Welcome to High On Marketing - A weekly newsletter where I show you how to strengthen your email marketing strategy for your cannabis brand. Learn how to nurture your audience, increase retention rates, and sell more weed.

Today’s Email:

• Why your customers are abandoning their cart

• 2-step sequence for winning them back

• Using metrics to optimize future campaigns

Let’s Roll 🛼

More than 40% of abandoned cart emails are opened. Of those 40%, ~21% receive click-throughs, and half of those click-throughs make a purchase (source: moosend).

But a lot of cannabis brands I’ve come across don’t have any type of abandoned cart recovery strategy at all.

I know this because I’ll make accounts with these brands and add items to my cart, browse products, or start checkout to see/gain inspiration from their automated sequences.

Abandoned cart flows are soooooo easy to set up, and they can have a massive impact on your brands’ revenue.

Let’s get into it:

Why your customers are abandoning their cart:

The most common reasons online shoppers abandon their carts before completing checkout are:

1. Unexpected additional costs

2. Mandatory account creation

3. Confusing checkout process

4. Concerns about payment security

5. Limited payment methods

6. Technical issues

Some of these, like numbers 3, 5 & 6, are fixed by optimizing your landing/checkout pages to be as user-friendly, and convenient as possible.

Loading times can be a killer; get rid of any unnecessary fluff on your website that could be slowing down user load times - too many pictures, popups, or plugins can slow your website down.

Make your checkout process, and overall customer shopping experience as simple and painless as possible.

Most dispensaries offer either in-person cash payments, or pay with card with a cannabis-friendly payment processor, so limited payment methods isn’t usually a huge concern (for your customer at least).

Unexpected additional costs and concerns about payment security are two of the biggest issues with your customers.

Luckily, both of those are easily fixed.

And the solution to both concerns are: Honesty and transparency.

Your customers don’t like being surprised (unless it’s a surprise discount!). You know how you’ll go to make an online payment and you have to pay a ridiculous “transaction fee” on top of whatever you’re spending?

Or if you click-through to a product that says “50% Off”, and when you get to checkout you realize the discount is only for people who are exactly 63.7 years old, served in multiple wars, and can do a double backflip from standing position.

Yeahhhhh, it sucks.

Tell them exactly what to expect, no surprises.

Trust and transparency are everything in the cannabis industry.

2-step sequence for winning them back:

Fortunately, an abandoned cart email sequence can be set up in less than an hour, and the ROI can be insane.

My abandoned cart strategy has 3 main elements:

1. Personalization

2. Urgency

3. Simplicity

Personalization: Using their first name in the SL, preview text, or body is the easiest way to personalize your message. Personalize it further by including the product that they have in their cart; maybe they just forgot!

Urgency: This is the big one. FOMO is one of the biggest factors in making a purchase decision. “Your Cart Is Expiring😭", or "Complete Checkout Before Your Products Sell Out!" are great urgency-inducing SL’s!

Simplicity: Like I mentioned above, your entire checkout process needs to be as easy and painless as possible. Since this IS the cannabis industry, and most locations don't allow for home delivery of cannabis products, your CTA is to get your customers to stop into your shop.

How do you make THAT process as convenient as possible for your customers?

SHOW them how easy it is to select a product, choose WHATEVER pickup time works for them, and stop in ON THEIR TIME to grab it.

People naturally take the path of least resistance. And that’s true for online shopping too. Make the process simple, then SHOW them how simple it is.

Here’s how I personally set up abandoned cart campaigns for dispensaries:

Email #1: Reminder of items in their cart

Subject Line/Preview Text: Where’d you go? There’s still items in your cart!

Body: {Reminding them which product(s) they left behind and showing them how easy it is to complete checkout, select a pickup time, and get to smokin’! Use urgency to say that their cart is expiring soon}

CTA: Take me to my cart! (use words like “my” or “your” for personalization points)

Email #2: NOW you use discounts

SL/PT: Your cart is expiring😭 How about an extra X% off?

Body: {This is where you REALLY tack on the urgency. Their cart is expiring soon and they'll ONLY get this deal if they checkout NOW!!!! Plus, it's sooooo easy to complete that checkout process!!}

CTA: I want it!

Using metrics to optimize future campaigns:

Understanding Key Metrics:

• Open Rates: Indicates how compelling your email subject line and sender name are. A low open rate might suggest the need for more engaging, curiosity-inducing subject lines or clearer sender identification.

• Click-Through Rates (CTR): Measures how many people clicked on the links or CTAs in your email. A low CTR could imply that the content isn’t resonating with the audience or that the call to action isn’t clear or compelling enough.

• Recovery Rates: The percentage of abandoned carts that result in a purchase. It directly reflects the effectiveness of your abandoned cart sequence in nudging customers to complete their purchases.

These metrics are your best friends. Continually analyze your strategy, find what works, double-down on what’s bringing you results.

A/B Testing:

This is the fun part.

Every brand is different. What works for one brand may not work for yours.

And that’s ok!

Elements like personalization, urgency, and simplicity are always gonna positively impact your strategy. But things like subject lines, contact times, email formats, and CTA’s can differ depending on your audience’s preferences and routines.

Use the metrics listed above to perform A/B tests on different elements of your emails.

For example, test two different subject lines to see which yields a higher open rate, or try varying your CTA’s placement or wording to improve CTR.

Personalization:

If certain segments (e.g., medical vs. recreational users, young vs. old, etc.) show different behaviors, tailor your AC emails accordingly.

For example, if you’re getting more clicks from offering rewards points over discount codes from your segments, double-down on points and added loyalty program perks as your lead magnets.

Some Things To Remember:

The legal cannabis industry is still very new.

There’s still so many stigmas and regulations that it can be discouraging for most canna-professionals.

But there’s a silver lining, and it’s a win-win for you!

My solution for stigmas and unfair guidelines in the canna-verse?

We need to get more people smokin’!

There’s power in numbers, and if enough people see the value in cannabis, and see how much it helps others, the ultimate goal of completely ending cannabis prohibition gets a little closer!

If you have:

• An honest brand

• High-quality products

• A genuine commitment to the progression of this industry by providing high-quality, consistent education, products, and customer experience

Then every time that you make a sale or create a new customer, you are playing a part in moving the cannabis industry forward!

Optimizing your abandoned cart flows (among other crucial automations) not only increases your revenue, it also gets more products into more hands.

This is exactly how we continue moving this industry forward.

Happy emailing!

Steve

P.S. I’d love to hear how any of these tips helped your marketing strategy! Reply to this email or connect with me on LinkedIn for any questions, or if you try out any of my pointers!