This year has forced retailers spanning every industry to reevaluate their existing sales strategies. For cannabis dispensaries in Massachusetts, this was especially pertinent given the state’s stringent COVID retail regulations in the first half of the year. Although most states around the country classified all forms of legal cannabis as essential businesses that could stay open during the pandemic, Massachusetts officials only gave the designation to medical dispensaries. This led to considerable retail challenges for recreational dispensaries that were forced to close their doors for nearly two months. Despite this, springbig’s dispensary clients in MA were able to increase sales.

How were Massachusetts retailers able to turn things around, increase sales, and drive customer visits in the midst of these regulatory challenges? For starters, since medical dispensaries –which make up roughly half of the state’s dispensaries –were permitted to continue operating, many were still able to leverage e-commerce platforms and digital integrations to maintain sales. Recent springbig integrations with e-commerce platforms including Jane and dutchie allowed for seamless dispensary ordering and enabled medical customers to directly accumulate and redeem dispensary loyalty points within the ordering platform. These services not only increased dispensary brand loyalty but also brought increased attention to each retailer’s dispensary rewards program. State guidelines also permit deliveries for medical products which allowed for a more convenient shopping experience.

Recreational sales likely spiked at the end of May after state officials started allowing adult-use dispensaries to accept online orders and offer curbside pickup. Springbig data also points to a 52% increase in post-COVID outbreak dispensary texting and a 30% increase in campaign spending despite a 18% decrease in the number of actual campaigns. This shift in dispensary marketing strategy reflects how dispensaries are becoming more conscious of their marketing spending and are gravitated towards cannabis advertising campaigns that yield higher ROIs.

One way retailers have been able to accomplish this has been through Brands by springbig, an innovative cannabis brand marketing software that allows cannabis brands to directly promote products to active dispensary customers through the retailer’s SMS platform. Retailers are able to rely on their comprehensive sets of consumer data to send these promotions to consumers that are most likely to engage with them. As a result, this cannabis marketing platform increases product sales and builds cannabis brand loyalty as well as dispensary brand loyalty, but that isn’t the only thing driving sales in MA.

How dispensaries in MA increased sales

Despite the situation in Massachusetts where officials only gave the designation to medical dispensaries to stay open during the pandemic, springbig client data points to surprisingly high post-pandemic sales and customer visit figures. Overall, springbig client dispensaries in Massachusetts experienced a 161.10% increase in sales and a 116.6% increase in visits in this period.

How did they do this? By leveraging text message marketing. That’s right, with dispensaries in MA shifting their focus to advertising campaigns that yield higher ROIs they’re raming up and spending more on their text message marketing campaigns in the hopes that they can increase sales and ROI, which they have.

Text message marketing

In fact, studies show that businesses can expect to produce about five times their investment when running a text message marketing campaign tied to a deal or offer. What’s more is that springbig gives you the tools you need to get even more out of your text message marketing. Our autoconnects allow dispensaries to set up automated messaging based on certain behavioral triggers so you’ll never miss a customer at an opportune time. Not only that but springbig also allows you to track the effectiveness of your campaigns in real time with intuitive data that helps you figure out what’s working and what isn’t.

Loyalty rewards programs

Additionally, springbig clients in MA have relied even more on springbig loyalty software and their loyalty programs during the pandemic which has paid off big. Focusing on loyalty means focusing on repeat customers, which means you can expect big returns. In fact, repeat customers have been shown to spend on average 3x more on average than new or one-time customers. But if that wasn’t good enough, within every good loyalty program is springbig’s referral platform. .

Referral programs

Springbig’s referral platform not only allows your customers to refer their friends and family, but also allows dispensaries to empower the customers to become social media influencers. Referral programs are an essential part of successful cannabis dispensaries and can be easily integrated into customer loyalty programs. Referral programs boast the highest ROI of any other form of marketing and customers referred by friends are 25% more profitable, so having one is a must.

Ecommerce

Ecommerce is an extremely important thing to take advantage of, especially during COVID where many have opted to take online orders. Like we mentioned in the beginning, springbig’s integration with leaders in the cannabis e-commerce space, such as Jane and Dutchie, has helped cannabis dispensaries adapt to the new normal. With online menus and the ability to redeem loyalty points directly from these sites, if you’re not utilizing these e-commerce platforms then you’re likely losing more potential sales than you’d like to hear.

Recap

By leveraging these high-return marketing techniques, along with their own perseverance, dispensaries in MA were able to stay afloat despite the pandemic and unfortunate COVID policies.

With a combination of perseverance from dispensaries in MA, text message marketing, our ecommerce integrations which allow springbig client dispensaries to make their menu and ordering readily available online, referral programs, and the plethora of other tools springbig provides its clients, dispensaries in MA refused to let COVID get them down.

As the pandemic goes on and Massachusetts moves towards allowing recreational cannabis deliveries in the near future, retailers will have even more opportunities to drive sales through digital cannabis brand promotions and seamless e-commerce integrations.

Interested in taking advantage of some of these integrations or Brands by springbig? Click here to try a demo today!