As the cannabis industry continues to grow, dispensary owners are looking for ways to optimize their technology stack by blending the best software and other tools & technology available to cannabis businesses. This can be a challenge as there are many different options available and not all of them are compatible with each other. In this post, we will discuss some of the best options for optimizing your cannabis marketing software stack by seamlessly integrating them with the rest of your software.

How a Cannabis Business Can Leverage Technology to Secure Growth

The legalization of cannabis and medical marijuana just keeps spreading to more states. The demand from cannabis consumers has never been higher. The cannabis market is growing rapidly as a wide spectrum of people become marijuana consumers. This puts cannabis retailers in intense competition with one another and incentivizes the use of the latest forms of cannabis marketing technology available to retail businesses. This is especially true of leveraging digital marketing channels in this post-pandemic e-commerce boom. Since cannabis is illegal at the federal level, you may find it tricky to navigate through the various compliance-related rules and regulations that touch every vertical of the cannabis industry. That’s why we put together this article on some of our favorite cannabis marketing tools as well as the software you must use to complement these tools.

As the industry leader in providing text messaging & loyalty marketing tools to cannabis retailers, medical marijuana dispensaries, and brands; we’ve had the opportunity to work with the rest of the industry leaders in providing software for the cannabis business niche.

We’ve discovered some of the most effective marketing tools for our 2,500+ cannabis dispensaries across North America, which have been proven to drive growth.

We collaborate with our many partners to ensure that we can not only meet each client’s specific demands but also that we have a clear understanding of how each tool being used integrates with one another.

Whether it’s on a digital ad network, social media marketing, or simply integrating your live menu into email and SMS campaigns, we’ve vetted and tested the best options available to the cannabis industry that integrate or partner with, and most importantly, complement our solution.

1. SEO & Digital Optimization

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is one of the most valuable marketing tools that allows you to appear organically on search engines such as Google or Bing. Rather than paying a cost-per-click (CPC) on google’s search or display digital ad networks, organic SEO is “free”. Meaning you cannot buy your way to the top of the search engine results page (SERP). Results are decided by google’s core algorithm that takes many things into account, but a good way to think about it from a high level is using the acronym, E.A.T… Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness.

Fulfilling these requirements will make your dispensary website appear at a higher rank than others. And, as the cannabis industry is growing and maturing, it’s becoming increasingly important to focus on SEO. This is because as legalization happens on a state-by-state basis in America and around the world “ SERP competition will become even more cutthroat as large conglomerates attempt to muscle in.

Formulating an SEO strategy for a local business can be challenging at first, but by putting the time and effort in to produce high quality content you attract traffic, engage with the right audience, and take an in-depth look into which cannabis products to focus your marketing strategies on.

For example, if you’re a dispensary in Denver Colorado and your website is not optimized for the keyword “Denver Cannabis Dispensary”, then you will have a difficult time trying to rank on page one of any search engine results. If people don’t know about your brand, they won’t be able to find it on google or other

Why is SEO important?

When cannabis companies are attempting to expand, one of the most crucial digital efforts is search engine optimization (SEO). It helps you organically boost your cannabis business to the top of the search results, which in turn makes your dispensary reach a larger audience of potential customers. Internalizing your brand and considering your target audience and what they may be searching for on Google is an excellent approach to think about your local consumers.

As consumers become more digitally savvy and use their smartphones to look up products online before buying them in-store or ordering them for delivery, the most important marketing tools that any cannabis brand should focus on are the tools that help you engage with as many customers as possible through your website, weekly newsletter, and all social media channels (yes even Facebook and Instagram).

A study that analyzed organic click-through rates (CTR) found that the #1 position on Google gets 31.7% of all clicks; the top 3 spots get 75.1% of all clicks! So, a more important goal for your business may be to get into the top 3 of search results rather than to get just on the first page.

Range Marketing

Knowing that cannabis-related search traffic is at an all-time high, now is the time to gain new customers (and hopefully develop loyal ones as well) with local SEO. It’s imperative that everything online is updated and accurate at all times in order to stay competitive in this ever-changing industry. Staying relevant is always a challenge as well. Range Marketing can help you grow your digital presence by:

• Increasing online visibility to drive a high volume of quality traffic to your dispensary
• The need for aesthetic website design
• Expanding your digital presence to engage with new customers

2. Point-Of-Sale for the Cannabis Industry

A strong point of sale system is the foundation of any successful dispensary. POS provides a way for retailers to accept payments, track sales data, analyze customer preferences, store performance, and track all marijuana products sold for regulatory reporting in a timely manner. It helps them manage their inventory while also ensuring products stay secure at all times by keeping an accurate record of each transaction down to its exact timestamp.

Leading POS systems help cannabis retailers by:

• allowing retailers to track customer purchase patterns and spending habits.
• providing a quick, easy way for consumers to pay at checkout. It also makes it easier on staff members because they no longer need cash registers or paper receipts since everything is digital!
• Managing product and basket level discounts to maximize profits.
• Layering a loyalty program while onboarding new customers properly in order to increase lifetime value.
• Understanding customers’ purchasing patterns based on seasonality.
• Creating more sophisticated customer segments for targeting marketing.

 

Our Integration Family

We are integrated with all of the major cannabis POS systems This allows cannabis retailers to look at data trends, create customer personas and purchase profiles, and help you understand your local market. Integrate with their loyalty program, analyze built-in reports, and create targeted marketing campaigns using POS data in conjunction with proprietary data composed of health and consumer insights.

3. End-to-End Digital Marketing & Attribution

We can combine SEO and your polished online presence with advertising across websites and mobile applications in order to retain customers through location, purchase data, and behavioral data attributed to their mobile devices. End-to-end marketing encompasses SEO, digital advertising, email marketing, social media presence, website analytics, and more.

Being able to attribute sales and conversions back to a specific marketing effort is extremely beneficial for understanding what works and adjusting your ad campaigns.

Additionally, analyzing attribution data can help you identify which potential customers can be turned into VIPs through targeted SMS campaigns.

Surfside

Surfside is an end-to-end marketing technology that aggregates your data across all customer touchpoints. Integrating your cannabis marketing strategy with Surfside allows you to better understand, target, and measure how to influence current and future customers. They can help take your digital marketing to the next level by:

• Finding new and existing customers by utilizing advertising tactics like website retargeting, geofencing, and building custom audiences
• Understanding local markets and where your competitors and their consumers are located
• Advertising strategies to gain the edge over competitors in attracting and new consumers
• Ensure your advertising is leading to conversions and sales

4. E-commerce

Using a targeted marketing approach can assist your brand in dominating the digital retail space for your local dispensary. But, you have to be able to convert your prospective audience into customers. The convenience of e-commerce can help overcome many challenges that dispensaries face, especially in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dispensary e-commerce software helps cannabis dispensaries manage and fulfill orders while providing an engaging shopping experience for customers. E-commerce is also vital to the brand image of the products you sell, just one blurry picture, or a single bad review can completely change the decision a customer would have made in person. Consumers are enticed by the simplicity of access and time savings that come with online ordering and curbside pickup, the share of overall customers that opt for online shopping will only increase in the foreseeable future. Customers can order in advance online, opt to receive notifications when their orders are ready for pick-up, or just stop by the store and buy from the spot.

Olla

Olla is a fully customizable cannabis e-commerce platform that lets cannabis dispensaries track seasonal shopping trends, drives brand attention to retailers, and creates an easy place for customers to do their online cannabis shopping. With the new springbig x Olla integration, new members can enroll in a retailers’ loyalty program while existing customers can earn and manage point rewards at checkout. Using springbig and Olla lets customers have access to ways to earn even more points as well as customized incentives to boost repeat sales. This collaboration creates a streamlined process for customer retention, which will help foster a relationship between you and your loyal customers. Engage with your target audience by offering special membership deals – which will boost foot traffic and result in more sales.

5. Data Analytics

Now that we have business and customer data, what do we do with that? Analyzing data is an extremely valuable asset for cannabis advertising. It’s essential in predicting consumer trends, market patterns, and more.

Here are a few things that data analytics can do for your dispensary:

• Improve customer engagement and retention – see what’s working and what isn’t, then make adjustments accordingly. For example, if you notice ads aren’t performing well on Instagram but perform exceptionally on Facebook, it might be time to shift some of the budget from one to the other.
• Increase conversion rate: track which marketing campaigns are driving more sales or signups so you can optimize future ones based on past performance (or even pause underperforming ones). Think about A/B testing different ads as well!
• Identify new opportunities: understand where there’s room for growth in your current market by looking at competitors’ success trends. For example, analyzing popular hashtags related to CBD products.

Headset

In a world where decisions are made on relevant data, Headset gives you the big picture of your business while also allowing you to dive deep into details, customer demographics, and shopping behavior sourced directly from retail. You can easily make quick, confident decisions and navigate the cannabis industry with ease. View which brands are doing well, be competitive with other local businesses and view in-depth analyses on how to improve.

Takeaways

Although there are many aspects to creating a dispensary marketing plan that works for you, utilizing just some of the tools listed will ensure that you increase sales and customer satisfaction at your dispensary. Implementing successful digital marketing channels retains customers, fosters organic growth, and creates a sustainable business model for your brand. In contrast to outdated print media, digital marketing is an integral part of running any cannabis business. Pair these strategies with your cannabis marketing tools and stay ahead of the competition by utilizing the latest technology available in our industry.

In order to provide the best possible service to our clients, we’ve partnered with some of the top cannabis business software providers. Our team has years of experience in the cannabis tech space and we are confident that by working together we can optimize your dispensary software stack. If you’re interested in learning more about our services, please request a demo or feel free to ask a question in the chat widget to the right. We would be happy to show you how our solutions can help grow your business.