If your cannabis company has a merger or acquisition on the horizon, odds are you have a lot on your plate. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all the moving parts involved in the merger or acquisition processes, especially with large-scale changes often being the first to hit. Major changes in company structure, employee roles, and overall business goals may be coming at a fast and furious rate, but that doesn’t mean you should neglect your online presence.

Maintaining a solid marketing plan to carry you through the merger or acquisition and beyond can be key to setting your company up for success, helping to ensure a smooth transition and keeping your business in good health for the long run.

At Marijuana Marketing Xperts, our team has plenty of experience helping cannabis companies navigate the tricky terrain of a merger or acquisition. We know what it takes to keep your company’s online presence up and running, making the necessary adjustments and strategic shifts. We’ve rounded up our list of key steps to take to prepare your company and its online identity for the world-shifting experience of a merger of acquisition.

Digital Marketing

In terms of your company’s digital marketing plan, there are likely at least a few adjustments that will be made after a merger or acquisition. Anytime you’re bringing two companies together, you’ll need to be ready to meld differing strategies and ideas together into one successfully plan moving forward. Giving your company ample time to plan and prepare is important, as is relying on experts when necessary.

For many companies, an acquisition or merger is a completely foreign experience, bringing with it a whole new collection of challenges. It can be difficult to know how to reimagine your digital marketing strategy as one – rather than two parts of a whole – and you shouldn’t hesitate to call in professionals. If your company doesn’t already have a solid online presence, now is the time to make it happen. As you emerge as a new brand after the acquisition or merger, an established online identity is highly valuable in connecting with both existing and new customers.

Publicity

Many companies become hyper-focused on the business details of a merger or acquisition, not realizing how acutely their customers will typically feel the shifts associated with such a major change. Using publicity as a tool to keep your customers informed and engaged is key, and you should be prepared to answer big questions that address how the customer experience may (or may not) change, preconceived notions about one or both of the brands, and more. While it may be tempting to avoid announcing the big move before it’s complete, be aware that media leaks are a common occurrence – wouldn’t you rather control how the news comes out? Ideally, you’ll have several communication touch points in place to avoid taking a reactionary approach, making real-time responses and proactive messaging the goal.

A merger or acquisition also offers a unique opportunity to rebrand, making smart, intentional use of publicity to present your new brand identity to the public. While some companies choose to maintain a dual-brand approach, other want to seamlessly blend into a single identity. Deciding which option is right for you depends on a wide range of factors and is definitely something to consider at length.

Content

Taking two separate content strategies and blending them into one may seem like a daunting task, but it’s absolutely something you can plan for. With the proper preparation, you can move forward with a well-developed content strategy that serves the new company’s goals and needs.

First, existing content should be evaluated for quality and performance, keeping existing KPIs and future goals in mind. Do the current content marketing assets suit the new direction of the company, after the merger or acquisition? If not, there may need to be a “tidying up” of sorts on the table. Moving forward, new content should seamlessly transition into a representation of the rebranded company, focusing on providing relevant content to targeted customers.

Don’t wait until after the merger or acquisition is complete to start planning content strategy; it should be in place well before that, ready to get rolling. Consider proactively working with a professional team to design new content that will successfully achieve marketing goals in the long run.

Social Media

Social media has become the key connection between companies and their customers and is one of the most important aspects to consider during a merger or acquisition. Of course, there are the logistics to consider: when and if social media channels will merge, who will be responsible for the various channels, and how to retire the ones that will no longer be in use.

Also, you should plan to utilize social media to announce the exciting news of the merger or acquisition, approaching the announcement with a strategic focus on customer perception. Before announcing, make sure you’re ready to handle the likely jump in customer engagement. You’ll want to be answering questions and responding positively in a timely manner, providing customers with the confidence that your company is one to trust moving forward.

SEO and Local SEO

In the midst of a merger or acquisition, SEO might seem like a low-level priority, but there’s actually a significant value in considering this aspect of your marketing strategies. The website belonging to any acquired company (or those involved in a merger) has a certain level of search equity on its own, and it’s obviously preferable to avoid wasting this established value. A company site likely has a variety of inbound links and mentions that have contributed to their historic search performance, boosting their ability to utilize organize search to generate leads.

To make the most of this SEO “equity,” it’s critical to redirect some or all of the original web properties to the new, primary site or destination. Essentially, the goal is a site migration, enabling you to continue benefiting from any established organic search presence. While there are a handful of resources for migrating a site without disrupting traffic, it’s ideally a task managed by professionals.

An SEO expert can make sure to evaluate and maintain key search terms that have historically performed well, as well as ones that are important targets for the business moving forward. Also, there needs to be a thorough understanding of the existing inbound links that have been built over time, pinpointing any third-party relationships that should be preserved. If handled correctly, the migration process could strengthen your new company’s marketing power considerably.

Let Marijuana Marketing Xperts Provide the Support You Need

For companies preparing for a merger or acquisition, there’s no shortage of challenges to face. No matter the size or type of company, mergers and acquisitions are tough work – there’s no other way to say it. With so many things to focus on, it’s easy for your marketing strategy to fall through the cracks, running the risk of damaging your long-term online presence.

At Marijuana Marketing Xperts, we can keep you company on track while you move through the many changes ahead, ensuring your online presence is properly primed and ready to excel. Our experienced team works with cannabis businesses of all types and sizes, offering our specific expertise in the industry and a vast array of digital marketing services including SEO, social media, content, publicity, and more. Together, we can make sure your company emerges from an acquisition or merger not only unscathed, but significantly stronger.

Learn more about Marijuana Marketing Xperts and our digital marketing services by contacting our team today.