What Can we Learn from the Marijuana Industry’s Digital Marketing – a Discussion
Across Canada and the US, local and federal regulations are challenging the developing marijuana industry. The challenges of digital marketing among cannabis and marijuana companies provides much to learn from for other small businesses.
In the accepted national marketplace, marijuana companies are a new category. As one of the fastest growing in Canada, building a marijuana start-up might seem like a very lucrative idea. No doubt, for some, it will be. That said, for companies seeking to use search engine optimization (SEO), general digital marketing strategies, or pay-per-click marketing are in for a rude awakening.
None of the larger advertising platforms sell marketing space to marijuana companies leaving sites like Facebook and methods like AdWords off the docket. This may change after marijuana is legalized federally however for the time being, there’s no movement in these marketing hubs. Thus, that means for any dispensary or cannabis brands to advertise and find consumers, they need to get creative.
The marijuana and cannabis brands that are succeeding in the marketplace are doing so by investing in the right place. For some companies, they have turned towards influencers to assist in marketing. Though this may provide an initial pop in sales however, influencer marketing only goes so far in the cannabis industry. There is much more investment happening in content marketing strategies, including building news-driven or informative blogs and mobile-friendly text-based content to help with organic search engine ranking. By mapping out a content marketing plan over a long-term period, many companies have found and grown their audiences ten-fold. For small businesses, content marketing serves an immense purpose in building a following and is a necessary part of the online brand development process.
In addition to the more mainstream ways that cannabis brands are building an audience, another strategy being employed by marketing teams is referral cods and multi-level marketing-esque strategies. By encouraging consumers to sign up their friends and get their friends to buy in exchange for discounts, cannabis brands have seen some very fast growth. For small businesses who are seeking to build an audience fast, sweetening purchases with coupon codes and promotions to be passed between customers and friends is a welcome strategy. There also exists the potential to engage in partnerships with other companies to potentially sweeten the deal even further with bonuses. This approach is all about getting the word out, via word-of-mouth and not having to spend big bucks in advertising to do so.
Due to the nature of the product being sold, the marijuana industry’s biggest players are those who are dominating in online reviews. Cannabis review websites are huge online, showing ratings for dispensaries, strains, and specific products. Seeing the experience of other consumers, and what worked and what didn’t work for them, has been shown to be very influential in the purchasing process for new customers. Needless to say, every small business should seek to build a solid collection of online reviews via online platforms, addressing complaints in a timely manner and encouraging customers who have had a positive experience to leave a review.
As some digital marketing strategies are banned, other opportunities have come to the forefront for those in cannabis and cannabis-related companies. For any entrepreneur, start-up, or small business in Canada, this shows that it’s possible to find creative ways to market that do not involve having a $30,000 marketing budget. As this industry is getting ready to explode with legalization, it will be interesting to note the marketing challenges that may lay around the corner.
