Pillars for a Winning Cannabis Marketing Strategy

While use of the cannabis plant dates all the way back to ancient China, positioning this remarkable plant to a retail market is brand new and best practices today may evolve as the acceptance and access to the plant goes federally legal. Three key components to develop a winning marketing strategy for the cannabis industry combines authenticity, education, and community-building. These pillars will create a foundation for marketing now and future practices to build upon.

Here are those pillars:

Authenticity/Trustworthiness: Consumers value transparency and genuine connections. A successful cannabis marketing strategy should focus on portraying the brand’s values, mission, and unique story. Highlight the authenticity of your products, cultivation practices, and commitment to quality. Building trust with consumers is essential in this evolving industry. We exist in a world filled with excessive information, a lot of it untrue/not accurate,  and being able to convey and convince the consumer of your brand’s beliefs and “practice what they preach” will go a long way to building a solid reputation within the community.

Education: Cannabis is still surrounded by stigmas and misconceptions. A strong marketing strategy should prioritize education to provide accurate information about the benefits, usage methods, and safety considerations of cannabis products. By empowering consumers with knowledge, you can help them make informed decisions and foster a positive perception of the industry. This is the most underutilized and unregulated area within the cannabis space as there are so many voices saying so many different things. Communicating valuable, helpful information to elevate the consumers knowledge will pay huge dividends at checkout. A confident consumer is a constant consumer.

Community-building: Cannabis enthusiasts form a passionate community. Engage with your target audience through social media, events, and collaborations. Create spaces for consumers to share their experiences, ask questions, and connect with like-minded individuals. By building a sense of community, you can cultivate brand loyalty and advocacy. Users of cannabis talk with each other A LOT! Existing cannabis users are bound by loving the plant through decades of prohibition. They probably communicate about the products they like/love/hate more than any other community does about a retail product and are very strong positioned about their opinions. Right now, the main focus of any brand/product/service should be finding their tribe and empowering them to usher in new customers through their personal communities. With all the restrictions in each market on how to advertise, peer-to-peer/word of mouth marketing is the bread and butter of building the community.

Cannabis brands should focus on these pillars to help connect their target audiences to their brand identity and to other consumers to help create awareness around the products and values the brand wants to uphold. As more brands come into the industry leading to potential changes in operations, it is important to build a relationship with customers that is authentic through continuously having the customers’ best interest and educating them about what is offered to empower them to come back to a trustworthy brand.

Enthuse Marketing works with industry experts, master educators, and creative entrepreneurs to help solve business challenges. If you would like to learn more about our training and education-led marketing solutions, contact us today.