Exciting Marketing Opportunities for CBD Brands

The CBD space has exploded with new brands and products over several years, and the growth trend should continue.

It seems like it’s the perfect market space opportunity: growing acceptance and adoption, and many customers who want these products.

But, even with the surge of new brands and market growth, there are also some start-up dilemmas. First off are the numerous and shifting digital marketing restrictions. In a time when most consumers engage in Social Media and Digital marketing, brands are blocked from using these channels.

And it’s even harder for smaller brands getting started. In surveying 4,000 businesses in the CBD and Cannabinoid space:

• 90% of these brands have less than $2.5 million in sales
• Over 50% have only been in business the last two years
• The top 20 CBD companies make up 17% of the total market sales

The big challenge for smaller businesses trying to get a foothold and a following is gaining awareness and interest.

With the lack of digital outlets, one of the most effective marketing channels available for CBD brands is Direct Mail. Recent neuroscience studies has confirmed that our brains respond to Print and Direct Mail…and the high response rates for Direct Mail programs promoting CBD brands have proven that out.

Proven Direct Mail Marketing Tactics Help Brands Reach, Engage, and Convert New Customers

Whether it’s for promoting one or many dispensary locations or driving purchases from an eCommerce store, these kinds of marketing tactics work very well for CBD brands who are looking to engage their audience.

Acquisition Direct Mail

With the variety of mailing lists available, brands can target their ideal prospect. Mailing lists are available to find virtually any kind of person based on:

• Interests (Homeopathic remedies, natural supplements, etc.)
• Purchase history
• Age
• Gender
• Presence of children, and even children’s ages
• Household income
• Metro Service Area (MSAs)
• Urban/Suburban/Rural
• Home Value

…and hundreds of other selects to narrow down specific kinds of targets. There are even lists of smokers and pet owners to overlay with all of the above information.

The combination of different characteristics is almost endless, and the mantra for Direct Mail lists is: “if you can think of someone, you can probably find them.”

For CBD brands, there are also additional, market-specific lists that can help find even more interested people. These Specialty Lists are more expensive but are also much more targeted for CBD products and benefits:

• Known purchasers of eCommerce CBD products – transactional data
• Sufferers of Chronic Pain, Anxiety, or Sleep Problems – self-reported medical ailments or survey responders
• CBD Buyers and Interest – self-reported data on CBD interest and points-of-sale
• Behavior & interest, expressing interest in homeopathic remedies
• Dog owners

Winback Direct Mail to Existing Customers

Segmenting and extracting existing customer lists from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) files is the first step. CRM or transactional data files will have records of when customers previously purchased. By finding the customers who haven’t purchased in over 18 months, brands can re-energize a base and bring them back for new orders.

In addition, regular existing customer retention mailers are a good idea. Reaching customers before they lapse is key to keeping them engaged with the brand, and showcases new products or sales events.

Email is a terrific way to reach your existing customers, but even with a 30% open rate, it means 70% don’t open the emails. With Direct Mail, you can reach all of your previous customers and even select customers based on purchases and products. It can be very targeted.

Mail with Consistency While Using a Variety of Postcard Formats to Add Interest

Direct Mail is highly flexible and creative with formats. From letters to postcards, the variety of mail is wide-ranging. We’ve seen that most brands choose from a straightforward mix of formats that people are used to receiving in their mailboxes…postcards, mini-catalogs, and letters.

• Flat Postcards
  The larger cards – 6 x 8.5 or 6 x 11 – work best to have more stopping power. And, they mail at the more affordable Letter Rate. If time is of the essence, smaller 4.25 x 6 cards are best for First Class (see more in Postage Strategies).
• Folded Postcards
  These cards open up and ‘reveal’ messages. There are dozens of postcard formats and layouts for these – larger panoramic folded cards, gate-folds, cards with half-folds, and more. And, they can mail at Letter Rate, too.
• Booklets
  Think of these like mini-catalogs. They can be 4, 8, 12, 16 pages long and show various best-selling products. Catalogs showcase new products and drive people to a website so that smaller booklets can do the same job.
• Small Postcard Reminders
  Smaller postcards are ideal fast-touch marketing (more later on Trigger programs) or reminder cards. Also, they’re suitable for ride-alongs if you have a storefront dispensary.
• Folded Cards in Envelopes
  This approach is great for invitations, to convey a special note or anniversary offer, VIP touch for unique customers, or Thank You cards for purchases (that’s a good idea to engender loyalty).

Direct Mail Retargeting

This channel has proven to be one of the most cost-effective, reliable, and clever ways to reach anonymous website visitors who haven’t purchased online.

Because direct digital retargeting isn’t permissible through the Facebook and Google Ad networks, when a website visitor leaves a CBD site, there aren’t many options to get back in touch.

Even with the heady conversion rates of CBD websites, about 90% of the website traffic that comes through will leave without a trace. That’s a lot of time and energy to pour into marketing and SEM/SEO efforts only to have visitors leave.

Direct Mail Retargeting matches up to 50% of anonymous website traffic to actual postal mailing addresses. Cards are automatically mailed out each day to those visitors, bringing them back to the site to purchase.

And, because the marketing touch is Direct Mail, the channel is both privacy-compliant and permissible.

Some features about Direct Mail Retargeting:

• Address Matching: Cookie-based approach, matching devices to an opt-in subscriber network
• Filtering: By page, geography and pages visited, so brands can mail locally or based on visitors with higher intent
• Budget: Flexible and with no minimums, brands can mail five cards or 500 cards per day, based on website traffic and budget allocation.
• Suppression: Block mailings to existing customers or those who convert on the first visit. Plus, we suppress repeat visitors within the month.
• Creative: Different creatives can match specific pages, but we would recommend a single card at first
• Results: Dashboard tracks return visits and online purchases to the eCommerce cart, measuring cost per conversion

Direct Mail Retargeting has proven to be an excellent channel for many CBD brands, with results like:

Because CBD brands can control the budget daily or monthly, this is proving to be one of the most reliable, consistently strong performing Direct Marketing channels available.

Trigger Marketing Programs

Trigger programs mail postcards on a regularly scheduled date, using the same card each time.

Once a program is set up, these ongoing and effective touchpoints reach customers and prospects with regularity. Gone are the days of working around a deadline or wondering, “did that card go out?”. Trigger programs set up an automated, methodical, consistent, reliable marketing touch.

These programs automatically mail when a list comes in, or a ‘trigger’ event happens:

• New Movers and Homeowners
  These lists are updated regularly and are best suited for physical dispensaries that want to welcome new movers to neighborhoods in a radius around their store. Getting in front of these folks right when they move in is a key to establishing a long-term relationship.
• Birthday Club
  Both on your website and in your CRM is the opportunity to ask for more than age verification – you can get their birthdate! That way, mailing a special birthday offer ahead of time is a great way to target someone and pique their interest in buying one of your products for their special day.
• CRM Exports
  Classifying your customers as at-risk, eroded, or some time-lapse between orders helps you pro-actively reach them with a mailer.When you can categorize those clients, preparing a regularly scheduled mailer is a good idea to ensure that you’re keeping in front of them…before they erode.
• Email Subscribers
  Getting new leads onboard with email subscriptions is a solid tactic to engage website visitors. This method enables brands to keep in touch with a low-to-no-cost touch.

However, even if open rates are 30%, 70% of those subscribers aren’t even opening those emails! Data technology exists to append postal addresses to emails, usually matching about 70% – 80% of emails to household addresses.

Sending monthly email subscribers a Direct Mail postcard is an engaging touchpoint, especially when brands segment out the “does-not-open” subscribers. They’re not receiving the marketing in their inboxes, so reach them in their mailboxes with a different and effective tactic.

It’s Time to Use Direct Mail to Acquire New Customers

CBD brands need more ways to create awareness and gain interest, especially with the hoops and regulations for digital and broadcast marketing.

Direct Mail is the ideal way for CBD Brands to connect with their target audience. With strong response rates inherent in the channel and a team of experts at Modern Postcard to help guide, the next step is clear: contact Modern to begin setting up a program to get new customers.