As the cannabis industry continues to grow, more and more entrepreneurs are looking to get into the dispensary business. It can be a lucrative endeavor, but it's important to remember that success doesn't happen overnight. There is a lot of competition in this industry, so you'll need to be creative and strategic when planning and carrying out advertising for your business. In this blog post, we’ll discuss marijuana marketing strategies and how to succeed in the market.
Identify Your Target Market
The first step in marketing your cannabis business is to identify your target market. Are you looking to attract local customers or tourists? What age group do you want to appeal to? Is having a sense of humor going to work well for your dispensary advertising campaign? Once you know who your target market is, it will be easier to advertise to them.
Most successful dispensaries create a couple of personas that match their ideal customer. The personas are a representation of the two major types of customers that visit the dispensary. For example, one persona might be "The Businessman." He's a middle-aged professional who is looking for high-quality cannabis to help him relax after a long day at work.
Another persona could be "The Adventurer," who is younger and looking for new and exciting strains to try. Your advertising efforts should be aimed toward one or more of your buyer personas.
Understand Your Competitors and Industry
Once you have an idea of the people you are going to be marketing to, you'll want to decide exactly how you'll get in front of their eyes. A good way to start learning effective marijuana marketing strategies is by looking at your competition and seeing what they're doing right or wrong.
Do they have a strong social media presence? Are they active in the community? Do they offer discounts or loyalty programs? Do they treat their staff well? What dispensary advertising are they implementing to drive customers to their sites and increase sales? What could they do better? Make notes about your competitors and include their websites in your SEO research.
Create Social Media Posts with Canva
Canva is a graphic design platform that is used to create social media posts to advertise your business. With Canva, you can choose from numerous high-quality templates that are completely customizable for every social media platform. Simply use the drag-and-drop editor and you’ll have access to an extensive range of photos, videos, graphics, audio, shapes, fonts, and even more digital content to create your social media posts. Once you’ve turned your imagination into a design, just click the “share” button to post your dispensary advertising project to social media platforms.
Create a Dispensary Content Calendar
A content calendar is a valuable tool for marijuana marketing strategies as it helps you keep a record of what content you should be sharing. In addition, calendars are easy to use and they show you what you need to write about. A content calendar can be created in Google Sheets and it will make planning, organizing, and forecasting your content more straightforward. The following are some examples of what should be included in your marketing calendar:
- Titles for your content: Determining titles for your content ahead of time will help you align your writing efforts with your audience. When you match ideas with your intended market, you’re more likely to deliver excellent content.
- Content type: Whether it’s an email, blog, or some other type of content, it should be marked on your calendar to ensure that you’re providing a combination of content instead of repeating similar types of content.
- The due date for content: The stages that each piece of content goes through such as creating, sharing, editing, and publishing should be separated. This will reduce the chance of mistakes and help prevent unsatisfactory content.
- Ideas for future and past content: Keeping a field open for spontaneous dispensary advertising ideas as well as past content that still has value but just needs a few changes will help you organize and plan content more efficiently.
Use Headset for Market Research
Headset is an online resource for gathering cannabis market data and analysis for marijuana marketing strategies. This platform monitors global sales and gives you an understanding of market trends. This detailed information allows you to understand where products such as rolling cones are selling and which items are selling the best. When you join Headset, you become a part of a network of industry leaders, producers, and dispensaries. This platform can increase the value of your dispensary advertising approach by giving you a view of the best opportunities in the market.
Leaflink Provides a Wholesale Platform
Leaflink is the industry-leading wholesale marketplace for cannabis. This platform has transformed the way dispensaries manage their businesses by connecting thousands of retailers with licensed brands and distributors. Retailers who join Leaflink can benefit from the following:
- An intuitive dashboard that tracks your sales history
- Reorder their favorite products like pre rolled papers with advanced e-commerce tools
- Messaging features provide streamlined communication
- Join the largest network of compliant businesses in the cannabis industry
Customize Your Products
All the knowledge on marijuana marketing strategies won’t be any good if your customers can’t distinguish your dispensary — or your product — from everyone else’s. One of the best ways to do this is to customize your cannabis cones for your brand. Custom cones mean your dispensary name and anything else related to your branding can be included on your cone design.
Custom cones and pre rolls also mean that you’re getting the word out about your product throughout the year, even if you don’t have a special event going on. After all, you need to market year-round, not just while everyone is celebrating 420.
Get Help with Dispensary Advertising
By learning different advertising strategies and partnering with leaders in the industry, you can rise above others in a competitive market. While you could try going it alone, why stress about every aspect of your branding? The Cones Factory specializes in custom cones for dispensaries, so you can enhance advertising efforts and marijuana marketing strategies. We know how to keep your pre roll packaging compliant, and we offer lots of customization options for pre roll cones and tubes. Contact us to get started today!
