Marketing in the Cannabis industry is not the same as other industries. With Federal Laws and online policies creating roadblocks, you might feel perplexed about how you are going to make your brand’s voice heard above the rest. Throughout our experience marketing for several different types of cannabis companies, we have determined the best techniques for reaching your potential audience. The cannabis industry is cut-throat and complicated which makes it extra important to spend every dollar of your budget wisely.
Cannabis Marketing in Action
Once you have established a vision and goal for your company’s initiatives, it’s time to put a plan into action. The first and most important thing you need, is a fully-functioning and visually appealing website. The domain you choose for your site will help set to your business apart from your competitors. It must be easily memorable and wholly unique. Sometimes, choosing a domain is difficult because there are so many out there to choose from and you don’t want to have any overlap with other companies. If you are running into duplicate company names, one trick is to add the word “dispensary” or “collective” after your brand name.
It is important to remember to add an age gate to your website as well. As cannabis becomes more widely legalized, maintaining accountability when advertising or promoting cannabis is imperative. We recommend conducting thorough research to educate yourself about the laws in your individual state. As you probably know, the laws are different anywhere you go, but one thing stays the same no matter what: we do not want children on cannabis websites. Adding the age gate must be a top priority. It’s a simple step that means a lot.
Cannabis Website Design
When you are considering the design of your cannabis website, there are several key factors to take into consideration before you get too far into the design. Choosing a visually appealing color scheme, logo and font are all essential when it comes to grabbing your customer’s attention and branding your company in a unique way. Don’t choose boring fonts and do not create a logo that might relate to children. Anything that is cute and cuddly, or is a cartoon, might not be the best choice for your intended audience. It’s a good idea to stay away from the things that have plagued cannabis sites over the last few years. Things like bikini girls holding blunts and bad word art are no longer the reigning culture of cannabis. A focus on health, wellness and cleanliness is a much better road to follow.
Besides having your own distinctive and functional website, it’s vital to display your brand on other big industry-relevant sites. Sites like Weedmaps and Leafly are good examples of highly-navigated sites where people are looking for cannabis brands and deals just like yours. For monthly or yearly fees, you can hold a place on these websites relatively easily. Choosing a marketing company to vet out impactful websites for your business will save you time and money.
Cannabis Branding Fundamentals
Once you have a website established, the next step is setting up a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign. This type of advertising ensures your website can be seen by the world. They say the best place to hide a dead body is on page two of Google. This is accurate! When you are searching Google, how often do you scroll down and go to the next page? Not often, right? A solid SEO campaign will drive your site closer and closer to the top of Google searches.
So, how does an SEO campaign work? Is it magic? No, it’s the cunning use of targeted keywords utilized throughout your site, followed by meticulous monitoring and adjustments. Right now, it is completely legal to advertise your cannabis website in this way, so take advantage! Remember, SEO campaigns can quickly become very complicated. As a business owner, we recommend knowing the basics, but leaving the rest up to a company who specializes in this field, like Cannabis Marketing, Inc.
Another form of advertising commonly used by the cannabis industry is Native Advertising. Native Advertising will help enhance your SEO campaign by presenting custom ad messages to those who have shown interest in products and services like yours. You can easily captivate your audience with well-presented, branded material that doesn’t stand out as blatant marketing. To the user, your ad will have in-built value because it appeals to their interests. The ultimate goal is for a highly-influential website pick up your ads. Once this happens, your SEO campaign will kick into high-gear and drive you up the Google listings. Pretty cool, huh?
E-mail campaigns are another effective method of advertising for cannabis businesses. Building a list of customer e-mails and data is crucial to impactful communication. Once you build a targeted list, you will be able to talk directly to your clients about upcoming events, promotions and other news-worthy information. Once you establish a routine with your e-mails, your customers will always be reminded about your business. Just be careful not to e-mail too much. Spamming is not cool.
Lastly, we want to mention influencer marketing. Even though this type of marketing is gaining popularity, especially in the cannabis industry, it has been around for a long time. The act of influencing requires a specific result: an alteration in thinking or behavior. Many people confuse influencers with someone who is just really popular. But in actuality, an influencer is someone who can impact the perception of others and even encourage them to do something different. When seeking out influencers, keep this in mind: do they have what it takes to give you a solid return on your investment? Do they have the ability to deliver a message to a large number of people? Are they credible and have the trust of their industry followers? Do they have the extraordinary power to persuade and convince their audience?
It’s our advice to be selective when working with influencers. If done right, influencer marketing can improve the perception of your company and can build a community of advocates who will drive reach and brand awareness.
As your marketing starts to take off, it’s crucial to consistently monitor your various campaign’s progress. When you actively monitor and analyze, you give yourself a change to dig in and see what works and what doesn’t; what is performing exceptionally well, and what is not. This will help you to mold and shift your strategies so you can continue driving forward. This aspect of your marketing takes a lot of time and focus. We always recommend utilizing a cannabis marketing agency to monitor and strategize your campaigns. This article has only touched the tip of the nugget when it comes to your marketing options.
It can all seem overwhelming very quickly and it’s important you focus your valued time on your cannabusiness. Leave the details of marketing to us!
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