Who said that loyalty programs were only for dispensaries? Loyalty programs have been growing in popularity in the cannabis industry and have proven their ability to drive sales and increase the percentage of customers that are considered repeat customers.
But how do they do this? What is it about loyalty rewards programs that makes them so good at customer retention? Loyalty programs work because of what’s known as the “Paretto Principle”–aka the 80/20 rule. It says that 20% of your customers account for 80% of revenue, and acquiring a new customer can cost as much as 5-7x more than retaining an existing one.
Because of this principle cannabis marketers have found it essential to turn their focus to retaining existing customers. Thus, the purpose of these loyalty programs is not to please every customer that walks through the door, their purpose is to please the 20% of your customers that drive your sales and visit frequently.
Keeping these main revenue drivers happy and coming back for more is the best recipe for success, and that isn’t just true for cannabis dispensaries, the same holds true for cannabis brands. Implementing a loyalty program into your cannabis brand marketing strategy can help your brand increase sales and build a loyal customer base.
In this article, we’ll be discussing how to build marijuana brand loyalty and how to push cannabis brand sales with a cannabis brand loyalty program. We’ll be discussing how to encourage customers to join your loyalty program and how to keep them satisfied once they join. Our hope is that cannabis brands and the individuals behind them will see this and break the false assumption that loyalty programs are only for cannabis dispensaries.
To begin, let’s discuss how to get customers to join your brand’s loyalty program.
How to get customers to join your brand’s loyalty program
Cannabis brand marketing is much different than dispensary marketing, so it follows that pushing your brand’s loyalty program will be different as well. But what does this look like? There’s no need to rack your brain for cannabis brand marketing ideas, because marketing your brands loyalty program is actually relatively simple with the following three tips.
QR Codes
QR codes will be crucial in navigating this space, as brands typically don’t have customers coming in and out of physical stores.
QR codes are great because they can be printed on almost everything, including cannabis products. In fact, many products are already doing this by including QR codes on their products that tell customers more about the product itself.
For cannabis brands, these QR codes These QR codes could be used to direct customers to a join page for your brands loyalty program. In this way, customers don’t have to hear about your loyalty program to join it, all they have to do is see or buy one of your products.
If you want to go the extra mile, you could even put multiple QR codes of your products that direct your customers to your social media pages or website.
Join links on all social media
Like we said above, linking to your social media pages on all of your products is important if you’re wanting to raise brand awareness and grow your organic social media marketing capabilities.
Once you’ve grown your brand, it is likely that many customers will find you on their own on social media, which makes your social media similar to a dispensaries brick and mortar store in the sense that this is where a majority of your customer engagement will take place. Because of this, it is crucial to include links to your loyalty program and post about the benefit of and how to join your loyalty program.
Brands by springbig
When it comes to cannabis brand marketing tools, Brands by springbig is a cannabis product marketing platform that you won’t want to go without.
Brands by springbig allows you to tap into springbig’s clients’ customer bases, consisting of over 23,000,000 customers who have shown their intent to purchase cannabis products. Through this cannabis marketing software, you’ll be able to partner with springbig client dispensaries in exchange for the ability to market to their customer bases via text message marketing.
This cannabis marketing software has already shown its ability to drive sales and loyalty redemptions. In its soft launch, it was able to 1,713% ROI for our client dispensary Elevate Lompoc when they partnered with the cannabis brand Lime. Since this, Brands has made big waves in the cannabis industry and has even been featured in Forbes.
Cannabis product marketing has never been easier. With access to such a large base of customers and ways to target your marketing campaigns based on customer segmentation, Brands by springbig is ready and able to help your brand reach its goals.
Keeping customers satisfied
Now that you’ve gotten customers to join your loyalty program, the focus turns to how to keep these customers happy.
Have great rewards
The first step in this will be to ensure that the benefits of joining your loyalty program make it desirable, and that means having great rewards. Customers join loyalty rewards programs in order to be rewarded for their loyalty – it’s in the name – so making sure your rewards are up to par is key.
As soon as your members join, you should incentivize them to come back later. In addition to the points they receive for a purchase give them a bounce back deal with a minimum purchase value. For example, spend 100 dollars on your next purchase and get a free preroll.
Sleek and user-friendly interface
Similar to why QR codes are so important, having a sleek and user-friendly interface is crucial to the success of your brand’s loyalty program because seeing as most brands lack a physical location, this is where customers will be spending a majority of their time when interacting with your brand.
Springbig provides custom branded digital wallets made in-house by our graphic designers so you can provide your customers with a consistent brand image across every touchpoint.
Customer engagement on social media
Customer engagement is crucial when it comes to the overall customer experience, and for brands that means engaging with customers on social media. Since the majority of your customers won’t be visiting your brand’s warehouse, social media will be the only place where they can get a look at your brand’s daily operations.
Social media not only gives you a chance to give customers a behind the scenes look into your brand, but it also presents an opportunity for you to communicate directly with your customers in the comment section. While most big brands neglect this aspect of social media, the impression a single response to a customer’s comment can make should not be overlooked.
On top of this, social media gives you the opportunity to shape your brand’s voice and reputation. You can tailor your posts to be academically focused, fun and informative, personal and caring, or a mix. It is ultimately up to you, but it’s important to remember that whatever persona your brand portrays on social media is what a majority of your customers will associate with your brand.
Exclusive products
When a customer joins a loyalty program, they expect a special kind of treatment. Like we said in the beginning, loyalty programs aren’t about pleasing your entire customer base, it’s about keeping the 20% of your costumes who drive sales happy and feeling special.
There’s no better way to make a customer feel special than by providing them with exclusive products that are only accessible to loyalty members. Whether it’s merch or an actual product such as an exclusive pack of edibles or even an exclusive strain, nothing makes a customer feel more important than exclusives.
Recap
Nobody said that running a loyalty program as a cannabis brand would be easy, but with these tips, it will definitely be a lot easier. From encouraging costumes to joining with QR codes and via social media, to keeping them happy with exclusive products and a sleek user interface, your loyalty program is bound to drive sales and boost your brand’s brand image.
CEO and Co-founder of springbig
Jeffrey Harris