It is not enough to simply publish a website with plenty of content and sit back and expect it to be a commercial success. Most online companies turn to Google, Facebook and Amazon to generate the majority of sales for their business.
The difference when you are in the Cannabis industry whether that be CBD or THC related products/services you need to be more creative as the big companies listed above will not work with you. Sure you may be able to get a Google shopping campaign live for your CBD site, however this success is likely to only be short lived. So this strategy will not be enough to ensure long term success.
To achieve long term success online you should consider the following check list if you want more than simply a site which earns you some money.
Factors to Consider when Marketing your Cannabis Business
- Your site needs some solid content targeting the correct keywords. Articles off 1000 or more words is ideal and you need a content strategy moving forward. So for example you may have the resources to write two blog articles per week.
- After the content is indexed log into Google Search Console to re optimise your content based on what you are currently ranking for.
- You do not have to start an affiliate program, however it is a good option if you have enough margin to share with affiliates. Plus you do not have a large budget to pay for marijuana advertising campaigns. Companies like “i Dev Affiliate” are a good option and not too expensive. You should pay your affiliates at least 15% of your affiliate commission and treat them as your sales force. Good communication and sufficient remuneration if you want to build up a long term business relationship.
- Then I need to consider how much to spend on acquiring high quality, on topic text links. This is essential for SEO, along with enough optimized content.
- If you do not have an affiliate program you will need to consider how much you need to spend on banner/display advertising, social media marketing, press releases, competitions, event sponsorship and newsletter marketing. I will go into these marketing techniques in more detail later in this article.
Marijuana Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
SEO done the right way is probably the best area for you to focus on for your site. It is possible to get a great return on investment if you have the correct strategy. You need to give a new SEO strategy 3-6 months to determine whether it is a success. Although it can be difficult to analyse what value you achieved from a certain SEO improvements. Google has a complex algorithm that is changing constantly. The main thing to do is implement a solid SEO strategy to create optimised content and then a cost effective, on topic link building program.
It is best to invest in SEO for the long term and you can generate very targeted traffic which results in sales.
We can help you acquire on topic, high quality text links via our network and through SEO outreach. The SEO text links on our network are high quality links and this network was started in the late 1990,s. So these links are strong in terms of SEO. We measure this Trust Rank (Page Rank) using this tool: https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/. The higher the score the more valuable the link.
Also we can acquire links via SEO outreach where we approach other webmasters on your behalf and acquire links for your site.
The key for SEO is to continue to build high quality, on topic links. You can stop link building but keep a close eye on your search engine rankings to see whether your rankings drop back to much. In this case start building text links again.
We are well positioned to help you with your SEO, if you want to find out more please contact us. Our SEO packages start for as little as $30 per link and our premium SEO package is listed here.
Weed Social Media Marketing
You cannot promote yourself your weed business on all social media platforms. However consider the following platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
For $100 per month you can promote yourself on our FaceBook pages and groups.
If you are going to promote your product on social media try and not make it look like an advert. Coupon promotions can work well if you promote it on targeted pages with reasonable traffic volume.
Also you can pay an agency to promote your site on social media pages and groups. If you need help please contact us and we will put you in contact with our social media agency.
Weed Newsletter Marketing
It can be good to blast your offer to thousands of email subscribers. If you are paying to promote your offer to another sites email list. Be sure not to pay too much as you can test the value after sending just one newsletter.
We have 30,000 plus Pure THC Newsletter subscribers and we send out 2-3 newsletters per month. There are 5 advertiser spots and we charge $50 to $75 per spot per newsletter. If you want to find out more about our cannabis advertising newsletter please contact us.
Cannabis Banner and Display Advertising
Banner advertising is mainly for branding, I t is not always easy to get enough direct sales to pay for your banner advertising across multiple sites. Especially if the banner is not in a prime spot on the page. For example in a slider spot at the top of the page or within the body text thee banners are far more valuable as your advert stands out from the majority of the other marijuana banner advertisers.
So try a banner for one month and check your Google Analytics to see how many sales you made from the campaign. If your analytics does not show you where your sales are coming form then speak with a developer to get your analytics set up the correct way.
Banner advertising is not easy to make work, however you can track your campaign and receive traffic the same day the campaign goes live.
When evaluating the banner deal think about how much traffic the site gets if their Alexa rank is less than 1 million that shows they have a reasonable amount of traffic. The lower the Alexa score the more traffic the site receives. Also where your banner will be located is a big consideration.
Try emailing say20-30 sites asking them for their banner rates. Then you will get an idea on how much the banner spot is really worth. You will find in the marijuana advertising industry many people will not respond to your email asking for banner rates.
If you want a quote for cannabis banner advertising please contact us.
Marijuana Affiliate Marketing
Setting up a marijuana affiliate marketing program is not an easy process. However it can be lucrative if you promote your affiliate program to potential marijuana affiliates.
You can set up “i Dev Affiliate” or something that does not cost too much. Some affiliate programs charge $100 or more per month which we think is far too much to pay for your affiliate software.
Make sure you pay your affiliates a healthy affiliate commission or at least pay your super affiliates (top affiliates) a healthy share of the sale. Normally 20% or more is a good affiliate commission to offer but you first need to consider all of your costs before setting your affiliate commission rates.
Also you may want to have a sliding scale and you should consider an affiliate manager. Someone you pays affiliates but also is in charge of finding new affiliates.
We could be classified as a super affiliate and we market many marijuana sites. Unfortunately we decline to work with many marijuana affiliate programs as the remuneration is too low. Or they do not provide us with professional communication.
If you want to be listed on our marijuana affiliate program page or want us to promote your cannabis affiliate program please contact us.
Conclusion
There are other available marketing techniques for you to consider, however the marketing methods listed above are the main techniques for you to implement when marketing your marijuana website.
Think about a monthly advertising budget and whether you have the right human resources to get the best results. Make sure you have you set up Google Analytics and Google Search Console so you can track sales and optimise your web pages for SEO.
Also I encourage you to get informed by speaking with marijuana internet marketing consultants. At the time of writing I have over 20 years of web marketing experience. We are happy to provide you with guidance and a quote to help you achieve success with your marijuana business. Please contact us if you have any questions on marketing you cannabis business.
