Constant Contact success story · Tea cafe

How an Indianapolis tea cafe grew its list 18% with Constant Contact events, surveys and text-to-join.

Name: Overtop Media Digital Marketing
Address: 933 Louise Ave Suite 101-18, Charlotte, NC, 28204, US
Telephone: (704) 237-0707
Price range: $$

Tea’s Me Cafe was set to close in 2017 when a new owner bought it. It now has three locations, a subscription service and online sales. Since April 2022 its email, events and social posts run from Constant Contact, and its list grew 18% year over year.

Business: Tea’s Me Cafe
Market: Indianapolis, Indiana
Goal: Grow a community and automate the business

White teapot and cup on a tray beside a small potted succulent on a cafe table

The results.

Year-over-year growth and a comparison with the industry open rate, as stated by Constant Contact.

+18%list growth year over year
+6%open rate year over year
+17%open rate vs. industry average

Published in August 2023; the cafe started using Constant Contact in April 2022. Figures as reported in the story; Constant Contact does not publish how they were measured.

The challenge.

Tea’s Me Cafe is a local Indianapolis favorite that was due to close in 2017. Under its new owner it added a second location in Tarkington Park and a third at Ivy Tech Community College, a tea subscription and an online store.

The cafe is also a community center, hosting regular in-person and online events, including community conversations started in 2020. Running all of that while growing a list and automating routine work needed one simple system.

Text to joinGuests sign up from the counter or an event.
Survey their interestsEvents, teas or both become segments.
Fill the eventsRegistrations and QR check-in from the same platform.
Automate the thanksOrder confirmations and thank-you emails send themselves.

What they did.

Text-to-join · Event registration · Surveys · Automated order emails

Everything under one roof: Newsletters, event registrations and scheduled social posts are planned and built by the team in one platform.
Text-to-join and a landing page: Text-to-join and a custom landing page make it easy for guests to sign up on the spot.
Surveys that build segments: Surveys ask subscribers whether they want to hear about events, teas or both, and the answers become segments. Click heat maps show what content gets attention.
Automation and event check-in: Automated paths send order confirmations and thank-you emails, and an online store integration lets the cafe check guests into events with a QR code.

Why it worked.

Our read on the decisions behind the numbers, and what any business can take from them.

Ask people what they want: Surveys turned guesswork into segments, so event fans and tea fans each get the emails they asked for.
Capture interest in the moment: Texting a keyword at the counter or an event is faster than filling in a form later, so more guests join.
Events and email feed each other: Events give people a reason to join the list, and the list fills the next event.
Automation frees the team: Confirmations and thank-yous go out on their own, leaving staff to serve guests.

How we would run this play for your business.

You do not need a national budget to use the same ideas. This is how Overtop Media Digital Marketing puts them to work in our Constant Contact email marketing.

Put signup at the counter: Text-to-join, QR codes and a short landing page in every location and at every event.
Ask, then segment: A one-question survey in the welcome email that sorts new subscribers by interest.
Automate the order emails: Confirmation, thank-you and reorder reminders for your online store or subscription.
Promote locally: Neighborhood Meta ads and Google Ads for events and new locations, sending people to the signup page.