got a rich history, modern diversity and also a growing popularity in the internet market. So for the benefit of any experts or enthusiasts out there, today’s post is all about showing you how to sell tea online through serving rich content also known as, blogging.

Why Blog about Tea

People go online every day to search for things to learn and to buy. Most often than not, they will do some reading first before deciding on a product. This is one characteristic you need to understand about modern shoppers, even when it comes to the tea business.

Knowledge-driven consumers are more likely to try new products and repeat their purchases as compared to product-driven consumers who usually buy based on impulses. Knowledge is huge and they sell if you can provide people with what they are searching for.

So what exactly are people searching for when it comes to tea? Google has some insights into this. If you type a few phrases in the search box, you will see other related terms rolling out and this is commonly based on the topics that people look up on Google every day.

When you repeat this technique for any phrases that come to your mind, you’ll discover a ton of topic ideas from just one single phrase. In other words, there are actually many things you can write about when promoting a particular product.

They may be topics that you are knowledgeable about or even topics that you’ve never heard of, but that’s okay. You can tap on the subjects and come up with information that people are interested in. That is what I mean by selling through content.

How to Sell Tea With a Blog

To make it clearer in a business sense, let’s see how blogging works for two different types of setups.

1) Sell Your Own Tea Products

Selling something online usually involves setting up a website or an online store. There is software like website builders or eCommerce solutions to help you with that. Most of them should also have a blog section and if they don’t, find one that has.

For small businesses who are just coming into the scene, having a blog is one of the most cost-effective marketing strategies you can have over bigger companies (who usually don’t have a blog). It doesn’t require hefty advertising fees and can be easily executed by one person.

With a blog, you can ‘market’ through search engines for free using those topic ideas (aka keywords) that I mentioned earlier. You see, Google ranks web pages (not websites) when it shows something on the search result page. That means it focuses on the usage of keywords instead of company names.

For example, if you have a lot of interesting articles about green tea, your site is going to outrank (meaning appear in the top positions) bigger brands who only have a few web pages for that particular term. This will naturally attract new visitors from different places to visit your online store and buy from there. Hence, your sales funnel is going to look something like this;

Blog article > Your Online Store > Make a Sale

I’ve seen a couple of stores who write about brewing techniques, introduce new specialties and even share recipes for high tea on their business blog. In my opinion, that’s a unique way of ‘selling’ something with a personal touch. It’s less commercial and tends to walk people through a pleasant experience which can be a rare thing with online shopping these days.

2) Promoting Other Tea Brands

Now, if you don’t have your own products to sell, there’s another way to monetize from a tea blog and that’s through affiliate marketing. In this business model, you earn sales commissions by recommending other company’s tea products and you do so through product reviews.

This is how your sales funnel is going to look like;

Blog article > Product Review > Merchant Site > Make a Commission

Unlike the previous one, an affiliate business is easier/cheaper to set up and it enables you to promote several brands at the same time. That means you have more product ideas to offer the readers and more keyword choices to use for ranking on the search engines.

So where do you go to search for other people’s product?

1) An affiliate network like ShareASale is a good place to start because it has many unique brands and provides a good overview of each affiliate program. You can use product keywords such as ‘tea’ or search under the food/drinks category to narrow down your choices.

If there’s a brand that you favor or better yet, have had experience using or consuming their tea products, sign up for their program and wait for the approval.

2) If by any chance, you aren’t accepted, another place that you can try is the Amazon marketplace. When you sign up as an Amazon Associate (that’s just another term for Amazon affiliate), there are literally thousands of products that you can promote within the tea niche. A quick search reveals about 10 subcategories and more than 60,000 product listings. That’s quite a massive choice, don’t you think?

3) Another method to search is to type in ‘tea affiliate program’ on Google and look at the first few top results (not the ads, but the organic listings).

Most often than not, these links will point you directly to their program page where you’ll be able to get more information like commission rates and cookie length. What I would also do is to navigate through their online stores and see what’s selling or see if it’s easy for shoppers to move around their sites. That should give you a rough idea about their eCommerce experience. Chances are if you like it, so will your readers.

4) Ever heard of subscription box services? They are those monthly packages that get people excited. Typically, a box contains unique products delivered to subscribers and you’ll be pleased to know that there are a few of them in the tea niche. Most of these brands are non-commercial/artisanal that are seeking for a new audience and since they rely heavily on bloggers like you to spread words about their products, they also offer affiliate programs. 

These are just some that you may want to check out.

• Teabox
• Plum Deluxe
• Field to Cup
• Art of Tea
• Blend Bee
• Handmade Tea
• Sips By
• Hello Tea
• Alakaban Tea  
• Tea Box Express

And the list goes on…

Grow Your Business With a Blog

The internet has changed the way people experience tea drinking and as a result, we are seeing new trends and product keywords emerging online as well. For businesses, this means more opportunities to target a new audience and to showcase your unique brand. Blogging is a great way to leverage from those keywords and the earlier you start, the faster you’ll be discovered within the tea industry.

I hope this niche tutorial has somewhat inspired you to write interesting content and to experiment with the different audiences that are out there. If you need help setting up a blog or kick-starting an online business, do visit my recommended training platform and see what you can benefit from there.

Question – Have you had any experience selling tea online? What makes this niche interesting in your perspective? Please share your thoughts in the comment area below.