Cannabis Content Marketing in the South African industry

As cannabis reform continues around the world, the need for cannabis marketing is growing. If you are a small to the medium-sized business you will have to start investing in cannabis content marketing if you want your business to grow. Cannabis marketing faces many challenges and because it’s a regulated substance you can’t just run ads like a traditional business. Whether you are just starting a cannabis-related business now, or whether you have had a business for years but that want to keep growing, you are going to have to deploy a cannabis content marketing strategy and a cannabis SEO strategy.

Why do I need cannabis content marketing?

Since the beginning of time, marketing has been about being where people’s attention is. 50 years ago everyone’s attention was in print media, television and radio. All channels that cannabis industry businesses can’t actually market on. If you wanted to start a marijuana business and market it in 1979 you would have had to hand out flyers at the traffic lights. Traditional media are not allowed to market cannabis.

Luckily, the internet has changed everything for cannabis marketing.

The days of having a bunch of doorkeepers that to get to where people’s attention is are over. The internet has not only enabled people to only give their attention to what they are interested in but it has also given marketers the ability to create content that will get the attention of those that want to see it.

A solid cannabis content marketing strategy will improve your SEO, give you content to engage your target audience with and ultimately sell your product or services.

Cannabis marketing is not just marketing

Personally, I’ve been working in marketing for close to 9 years. I started working in online classifieds, from there I moved a marketing agency that only worked with online casino brands. These days I’m in the thick of it with cannabis marketing working with cannabis businesses from the US, Canada, the UK, Spain, and even Italy. Why do I always dive head first into marketing industries where it’s not just as simple as buying ads?

Simply because I’m good and making content do the marketing for me.

Google, Facebook, and Instagram have all blocked cannabis businesses from advertising on their platforms, even in countries where cannabis is completely legal and regulated. That means that no matter how big your advertising budget, you have to make sure you create content that will spread organically. Content that evokes an emotion, content that gives the consumer the information they are looking for and most importantly content that does more than constantly trying to sell.

A friendly word of advice:

If you want to hire an agency or team for your cannabis content marketing, make sure you get marketers that have done marketing in the cannabis industry.

If you want your cannabis content marketing to fall flat on its face, then you just hire the first and best marketing agency that lands on your desk. Marketing cannabis follows the same principals as marketing for any other industry, but the limitations force marketers to be smarter and find ways around the restrictions placed on them by the likes of Google, Facebook, and Instagram.

Cannabis Influencer Marketing

After years of education, hard work and case studies proving results my clients finally understand the importance of Influencer Marketing for cannabis products or services. Clients used to ask how much we should be spending on Influencer Marketing, now they want to know why we are not spending more than 25% of the marketing budget on cannabis influencers.

Because you can’t just advertise to audiences through Facebook, Google and Instagram, you have to rely on the organic reach of cannabis influencers to help spread your cannabis content and your brand. Working closely with influencers is key to making your cannabis influencer marketing a success. Small details like an influencer linking to the right pages/content on your site from their content, optimizing content for SEO and figuring out the schedule for influencers to post content can make or break a cannabis content marketing campaign.

Cannabis content writers are few and far between

What should you look for in a cannabis content writer? Someone that understand the cannabis culture, cannabis products, and services. Without that, your target audience (and potentially new customers) are going to see right through the bullshit. Ad on top of that that any content writer worth their salt understands SEO optimization, keyword research and can tell a story in writing.

Why would you even need a cannabis content writer?

Not only for your own blog but also to help or assist your influencers with any content that they might be producing for you. An influencer blog post with an editorial link to the right content on your website is worth a lot. An influencer blog post optimized for SEO with the help of your cannabis content writer is priceless.

The different types of cannabis content creation

Marketing used to be simple. Create an ad for TV, an ad for radio and a few print ads and your job was done. In the modern age, things are a bit more complicated. Especially in cannabis content marketing, you will be faced with endless options for content that needs creating. Blog posts, Infographics, Images for social media, podcasts, video content (video for YouTube and video for Facebook or Instagram is not the same) are just some of the options that you have.

How do you know what type of cannabis content you should be creating? By having an experienced cannabis content marketer do the needed keyword research, and working towards creating the best content to help you target the keywords your audience is looking for. What video’s do you create? The video’s that people are looking for. YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world after all.

Market your cannabis business in South Africa

South Africa has recently decriminalized the private use of cannabis. This has opened up the market and businesses are setting out to grow their brands now, while regulation laws are being amended. In South Africa the cannabis industry is booming. Businesses selling growing equipment, growing workshops, cannabis extracts and various other products or services related to cannabis is growing at a massive rate and anyone who is not making use of cannabis content marketing is getting left behind.

If you need help with your cannabis content marketing strategy, feel free to contact me so we can take your marijuana marketing to the next level.