If you have a business for any industry marked by stringent regulatory considerations, you must be achingly familiar with the restrictions in the way your services can be marketed. You can trust me on this as I have been intimately connected with the digital marketing domain for the last five years. It will not be an exaggeration if I go to the extent of calling it my second home!

One thing that has become blatantly clear is the tough times that a business operating in the cannabis, alcohol, or tobacco domains are facing regarding their marketing. I will focus on cannabis here, which is federally illegal in many American states. It creates various problems for cannabis brands. A variety of marketing platforms have completely banned advertisements that portray cannabis products. Although such restrictions are unfair on cannabis companies since they operate legally, you cannot escape the fact that today, successful marketing for cannabis businesses has become an uphill battle.

But don’t get disheartened. Believe me when I say that there are indeed many people waiting to see posts from you. It is just that you are not able to reach them because of the nature of your business. Did you know that expenditure on legal cannabis in North America is estimated to skyrocket from $9.2 billion to $47.3 billion by 2027?

Allow me to divulge some of the intelligent ways your company can effectively market and reach out to a new audience. Here are some proven methods that will help you to recover your petering online and offline presence.

Think about regional billboards

Today in this era of internet marketing, people seem to have forgotten about billboards and how they can be a valuable marketing tool. In a lot of states where cannabis is legal, billboards can become your weapon of choice to put your brand straight in front of the eyes of your customer.

People have become so used to seeing how-to tutorials on the internet that they have forgotten to explore this straightforward way of advertising. However, it is wise to throw some caution here. Certain cities have their own policies about advertisements related to cannabis.

2. Build your audience through sponsorships
   

So, what can a cannabis company do when it doesn’t have a well-defined audience to start with? Well, make use of sponsorships. You can get sponsorship by negotiating with the company or running the event you desire to sponsor. The different media that cannabis businesses can sponsor include:

Local podcast: Cannabis companies operating on a national scale can sponsor podcasts. Currently, there exists close to 850,000 active podcasts, and the number is only growing. A vast majority of podcasts are devoted to cannabis. Thus, legal cannabis companies can get lucrative sponsorship opportunities.

YouTube sponsorships: They have become more popular than ever. Sponsorship can be in the form of running a short video ad of your brand at the beginning, in between, or the end of the video. Here again, there’s a word of caution for you. Specific terms of service govern youTube. So, you need to ensure that the sponsorships you negotiate are permitted on this online platform. YouTube sponsorships are a cost-efficient method to enhance your brand reach instantly and engage a broader audience base.

3. Focus on your SEO strategy
   

SEO is synonymous with effective cannabis marketing. The ideal course of action for you would be to hire an SEO toronto agency that handles the complicated work of optimizing your cannabis business online. Ensure that you have a profile on Google My Business if you own a cannabis dispensary. It will allow Google to make sense of what your brand provides. Moreover, your listing can even appear on Google Maps.

Next, start focussing on keywords that your target customers commonly use. Platforms like SEMrush and Ahrefs are great platforms for you to discover relevant keywords. The keywords that you find, you can use them in your website and blog posts.

4. Utilize good old public relations
   

Pitching renowned publications is a highly effective marketing practice that cannabis companies can capitalize on. All you need to do is to figure out a great angle to pitch publications. Create a captivating story that is relevant to your business to land a deal with a major publication. It is the sure-shot way of bringing your brand in front of millions of customers. Getting the attention of journalists can be a time-consuming process. But don’t worry. You can use tools like JustOutreach and HARO to figure out some targets for yourself.

If all this sounds like too much work, feel free to reach out to an SEO company toronto today.