Emerging Industries

The Highs & Lows of Cannabis Social Media

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There’s no business like the cannabis business, we’re all in it together and despite (or maybe because of) the challenges, we love it. One of the areas with “challenges” is cannabis social media. 

Every cannabis brand knows that social media is an integral part of branding – and done right, it can play a pivotal role in press opportunities as well.  Yet, it can be a little disheartening to be on social media when just about every platform has become “pay to play.” But, never fear, there are solutions to the cannabis social media challenge. 

There are so many social media opportunities, I hope you’ll take a look at this and think about these issues within cannabis social media and how you can lead the industry with your social media. 

Good Cannabis Social Media: Product First, Second AND Third?

One of the issues I currently have with cannabis social media is that it’s so product forward, there’s so much opportunity to tell stories on social, and yet stream after stream is a picture of a plant or a bottle or a vape. OF course, it’s important to put your product out there, but who (besides a bot) stops to comment on a picture like that? The opportunity in cannabis social media is to create a passionate audience–very few people get really excited about product images. Think about the last visual ad you saw, I bet you remember the story in the ad better than the product hero shot. 

So what should we do about product/story balance? 

Consider including product within a mix of posts. Either find a way to tie together a series of posts that together, tell a story.  Your stories can be vignettes, values, people, anything that underscores your brand values and attributes. Within the context of these brand values, your goal is to make people pause long enough to look again, maybe even long enough to look at the rest of your feed. Now, I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t post product at all, I want you to post the product, especially in ways that highlight your customer’s experience. I WANT you to have products shots, but

 

 

Use the rule of thumb: product images for every 3rd or 4th image. 

 

Disruption: The Good, The Bad and The Amazing

First, I’d like to encourage all brands to consider the nascent stages we’re in and consider that it’s on all of us, as a community to improve our image. If you’re going to take risks on social (and not every brand is a “risk taking” brand), then be very clear about how other people perceive the message you’re putting out there. For example, if you’re marketing to women, be aware, women aren’t generally all that jazzed about hypersexualized images. But hey! If you’ve done the research and your cannabis brand is about disruption, and you’re using images like this strategically, I’m a huge fan of bold moves. But go into that kind of brand risk-taking with open eyes. You might just end up on the pages of a publication with an outraged journalist writing a missive about their disgust. And even if THAT doesn’t happen, you may forever alienate the people you thought would be interested in your product. Strong brands sometimes do alienate people, but that’s usually because they know their audience SO well, they know their audience will stand by them. Knowing your audience that well means you’ve done your research.

Maximize your payoff

On the other hand, recently I’ve seen some cannabis brands take a strong stand on controversial social justice issues. It’s a gutsy move, but when it’s consistent with the brand, it’s previous community building and presented well, it has the potential for huge pay-off. I’m personally really excited when I see brands taking a strong stand on issues, even when they aren’t MY issues, I’m excited to see brands stand for something. If you’re going to take a risk like this, lean into it, own it. Make sure the language and the imagery support the position in a strong, powerful way, and when you do this, leave out the product placement. Let your leadership shine, let the connectivity happen. Strong positions are much more memorable when they don’t feel like an advertisement. 



Disruption can be very good for a cannabis brand. The key for every brand to is to know their brand SO well, their audience SO intimately, the return outweighs the risk. 

Rethinking Social Media Influencers

When I Googled “cannabis influencers” today I got 4,530,000 hits, so clearly, it’s a thing. Most social media influencers know their value, and social media influencers are advertisements. Treat them as such. I’m not suggesting the relationship isn’t collaborative, because it is. What I’m telling you is keep your brand strong, You’d never let someone create a print ad for you without reviewing it. Insist on that same communication with your influencer.

But since you’re collaborating with your influencer anyway, why not invite their creative input for what the post(s) will look like. I’ve found that content creators are incredibly creative and they’re so excited when someone wants to hear THIER ideas, the collaborative outcome is much better than originally imagined.

The “thing” I wish cannabis brands realize is that you can pay big bucks per post for social reach and usually get really beautiful, custom content in return. Or you can do it for a less expensive per-post price and get a higher percentage of reach with a little grittier content. In either case, you’ll be managing the influencer, and the bigger the influencer, the bigger the personality, but also, the more professional. Really be thinking about what you expect from your cannabis influencer campaign and how you’ll evaluate success. 

 

 

Dig deep and make sure your influencer really matches your brand. Reach should not be your only consideration when you’re selecting your influencers – think holistically and you’ll get holistic results in return. 

 

One last word of advice about social media influencers: no cannabis brand has been publicly fined for lack of disclosure, YET. Don’t be the first. Brush up on the FTC’s disclosure rules about social media influencers and don’t assume you’re flying beneath the radar, because cannabis is never REALLY under the radar.

 

 

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5 Emotions For Your Marketing & When To Use Them

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Imagine your advertising and marketing becoming 2X more effective overnight. Using emotions in marketing and branding is the key to more effective campaigns

According to Roger Dooley, emotional ads work TWICE as well as rational ads. So it’s important your campaign incorporates emotion from the start. You can deploy these emotions through copy and creative in all formats, analog and digital.

Before you create your next campaign, check in with these powerful emotions in marketing and branding.  Be sure you’ve considered your strategy, both long and short term before deciding which emotion works best in your marketing.

Fear
Fear comes in many forms, and it creates a sense of urgency.

Fear also heightens any other emotion created alongside it and it drives us to make deeper connections with those we share the fear with-this is why scary movies create deepen relationships. 

There are several different kinds of fear, but two common types include:
“Fear Of Missing Out” (FOMO): This particular fear tends to work well on younger people in social media. This works particularly well for items with time sensitivity.
“Fear of Isolation”: closely connected to FOMO, fear of isolation, used in connection with health products, deodorant for example: “use this so you don’t smell, because when you smell, you become a social pariah.”

When to Use Fear in Emotional Marketing/Branding:

  • To drive leads
  • You have a specific and actionable solution
  • You have an easy, no stress way to buy

Happiness/Joy
What happens when we feel happy? You might be surprised.

It’s a fine line because if we’re too happy, we might not be motivated to purchase. But happiness DOES make us want to share. It seems good news travels fast. According to a study by Fractl these are the Top 5 emotions which drive viral content:

  • Amusement
  • Interest
  • Surprise
  • Happiness
  • Delight

When to Use Happiness in

in Emotional Marketing/Branding:

  • You want others to share your message
  • You want to build trust and loyalty
  • You can commit to happy content as a brand

Inclusion

One of our oldest motivations is the need to be part of a tribe, included in a group. For our earliest ancestors, it was a requirement for survival, today, that need is still a powerful motivator and when we have it, we feel safe which leads to loyalty.

When to Use Inclusion in

in Emotional Marketing/Branding

  • To attract or retain customers
  • When you can also utilize the fear of missing out
  • When you have the processes and platforms to create and sustain community

Anticipation

We’re hardwired to anticipate outcomes. We’re not always right, but we are always anticipating. You can use anticipation in a couple of different ways, to attract and retain customers.

Attracting customers with anticipation typically comes with a stimuli and an outcome. The faster the outcome, the more likely we are to repeat the stimuli. Once we’re hooked on the stimuli, the outcome frequency can become variable (you might have learned about Pavlov’s dog, this is the same theory). Gamification uses anticipation brilliantly.

Keeping customers with anticipation requires a product commitment (free sample with every order) or an anticipation experience connected to the product (why subscription boxes are so popular). You can create variables in the anticipation (products, frequency) that will actually heighten the anticipation.

Something else about anticipation: it DECREASES when we’re stressed and change can be stressful. This is why consistency in branding is so very important and why big changes for big brands are big-time risks. Can you think of a brand whose big change created major negative upheaval for them?

When to Use Anticipation in

in Emotional Marketing/Branding:

  • You have the willingness to keep the anticipation fresh
  • You want to build loyalty and repeat buyers
  • Your brand is elevated and/or lifestyle oriented

Expertise/Leadership

Making your customer feel like they’re the smartest/sexiest/most influential is a great way to get people’s attention. People love to be the most “something” of their friends and people will work to achieve this effect.

This marketing emotion is closely connected with our need for mastery and our innate value of time. Because of these two addition motivations, the harder you make it the more committed they will become to the process. It’s all about our emotional triggers again, we’re hardwired to commit more time to something we’ve already committed time to – this is the same theory behind the test drive and keeping you at the dealership during a car purchase.

Again, games do this quite well. Successful fitness trainers do this quite well.

When to Use Expertise and Leadership in your Marketing/Branding

  • When you have a unique process people can move through and see improvement
  • As a relationship builder, such as influencer marketing or tips and tricks your customers can use

Good luck and I look forward to hearing how you’re using emotion in your marketing and branding.

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What Cannabis Businesses Need To Learn From Consumer Brands – Fast

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The stats are in: cannabis is the next “big” economy. Cannabis sales topped $6.7B in 2016 and by 2020, California’s cannabis market alone will top that number.

Not too long ago, “marketing” to cannabis users was an easy proposition, there were a handful of publications and communities around which dedicated cannabis users gathered, they all had one thing in common: cannabis use. Despite access to cannabis, in some ways, this was the easy days because everyone who was willing to subscribe, opt-in and discuss cannabis was passionate. It was like a small, intimate club where everyone had the same password to get in.

But today’s cannabis user isn’t so easy to categorize. Because of increased availability and acceptance, today’s cannabis user is likely to view cannabis as an adjunct to their life, not a defining characteristic of their self-story. That means the vast majority of the cannabis users of today and tomorrow are only mildly interested in “cannabis culture,” instead, they want to know how cannabis is going to fit into their lives and their cultures. In short, marketing or press targeted towards “cannabis users” is like marketing to a demographic as broad as “women.”

What this means for cannabis business community is in order to execute successful cannabis marketing and PR campaigns, you need to be extremely clear on where and why and for whom your product works. If your product is a product that’s proudly stoner, that’s cool – just realize that Moms aren’t likely to relate to those marketing or public relations stories. Today’s cannabis brands need to put a stake in the ground, define their customer and be proud of how the brand fits into the customer’s life.

Get to know your target market, are they using cannabis publicly or just with close friends? Do they use cannabis to inspire creativity or to get some sleep? How old are your customers are they trendy millennials or are they nostalgic boomers?  As importantly, what are they doing when they aren’t using cannabis?

Understanding what your customer is doing when they aren’t using cannabis is critical, especially now, with advertising and media restrictions still in place.

While the new, huge cannabis market is good for business, it’s time for cannabis brands to double down on branding by being exceptionally clear about the motivations of their customers and that’s harder than it sounds.

 

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5 Money Saving Marketing and Branding Tips for Startups

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OK.  I’ll admit it. I watch Silicon Valley on HBO.

I hate admitting it because, of course, it’s both a characterization and just a little too close for comfort to the startup experience.

Last night’s episode had me laughing and crying.

Let me set the scene: The founder and the coders are desperately trying to hire new developers in a competitive market, time is short and so is money.  Meanwhile, in the board room, the newly minted but completely wacko investor insists the startup spend $30K on “schwag.”  It’s a classically stressful startup moment.

I cringe.

No one asks any questions – the founders are too caught off guard by the mere suggestion. And yet, it’s patently obvious no one except the wildly erratic investor, who also spend a load of cash on billboards, has started to even think about marketing and branding.

Everyone’s thinking “splash” and no one is thinking “strategy.”

Here’s a pro-tip: “Splashes” without “Strategy” are usually huge wastes of money.

I don’t care how awesome your product is – you HAVE to think about branding and marketing for your startup. But the worst way to do it is in a scattershot “yah, let’s spend money on that,” way. Every startup has a “Shwag” moment.

I remember one startup I worked on wanted to spend $100K on hiring a talent for a “viral video.” Another spent over five-hundred thousand dollars on print ads.

Both happened for one reason only: everyone was in splash mode and no one was in strategy mode.

Here are 5 Ways To Know Whether It’s YOUR Time for “Schwag”

1. Have you done a pre-launch marketing plan?

Before you go to launch, you’re going to need a marketing plan. Sounds obvious, except, it’s one of the hardest things for startups to focus on.

Through the haze of late nights and Redbull, frantic pivots and resource challenges, marketing strategy for launch is often overlooked.

Consequently, decisions like “we need to spend $30K on “shwag” happen in the moment and they happen quickly and then happen when everyone is actually focused elsewhere.

If there’s one place you need a plan for launch it’s in marketing. If you’re doing your pre-launch homework, you might just be well positioned for your splash.

2. Who’s Suggesting?

I know you wouldn’t take code advice from me. You shouldn’t. If I ever give it you, send me packing.

Get your experts and resources in order and more importantly, listen to them.

There’s going to come a point when someone or many people will start telling you what you should do, most of whom have no idea what you’re TRYING to do.  The better your relationship with your marketing expert, the more you’ll know whether you’re getting good advice from everyone else.

3. Who’s Implementing?

What’s the point of your “shwag?” Whose getting it, when and where. Oh, yah, whose distributing it?

How many times have I seen impetuous spending happen without thought as to implementation?

Chances are – no matter what kind of “shwag” you’re investing in, you, the founder do NOT have time to implement said “shwag.” Better figure that out before you spend that $30K.

Even if you’re a master of marketing strategy, get your implementors together and THEN you’ll be ready for your splash.

4. What Questions Aren’t You Asking?

Hey, I like a new idea probably even more than the next person, but some things work consistently and some things consistently don’t work. Some risks in marketing are worth taking, some are worth testing and some are just bad.

There should be at least one person on your team, whether in-house or outsourced who says “that’s a bad idea,” once in awhile.

I’m not suggesting you have layers and layers of processes for a simple decision, but I don’t care how many millions you have, marketing is expensive, someone better be prioritizing and someone better be comfortable with “no.”

Find your “no” person. Not because they’ll throttle  you, but because they’ll let you splash at the right time.

5. How Expensive is “Cheap?”

I get it, you don’t want to spend any of your money on “shwag” but you need to. So you call your nephew or niece because they’ll do it cheap.

Unraveling “cheap” is one of the most time and energy consuming processes you can not pay for. I bet you’ve been there in other forms of development. Marketing is no different. Not only that, but you’ll find unraveling cheap costs a whole lot more than “done right the first time.”

So, next time someone wants to drop big bucks on shwag, you’ll be ready for them. AND you’ll be on your way to being ready for your splash.

 

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How Much Should You Spend on Cannabis Marketing?

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How much should you use for cannabis marketing budgets?

You can see the cannabis market changing daily and yet we haven’t even reached anywhere close to a zenith in cannabis purchases. It’s easy to be lulled into thinking that a growing market allows you to limit your marketing budget. Unfortunately, no. Despite the growing businesses, success in the cannabis industry is no sure thing. So how can you take advantage of this growing market by really developing a foothold?

Establishing your brand and investing in marketing is going to be the difference between success and failure in the cannabis industry.

The cannabis industry is growing, but you need to establish your brand and foothold now to ensure you’re able to withstand the inevitable maturation and consolidation of the industry as regulations ease.

Fundamentally, the wine market is a great comparison to the cannabis industry because it’s an industry built around an agricultural product that’s highly regulated. There’s one glaring difference between the two: wine is a mature product, the market is educated about it and those who drink wine, know they like drinking wine. Drinking wine carries with it a certain lifestyle sophistication that some people aspire to, in other words, it’s a lifestyle product. Wine companies know investing in branding can make all the difference because the market is highly competitive and they generally budget 15%-20% of sales for marketing, this is a mature product with an established brands.  You’ll notice in the below infographic that recreational cannabis is larger than wine sales, but cannabis sales haven’t even remotely become mainstream or moved past the “stoner” lifestyle image. If you’re marketing to a “stoner” culture audience, then perhaps you can develop a budget that’s on the low side, but if you see only 10% sales growth, you’ll know what to expect.

But if you’re hoping to capture some of the market that lives beyond the “stoner” audience, then you’re going to need a bigger budget and you’ll need to think like a lifestyle marketer. You can bet that the cannabis industry is going to get incredibly competitive as time goes on. Establishing your brand and investing in marketing is going to be the difference between success and failure in the cannabis industry.

What should my cannabis marketing budget be?

Setting cannabis marketing budgets is no easier (in fact, it may be harder) than doing so for other industries and this is because of the multiple variables impacting this decision-making. We present these stats to you as a guideline to determining your marketing spend vs. sales growth.

Basically, ask yourself how much you want to grow and allocate an according percentage of your budget to the growth. You can’t expect sales to grow 100% with a 10% marketing budget. It may happen, but the more likely scenario is that by the time you realize it isn’t going to happen, you’ll be boxed into a budget that doesn’t support the other expenditures you made in anticipation of growth.

Your mileage may vary and we’re happy to talk to you about your specific niche in the industry to help you develop a plan if you don’t have one at all. Keep in mind if you’re in launch mode, your PR and marketing budgets should be on the higher side, which pretty much applies to almost every cannabis brand today.

Something else to consider are the advertising limitations facing the cannabis industry. Depending on your actual product, you may not be able to buy ads on Facebook and Google. Does that mean you shouldn’t have an advertising budget? No, it actually means you’ll need to reallocate what would be an ad budget to something else, perhaps social media marketing and community building or content marketing or public relations.

Understand this: if you don’t feel comfortable allocating this kind of percentage to marketing, it doesn’t mean you should pack up your bags and quit-it just means your progress will go slower and you should have realistic expectations.

How Long Will It Take for Marketing Efforts to Deliver Results?

There are numerous variables in the answer to this question. Including your customer, your product and your previous efforts. Let me assure you, with the right budget, all things are possible.

Marketing, PR and branding efforts all work together and they tend to compound, especially in the early days. The more marketing you do, the earlier the ball will start rolling.  You can do yourself some favors by tracking metrics along the way so you know you’re hitting the right mix of marketing and that your marketing dollars are being optimized. Consistency is key in marketing and PR, so plan for consistency with bursts of activity around your strategic sales times.

All that to say this, the bigger your budget as a percentage of sales, the faster you’ll see sales grow, so if you’re in a hurry, budget accordingly.

cannabis marketing budgets stats

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