Omnichannel Marketing And Cannabis: What You Need To Know

Our world is constantly evolving. It wasn’t long ago that we had to dial our dealer’s number to get our hands on weed. Although, some cannabis users still live this reality. 

Still, with the handful of states that legalized recreational weed, the cannabis space is quickly becoming one of the most successful industries worldwide. With it comes ways to optimize your cannabis brand’s operations through marketing approaches that promote a seamless retail experience for business owners and consumers. 

Today, we’re discussing omnichannel marketing and how it can benefit cannabis brands. Learn more about this specific marketing approach and why your business should consider it below.  

Omnichannel refers to the Latin word Omni, meaning “every” or “all” This implies that omnichannel marketing includes all channels of sales, promotion, and distribution, including:

• Mobile
• Desktop
• Laptop
• Smart Watches
• Telephone
• Physical Storefronts

Omnichannel marketing refers to businesses promoting their products and services through the various channels noted above. Although omnichannel is a multichannel approach to sales, not all multichannel approaches are omnichannel. 

While multichannel marketing approaches mean your business has spread its presence across multiple channels, omnichannel means you’ve covered all of them in one, seamlessly integrated approach. 

Omnichannel marketing has various benefits for business owners and consumers. 

On the business end, you can spread your brand’s presence across all possible channels, meaning you’re increasing traffic to your website and potentially driving sales due to more ways people can access your products and services. 

On the consumer’s end, omnichannel marketing gives them easy access to you. They can find your website, pages, products, and services through various digital and physical channels, be it a brick-and-mortar storefront or accessing your website through their smartphone. 

Simply put, Omnichannel improves the retail experience for businesses and customers by providing easy access to what you offer. 

Omnichannel marketing for cannabis refers to a marketing approach that uses all available channels with an integrated strategy (digital and traditional) and clear communication between them to reach customers in one cohesive, uniform, and organic way.

A great example of omnichannel marketing and cannabis is placing orders for pickup. Speaking from personal experience, I ALWAYS place my cannabis orders for pickup with my local dispensary.

Because I’m aware of what I want and which products I prefer, browsing through a dispensary’s website and adding products to my cart is way more efficient than going to the store, standing in line, and holding up the line while chatting with a budtender about their product offerings.

Instead, I’m able to see what’s in stock online, add products to my cart, checkout, and opt for pickup. That way, I can make my retail experience easier by saving time at the dispensary and perhaps bypassing the customer line and heading straight to the budtender for my order.

So, which channels do you want to target regarding omnichannel marketing for cannabis? The answer is ALL. By using both digital and traditional channels, you’re spreading your brand’s presence in every way possible. 

While some digital channels include websites and SEO, traditional channels include physical storefronts and employees. Traditional channels are excellent for adding a more personal touch to the consumer’s experience. Take budtenders, for example. 

Budtenders are the middleman between your consumers and your business. By ensuring your staff is well-trained and knowledgeable about your product selection, you’ll gain loyal fans, users, and brand advocates that look to you for their favorite products. 

See below for more benefits of omnichannel marketing for cannabis brands and businesses. 

Consumers will trust and like you more if you make their buying experience easy. As discussed above, that could mean sharpening your online order experience and maximizing efficiency.

By ensuring your website runs smoothly, you’re inviting customers to not only browse your goods but have an easy, fun time doing it. This instantly puts your brand in a better light and makes a great impression on first-time consumers while maintaining the relationship with returning online customers.

There’s no denying that cannabis brands are popping up left and right. The key to keeping your business afloat and standing out from the pack is providing consumers with effective and efficient retail experiences in one seamlessly integrated omnichannel approach. 

Nobody wants to browse a website that’s slower than dial-up. Most consumers know what they want, and ideally, you want to be their first choice. Achieving this with an omnichannel marketing approach is almost effortless. 

If a consumer doesn’t know which brand to buy from, they’ll usually head to Google. In that case, it’s critical that your website uses SEO strategies to leverage this channel. 

Google is one of the main channels for successful omnichannel marketing. Writing high-quality content on your website with SEO (search engine optimization) in mind will dramatically bump you up in Google’s rankings. 

It could be as simple as including an ‘About Us’ or ‘FAQ’ page on your website with keywords and phrases people are searching for. You could also designate a page on your website for blog posts to increase your chances of being found through search engine channels like Google.