Great news for any dispensaries in Maine, you can deduct your marketing expenses starting this year! Other states don’t allow this kind of deduction for any kind of controlled substance, including cannabis. The cannabis industry is one of the few with these restrictions on marketing, and it’s great to see Maine extend a hand to cannabis businesses. If any dispensaries in Maine would like to increase their budgets with this news in mind, you know who to call 👀
Congratulations to Germany for making huge steps towards legalizing recreational cannabis! Per Reuters, German parliament passed a bill legalizing recreational use and legalization. This is part of a broader trend across Europe of various countries legalizing cannabis.
The cannabis industry has seen rapid growth in recent years as more states move to legalization. As more dispensaries, growers, and manufacturers enter the space, its more important than ever to differentiate your cannabis business from the competition. The key to differentiating your cannabis business is marketing and advertising.
Some services, like display advertising or SEO (search engine optimization), are possible to do on your own but take a long time to maintain. Hiring a cannabis advertising agency to do your marketing for you frees up valuable time you can spend on other aspects of your business. Hiring a cannabis advertising agency to handle your online marketing leads to better ROI than if you were to do it on your own, and also has a range of additional benefits.
Compliance With Advertising Regulations
One thing you may not be familiar with as a business owner are the regulations surrounding cannabis advertising. Legality of your cannabis or CBD products is one thing, but there are entirely different rules and regulations on a state and local level. Account manager and other staff working for cannabis advertising agencies are familiar with the rules and regulations and keep up to date to ensure your advertising efforts are compliant with all regulations.
Market Research
A time consuming but essential part of advertising is market research. If you’re managing a business, you won’t have time to properly segment out your audiences to optimize your marketing strategy. This means your display ads and SEO efforts won’t be as effective as they could be. A cannabis advertising agency can shorten the research time needed since they specialize in understanding the data, consumer trends, and the advertising platforms that are open to cannabis advertising.
Analytics and Reporting
Different agencies have their own custom reporting and trackable metrics to show you the value of your advertising spend. It is possible to set up a dashboard of your own, but it takes time and resources that could be better spent elsewhere. This data and reporting can give you additional insights into your buyers and help you determine where to spend your advertising budget to further maximize profits and enhance your market position.
Specialized cannabis advertising agencies will make a positive impact on your brand and business. Look for companies that offer customized services that are designed based on your products and branding.
Some senior living homes are permitting cannabis use on-site for senior residents! Here’s a heartwarming story about a senior community’s growing acceptance for cannabis.
Congratulations to Minnesota for becoming the 23rd state to legalize recreational cannabis use!
Mastercard recently issued a warning to banks to not process legal purchases of cannabis from dispensaries and online stores. This means the only way to purchase cannabis from many dispensaries is cash-only purchases, making it harder for dispensaries and consumers to get what they need. Mastercard claims that it cannot process these kinds of purchases because cannabis is not federally legal, this shows how important federal legalization or the passing of something like the SAFE banking Act is integral to legal cannabis businesses.
Minnesota’s house and senate recently voted to pass recreational cannabis laws making it legal to purchase and consume recreational cannabis in the state of Minnesota. There are some slight differences between the house and senate bills that need to be resolved before the bill goes to Governor Tim Walz’s desk. Both bills include timelines for opening dispensaries and also for pardoning people currently incarcerated for selling and smoking cannabis, and expunging their records.
A few years back, lawmakers introduced the SAFE banking act and failed to come to an agreement on what cannabis legislation would look like. This year, they’re trying again and are already seeing more promise of the bill being passed. The bill has passed the house and is to be discussed in the Senate. The SAFE banking act creates a pathway to federal legalization of cannabis and would allow dispensaries to own bank accounts, meaning they are less prone to robberies, payment processing is simplified, and they have access to business loans and other programs. The possibility of legalization also opens up the possibility of interstate commerce which would greatly accelerate the development of newer cannabis markets and give some of the older markets a place to sell some of their extra green.
A bill proposing funding for the study of cannabis’s medicinal properties within veterans was recently voted against by Republican members of the Senate. Bummer.
This one is an oldie, an ongoing problem within some government agencies is the hiring of hackers and coders. If you didn’t know, most of them smoke, and federal employees need to pass drug tests that include testing for cannabis. In recent years, agencies have been relaxing this requirement as their demand for hackers and security experts increases.
