Social media channels come and go but email will live on after we are gone. If your dispensary hasn’t allocated a marketing budget to email marketing, your business is missing out on significant growth opportunities. Unlike SMS, email marketing has significant advantages.
As our team of engineers and experts collaborated with our dispensary partners to design and develop our latest email marketing technology, we put together a guide on email marketing best practices for both beginners and email marketing pros. If you’re not sure where to start or are interested in brushing up on what you already know, this guide is for you. Whether your business is an online cannabis medical dispensary or a dispensary focused on adult-use, email marketing can be used to increase customer trust and revenue.
Email marketing is older than social media marketing. While consumers may choose which social media platforms suit their lifestyle, email is used by virtually everyone. It’s true. Email is needed to log into social media platforms, book airline reservations, and so much more. With email playing a crucial role in the lives of consumers, it’s important to define how crucial your business is to your contacts.
When customers and patients visit your dispensary, it’s easy to understand each visitor has different needs. The same can be said for email. While it is not realistic to manually write individual emails to thousands of customers, there are a few strategies your team can leverage to ensure customers read your emails and find value in what your company has to offer.
To improve cannabis marketing with email, read on.
Most Effective Email Messages
First Timer Email
When a new customer leaves your dispensary, it is imperative to use email marketing to extend their experience. Why? An experience doesn’t end when a customer leaves the store. As customers use products purchased from your dispensary, your business is top of mind. Use Alpine IQ’s email marketing software to welcome new customers into your brand with high-value creative such as branded videos and stunning photography.
New Inventory Email
What could be more exciting than being the first to try a new product on the market? Nothing. That’s what. When new products are acquired from distributors and cultivators, compose an email to customers. Tell them where the product comes from, what the benefits of the product are and why they should stop in the shop to get a closer look.
Promotional Email
If your business has excess stock of a particular product, send a promotional email. If your business has data that proves a specific product has the highest profit margins, send a promotional email. If the common cold is running rampant in your community and a specific brand of edibles is known to ease muscle aches, send a promotional email. Yes. There is always a good reason to send a promotional email.
Event Email
If foot traffic in your business is down, plan an event. Partner with a local business to offer an incentive for customers who arrive between certain times. For example – if your business offers Lemon Cookie in flower form, give out complimentary lemon cookies from a local bakery when customers purchase a half an ounce or more of Lemon Cookie flower.
Newsletter Email
Most newsletters suck. Your business’ newsletter doesn’t have to. Encourage your internal team to create content for your company’s newsletter. Share customer success stories. Build an email list of medical patients who have only shopped with you once or twice. Send your newsletter to that list too and see what your open rates are.
Customer Survey
Your customers are the lifeline of your business. Transform customer complaints and praise into business opportunities by using your email marketing software to send out customer surveys. Dispensary stakeholders can also have one-to-one relationships with customers.
Corporate Social Responsibility
If your business is up to all good, it’s important to let your customers know. Whether your business is planting cannabis seeds to fight climate change or partnering with a local non-profit to raise awareness for a disease, use your email marketing software to build community.
Best Practices
Know Your Audience
Sending adult-use product messaging to medical patients is a recipe for disaster. Before sending an email to a customer or a list of customers, identify the needs of the person you’re sending an email to. If you’ve ever received an email that is anything less than helpful, you’ll understand why it’s important to know who your audience is and what your email can do for them. Prioritize email messaging under customer needs.
Segment Your Audience
Don’t worry. Knowing your audience is easier when you have the ability to segment them. We give you the power to identify and group customers based on many factors. After you’ve segmented audiences, you’re ready to deliver customer-centric messaging that moves your business forward.
Follow The Law
Before you segment audiences and send messages, your business needs to know what’s allowed and what could get your business in trouble. For the most up-to-date information on email law, read FTC’s compliance guide.
Avoid Becoming Spam
Spam filters are designed to protect customers from malevolent senders but they aren’t perfect. To ensure your emails don’t land in your customers’ spam folders, ask your customers to check their spam folders if they don’t receive your business’ emails. You should also ask customers who have received your email to save the dispensary’s email address in their contacts folder; this will ensure emails are received.
Subject Line
Your subject line is the first line of messaging that will either compel a contact to open your email or ignore it. To ensure emails are open, craft enticing subject lines that evoke curiosity.
Example:
Good:
New Lemon Cookie Flower In Stock
Better:
GSC or Lemon Cookie? Learn the difference
Leave a Comment