Creative Marketing Tips to Grow Your Cannabis Business

One of the best things you can do to increase visibility and skyrocket your sales is to get creative with how you do marketing for your cannabis business.

So, what are we waiting for? It’s time to get creative! We have Kate Manson, CEO and Founder of Tarot & Capsule joining us here on Cannabis Marketing LIVE!

Kate has worked in the cannabis space for 11 years and before starting her own brand she served as the VP of Experiential Marketing at Wikileaf. She’ll be sharing insights on how to use email marketing to grow your business and that “No” is negotiable.

Don’t miss this episode that will help grow your business!

In this episode, you’ll learn:

That “No” is negotiable
How to use email marketing to grow your business
Tapping into your network for help

Welcome to Cannabis Marketing Live — All Puff. No Fluff!

Creative marketing is a topic that’s near and dear to me. There’s something about brands nailing it on the head when it comes to how they engage their customers, from the way they package their products to how they tell their story, as well as how they do their marketing strategies.

Now that we’re stuck at home, it feels like it’s high time that we unleashed our creativity. You can do things like, giving your social media a little more TLC, or maybe make that new type of content that you’ve been aching to try out.

If you’re not sure how best to proceed, then we’ve got you covered! We have the fabulous Kate Manson, ready to share her insight and push the envelope that is creative marketing for cannabis businesses.

Getting to know our featured guest

creative marketing blog post featured image - kate manson wearing a leather jacket — **SPECIAL OFFER TO AUDIENCE:**
20% off their next Tarot CBD purchase with code ***BETTERTOGETHER***

Kate Manson has had cannabis in her cards for many years. As the founder of Tarot CBD, her 11-year journey in the cannabis industry has allowed her to share her passion for cannabis and CBD with a myriad of audiences. Before pursuing her own brand, Kate served as the VP of Experiential Marketing at Wikileaf where she learned the intricacies of effective cannabis marketing – her work has been featured in AD Age, Merry Jane, Herb.co, Seattle Met & Bloom Farms.

In business, “NO” is negotiable

Negotiation is a lot like playing cards, the outcome greatly depends on the each player’s leverage, but even when you are dealt with bad cards, there is a way to tip the odds in your favor. So, how do you do that exactly?

Here are a few tips to negotiate like a pro:

Plan ahead – when negotiating, make sure you have a clear picture of the ideal outcome, the least acceptable outcome, and a back up plan.
Pick your main strategy – you don’t want to play all your cards at once, so pick your main strategy and exhaust that before jumping onto the plans B-Z.
Create hype, but don’t be overzealous – your offer should make it hard for the people involved to say no, but do so without appearing desperate or too excited. Keep your tone calm yet qualified.
Make it feel as fair as possible – yes, you want to get the best outcome, but that doesn’t mean you should straight up give the other party a hard time. What you want is to seal the deal while keeping your credibility high… especially when you deal with the other party on a regular basis.

Creative Email Marketing Tips and Ideas

Keep your email list tidy. Your audiences should be segmented based on what they want and need, not what you think they want and need. You can do this by setting up tags to trigger depending on the reader’s action (e.g. clicks a link, buys a product, etc.)
Make sure you engage with your audience on a regular basis — 3 email blasts a week would do nicely.
Your email open rates would perform better when you write in personalized or informative stuff. Sales oriented email blasts should be kept to a minimum because nobody wants to be sold to 24/7.
You can use the following to catch your reader’s attention: catchy subject lines, straightforward subject lines, or detailed subject lines.
Don’t just send emails randomly. Check your email delivery system analytics, gauge what time your audience usually opens your emails, and send them at around the same time – this increases the likelihood that they will read your email.
Use SEO tools or go through current social trends to figure out what your audience is looking for, this will help you relate to them better. (ex. SEMRush, AHREFS, Google Search Console, Google Trends, etc.)

Try to find ways to reach new consumers and keep them engaged, give them a little more background around the brand.. also look at direct mail as an option since everybody is stuck at home right now.
– Kate Manson

The Importance of Leaning on Your Network

Having a solid network of supportive like-minded individuals not only is great for your mental health as an entrepreneur, but it also provides you with an immediate pool of experts that you can ask for advice and help. Plus, your network can also help you boost your credibility and reach!

Okay, that sounds great and all, so how exactly do you decide who you should be collaborating with?

Things you’ll need to consider are:

Does their brand align with yours?
How can they help your audience?
What can they bring to the table (e.g. engagement, sales, etc)?
How can you help their audience?
What can you bring to their table?
Is there enough budget?
Are you excited with the idea of working with them?
Are they excited to work with you?

Everyone is going to benefit by having more information. Everyone’s going to benefit by getting the right information and the right alignment with brands and with people.
– Kate Manson

Additional tips on how to do creative marketing work for your cannabis business

Don’t be scared to humanize your brand. People like to get behind a brand that has a compelling story or goal. They want to support brands that genuinely care about the consumer and the community.
Focus on 80% education and 20% sales. Don’t just keep shoving your branding and sales pitches down people’s throats. Give them something first — something more, something they can believe in.
This isn’t about you. One of the worst things a marketer can do is to make the whole branding strategy all about them. PSA: Your business is meant to serve, it is meant to provide solutions… humanizing the brand doesn’t mean it’s about you.
Make consistent content and promote them. The more places someone sees your message, the more likely they are to remember it and it will start to resonate with them.

(Re: marketing) It’s not about me, it’s about people I’m trying to help.
– Kendra Losee

Speed Round with Kate Manson!

What are her favorite cannabis products?

A: Blue delta strain, bubble gum strain, chocolate-covered marshmallows, wanna gummies.

What books/publications/podcasts are you currently consuming?

A: Murder and crime podcasts, so retrograde, sci-fi, romance, mystery novels.

Getting Creative with Marketing to Grow Your Cannabis Business