I love Good Earth Tea, and regularly sip their Original Blend. It’s particularly sweet, which is important because I don’t have to put sugar in it.

(I tell people I’m not a coffee drinker; I drink cream and loads of sugar and a small bit of coffee.)

As a member of the media, I received their press release announcing their “Tag You’re It” contest where customers were asked to create their own quotes – all their tea tags have quotes. Great idea, I thought.

Today I received the teaser press release to go to their website to see who won.

And boy, as a content creator, freelance publicist, and customer, I was very disappointed!

They missed a huge Public Relations and Storytelling opportunity, and a great chance to connect with their customers.

Sure, they put up a list of winners, but nothing else!

The Good Earth website is nothing more than a brochure.

There’s no blog, no info about the winners, no discussion or invitations for customer comments about what they think about the winning quotes, no reason to come back or engage unless I want a coupon or free music.

After looking at the list and reading the quotes, I wondered why the company didn’t provide more.

What would I have done?

1) I would have provided compelling content. I want to know who these winners are, how long they have been drinking Good Earth Tea and what their favorite blends are. How old are they, why did they participate, what do they do for a living?

This could have been accomplished through short bios or why not feature five at a time as part of a monthly blog? They could be highlighted in a newsletter, and on the website, and promoted via social media.

2) I would have created targeted press releases or media pitches to the hometown newspapers of every winner, along with a headshot, greatly increasing the company’s exposure to new customers.

3) I would have given visitors  a chance to engage on the website – not on Facebook, where they apparently have a whopping 25,450 fans. I would have invited comments or connections on the winner page or on a blog. At the very least, I would have tried to send them to my Facebook Fan page.

(Good Earth Tea hides the FB link and the Fan ask in the bottom of their webpage, in tiny print in the footer. It doesn’t appear above the fold on any of their pages, and even on the contact page, they invite you to send them an email.)

4) I would have invited customers to sign up for a newsletter, since not everyone (including me) wants to connect on Facebook. I wondered whether Good Earth even had a newsletter because it took some hunting to find.

They bury it on their Promotions Tab, a place I would never look to find a newsletter – but there it was buried near the bottom of my page.

5) I would have tried to engage those who didn’t participate in the contest by asking them to vote for their favorite quote by one of the 25 winners, awarding an additional prize to the winner.

I would also have encouraged them to keep the contest going by giving new tea drinkers and customers a chance to enter a quote they thought appropriate, telling them that in two months, we’d open voting for one or three additional winners a chance to win a prize.

 

 

Do you think Good Earth Tea could have done more to engage with customers and increase their public relations reach? What would you suggest to the company?

 

 

Photo from Good Earth Tea Facebook Page