As more and more people discover the many health and wellness benefits of different cannabis strains, it’s becoming increasingly clear that this iconic plant has a key part to play in the modern world. In response, the cannabis industry is absolutely booming, with significant growth seen in recent years and even bigger figures projected for the decades to come.
We’re seeing countless new cannabis products and companies arriving on the scene, and many aspiring entrepreneurs are eager to get involved with growing, marketing, producing, and selling their own cannabis strains, products, and services. But in such a competitive and rapidly evolving industry, how can you stand out? Digital marketing is essential, and here are some tips to get started.
First And Foremost Is The Competitor Research
A good way to start when it comes to any kind of marketing strategy is to take a look at what your competitors are doing. This can provide valuable insight, especially when you’re first starting off, and it’s really important in the cannabis industry in particular, as there are a lot of specific rules, regulations, and terms that you need to be careful with when marketing these kinds of companies.
If you are in this business then be ready to pay for good tools. Use SemRush for good competitor research. SemRush will give you a list of competitors with the annual traffic. Visit their sites, see if they are really the ones you need to compete with, if yes use another paid tool that is Ahrefs. What Ahrefs does not give you is the birth certificate of the owner, the rest will be in your hands. What keywords do they use, the keyword difficulty and the volume of that keyword, what backlinks they have? Download the backlinks and see if there are any that you might use for your own business.
Take a look at some of the big brands in your chosen sector. If you’re planning to produce and sell cannabis, for example, then check out some of the other companies involved in this side of the industry. View their websites and social media accounts to see what sorts of marketing content they’re sharing and use this as inspiration for your own campaigns as you move forward.
Keyword Analysis And Content Optimization
When it comes to digital marketing, one of the first things you learn is that keywords and context optimization matter a great deal. Essentially, in this day and age, where countless people use Google to find products and services they want, the vast majority of digital marketing efforts are focused on helping sites and web pages appear as high as possible on Google’s rankings.
This is where keywords and content optimization come into play. In order to evaluate which sites are worthy of high positions in its rankings, Google uses a complex algorithm that looks at keywords in the content on your posts and pages. It’s vital to use varied keywords in clever ways to get your content pushed up the list, so you need to at least get a basic understanding of SEO or work with SEO experts to get the boost you need. As we
have already mentioned some really good paid tools will do half of your work for you. Make the list of your main pages, see what keywords bring you the most traffic, and get concentrated on them. If you are a new website then make sure you do not use keywords with high KD (keyword difficulty). Imagine there is a prize at the end of a tunnel and you want to get it. You need to run to get it but your competitors are professional athletes and you are an amateur. Who do you think will get the prize? If the “cannabis dispensary” keyword has a high KD use another one for now, for instance, “medical marijuana dispensary”. Remember these are just examples. You also need to pay attention to the volume of the keyword. If X keyword has a low KD and a high volume that is good to go for your new business.
Content Is The Key
Most digital marketing is centered around content creation. It’s content that will help to boost your brand on search engine rankings, as well as getting you more fans and followers on social media, along with more clicks and visitors to your web pages and blog posts, so content really is something that needs to be taken seriously.
Having a sparse website or barely-updated social media accounts won’t do your brand any favors. You need to invest in content creation. This may involve hiring content creators who understand the ins and outs of SEO in order to generate blog posts and articles for your site or simply creating content yourself, using keywords and phrases to attract attention. But hiring a professional content maker will not solve your problem. You have to guide them. Create a plan for them, give talking points, give the word count and the keyword they have to use, mention the keyword density and give them a few examples. It’s like drawing a sketch and letting them color it. You are the one that knows much about cannabis so you have to guide them to the content you need to have.
Use Social Media As A Key For Brand Awareness
There are many avenues you can explore with digital marketing. You can focus on your own brand website, for example, creating blog posts and articles to boost your company’s profile, or you can invest in Google ads and other digital ad services to show off your company to the world. Social media is another avenue, and it’s one that shouldn’t be underestimated.
Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook hold tremendous power and influence in the modern world. They’re used by literally billions of people on a daily basis, and they can be vital tools for spreading the word about your business. Set up accounts on these platforms and post engaging content on a regular basis to build awareness of your brand.
The trick here is that you won’t be allowed to advertise on these platforms. Well if you can’t target your audience and offer them your product be smart and creative. Besides giving information about the benefits of medical marijuana and CBD and the difference between CBD and THC, think about something creative, for example, a contest. What if the winner wins a discount card of a gift card or one of your products? Ask your followers to tag their friends who might be interested in your product and share your post. When the deadline of your contest arrives, pick a winner with the help of robots such as commentpicker.com. This is how you will increase your brand awareness.
Think About Influencers
Another interesting aspect of digital marketing in the modern world is the emergence of influencers. These are people who have organically amassed large followings of their own via sites like Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and so on, holding heavy influence over communities and populations, and they can make a big difference to your brand too.
Many modern companies are choosing to work with influencers, hiring them to show off and advertise their products or services to their thousands or even millions of fans and followers. A well-orchestrated influencer campaign can be very effective and can help to generate a lot of buzz for your brand in a relatively short amount of time. Just make sure to contact influencers who are relevant to your brand and truly interested in your products.
If you are new in this business you may not want to spend much money here, because sometimes influencers may lead really few followers to your page. Find influencers that are new in this business. They may not even charge money for advertising your product. They get high-quality strain and they advertise it in their stories. You get what you want and he gets a gift, simple right? But wait, even if you’re not spending money on this make sure your influencer has the right audience for you. There is no use to ask a cook to advertise one of your marijuana strains because most of his followers would be women who are interested in cooking. Look for an athlete that can use CBD oil for easing his muscle pain, or a beauty blogger who will advertise your product for skincare. These are just a few tips, think about the rest yourself.
Get High-quality Backlinks
As you learn more about the world of digital marketing, SEO, and how to make your site and social media accounts stand out in the competitive online world, you may hear the term “backlinks” being discussed quite regularly. Backlinks, also known as inbound links or incoming links, are basically links from one website to another, and Google cares a lot about backlinks.
If your site gets linked to by other, trusted sites, this is seen as a sign that your site is an authority on its subject matter. So sites with lots of backlinks tend to get boosted via the algorithm and appear higher on search engine results. You can see backlinks as a kind of “vote” or “seal of approval” for your website from another website, and getting more of these votes or seals is clearly a good thing, so it’s wise to partner with other trusted sites and link to one another to boost your rankings.
Also, find good directories and register your business there. There are some high-quality websites that will give you link juice by just mentioning your website there.
If you do not know how to find those directories or perfect websites for your backlink profile, use Ahrefs or Majestic tool to get your competitor backlink profile. See where they have articles or where they have registered their business, follow their steps. There are also some other paid tools, such as Pitchbox that can find good websites for you. In the case of Pitchbox, all you need is to add some keywords and it finds relevant articles. Have a look at those websites, if they are relevant to your business send them a message and ask them to let you do guest postings. Sometimes you have to pay for a link, be ready for that too because sometimes one good link equals 10 average ones.
