Unlike any other industry, cannabis companies are facing a long list of marketing challenges. Since it is still illegal at the federal level, there are very few marketing options for the cannabis industry. At the same time, non-cannabis companies have a million marketing options available.
Searching for “dispensary near me” in certain places will give you blocked websites in your search engines with the plethora of laws surrounding it. The good news is that these marketing barriers are not impossible to overcome. Cleverness and understanding what the other cannabis dispensaries are doing can make a huge difference in the returns you get from investing in marketing.
The key to effectively marketing your marijuana business is to work around the laws. You can start by creating a shortlist of strategies you would like to implement in your marketing efforts and find a creative way of working it around the laws.
Say, for instance, you want to promote your business through Google Adwords, but because of running a cannabis company, Google won’t allow you. What can you do instead? Below are four strategies that help you come up with advertising and marketing ideas for your business.
Create experiences that are worth sharing
Cannabis products are still subject to a boatload of state and local advertising laws. So what do you do? Well, as you’re not permitted to do much at all, you have to concentrate solely on the experience you ‘re giving to your clients. If you give off a purely transaction-based vibe where people show up, buy stuff, and leave, you may be missing out on an even-needed client retention tactic.
There are a dozen or so dispensaries in almost every corner. If you don’t do something exceptional that your customers would like to share and tell people about, you are losing automatically.
Go for programmatic ads
Your ad networks will not work if you want to deal with cannabis, which means you can’t use Google Adwords and Facebook Ads and several other smaller advertising networks to bring your ads in front of your target market browse the web. So, what can you do about it? Take your business to a different venue.
You can use a variety of cannabis-friendly apps to display your ads by purchasing programmatic ads. You can use the software to pay someone to place offers and post your ads on applicable sites on the internet.
Utilize content created by users and brand ambassadors
Make your content out of other sources instead of trying to push your own. You can’t just mass-produce material and expect people to engage with it. Social networking is about encouraging others to create and share content about your brand or company. A perfect way to do that is to use brand ambassadors who are either loyal, satisfied consumers, or influencers in your target audience who can speak highly of your business by producing user-generated content. This content can come in any format as long as it is creative, appealing, and relevant to your brand. This approach also makes it much easier for customers to publish user-generated material.
Another thing you can do is to try searching “dispensary near me” in your search engine and check how cannabis-related companies advertised their business. You can also try visiting sites like Solace Meds and learn how this recreational and medical dispensary successfully executed their tactics to strive towards excellence.
