How to Make a Cannabis Marketing Plan

The recent legalization of cannabis use in different countries has led to a trending business market for entrepreneurs. Depending on the laws passed by the country or state, cannabis is now being used for recreational and medical purposes. CBD (cannabidiol), for example, is a new product that is rapidly gaining traction for its popular health benefits and evidence suggests that CBD products help with epilepsy, anxiety, insomnia, alleviating different types of chronic pain, easing symptoms related to cancer, and much more.

There is now a market for growers (suppliers), retailers, dispensaries, medical marijuana physicians, smoking equipment, and more. Once you have decided on your niche market, you need to consider how to make a cannabis marketing plan to let people know how to find your cbd store. Before we talk about marketing strategies that you can use, we need to consider the current restrictions on cannabis marketing.

Cannabis Marketing Restrictions

It is important to remember that cannabis usage was only legalized recently and there are still restrictions on how you can go about marketing your cannabis products. For example, cannabis use has been legalized in the United States but the exact laws differ from state to state. Some states do not have heavy restrictions on advertising cannabis but others do. So, before determining a cannabis marketing plan, you must research to familiarize yourself with the laws governing the sale of cannabis products in the area where you intend to sell them.

If you want to have an online store or dispensary, you may need to consider the restrictions in all the locations or states where you are selling your cannabis products. If you want to market a physical store then you need to consider restrictions for the state where your cannabusiness is based. You need to check which licenses are needed for your niche market, for example, if you want to run an online marijuana dispensary, you need to ensure that your retailers, physicians, and suppliers have the relevant licenses. Even though there are many limitations when marketing your cannabis products, there are sound solutions to develop a cannabis marketing plan.

Marketing a Physical vs an Online Store

Deciding which cannabis marketing plan to use depends on whether you are running a physical cannabis store or an online store. Although the marketing techniques may be similar, it is good to consider the differences too. Physical stores, also known as Brick and mortar stores, rely on cannabis marketing plans that will help customers to find the store. The limitations that you may face surrounds the fact that you still cannot use billboards or methods that other businesses can use to market cannabis products. So what now?

One solution is to register your cannabusiness on Google My Business so customers will see the address and contact information for your physical store in their area when they search for cannabis stores online. It also helps to list your dispensary or store on cannabis directories. With that being said, it is important to know that most successful businesses today have a strong online presence and even if you have a physical store or cannabis dispensary, you should consider having a website or an online store too. In the rest of this article, we will focus on techniques that you can use for your cannabis marketing plan for physical and online stores.

Cannabis Marketing Plan with PPC Ads

PPC (pay-per-click) ads are used to target customers on online platforms in your niche market. You pay a small fee to use this technique on your website but each time someone clicks on the Ad you will make a profit. There are, however, strict rules against cannabis marketing and the key to succeeding with this technique depends on researching specific keywords. You would need to avoid taboo terms to avoid having your ads being disapproved of on Facebook and Google. It may also be best to use a service offering Marijuana PPC advertising to avoid having your ads removed.

SEO for Cannabis Marketing

SEO (Search engine optimization) is one of the best cannabis marketing techniques that you can use to market your cannabusiness online. It refers to the clever techniques you can employ to ensure that your webpage shows up as one of the top webpages to read when a user does an internet search for CBD businesses. Google is one of the best search engines to target.

Having a good ranking depends on factors such as using the correct keywords, having a blog and a CMS (content management system) through a platform like WordPress, and focusing on link building where other websites offer a link that takes them directly to your website or content. For the best results, it may be worth using a cannabis SEO service since they are already familiar with the strategies to use to improve your ranking and they know how to work with the marketing restrictions around cannabis sales.

Social Media Marketing for Cannabis

Almost everyone today has a social media account on one of the biggest social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. So it is a no brainer that showing up on these platforms is a powerful marketing technique for your cannabusiness. The best part is that this is an effective way to market your cannabis products or services to your direct target market.

The more platforms you use, the better. Remember to keep your content fresh though. You don’t want a customer who follows all your accounts to see the same content over and over. It is also important to know the restrictions associated with marketing cannabis on these platforms to avoid having your ads removed or your account closed.

Influencer Marketing

Arguably one of the most powerful marketing techniques to use today. It works by reaching out to people on platforms who have a large number of followers and are related to your niche market somehow. The most targeted platforms for influencer marketing include Instagram and YouTube. You would need to identify people online with many followers who would reach your target market.

You can approach them and negotiate terms, this could include giving them free cannabis products in exchange for making videos or posts that promote your products or make an arrangement where you pay them per post.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing for Cannabis

Let’s not underplay the power of word-of-mouth marketing for your cannabis marketing plan. Even though most of the most effective marketing techniques are web-based, using the power of referrals or suggestions can be just as effective. You can reach out to friends and family to spread the word about your cannabis store. The more people you speak to, the better.

Concluding Aspects

If you want to see success you need to have an effective cannabis marketing plan. More often than not this includes using a variety of marketing approaches like the ones we discussed in this article. You may face many restrictions but be persistent and do your homework as there are ways to work around these. If you are less experienced and are starting up, it may be best to consider using a cannabis marketing service for your cannabis business.