The legal marijuana industry is growing. Still, you might not realize how much of an impact it can make for your business. It’s not always easy to get started with this sort of venture, but if you follow the rules and play your cards right, you’ll find yourself in the green sooner than you expect.  If you need immediate results, consulting with an agency like Spark Factory may help kickstart your cannabis marketing efforts.

Because of the recent changes in the government’s opinion about cannabis, more and more business owners are considering getting into the industry. It’s a very lucrative business in a relatively new market. With a few tips, you can get a head start on your competition.

Collaborate with Marijuana-Friendly Ad Networks.

Cannabis advertising is still in its infancy. Though people may occasionally be exposed to ads for marijuana-related products, most advertising is subliminal or indirect, usually in the form of ads for related products or as benign ads that mention marijuana in casual conversation.

Marijuana-friendly ad networks are emerging as an essential tool in advertising, especially for businesses in the nascent marijuana industry.

There are two basic ways to advertise with marijuana-friendly ad networks: advertising on third-party sites and advertising on sites that carry marijuana-related content.

Advertising On Third-party Sites

The marijuana-friendly ad network AdRoll, for example, is an advertising network for websites. Advertisers can create a campaign and place their ads at one of AdRoll’s many partner websites.

AdRoll handles the ad placement. Advertisers have almost no control over the ad placements. The ad networks place your ads on websites that are relevant to your business.

Advertising on marijuana-related content sites

The other, and arguably more effective, approach is to advertise on marijuana-related content sites.

For example, marijuana-related content sites often include links to online stores. If you sell marijuana-related products, advertising on these sites can provide valuable and cost-effective exposure.

If you want to advertise on a marijuana site, there are two ways to do so.

You can run banner ads that link to your site or sites that offer the same products or services.

You can run paid ads for keywords related to your business.

Advertising on marijuana-related content sites is effective for several reasons.

Create a Website and an Online Store.

Create a website for your cannabis business. Consider choosing a domain that is easy to remember. Also, consider creating a blog on the site. If your blog is on another domain, consider redirecting to ensure that search engines can find you. Once you have a domain and a website, consider creating an eCommerce store. This will enable you to sell products directly online. When you accept credit card payments, you will need to open a merchant account with your bank.

Focus on Keywords and SEO Optimization.

To make money with cannabis, you need to target the keywords searchers use to find what they want. For example, suppose someone’s done some research online and is already interested in buying legal cannabis. In that case, they aren’t going to like finding your site by searching for illegal cannabis.

If you market a site well, people will find it without searching. But search is still significant to your success.

Here are some other tips:

• If you speak to those you think are correct, then what you say will be viewed as someone else’s opinion and attempt to convince others to adopt that person’s view.
• Use psychology; you have to convince people how something will work, not just that it works.
• Include testimonials. People don’t trust ads, but they trust other people.
• Include case studies. People love examples.
• Have a website that’s easy to use.

Write Guest Posts.

The biggest reason to provide content to other websites is to raise your online visibility. Guest posting is a great way to establish yourself as an authority in your niche. You can get creative with your partnerships, working with other websites to spread the word about your own business.

When writing a guest post, your goal is to provide valuable information, in addition to promoting your own business.

The hope is that once people read your guest post, they will become interested in your content. If they like your content, they will naturally be curious to know more about your business.

Guest posts are a great way to make your business known, and as long as you provide quality content, people will keep coming back to your website.

Leverage Influencers.

One of the best-known techniques for marketing cannabis is to use the marijuana celebrity.

Marijuana is a market like any other, and like any other market, it has its celebrities. But because marijuana is illegal, the celebrities marijuana markets have are necessarily unusual. They are public figures who trade on the unusual.

For example, Bob Marley was a celebrity who sold records, T-shirts, and marijuana. Bill Clinton smoked pot while in office. Willie Nelson’s hit song about marijuana, “Red Headed Stranger,” was written and recorded before Willie was arrested for buying marijuana.

Conclusion

Master online marketing and get your cannabis in front of potential customers. Mastering online marketing means mastering the tactics that make it possible to get stuff in front of potential customers. Mastering online marketing means making an effort to get stuff in front of potential customers because once you’ve made all that effort, you have to start figuring out what customers want.

James Montano