Cannabis Digital Marketing Myths
The cannabis industry is booming but filled with a maze of crazy regulations and laws that businesses must follow. The laws are frequently being updated to enhance legal clarity. However, they still leave businesses and marketers in a dilemma regarding the safest and most legal ways of marketing their products and services. Digital marking is key to cannabis brands, even though how they communicate and reach their clients and prospect differ from every state based on the cannabis state regulations.
Additionally, so many rumors about cannabis digital marketing practices make it even harder for businesses to know which facts are true and which are myths. Every cannabis entrepreneur wants the most optimized results when exploring digital marketing, but one can experience varying experiences and inconsistent marketing practices. One of the leading causes of the failure in digital marketing by cannabis businesses is believing in myths about digital marketing. In this detailed guide, we want to demystify four common digital marketing myths in the cannabis industry.
Top Four Cannabis Digital Marketing Myths
Cannabis email newsletters automatically go to spam.
There are very few cannabis-friendly email marketing platforms; some even flag any email content with words like cannabis or marijuana. When your email content is flagged as spam, it substantially reduces the open rate and negatively affects your email marketing strategy. Other email marketing platforms have stringent rules and threaten businesses with account suspension when they use cannabis marketing content in their emails.
While there are general legal guidelines in every state regarding cannabis marketing content, it’s essential to check the requirements placed by the email marketing platform. Email marketing can be very resourceful to cannabis businesses. Cannabis businesses can avoid flagging their emails by using a creative, educational, and informational approach. Complying with the state cannabis marketing regulations and the requirements of the email marketing platform will protect your emails from spam. Many cannabis businesses are using email marketing platforms without having their accounts suspended.
Social media is the only digital marketing channel for cannabis businesses.
Social media marketing is one of the most effective and affordable digital marketing channels. Unfortunately, most cannabis businesses have been misinformed to believe that social media is the only digital marketing channel which is cannabis friendly. Unfortunately, social media platforms have very strict cannabis marketing and advertising regulations. These platforms strictly prohibit the marketing, sale and promoting consumption of marijuana on their platforms.
Why do cannabis businesses continue using social media marketing with stringent regulations and the possibility of account suspension? Many cannabis entrepreneurs who are using social media marketing have managed to survive by using the following essential resources:
Using age restriction and disclaimer features on their content
Focusing more on organic reach.
Strictly posting educational and informational content on their social media profiles.
Making use of social media platforms to increase customer engagement.
Collaborating with other cannabis education pages to promote their content.
Besides social media, cannabis entrepreneurs can use other digital marketing channels to promote their brands and increase organic reach. Popular digital marketing channels that cannabis businesses can use include blogs, search engine optimization, email marketing and website marketing.
The mainstream social media platforms and Google banned cannabis paid advertising.
The Google advertising policy states advertising recreational drugs are prohibited, and marijuana is included in the list of recreational drugs. Other mainstream social media platforms implement the same policy. While some cannabis businesses have managed to have their ads (educational or informative content) approved by the platforms, it’s still a significant risk for many cannabis-based businesses. Mainstream platforms like Snapchat and LinkedIn have proven to be very resourceful for cannabis businesses because they have more lenient policies.
Apart from that, many popular mainstream cannabis focussed social media platforms exist. They give cannabis businesses a chance to market and advertise their products and services to the expansive online cannabis community. Leafly and Cannasos are among the most popular cannabis social media platforms. These platforms have resources and tools specific to the cannabis business community; hence advertising and marketing on these platforms are very target-market-specific and productive.
You can use paid influencers, partnerships, and testimonials for marketing your cannabis business.
Cannabis businesses can use social media influencers to promote their product through paid partnerships and testimonials. When creating marketing content, it’s essential to adhere to all the cannabis regulations of the state, particularly the cannabis possession and marketing regulations. The marketing strategy can help your brand tap into a new market and build a professional relationship with the influencer and their fan base.
Testimonials are instrumental in brand awareness, especially when interacting with an online community. Thanks to digital channels, there are many cannabis-focused communities where one can find influencers with an impressive following and even interact with various community members. You can implement various creative ways of interacting with online community members without directly marketing your products to them.
As you have read in this article it is not as straightforward as other industries. Operating a cannabis business is extremely difficult, and not having the know-how can really affect your bottom line. Vende POS is made to help its clients run the business they have always wanted. Providing you with all the necessary tools for your business to succeed is our goal. Schedule a demo with us today and see how running your business on the Vende platform can help.