The cannabis industry is an industry with a slew of legal complications that can put you and your business and a bind if you’re not careful, and recent events in CA are a testament to this. According to the Los Angeles Times, on November 20th, a judge in California ruled that the California Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) had overstepped its authority by allowing cannabis advertising along California’s interstates. What happened? And how can you make sure you’re prepared to adapt to these changes and the countless other regulations in the industry? Keep reading to find out.

In the original legislation that legalized recreational marijuana, a ban on billboard advertisement was included in the law. But just last year the BCC voided this ban and adopted a regulation actually permitting such advertisement. But just recently on November 20th, 2020, Judge Ginger E. Garrett ruled that the BCC had actually overstepped their authority in adopting the regulation and thus it is now again against the law to place cannabis advertisements along California’s interstate highways. While businesses can still advertise along highways that aren’t considered interstates, the ban still includes 4,315 miles of interstate which means there will be a lot of unhappy businesses taking down their ads.

Confusing isn’t it? It was originally illegal, then the BCC made it legal by passing a regulation that actually permitted it, and then after a year a lawsuit was filed and a San Luis Obispo County Superior Court judge ruled it illegal again. This only goes to show how volatile cannabis law and the industry itself is at this point in its life, and this only goes to show how important it is to be ready for sudden changes if you’re a part of the industry. So, what other advertising methods should you tap into if you want to remain compliant when marketing? And how can you stay ready and avoid legal issues?

Compliant Marketing Tactics

First thing’s first, what are some of the safest and most effective marketing tactics to use in the cannabis industry? Text message marketing and loyalty programs. We might be biased, but the numbers would agree with us here as well.

Loyalty Programs

Even better than bringing in new customers is keeping old ones coming back, and that’s exactly what you can do with a loyalty program.

Loyalty programs are the perfect way to increase your retention rates and sales, which according to recent studies go hand-in-hand. Studies show that just a 5% increase in retention rates can boost profits up to 95%. On top of this, it has also been shown that customer retention can be anywhere from 5 to 25 times cheaper than marketing to new customers.

So, how do you keep customers around and boost retention rates? Give them a unique and personalized experience, and reward them for their loyalty. Luckily, springbig is here to help you do just that.

Springbig’s loyalty platform not only gives you the tools you need to operate a comprehensive loyalty program at your dispensary, but it also gives you the tools to make it extremely personalized for each customer. For example, our loyalty platform can be used to do things such as automatically send loyalty members small gifts or discounts on their birthday, segment your loyalty members by interest or a variety of other traits, and even leverage your customers in exchange for free marketing with referrals and Brands by springbig.

Text Message Marketing

Another extremely effective marketing strategy that your business should be utilizing is text message marketing. Especially paired with springbig’s loyalty program, text message marketing could become the most effective way to not only marketing at your dispensary, but also the most effective way to communicate with your customers.

What makes it so effective? Well besides the 98% open rate, text message marketing with springbig allows you to do more with your text message marketing besides blast out text messages, you can target your text messages, and better yet, automate them.

That’s right, and it is all done with the help of springbig’s autoconnects. With these, you can set up messages to automatically go out to customers at exactly the right times. For example, you can set up messages to automatically be sent after customers visit, after they join your loyalty program, when they make a big purchase, and on their birthday among many other things. With automated and targeted marketing like this, marketing has never been easier.

Stay on top of the law with 360 Permissions

When it comes to avoiding legal issues, springbig’s comprehensive suite of compliance tools, 360 Permissions, is here to help you stay on top of all the state and legal regulations that affect the cannabis industry.

Especially when it comes to marketing your business, springbig’s brands is your best friend. Besides keeping you aware of cannabis law, springbig’s 360 permissions actually provides your business with the tools it needs to handle regulations such as the TCPA or the HIPAA so that you can compliantly collect and use customer data in your marketing strategy. In today’s world, utilizing customer data to target your marketing campaigns is a must, but doing this is dangerous. So, how does springbig’s 360 Permissions help?

Customers first opt-in by giving their phone number once they give their phone number the subscriber is sent a customizable join form which they can fill out and even sign digitally right on their phone. In this way, cannabis dispensaries satisfy the double permission requirement without having to send the inefficient opt-in text that so often gets ignored. With 360 permissions, not only do you get access to a customizable join form that can be accessed on your website or used for in-store enrollments, but you also get text-to-join, tap-to-join, and scan-to-join abilities via join codes, an NFC chip, and custom QR codes. You even receive access to multichoice join flyers and an electronic signature color app for collecting signatures from customers.

In a rapidly changing industry with laws that change by the day, making sure your complaint is a much. Luckily, with comprehensive tools provided by 360 Permissions that make sure you’re compliant with the HIPAA, TCPA, and all other laws and regulations, along with marketing strategies like text message marketing and loyalty programs that have proven themselves to be effective in the cannabis industry, you’ll never have to worry about legal trouble again.