Cannabis Marketing Tips | For 2023 One of the most crucial aspects of customers’ buying decisions, especially for high-risk purchases, is brand trust. Consumers will purchase brands that they believe in. They’ll talk about the brands they like and tell others about them. Bottom-line, every cannabis business, and a cannabis-related firm must prioritize developing a consumer-trusting cannabis brand.
People know that when they buy or use a brand they trust, it will satisfy their expectations and keep its promises. The most reliable brands, on the other hand, go a step further. Consumers must have faith not only in the brand’s ability to deliver on its promises in every interaction but also in the brand’s ability to deliver on its promises in other people’s engagement with it. People are the most devoted to, discuss, and advocate for these most trusted brands.
Traits Of A Trustworthy Brand
Today, brand trust is more crucial than it has ever been. According to an Edelman survey, 81 percent of consumers believe they must be able to trust a company to do the right thing. In fact, along with quality, convenience and value, and ingredients, customers ranked trust as one of the top buying considerations in the study. Furthermore, three out of four consumers (75%) value trust over trendiness, and two out of three (66%) would prefer to buy a well-known, trusted brand over a newer, more inventive brand.
What makes a brand reliable? According to research conducted by Trustpilot and IBM Watson Personality Insights on brand personality and reputation, the top 50 most respectable brands in the United States share five key personality qualities. These well-known companies excel in the crucial characteristics listed below:
- Openness
- Emotional Range
- Conscientiousness
- Extraversion
- Agreeableness
So, What Exactly Is Branding?
And why is it so critical to your company’s success?
Branding is much more than a logo or a graphic element.
When it comes to your brand, you should consider the overall consumer experience… Everything from your logo to your website to your social media experiences to how you answer the phone to how your customers interact with your employees.
When you consider this broad concept of branding, it can be difficult to imagine what your brand entails.
In a nutshell, your brand is how your customers perceive you.
It’s crucial to be aware of your brand experience and to have a strategy in place to generate the brand experience you desire… A good brand does not appear out of anywhere… It is a strategic and well-thought-out plan.
Many cannabis businesses and start-ups don’t devote enough effort to thinking about their brand in this broad sense and how it affects their bottom line.
With so much at stake, your cannabis company’s brand identity will not get established in a short time period. It takes time, research, and careful consideration, but the end result is well worth the effort.
So, where do you begin?
How To Establish Your Brand?
Research, Research, And Repeat
If you don’t understand your customers, you won’t be able to establish a brand identity that resonates with them. So, first and foremost, learn everything there is to know about your primary, secondary, and tertiary audiences. Create identities that reflect their interests, activities, and values.
Move on to competition research once you have a thorough understanding of your clients. In terms of aesthetic components, personalities, and themes, how are other companies in your field marketing themselves?
Finally, don’t forget to conduct interviews with the individuals who are most familiar with your present brand: your staff. They have a strong opinion on how the firm should be portrayed, as well as what has and has not worked in the past.
Determine Critical Business Goals
Before you can get there, you must first know where you are going. Building a brand image without a clear understanding of your short- and long-term business objectives is useless and wasteful of resources.
Define Your Brand Persona
After you’ve done your research and identified your most important business objectives, you can begin to develop your brand persona. Customers should be attracted to your persona, which should express your most key differentiators and product benefits. It’s critical to maintain your brand identity concise and relevant because it determines your image.
Clearly state what services you provide to your customers. Explain why customers should do business with you and how you differ from your competition. Is it caring customer service? What is the product’s quality? Reliability? What about speed and convenience? Don’t attempt to be everything to everyone. Concentrate on your strengths and the value you provide to your customers. Allow that to be the driving force behind your primary brand statement.
Create Your Brand’s Perception
What is the public’s opinion of your cannabis brand? It’s up to you to generate consumer impressions of your brand that appropriately reflect its intended promise by crafting relevant communications.
Consider the Adidas brand, which was recognized as the second most trustworthy brand in the Trustpilot report. Adidas’ devoted customers know they can count on the company to deliver on its promise of exceptional athletic wear and products in every engagement. Their decision to choose the Adidas brand again and over again is influenced by their level of trust. It also encourages consumers to spread the word about the brand and suggest it to others.
Consumers perceive Adidas to be a trustworthy brand because it meets their expectations in every interaction and keeps its promise to them.
You must do the same thing for your cannabis brand to be trusted by taking the time to build and cultivate customer views.
Invest In Event Marketing
The most successful cannabis brands are those that have a physical presence. This involves getting in front of customers in places other than dispensaries for new and undiscovered canna-businesses. One strategy to increase brand recognition is to sponsor an event, even if it is unrelated to cannabis. Participating in events focusing on your customers’ interests and passions will demonstrate that you share their concerns. People who are likely to be your next clients will attend music festivals, yoga retreats, mindfulness workshops, and cultural conferences.
Create your own events if you can’t find any to attend. You don’t have to go all out; simply think about what your customers enjoy doing. If you’re attempting to establish a small brand, this is a terrific alternative because you can focus on your local market before expanding to a national level. You may, for example, hold a cannabis Q&A with medical specialists, legal experts, local politicians, and others who can offer their perspectives and answer questions about marijuana. Alternatively, you may hold free monthly yoga classes in the park.
There are plenty of ways for you to get your name out there and make your business synonymous with the issues that marijuana users care about.
Be Educational, But Not Condescending
Despite the fact that cannabis is becoming more extensively consumed, many potential customers are still wary of it due to past stigmas, preconceptions, and misinformation campaigns. Educating this audience about the expanding body of evidence debunking these stereotypes will offer customers confidence that cannabis-based products, which are mostly manufactured with natural terpenes and nutrients, are not the boogeyman they were once painted as.
The trick is to educate them in a fun and non-condescending manner that does not appear forced or unnatural. This can help brands get the attention of new consumers who consider themselves “mainstream” but haven’t yet integrated cannabis into their lives.
Creating Your Logo
After you’ve determined what your company’s mission is, you’ll need to create a logo for it. It will be the graphical representation of your small business. Do you want a picture, words, or a combination of both?
Your logo should be eye-catching, memorable, and communicate your company’s philosophy.
Colors should be carefully chosen. They’ll appear on your business cards, website, and marketing materials. The most effective logos are simple. Some people believe that the logo depicts the company’s heart.
You might wish to hire an expert to create your company’s logo.
Market Innovatively
Cannabis advertising’s restrictions and high expenses can be a significant barrier for a new company, especially when compared to traditional media. It is the brand’s responsibility to come up with innovative and cost-effective ways to extend the brand’s appeal beyond the first impression.
Let’s begin with the dispensary visit. Customers are either waiting in a queue, browsing your website, or searching an online marketplace for products that meet their demands. This implies that the brand’s prospects of engaging with customers are limited. As a result, you must attract their attention in a limited amount of time with eye-catching visuals and language.
The more limited the area, the more crucial it is to draw people in aesthetically with a graphic image and draw attention to distinctive qualities of your product, such as a unique consumption manner. Customers want to know what it will do for them and to be able to identify with the brand’s personality, so make those two points as strong as possible.
Concentrate on developing your brand’s personality so that it takes on a life of its own and customers become brand advocates. Consider some of your favorite brands; what is the personality of that product? Your favorite brands are likely to have distinct, distinctive brand personas. Apple, for example, has a personality that is user-centered, elegant, and innovative.
What do you want your customers to associate themselves with when they use your products? Everything will change, from your brand’s personality to your packaging choices, voice, and marketing channels, all the way down to your company swag.
Choose The Right Distribution Partner
If you don’t want to self-distribute, you can choose who will deliver your products to the merchant, therefore it’s critical that you pick the right decision for your business. There are distinctions in the services provided by each distributor (light manufacturing, packaging, COA testing, labeling, transport only, wholesale, etc.). As well as cost, region, and retail partnerships. As you consider your alternatives, consider the following questions:
- Check to see if you’re in excellent company. Do the products carried by the distributor reflect the qualities of your brand? Is there a solid relationship between this distributor and retail outlets, as well as a product presence there?
- Is the distributor’s customer service exceptional? Are they trustworthy? How do they safeguard and nurture their customers?
- Do they provide real-time data on the performance of my brand? Do you have any idea how much inventory there is, how much has been sold, and where it is going? How much knowledge do you have about your product distribution?
- What services do they offer in terms of marketing? Will they assist you in promoting your business?
Some things remain constant in the cannabis market, despite its huge development. Set aside some time to take these extra measures to guarantee that your items have the best possible chance of succeeding. Your hard work will undoubtedly be rewarded.
Build A Cannabis Brand That Consumers Trust
Building trust is an important aspect of forming meaningful emotional relationships between your brand and your customers. Brand trust is essential for brand loyalty and advocacy, so think about how you might improve your brand’s trustworthiness.
Next, concentrate on developing acceptable brand perception and proof on a consistent basis, and making sure that proof is easily accessible to consumers. If you invest in brand trust now, your cannabis or ancillary firm will succeed in the future.
Creative Marketing Strategies To Help Your Cannabis Business Grow
Here are a few creative marketing tips to help your cannabis business succeed:
Invest In Local Billboards
Few people nowadays think about billboards because the Internet has become the obvious go-to for everything from how-to videos to advertising platforms. They are, nevertheless, still a feasible choice.
Even this, however, is debatable because many recreational-legal states, as well as cities, have their own laws and regulations governing how outlets are advertised within city limits. Billboards, on the other hand, are a simple and uncomplicated approach to advertise your brand in front of local shoppers in many legal states.
Take Advantage Of Popular Hashtags
Participating in weekly or daily hashtag themes (via Twitter), such as #designerweed or #cannabis, might help your company acquire the attention it deserves. You become an active player in the community and have access to an audience far above your regular follower count by actively contributing with hashtags that hundreds, if not millions, of people, are already using.
Social Media Marketing
When it comes to your social platforms, get to know your audience and keep up with current trends. Have you thought about how you could use story formats in new ways? Perhaps a competition can entice your followers to participate? Make use of hashtags, national or international holidays, and think beyond the box.
SMS Messaging
Text messaging is not only efficient, but it also allows you to communicate with a large number of people. Text messaging can help you promote your products at a low cost, as long as you use prudence and don’t break the law. You may use the high open rate to send targeted messages to clients and keep them engaged.
Paid Search
Paid search is an excellent approach to get your products in front of the relevant buyers and drive quality traffic to your website. This technique, however, will not work for cannabis advertising because Google has a policy against “ads for substances that affect the mental state for recreational purposes.” Until this guideline changes, you should focus your search-related efforts on SEO and GMB optimization.
Cannabis Websites And Blogs
You can market your cannabis brand by using other similar sites in addition to providing SEO-optimized blog content for your website. However, you’ll need to figure out which websites and blogs your potential clients frequent. You can then guest post on blogs, run adverts on third-party ad platforms, or advertise on industry-related websites.
Reward Loyal Customers With More
The havoc created by COVID-19 has led many customers to cut back on spending, and products are in excess. However, this might be a terrific approach to thank consumers who stay with you regardless, just to show your gratitude.
Can you give consumers that keep their subscription with you exclusive freebies and perks? If yes, this can be a great way to increase and retain your customer base.
Brand Visibility Through Event Marketing
One of the most effective experiential marketing methods for increasing brand knowledge and affinity is event marketing. It’s a direct approach to communicate with and engage your audience, as well as a technique to increase brand loyalty. A well-executed brand experience exceeds customers’ expectations and is consistent with the company’s brand values.
Companies can use event marketing to elicit favorable consumer behavior (such as purchases or brand referrals), draw media attention, and boost their brand’s market visibility. The event, whether it’s a networking session, a trade fair, a conference, or a party, must appeal to your target demographic.
To cut through the noise and discover successful ways to spread the word about their brand in such a highly regulated environment, cannabis brands must be innovative, compliant, and strategic. Cannabis businesses can do just that with event marketing.
Brands That Shine Due To Their Marketing Efforts
Weedmaps
Weedmaps is a cannabis portal that aims to assist users to find dispensaries in their area, purchase products, and educate visitors all about cannabis, from company profiles to the science behind terpenes and cannabinoids to current laws and regulations.
The #weedfacts campaign has been the most effective marketing strategy rolled out by Weedmaps.
Leafly
It is the world’s largest cannabis website, with over 15 million monthly visitors researching, finding, and purchasing cannabis from legal, regulated stores. Leafly, as the most trusted cannabis brand. It is at the forefront of bringing cannabis into the mainstream. They use cutting-edge journalism and cutting-edge technology to deliver knowledge and accessibility to everyone.
Are You Ready To Create A Marketing Buzz?
Because today’s cannabis customers have so many options, the vibe your brand projects is crucial. Connect with them and cover all of the above criteria to ensure you stand out from the crowd and acquire a competitive advantage over other brands and products on the shelf.
