Cannabis Marketing Tricks That Are Working Going Into 2019

Cannabis Marketing Tricks That Are Working Going Into 2019

When you’re dealing with a substance that isn’t quite legal all across the board, marketing challenges abound. Many cannabis brands have suffered the ill-fated reality of having their social media accounts shut down, after gathering hundreds of thousands of followers.

What’s more, you can’t advertise using billboards (in most places), nor can you advertise your product or service on television or on the radio. Seeing that cannabis is still labeled a Schedule I substance, there is still a lot of red tape for marijuana related brands to get their message out to would-be consumers.

Nonetheless, Social Media seems to still be the best way for brands to reach consumers irrespective of the potential risk of having their accounts closed down. Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram does permit cannabis-related content within their feeds, however the main message needs to revolve around education. Anything else would place your accounts at risk of being banned.

This includes;

Placing a price on a picture
Speaking about a Service you are offering
Using Boosted Ads (at all)
Adding your address and/or phone number on your page
And much more

Brands have to walk a thin line where education is their primary focus. This means that the primal focus of your content on these feeds need to add educational value to the user. However, this still doesn’t mean that you are safe from expulsion.

What should Cannabis Brands Focus on?

Right now, the best way to ensure that you keep your followers is to get them into your email lists. This is the one domain where you have control and where you won’t fear losing all the hard work and money you put into your marketing campaigns.

Getting people’s emails is a tad bit harder than you would think, however it’s not impossible either. Providing people with incentives can help this process along. Things like Ebooks, discount coupons, competitions and the likes can all be leverage to get people to give up their coveted email.

The other trick would be to find cannabis-friendly social media platforms to build your presence on. There are a few options however they are nothing compared to the size of Instagram and Facebook. Platforms such as MassRoots, WeedLife and Duby are all options you should consider.

While they aren’t as robust as Facebook, they do provide a hyper-targeted niche of people that will have the ability to receive notifications on their mobile devices. As a marketer, I would spend some time on building a brand presence, but not invest too much time or money in the matter. Slow organic growth is the best approach for these social media platforms.

Still, it’s better than nothing. At least you won’t fear having your accounts closed because you’re promoting cannabis related content.

If I can’t “Sell”, how do I sell?

Understanding that you can’t promote your business on the major social media platforms or use Google Adwords, how do you sell your product or service?

There’s a number of ways you can go about this.

Find a Niche Influencer to Repost and Promote your brand

The first and probably easiest way to go about this is to let other people do the heavy lifting. There are plenty of users on both Instagram and Facebook that have hundreds of thousands of followers in your area. The trick is to track them down and approach them with a marketing deal.

They promote your content for X amount of money per post/week/month. If the influencer physically lives in your geographical location, then let them come make purchases in your store, tag your accounts and review your products on your behalf. Since they aren’t selling your product, the odds of them having their accounts closed is much lower than yours.

Build that Email list (and a SMS list too)

Next, you’ll want to leverage free bribe gifts to get people to sign up to your email/SMS database. Once they have willingly given you their email, you can market to them repeatedly. This means that every time you have an offer, you can send out one mass text to every subscriber and they will know what’s going on. This is the most secure way to ensure that your hard work won’t be erased by the social media overlords.

Let your customers market for you

Another amazing trick is to provide discounts for people when they repost their purchases on Social Media on your behalf. The way this works is that you could offer 5% off their total purchase if they take a picture of them buying from you (physically in the store) and then tagging your brand in the picture. This way, they let all their followers know where they get their weed. Think of the discount just as you spending ad dollars, but cheaper.

Marketing for cannabis brands will get easier as legislation around the plant becomes friendlier, in the meantime these tips should help you out.

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