5 Ways to Increase Brand Awareness In the Cannabis Industry In 2023
Increase your brand awareness in the booming cannabis industry with our 5 proven strategies for 2023. From social media to industry events, learn how to stand out and drive more revenue.
As the cannabis industry continues to grow, businesses face the challenge of standing out in a crowded market. With constantly evolving regulations, shifting consumer preferences and intense competition, focusing on brand awareness is more important now than ever. If you are a business owner or entrepreneur in the plant medicine industry, developing a solid brand awareness strategy from the jump is crucial for long-term success.
At Inner Circle, our mission is to provide you with vetted industry tips so that you can thrive within the cannabis space. In this article, we’ll explore five practical ways to increase brand awareness in the cannabis industry in 2023. By implementing these strategies, you’ll attract and retain more customers, convert leads and ultimately drive revenue growth for your business.
#1 Align Your Brand With Your Target Audience
The first step to increasing brand awareness in the cannabis industry is to ensure that your brand effectively communicates with your target audience (aka your prospective customers). This requires creating a brand that resonates with your audience, from your logo and packaging to your website’s color scheme and font. Like Coca-Cola’s iconic red and white label, even the smallest aspects of your brand should create a strong association with your business.
In order to make this happen, you need first to understand your audience’s needs, goals, desires and pain points. By genuinely stepping into your prospective customer’s shoes, you can create marketing campaigns and content that speak directly to them.
Let’s say you run a cannabis consulting firm that helps entrepreneurs and business owners navigate the legal and regulatory landscape of the cannabis industry. Your brand messaging should emphasize the importance of compliance and risk management, as these are likely priorities for this audience.
Through aligning your brand with the priorities of your target audience, you will increase brand awareness, drive sales and generate positive word-of-mouth recommendations.
#2 Prioritize and Optimize User Friendliness
After determining your target audience and optimizing your brand’s voice, it’s time to make sure your brand is user-friendly. Whether it’s a physical storefront or an online presence – providing a user-friendly experience to your customers can differentiate your brand from the competition and instill a positive brand image.
In the cannabis industry, user-friendly experiences can refer to many different aspects of the customer’s experience. For example, a dispensary with a clean and welcoming environment with knowledgeable and friendly staff can create a positive impression on customers and increase their likelihood of returning. On the other hand, a dispensary that is difficult to navigate, has long wait times or has unhelpful staff can create a negative impression that may deter customers from returning or recommending your store.
If you’re exclusively digital, you might want to ask yourself these questions: Is your website easy to navigate with clear descriptions and processes? Are the fonts and colors easy to read? How memorable is your logo? Is your content answering relevant questions?
One way to improve your online brand awareness is to optimize your website for various devices. Your website should be fully functional for mobile devices, tablets and desktop users. This can include features such as responsive design, clear and intuitive navigation menus, online chat support and easily accessible contact information.
#3 Implement SEO Strategies
Now that you’ve fine-tuned your brand and user experience, it’s time to take your brand awareness to the next level with killer content and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. There are two types of SEO (on-page and off-page), and both are crucial components of growing brand awareness in the cannabis industry.
Quick reminder– you must keep your target audience in mind when creating content. Anyone can write SEO blog posts on the internet, but if you’re not writing them for the right people (your prospective customers), there really isn’t a point in doing it.
On-page SEO refers to the optimization of individual web pages in order to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). This means that your website should be designed with SEO best practices in mind, such as using keywords in your slugs and meta tags, optimizing your images and using primary keywords throughout your content. Optimizing your website with relevant keywords can boost your visibility on search engines and attract more potential customers.
Off-page SEO refers to the optimization factors outside of your website. This can include building high-quality backlinks to your site, creating social media profiles and engaging with your audience on external platforms. Earning backlinks from authoritative websites in the cannabis industry will enhance brand awareness by increasing credibility and raising your domain authority, which is a key part of ranking on Google.
The most straightforward way to get started with backlinking is to guest post on reputable websites, reach out to influencers in the cannabis industry or conduct outreach campaigns to promote your content.
#4 Utilize Social Media Marketing
In addition to SEO, utilizing social media is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness in the cannabis industry in 2023. With the limitations of traditional advertising methods for cannabis businesses, social media provides an accessible and effective way to reach potential customers, build a following and promote your products and services.
According to a poll by Statista, 82% of the population is currently on social media. Regularly posting engaging content about your brand, products or industry news can help you attract more followers and increase brand awareness.
While this may seem like a daunting task, especially without a social media marketing team backing you up, it doesn’t have to be that complicated. In fact, you don’t even need to produce “new” content to make it happen. Instead of waiting for Google to crawl your site, you can easily reach existing and prospective clients by making a simple post about your new product or blog post.
Hired a new member? Post it on social media. Launching a new product? Post it on social media. Hosting an upcoming event? Post it on social media. Feeling burnt out and want to share some tips about overcoming it? Share it on social media.
Not only is social media free advertising, but it’s a way for you to build a relationship with your audience and develop brand loyalty. Most platforms also provide valuable feedback and insights, allowing you to learn more about your audience and refine your marketing strategies accordingly.
#5 Attend Industry Events
Attending industry events is crucial to increasing brand awareness in the cannabis industry. Whether it’s a worldwide conference or a local mastermind, these events provide an excellent platform to network and connect with potential customers, investors and partners. It also demonstrates that you are an active and engaged member of the industry, which can enhance your credibility and help you access new audiences and resources.
To further expand your network and gain valuable insights, you may want to consider joining Inner Circle, a B2B membership platform specifically tailored for plant medicine leaders, business owners, entrepreneurs and investors. Inner Circle offers exclusive perks to help you grow your business and elevate your brand, including weekly masterminds and online courses.
To find out more about Inner Circle and its benefits, click here.
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Cydney Nelson
Cydney Nelson is a content strategist and freelance writer with a diverse background in cognitive neuroscience and research. She is also the curator of The Departed Creature, a blog dedicated to world travel, healing with plants and breaking the mental health stigma. As an Inner Circle member, she is passionate about helping brands in the plant-medicine communities leverage the power of content, blogging and SEO.
