When people ask me for tips on breaking into the cannabis industry, I usually tell them to reconsider. I’m not trying to gate keep, just being realistic about the current state of an industry that operates in murky legal waters and puts a target on your back for participating (and one that gets way too much attention, and taxation, from the government).
Marijuana was a movement long before it was an industry. That’s why its survival requires keeping around the old school legacy heads who were in it before it was legal. It takes grit, and it’s not for the faint of heart. You’ll face challenges with access to banking, marketing platforms and advertising space, as well as a negative stigma that’s been difficult to shake despite recent strides. So you really, really have to want it. Your heart has to be in it.
Almost all US states and several countries now have some form of legal cannabis access, whether medical or legal adult use (not my home state though, come on Idaho). And whether you’re looking to get high, to access new wellness alternatives such as rare cannabinoids like CBG, THCV or CBN, or to alleviate stress or pain, cannabis is a tried and true healing modality that humanity has a long history of using.
So if you find yourself curious about working in the cannabis industry, or you wonder about those hemp gummy ads that keep popping up in your social media feed, congrats, you have encountered cannabis marketing. Both on the CBD / legal hemp side or on the state-by-state licensed market, educating about, advocating for, and selling cannabis or hemp wellness products requires paying attention to unique factors such as legal compliance and public safety, platform compatibility and community standards, advertising limitations and more.
I’ve been steeped in this realm for over a decade now as an employee at a cannabis creative agency, freelance marketer / graphic designer, dispensary marketing director, marketing consultant, cannabis and hemp activist, event organizer and advocate for plant medicine. Here’s the top ten lessons I’ve learned, applicable to everyone from weed influencers to retail owners to marketing consultants to events to cannabis farms & product brands. I’d love to hear your tips and lessons learned in the comments!
Roll one up and let’s talk nerdy about cannabis marketing…
1. The Basics: Naming & Branding
Let’s start at the beginning, with your brand name and identity. You will make things ten times harder for yourself in cannabis marketing if your brand name has an obvious cannabis or weed related word in it. Canna + Whatever You Do does NOT a smart brand name make, just trust me on this.
It can be done, of course, and if the brand name is already established and known, it’s better to maintain that integrity. And I can’t exactly talk, considering names like Doobie Nights and The Cannabis Trail are in my portfolio. But since I know how much harder I had to work to overcome that automatic flag that says “hey I might have something to do with a possibly legally nebulous substance,” I would just avoid it if possible.
Get more creative, think about how the plant makes you feel or clever and punny related words. At least spell it differently if you’re going to use a blatant weed word in your brand name.
2. Think Beyond the Leaf Logo
Hire a professional graphic designer to create your logo, preferably one experienced in the cannabis industry. DO NOT use a Canva template for your logo, or you won’t be able to trademark it. There are just some things worth investing good money in, and the visual cornerstone of your brand’s identity is most certainly one of them. Stay off Fiverr too, just ask me, I’ll refer you.
Speaking of branding design and logos, avoid using the classic pot leaf in your logo unless it’s very subtly or in a stylized and unique way that doesn’t immediately scan as a pot leaf. It’s just so overdone, and with censor bots on social media scanning for blatant weed imagery, it’s harder to fly under the radar. You also want something that will set you apart from your competitors, so use them as an example of logo concepts to NOPE.
3. Take a Long View & Have a Plan
When you are investing in so much extra in up-front costs to start a cannabis business (EVERYTHING costs more when you’re plant touching especially, from licensing to banking to security to tech), it’s worth doing things right, hiring experienced professionals for key roles, and having a well researched strategy.
As soon as you have a Business Plan in place and start scouting for a location and applying for licenses, start building a Brand Strategy Guide, a living and evolving document (I like Google Slides docs) that captures your core brand messaging, your WHY for existing that will inform your marketing, your audience, competitive landscape, mission / vision statements, differentiators, and brand voice. And then start working on a Marketing Plan and begin building your tech stack.
Yes, it gets nerdy. But even in an industry as emergent and patchwork as cannabis and plant medicine, there are professionals who can help guide the way (hiiiii you’re reading one’s blog right now).
4. Oh the Social Media Woes
I will try to keep this one brief because it definitely deserves its own post, but you are gonna have a rough time being in the cannabis space and existing on social media. You aren’t special, you might get lucky for a while, but you are likely to deal with shadowbans or outright platform shutdowns, so just be prepared.
When it comes to social media content, back up EVERYTHING. Track your content in a spreadsheet or project management system, with dates & times posted, topic, caption copy, links, images or video (linked to the original files on the cloud), platforms, hashtags and performance data. Save the original files of all your videos as well as editable templates for graphics that utilize your brand styles and final images.
Plan for a variety of content types, emphasizing lifestyle content that shows people, mood, and brand ethos more than product close-ups or showing cannabis use, which can cause problems on many platforms. Go where you’re wanted, and don’t spend too much time posting weed content on platforms that aren’t cannabis friendly (this goes for things like website hosting too, GoDaddy is NOT cool with weed, and I found that one out the hard way).
You need to be where your audience is and engage with them in conversation, so focus on platforms that you know your target audiences spend time on. And make the goal of social media to drive traffic to your website, your email list, or your store – owned platforms that you control should always be prioritized over social media platforms that you don’t own and are subject to the unclear and ever-changing whims of “community guidelines.” For lots more tips on avoiding social media bans, check out the Avoiding the Meta Ban Hammer issue of my newsletter.
5. Don’t Cut Corners on Compliance
Unfortunately cannabis is still a very young industry, and with all the challenges business owners in the space face, they often wind up operating from a scarcity mindset. Legacy operators often have unresolved trauma and PTSD from being terrorized by their own government in the War on Drugs, too, and that’s legit (and a story for another day).
It’s also a very male-dominated industry and the chest thumping and testosterone steeped events can often lead to immature behavior like reporting your competitors accounts on social media. I’ve even seen disgruntled ex employees try to file false reports to the DCC (Department of Cannabis Control in California) as a feeble attempt at retaliation for being let go (for a legitimate reason that they very much were the cause of). I really wish we were above this absolutely childish bullshit, but for the aforementioned reasons and many more, here we are.
All of this to say, be VERY CAREFUL to stay aware of local cannabis laws and train your team on compliance. Have solid SOPs, a cannabis lawyer ready to help you, and a really good CPA, and keep up to date on your tax payments. It’s a lot. But it’s not worth risking any sort of fuck up with. We wanted a legal industry, so we gotta do our best to follow the rules. While actively lobbying our representatives to improve them of course, cuz a lot of them really do suck.
Marketing compliance for cannabis involves details like always including your license number on any public facing advertising or media if you’re plant-touching, making sure the majority of your audience is 21+ for ads and adding an age gate to your site, and being very careful of the wording you use on social media and marketing campaigns, and which platforms you’re on. There are a ton more guidelines, and they change all the time. Again, hiring a pro is priceless!
6. Find Your Voice & Find Your People
As you build your cannabis brand, whether it’s as a personal brand, a dispensary or farm, or even a big company, you should constantly be asking yourself why you’re doing it and who you are serving. Part of my process in building a Marketing Strategy with my clients is diving into target audience research. This involves uncovering the stories behind the brand, the team and their existing audience and customers, as well as who their products or services will most benefit.
Really think about how customers interact with each message you send, each platform they may see you on, each product they enjoy and their experience coming into your store or setting foot in your facility or farm. Who are the people who will become your most loyal customers? What are they into? Where can you find them? What problems can you help them solve?
A big chunk of your Marketing Plan should be focused on Audience Personas, profiling your top target audiences, their pain points and demographics, and how you plan to reach and speak directly to them. Then refine it as you grow. The more you pay attention to the experience your customers and audience have with your brand, the more you listen to them, the more you’ll find your niche, your flow, and your purpose. It’s a constant work in progress.
7. Better with Buds: Community & Partnerships are Key
If there is one positive that came out of prohibition, it’s giving cannabis users the instant camaraderie of a common enemy. It was all of us against The Man, man. Now things are definitely a bit murkier, because The Man is taking your tax money instead of locking you up. But he’s also not gonna be in a big hurry to help you out if your store or facility gets robbed, either. And it’s hard to tell who’s got your back and who’s trying to run a grift.
The best marketing your cannabis company can do, the best way to squash the stigma and integrate cannabis into the fabric of local life and build strong brand awareness is getting involved in your community. Join your local Chamber of Commerce and attend meetings. If your city is cool like Santa Rosa, maybe they even promote members to tourists with an app like the Santa Rosa Cannapass (which I helped build last year with Brian Applegarth for Visit Santa Rosa and you should definitely download).
Building bridges is essential, especially in cannabis where brands don’t have direct access to consumers (or their data) and sales are run through dispensaries, we have to support each other. I have seen firsthand how brands who come into a retailer with solid media assets, budtender training programs and a marketing budget can form a loyal customer base and everyone ends up winning. Meanwhile, some brands try so hard to get on the shelves but then as soon as they’re in, they ghost, giving the retailer nothing to work with and no reason to hype their products. If you need guidance on creating and managing collaborative campaigns with retail or brand partners, I am so your gal.
I have always loved the saying “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” It’s so true, but especially in cannabis.
8. Get Involved and Get Creative
Years ago, Doobie Nights adopted two sections of Highway 12 and the team does regular Highway Cleanups (the benefits of which include our logo on highly visible highway signs). It’s immensely valuable to your brand image to participate in or sponsor local events and do charity drives or host fundraising events benefitting local non-profits. Show up to local town halls or board meetings with public comments, especially if something cannabis related is being discussed, and participate with cannabis advocacy groups.
When you’re doing good work and showing up in the community, don’t gloat about it. The marketing isn’t the reason you’re doing it, but being in good community standing is absolutely part of a good strategy. Put the focus on the cause you’re benefitting, the people you serve and your team and community if you do mention your participation in your content. Make it genuine, not performative. People can tell.
Find creative ways to raise awareness, playfully engage your audience, delight your customers and represent your brand with integrity and heart. Then you’ll create a fiercely loyal audience that will be ambassadors for your brand.
9. Your Audience is Your Best Asset
Second only to your team, your customers and community are your best assets. A lot of good marketing, especially on social media and platforms where your people already are, is community building and relationship management. Social media is meant to be social. So engage!
Your marketing, sales, and customer service departments (or people, or sections of your own brain) should be in sync, and be built in a way that supports each other’s goals, keeps the lines of communication open, operates with transparency and welcomes feedback. And all of them should be focused on one goal: reaching your audience and keeping your customers happy. Everything you create, build, do, and say should have the end user in mind, and it’s worth paying attention to the little details like product formulation and flavor, packaging and labels, unique loyalty rewards and personalized messaging.
Build feedback loops into your messaging and marketing, and give people an easy way to contact you on every platform: contact forms on websites, customer surveys in emails (with rewards for participating), loyalty programs, DMs that are encouraged and dutifully answered. When in doubt, stop talking, and LISTEN.
10. Take Care of Each Other, but also, Take Care of YOU
You can probably see a theme in all of these lessons, and that is that smart cannabis marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. Well, all marketing is, but especially in a space where strong foundations are essential to survival. As prepared as you are and as solid your strategies are built, the ride is freakin’ WILD. It’s just… absolutely bonkers. We’ve all got stories, so join in the circle and you might hear some!
You will encounter more hurdles than you can count, people who tell you no or even laugh in your face when you tell them about what you do, and if you’re doing it right, you’ll probably accrue a few haters. But if there’s one thing that truly sticks with me the longer I serve the plant and her people, it’s that this is the most amazing, resilient, inspiring and BADASS community of people you could ever encounter works in cannabis. There are also a lot of bad players. But the real ones make it worth dealing with them.
Speaking of bad players, if you get mistreated, stiffed, disrespected or worse working in cannabis, please find a safe space to speak up. If you are privileged, it’s even more important to use that and get even louder about any injustice, unethical or predatory behavior, or shady shit you may witness or experience in the industry. That stuff does all of us a disservice. And there is no place for hate or abuse in an industry centered on a plant that connects, heals, and sows seeds of peace. (If you need help finding safe spaces to share your story or even just want one person to hear you, please reach out).
We look out for each other around here. And we are inclusive. The plant wouldn’t be legal without the sacrifice and hard work of queer activists and AIDS patients, and the flower is female. So in the cannabis industry I’m actively participating in creating, we definitely don’t tolerate bigotry or hatred of any kind. Don’t share hateful and divisive messaging in your marketing, be careful who you partner with and platform, craft messing thoughtfully, and you can try to steer clear of politics and social justice issues, sure, but cannabis itself is very political, so you won’t be very authentic if you do.
This industry is a rollercoaster, and if you’re crazy enough to want to be part of it even with all the challenges, then we welcome you to the circus! Please remember to make time for self care, check in with your coworkers and loved ones, and invest in yourself. Have your own back first always, but know that there are some really awesome people in cannabis just waiting to connect with you. Step into the ring, let’s go!
If you’re still reading, thank you so much for sticking it out on this wild ride through my cannabis marketing memory lane. It’s been a journey, and I have lots more to share on these topics.
I’m working on revamping my website, sharing valuable content and tooting my horn more, and connecting with potential clients who feel aligned. If this helped you and you want to hear more, get in touch and we can set up a discovery call, and please subscribe to my newsletter Pru’s Musings. In the near future hope to be creating more content here on my blog and on the newsletter, sharing more about recent projects, and whatever else I gotta do to stay afloat in this crazy world and the exciting industry that I can’t seem to quit. I’ll be sharing more here and on LinkedIn.
Follow on LinkedInOh, and because knowing the history behind where we are today is so important in being able to move forward, please grab some tissues and enjoy “The Secret Story” from The Cannabis Trail. Working on the Trail with Brian the past couple years has really renewed my love for the community, the culture and the plant. It’s not easy working in this space, but I’ve never felt such a strong calling or belonging anywhere else.
