Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a popular compound used as a natural alternative to painkillers for relieving chronic pain. Despite the legalization and growing demand for CBD products, there’s still a stigma associated with their use.
This makes CBD marketing tricky for brands that sell these products.
In this article, we’ll give you a list of the best CBD digital marketing channels you can use, along with things to avoid to stay compliant with regulations. We’ll also show you how to use email marketing to acquire and retain customers for your CBD brand.
Let’s get into it.
Why market CBD products?
Since the legalization of CBD with the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill, the market for these products has grown exponentially in the US.
According to Statista, the market size for CBD products in the US was estimated to be $4.3 billion in 2023.
CBD is now legal in many countries, not just the US. The global CBD market size was $7.6 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow significantly.
It’s not just the legalization of CBD that’s driving the popularity of CBD products, though. User interest in CBD products is also a key contributor.
According to Forbes, 60% of US adults have used a CBD product and believe that it provides medicinal benefits.
This rise in the popularity of CBD products coupled with high market potential makes this an appealing time.
What you should know about CBD advertising
While CBD products are legal, there are strict regulations for marketing these products. To ensure compliant CBD marketing, you need to adhere to the official guidelines and make sure your product claims are 100% accurate.
Here are some things you should know about CBD advertising:
- According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), CBD products can’t be sold as food or dietary supplements in the US
- Claims of medical and therapeutic benefits of CBD products are not allowed, especially related to their ability to treat any diseases
- Companies can’t make any untested claims regarding the benefits of their CBD products, medicinal or otherwise
- Even LegitScript-certified CBD marketers require explicit permission from Google and Meta to advertise on these platforms
Apart from these tips on how to advertise CBD, make sure you use ethical marketing practices. This includes not showing CBD ads to people younger than 18 years, and being transparent about product ingredients and uses.
Best marketing channels for CBD businesses to attract new customers
Given the restrictions on CBD marketing and the stigma surrounding cannabis-related products, you need to be selective about the marketing channels you use.
In this section, we’ll cover some of the best marketing channels for acquiring new customers for your CBD business.
Content marketing and SEO
Creating and publishing interesting content on your website is one of the best ways to attract new customers to your business. Combine that with search engine optimization and you have the winning formula for getting tons of organic website traffic.
Here are some types of content you can use to win more customers:
- Educational blog posts informing your audience about CBD and its use cases. Use these to remove the stigma associated with CBD products and spread awareness.
- Customer testimonials and reviews showing how they use and benefit from your products. This will help provide social proof and remove any hesitation potential customers may have regarding your products.
- Product guides and tutorials to educate customers on how to best use your CBD products and list their benefits and unique selling points.
Charlotte’s Web, for example, is a CBD brand with an active blog that offers various educational content.
Social media marketing
Social media is a promising avenue for CBD brands to connect with their target audience, but it has some restrictions. Every social media platform has its guidelines on CBD marketing, so you must understand and comply with these.
That said, social media is where people actively engage in conversations about their interests. This makes it a good place to build an online community and connect with individuals who use and benefit from CBD products.
Here are some types of CBD social media marketing content you should post:
- High-quality visuals of your products
- Videos explaining product use cases and benefits
- Live Q&A sessions answering user questions
- User-generated content showing your products in use
- Educational content about CBD and its uses
Here’s an example of an educational social media post listing the benefits of CBD:
Influencer marketing
Partnering with the right influencers can help you reach specific audiences that match your ideal customer profile. It can also help you reach a wider audience beyond your social media followers.
When selecting influencers, make sure their personal brand aligns with your brand. Also, you’ll need to consider factors like authenticity and content quality beyond vanity metrics like the number of followers.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is similar to influencer marketing, except you pay a commission to affiliates each time they help make a sale for your brand.
Affiliates can promote your CBD products on social media, their personal blogs, and other channels. This can help spread the word about your brand and products and win you new customers.
Email marketing
Emails are a direct channel for connecting with and nurturing leads and turning them into customers. If someone has signed up to receive your emails, they’re clearly interested in your brand.
You can send emails to convince potential customers to buy from your brand by sharing informational content and offering discounts to sweeten the deal, and turn existing customers into repeat buyers.
Events, trade shows, webinars
Attending industry events and trade shows is a great way to meet prospects interested in CBD products. These are also great for showcasing your CBD products to an interested audience and building industry connections.
Attending and hosting webinars is another customer acquisition channel that you can try. Speak in webinars that inform and educate people about the benefits of CBD and add a call to action asking people to try your products.
Best marketing channels for CBD businesses to retain customers
Anyone who’s ever run a business knows how important customer retention is. Winning new customers is difficult and expensive, but convincing customers to keep buying from you can be much easier, especially if you sell high-quality products.
Here are some CBD marketing channels you can use for customer retention:
Email marketing
Email marketing works well for both customer acquisition and retention. Emails are versatile, and you can send one for almost any ecommerce marketing purpose.
Here are some examples of emails you can send to retain customers:
- Occasion-specific emails to celebrate your customers on birthdays, anniversaries, festivals, and other special occasions
- Appreciation emails that let your loyal customers know how much you cherish their business and offer a reward for their loyalty
- Emails to enroll in your loyalty or rewards program to encourage repeat purchases
- Emails with discounts and offers to win back inactive customers
Here’s an example of an email by OpenTable showing appreciation for and rewarding a loyal customer:
SMS marketing
Text messages are one of the fastest and most direct ways of staying in touch with your existing customers. You can use this channel to send transactional messages, such as order updates, announcements of upcoming sales, discounts, and more.
Loyalty programs
One classic and effective way to retain customers is to enroll them in your loyalty program and offer rewards for desired actions, such as making a purchase.
You can use a points system where you award points to members for every purchase and specific action.
Here’s an example of a points-based loyalty program by CBDistillery:
Referral programs
This is similar to a loyalty program, except you reward customers for promoting your brand to new customers. This has dual benefits: it engages and retains your existing customers while winning new ones.
7 tips for using the email channel for CBD marketing
Here are some tips for using emails for CBD oil marketing:
1. Set up email capture forms
Lead-capture forms enable you to turn your site visitors into leads and help you build an email list of leads you can nurture.
The most common type of form is the newsletter signup form. This allows your site visitors to provide you with their email addresses and subscribe to your newsletter.
You can also offer valuable content or any other resource in exchange for your site visitors’ email addresses.
2. Segment your audience
Once you’ve built your email list, you need to segment it in ways that matter most for your business. Some examples of customer segmentation include consumer demographics, buying behavior, purchase history, location, and more.
Email segmentation allows you to send relevant and personalized emails to each subscriber.
Consider this: a new customer will need more convincing to make a repeat purchase than a loyal customer. The way you communicate with each type of customer will also be different.
For example, a new customer may buy again if you offer a great deal. A loyal customer, however, would love to be rewarded for their loyalty. You can do that by offering early access to sales or offering premium benefits like free shipping.
Here’s an example of an email workflow to win back customers who have not bought for a while.
See how you can add filters to segment customers and reach a specific audience with this workflow.
3. Start automation workflows
After segmenting your email subscribers, you should set up automated email campaigns to effectively target different types of customers.
Email automation allows you to send emails based on specific user actions or triggers. This could be a new signup or an abandoned cart.
Omnisend can help you create an automation workflow for almost every trigger relevant to ecommerce. The best part is that you can also include SMS and push notifications in your CBD email marketing campaign.
Here’s a simple example of an SMS + email workflow to celebrate a customer on their birthday. The trigger is the birth date of the customer.
4. Launch welcome emails
The first email you send to a subscriber is a welcome email. This should be sent soon after someone has signed up for your newsletter.
You can also send a series of welcome emails that introduce subscribers to your CBD brand and products. The best welcome emails give new subscribers a warm reception and provide them with all the information they need to become loyal customers.
Check out this email by Spline, a 3D design tool that welcomes new subscribers and provides them with the resources to take the desired next steps.
There are many welcome newsletter templates available online that you can use. Alternatively, you can create a welcome email template yourself.
5. Recover abandoned carts
Sometimes, your prospective customers may hesitate to buy and abandon their carts right before purchasing. In such cases, cart abandonment emails come in handy as they help you win those customers back.
These emails are designed to incentivize hesitant prospects into buying the products they left in their carts.
A good abandoned cart recovery email should consist of the following elements:
- A compelling email copy giving them reasons to buy
- A direct CTA link to their cart
- An offer or discount to further sweeten the deal
- Images of the products they left behind
Related:
13 shopping cart abandonment solutions for maximum revenue
6. Launch customer reactivation emails
If you have customers who have previously bought from your CBD brand but haven’t bought in a while, you can win them back using reactivation emails.
These emails are designed to reconnect with inactive customers and remind them of why they love your products. Win-back emails typically include a discount or offer to incentivize customers to buy from your brand again.
Check out this customer reactivation email by Duolingo, an app for learning new languages. The email reminds the reader that they had wanted to learn a new language and that if they’re still interested, they should start with a quick five-minute session.
7. Upsell and cross-sell
The last CBD marketing tactic we want you to try is to use emails for cross-selling and upselling products to your customers.
Send ecommerce cross-selling emails that recommend related products to customers based on their previous purchase. Alternatively, you can upsell your more expensive products or product bundles.
Here’s an example of an upselling email by the skincare brand Facile, where they upsell a product bundle to existing customers:
Wrap up
CBD marketing, though tricky, can be done well using the right channels and tactics. Use this guide to aid your marketing efforts and win more customers for your CBD brand.
Don’t forget to leverage email marketing to acquire and retain customers.
Source from Omnisend
Disclaimer: The information set forth above is provided by omnisend.com independently of Chovm.com. Chovm.com makes no representation and warranties as to the quality and reliability of the seller and products.
