Category Archives: Cannabis Marketing

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.

Obstacles Advertising Cannabis 2

Obstacles Advertising Cannabis

Cannabis Marketing, History, Trends,

All industries have their lists of challenges and they can come in various ways. However, as far as the cannabis industry is concerned, its challenges can sometimes be a little too much. These challenges tend to come in areas related to advertising, especially raising awareness and we will be considering them in detail under this post. The discussion will try to cover all the manners that these advertising challenges tend to appear.

A highly regulated industry

To start with, the cannabis industry is a highly regulated one. That means to successfully establish a brand under the industry, a proper understanding of local and state laws is needed to stay out of trouble. The problem here is not these many local and state laws but something disadvantages that happens as a consequence of it. After all, the marijuana industry is not the only highly regulated industry around. The pharmaceutical, finance, insurance, gambling, and many more industries suffer the same fate.

The only major issue here is that the cannabis industry is still different from the ones above as it’s still illegal at the federal level. As such, the industry has to constantly battle marketing problems from the black market.

Advertising platforms have a culture of rejecting cannabis ads

For those actively immersed in the industry, this probably wouldn’t come as a shock. For those who are not aware, then note now that most of the big advertising platforms hardly accept marijuana ads. As much as counterintuitive this might be to the usual multi-channel approach of marketing it’s just the bitter reality.

While in the United States, some states such as California, Arizona, Washington among more have legalized marijuana in some form, this unfriendly attitude by the big advertising platforms is a huge challenge to the proper marketing of cannabis. As a matter of fact, with the changing political realities, Google, Facebook, Instagram and others have all resolved not to let cannabis brands run paid ads on their respective platforms for the time being.

Instagram and Facebook are shutting down cannabis accounts

The difficulty would have even a lot more bearable if it was just limited to banning paid ads. Sadly, it gets even uglier with Facebook and Instagram. These big tech giants of our time have a bad reputation of taking down accounts related to cannabis. This inability for cannabis brands to have an unchallenged presence in the platforms of these big tech giants is a big marketing challenge for the marijuana industry.

Black market peculiarities

As we have stated earlier, legit cannabis brands are forced to compete against black-market sellers. While the law-abiding brands tend to follow the rules related to marketing that seriously hinder their ability to promote their products and services the way they want, black-market competitors don’t follow these rules, putting the legit brands at a disadvantage.

In conclusion, these challenges are not insurmountable as there are strategies around to overcome them. Here at 420 Web Pros we are particularly dedicated towards this mission and are dedicated to being reliable and efficient when it comes to working around the various challenges that plague the marketing of cannabis.

Crucial Tips for Cannabis Networking / Trade Show Events 3

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.

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.