Tag Archive for: #1 cannabis PR firm

Holiday Success: Leveraging Cannabis CPG Brand PR

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The holiday season offers an excellent chance for cannabis consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands. It is an opportunity to increase visibility, connect with customers, and increase sales. So what is the roadmap for holiday success leveraging cannabis CPG brand PR

This blog post will discuss how cannabis CPG brands can use public relations strategies to their advantage during the holiday season. Cannabis marketing and PR strategies can help consumer cannabis companies build their brand image, increase sales, and reach new customers. With the right approach, cannabis CPG brands can make the most of the holiday season.

PR can help cannabis brands work around legal restrictions. It can also help them build trust with their target audience. This trust can give them an advantage in the competitive cannabis industry.

Navigating Legal Limitations

The emerging cannabis industry is subject to strict regulations that can pose challenges for CPG brands seeking to promote their products. However, brands can navigate these legal limitations through strategic PR initiatives while generating interest and exposure.

Brands can create compelling brand stories that meet legal requirements. They can also inform consumers about the advantages and safe use of cannabis products during the holiday season.

Cultivating Trust and Credibility

One of the most valuable assets for any cannabis brand is trust. PR allows cannabis CPG brands to establish credibility and build consumer trust.

Brands can build a good reputation and be responsible leaders in their industry. They can share exciting stories, customer testimonials, and expert opinions. They can do this through press releases, media interviews, and social media campaigns. This fosters consumer confidence, encouraging engagement and loyalty during the holiday season.

Engaging Target Audiences

The holidays are a time when consumers are actively seeking unique, thoughtful gift ideas. Cannabis CPG brands can leverage a top-rated cannabis PR agency to engage their target audience and highlight their products’ value. Capitalizing on relationships with journalists, collaborating with influencers, organizing cannabis experiential events, and taking part in cannabis industry trade shows can create buzz and generate media coverage.

Leveraging social media platforms can be a great way to generate excitement for the holidays. Share holiday-themed content and exclusive promotions to engage with your customers. This can help foster a positive relationship with your brand.

Don’t Forget Digital

As technologies like AI revolutionize the way we engage with the internet, now is a great time to invest in your digital presence. Digital media, especially social media, poses a navigational challenge for legal cannabis companies due to its shadow banning. To prepare for the future, it is wise to begin laying the groundwork for better search now.

The way to get around social media’s constantly shifting sands is to invest in your own website. Make sure your cannabis products all have their pages and that the descriptions meet the latest Google PRU qualifications. While we’re at it – leverage PR to secure third-party Google-friendly reviews from credible sites.

Creating Thought Leadership

PR offers cannabis CPG brands the opportunity to position themselves as thought leaders in the cannabis industry. Brands can build trust with their audience by sharing educational content, industry trends, and expert opinions. This can be done by creating thought-provoking articles and blog posts.

Media interest is generated as brands promote cannabis and its positive impact and benefits. This applies not only during the holiday season but also beyond.

Measuring Impact and Adapting

It is essential for cannabis CPG brands to track their PR campaigns’ success. This helps them make adjustments to their strategies as needed.

Brands can use analytics tools and monitor media coverage. This allows them to track key metrics, such as brand mentions, website traffic, and social media engagement.

Insights allow brands to improve their PR strategies. They can fine-tune their messaging and tactics to get the most out of the holiday season. This will leave a lasting impression on consumers.

Conclusion

The holiday season is a special time for cannabis CPG brands. It is a chance to use PR strategies to become more visible, gain trust, and interact with their target audience.

Brands can use PR to stand out in a competitive market. To do this, they must navigate legal limitations, cultivate trust, engage consumers, establish thought leadership, and measure impact. By embracing PR techniques, cannabis CPG brands can unlock new avenues for growth and success during this festive time of year. Avaans Media has been a top cannabis PR firm since 2015. If you’re an ambitious brand, we’re the A-team for you.

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Using Cannabis Content Marketing to Connect with the Cannabis Community

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The cannabis industry is rapidly growing, and to stay ahead of the competition, cannabis businesses must use effective content marketing strategies. Cannabis content marketing involves creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract and engage a targeted audience. By doing so, cannabis businesses can establish their expertise and credibility while promoting their brand and products. Think owned media doesn’t apply for your cannabis business? Think again – your brand is already online; it’s just a matter of how much you control your presence. And if you’re tired of owing all those listing and delivery sites, content marketing is your best friend.

PR Benefits of Owned Media for the Cannabis Industry

There are several benefits of content marketing for the cannabis industry, including:

  1. Improving Reputation: Consistent content marketing can improve a cannabis business’s reputation by promoting positive messaging and reinforcing the brand’s values.
  2. Increasing Visibility: Content can increase a cannabis business’s visibility by ensuring that their message reaches the right audience through different platforms such as blogs, social media, and email newsletters.
  3. Organic Promotion: Content marketing promotes a cannabis business organically and naturally, which can lead to increased conversions and revenues on both online ordering and in dispensaries.
  4. Cannabis Customer Engagement: By attracting and engaging both new and existing customers, content marketing can help cannabis businesses establish a loyal customer base and increase customer retention.
  5. Establishing Cannabis Industry Leadership: Consistent and high-quality content marketing can establish a cannabis business as an industry leader and help them stand out from competitors.

Effective Cannabis Content

Use content to benefit a cannabis business’s public relations (PR) strategy. PR is all about managing a business’s reputation, and owned content is a powerful tool for doing so. Here are some of the ways content marketing can benefit cannabis PR:

  1. Positive User Experience: By consistently producing high-quality content that is engaging, unique, and beneficial, cannabis businesses can create a positive user experience that strengthens their relationship with customers.
  2. Increased Social Media Popularity: Creating trendy and shareable content on social media can increase brand awareness and help promote a cannabis business’s products and services.
  3. Building Trust: By answering customer queries and complaints through relevant and accurate content, cannabis businesses can build trust with their audience and improve their perception of the brand.
  4. Improving Conversions: By including a call-to-action (CTA) in their content, cannabis businesses can guide their audience towards taking the desired action, which can lead to improved conversions.
  5. Better SEO: By consistently producing high-quality content, cannabis businesses can improve their search engine optimization (SEO) and rank higher on search engine results pages.

Different Types of Content

Cannabis content marketing can take many forms, and businesses should use various content types to keep their audience engaged. Here are some of the most effective types of cannabis content marketing:

  1. Blog Posts: Blogs are a great way to provide valuable information to customers while establishing a cannabis business’s authority in the industry.
  2. Social Media Posts: Social media is a powerful tool for reaching a broad audience and engaging with customers through shareable content.
  3. Infographics: Infographics can convey complex information in a visually appealing way, making them an effective tool for educating customers.
  4. Videos: Videos are highly engaging and can be used to showcase products, educate customers, or provide behind-the-scenes glimpses of a cannabis business.
  5. Podcasts: Podcasts are an increasingly popular form of content that can be used to discuss industry trends, provide insights, and engage with customers.

Creating a Successful Cannabis Content Strategy

To create a successful cannabis content marketing strategy, businesses should follow these steps:

  1. Define Goals: Determine what the business hopes to achieve through content marketing, such as increased brand awareness or improved conversions.
  2. Know the Target Audience: Understand the target audience’s demographics, interests, and pain points to create relevant and engaging content.
  3. Create Engaging Content: Create high-quality content that is valuable, relevant, and unique to attract and retain customers.
  4. Distribute Content Effectively: Share content

Great Examples of Cannabis Content Marketing

There are several impressive examples of cannabis content marketing that have successfully promoted brands and products in the cannabis industry. Here are a few notable ones:

  1. Leafly – The platform has a robust content marketing strategy that includes educational articles, strain reviews, videos, podcasts, and more. Leafly’s content not only helps cannabis consumers make informed decisions but also promotes brands and products available in the market.
  2. Weedmaps – Weedmaps’ content marketing strategy includes blog posts, videos, podcasts, and more, that not only educate cannabis consumers but also promote products and brands available on its platform.
  3. High Times – High Times has been covering cannabis culture since the 1970s – they know content. The magazine’s content marketing strategy includes informative articles, strain reviews, interviews with industry experts, and more that not only inform and educate cannabis consumers but also promote products and cannabis brands in the industry.
  4. Charlotte’s Web – Charlotte’s Web is one of the OG’s. To some extent, its brand strength owes to a strong content marketing strategy that includes educational articles, blog posts, videos, and more, that educate consumers about the benefits of CBD and how it can improve their health and wellness. The brand’s content marketing strategy has been instrumental in its success in the CBD market.
  5. Dosist –  The California cannabis company’s content marketing strategy includes informative articles, social media posts, and videos that educate consumers about the benefits of dose-controlled cannabis products and promote its brand and products.

These are just a few examples of the many successful content marketing strategies in the cannabis industry. Each of these examples demonstrates the importance of creating informative and engaging content that not only educates consumers but also promotes brands and products in the market. With the right content marketing strategy, cannabis companies can establish themselves as industry leaders, build trust with their audience, and ultimately drive sales and revenue.

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4 Ways to Get PR for Your Cannabis Business

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PR is still a critical component of any cannabis brand’s consumer product strategy. And you might find that PR is expensive, so you might ask yourself, “how can I get PR for my cannabis business?” There are two reasons to ask this question. The first is you want to hire a PR professional in-house, the second might be you’re trying to save money on your PR agency budget.  Either way, you’ll want to dig more deeply in order to find your place in PR and maximize your financial or time investment.

 

  1. Define Your Story

    If you’ve ever heard someone say, “that’s not news,” it’s because there isn’t enough meat on the bone for your story. Case in point, being a minority-owned cannabis business, by itself, is not a story. But if you’re the first minority-owned cannabis business to set up a scholarship fund for minority students, that could be a story – especially if it ties in with the start or end of school. And whatever your story is, give it the lift it needs with data and noticeable numbers. You’ll find that cannabis journalists respond positively to stories that have enough background and information to write a piece about. Especially when it touches on trending topics. Be the brand or company that comes to a journalist with the solution to a cultural problem and you’ll find you can get more PR for your cannabis business, regardless of whether it comes from in-house or an agency.

  2. Entertain Us

    From nostalgia to a cultural wink, pulling off a fun stunt, something that makes people look twice and laugh, almost always gets some PR attention. The attention may be from the press, or it might be as social media coverage, but getting your product in front of new people, or giving your current customers a reason to share your email with their friends, is priceless. And even if you don’t get massive reach on your stunt, you’ll have attached fun and happiness to your brand for those who saw it. This is how advertising campaigns get media coverage as well. You’ll find that Clio award-winning work very often has a wink and a smile behind it. Everyone appreciates the opportunity to have a little fun, so lean in and make your campaigns do double duty to get PR for your cannabis business.

  3. Activate with Partners

    On the surface, sponsorships are rarely PR worthy. But what sponsorships might do is give you access to an opportunity to tell your story to the right people. When our client Elixinol sponsored the press booth at events in key media cities and then activated that sponsorship with a locally popular, Super Bowl-winning, football star to talk about his experience with the product after considerable head injuries during his professional career. By itself, having a spokesperson may or may not be notable, but the sponsorship provided access to the press to make sure they knew about the athlete, the athlete’s story was compelling, and there was a local tie-in that was easy for journalists to grab onto.

  4. Incorporate Digital Savvy

    If you’re leading a plant-touching cannabis brand, you might be tempted to curtail your cannabis website’s digital presence. That’s a mistake. Today’s editors wear many hats, but it boils down to this: content that attracts eyeballs so they can earn money. The old-fashioned way for newsrooms to make money was straight-up advertising. But digital PR changed all that and today there are so many ways for an editor to juice the revenue for their outlet. Case in point, for the cannabis industry, sponsored posts are a common augmentation to a campaign. They’re relatively easy to create, and they can secure a solid inbound link for your website. Plus, eventually, cannabis brands will be able to do what other consumer product brands have been doing: use affiliate networking as a honeypot for product coverage. Use Google to get more frequent PR for your cannabis company.

Whether you’re hiring a cannabis PR agency or doing PR in-house, earning media coverage for your cannabis brand will take some work, but that work will be well worth it for years to come.

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Using PR to Accelerate Cannabis Business Goals & Media Coverage

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2022 promises to be another intense news year and while there is no shortage of news stories, there IS a shortage of journalists; fewer journalists means fewer stories. With the mid-terms and a potentially all-consuming COVID news cycle, cannabis (THC and CBD) are no longer securing media coverage simply for BEING a cannabis company. So it’s more important than ever that marketing and PR develop campaigns that do more and go further. That means cannabis CPG brands need to think bigger and bolder. With that in mind, here are our 3 ways cannabis PR accelerates your business goals AND media coverage.

[6-minute read, 3 minute listen]

Cannabis Business Goal: Secure Investors and/or Prepare for IPO

 

This may very well be a great year for cannabis companies trying to raise funds or even IPO. But now that there is very little first-mover advantage left, it’s more important than ever to invest in brands and branding. This means really leaning into your target market and expanding the lifestyle your CPG product delivers to your target consumers. For brands at this stage of growth, we’re deeply encouraging these brands to consider partnerships and campaigns with purpose-driven initiatives. In  2008, Blackrock CEO Larry Fink made major waves when he said “to prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society.” And in he continues to double down on this, as Blackrock highlights social contribution in its investments.

 

PR to Accelerate Cannabis Business Goals

But it isn’t just institutional investors who are eyeing social contributions, it’s consumers too. The biggest generation since the baby boomers and their little brothers and sisters, the Gen Z’ers are all looking to connect with brands who illustrate their responsibility to society. And according to Zeno’s Strength of Purpose report, consumers are 4.5x more likely to recommend a brand with a strong purpose. And lest you think it’s just young people attracted to purpose, the same report says those over 74 are more likely than any other generation to purchase from brands with purpose.

Investors love consumers, and they REALLY like customer loyalty and growth, so if you’re looking to improve your standing with VC or investors, 2022 is your year to take your purpose-driven initiatives to the next level. But it doesn’t stop there, but committing to purpose and executing internally and externally, you’ll have more opportunities to receive positive press coverage. Consider this – in 2021, there were about 1.9 million (non-press release) articles about cannabis. And the top topics were regulatory-based. Next came petty crime and manufacturing. If you had talking points on any of those in 2021, your media opportunities were much better. There is a finite amount of media coverage on any topic; strategic PR helps you cross over. Now consider the 6.8 million articles about the environment last year, the top 3 subcategories were climate change, energy, and decarbonization. Sustainable investing is in the top 10 as well. Imagine if your brand were to tie purpose into one of those top environmental topics, along with those top cannabis topics. Your media opportunities would increase by tenfold! Purpose-driven initiatives are but a single way cannabis PR can speed up your brand goals AND media coverage,

 

Environment Media Coverage

These are the topics the media ALSO covered when discussing the topic of the environment in 2021

 

 

 

 

Cannabis Media Coverage

These are the topics the media ALSO covered when discussing the topic of cannabis in 2021

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cannabis Business Goal: Product in More Retail Outlets

There just isn’t enough shelf space in dispensaries these days. And yet retails have a difficult time differentiating themselves, so a lot of dispensaries rely heavily on price discounts, which affects your cannabis CPG brand’s bottom line. Instead of getting into that rat race of product discounts, use PR to develop distinctive partnerships with your dispensary while at the same time helping the dispensary sell your product because of consistent PR coverage. Not only does PR open doors and differentiate your brand, but it also tells the dispensary that you’re committed to building a brand that will stay in demand. You can use PR to develop attention-getting budtender and community campaigns, too, that can accelerate your brand AND media coverage. There are so many ways PR can accelerate cannabis business goals with the brand-dispensary connection.

Not only that, but consistent PR coverage will really help to decrease the time it takes to secure a deal. Think about it-if you have room for 1 more brand and you have 10 to choose from, what’s top of mind? What will sell, of course. As it turns out, a lot of what makes a product attractive on the shelf also makes it attractive to the press. So don’t waste the branding and product development dollars invested – activate them with PR. Plus, retailers know, the only thing stronger than an independent endorsement is a referral from a friend, so make sure those budtenders see your PR coverage so they can include that information when they’re suggesting your brand, “ABC magazine just wrote about this last month – they loved it! It’s been flying off shelves!” that sounds like a great way to make your PR budget go further.

Cannabis Business Goal: Attract Top Talent

The struggle is real in 2022. There is a lot of change happening in the job market, including at the senior management level. According to the Harvard Business Review, while mid-career employees between 30-45 have the highest resignation rates, the age 45+ employees, also had higher resignation rates in 2021 than in 2020. 49% of U.S. executives reported a much higher turnover in 2021, according to the Society of Human Resource Management. The cannabis industry isn’t immune to these challenges. According to a recent mg magazine article, “The uptick in job openings has been observed at the top and bottom rungs of the industry, from hourly workers to executives, and it’s happening in every state with some form of legalization framework,” Recruiting and turn-over are expensive, regardless of the role. Cannabis PR can accelerate your recruiting goals AND media coverage

But brands can use PR to attract the highest talent. Returning to the topic above about how purpose plays a role, Deloitte reports purpose-driven brands have 40% higher workplace retention. Take that 40% reduction in turnover costs and add it to your PR budget. If your company is looking to attract top talent, but you don’t quite have the budget for the best and brightest, consider using PR to secure speaking engagements for your top-tier executives-ambitious people love opportunities that put them in the spotlight. But, you can’t promise what you don’t have – this is a long-term goal as speaking slots tend to fill up 6 or more months in advance. So if talent acquisition costs are eating into profitability, PR can help. Connect your talent recruiter and your PR agency together and let the magic work.

 

There are so many strategic ways to use PR to accomplish your business objectives. Working with your PR to accomplish business goals – and setting corresponding KPIs, sets the stage for the success you really want. Contact us today if you’d like to talk about your business objectives.

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