Digital marketing for cannabis dispensaries is essential for increasing brand awareness and keeping growth efforts on track as you continue to grow your presence and scale your number of storefronts. However, since cannabis products are governed at a state, local, and federal level, the smallest slip could lead to setbacks for your dispensary business. In this article, ThrivePOP will share some expert tips to help cannabis-related businesses develop and implement successful online marketing campaigns—all while staying compliant.
About the Cannabis Industry
It’s only up from here! Since recreational and medical marijuana became legal in some states, there has been an increasing number of new cannabis retail companies. According to a Grand View Research study, “the U.S. cannabis market size in 2021 was $10.8 billion. From 2022 to 2030 is predicted to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.9% .” The growing market has put cannabis business owners in intense competition. So the big question is, how can YOU stand out with all those cannabis stores available? The answer is simple: adopt smart digital advertising that caters to your specific brand’s requirements.
What Is Cannabis Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing encompasses all efforts made on the internet to communicate with current and prospective clients via digital channels such as search engines, social media, email, and web development.
By utilizing digital marketing, you can provide your customers with a broader range of options for interacting with your brand and cannabis products. Marketing your business online allows you to connect with customers worldwide – creating brand advocates and long-term supporters.
Why Is Digital Marketing Important for Cannabis Dispensaries?
Cannabis marketing is rough. However, you can try out many techniques to expand your organic reach with your target audience with a digital marketing strategy, for instance.
Overall, your company can benefit greatly from implementing a cannabis-oriented digital marketing strategy for the following reasons:
- It enables you to develop a tailored digital marketing strategy.
- It raises brand exposure.
- It enhances engagement.
- It allows for simple and convenient conversions.
What a Digital Marketing Strategy Should Include:
User-Friendly Web Development for Cannabis Dispensaries
Your website is typically one of the very first impressions for your potential customers. It’s also a means of staying in touch with those who have previously interacted with your website or brand with engaging deals, email newsletters, and blogs. It takes about 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website that determines whether they like your site or not, and whether they’ll stay or leave.
If you want your cannabis dispensary to succeed in today’s competitive market, you need to create an attractive and functional website. This includes ensuring it is responsive across all devices, enabling online purchases, and optimizing it for search engines.
Focusing on providing a one-of-a-kind experience tailored to the needs of your audience is a surefire approach to keep them coming back for more of your customer experience and your product. At least, that’s how we do it at ThrivePOP.
Search Engine Optimization for Cannabis Dispensaries
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a marketing strategy that performs relevant optimizations to make your website more appealing on a search query in search engines, such as Google. In today’s competitive world, staying on top of search results are the lifeblood of any business.
The primary goal of SEO is to analyze and weigh various contributing criteria to attain the greatest possible rating on a search engine results page (SERP).
For a marijuana dispensary, an SEO strategy outranks the competition and gains an advantage in the market. These SEO strategies could include local focus keywords on product pages as well as educational content about the effects of different strains of cannabis on blogs.
Content Marketing for Cannabis Dispensaries
High-quality content marketing works hand in hand with SEO. When trying to improve a page’s ranking, one of the most crucial steps is to provide relevant content for the person’s search intent on the other side of the screen. For successful content marketing, think of it as providing an experience similar to purchasing from your on-site store. You can always take it a step further and answer any questions your clients may have. For example, you can make detailed content regarding the best CBD products for beginners, how to select the proper strain, and so on.
The following are some of the best content marketing methods:
- Articles and blog posts
- Email marketing
- Newsletters
- Informative and audiovisual content
Discover the different stages of the buyer’s journey and learn about the different content marketing tactics that can be implemented in our TOFU (top of the funnel), MOFU (middle of the funnel), and BOFU (bottom of the funnel) graphic.
Social Media Marketing for Cannabis Dispensaries
The hardest part of a cannabis marketing strategy is promoting the product on social media. All social media platforms are governed by federal law, and as cannabis is still illegal, advertising opportunities may be challenging. Although that’s not to say it can’t happen.
Instead of implementing paid social advertising, concentrate on organically developing your content. Create a loyal following by educating customers and giving them an intimate peek at your items. Talk to them personally and demonstrate what distinguishes your cannabis brand.
Work With a Top-Rated Cannabis Digital Marketing Company in Michigan
At ThrivePOP, we are a committed group of marketers and designers who are confident in the potential of cannabis-centric advertising campaigns. To help you stand out in the crowded industry, our cannabis marketing agency uses the power of storytelling to help you convey your unique brand identity. We can assist you in achieving your business goals by helping with website development, advertising campaigns, search engine optimization, and beyond. In addition, free marketing analysis is available upon request if you’d want to learn how well your efforts are paying off.