CBD Product Marketing – An Overview for 2019
March 27, 2019
CBD products are gaining rapid popularity, but they’re still a nascent market in 2019. Here are our thoughts, tips, and predictions on how to approach online marketing of CBD products.
From Curio to Commodity
At Marketing 360®, we now get regular calls from people curious about how to market CBD products.
A few years ago, we never got any calls on this topic.
Recently, a friend told me a story of a group of senior ladies he knows from church. These are women who attend Methodist pot-lucks, meaning they’re the last type of people you’d picture talking about a product with a connection to the pot you smoke.
But several of them discovered that CBD products worked well to alleviate their muscle-pain and arthritis. My friend chuckled as he told me of overhearing this group of church ladies discuss where to get their cannabis products.
In April of 2019, CBD makes its debut in the fast-food industry (can’t wait to see the commercial for this burger…).
CBD, with its marijuana roots, was categorized as a drug (and thus illegal).
Then it got legalized, and started-out as kind of an oddity in the world of health supplements.
Now it looks like CBD products are ready to move from curiosity to commodity, perhaps faster than anyone expected.
That means marketing for these products is going to get competitive. The winners will be the companies that establish their brands at this crucial time.
Develop Your Business Plan
This article focuses more on marketing strategy than general business planning, so we’ll assume you have things like production, inventory management, and distribution in place.
But there is one really important thing to note concerning the marketing component of your business plan.
This is deciding if you want to sell eCommerce or just locally. These are, in fact, totally different types of businesses.
If you’re local it means you have a physical location and largely expect your customer base to come to you. In all likelihood, you may have other services like spa, alternative healing, or consulting, and you sell CBD as part of those services.
But most of the businesses we talk to (and the main focus of this article) are eCommerce.
For CBD specific businesses, it’s likely that eCommerce will be the dominant sales model.
Supplements like CBD oil are ideal for eCommerce because they’re easy to ship and there’s is no advantage for the customer to physically see the product before they buy it.
But eCommerce takes location out of the equation. You can ship to anyone in the US, but it also means you’re marketing at the national level.
Many businesses may have a local presence and an eCommerce website, but one of the primary decisions you’ll have to make is whether or not you want to become a larger, nationally known brand.
It is likely that in the future, market share for CBD eCommerce sales will go to a handful of established brands, with the rest broken up into niche specializations and local services.
Your business plan must detail where you want your business to go, with details on the resources you’ll need to get there.
What’s Your Value Proposition?
Picture your CBD products business a few years from now. It’s thriving.
Why? What did you do that distinguished your offer from the competition? That advantage will be encapsulated in your unique value proposition (UVP).
- Communicates the specific value of your offer.
- Clarifies the benefit(s) customers derive from your products.
- States or implies why you’re the best choice.
Your UVP provides answers to these questions:
- What do you do? Can you help me?
- What’s in this for me? Why are you worth it?
- Why should I choose you instead of another service or method of solving my problem?
CBD products have both an advantage and disadvantage in developing a UVP.
The advantage is that people are rapidly learning about the benefits of CBD products. It’s in the news, the internet is bursting with information about it, and there’s a lot of testimonials and word of mouth.
Even the traditional medical establishment acknowledges some of the analgesic properties of cannabinoid. The medical community has, in particular, noted CBD’s potential as an antiseizure medication.
Many CBD customers are aware of the benefits they’ll derive from these products.
Which brings us to the disadvantage. You want to sell CBD products as a business, which puts you in competition with other businesses doing the same thing.
Notice this is a unique value proposition. A key component of the message is how you stand out from your competition. What makes you the best choice as a CBD provider?
A look at most CBD websites today shows that few have a unique value proposition. At best they talk about the organic process of raising the plants and the purity of their products.
Most of the websites have a decent amount of information to educate people still learning the basics about CBD.
However, if you start a business in 2019 doing what everyone else is already doing (we sometimes call these “me too” websites), you’ll be making a critical marketing mistake: entering a competitive market with no competitive advantage.
To establish yourself in 2019 and beyond, consider that online consumers will research their options.
They’ll compare you with other CBD websites, and buy from the businesses they feel most confident in.
A major part of your initial marketing strategy needs to be put into developing a UVP. Consider:
- Pricing
- Quality of your products
- Different conditions or concerns you can address
- Add on services you can provide
- Brand image and reputation
One example of this is CBD products for pets. CBD oil for dogs is popular, so this is the type of thing a business might choose to specialize in.
Your customers will have a choice when buying CBD products. It’s your responsibility to give them a clear reason to choose you.
Online Advertising and Exposure
As of this writing, paid advertising on Google and Facebook for CBD products is prohibited. Here is Google’s list of unapproved pharmaceuticals and supplements.
Facebook doesn’t explicitly mention CBD, but ads for these products will be disapproved.
This cuts-off a significant marketing channel, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore it.
Instead, it’s worth it to learn about paid advertising and have a strategy in place.
The reason is that it’s entirely possible that paid advertising will be allowed on CBD products in the future. As these products become more mainstream and are deemed safe, it’s unlikely Google and Facebook will continue to disapprove the ads.
News of these types of changes usually gets dropped without warning, so businesses that have their tactics planned ahead will have an advantage.
In the meantime, you will want develop your content creation and search engine optimization (SEO) strategy so you can win as much organic search traffic as possible.
Go back to your UVP and consider any niche informational areas you can take the lead on. You’ll find that most of the general searches on CBD are already competitive, but you will be able to rank for more specific topics.
And don’t neglect YouTube. Video content is a powerful way to build a brand, and searches on YouTube tend to be less competitive. Here’s an example social influencer video:
Develop Your Marketing Collateral
As you get your CBD business underway, there are several fundamental types of marketing collateral you want to develop.
The first is your business website. This will, of course, need eCommerce functionality if you’re selling online.
Your website is where most customers will first be exposed to your value proposition and your brand. It’s where you can best publish and categorize your informational content. It’s a hub that connects to your social media, YouTube channel, reviews, and PR materials.
Your website is your business front. Design accordingly with a professional layout and defined calls to action. As an eCommerce tool, your website is your main salesperson. Make sure people can find the information and products they need so your site doesn’t drop sales.
Next, you’ll want to consider your social media presence. Create a Facebook business page and Instagram account. As we said, create a company YouTube channel.
Start making connections, person by person, and establishing your brand presence. As you get customers, encourage them to follow you on social.
In connection to both your social media and website, develop a content creation plan and calendar that includes blogging, social media posts, videos, and PR materials. Use this content to establish yourself as a leader in your informational niche.
Across all these assets, set the goal of making your brand memorable. If you plan to be a player in national CBD eCommerce sales, you need to create a brand name that becomes synonymous with the products you sell.
Lifetime Customer Value
CBD products are consumables, which translates in to one very important component of your marketing.
Recurring sales.
CBD marketing has two components. The first is generating sales from new customers. The second – and equally important – is marketing to existing customers to secure their ongoing purchases.
You’ll need to plan for how you’ll stay in front of your customers and continue to provide value. Email marketing and social media are your two best channels for this type of communication.
Use CRM software to keep track of leads and customers; this should integrate with your email marketing software.
Send out regular updates to your customers with offers, news, and reminders to order. You can do this with a regular newsletter, and also send out periodic promotions.
Encourage customers to follow you on social media, and gear a large portion of your content towards them.
The main promotional piece should be a rewards program or other incentives to keep customers buying from you. This includes discounts, special offers, and product exclusives.
Remember what we started with. CBD product sales are competitive now and will only get more so as the industry gets established. Your competition wants to take your customers from you, and they’ll market aggressively to do so.
As you establish your brand, continue to invest in your marketing to secure your position. Build a wall around your loyal customers so the competition can’t take them.
These customers are also the ones you want writing reviews about your products and services. Use email to request product and company reviews that can go on Facebook, Google, and Top Rated Local.
With quality products and a customer-centric approach, you can become a profitable brand in this space.
But don’t hesitate. This window of opportunity will close fast.
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