First and foremost a lot of people that I run into think that marketing and advertising are the same, they are similar, but they are not the same. We all know that in the world we are currently living in that we as an industry can not advertise online in any form. Therefore, I'm going to really quickly explain what the eff marketing actually is.
Marketing is an essential area of management attention that is determined through continuous observation, research, and analysis to answer questions such as:
Who are your customers?
How do they think?
Where are they located?
How do they make their buying decisions?
Advertising is clear communication to people about the promises that your business makes to them.
Let's begin by thinking of your brand as a house. Your brand colors, logo, packaging, mission, website, customer service and photography is the structure of your product. When all of these aspects align the outside of your house is complete. However, nobody wants to live or visit an empty house. We need furniture, we need to decorate the walls we need to make people who visit us feel comfortable and cozy.
The comfortable and cozy feeling that is what digital marketing is. Digital marketing is a piece that tells your story. I know that you have pieces in your house that have a tale attached to them. That chair you got from grandma or the artwork on your wall that you collect because it reminds you of somewhere that you've been.
Your brand also has a story that wants and needs to be shared.
Here is real life, for instance, many of us can relate to:
It's a Saturday afternoon, and you're walking around the grocery store, and you see a cheese vendor set up, you get closer, and the friendly face asks if you want to try a sample of their latest and greatest flavor, that's marketing.
While you're standing there and shoving your face with cheese, the friendly sample person begins to tell you that the beautiful grassy pasture, the ethical practices they use and the solar heated barn that the cows live in is what keeps the cows happy and really the key to what makes the flavor what it is, that's advertising.
They've identified:
1. You're not a vegan and are into cheese
2. You run errands on what is probably your day off or a significant amount of downtime, and you are a leisurely shopper. Because people in a hurry ain't got no time for a cheese sample.
3. You live in the vicinity of the store where the cheese is delivered.
4. With your attentive listening, they've established that happy cows are something that you care about and can get behind by handing over your money for a block of cheese.
When they run an advertisement on social media or tv, you will watch it, and it will resonate with you, even if you think it's not.
Digital Marketing is obviously doing this all online which is why you have to know the answer to those four crucial questions every time you post. If and when the opportunity presents itself to the cannabis industry that we can begin running ads, to run a successful ad the knowledge of analytics on which posts are performing the best is the equivalent to the stuff your face with cheese and chit chat moment in a grocery store.
Sharing your brands' story is going to set you apart in this industry because it will begin to build trust with your target market. The cannabis industry is the wild west right now, there are potential customers of yours that do not carry all of the knowledge on CBD or THC that you do and part of your job is to tell the story of why your product will help them.
Beautiful packaging and photos are only going to get your one of a kind product so far. Sharing the story behind your brand is what will set you apart.