Marketing Ideas for CBD Business

Introduction    

CBD is only getting started, and the market has expanded in recent years – making it one of the biggest trends since the Farm Bill of 2018 was passed, legalizing hemp growing for the first time since 1937. And, in 2022 the U.S. CBD market is alone worth $1.9 billion. The CBD market is expected to reach 16.32 billion in 2026. 

Despite the legality and increased demand for CBD products, there is still a stigma attached to their use. However, the advantages of a quickly growing sector also bring with them certain difficulties, particularly for CBD company owners attempting to determine their marketing plan given the industry’s numerous government laws.

However, with good and planned marketing, you can attain a competitive advantage. 

So, in this blog – we will be covering what marketing for CBD business is important and how to effectively do it. So, let’s get started.

Also Read: How to Start a CBD Business

Why Marketing for CBD Business is Important? 

The rise in CBD marketing is evident everywhere you look online. It can be in the form of an attention-grabbing Facebook advertisement focused on CBD, a search engine-optimized CBD advertising campaign that links to an online store through Google, or an eye-catching Instagram story featuring a “Swipe-up” link that takes viewers to a website.

It helps you tap into a new customer base 

According to a High Yield Insights survey, around 40% of U.S. customers aged 21 and up said they would consider trying CBD. This number is only going to rise, thus using CBD marketing to your advantage is crucial to attracting clients.

By showcasing your unique value proposition of products and educating consumers about the benefits of CBD through marketing, businesses can effectively expand their customer base and establish themselves as leaders in the industry. 

Establish your unique brand identity 

The CBD space is certainly bursting at the seams, with new businesses being launched on a daily basis. The popularity of CBD businesses is rising, and as they gain traction, so does the competition, necessitating aggressive marketing. 

This does not imply that you should give up on your goals of using CBD marketing to make money; instead, you should figure out how to make your brand stand out from the competition. This is possible through the development of a unique brand via numerous marketing channels.

It helps your retention 

Effective marketing strategies are key to keeping customers in the CBD industry. Strong marketing helps build and maintain customer relationships, encouraging repeat purchases and fostering brand loyalty. 

By focusing on customer retention, businesses can ensure long-term success and stability in the competitive CBD market. Keeping customers happy and engaged leads to a loyal customer base, which is essential for sustained growth and profitability.

Also Read: How to Market your CBD Business on Facebook?

Here’s How you Can Do Marketing for Your CBD business! 

Understand your Target Market 

Understanding your audience is the foundation of all marketing strategies, but it is especially crucial for content marketing. Given that 44% of Americans now have access to cannabis for recreational use and that there are a plethora of companies vying for clients, it’s critical to identify your target market and understand their motivations before putting various marketing methods into practice.

To effectively create relevant content, you must first understand their demographics, as well as their hobbies, passions, and, perhaps most significantly, their pain areas.

Buyer personas are a tried-and-true way of creating an in-depth audience overview. Consider them as hypothetical portrayals of the types of people who would make excellent clients. Personas have a name, image, and background to help you build a more comprehensive picture, but they are built on your audience’s research and insights. Create two to four personas to cover your target demographic, depending on how diverse your typical client base is.

Also, check out what your competitors are doing, what is working for them, and what you can replicate for your business to ensure the maximum ROI and make the most out of your resources. 

Also Read: How to Start a CBD Dispensary in California

CBD SEO 

Any CBD marketing approach should be built around CBD SEO. Remember that practically everyone who wants to learn more about CBD, research CBD brands and products, or buy CBD products will begin their search with a search engine. It has to be the ideal CBD marketing idea because an effective CBD SEO strategy will bring you highly qualified traffic, for free.

80% of consumers will conduct online research to learn about the features, benefits, and reviews of a product/service before actually purchasing from a business. When your prospective customers search for CBD, you want content from your website to show up with high visibility and placement in organic search results – preferably at the top, or close to the top of page 1, right?

CBD SEO makes your website search engine friendly and easily found in relevant search results, but it doesn’t stop there. SEO is never a one-and-done thing. You need to put in constant effort. 

Here’s everything you need to do while optimizing your website for search engines: 

• SEO-optimized website(both in terms of design & content) 
• Posting SEO-optimized blogs & articles through your website 
• Updating your website at regular intervals 
• Compliance with search engine’s SEO standards 
• Guest posting 

Also Read: Guide to Start a CBD Business

Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing is a new norm and almost everyone is available on social media(including your target audience). So, you need to make the most out of social media marketing in favor of your business. 

Did you know, that as per social media statistics by Statista – there will be 4.59 billion social media users worldwide in 2022 – and this number is only going to continue growing over the next few years and it equals to around 57.5% of the current world population.

With traditional advertising options limited due to regulations, platforms like Instagram and Facebook offer a great way to reach a wide audience, educate potential customers, and build brand loyalty. Social media allows you to showcase your products, share customer stories, tap into the benefits of influencer marketing, posting interactive videos, and posts while also providing useful information about the benefits of CBD. 

It also lets you run targeted ads to reach people who are already interested in wellness and natural products.

Also Read: How to Market CBD Business on Social Media 

Green Leaf is the leading CBD company and they have used social media to grow their brand and seen amazing results: 

• Instagram Success: GreenLeaf posted educational content and customer testimonials on Instagram, using popular hashtags like #CBDHealth. This strategy helped them gain 50% more followers in just three months.
• Effective Facebook Ads: By running targeted ads on Facebook, GreenLeaf increased its website traffic by 30% and boosted sales by 20%.
• Influencer Partnerships: Collaborating with wellness influencers helped GreenLeaf gain credibility and reach new audiences.

By leveraging the power of social media, CBD businesses can grow their brand visibility, stand out from competitors, tap into new customer base, and retain the exciting ones – which in turn leads to higher sales, revenue, and brand stability. To know more about social media marketing for your CBD business, check out our full blog here! 

Email Marketing

Email marketing is an effective strategy for attracting new customers as well as keeping existing ones. Emails are adaptable, and you can use them for practically any e-commerce marketing objective.

It may appear outdated, yet it produces the best results. For every $1 spent on email marketing for your CBD business, you will receive an average return of $40.

Keep emails brief and sweet with social proof, and include a little story to keep things engaging.

Here are some samples of emails you may send to expand your consumer base and retain existing customers:

• Welcome and onboarding emails
• Send emails tailored to particular occasions to wish your clients a happy birthday, anniversary, or other special occasion.
• Appreciation emails that tell your loyal clients how much you value their support and offer something in return for their commitment.
• To encourage recurring purchases, send out emails inviting people to join your loyalty or rewards program.
• Emails containing discounts and incentives to get back inactive consumers. 
• Innovative, email-only topics, such as a series on how to get past anxiety (with CBD as a viable answer, of course), to address their concerns while providing a solution.
• Call out to your blog entries and other website content for more information.

Local SEO & Advertising 

According to our cannabis consumer poll, the majority of cannabis users support local CBD companies, with 60% identifying them as their preferred place of purchase. Furthermore, 42% of consumers said they learned about a brand via the Google search engine, which may be done through local SEO.

For this reason, having a strong local internet presence is crucial to drawing in new clients.  

Here are some steps you should take.

• Keyword research: Include location-based keywords in your website’s content to draw visitors from the surrounding area, such as “CBD store near me” or “CBD store in X Area.”
• Update your GMB page: Make sure all the information about your store, including hours of operation, website, phone number, and other useful details, is accurate and up to date on your GMB profile.
• Grow your online reviews: Once your Google My Business profile has been updated, encourage satisfied customers to post good reviews for others to read in order to increase customer trust and credibility. This also applies to other third-party review sites, such as Weedmaps and Yelp. 
• Get backlinks on relevant websites: Obtain listings on cannabis-related platforms, industry-specific websites, and local directories. This helps you appear more prominently in local searches and strengthens your local presence.

Link Building Helps Your Build Your Visibility & Trust 

The link-building strategy is a timeless marketing tactic. It means guest postings on reputable websites in exchange for a backlink to your own website. Not only is it an extension of CBD SEO that will improve your search engine ranking, but it will also drive more traffic to your site via those links.

To achieve that, get in touch with highly authoritative websites and request backlinks from them. To gain credibility and trust from clients, remember to generate outbound links from your website or blog that point to reputable websites in the cannabis and hemp industries in addition to obtaining inbound links.

However, if you create a fantastic website with tons of useful content, CBD backlinks will start to come in organically as well. Individuals are looking for links to worthwhile sites with excellent content.

It might take a little longer, though. It is critical to find authoritative sites that are ready to add your links with relevant content. If you want to speed up the process, consider contacting a CBD backlinks firm, which has a database of sites ready to provide based on your niche.

Affiliate Marketing 

Affiliate marketers are important individuals who may spread the word about your product without requiring any effort from you. Like influencer marketing, it lets you employ other people to promote your items; the only difference is that you pay affiliates a fee each time an affiliate helps your brand achieve a sale.

Affiliates can market your CBD products through social media, personal blogs, and other methods. This can help spread the word about your business and products, bringing in new customers.

In 2017, affiliate marketing brought in 15% of all digital media revenue, with a staggering $12 billion in value. To get the most out of affiliate marketing, you should ensure that the affiliate marketer or company you choose fits your niche, complies with all regulations, and has a solid reputation in the industry.

Do you know that web users clicked on affiliate marketing links over five billion times? And if that wasn’t enough to blow your head, in the same year, global affiliate marketing transactions crossed $170 million!

Paid Marketing 

Paid marketing on search engines like Google and Bing, as well as social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, is quite an effective method to give your CBD brand the visibility (it needs) in less time. However, there should be the proper blend is crucial between paid & organic marketing for CBD businesses to boost visibility and drive conversions while still maintaining profitability.

Paid marketing helps CBD brands reach a wider audience by appearing at the top of search results and in targeted social media feeds. 

A return on ad spend (ROAS) is a key metric, with Google Ads often achieving a ROAS of 4:1, meaning every $1 spent on ads returns $4 in revenue​. This is a whopping 400% return and that’s quite commendable. 

As a tip, to maximize the effectiveness of your paid marketing campaigns, it’s important to focus on the right keywords and demographic targeting. Also, regularly monitor and adjust your ad campaigns based on performance data to ensure you’re getting the best possible return.  

Video Marketing 

Don’t underestimate the power of video. It is the kind of content that has the highest return on investment, according to more than 50% of marketers worldwide. It’s an excellent approach to compress, digest, and share your material across a range of social media platforms, websites, and other digital channels.

Since videos on social media have higher engagement rates than any other kind of material, they are especially relevant there. You may convey the same information from your category pages, FAQ pages, and blog entries using videos. You can even connect to these pages to get more detailed information on the same issue.

You may also use it for complex or popular concepts that debunk CBD myths and describe treatment options.    

Retail Partnerships & Starting your Pop-up Store! 

Digital marketing is surely on the rise, but there are so many offline marketing methods as well – that you can try for your CBD business to get ahead and boost your sales. 

One such method is retail partnerships or maybe starting your pop-up store at the right locations to boost awareness around the CBD products and your brand. 

For retail partnerships, you can connect with health food stores, pharmacies, and wellness centers to stock your CBD products to boost your visibility and sales. For instance, 45% of CBD consumers prefer buying from health and wellness stores, and products placed in high-traffic areas within these stores can see a sales increase of up to 25% due to greater visibility and accessibility.  

Also, setting up temporary pop-up shops in high-traffic areas or during local events can effectively attract new customers and generate buzz. Pop-up shops offer a hands-on customer experience, that helps potential buyers to sample products and learn about CBD benefits. Pop-up shops not only help you with sales but also build your brand identity.

To Conclude

In this competitive digital age, marketing is vital for the success of your CBD business. As a business owner, you need to analyze what your customers want, decide on the right marketing mix, and invest your resources accordingly. 

To get the best and most targeted solutions, a top-notch POS system is essential. It not only helps you streamline checkout and business operations but also enables you to collect valuable business data and integrate it with marketing channels for targeted advertising.

So, what are you waiting for? Book a free demo with us now and let’s get started on elevating your CBD business to new heights!