Grow Your Email List or Die

  

5 Steps to Grow Your Cannabis Dispensary Email List  

Let's cut to the chase. If your dispensary doesn’t have a growing email list, you are dead in the water. It’s going to become a competitive market. Prices alone won't separate you. And if you don't know who your customers are, it's going to get harder to hold onto and attract a loyal, repeat customer. 

Bain & Company found that a 5 percent increase in customers retention boosted profits by 25 to 95 percent. All this means is having your regulars come back to the store one more time a month. Customer retention is important, so is bringing in new customers. If you don't grow your sources of traffic, you are falling behind.

Google, Facebook and Twitter don’t run ads related to cannabis. Running ads on billboards and print ads are also restricted. To reach cannabis consumers, email and SMS marketing is it. It’s also the law since cannabis laws (from Canada to California) makes email your only available option. So yeah, grow your email list or you will die. 

Of course, there are other good reasons to use email and SMS marketing:

• Email is 40x more effective than social media for acquiring cannabis customers. SMS engagement is even 6 to 8 times higher than email.
• For every $1 spent, email marketing generates $38 in ROI. Not only is this affordable, but from a do-it-yourself point of view, easy to implement.
• 95 percent of SMS messages are read compared to 20 percent for email and 12 percent of Facebook posts. Both email and SMS messages get eye-balls to know about you.
• 58% of people say receiving discounts and special offers was the top reason for subscribing to emails from businesses. This number is even higher for local, cannabis consumers.

Got your attention? Let’s go…

Step 1: Offer an Opt-in Incentive 

Most recreational or medical cannabis consumers won’t hesitate to give you their email or telephone number (nor think of it as spam) if they believe what you offer has a value for them. Of course, any email and SMS marketing messages you make:

• Must only be sent to a person of the legal age, 
• Must be addressed to an individual who are identified by name, and 
• No promotion can be done as part of a “game, draw, lottery or a contest”. 

Governments restrict the use of contests to discourage the promotion of cannabis. So what incentives can you give in exchange for emails or telephone numbers? Here are a few ideas, but don’t feel limited by these suggestions:

• E-book. How about offering a cookbook (see image below)? Or book that helps people learn more about cannabis strains? People are curious about cannabis, its health benefits and connoisseur-like interest in terpene profiles. The list of cannabis-related books to offer is almost endless.

Source: https://wakeandbake.co

• Discounts and Specials. Offer a weekly, monthly or holiday discount or a coupon. If these subscribers want deals, then they are also the ones most like to return as repeat and loyal customers -- and not go to some other store.

• Newsletter. In-store events and announcements, including discounts and specials, hold a lot of value for customers. Your newsletter needs to enticing and offer something of clear value since not everyone wants to read a newsletter. Perhaps the newsletter could help to build an in-store club where you offer special guest speakers and club-like membership t-shirts and hats.

To boost sign-ups, consider offering an exclusive subscriber-only access to monthly discounts and specials. Want to boost your subscriber list even more? Offer several different opt-in incentives at once to different customer segments. For instance, some customers may only want the free e-cookbook, while others want the newsletter for the events and members' hats. If you do offer several incentives, you need to tailor each follow-up message differently with each group.

Step 2: Make the Home Page an Opt-in Page

Your Home Page is the most visited page on your website, which makes it the best place for an ‘opt-in’ box. Most opt-in forms left on sidebars are easy to miss. For a better chance at getting more opt-ins, my advice is for you to setup more than one sign-up. Consider placing your opt-in boxes in the following:

• Above the Fold. This sign-up button is placed at the top, before a customer can scroll down. This opt-in placement tells the visitor immediately what is being offered in the first messages at the top of the website. Always mention the benefit of joining in what’s ‘in it for them’.

 

  Source: https://greensoma.com

• Lightbox (pop-up). This pop-up appears as the visitor is opens the website or starts to scroll down.

 

Source: http://goodchem.org

• Footer. The bottom of the website is another good place to add an opt-in section.

 

Source: http://nationalaccesscannabis.com

• About Us page. If you have this About Us webpage that describes who you are and what you do, consider adding an opt-in form here. 

 

Source: http://goodchem.org

• Middle of Page. Sometimes there is no better place to add an extra opt-in form than anywhere. In this case, the middle of the web page. Notice in the example how only an email is asked for (not a name). By including as few fields as possible, you could improve the chances of someone signing up (this is often more true for your mobile users).

 

Source: www.docksidecannabis.com

Of course, showing a subscriber testimonial next to your opt-in box will also increase your sign-ups. Be sure you include an anti-spam policy to assure potential subscribers that you will only send relevant information and that you will never sell or share their private contact information.

Step 3: Drive Traffic to Opt-in Page

But wait, not having visitors coming to your website? You will need to start promoting your sign-up in all of your content marketing and social media strategies. One place to start is on your Facebook page. Using popular email plugins like Aweber and MailChimp, you can add a sign-up form to your Facebook page. Whenever you post to the Wall, you can share a link to this page and ask fans to subscribe. 

Of course, the real world offers opportunities as well. If you can, keep a tablet on the counter in store and ask customers to sign-up. You could offer a discount on their next purchase for the sign-up. You can also include the URL to the ‘Sign Up’ box webpage on your print ads.

Step 4: Measure the Results

Once you start your marketing campaign, it's time to take a look for the results. If you can't see the results towards hitting your goals, then it feels like you are spinning wheels. It’s time to take a look at the numbers. Take a look at the following:

• Bounce Rate shows you the invalid, closed, or non-existent email addresses that were unsuccessfully delivered. 
• Click-Through Rate shows how many people on your list are engaging with your content. You may discover, for instance, that emails that sent on weekends have a higher Click Through Rate.
• Conversion Rate of visits to your website show where the sources of subscribers come from. For instance, higher mobile subscribers than desktop ones could prompt you to re-design your website for mobile users. 
• Email Sharing Rate is a good way to track how you are generating new subscribers. Encourage subscribers to share your email with a friend.
• List Growth Rate. Since subscribers unsubscribe or return less and less to the shop each year, you need to pay attention to your list's size and continually growing your list. 
• Return on Investment. The more you can connect your marketing to your sales and expenses, the more you can see which of your marketing efforts are generating the best revenues.

The bottom line: measure the health of your email list and keep track of your progress at reaching goals. 

Step 5: Create Great Content

Ever wonder why most people unsubscribe? The top reason is the sending frequency. Next, it is boring. Always think about who your customers are and what they want. For a deeper dive into what to offer subscribers:

• Optimize emails for mobile since about 80 percent of people check email on mobile devices.
• Segment your email list into customer profiles (e.g. medical customers and recreational). Try to treat each of your segments differently, each in their own special way. 
• Learn more about the marketing tools. Most people only use a fraction of the power of the tools available in email marketing. I recommend also including SMS marketing. For that, I suggest sendinblue.com.

Now that you have an email list, give them content they value each month. Whenever you create a new opt-in incentive (e.g. say a new e-book), share it with all of your current subscribers – no new opt-in required. If you have a new strain or a holiday sales special, hire a new employee or want to tell a special customer story that might resonate, share it. If you are hosting a workshop or invited an influential cannabis grower to host an event, tell customers about it. Give your repeat and loyal subscribers something to feel happy about. Happy subscribers tell their friends. 

What do you think? 

Tell me your thoughts in the comments below. If you like this advice, share it. Of course, there are other ideas. More ideas. To truly receive the benefits of an email list, you will need to reach a certain number, where subscribers tell their friends and growing your email list will feel easier to maintain. If there’s one takeaway, every dispensary website needs an email opt-in section as a key pillar to your marketing plan. By offering a great opt-in incentive and having a high-converting website, your email list will only grow.

ABOUT: Milton Wani is interested in the business and regulation side of cannabis. Learning about cannabis is new for everyone. That's why I wrote a book: Retail Cannabis Handbook. It's meant for people who want to open and run a retail marijuana dispensary and for people who want to learn about the industry. 

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me at uxbigideas.com. Leave a message in the Contact Us section. You can also subscribe to the monthly newsletter and receive a selection of news stories from Canada and around the world.