How to Advertise Cannabis

The post How to Advertise Cannabis by Jordan Robertson appeared first on Benzinga. Visit Benzinga to get more great content like this.

Building an effective marketing strategy for any cannabis business stretches beyond the cannabis plant and into other areas of your business—and the community—you might not have considered. With a few tips and best practices, there is a way to grow your cannabis business.

Thinking outside the box, then, is more important than ever.

How to Advertise Cannabis

When you’re ready to market your cannabis business, you can use these 5 steps to make the most of the opportunity. While each business is different, you can keep yourself on the right path using these ideas as a baseline.

Most importantly, you can learn to think outside the box by reading these tips and taking them to heart. Adapt these ideas as needed so that your cannabis marketing plan is realistic and tailored to your needs.

Always Promote Your Business Instead of Cannabis

Promoting cannabis instead of your business gives the wrong impression. Yes, your business sells cannabis and cannabis-based products, but your business is a pillar of the community, a place that helps people and offers a welcome respite from high prices. 

Plus, more skeptical consumers might avoid your business if it sounds like you’re screaming “cannabis cannabis cannabis” from the hilltops. Instead, market your business as a real company—run by real people—that offers comfort to the community. 

In short, make certain your personality goes beyond THC.

The Public is Open to CBD

As a cannabis purveyor, remember that the public is far more open to CBD than cannabis (weed, marijuana, whatever you like to call it.) In short, you may want to promote your CBD products more than your cannabis products.

Why? Because, your customers can buy CBD just about anywhere if they live in a state where it’s legal. Gas stations, strip malls, outlet centers and more sell CBD products. Why shouldn’t you?

Try Ad Networks That Are Cannabis-Friendly

Working with cannabis-friendly ad networks is more than helpful because your placements will be that much more effective. Moreover, it pays to work with cannabis-friendly websites—like Benzinga—that can further promote your content and offer powerful backlinks for your website. 

What About Internet Radio?

Internet radio platforms accept and run cannabis ads all the time. Pandora, Spoitfy, iHeartRadio and more can help you reach more prospects. You might also produce a podcast that allows you to better display your expertise, interview guests and offer value to listeners.

Go Back to the Billboard

Yes, you could purchase billboard space in the community, but you should also consider how all forms of print marketing can shine a light on your business. Ad networks are an excellent place to start, but are you maximizing your marketing potential with print advertisements in the community? 

Cannabis Marketing Best Practices

As you set out to market your cannabis business, there are a few best practices you can put into place today, increasing the likelihood that you’ll see positive results. While you cannot copy what another cannabis firm is doing, you can adapt these ideas to your business model.

Know the rules for your legal market: Carefully review the marketing rules for your target markets. For example, you may operate a cannabis business in multiple states—and you need to know the marketing rules for each state. Ignoring this simple step could prove to be catastrophic.

Be consistent: Release content, ads, videos, podcasts, etc. as much as you possibly can. The public will grow more and more familiar, comfortable and even friendly when they are presented with expertise, quality products and a friendly touch.

Where is your value: Where is the value that your business provides? Do you have an expert staff, a large selection, events, guest speakers, vendor promotions, etc? Let the public know what your business does other than cannabis. In this way, you can appeal to the casual buyer—in much the same way sports leagues appeal to casual fans by offering more than a game.

Speak in general terms: Always speak in general terms about what cannabis could do for the buyer. You don’t want to make promises—you simply want your customers to imagine that their lives could improve.

Mistakes to Avoid When Building a Cannabis Marketing Campaign

Every business owner/manager has the best of intentions, but it can be hard to do everything perfectly. At times, you may feel as though you’re making a perfectly reasonable decision, but you must stop yourself and ask, “is this fair, reasonable and/or legal?”

Giving medical advice: You cannot give medical advice unless you have a licensed physician writing your content, and even then, they will likely list sources and explain that no solution is perfect. Instead, you want to hedge and talk about the sort of relief you might feel or what the manufacturer (if applicable) says about the product. 

For example, you can’t tell your customers your sleepy CBD candies will make them go to sleep. You can say something like, “prepare for a peaceful night of sleep with our CBD gummies.” 

Making cannabis the star: You sell cannabis-based products, yes, but your business should be the star. For example, the beds are not the star of a hotel chain, and cannabis leaves cannot be the only thing your business markets.

Ignoring content marketing: More than anything, you want to market your business as an expert in the cannabis and CBD world. This doesn’t require a medical degree, but it does require a healthy knowledge of your products and the effects of those products. In these cases, your blog, guest posts, lead generation partnerships and digital ads can be quite powerful.

Frequently Asked Questions

The post How to Advertise Cannabis by Jordan Robertson appeared first on Benzinga. Visit Benzinga to get more great content like this.