Actionable Cannabis Marketing Techniques for Businesses in Canada

Toronto, Canada, 2022-Feb-03 — /EPR Network/ — It wasn’t very long ago that Justin Trudeau, the Canadian PM, stated his desire to legalize cannabis. This desire had a good reason to it, that of eliminating black market marijuana. Trudeau believes that it’ll be effortless to keep young Canadians away from cannabis once the black market is eliminated.

However, the task is easier said than done. Those who deal in the pot don’t give out products with special brand names, packaging, or an eye-catching logo. If the Trudeau administration wants to put an end to the black market, it should think about giving its people some incentives to legally purchase cannabis. But until the government realizes it’s counterintuitive restrictions on the Cannabis Act, marijuana brands in Canada will have to keep up with what little choices they have at their disposal.

Are you one such company? If yes, then you’ve come to the right place. This blog lists down the best marketing tips for cannabis Ontario businesses.

1. Operate within Your Limits
The limitations on cannabis store in etobicoke are complex, to say the least. Many of them are ambiguous in nature, so there’s a lack of absolute clarity on what’s permitted and what isn’t. The government isn’t helping much either to understand them.

What’s clear is that a ban has been placed on mass advertising, which means you cannot rely on billboard ads or T.V commercials for promotion. When marketing cannabis in Ontario, there are several techniques from which you should steer clear. It includes
Using testimonials for product promotion.
Advertising products in a manner that appeals to the younger population.
Passing information about the price or distribution of cannabis products.
Advertising your products in a manner that conjures strong negative or positive emotions.
Relying on recreation, glamour, vitality, or excitement like a lifestyle for promoting your products.
The list can go on and on. But if you want more information regarding what you should not do, then you should consult sections 16 to 24 of the Cannabis Act.
2. Steer Away from Facebook
It’s best that you forget about Facebook for cannabis marketing or advertising. The platform’s advertising policies clearly state that it won’t tolerate advertisements that promote illegal services or products. It also says that a business cannot use images containing drugs or even those that casually imply drug use for recreation purposes.

What does this all mean? It means that being a cannabis company, until you create an ad that does not touch on any aspect of your product, can you promote your product on this platform. That’s practically impossible, right?

Even if you manage to evade the sensors, there’s a high chance of you totally getting banned from the channel. Did you know that Mark Zuckerberg has gone all out to filter results that are even slightly related to words like cannabis and marijuana?

Unless you are in possession of some very clever marketing tactic, your best bet is to avoid posting on this social media platform.

3. Find out Those Channels that Are Lenient Towards Pot
You cannot do anything much about not being able to promote your products on Facebook. But that doesn’t mean that you cannot forge an online presence at all. Look for those platforms that make the life of cannabis marketers easier. For instance, Twitter and LinkedIn. Although these platforms also have certain policies in place against drug promotion, they do not outrightly ban the content related to it. In fact, LinkedIn has a large community of cannabis businesses on it.

However, keep in mind that it won’t be useful for you to rely on social media websites to advertise your products and services. It isn’t easy for cannabis businesses in Ontario to forge a solid social media presence.

4. Leverage Cannabis-Centric Social Networks
There are various advertising platforms that link cannabis companies to the websites that are all for their products and services. In Canada, cannabis businesses can think of leveraging the below-mentioned platforms.
Weedmaps – Customers can shift through enormous cannabis-related products, review a company, and reach out to other users.
Weedlife – It is a social network where you can log in using any social media account and connect with other cannabis enthusiasts.
Leafly – It is a major information resource on cannabis. You can review and rate a number of cannabis dispensaries.
Adistry – It is an advertising platform that operates with loads of advertising companies and functions for businesses in various domains, which includes cannabis businesses.
The Leaf – It provides cannabis-related news and is owned by the Winnipeg Free Press. Cannabis organizations can buy add space here.

5. Emphasize Your Brand Value Rather Than Just the Products
Focussing on the principles of your company is an effective technique to produce engaging content without even mentioning much about cannabis. Some methods that you can utilize are interviewing your employees and discussing what makes them passionate about what they do. You can also consider asking them why they work for you.

Another great technique is an article from the business’s CEO, in which they elaborate on the values of their brand. The benefit of this technique is that it has just the right amount of ambiguity, which will help you operate within the limits of cannabis marketing in the Ontario region.

6. Leverage Programmatic Advertising
Programmatic advertising refers to buying and selling ad inventory in real-time through the medium of a bidding system that is automated. It allows businesses to buy ad impressions on apps or sites of publishers through an intelligent ecosystem.

CBD, hemp, and ancillary businesses can use this technology. Wonder what’s the best thing about programmatic display advertisement campaigns? It is the capacity to A/B test various sizes of ads and reallocate resources in actual time to the ones with the greatest possibility of conversion. Through real-time bidding, companies can modify the amount they want to pay for a display ad impression according to the space dimensions.
Some examples of display ad campaigns for cannabis are:
An awareness campaign regarding the new dispensary places you’re launching, targeting users to your site over the preceding six months.
A promotional campaign that offers $4.20 of online cannabis store in chatham orders in a month going up to 4/20.

Wrapping up

Although it is difficult for cannabis companies to forge an effective online presence on social media platforms, but there’s something for every business. Find out which technique you can implement and spend your time and energy in setting yourself using it. You should also be well aware of the regulatory environment where you currently operate. An inability to comply with the laws will directly result in crackdowns, which wouldn’t have desirable consequences. It is best to take the help of a cannabis focused digital marketing agency to strengthen your brand image.