Online Marketing Experience

Cannabis Digital Marketing Consultant

Cannabis Digital Marketing

This CBD company was approaching halfway through their first year in market as a high-end, luxury cannabis product line that included edibles and aromatics, primarily selling through B2B relationships and wanting to sell more product online – B2B and B2C.

CBD Digital Marketing Consultant Solution

Cathy Llewellyn, Principal of Vast, was hired to develop a multi-channel digital strategy with the goal to sell more CBD products online, while consulting on digital marketing and advertising opportunities and launching/managing these content campaigns to compliantly advertise Cannabis/CBD products online.

Cannabis / CBD Digital Marketing Consulting Solution

This CBD consulting project began with a deep dive into analytics and the industry for an annual Digital Marketing Strategy, which uncovered the need for consistent Brand Strategy and Brand Positioning Statements to be used for all Black Dahlia marketing, advertising and promotions.

Beginning the project in 2019, Cannabis advertising still carried heavy content restrictions across the board and digital recommendations began with the company’s owned assets: SEO & eCommerce UX for the website, Social Media content & publishing strategy across expanded social platforms, and development of eCRM email marketing strategy across the annual calendar.

Vast Interactive’s Digital Marketing Strategy was implemented beginning in 2020 by applying SEO content strategy to existing eCommerce website with recommendation of a new, mobile-friendly redesigned website. Additionally, social media profiles were polished/expanded and organized along Brand CBD-compliant content topics, and all analytics and eCommerce tracking was set-up and churning useful data by Q12020.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, the company was well positioned to take advantage of an increase in customer interest in CBD products online, while also having to pause industry and sponsored in-person events. As part of a collaborative Design/Developer team, CBD company began redesigning the website for Brand Identity, as well as mobile eCommerce usability, and Vast consulted on SEO, Marketing, and eCommerce best practices while setting up Email Marketing lists/sign-ups and Welcome Email.

New SEO website launched in September and this coincided with the opportunity to begin Paid Advertising on digital ad platforms that were “CBD-friendly,” while also continually checking into Social & Search options hoping their CBD compliance standards would lessen (even in March 2021, Google/Facebook/Instagram still heavily restrict Cannabis AND CBD, which is federally legal).

The Digital Advertising recommendation included a Programmatic Cannabis-friendly ad platform that could automatically support age targeting restrictions, while also accepting Banner Creative that followed specific best practices, as related to selling products that fall within the ‘Cannabis’ category – this Cannabis Ad Campaign launched November 2020 and is directly generating online sales.