Content is the answer to your cannabis marketing dilemma

By Peter Vamos

A strong content marketing strategy is by far the most effective, but often most underutilized weapon in your marketing arsenal. It is a long-term investment into your business and brand. Content becomes ever more important when traditional marketing avenues are restricted by heavy regulation.

Cue the litany of questions around cannabis marketing as producers scramble to understand the dos and don’ts of communicating brand attributes in a regulatory regime that forbids most traditional marketing tactics. The current regulatory recommendations for Canadian cannabis advertising indicate strict controls on overt branding. Meanwhile, digital platforms Google and Facebook — a goldmine for marketers targeting hard-to-find audiences — have long-standing policies that restrict paid cannabis advertising and branding.

Yet, cannabis producers readying for legalization in Canada still need to communicate and differentiate their products in what looks to be a very competitive market. There are currently 104 licensed producers. Fifty-nine are publicly traded. So, the stakes and expectations are incredibly high (ha ha).

In early spring, Canadian cannabis companies got their first official look at how the feds plan to approach the tricky terrain of cannabis branding and advertising. Proposed packaging and labeling directives are, to say the least, strict: Dried pot will be sold in uniform black or white bags, with one of six Health Canada warnings on them. On a corner of the package, producers can display their brands, just visible enough so customers know who they are actually buying from. But for first-time buyers or those unfamiliar with Canadian licensed producers, everything will essentially look the same — no one product will appear more appealing than the other. It’s as if packaging requirements were borrowed from some dime store dystopian novel.

While some producers are going the route of influencer marketing, celebrity endorsements or flashy headline grabbing promo events in the period before rules come into play, there is a subtle and winning strategy that may just lead some underdog brands through this maze of uncertainty.

Inbound marketing has a long and successful run the B2B space. Business to consumer brands have been slower to wrap complete inbound strategies around their marketing efforts, even though most brands employ inbound tactics to one degree or another.

Inbound marketing focuses on attracting customers through relevant and helpful content and adding value throughout the customer’s buying journey. The key word here is value. Potential customers find you through such channels as blogs, search engines, and social media because they are already looking for information. Unlike outbound marketing, inbound does not need to fight for potential customers’ attention. You don’t need to tell them they’ve got a problem. They’ve figured this out themselves. You can position yourself to fix the problem. By creating content designed to address the needs of ideal customers, you build trust and credibility for your business.

So how does this apply to Cannabis producers? Well, for one thing, all information can exist within a closed website where audiences verify their age. Blogs, videos, case studies, whitepapers and infographics are published on your website, and organic SEO and social traffic are utilized as key drivers.

For example, a distributor can publish a listicle on its website such as “10 Things to Consider Before Your First Trip to a Pot Dispensary.” In fact, when I punched in a Google search “What to consider before my first trip to a pot dispensary,” the top result was to an article on pot blog and information site Key to Cannabis operated by Colorado grower Ambary Gardens. The second result linked directly to a blog titled “Get the Most Out of Your Dispensary Visit With These Tips” from Arizona marijuana dispensary Kind Meds.

These businesses are winning the hearts and minds of customers by putting their brands in the positive light of providing helpful and valued information.

It may yet turn out that you can post photos on Instagram and videos directly to Facebook and YouTube of beautiful young people smoking dope on water skis. Certainly, some of your competitors will try something along those lines just to test what happens. And nothing outlined here would preclude you from doing likewise.

But another valid way to differentiate yourself is to think like a B2B marketer. Think about how you will utilize content within the safe confines of your website. And develop a strategy to drive to that content.

In my next post, we will get into the specifics of what kinds of content you should be developing and how to drive potential customers to your original content.