Marketing your cannabis dispensary is vital to improving sales. Here’s a complete guide on the dos and don’ts of marketing for the cannabis industry.

The cannabis industry in the United States is worth billions of dollars, and the legalization of cannabis in different states has allowed it to flourish. Therefore, many cannabis dispensaries and other related companies are looking to improve their sales through effective marketing. Marketing ensures that you increase your customer base by extending your reach.

After that, you’ll have to retain customers through high-quality products. Marketing is no simple process. So, this article provides you with the dos and don’ts of marketing for the cannabis industry to help you make informed decisions with your strategy.

The Dos of Cannabis Marketing

It’s best to focus on three major aspects when considering what you should do for cannabis marketing. These include the following.

• Auditing the foundation of your company
• Create content that can help market your company (SEO)
• Increase your reach through social media marketing and email marketing

Let’s unpack what each point means.

Auditing the Foundation of Your Company

You can only create an effective marketing strategy if you know what your company can truly offer your customers or clients. Your foundation, i.e., your website, should speak to your audience so that when you redirect visitors, they’re instantly intrigued with what you have to say. A solid foundation will help transform the leads into conversions, so you must address that before anything else.

Here are some aspects to keep in mind about auditing the foundation of your company.

Assess Your Website

It’s best to check if your website design perfectly reflects your brand. In addition to that, your website should be compatible with all types of devices, including mobile devices. This is because many people use their phones to browse the internet.

Include Call-to-Action Statements

Once you have visitors on your website, your web copy must convince them that there’s value in what you can offer. Thus, you can make that clear through effective call-to-action statements. These statements help turn those leads into conversions. So, these statements should be impactful and relevant to what your potential customers are seeking.

Organize Your Contacts

It’s best to have a CRM that saves and organizes high-value leads as contacts.

Create Content That Can Help Market Your Company (SEO)

Content marketing is an important part of any cannabis marketing strategy. Writing and publishing search engine optimized articles on your website blog or external blogs can significantly help drive your traffic. It’s crucial, thus, to include keywords that are relevant to your company and target audience. With effective SEO practices, you can ensure that your content is present on the top searches on search engine results pages (SERPs). In turn, more people will get to view your content, increasing the number of your leads.

When creating your content, it’s best to first start with relevant material that leads at the bottom of the funnel can engage with. Therefore, you should include information such as live demos, free quotations, free consultation requests, pricing information. This way, potential leads can learn about your cannabis company without needing to get in touch with your sales.

There should be content for prospective customers at every stage of the funnel. So, you should also include information for the middle of the funnel. Examples include product-focused or solution-focused webinars, whitepapers, product catalogs, demo videos, customer testimonials, or free samples.

For the top of the funnel, you should include blogs, video product demonstrations, vlogs, and more for effective cannabis marketing. Make sure that the content is relevant to your company and offers value to prospective customers and clients.

Increase Your Reach Through Social Media Marketing and Email Marketing

Engaging directly with your existing customer base and prospective ones through social media platforms is a vital aspect of your cannabis marketing strategy. Now, cannabis companies can often get banned on social media platforms. So, it’s best to post content that can help you improve your reach organically instead of using paid ads. Therefore, you could use the following social media platforms for the following reasons.

• Instagram: use it to increase awareness for your brand. Make sure to add relevant hashtags.
• Facebook: use it to improve customer service, build a community, and share new updates about your company and the cannabis industry on the whole.
• Twitter: use this platform to engage with leaders and other relevant parties in the cannabis industry. It offers a great opportunity for networking.

You can also, of course, use other platforms like LinkedIn and YouTube to your advantage.

In addition to social media marketing, focus on email marketing to directly inform your customers about new updates. Start by developing your email list. It’s best not to buy email lists because they contain expired emails, and sending emails to those addresses can cause your messages to be counted as spam.

The Don’ts of Cannabis Marketing

Now that you know what you should include in your cannabis marketing strategy, we’ll discuss what you shouldn’t do. Here’s what to keep in mind.

Don’t Stay Out of Touch with Changes in Cannabis Regulations

Guidelines for posting cannabis-related content on social media change frequently. Therefore, you must make your social media team stays updated with all of these changes to prevent your account from getting banned. So, avoid risky hashtags, ads, and don’t show consumption of cannabis just to be safe.

Don’t Give Little Importance to Your Brand Image

Your brand image is instrumental in the impression you make on your prospective customers, which affects your sales. Keep things professional and legitimate, and people are more likely to choose your company over your competitors.

Don’t Exaggerate or Lie

It can greatly help gain your potential customer’s trust if you are honest about your products, the quality, pricing, and effects. Don’t exaggerate or lie about any of it.

Last Few Words

With these dos and don’ts of marketing for the cannabis industry, you can create a strategy that works for your company. Start by understanding your target audience, and always focus on how you can offer them something of value.