In the burgeoning cannabis industry, it’s essential to build and maintain a strong brand presence that establishes trust with customers. But, many marketers fall into common pitfalls that stifle success in this ever-evolving digital landscape. Whether it’s lack of prioritization of SEO, under-doing product claims or neglecting to keep up with the latest marijuana regulations, avoiding these marketing blunders is critical to a campaign’s success.
To avoid these common pitfalls, marketers should prioritize SEO and focus on value-based branding. Prioritizing SEO can help brands rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), allowing them to capture audiences who are actively looking for information and products. Value-based branding emphasizes the benefits of a product and creates a positive brand image with consumers. It also allows for the development of authentic and relatable content that helps potential customers make more informed buying decisions.
Another tactic that can drive organic traffic to a website and boost brand awareness is video content. Creating informative, eye-catching videos can provide a unique and engaging experience for consumers while remaining within cannabis advertising guidelines. Additionally, cannabis-focused social media platforms allow advertisers to post video content more freely than other channels without fear of being flagged and removed.
Educating the audience is an essential component of any cannabis digital marketing strategy, but it’s even more important in cannabis. Most cannabis-related products are new to the market, meaning that most users have a limited amount of knowledge about what’s available and how it’s used. For this reason, it’s vital for marketers to educate their audiences and generate excitement about their products. This can be done through connected TV private marketplaces (PMPs) that accept cannabis, such as Telaria and FreeWheel, cannabis-friendly podcasts, or digital out-of-home (DOOH) networks like Place Exchange.
In order to grow a cannabis business, marketers must stay up to date with the latest marijuana regulations. This is especially crucial when it comes to advertising, as many of the most popular social media channels have strict advertising guidelines and can remove content that violates them. To ensure compliance, it’s imperative for agencies to work with reputable cannabis-focused SEO and web development firms that have the experience necessary to create compliant and effective campaigns.
Another tactic that can help cannabis businesses reach their target audience is leveraging influencer partnerships. By partnering with well-known and respected influencers, cannabis companies can amplify their message without violating advertising restrictions and limitations. Furthermore, by developing and promoting educational content that provides valuable insights into the cannabis industry, brands can establish themselves as experts in the field while building brand loyalty with their audiences. In addition, using programmatic ads on social media to promote cannabis-related products can be an efficient and cost-effective way to drive awareness and bring users to a website where conversion tracking is possible. However, it’s critical for cannabis marketers to remember that programmatic ads are only effective in the top-of-funnel and should not be relied upon as a primary conversion metric for their digital marketing efforts.