From the start of this decade, you have been hearing news and plans about Cannabis being legalized throughout the world. Gradually more and more countries are trying to legalize Cannabis opening a new market for Cannabis brands. You can see Businesses investing in traditional marketing overlooking potentiality of how Cannabis Brands can harness the power of Digital Marketing.
It is made legal in 29 states of the US for medical intention and 9 states recreational purpose. In October 2018 cannabis was legalized in Canada and it became the first industrialized country to legalize recreational weed. And this trend continues to grow through Europe, Asia and other parts of the World too.
From childhood epilepsy to pain, migraine and even giving relief insomnia, the opportunity for Cannabis brands are becoming wider and larger than before. Cannabis is flourishing worldwide and has pushed its way into the financial and cultural mainstream.
Canada sold around $ 503.9 million on legalized cannabis in the fiscal year of 2018. And the USA alone was said to have made $ 10.4 billion in the year of 2018 from the cannabis industry says a leading cannabis market research and data analysis firm. Only the North American market is expected to reach $16 Billion at the end of 2019.
How Cannabis Brands can Harness the Power of Digital Marketing?
Due to strict regulation and rules in advertisements took place, most of the Cannabis companies are putting every bit of their Ad money on local print and creative billboards.
Digital Marketing can be used in other useful ways to advertise your Brand.
Despite having grand social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram it is a little complicated to engage your potential customers and run campaigns spending hundreds of your currency. And Facebook is one of the largest social platforms, it has made sure that no brand can promote the use of illegal drugs even if it is legal in a few countries.
There are passionate digital platforms to work with, as cannabis brands have landed up to a competitive marketplace. Harnessing the power of Digital Marketing is more necessary than ever.
Cannabis Brands Harnessing the power of Digital Marketing
#Digital Billboards – Digital hoardings and billboards are known as Digital out-of-home marketing are more visible for cannabis brands compared to immobile billboards. Digital ads can be placed on any screen starting from television to desktop to mobile and hoardings.
This can target audience in real-time if sequenced properly at the right time and can be incorporated to run different campaigns in several places at the same time.
Various and innovative technologies are being used to harness the power of digital marketing starting from campaigns programmed to change content, to receive playback reporting and more.
Digital displays can draw potential customer’s eyes at the highly trafficked area and you just can’t intentionally look away from it, that’s the fun of Digital billboards.
#Mobile Digital Marketing – Since mobile phones have changed our way of living, it is being used for marketing and advertisements by millions of companies to target potential audience and reach them directly. Smart cannabis retailers know how to get into customers’ mind via Mobile marketing.
Use of Mobile phones has spread rapidly around the world. And over 5 billion people in the world have access to mobile phones which makes it one of the most powerful tool.
5 billion people is a lot and you can target your customer via digital marketing strategies. And it is estimated that above 85 percent of people are used to go through their text messages 5 minutes after receiving it.
You can go for SMS Marketing as it is a direct way to reach your probable customers among the crowd. To attract you can send discounts and coupons to your customer base. Direct message service can record responses and re-target customers based on previous data and their shopping preferences. This customers data can also help your Brand in future campaigns.
Direct contact can build trust and a personal connection with your customers and helps to grow your brand awareness.
Study says 80% of internet users own a smartphone. So apart from SMS Marketing, you can also opt for email and in-app marketing.
Businesses are able to target potential consumers more effectively with mobile marketing strategies like email and push notifications, through social media and website marketing. I am not saying that these methods could make you a millionaire but could provide customer data, helps you keep in touch with them and analyze their needs based on users data and even generate profits. These methods are really helpful in many cases.
#Rising use of Podcasts – It is just a digital audio file available on the Internet for users to download. You can take the help of Podcasts to introduce or pitch about your Brand.
Use of Podcasts has been increasing for its effective way of engaging audience and community building.
A recent study done by Statista says more are being invested on podcast ads and are expected to reach double its figure leaving behind traditional radio marketing which expected to stay comparatively flat through 2021.
Summing Up:
Cannabis brands no longer have to work in grey areas in most cases. Starting from the above-said way of marketing can be helpful for your brand to create eye-catching awareness and build a customer base and data. This can gradually push your business higher among the crowds.
Even though prohibition remains the practice of the largest players in digital marketing and advertising, there are ways to work around them and connect to your target audience.