Welcome to the modern Digital Era, in which technology, the Internet and digital marketing strategies reign supreme.
Businesses of all industries have learned to take advantage of this ever-expanding online consumer base.
When it comes to your cannabis business there's no exception.
Still, you have to work hard to stay ahead of any local and national competitors in the cannabis industry.
After all, consider the following statistic regarding the sale of cannabis throughout the world.
It indicates that in the year 2016 alone, the industry generated over $14 billion in revenue and is expected to reach $30 billion by 2025.
Perhaps you're thinking about hiring a cannabis digital marketing agency.
If that's the case, you're in luck.
The good news is that you've come to the right place by reading this article.
Detailed below are the top five online CBD marketing strategies for you to incorporate.
If you want a clear path to connecting with potential consumers online, keep reading to make the most of your business's investments.
1. Digital Marketing Starts with a Well-Developed Website
For the most part, all digital marketing strategies end up directing online traffic to a company or brand website.
For that reason, it's in your best interest to invest in website design services that have a proven track record of creating websites that are
- search engine friendly (so you can keep Google and the other search engines happy),
- user-friendly (to keep your website traffic happy and excited to stay and read, watch and engage with your website)
- and don't forget mobile-friendly!
Not only should your website attract and engage users with its content.
It needs to be quick to load and easy to navigate.
Designing the information architecture (IA) of your website is essential in this step.
Don't crowd your web pages with a ton of content that is in a font too small or challenging to read, for example.
Smart website design will include principles focused on the best user experience (UX) design.
If you're not familiar with UX Design, here is a definition:
User experience (UX) design is the process design teams use to create products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to users.
Did you know that as of now, more than 30 states throughout the country have legalized the medicinal use of marijuana?
On top of that, ten states allow recreational use.
Including trivia or FAQ's like that could go a long way in engaging online users.
2. Don't Underestimate the Value of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
As your business continues to attract many online users to its website, that website is only going to become more popular.
That's because search engines like Google, Yahoo!, or Bing use algorithms behind the scenes to “rank” websites.
When an online user searches for a certain product or service, they typically use a search engine like Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, etc.
The search terms or search query that someone uses will determine what list of results will be generated.
Your goal as a cannabis business should be to have your website pages show up as high on the search engine results page (SERPs) as possible to relevant search terms.
Being on page one of Google for targeted search terms can have a massive impact on your ability to connect with your target market online.
You can do this in a variety of ways.
The majority of proven SEO practices rely on keywords or phrases that those online users search for.
Incorporate those keywords and phrases into the content of your own website.
SEO has a lot of moving parts, and… it is a moving target too!
So, you'll want to focus on getting the fundamentals down so you can execute or work with an expert in the field to help you execute properly.
Some On Page SEO fundamentals for ranking that you'll want to pay attention to right out of the gate are:
- High Quality Content
- Title Tags
- URL Structure
- Image Alt Text
It's not enough to simply have the word “cannabis” throughout your home page.
Instead, successful on-page SEO revolves around creating useful and engaging content on each one of your website pages, and targeting different strategic keywords for those individual pages.
You want online users to want to read what's on the page AND the search engines need to be able to understand what that page is about, so it can be ranked on the proper, most relevant keyword(s).
Avoid keyword stuffing on your website (putting your target keyword all over the page), search engines are able to pick up on this and you will be penalized not rewarded for trying to game the system.
Remember, even if you have great content, great SEO and you're moving up in the search engines, you still have to pay attention to your site speed and page load times.
These are important ranking factors to pay attention to.
If you're serious about driving targeted online traffic to your business or brand, then you'll want to take the time to research and implement proven SEO CBD marketing strategies to ensure your business's website is reaching a wide online audience.
3. Make Sure to Include Social Media Marketing, Too
Social media networks are, in essence, miniature versions of search engines.
Think about it.
When social media users post hashtags (“#”) of their favorite brands, they're basically focusing in on a keyword they want that post to show up for.
For that reason, don't forget to prioritize social media CBD marketing strategies, too.
This is a great way to connect with online consumers in a place they are already hanging out.
Of course, it's important that you use social media marketing as more than just a place to post about your products.
You'll need to invest time and effort into maintaining genuine connectivity with your followers.
The 80/20 rule comes in handy on social, meaning, you want to post educational, supportive, helpful information 80% of the time and the other 20% you can share product info, promo messages, and other direct call-outs to ‘buy my stuff'.
By keeping your audience's best interests at heart you will always come off as helpful.
As a result, you'll be developing loyalty to your business's brand.
That consumer loyalty, in the long run, is going to be an invaluable asset.
4. Proper CBD Marketing Requires a Unique Brand for Your Cannabis Business
Speaking of branding, take the time to determine what brand personality makes the most sense for your cannabis business.
Is your business more traditional and nostalgic in its tone?
Or is a witty and lighthearted tone more suitable?
Your business's brand will affect things like your logo design and color scheme.
From there, it's essential to keep that branding strategy consistent throughout all marketing avenues (website, social media profiles, online business directories, etc).
For more detailed resources, check out this article on the best cannabis business books on the market.
5. Email Marketing – One of Most Important CBD Marketing Strategies
Finally, remember to include email marketing in your list of most important CBD marketing strategies to implement.
Having an established and loyal list of people to email is a great way to continue to direct traffic to your website and keep in touch with and in front of your customers (remember, there is a lot of competition out there ready to steal your customers from you).
Use email messages to share helpful information and education; you can also provide updates about new sales promotions and discounts.
Doing so will help keep your business's brand top of mind.
Hire a Reliable Cannabis Digital Marketing Agency Today
At this point in the article, you have a thorough understanding of many of today's CBD marketing strategies.
You understand the value of hiring a trustworthy cannabis digital marketing agency.
There's no need to cut corners when it comes to reaching out to potential consumers, after all.
As a responsible business owner, your top priority is the company's bottom line.
You want to ensure that your business is making the most of its investments in marketing strategies.
That's why you'll take the above guidelines seriously.
Still, there are a lot of ins and outs to navigate when it comes to running a successful cannabis business.
It can be in your best interest to work with professionals to optimize your marketing techniques.
In fact, that's where we can come into play.
We prioritize bringing our cannabis business owners the most reliable resources for starting and running their enterprise.
For that reason, we encourage you to reach out to our team here to get the conversation started about how we can help you grow your visibility online for your business.
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Are you ready to take your CBD marketing strategies to the next level?
- Are you struggling to run an effective CBD marketing campaign? Click here to book a complimentary strategy call with a certified digital marketing expert.
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- Something else on your mind? Click here to get in touch with our team.
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