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:

• 7 Tips for Crafting a Distinctive Email Marketing Strategy for Your Cannabis Brand

• What You Can Do Today

Let’s Roll 🛼

The worst thing you can do when developing your email marketing strategy is trying to do what another brand has already done.

You need to carve out your own little corner in this industry so you can dig your heels in and stay for the long run. You need to be memorable.

Your emails are a representation of your brand, and you need to maintain a distinctive voice throughout your contact to stay in your customer’s minds.

Without that, you’ll lack customer retention, and brand recognition.

Here’s 7 tips for creating a more memorable experience for your audience with your email strategy:

1. Find Your Value Proposition:

A lot of canna brands struggle to grow their audience because they’re not memorable enough.

There has to be something that you do different or better as a dispensary than your competition - maybe it’s your mission statement, your extraction process, your sustainable business practices.

Whatever your thing is, that’s your value proposition.

Now you have to explain to your customers that you do that thing so much better that they just have to see the difference for themselves.

My dispensary-of-choice just happens to be the last family-owned dispensary left in the whole state of Maryland - if I were their marketing manager, I’d put that in every email I sent.

You need to learn how to walk the fine line between making your value proposition sound like the greatest thing to ever happen to cannabis, without over-promising and leaving your customers disappointed.

Find what makes you different and don’t shut up about it!

2. Personalize Your Messaging:

Personalization is one of the easiest ways to standout in your customer’s mind.

And I’m not just talking about first names!

Personalize everything.

• Your recommendations

• Your content format

• Your subject line

• Your imagery

• Your CTA

Use customer behavioral data to determine what kind of products they use, what kind of content they’re engaging with, and what kind of upsell or cross-sell opportunities there might be.

Use polls and surveys to gather extra preference information from your customers to try to find the perfect way to communicate with them and what their favorite products are.

Every little detail counts when it comes to personalization; the more individualized you can get your messaging across, the better it will perform.

3. Leverage Automation:

What’s better than engaging your audience through emails? Doing it automatically while you sleep…

If you’re not using email automation to consistently target new subscribers, VIP customers, and every other segment of your audience, you’re creating more work for yourself with diminished results!

The absolute bare minimum number of automatic flows you should have is 5:

1. Welcome series

2. Abandoned browse

3. Abandoned cart

4. Abandoned checkout

5. Post-purchase

You NEED these 5 automations if you want to create customers 24/7.

Luckily for you, being a subscriber of High On Marketing means you already have my automation templates!

Automations are not used enough in the cannabis industry; I’ve come across multiple brands that have no welcome series or even cart abandonment sequences.

Optimizing your automations will help your brand stay on top-of-mind and will drive action without you doing a thing!

4. Educate Your Audience:

Trust goes a long way in the canna industry…

And aside from providing high-quality, trustworthy products (which you should obviously be doing), educating your audience is probably the best way to build trust.

Teach your audience how to make more informed decisions when making a cannabis purchase - I believe there’s a strain or canna product out there for everyone. If you can help your customers find it, you establish yourself as a brand that cares and can provide what your customers need.

But it’s not always 100% cannabis-focused; there’s a TON of topics you could create content for that would be of interest to your canna customers.

Cannabis goes hand-in-hand with health and wellness, music, art, nature, etc.

Chances are, your customers have interests that align with some of these. Start creating content around some of these topics.

Teach them how cannabis can enhance these interests and experiences.

5. Offer Exclusive Deals:

Not just exclusive, personalized deals as well.

Cannabis brands run sales and promos all the time, but usually they’re just sending one discount code for the same promo to their whole list.

What you can do to standout is create different promos for different segments of your audience. Send them deals and promos on products they have purchased in the past.

Recommending relevant products to your customers and adding a “Members Only” type of discount is a powerful combo!

Every cannabis user is different and it’s important to make your customers feel as though their needs are always being met.

And to REALLY standout, try running less-common promos that most brands aren’t doing. Here’s a few underrated ways to get your audience more engaged and feeling like true VIP’s:

1. Early access to new products: Offer VIP customers the first pick on new products or exclusive access to limited edition strains.

2. Members-only products: Special strains, accessories, or branded merchandise that only loyalty members can purchase.

3. Customization options: Allow VIPs to customize products or have a say in upcoming product flavors or names.

4. Subscription boxes: Create a subscription box service with curated cannabis products, accessories, and other goodies that ship directly to VIPs on a regular schedule.

5. Recognition programs: Feature profiles of VIP customers in your newsletters or on your website, sharing their stories or experiences with cannabis.

6. Utilize User-Generated Content:

The #1 way to build trust in your brand and your products is social proof.

Using user-generated content such as customer reviews, testimonials, photos, and videos of consumers using the products, reassures potential buyers about the quality and effectiveness of your products.

Leveraging UGC in your content strategy has loads of benefits:

1. Provides Content Variety

2. Drives User Engagement

3. Enhances Personalization

4. Builds Trust and Authenticity

5. Encourages Community Involvement

And how do you acquire UGC?

1. Start by actively encouraging your customers to share their experiences with your products; use incentives like giveaways, contests, or specialized discounts for customers that provide photos, videos, and/or written testimonials.

2. Host regular UGC features like “Fan Photo Friday” or “Story Spotlight”.

3. Create themed campaigns- When you’re promoting a new strain intended for relaxation, feature customer stories and images that show how your product has helped them unwind or manage stress.

4. Collect UGC for different segments of your email list. Use real stories of similar customer profiles to show proof that your products do what they claim.

Want to learn how to turn your emails into actual foot traffic? Here’s 7 ways your emails could be funneling customers right to your dispo

7. Celebrate Milestones:

Celebrating birthdays and cannabis holidays with personalized discounts and promos is a given… Every canna brand should at least be running those.

But you can take it a step farther by celebrating uncommon milestones:

1. Loyalty Milestones: Celebrate the number of purchases or visits a customer has made. Send a special thank you or a unique discount after their 5th, 10th, or 20th purchase.

2. Referral Milestones: If you have a referral program (you better!), celebrate when a customer reaches a certain number of successful referrals.

3. Product Reviews: Reward customers who frequently review products they’ve purchased from you. Celebrate their 10th review with a special thank you note and a discount on their next purchase.

4. Sustainability Contributions: If your brand has a recycling program or any sustainability initiative, celebrate customers who actively participate, such as recycling cartridges or participating in a packaging return program.

What You Can Do Today:

• Define Your Brand Voice: Review your existing content and identify the tone and style. Decide if it truly reflects your brand’s personality—whether that’s professional, playful, educational, or something else.

• Create a Content Calendar that outlines what type of content you will send and when. This should include regular newsletters, educational content, promotional emails, and special dates.

• Start Building a Story Bank: Collect stories from customers, employees, and your community that align with your brand. This could include testimonials, case studies, or fun anecdotes about your products.

• Implement Interactive Elements: Make your emails interactive by adding polls, surveys, or swipeable image galleries. Interactive content not only increases engagement but also provides valuable feedback and data about your subscribers’ preferences and behaviors.

• Focus on Mobile Optimization: Ensure that all your email content is optimized for mobile devices. Use responsive design templates, keep the layout simple, and test on multiple devices to ensure content looks good and is easy to navigate.

• Personalize and Segment Your Emails: Use data to segment your email list into different groups based on their preferences, purchase history, and behavior. Send personalized emails that cater to the interests of each group.

• Regularly Update and Refresh Content: Audit your email content every quarter to identify what’s working and what isn’t. Refresh templates, update images, and revise copy to keep things fresh and engaging.
  

Remember, email marketing is a long game. You need to decide on a strategy and stick with it. Too many brands try switching their marketing strategies up every month or two and that’s a huge mistake!

Brand consistency leads to familiarity, familiarity leads to customer retention.

Be yourself, stand out, and don’t stop emailing!

Happy Memorial Day! Be safe, and enjoy your time with your family! Thank you to all who have served and continue to serve.

Steve

P.S. Does your brand have a distinct voice/theme/tone/strategy? If not (or if you’re not sure), reply to this email with what you’re struggling with in finding your unique brand voice. I’ll help you find it!