Email Marketing and Marketing Automation for Cannabis Brands

Email marketing and marketing automation are powerful tools for cannabis brands, allowing them to effectively communicate with customers, promote products, and increase sales. This guide covers everything you need to know, from understanding your audience to choosing the right email platform and optimizing your campaigns.

Introduction: Discover how email marketing and automation can make your cannabis brand more known, sell more, and streamline repetitive tasks.
Understanding the Cannabis Consumer: Learn about the demographics, preferences, and messaging considerations for effectively reaching cannabis users.
Choosing a Cannabis-Friendly Email Marketing Platform: Find out about platforms like MailerLite, Klaviyo, and Moosend that support cannabis brands.
Building Your Subscriber List: Tips on opt-in compliance and tactics for growing your list.
Segmenting Your List: How to categorize your audience for more targeted marketing.
Designing Effective Email Campaigns: Best practices for crafting engaging consumer and business emails.
Automating Cannabis Emails: Introduction to using Klaviyo for setting up automated email sequences.
Optimizing Campaigns: Insights into email analytics, A/B testing, and advanced strategies to enhance your email marketing efforts.

Plus, answers to frequently asked questions about cannabis email marketing, including platform choices, advertising, budget considerations, and the importance of branding in the cannabis industry.

Demographics and Preferences

Cannabis users are a varied group, covering different ages, genders, and places. But, there are some common trends:

Age – Older people are joining the younger ones in using cannabis more, especially those aged 45-65.
Gender – Both men and women use cannabis about the same amount. It’s important for brands not to focus just on men or women but on everyone’s health and safe use.
Location – Places where cannabis is legal have more users, but more and more people everywhere are getting okay with it. Messages should be careful to fit local views but also help people see cannabis in a normal, positive way.
Habits – A lot of users have their favorite products and use them often. But, there are also new users who want to learn. Messages should help both groups.
Products – The most bought product is still the cannabis flower, but things like oils, edibles, and creams are also popular. Brands should offer a variety of products for different needs.

Messaging Considerations

When talking about cannabis products, it’s really important to be careful and follow the rules. Here are some things to think about:

Medicinal – Many people use cannabis for health reasons. It’s important to be serious and not make it sound just for fun. Focus on health.
Responsible Use – People who use cannabis for fun like brands that talk about using it safely and not too much. Make sure your messages say this too.
Sustainability – Being good to the environment matters to a lot of buyers. They like to know if products are made in a way that doesn’t hurt the planet.
Compliance – All your messages have to follow the laws about what you can say about cannabis, especially about how it affects people and health claims. Always check the rules.

Understanding who uses cannabis and what they like helps brands talk to their customers in a good way, following the rules and respecting what’s important to them. Focusing on what customers care about makes messages more effective.

Choosing a Cannabis-Friendly Email Marketing Platform

Let’s look at what to keep in mind when picking an email service that’s okay with cannabis brands. We’ll talk about managing your email list, setting up automatic emails, checking how well your emails are doing, making sure they actually get to people, and making sure everything is by the book.

MailerLite

MailerLite is okay with cannabis emails, but they check them first. It’s not too expensive, starting at $10 a month, and it’s easy to use.

They look at cannabis emails one by one
It costs $10/month for up to 1,000 people on your list
Easy-to-use tool to make your emails look good
Works with online stores like Shopify and WooCommerce
Lets you see how many people open your emails and click on things
Doesn’t have some of the fancier automatic email options

Klaviyo

Klaviyo is great for really getting to know your customers and sending them super targeted emails. It gives you lots of details on how your emails are helping your business.

They’re cool with cannabis emails
You can send emails based on what people buy and do
Set up emails that send automatically based on what customers do
Detailed reports on how your emails are making you money
A bit tricky to set up but really powerful once you do

Moosend

Moosend is all in on cannabis emails, making sure you’re doing everything right, and even gives you someone to help out. Plus, you can send texts as well as emails.

They promise cannabis emails are good to go
You get someone to help you out
You can send texts too
They make sure your emails follow the rules
Doesn’t have as detailed reports as some others

When picking an email service for your cannabis brand, first make sure they’re okay with cannabis emails. Think about how good they are at sending automatic emails, giving you reports, and helping out. Also, check that your emails actually reach people and follow the rules before you decide.

Building Your Subscriber List

Opt-in and Compliance

When you’re collecting email addresses for a cannabis brand, it’s really important to do it the right way and follow the law. Here’s how to keep everything above board:

Ask people twice if they want to join your email list. This means after they sign up, you send them an email to confirm.
Make it clear that your emails will talk about cannabis stuff. Be upfront about it.
Always include a way for people to stop getting your emails easily if they want to.
Check your list against the National Do Not Call Registry to avoid sending texts to people who don’t want them.
Stick to all the rules about cannabis emails and texts. If you’re not sure, ask a lawyer.

Following these steps helps make sure your emails get to the right people and keeps you out of trouble.

List Building Tactics

Here are some ways to get more people to sign up for your emails, using both free and paid methods:

Website Pop-Ups – Use pop-up forms on your site to grab visitors’ attention. Offer something like a discount or a free item to get them to sign up.
Social Contests – Run contests on social media where people can win free stuff or discounts by giving you their email.
Loyalty Programs – Create special programs that give people deals or early access to products. This encourages them to keep buying and to sign up.
Referral Campaigns – Give your current customers a reward for getting their friends to sign up. This uses trust between friends to grow your list.
Lead Ad Campaigns – Use paid ads that are designed to get people to sign up directly from the ad.
Import Contacts – If you already have customer emails, you can add them to your email platform. Just make sure they agreed to it first.

Over time, using these ideas can help turn your subscribers into loyal fans by sending them personalized emails about cannabis products and deals.

Segmenting Your List

When you break down your email list into smaller groups based on what they have in common, you can send messages that are more spot-on for each group. This makes people more likely to pay attention, buy stuff, and get more out of your emails.

Demographics

Split your list by things like:

Age – Make groups for different ages to send stuff that fits them best. For example:
Under 21 – Can’t buy yet, so focus on teaching them.
21-30 – Probably looking for good deals, so highlight those.
31-50 – Know what they like, show them new items.
Over 50 – A growing group, talk about health benefits.
Gender – Change up your messages and suggestions based on what different genders might like.
Location – Break it down by state to follow the law and by area to make it feel more personal.

Purchasing Behavior

Look at what your subscribers do to split them even more:

Recency – Group them by when they last bought something to try and get them to come back, like:
Bought something in the last 30 days
Haven’t bought anything in over 90 days
Frequency – Spot your regular buyers to say thanks and those who only bought once to encourage them to buy again.
Monetary Value – Treat your big spenders to special deals and VIP treatment.
Product Type – Make groups based on what kind of cannabis products they usually buy to recommend stuff they’ll like, such as:
Flower
Edibles
Topicals
Vapes

By splitting your list into these smaller groups, you can send emails that hit the mark better for each person, making them more interested and likely to buy. Keep trying new ways to group your subscribers to find what works best.

Designing Effective Email Campaigns

Best practices and tips for crafting engaging email content, subject lines, branding, calls-to-action, and layouts for successful cannabis consumer-facing and business emails.

Consumer Emails

Considerations for value-driven consumer cannabis emails like special discounts, new product releases, industry newsletters, etc.

Keep subject lines short and to the point – aim to make people curious but don’t overdo it
Highlight deals and special offers right at the start
Use emojis and gifs only if they really fit with your brand’s vibe
Show off new products with clear, high-quality pictures
Talk about industry news and local events to build a sense of community
Group people based on what they buy and like, so you can suggest things they’re interested in
Send emails when people are most likely to open and read them

Business Emails

Guidelines for professional cannabis B2B emails like event invitations, partnership pitches, operational notices, etc.

Make the email’s purpose clear in the subject line
Stick to a more formal tone and use terms that people in the industry will understand
Explain how working together can help solve problems or achieve goals
Make it easy to see what you want the reader to do next with clear buttons
Always include a way for people to stop getting your emails if they want to, and your mailing address
Check how your email looks on different devices before sending it out
For important messages, follow up with a call or a personal video

For both consumer and business emails, focus on how you can help and make things better for the people getting your emails, not just on selling them something. Emails that respect people’s time and offer them something valuable can help build loyalty. Try out different offers and designs to see what your audience likes best. Use automation to save time, but don’t forget to add personal touches when you can to show you care.

Automating Cannabis Emails

Setting up automatic emails can really help cannabis brands be more efficient and sell more. By creating emails that send themselves based on what customers do, brands can talk to customers in a more personal way and grab more chances to make a sale.

Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a tool that helps online stores send out emails. It’s great for cannabis brands because it can send different emails to different groups of customers based on what they like or do.

Here’s why Klaviyo is good for setting up automatic emails:

It lets you send specific emails to specific groups of customers
You can set up a series of welcome emails for new people who sign up
It can send emails to people who almost bought something but didn’t
You can reach out to customers who haven’t bought anything in a while
It gives you info to help make your emails better

With Klaviyo, cannabis brands can send out emails that really match their products and customers, which can lead to more sales.

Getting Started Tips

Here are some easy steps to start sending automatic emails as a cannabis brand:

Welcome Series

Make a form on your website to collect email addresses
Set up a series of 3-5 emails to welcome new people
Include a special discount
Suggest your best products
Share your brand’s story and loyalty program
Have these emails send themselves as soon as someone signs up

Abandoned Cart

Figure out where people stop and leave without buying
Make an email that offers a special deal to bring them back
Have this email send itself if someone leaves things in their cart for over 30 minutes

Lapsed Customer

Find customers who haven’t bought anything in the last 60-90 days
Write a personal email showing new products and a discount
Set this email to send itself to these customers twice a month

Starting with these automatic emails can help cannabis brands keep in touch with customers and sell more. Keep trying new things and seeing what works best.

Optimizing Campaigns

Email Analytics

Keeping an eye on your email results can really help you get better at reaching out to your customers. Here are some key things to watch:

Open rate – This tells you how many people are actually opening your emails. You want this to be between 20% and 30%.
Click-through rate (CTR) – This shows how many people clicked on something in your email. A good goal is between 2% and 5%.
Conversion rate – This is about how many people did what you hoped they would after clicking, like buying something. Aim to make this better over time.
Bounce rate – This is the number of emails that didn’t make it because the address was wrong. Try to keep this below 5%.
Unsubscribe rate – This is how many people decide they don’t want your emails anymore. Keep it under 0.2% for each email you send out.

Checking these numbers regularly can help you see what’s working and what’s not, so you can keep improving.

A/B Testing

A/B testing is like an experiment to see what your customers like better. Here’s how to do it:

Pick something you want to test, like the subject line.
Make two versions of your email, each with a different version of what you’re testing.
Send each version to a small group of your list.
See which one does better by looking at how many people opened it and clicked on links.
Use the winning version for the rest of your list.

For instance, you might try two different subject lines to see which one gets more people to open the email. If one gets more opens, use that one next time.

Doing these tests often can help you understand what your customers like, so you can get better at catching their attention.

Additional Email Marketing Strategies

Email marketing lets cannabis brands talk directly to their customers. Beyond the basics, there are more ways to make your email efforts even better. Here’s how to step up your game.

Integrate with SMS Messaging

Text messages can work well with your emails. They let you quickly tell people about short-term deals, new products, and events. By combining info from texts and emails, you can create detailed profiles for each customer, making your messages even more personal.

Implement Dynamic Content

Dynamic content changes the email for each person based on what you know about them. This means you can suggest products they might like or offer deals that matter to them. It’s a way to make each email feel special for the person reading it.

Personalize Subject Lines

A good subject line gets people to open an email, but adding a personal touch, like their name or something they recently looked at, can make them more likely to read it. It shows you’re paying attention to what they like.

Send Cart Abandonment Reminders

If someone puts something in their cart but doesn’t buy it, a reminder email can help them decide to complete the purchase. It’s a gentle push to get them back to your store.

Create Quizzes and Polls

Quizzes and polls are fun ways for people to interact with your emails. They can learn something new or share their opinion, and you get to know more about what they want. It’s a win-win.

Segment Mobile vs. Desktop

People use their phones and computers differently. By figuring out who prefers which, you can make emails that look great and are easier to read on smaller screens or through specific apps.

Using these advanced strategies, cannabis brands can get more out of their email marketing. It’s all about making your messages feel personal and relevant, which helps build a stronger connection with your subscribers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some common questions and straightforward answers about using email to connect with customers for cannabis brands:

What good does email marketing do for my cannabis business?

Email helps you:

Keep in touch with your customers
Share info about new products and special deals to boost sales
Build a friendly relationship with customers by sharing useful stuff
Learn from customer actions to make your emails better and more personal

Which email platform is best for me?

Choose a platform that:

Is okay with cannabis-related content (like MailerLite)
Lets you send emails based on customer actions or interests (Klaviyo is good for this)
Makes sure your emails actually reach people (Moosend can help)
Is affordable and easy for you to use

How can I get more people to sign up for my emails?

Add sign-up boxes and pop-ups on your website
Hold contests on social media
Encourage customers to tell their friends
If you already have customer emails, you can add them (just make sure they agreed)

What rules do I need to follow?

Always get a double confirmation for new sign-ups
Tell people up front that you’ll be sending cannabis info
Check the Do Not Call Registry to avoid sending unwanted texts
Stick to all the legal stuff for cannabis marketing

How do I make my emails work well?

Try these tips:

Use people’s names in your emails
Remind them about items they left in their shopping cart
Design emails that look good on phones
Test different subject lines to see which works best
Keep an eye on how many people open and click on your emails

What automatic email ideas can I use?

Welcome messages for new people
Emails to bring back customers who haven’t shopped in a while
Alerts when sold-out items are back
Ask for reviews after a purchase
Special treats for birthdays or as part of a loyalty program

How can I make my email marketing better?

Look at your email stats like opens and clicks
Try different calls-to-action
Use texts and notifications along with emails
Send emails at times when people are more likely to read them
Always be ready to adjust based on what the data tells you

Let me know if you have any other questions!

Conclusion and Next Steps

Email marketing and automation are great ways for cannabis brands to talk to their customers in a way that’s both effective and follows the rules. By using the right tools and strategies, brands can keep their customers interested and encourage them to buy more.

Here’s a quick summary of what to do:

Pick an email service that understands the cannabis industry, like MailerLite, Klaviyo, or Moosend, to make sure your emails actually get to your customers.
Get people to sign up for your emails through your website, social media contests, telling their friends, and other ways.
Split your email list into groups based on things like what they buy or their age so you can send them more personal messages.
Make your emails look nice and easy to read, with clear subject lines and content that offers value.
Use automatic emails for welcoming new subscribers, reminding people about items they left in their cart, and getting in touch with customers who haven’t shopped in a while.
Always check how well your emails are doing by looking at things like how many people open them.

By sticking to these tips and focusing on what makes the cannabis industry special, brands can reach more people, keep them interested, and sell more over time.

The next step is to pick the best email platform for your brand from the ones we talked about. Start planning your first automated campaign and create content that grabs your subscribers’ attention. If you need help starting or have any questions, feel free to reach out.

Does MailChimp work with cannabis?

No, MailChimp doesn’t allow the promotion of cannabis products or services. They have rules against "illegal or regulated goods and services," which includes cannabis. However, there are other email marketing options like Klaviyo, Moosend, or MailerLite that are okay with cannabis.

Can cannabis brands advertise?

Yes, cannabis brands can advertise in places where cannabis is legal, but they need to follow specific rules. For example, in California:

Ads can’t be aimed at people under 21.
Ads must be honest and not misleading.
Some types of ads have extra rules, like those on billboards.

It’s important for brands to make sure their ads don’t reach kids and that they’re truthful about their products.

What is the budget for cannabis marketing?

Cannabis advertising spending in North America is expected to hit $2.5 billion in 2023, up from $2 billion in 2022. The market is growing fast as more states legalize cannabis. This gives brands more ways to reach people through online marketing.

Why is branding important in the cannabis industry?

Branding helps cannabis companies stand out in a market full of similar products. Here’s why it’s important:

It makes customers come back and buy more.
It allows for higher prices.
It keeps competitors out.
It shows that the products are good quality, safe, and trustworthy.

Good branding tells customers what to expect from a product and what a company stands for, which helps them find the product that’s right for them.