The CBD market is fast-growing and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. In 2020, just two years after the federal legalization of hemp-derived cannabinoids, CBD sales in the US hit a massive $4.6 billion. Still, what’s already a multi-billion-dollar sector is only expected to get bigger. That’s why investing in CBD business is likely one of the best ideas at the moment. But, there’s one issue.
With CBD packaging companies, big and small, all looking to seize this opportunity, how do you make your CBD branding stand out? The answer? By utilizing a wide array of marketing strategies that help you grab the attention of your target audience and, with a bit of luck, convert them into loyal customers. Ready to jump into the fray? Here are seven marketing tips for your CBD business!
Grasping the CBD Marketing Challenges
Yes, the awareness has increased, and the legal climate has turned more favorable; nevertheless, some marketing challenges and restrictions remain. And our best advice when it comes to advertising your CBD business is that you make yourself aware of them.
For starters, it isn’t legal in all states. And even if your state permits the use of CBD, the law is still strict about how you can advertise your products. For instance, any claims about CBD medical benefits, untested assumptions, and everything that FDA has not approved are strictly off-cards for your marketing efforts.
But, even with legality aside, there’s the fact that each advertising platform has its own set of restrictions and regulations against CBD advertising campaigns you have to respect and follow.
Marketing Tips for your CBD Business
1. Know your Consumers and Competitors.
For one thing, you can research your target audience and other brands selling CBD products in your niche. Naturally, your strategy will differ depending on whether you’re targeting a medicinal or recreational audience, selling CBD to seniors vs. younger audiences, etc.
Developing a personalized marketing approach will boost your chances of success and help you avoid wasting all the good effort. Therefore, begin by listing factors such as demographics, needs, expectations, product preferences, and possible pain points.
Once you have this info, you’ll know what kinds of CBD products will satisfy those needs, and you’ll be able to build your buyer persona. Your competitors can give you a few pointers, as well. So, see if you can find out who their customers are, their selling point, how effective their CBD marketing is, and their strong points and weaknesses. Use this info to improve your CBD marketing strategy.
2. Give Utmost Importance to Content.
Content marketing is perfect for building trust and clearing all doubts by educating your audience about CBD and its therapeutic value (it’s non-psychoactive). What’s more, it’s an excellent tactic for targeting cold prospects and getting them into your conversion funnel since they’re likely actively searching for answers and information about the products and ways to obtain them.
Providing relevant blog content gives you a good start. You can try sharing content newsletters with your subscribers, guest blogging for niche-leading blogs, etc. This helps you answer all questions for your target market, extend your outreach, and market your business without advertising.
That brings us to SEO!
3. Double up on SEO.
If we’re going to talk about marketing tips for your CBD business, we must mention Search Engine Optimization (SEO). A solid SEO strategy makes your website easier to find and thus gives your business a chance to be seen. It’s best to conduct a thorough SEO audit and see if your current efforts are effective. If not, find out what improvements you can make.
For instance, you should:
- build an attractive website
- populate your site with trending, high-quality content
- know how to use meta-tags and high-potential keywords to your advantage,
- optimize file names and alt-tags of images
- develop an internal link and backlink strategy,
- include lots of visuals
- keep your XML sitemap updated,
- make sure your website has a good page speed,
- etc.
Also, using local SEO can help you capture local customers. This is particularly helpful if you’re new to the area. Perhaps you’ve just moved to New York. Or maybe you just made a local move from Queens to Brooklyn. Either way, you’ve gone through all the trouble of finding reliable assistance in the area, packing all the boxes, and moving your business. All that’s left now is to drive people to your shop – and local SEO is the best way to do that.
CBD Packaging Store
4. Go for Email Marketing.
Email marketing may not be the first thing that comes to mind when looking to market your CBD business. However, this does not mean you should discount it that easily. 99% of consumers check their inboxes daily.
So, if executed strategically, it can be a highly effective and lucrative way to gain leads and turn them into paying customers. Once you’ve found a good email marketing platform and got the green light from your email service provider, you can start building your subscriber list.
Offer a lead magnet on your website as an incentive you can exchange for an email address. Typically, this can be anything from PDFs and eBooks to whitepapers and videos. Any downloadable digital content is fine, as long as it’s unique, helpful, and provides value to consumers. Then, you can slowly start to nurture site visitors into loyal customers.
5. Leverage CBD Influencers & Affiliate Marketing.
Ask any CBD business how they market their products, and they’ll swear by influencer marketing. Why? People trust influencers – mainly because they relate to them on a personal level. So, if they provide personal and authentic reviews to their Instagram followers, you get more visibility and increased conversions.
But besides building your brand, they can also provide fresh content and backlinks, thus improving your rankings on the SERPs. Finally, because they’re such fantastic storytellers, they directly impact the consumer buying decision.
As a further incentive, consider offering the top influencers an affiliate marketing program. This is excellent for creating a long-term sales funnel and lowering your overall influencer marketing spend simultaneously. Besides Instagram, you can also reach out to bloggers whose content fits your brand and has a broad audience.
6. Win with Social Media Marketing.
Sure, there’s a lot of controversy surrounding CBD, resulting in many advertising restrictions on most platforms. But, there’s still a way for CBD businesses to create a legit social media presence. While you can’t run paid ads to grow traffic and consumers, you can always build an impressive brand page to publish interesting posts, stories, etc. This helps you connect with your audience and build brand awareness and trust.
7. Track your CBD Marketing Results.
The final point on our list of marketing tips for your CBD business has to do with making sure all of the above is effective. How? By utilizing web analytics tools to track and measure your marketing efforts. With the help of these tools, you can analyze the quality and quantity of your website traffic, identify high-potential target customers, and more. After all, if you’re going to invest your money, time, and resources, it only makes sense to ensure it’s worth it.
