How to Create a Marketing Plan for Your Dispensary – Part 3

If you have been following along with part one and part two of our “How to Create a Marketing Plan for Your Dispensary” series, you know the importance of being accessible online, a polished business image, and engaging with your customers through different social channels. However, a quality website, social media presence, and local listings are not the only ways to achieve these critical touchpoints for your cannabis marketing strategy. This guide will demonstrate why you should include native ads, blog and video content in your dispensary marketing plan. You will also learn how these marketing channels can elevate your dispensary above competitors while building your brand authority and customer loyalty.

Native Advertising for Dispensaries

A native advertisement is a piece of content that is similar to an editorial post but designed to advocate a brand or promote a product. You may have even viewed native ads without even realizing it. The purpose of a native ad is to promote a product or business, so it is likely that the content will mention a specific product several times or link back to a company’s website. To best utilize native advertising for a dispensary, you should ensure that your content is posted to platforms that are relevant to your customer audience. For example, you may collaborate with a publication in your area that covers the cannabis industry (look at your local weekly publications, like Denver’s Westword) to post a guide to different cannabis strains and hyperlink relevant products on your dispensary web site. It is crucial that your native ad content is compelling and delivers value to the readers, while also promoting your business and products because many users block or skip over ads.

Dispensary Blogs and Vlog Content

Similar to native advertising, the purpose of blog and vlog content is to deliver value to your customers through content. However, the focus of a blog is to inform and entertain your audience rather than promote your products. In contrast to native advertising, blog content is typically published on your platform through a standalone blog, a blog on the website, or through video streaming outlets such as YouTube. This content can be about nearly any topic. You should ensure that your content is cannabis-oriented and relevant to your customer base. Posting business-relevant blog content can also improve your organic SEO rankings.

Engaging content is often the deciding factor for a customer to decide if they will eventually visit your store. Blog content is not limited to the written word either. Video blogs, or vlogs, are an excellent way to deliver content to your customers through a visually stimulating medium. They are often a better choice of content for visually-pleasing products. For example, instead of writing a blog post about how great a new strain of cannabis looks, why not create a video that goes into more depth about the product, letting the product’s appearance speak for itself.

While managing the day-to-day operations of a dispensary can be a great source of inspiration for blog pieces, the time it takes to run a business may prohibit the production of good, consistent content. Schedule a consultation with Marijuana Marketing Xperts today and find out how we can help you to integrate native advertising, blogs, and vlogs into your dispensary marketing plan.

Check out our helpful infographic below:

Featured Image: Parilov/Shutterstock

Noni Cavaliere