Category: SM Blog

The Benefits of SEO for Dispensary Marketing

Aaron

In the ever-evolving landscape of the cannabis industry, establishing a robust online presence is no longer just an option—it’s a necessity. As experts in the field, Seedless Media recognizes the pivotal role that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) plays in dispensary marketing, and we find that SEO is often the most important marketing channel a dispensary can invest in. This blog unveils the multitude of benefits that a well-crafted SEO strategy can bring to your cannabis business.

Enhanced Visibility and Ranking

In a digital age where visibility is key, SEO acts as the beacon guiding potential customers to your dispensary’s doorstep. By optimizing your website for search engines, you catapult your business to the top of Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Most searchers will only look at the first few results on the first page of google, so securing a top spot for keywords relevant to your dispensary will greatly increase your chances of turning those searchers into customers.

Targeting Relevant Keywords

At the heart of effective SEO lies the strategic use of keywords. Seedless Media emphasizes the importance of identifying and targeting keywords specific to the cannabis industry. Leveraging relevant keywords will level up your dispensary marketing and drive more relevant search traffic to your website. By understanding your audience’s search habits, you can optimize your content with relevant keywords, attracting a more targeted and interested customer base. To do this, you can use free search tools like Google Search Console or Google Trends, or you can dig deeper with paid tools like AHrefs or SEMrush. Keywords should be intuitive and easy for a consumer to type. Think about how a person might ask about your product in your dispensary, that is likely how they would search for it online. Good dispensary marketing is about making it easy for your customers to find you.

Building Credibility and Trust

Trust is the currency of the online world, and SEO contributes significantly to building it. Positive reviews, testimonials, and a strong online presence all work together to establish credibility. Through organic search results, customers are more likely to trust your dispensary, leading to increased brand loyalty and repeat business. You can build trust with Google by maintaining your website, following its content guidelines, and building a backlink portfolio. Backlinks are a vouch from one website to another, and Google puts more trust in websites that have earned the trust of other websites.

Local SEO for Dispensaries

For brick-and-mortar dispensaries, local SEO is a game-changer. Seedless Media guides you through the process of optimizing your Google My Business (GMB) listing, ensuring that your dispensary marketing shines in local searches. Targeting location-based keywords further enhances your visibility, attracting nearby customers searching for cannabis products. Adding your location to the end of a keyword increases your chances of showing up in the search results for local searchers.

Content Marketing Strategies

SEO and content go hand in hand. Seedless Media encourages the creation of informative and engaging content tailored to your audience. Blog posts, articles, and product descriptions enriched with carefully selected keywords not only attract customers but also ensure your dispensary is marketing itself as an authoritative voice in the cannabis industry. Google isn’t looking for keyword stuffed filler, it wants to recommend content that is helpful to people who are searching. Include relevant, accurate information and your blogs and product description optimized shop pages will rank higher.

Mobile Optimization

In an era dominated by mobile devices, making sure your dispensary marketing efforts include mobile optimization is imperative. Seedless Media emphasizes the importance of mobile-friendly websites, ensuring seamless experiences for users on various devices. A mobile-optimized site not only enhances user satisfaction but also positively impacts your SEO rankings. Most mobile optimizations have to do with image sizes and making sure that different page assets scale down appropriately. A shocking majority of cannabis customers shop and search using their phones. Most of our clients find that anywhere from 60-80% of their traffic comes from mobile sources, so it is important to make sure the customer journey on your site’s mobile view is easy to navigate.

Measuring and Analyzing SEO Success

Like any dispensary marketing channel, measuring and analyzing your results will be imperative to longterm success. In marketing, we use Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, to keep track of what actually matters in a campaign. When measuring your own SEO efforts, you should be keeping track of which keywords you are ranking on page 1 for, your organic traffic by month, and for a local dispensary, where your traffic is coming from geographically.

Regulatory Compliance and Ethical SEO

In a regulated industry like cannabis, navigating legal and ethical considerations is paramount. Seedless Media guides you in ensuring compliance with industry regulations and search engine guidelines. Ethical SEO practices not only keep your dispensary in good standing with Google but also with organic searchers and your customers. If people feel misled or like they were tricked into visiting your website, they aren’t likely to make a purchase or become a repeat customer.

As the cannabis industry continues to flourish, the benefits of SEO for dispensary marketing become increasingly evident. Seedless Media invites you to unlock the full potential of your dispensary through a comprehensive SEO marketing strategy tailored to your unique audience and products. Elevate your online presence, capture the attention of your target customers, and watch your dispensary thrive in the competitive cannabis market.

Best Practices for Managing Your CBD Google My Business Listing

Aaron

Ensuring a robust online presence is essential for any CBD business’s CBD marketing strategy, and a key contributor to having good CBD SEO is maintaining your Google My Business (GMB) listing. This plays a pivotal role in local search visibility. For brick and mortar businesses, your GMB listing gives your CBD SEO a leg up on online-only retailers, even ones with GMBs. Anyone searching for “near me” keyphrases will get results based on their IP and geolocation. If you are a brick and mortar CBD store and you don’t have a Google My Business listing, you’re leaving traffic on the table.

As experts in CBD marketing, Seedless Media understands the significance of optimizing your GMB listing to attract potential customers actively searching for CBD products or services. In this guide, we’ll delve into the best practices for managing your CBD GMB listing, helping you elevate your online presence and CBD marketing efforts to reach more buyers.

Optimizing Your Business Information

Part of a good CBD marketing strategy is letting people know when they can buy from you.Before GMB existed, businesses would list their store hours in their window or local listings like yellowpages.To kickstart your GMB optimization journey, begin by ensuring your business information is accurate and up-to-date. This includes your business name, address, and phone number (NAP). Select the most relevant business category and subcategories to enhance search relevance. Most CBD related businesses list themselves as herbal medicine stores or cannabis stores.

Leveraging High-Quality Visuals

Another important aspect of your CBD marketing strategy is how you present your brand. Your GMB profile will be many first time customers’ first impression of your business. Having a professionally taken picture of your brick and mortar location or a high resolution logo will make your business more professional in the eyes of potential customers and Google. Having additional photos also helps with your CBD SEO as photos are a key indicator of an active listing in Google’s eyes.

Encouraging Customer Reviews

Customer reviews are a powerful tool for building trust and credibility. Actively seek reviews from satisfied customers and respond promptly to both positive and negative feedback. Highlight positive reviews on your GMB listing, and use negative feedback as an opportunity to showcase your commitment to customer satisfaction. Google rewards active GMB profiles that respond to feedback frequently, and many shoppers use GMB reviews as a gauge of how trustworthy a business is. Think about your own shopping and searching habits. Would you eat at a restaurant with no reviews, or one with a few bad reviews but no good reviews or responses from the owner? Moreover – a good CBD marketing strategy incorporates positive reviews in marketing material. You can use reviews as an opportunity to boost your CBD SEO by including reviews that mention keywords.

Utilizing Attributes for CBD Businesses

Adding attributes to your GMB profile can help you stand out from other CBD businesses that don’t put as much effort into their CBD marketing efforts. Attributes are like badges that you can assign to your own profile. This includes accessibility attributes like wheelchair accessibility, or “crowd attributes” like adult only or LGBTQ+ friendly. Using these attributes can help customers from different groups find your business, and it helps Google recommend your business to those groups.

Implementing CBD SEO Best Practices

Your GMB profile, particularly your business description, is another place where you can implement CBD SEO to boost search rankings. Including a keyword rich description and keywords in your responses to customers help you rank for those keywords.

Utilizing Google My Business Posts

Google My Business Posts are an excellent way to engage with your audience. Create compelling and informative posts that showcase your latest products, promotions, or industry insights. Incorporate a clear call-to-action and ask questions to encourage user engagement.

Staying Compliant with Policies and Regulations

Google and CBD have a tenuous relationship, and things are constantly changing. Ensure all content on your GMB listing complies with local and federal regulations. Regularly review and update your listing to align with any policy changes, safeguarding your online presence.

Monitoring Insights and Analytics

GMB insights provide valuable data on user engagement, search queries, and customer actions. Regularly analyze these metrics to gain insights into your listing’s performance. Use the data to make informed decisions and continually optimize your GMB listing for better results.

Conclusion

Effectively managing your CBD Google My Business listing is an ongoing process that requires attention to detail and a commitment to staying current with industry trends. If you do it correctly, it can be a boon to your CBD marketing efforts and greatly enhance your CBD SEO. By implementing the best practices outlined by Seedless Media, you’ll not only enhance your local search visibility but also establish a strong online presence that resonates with your target audience. Elevate your CBD business to new heights with a meticulously managed GMB listing.

Crafting an Effective Cannabis Dispensary Advertising Strategy

Aaron

Crafting a dispensary advertising strategy for your cannabis dispensary isn’t just about selling products; it’s about making genuine connections. A cornerstone of our client relations at Seedless Media is making connections that matter, and we carry that from our relationship with you to your relationship with your customers. Here’s our practical guide to crafting a dispensary advertising strategy that feels real, relatable, and effective.

Getting Personal with Your Audience: Your customers are unique individuals, each with their preferences and stories. Taking the time to understand them is key. At Seedless Media, we dive deep into understanding your audience—what they love, what resonates with them—to ensure that every message hits home. We do this by taking the information you share with us about best selling products and who is most likely to walk through your doors and our years of experience in the cannabis industry.

Navigating the Digital Landscape: The same way your brick-and-mortar dispensary has a look that can attract or scare away customers, your website, social media posts, and digital display advertisements are your first impression and continued impression with many online shoppers and first time searchers. From engaging social media posts to eye-catching ads, our team at Seedless Media crafts visuals and messages that cut through the digital noise.

Informative and Engaging Content: More than just promotions, your customers crave information. Educated customers typically spend more, and providing educational content about cannabis products not only informs your customers but builds trust between you and them. Our goal at Seedless Media is to create content that educates and empowers your audience to make better decisions and purchase the right product for them, while building your credibility.

Collaborating for Success: Partnerships aren’t just about business; they’re about creating relationships. We’ve built relationships with all of the different verticals of the cannabis industry, and we’d love to get you in contact with them! If you’re looking for new products to carry or looking to start making your own products, we always know who to call. Most importantly, all of our connections are cannabis and dispensary friendly. We help identify partnerships that align with your values and expand your reach in an authentic way.

Consistency and Evolution: Staying true to your brand while being adaptable is crucial. We maintain a consistent presence while analyzing data to fine-tune strategies, ensuring your dispensary advertising efforts evolve and remain effective. We know your plans are flexible and we’re always willing to adjust course as your business changes.

In conclusion, effective dispensary advertising for your business isn’t just about sales—it’s about building connections. At Seedless Media, we’re dedicated to helping you create meaningful connections within the cannabis community.

CBD Marketing: Everything You Need To Know

Aaron

In today’s evolving market, CBD products have surged in popularity, creating both opportunities and challenges for businesses. At SM Service, we recognize the intricate nature of crafting successful CBD marketing strategies and the need for a human-centered approach.

Navigating Regulatory Nuances: We understand the importance of staying compliant with CBD regulations from legal bodies and payment processors. Many payment processors are very particular about the language used around benefits of CBD. Our team dives deep into the FDA guidelines, ensuring that your CBD marketing campaigns are both effective and in line with legal boundaries.

Connecting with Your Audience: Identifying your audience is key. Casting a net too wide means you may end up marketing to people who aren’t interested in buying your products. We help you identify who your likely purchasers are and create a strategy to reach out to them and convince them to make a purchase. We help you resonate with your target demographic, crafting campaigns that speak to their desires and needs, establishing a genuine connection.

Empowering Through Education: Education forms the foundation of trust in the CBD marketing world. We emphasize the power of informative content creation including engaging blog posts, product descriptions, social media content and informative emails all designed to build credibility with your audience.

Harnessing Social Media’s Potential: Social media is a cornerstone for modern marketing. We guide you through leveraging these platforms while adhering to their policies, ensuring your message reaches far and wide. Navigating the landscape of social media for CBD can be difficult because of the restrictions placed on the category. We know what is safe to post and words and phrases to stay away from to ensure we’re building your social media presence without getting your account flagged.

The Art of Collaboration: Partnering with influencers who align with your brand ethos can amplify your reach. We assist in selecting and collaborating with influencers who authentically resonate with your audience.

Optimizing for Online Visibility: Enhancing your online presence is pivotal. We offer insights into tailored SEO strategies crafted for the CBD industry, boosting your search rankings and visibility.

At Seedless Media, our commitment lies in humanizing CBD marketing. Our guide equips you with practical strategies and insights, aiming not just for success, but for building genuine connections with your audience.

Why a CBD SEO Agency is Essential For Your Business

Aaron

In today’s cannabis marketing realm, being visible online is key, especially for CBD businesses. It’s not just about having a great product anymore; it’s about making sure your audience can find you. That’s where a CBD SEO agency, like Seedless Media, becomes an invaluable ally.

1. Navigating Unique CBD Challenges: CBD companies face distinct hurdles in online cannabis marketing due to strict rules and ever-changing policies. A CBD SEO agency knows these challenges inside and out, ensuring your business stays compliant while reaching the right audience. We implement our growing knowledge of the cannabis industry to create the most optimal strategy for your business while also adhering to the regulations surrounding CBD and cannabis related businesses.

2. Tailoring Strategies to CBD: One-size-fits-all SEO strategies won’t cut it in the field of cannabis marketing. Seedless Media crafts personalized approaches, using CBD-specific keywords, content, and techniques that resonate with your audience. Our discovery process allows us to get to know you and your brand while also helping us take the necessary steps toward building the best marketing plan to produce the best results.

3. Industry Know-How: When you choose a CBD SEO agency over a regular SEO agency, you don’t just get a list of keywords and rankings; you get industry experts that understand the cannabis marketing landscape. Seedless Media is made of cannabis experts and advocates that keep up to date on the latest trends and regulations, giving your business a competitive edge. Our team will use the latest google trends to help you stay ahead of the competition.

4. Boosting Online Visibility: Getting noticed online is crucial. A CBD-focused SEO agency employs tactics to bump up your website’s ranking, making it easier for potential customers to find you. We provide detailed page content, backlink portfolios relevant to the cannabis industry, keyword rich blog content, and more with our SEO services.

5. Staying Compliant and Trustworthy: CBD regulations demand strict adherence that regular seo agencies aren’t aware of. We take the second guessing out of the equation for you by enlisting regulatory compliance monitoring across all of our cannabis marketing services. A seasoned CBD SEO agency ensures your content complies with the rules, building trust and credibility with your audience.

In the world of cannabis marketing, a strong online presence isn’t an option; it’s a necessity. Partnering with a specialized CBD SEO agency like Seedless Medias isn’t just about marketing; it’s about smart strategy. Their tailored approaches, industry insight, and compliance expertise can propel your CBD business toward sustained growth and visibility.

What’s The Difference Between Conquesting & Prospecting for Your Cannabis Business

Aaron

When researching cannabis digital ads or different kinds of guerilla marketing, you may hear industry people talk about “conquesting” and “prospecting”. These terms describe strategies within the digital marketing realm to target prospective audiences for your brand. Conquesting means, targeting your competitors’ audiences, and prospecting simply means, seeking out new potential customers—both play pivotal roles in the cannabis industry’s growth. By using cannabis digital ads to promote your brand & products, Seedless Media can target your competitors’ customers and tap into new segments, creating a whole new customer base for your business.

Conquesting Unveiled

Conquesting is the act of targeting your competitors’ business and putting your ads in front of the competitors’ audience. It is most clearly illustrated in geo targeted cannabis digital ads. With Seedless Media geotargeting services we can set up a geofence around different locations or addresses (like competitor dispensaries, smoke shops, and other points of interest) and serve impressions to people who walk through that specific area. It’s like having fliers taped to your competitor’s door. Conquesting is great for cannabis digital ads because it provides you with a proven pool of customers in an area. This method along with our comprehensive data will provide you with the insight you need to really drive new customers to your business.

Prospecting: Nurturing New Horizons

Prospecting is using consumer insights and demographic data to serve impressions to a likely buyer. It covers people who are interested in cannabis that might not be shopping at any of the dispensaries or smoke shops you’re targeting through conquesting. These are people that may be interested in cannabis or have interests peripheral to it, without ever having walked into a dispensary or smoke shop. They’re on the precipice of purchase, and a few impressions is all it takes to convert them into a customer. Identifying who your likely customers are through cannabis digital ads, and serving impressions to people similar to them.

Striking the Balance

The best cannabis digital marketing strategy, whether you’re doing geo-targeted display ads, SEO, or some other form of marketing, is a mix of both conquesting and prospecting. Conquesting is efficient because it reaches out to an audience of people who are already likely to purchase your product. If you can offer a better experience or value proposition than your competitors, people will switch over to you. Prospecting is still important because as any industry continues to grow, the faces that are most well known are the ones that continue to reap the benefits of that growth. Putting yourself in front of consumers now means you will be the first person they think of when they are ready to give products in your niche a try.

Conquesting and Prospecting, not conquesting vs prospecting

It is important to recognize that the comparison between these two types of marketing is not to draw a line between the two and make you pick one, it’s to help you come to the conclusion that both are important for a successful cannabis digital marketing campaign. Whether it’s an impression based cannabis display ads campaign or a long term SEO campaign, or a guerilla marketing campaign, your campaign will function at its best when it keeps your competitors and bystanders in mind.

At The Seedless Media, we understand the intricate dynamics of cannabis marketing. Contact us to tailor strategies that seamlessly integrate conquesting and prospecting for your business growth.

How To Use Cannabis Consumer Data To Improve Conversions

Aaron

In the dynamic realm of cannabis marketing, unlocking the potential of consumer data stands as a game-changer. Data and insights aren’t just numbers, they’re trends that tell you exactly who your consumers are, what they’re interested in, and how you can sell to them more effectively. Collecting data and properly analyzing it can help you greatly improve your sales, but misinterpreted data can do the exact opposite. If you need help collecting data and analyzing it, hire a cannabis marketing team like us.

Start by Collecting Data

Before you can analyze data, you need to collect it. How do you do this? POS systems and online menu tools like Dutchie will tell you exactly what your most popular items are, but if you want more personal information, you need to treat your customers like people and interact with them. Sending out surveys via email or having your budtenders in-stores ask them a question or two while checking them out can give you valuable insights into the people that are already engaging with your brand. Email tools like Klaviyo tell you what kind of information your customers are most interested in by tracking open and click through rates.

The Power of Personalization

All of this data can help you paint a picture of your likely buyers. This includes age demographics, location, interests, and all sorts of other information that helps cannabis marketing teams like ours develop strategies to target the people who are most likely to make a purchase.

Elevating Customer Journeys

Collecting data at every touchpoint from the first display ad served to the first email sent, will help you figure out how you can better serve your customers. You can look at the different drop-off points in the customer journey to figure out how you can boost sales. If your emails have high open and click through rates but low conversions, maybe it means your prices are a bit too high or maybe it means your website is difficult to navigate.

Use Data To Inform Discounts

Reward repeat customers with points systems or percentage discounts. You can use your sales data and the click through rates of your different advertising channels to put together future promotions. If you know your customers love flower and respond well to BOGO deals, why not give them exactly what they want?

For deeper insights into optimizing your cannabis marketing strategies through consumer data, explore The Seedless Media today.

Remember, behind every data point lies an opportunity to connect with your audience on a deeper level and transform it into meaningful conversions.

Mastering Cannabis Advertising : Tips to Increase Conversions

Aaron

Conversions and sales are the name of the game in advertising. Many services like SEO are great for building traffic and bringing people to your website, but how do you get them to actually make a purchase? This blog will give some advice on boosting website traffic and what you can do to turn that traffic into conversions.

1. Know Your Audience Inside Out: Before you convert a website visitor into a customer, you need to convert someone outside of your purchase bubble into a website visitor. Effective advertising starts with truly understanding who you’re talking to. Dive deep into what makes your audience tick – their interests, preferences, and pain points. Crafting ads that speak directly to their hearts and minds is the key to success.

2. Visuals that Tell Stories: Ever heard the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”? In cannabis advertising, visuals are your storytellers. A well-put-together display advertisement can convey exactly what you’re selling and bring a person who is at the precipice of purchase right to your shop page. A banner at the top of your home page with some kind of discount code can convince repeat visitors and first time visitors alike to make a purchase.

3. Embrace Diverse Platforms: On average, it takes 7 interactions or touches before someone acts on your call to action(making a purchase). Repeat touches from the same point aren’t as effective as different touches. This means a person that sees your website organically through Google searches, sees your display advertisements on various websites, and sees you on social media is more likely to make a purchase than a person that has only seen you in one of those places. A diversified approach ensures your message reaches your audience wherever they are, and it builds trust when they see you in their spaces.

4. Retarget Your Traffic: It isn’t realistic to convert every website visitor into a customer, but you can increase conversions by providing strong first time deals or turning first time visitors into repeat visitors through email marketing. Setting up an email popup with Mailchimp or Klaviyo will greatly increase your form submission rate. One way of increasing this even further is including a discount for email subscribers and mentioning it on your popup.

5. Offer Strong Deals: Its true that offering incentives cuts into your profit margin, but you need to put yourself in the shoes of a first time visitor to your website. They haven’t tried your products before, so they have no point of reference for how good they are and how they stack up against the competition. Discounts and sales help to increase the likelihood of conversion.

6. Give Prospects The Information They Need To Make An Informed Purchase: Your customers know what they’re looking for. They want to know what the product you’re selling looks like, how much THC, CBD, and other cannabinoids are in it, and what kind of effects they can expect after using it. If you have that information available, why not share it with customers? Informed customers are more likely to make a purchase, and more likely to spend more than uninformed customers.

Need help setting up a popup or creating an eye-catching banner at the top of your homepage? At The Seedless Media, we’re experts in CBD and cannabis digital marketing.

Curious to see how we can transform your cannabis advertising game? Check out our Display Advertising page for insights into our expertise.

In conclusion, mastering cannabis advertising involves speaking authentically to your audience while navigating industry regulations. By implementing these strategies and partnering with seasoned professionals, you’ll not just boost visibility but forge meaningful connections and drive conversions for your brand.

Cannabis Advertising Agency

Tips For Effective Digital Cannabis Advertising

Aaron

Traditional forms of advertising are great, but as the world moves further towards technology, having an online presence is becoming increasingly important. There are only 24 hours in a day, and you can only spend a fraction of that time on your digital presence, so how do you beat dispensaries and ecommerce CBD companies that already have a strong digital presence online?

Here’s some important things to keep in mind when developing your digital marketing strategy for your dispensary or ecommerce CBD business.

  • Review the laws – Cannabis legislation moves at a breakneck pace, this means you need to be on the lookout for potential legislation changes including things like the SAFE banking act, along with local and state-level legislation. Along with the legality of your CBD or cannabis products, there are also special rules for advertising. Search engines like Google and social media like Instagram and X(formerly twitter) are constantly changing their rules and expectations surrounding cannabis and CBD.
  • Set a budget for your digital cannabis advertising campaign – It would be amazing if all forms of advertising could be free and effective, but like most things in life, you need to pay more to see the best results. It is important to set aside some amount of money as an advertising budget and do your best to stick within that budget. This means picking specific channels of communication that will give you the best return, and being ruthless when you notice you aren’t getting the ROI you’re expecting.
  • Know the KPIs – This works in tandem with your budget, don’t just throw thousands of dollars at a cannabis marketing agency without knowing what you’re measuring. Check in with the agency you’re working with or thinking of working with and ask them what KPIs they track for each of your campaigns. It’s important to be cognisant of the fact that not all campaigns are run with the intention of driving a sale. Some campaigns exist solely to increase a consumer’s awareness of your product and make them more likely to think of you and purchase your product down the line when they’re ready to make a purchase, not to turn them into a shopper five minutes after they’ve been exposed to your ad.
  • Keep your website up to date – Many digital campaigns set a goal of driving traffic to your website – if you don’t have a sleek website that makes people want to click around, they will leave your website. The same way you keep your dispensary or home clean, your website needs to be clean and appealing to potential customers.

Go with an omnichannel approach

Putting all your eggs into one basket and only running display advertisements or only having an SEO campaign is like trying to drive a car with only one wheel. It takes a minimum of 7 different touchpoints to convert a person into a customer, and it takes continuous touchpoints after the fact to keep your brand at the top of that customer’s mind the next time they want to purchase cannabis or CBD products. This means running multiple campaigns and efforts at the same time, ranging from local events to display advertising to email marketing. Doing all of these takes much more work than just doing one, but the more engaged you are with your potential customers, the more engaged they will be with you.

Display Advertising

What to Consider When Designing A Dispensary Display Ad

Aaron

Display advertising is a cost effective form of advertising that is based on serving impressions directly to prospective customers. Display advertising can be very effective for cannabis dispensaries and ecommerce companies that sell CBD products, but only if you have a well designed advertisement and the right segments in place. Here are some of the most important things to consider when putting together a display advertisement.

Make sure the advertisement matches your brand

Display advertisements will be many customers’ first impression of your brand, and it is important to make sure this impression is consistent with your website or in-store appearance. If you plan on running display advertisements for a prolonged period of time, having a consistent brand image with the same logo, colors, and font will help your customers instantly recognize the advertisement as yours, and make them want to engage with the advertisement.

Be specific about what you’re advertising

A generic advertisement that just says “We’re dispensary X” won’t get anyone to click and visit your website. Your advertisement should give people a reason to click. This means including some sort of discount or showing off a product that can only be bought in your dispensary or on your website.

Don’t use coupon codes

We just talked about discounts, but the more steps you put between your customer and them making a purchase, the less likely they are to make a purchase. Our cannabis marketing experts have found that coupon codes are not an effective use of the real-estate on your display ads. The nature of display advertisements is that they move along relatively quickly, and if a person is engaged and clicks on the advertisement to get to your website, they are unlikely to see that advertisement on whatever app or website they were on previously. This means you’re relying on your customer’s memory and ability to remember a coupon code. In our experience, an automatic coupon code that can be redeemed at checkout by simply adding the right items to the cart works infinitely better than having your customers remember a coupon code.

Make the ad engaging

This can be achieved by including moving elements and multiple instances or slides. You can feature a variety of products and deals in one ad, it doesn’t need to just be one product per impression. This means you get to show more of your brand and product offerings, and you’re giving customers more opportunities to see something they like. The different colors and text will also make people more invested in the ad and make them want to click. The most important part of the advertisement by far is the inclusion of a call to action. It might seem trivial, but the inclusion of some kind of text that says “click here” or “buy now” makes all the difference in the click-through-rate for cannabis display advertisements.

Size Matters

The resolution and actual size of the still image or gif file matter. Different publishers have different rules, so make sure you check with your publisher or ask your cannabis marketing company what their size limit is. Along with the file size, you need to keep the dimensions or resolution of the ad in mind. Different publishers will support different sized advertisements, and you’ll want to have different resolutions of the same ad ready to accommodate different apps and different monitor or phone sizes. Any images and text included in the advertisement should be clear and easy to read. The main focus of your display advertisement should be whatever product you’re highlighting, and that should take up most of the space on the design.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

Working with a cannabis advertising agency that specializes in cannabis display ads is a great way to make sure your first attempt at cannabis display ads is a success. Cannabis advertising agencies have access to in-house graphic designers and a wider publishing network than you may have access to as an individual cannabis dispensary or CBD retailer.