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.

⚡Quick Tip⚡

Today’s Email:

• Identifying Your Top Customers

• How To Keep Them Happy

• How To Create More

Let’s Roll 🛼

“Every customer should be treated equally.”

Wrong 🙅‍♂️

Different customers have different amounts of value towards your brand.

It’d be a mistake to not give your best customers special treatment.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the 80/20 rule by now: ~80% of a brands’ annual revenue comes from 20% of its customers.

Your top 20%, aka your VIP customers, need a reason to enter, and remain in the top 20%.

So how do you do that?

Let’s start with the obvious⬇️⬇️

Identifying Your Top Customers:

So how do you know who your top customers are? Simple…

Unsurprisingly, it’s the customers who are most engaged with your brand.

Notice how I did not say it’s the customers who BUY the most from your brand.

Obviously, your biggest spenders are part of it. But it’s not only customers with the highest AOV or purchase frequency that make up your VIP customer segments.

Customers that engage with the actual content are often neglected by brands because they don’t consider you a VIP customer if you’re not spending hundreds of dollars per week at their shop.

And that’s where mistakes are made…

If your customers are opening your emails, answering polls, sharing your posts, tagging your brand on social media, etc. That means something about your brand is resonating with them; maybe it’s your brands’ values, business practices, products, social media content…

Either way, your most engaged audience members are your VIP customers.

• Track engagement rates to identify who is interacting most with your emails.

• Segment based on purchase habits, interests, and engagement levels.

Now that you know who you’re targeting…

How To Keep Them Happy:

Quality, exclusivity, and personalization are key in keeping your best customers happy.

Your top 20% of customers are your free brand advocates; not only do they provide you with regular purchases and consistent engagement, they’re also your #1 word-of-mouth supporters.

Meaning, the happier you make them, the more they talk about you to their friends, family, and other consumers.

Keeping them happy means creating a tailored experience for them.

Including but not limited to:

• Content that aligns with their goals/preferences

• Exclusive discounts on relevant products

• Personalized communication

• Value beyond promotions

That last bullet point is criminally underrated…

Your audience members are interested in a LOT more than just cannabis. People from all walks of life and all backgrounds enjoy cannabis as a PART of their lives.

Don’t make your content 100% cannabis.

DO make your content 100% customer-focused.

Consistent value. Consistent frequency. Consistent relevancy.

And that leads to the most burning question of them all ⬇️⬇️

When You’re Ready, Here’s How I Can Help You…

Click HERE to download the High On Marketing Evergreen Templates - 50 pre-written emails tailored for cannabis brands to educate, engage, and encourage action from your audience

Stay on top-of-mind while building a well-informed, loyal customer base.

Get your templates today and have the next 6 months of canna content covered!

⬇️Don’t forget to use your subscriber code for 50% off!⬇️

9VVS85T

How To Create More:

How do you convince your 80% of customers to be more like your 20%? There’s only one answer (and I already mentioned it above):

Value BEYOND Promotions

Providing value with no obvious expectation for your customer to take any kind of monetary action.

You want them thinking about you, remembering you, talking about you, and obviously, buying from you.

Here’s 3 ways you can increase engagement and emotional connection with your audience while still encouraging plenty of action:

Educate and Upsell: Educate your customers on higher-quality products; show them how a canna upgrade can benefit them. Your customers will take you up on your recommendations if they trust you. Use purchase history and personal preferences to find relevant products for your segments.

Engagement Campaigns: The more your audience engages with your brand, the more likely they are to make purchases. Keep them engaged, and they will keep purchasing.

Utilize interactive content like polls and surveys to keep them engaged, and to continuously gather info to better tailor their experience.

Automate post-purchase emails to ask your customers how they enjoyed their purchase, and to encourage repeat business with discounts or loyalty points.

Referral Programs: Referral programs are another criminally underused strategy. Even by me! I STILL haven’t set up my own referral program for my newsletter (it’s on my to-do list I promise!).

Regardless, referral programs are easy to create, and it’s just free publicity. Offer a discount, brand swag, or free canna accessories in exchange for a certain number of referrals. Word-of-mouth is a powerful tool!

Discover how to create detailed customer personas for more precise targeting here!

Retaining customers as a cannabis dispensary at all is an accomplishment itself. The amount of options available (especially in adult-use states) can make it difficult to stand out from your competitors and keep your queue full.

Once you have your top shoppers segmented, it’s crucial to keep them happy and talking about your brand.

Never underestimate the power of customer loyalty.

Don’t treat all your customers equally. Give them a reason to WANT the VIP treatment themselves.

Happy Emailing!

Steve

P.S. I’m making a few changes to HOM. Same idea and look, but a few additions to make it more enjoyable and valuable for you! The first of which is the Quick Tip at the start of my newsletters. I’m excited to keep improving this little passion project of mine and I hope you’re enjoying the ride so far!🫶