Category Archives: Advice & Tips

Bad Marketing Stress

Why Is Marketing Without a Website a Bad Idea?

Advice & Tips, Cannabis Marketing, Social Media, Website Design

Today, many business owners assume that they can advertise their products or services without a website. This assumption could be because they feel their business is too small or too new to have a website. Or perhaps they think a website could be replaced with social media. However, this is a bad idea that could hamper every action they are taking to improve their businesses.

So, if you are thinking you don’t need a website for marketing your business, here are some reasons that will let you know that it is a bad idea:

  • Inability to reach wider audiences

Without mincing words, your website provides you with the biggest and best opportunity to reach wider audiences. It allows you to educate the visitors about the services or products you are capable of offering. So, when you don’t have a website, you are already missing out on the opportunity to reach a good portion of your audience.

  • Social media platforms are not your friends

Although every business must take advantage of the power of social media marketing, social media platforms are not particularly your friends. These platforms are only concerned about how they can draw more audiences and get more money. Hence, they can change their rules anytime to favor them, even if such rules disrupt your business. In the past, we have witnessed how Facebook, Instagram, etc. altered their rules without considering their effects on businesses. Sometimes, they may even ban certain business profiles temporarily or permanently.

So, if you are only relying on social media without having a website, you are doing yourself lots of disservices.

  • Social media platforms can have issues

This is another important point for those depending on social media platforms to market their businesses. Some years ago, if people were told that Vine or MySpace would disappear, they would probably disagree. But these social media channels disappeared some years ago. So, businesses that relied on Vine or MySpace for their marketing would probably need to lose some audiences after the unfortunate event happened.

Even Instagram, Facebook, and other topmost social media platforms have experienced glitches in the past. Unluckily, no one could do anything throughout the blackouts of these social media channels. But if you own a website, you can continue promoting your business regardless of what happens to any social media platform.

  • Poor customer relationships

With the aid of your website, you can create a solid and reliable relationship with your customers. Whether you want to get their email addresses for more communications or just give them updates about your company, your website enables you to relate with your customers effectively.

However, if you don’t have a website, you will have to rely on third parties for communicating with your audience. This can lead to poor customer relationships as the communication is not fully under your control.

  • Your data is in the hand of another party

When you are using social media platforms and other channels for interacting with your audiences, you don’t own the data of your consumers. Due to security and privacy settings, you may not have access to the locations, email addresses, and other data of your audiences. Nonetheless, if you own a website, Google Analytics and other related tools can be utilized to get important information about the audience.

Considering the issues associated with not owning a website, you will agree that every business needs to get a website for promoting its services and products.

How to Market Cannabis Where Your Audiences Socialize 1

How to Market Cannabis Where Your Audiences Socialize

Advice & Tips, Cannabis Marketing,

When it comes to marketing your product effectively and boosting your brand equity, you must have a good knowledge of your target audience. Of course, having this knowledge is a journey. As noted by Nic Shafer of Precision Extraction Solutions, this journey should start with ensuring that you meet your audiences where they normally socialize.

Get started with extensive research

Don’t rush into implement any type of marketing technique. You should first take the time to learn about your audience so that you can have a good understanding of what they need. Unfortunately, marketing budgets usually restrict businesses. Resultantly, they will not be able to use every possible marketing platform at once.

To deal with this challenge, it is paramount to understand the particular channel where your would-be customers socialize. Also, you must understand the things that are important to them when buying a product or service. A good understanding of your target audiences will go a long way in helping you to know the best marketing platform you have to use.

A two-pronged approach is required to know where your customers spend most of their time. This approach needs quantitative research that evaluates the existing data. Afterward, you will use qualitative research through a direct conversation with your existing customers. For qualitative research, surveys, focus group discussions, and questionnaires have been recommended by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Identify sub-channels

Through the research, you will be able to identify sub-channels. This ensures that you don’t have to deal with the marketing noise and, thus, focus on what you need. These sub-channels can be YouTube Channels, niche social media groups, and so on.

Don’t use all platforms for your marketing strategy. Just focus on the particular ones that your audiences often use.

After establishing a relationship with your customers, it is possible to diversify your marketing strategy confidently. In the long run, this will be beneficial to your business. In fact, it can be the single most important factor that will take your cannabis business to the next level.

In addition, you should take advantage of consumer demographics and psychographics to find the best social platforms and marketing techniques for your business. Also, you need to get more information from your existing clients. The information can be extrapolated to cater to the needs of your prospective clients.

Change is imminent

Marketing channels and tactics change from time to time. Therefore, don’t be rigid in your marketing approach. The strategies and platforms that worked some months or years ago may no longer be effective today.

Be always ready to change your cannabis marketing strategies. However, before making any change, learn about your customers and readjust your marketing strategies to suit their needs and preferences.

In conclusion, cannabis marketing is as dynamic as the marketing of most other businesses. You must meet your customers where they usually socialize. So, you must continue to update your knowledge, learn more about your target audiences, and tweak your marketing channels and tactics as the market demands.

Crucial Tips for Cannabis Networking / Trade Show Events 2

Crucial Tips for Cannabis Networking / Trade Show Events

Advice & Tips, Cannabis Marketing, Events, ,

How to Prepare for Your First Cannabis Trade Show.

The global pandemic has put a halt to in-person trade-shows, we figured it was the perfect time to spend the time planning & preparing for when we’re all able to meet again!  Cannabis trade shows and conferences are the perfect avenues for cannabis entrepreneurs to learn about the trajectory of the industry. Apart from that, you meet your peers and establish networking and interaction with other business professionals from all walks of life.

When it comes to attending your first trade show where you meet hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of attendees, you shouldn’t participate in such events unprepared. A game plan should be an essential tool in your toolkit.

No matter the level of your cannabis business in terms of growth trajectory, taking your time to craft and execute a solid game plan is crucial. This is because it’s the only thing that will make you leave such business conferences with new leads, new ideas, and promising business partner potentials. And of course, you’ll stand a chance of getting a better sense of the entire cannabis / CBD industry ecosystem.

So, we’ll be revealing a few tips to help you prepare for your first cannabis trade show or conference. Let’s get started:

Ask Yourself: Is the Trade Show / Networking Event Worth your Time and Investment?

Nowadays, there are lots of cannabis trade shows, exhibitions, and conferences. And of course, they are popping up like well. However, you need to know that there isn’t any form of equality in all trade shows. Some conferences will provide you with the appropriate planning and resources to ensure a worthwhile event while others lack the proper plans and resources. Ensure that you are investing your time, money, and resources on a trade show that aligns with your company’s mission, vision, and goals perfectly.

Beyond the full range of audiences, you should seek to attend trade shows that specifically address your area of interest in the industry. If you run an edible-based company, you should attend trade shows that speak values to your segment, etc.

Be a Thought Leader

Once you have successfully concluded on the specific trade show you’ll like to invest your money, time, and resources into, the next step is to put adequate measures in place to ensure that you’re getting the most bang for your buck. Most of the big conferences do not only have an expo floor, but they also feature educational tracks. If you are an expert in your field, you should be a thought leader in speaking sessions. Speaking sessions are great opportunities to shine and share your knowledge with other professionals in the industry.

Speaking at conferences doesn’t come easy. You’ll have to plan ahead as most of the conferences open request for abstracts from interested speakers at least six months before the event. Once you have been selected as one of the speakers, you shouldn’t forget that your primary purpose is to dish out knowledge-not to sell. Do not be extremely promotional or commercial in your presentation. Provide real value. This will make people want to seek you and learn more from you. Get a good night’s sleep, and do not party excessively a night before the scheduled event.

There you have it! We know that’s only two tips, but perhaps the two most important tips to prepare for your first marijuana trade show. Other exciting tips include creating branded marketing collateral, share your business cards with website, staple received business cards to a notebook page and make a note about the interaction, and many more. With the right strategy, you’ll never be anxious about trade shows anymore. You’ll easily justify your ROI whenever you attend.

Cannabis & Video Games: Is CBD the new gamer's companion? 3

Cannabis & Video Games: Is CBD the new gamer’s companion?

CBD, Advice & Tips, Gaming, Trends, , , , ,

The existing connection between cannabis and its influence on your video gaming experience dates back to several decades as many video gamers have subscribed to the fact that marijuana has the potential effect to accentuate their entire gaming experience. Imagine a scenario where you are “high” as a result of marijuana intake, where you gravitate through the enormous Breath of the Wild world. In this case, it seems as if you are the real one launching attacks against the evil enemies in the Hyrule Land, sounds great?

Realistically, there is a minute supporting evidence from the science behind the notion that cannabis has the potentials to enhance the video gaming experience of cannabis users. Truly, video games help to enhance hand-eye coordination. And weed seems to provide antioxidants as well as anti-inflammatory benefits.

From the research studies conducted by the Groningen Mental Enhancement Department of the Netherlands on the effect or impact of weed and video games in the brains of patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, it was discovered there was a 43% increase in memory retention specifically in patients who consumed weed.

Could cannabis influence a better gaming experience? Can video gamers who consumes cannabis record a significant increase in their memory retention? Ride on

Could CBD Take the Place of THC as the Best Friend of Video Gamers?

When it comes to the best of video games, it comes down to the ones that drive your emotions into the world of fantasy. And of course, you won’t realize that you spend a considerable number of hours battling and fighting with computer programmed enemies. In order to succeed in this scenario, you need untapped concentration, rapid reflexes, and excellent situational awareness. Of course, your primary goal is to conquer these computer-generated enemies. However, after spending a significant number of hours battling with these games, some of these traits tend to dissipate and poses negative impacts on your overall performances.

Unlike THC, CBD is the most abundant non-intoxicating compound present in the cannabis sativa plant. Once CBD is consumed, it establishes a connection or linkage with the endocannabinoid system. Thus, stimulating the brain receptors.

How Does CBD Influence Your Gaming Experience?

Having the best of hand-eye coordination in the world alongside rapid reflexes is commendable, but if you cannot remain calm during the game, then all these do not count. Anyone that has played video games has run into a series of battles with computer-generated enemies at one point or another. In some scenarios, you’ll nurture the feelings to fling your controller over the screen.

CBD, as a mood regulator, helps you keep calm and prevent your emotions from outsmarting your gaming performance. In cases where your brain becomes overstimulated, CBD is alerted to the situation and sends signals to the endocannabinoid system to relax and calm down your cells.

CBD is a mood regulator that keeps your nerves calm. It is believed that once your body is relaxed, you’ll be more prepared to take the right steps that will favor you and your team.

There you have it! Perhaps the potential influence of CBD on the video gaming experience. With the few illustrations we’ve made, we believe gamers can now turn to CBD to improve their cognitive responses. This will help them win, win, and win their contenders as a gamer, thus making their gaming experience more pleasurable.

5 Main Reasons Why Email Marketing Is Important 4

5 Main Reasons Why Email Marketing Is Important

Cannabis Marketing, Advice & Tips

According to Statista, there are over 3.9 billion email users around the world with a projection of about 4.3 billion email users in 2023. Furthermore, the number of emails sent and received daily in 2019 was estimated to be 293.6 billion. These figures highlight that lots of people utilize emails regularly; hence, email marketing offers businesses an effective way to reach their customers.

If you are still pondering why email marketing is important for your business, here are some crucial reasons to consider:

  1. It can be customized and personalized

Over the years, personalization has become one of the major ways through which businesses can convert prospects to buying customers. By customizing the message you are sending to your customers, it helps build relationships and connections. Luckily, email marketing is one of the most exceptional ways of personalizing your messages for clients. You can add their names, segment topics to suit some particular customers and lots more. In 2017, Yes Lifecycle Marketing noted that personalized emails produce 50% higher open rates compared to the average email open rate of around 20.81%.

 

  1. It offers a seamless method to contact mobile customers

One of the biggest advantages of email marketing is that receivers can access the content via their mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. In other words, the receivers don’t have to use their computers or any other complex gadgets before getting the messages. Also, as long as the consumers have internet connections, they don’t have to spend any extra money to check their mails. Since the number of mobile users around the world is increasing, you rest assured that the number of mobile consumers that gain access to email will only continue to go up.

 

  1. It can be measured

When it comes to determining the success of the marketing strategy for your cannabis company, measurability is critical. Fortunately, email marketing can be measured. That is, email marketing gives you all the essential indices you need to monitor your marketing campaign. A few of the crucial metrics you can access through email marketing include:

  • Open rates
  • Delivery reports
  • Click rates
  • Click percentage
  • Emails opened based on browser, device or geography
  1. It allows automation

This is particularly important for small businesses that cannot dedicate different employees to handle email marketing. Automation can help you determine the length and complexity of your emails. Besides, you can set your email marketing so that some actions can be taken automatically in some instances without your manual input. GetResponse, MailChimp, Campaign Monitor and other software offer tons of automation options for email marketing.

 

  1. It motivates consumers to take action

Of course, the main essence of marketing is to make your consumers take action. Whether you want them to contact you, sign up, check out your offers, book or buy your products or services, or take another action, email marketing makes it possible. This marketing strategy has proven to be an exceptional method to inspire action.

Apart from the 5 main reasons mentioned above, email marketing is also important because it is affordable, versatile and easy to use, and capable of helping your business to build credibility. So, if you are not taking advantage of email marketing for your cannabis business, you are doing yourself lots of disservices. Take action now by adding email marketing to your marketing strategy.

Why Product Packaging Matters 5

Why Product Packaging Matters

Advice & Tips, Cannabis Marketing, Product Packaging,

Without a doubt, product packaging is one of the most vital ways to ensure that a product is appealing to various consumers. This applies to all products, and cannabis products are no exception. Unfortunately, many cannabis companies do not realize the absolute importance of product packaging.

If you are still uncertain about whether you should give your product top-notch packaging or not, here are some of the reasons why product packaging matters:

  • It makes your product stand on the retail shelf

Your product will be sitting beside other cannabis products, so how will it be different from others? Of course, product packaging is the single most important factor that will make it catch the attention of potential buyers. In fact, the packaging will make your product stand out on the shelf.

Generally, there are tons of things you can do with your product packaging. You can allow it to come in a particular container or shape that others do not usually have. Or ensure that it has a design that will make look different from others in an awesome way. Whatever packaging you want to use for your product, make sure that it will not make the product look odd in a way that will discourage the retailers from stocking it.

  • It gives important information about your products

If you are new to the cannabis market, it is likely that most consumers do not know anything about the products that you are selling. Therefore, you need to provide certain vital information about your brand as well as the product itself. Luckily, you can take advantage of product packaging to give various pieces of information about the products.

The set of information that can be on the product packaging includes the name of your brand, product type, net weight, batch numbers, ingredients, and warnings. It is worthwhile to note that your location may determine the information that you can add to the product package. Whatever the case may be, product packaging will still enable you to provide useful info about your cannabis product.

  • It enhances the experience of the customers

As a canna-brand, your concern should not just be about selling your product to customers. You need to associate a positive experience with using your cannabis product so that the consumers can always come back to buy from you. The experience that consumers will get from unboxing a beautifully wrapped box of cannabis products will be different from one that is shabbily and unattractively shaped. So, consider using your product packaging to offer buyers a one-of-a-kind experience that will make them become your loyal consumers.

All these benefits of product packaging will draw more consumers to your cannabis product as they will be willing to have a taste of what you are offering. This, in turn, will lead to improved sales for your business, and if your product is good, the consumers may continue buying your product for a long time.

Branding Cannabis 6

Branding Cannabis

Advice & Tips, Cannabis Marketing, Trends, , ,

Over the past few years, the Cannabis industry has witnessed lots of deciding moments and this is mostly due to the changes in all the regulations and laws on cannabis in a lot of countries. Some of these countries legalized it totally while some just made the already existing regulations concerning Cannabis usage more liberal. Consequent to these new laws and regulations, the Cannabis market has continued to become busier by the day, which means it is bound to be one of the biggest ministries in years to come. Besides, this means more efforts will be dedicated to Cannabis marketing and branding than before. However, the industry is still in early development, so certain challenges are inevitable.

Strategies and tactics

Strategies are very important in the Cannabis industry but not easy to get. A good amount of companies in the industry have exhausted a lot of money on marketing, but most of the effort has resulted in nothing but failure. What this indicates is that Cannabis branding demands beyond being different. It comes with certain challenges that are not present in other industries. Brand building requires consistency.

The successful Cannabis brands are the ones that are clear about their audience and they deliver to them accordingly. For instance, the brands make use of a sophisticated luxury concept and leverage on their quality product and image. On the other hand, others focus more or an artisan narrative by making use of experiences and tours in their dispensaries.

The importance of partnerships and influencers in the overall strategy can also not be overemphasized. By running influencer marketing campaigns through certain platforms, Cannabis companies can easily get around stringent advertising regulations of social media. In like manner, some brands have been partnering successfully with popular personalities to achieve the same result.

Establishing your brand in the marketplace

It is good to consider how to present your brand to the public. You must be conscious of your consumers and their view about your brand but this is a thing quite hard to achieve in the Cannabis industry. There are lots of misconceptions about the industry and its products so it is often quite tough for a cannabis brand to market itself to the public. Due to the fact that Cannabis is not legal in all places and is illegal by federal law, promoting it is sometimes still frowned upon.

For example, some of the most popular promoting channels such as Facebook and Google prohibit advertising services or products connected to the Cannabis industry. Thus, you don’t have the privilege of using the regular channels that you would if you were selling a different product or service. Therefore, you must contemplate the way to enter the market as well as the effective ways to promote your products or services within the existing restrictions.

The important thing to note here is that there are still certain ways through which your brand can be introduced and marketed to people. The channels to use include publications, websites that belong to the Cannabis industry as well as events, trade shows and social media pages of the industry.

What to look for in a web design company? 7

What to look for in a web design company?

Advice & Tips, ,

A lot of businesses today try to have a website that they use for the purpose of marketing their brands. This is a phenomenon that cuts through all industries, and the cannabis sector is not left out. The benefits are enormous as it makes your brand more visible and approachable to a wider range of audience. However, enjoying these perks will only be possible when the website is one of great quality and this is why you have to be very careful before selecting a web designer for the project.

Thus, below are some of the things to consider when choosing a web designer for your cannabis business.

Niche-specific skills

Web designers exist in plenitude these days. In fact, you won’t have to stress yourself before seeing one around you. However, you have to understand that the cannabis industry is a very distinct one which means you cannot just apply any web development strategy or technique and expect to see desired results. Due to this, it is advisable that you go for a cannabis-specific designer that properly understands both the ins and outs of the cannabis industry.

Experience working with cannabis marketing

Having the skills is not enough, it is also important for you to consider the amount of experience your website designer has with marketing in the cannabis industry. Just as with skills, marketing in the cannabis sector is totally different from what obtains in other industries. For example, there are lots of online marketing platforms that prohibit cannabis. A well-skilled website developer with sufficient experience will know how to work around this kind of situation. He will also be well acquainted with all the cannabis marketing techniques and schemes available.

Reviews

Before you go ahead and hand over the job to any web development agency or professional, you should do well to know their track record with clients. This is easy to determine by checking out their reviews. If the agency has a generally positive list of reviews, then it means you are likely to be delivered a quality job.

On the other hand, where the reviews are predominantly negative, it is advisable to stay off such a professional, agency or company. Similarly, you should try to ascertain the customer’s retention rate of such agency or professional. Thus, even if the reviews are generally positive but they are terrible at retaining clients, then you might have to think twice before hiring such a web development company.

Long term establishment

When you are choosing a web developer for your cannabis business, try to go for a professional or agency with long term establishment. In other words, choose one that will still be around for a reasonable amount of years in case you need them later. This has to be said because lots of people are fond of giving the job to people who offer cheap services or a friend or family member doing the job as a side gig and might not be around later on if there is any problem at some point.

We put together these few pieces of advice to hopefully guide you in your selection for your next web design partner. Please email us hello@420webpros.com if you’re interested in getting the conversation started about your next project!

Your Brand's Social Media Presence Is Important, here's why. 8

Your Brand’s Social Media Presence Is Important, here’s why.

Advice & Tips, Social Media, , , , ,

We are in the age of the internet. Almost everything today can be carried out through the machinery of the internet and one of the key features of the internet is the existence of social media. A lot of brands, companies and businesses continue to jump on the train of using social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. They are using these platforms to further their goals and objectives, and the results have been positive for most. Of course, the cannabis industry is not left out. Many cannabis brands have a huge social media presence that they utilize to market their brands.

As a result of this, we have decided to talk about the importance of social media presence for your canna-brand.

To understand the behavior of your customers

Part of the importance of having a huge social media presence as a canna-brand is that it lets you understand the behavior of your customers. Social media serves as a channel through which you can access customers directly by connecting to them. As you do so, you get to know more about them and their behavior. This is especially true for certain social media platforms that allow you to import the contacts of your customers and maintain regular communication with them. Through this avenue, you can easily inform them about current deals, promotions among many other things.

To get feedback

As a person or agency involved in the cannabis business, everything should not be limited to just promoting your brand, especially on social media. One positive for you if you have social media presence is that you can easily get feedback from your clients. The feedback you get will help shape the decisions you make and directions you tread as you continue with your brand business.

To provide topnotch customer support

Having a good social media presence is a form of customer support for your cannabiz. If you can properly and politely attend to your customers’ needs, answer their questions and listen to their opinions about your brand through your social media platforms, then you have done a significant part of what customer care entails. You engage them, respond to their inquiries and show them that you genuinely care. I mean, isn’t that the essence of receiving feedback in the first place. Thus, when you have a social media presence, you can easily show your clients that you are taking steps to correct the negative things they dislike and complain about your brand.

To ensure brand humanization

Humanising your brand can be quite useful for boosting sales and increasing marketability. There is just this special feeling that customers have when they know that the people attending to them are real. When you humanize your brand, you are bound to get more engagements. One of the major platforms through which this brand humanization can be achieved is through social media. Through the instrumentality of social media, some notable ways to put this into place include holding contests, connecting with your followers, giving cannabis deals, making surveys and a host of others.

With the points listed, it is obvious that any business that is not taking advantage of social media is doing itself a huge disservice. We can help change that here at 420 Web Pros. Contact us to get started.

Cannabis Friendly Credit Card Processors - Square Now Allowing CBD Transactions 9

Cannabis Friendly Credit Card Processors – Square Now Allowing CBD Transactions

Advice & Tips, CBD, Credit Card Processors, , ,

Accessing basic financial services has been a mirage for most corporations and agencies involved in the cannabis business. This is particularly more painful considering the fact that these financial services are easily available to businesses and brands in other industries and sectors. This challenge extends over to even those that sell products that consist of CBD derived from hemp that has already been legalized in the States through the Farm Bill. Lack of access to these basic financial services also includes the inability to have bank accounts and process the credit cards of their customers.

Square’s new initiative

The latter problem, which relates to the inability of cannabis brands and product sellers to process the credit cards of their clients, now seems to be an issue to be forgotten. This is because of the new initiative of the payment processing service called Square. Due to Square’s quietly launched pilot program, you can now easily find a solution to the problem. According to the spokesperson for the processing service, Square is presently involved in overseeing an invite-only beta for certain CBD products.

This initiative is quite an interesting one, especially when you consider the fact that it is coming after several years of the company’s refusal to work with companies in the CBD industry. Notably, the company was asked about the rationale behind the launch of the program. The spokesperson of Square responded that the company watches the changing public policies and, as such, tries to create fresh opportunities for customers.

The important thing here is that this secretly launched program by Square is coming at just the right time for all CBD brands and businesses. The entry of Square into the CBD terrain can even be described as a kind of federal legislation that guarantees better and wider access to basic financial services for cannabis businesses in gaining ground in Congress.

Reactions and responses

This initiative by Square has received lots of favorable reactions from everyone in the CBD industry. For instance, Morgan Fox, the director for media relations at the National Cannabis Industry Association, has commended the step taken by the payment processing service. According to him, the initiative is a forward-thinking one that is launched by one of the forward-thinking agencies. These agencies are doing well to fill the gap created by all the outdated federal policies on banking.

Furthermore, he was of the opinion that they are also helping to properly address the challenges posed by the lack of basic financial services in the cannabis sector. In addition, he stated that lawmakers should capitalize on this initiative by taking heed and opening the space to every financial institution.

This initiative by Square is one that promises to be the start of many more to come. It is only expected that a lot of other payment processing services will follow suit by opening more and better opportunities for the processing of CBD transactions. Therefore, the future is truly promising for this sector.