Email Marketing For The Cannabis Industry In 2022

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Email marketing is critical to the cannabis industry, and based on the results of the recent State of Email Report 2021 published by Litmus, as we head towards 2022 is critical for almost every industry.

What should companies using email marketing to connect with cannabis and hemp license holders know about the state of email today? According to the Litmus report, personalization, budget, and timing are the keys to success in email marketing. Let’s take a closer look at the data.

1. The success of email marketing depends on personalization

The best way to increase engagement with your email messages and get higher returns on your email marketing investments is to segment your lists into niche audiences and have separate versions of each campaign with personalized content for each audience to create.

I say this so many times that I feel like a broken record, but the reason I keep repeating it all the time is because it’s true and so important. Still don’t believe me Check out the information from the Litmus Report and others because I’m not the only one to say it:

• Nine in ten marketers (90%) believe personalization (including email marketing personalization) is essential to overall business strategy (source: Personalization Demystified by Forrester and IBM).
• Almost seven in ten email marketers (69%) already create, on average, two or more personalized versions of every email campaign they send (source: Litmus 2021 State of Email Report).
• Four in five consumers (80%) are more likely to buy from a brand that offers personalized experiences, including email marketing content (Source: The Power of Me: The Impact of Personalization on Marketing Performance by Epsilon).
• More than three in four consumers (76%) expect more personalized attention from marketers, including personalization in email marketing messages (source: B2B Buyer Behavior Study 2020 from the Demand Gen Report).

The data from these studies shows that marketers understand the importance of personalization today, not because of ticking another box on their to-do list, but because consumers want personalization, expect it, and are more likely to buy.

With that in mind, here are the top 10 personalization factors marketers are using in email marketing today:

1. Name, company name or other profile data: 80% (from 72% in 2020)
2. Customer segment (e.g. prospect or customer): 64% (from 49% in 2020)
3. Past email interactions: 42% (from 39% in 2020)
4. Location or geolocation: 40% (from 31% in 2020)
5. Past purchases or donations: 34% (compared to 38% in 2020)
6. Expressed preferences or interests: 33% (from 32% in 2020)
7. Previous interactions with products or services: 33% (compared to 40% in 2020)
8. Past website interactions: 26% (compared to 30% in 2020)
9. Membership or award status or points: 23% (not available for 2020)
10. Gender, race, or other demographics: 14% (from 11% in 2020)

Your business may not be able to segment based on all of the factors in the list above, and that’s perfectly fine. The key is to start with the possibilities and data that are now available to you. The more segmented you get your lists, the more personalized your content can be and the better your results will be.

So use existing data and set up processes to collect new data that you can use to segment and personalize more effectively than ever in the future.

If your target audience includes cannabis and / or hemp licensees in the US, Canada, and international markets, you can use the features in the Cannabiz Media License Database to segment your email marketing lists and send personalized content to each of your niche audiences . This is a proven way to increase engagement and results.

For example, you can segment your list based on the type of license (e.g. cultivator, manufacturer, retailer, etc.), location, the extraction method used by each manufacturer, the growing environment of the cultivator or the size of the canopy, and more.

Read the instructions too Best practices for segmenting your email list and driving results Obtain segmentation strategies and plans to implement those strategies using the Cannabiz media license database.

2. Email marketing budgets are increasing

According to the Litmus report, only 1.3% of companies plan to cut their overall email marketing budgets in 2022. If you look a little closer at the data, only 2.9% plan to cut staff expenses on their email marketing team, and only 6.2% plan on reducing their budgets for email marketing agencies, consultants and freelancers.

That means the vast majority of companies plan to increase their email marketing budgets in 2022 or keep their budgets at the 2021 level.

The email marketing areas where the largest proportion of businesses plan to increase their spending in 2022 are:

1. Integration of e-mail with other channels: 35.8%
2. Email team staff: 32.1%
3. Email tools from non-email service providers: 22.1%
4. Email service provider: 20.2%
5. Email training, conferences, training courses, etc.: 17.8%
6. Email agencies, consultants and freelancers: 11.3%

Why are email marketing budgets growing? There are a number of reasons, but one of the most compelling reasons given in the Litmus report is that email is at the top of the list of most effective marketing channels – ahead of paid search / ads, organic search, social media, events , Direct mail, SMS or push, video, television or radio, outdoor media and podcast / voice marketing.

To prepare for 2022, check your email marketing budget and see if there are any areas where you need to add money before it’s too late to budget them.

3. Timing still matters in email marketing

I am often asked what time of the day companies should send out their email marketing campaigns, and the answer hasn’t really changed over the years. Litmus recently released its 2021 State of Email Engagement report, and based on billions of emails opened, the best time of day to send email marketing campaigns is still 10:00 a.m. local time. Then 7.4% of all openings take place, while 21.2% of all openings take place between 9:00 and 12:00 local time.

The number of email messages people receive every day is growing all the time, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to get noticed in inboxes. Ensuring that you are sending your marketing email messages at the right time is critical to your success. But what happens when recipients open your email messages? How much time do they actually spend looking at your content?

Litmus reports that the average time spent reading an email has decreased by about 15% compared to last year. Today, the average time spent reading an email is 10.0 seconds (up from 11.8 seconds in 2020).

This means that you only have a maximum of 10 seconds to arouse the interest of the recipients and motivate them to click on your call-to-action. Don’t let them escape!

Make sure your email marketing messages are concise, clear, and very obvious to answer the “What’s in it for me” question. (WIIFM?) For the recipients and tell them what to do next. Lightness and simplicity are the key to success in 2022.

If you sell cannabis and / or hemp licensees, you can use the features in the Cannabiz media license database to get in touch with them via email marketing at exactly the right time. The built-in email marketing tool includes features to send your messages the best day and time using performance data and a visual heat map, planning tools, and a sending time optimization feature based on artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Read Tips for optimizing airtime for email marketing in the cannabis industry to learn how to use the Cannabiz media license database to present your email campaigns to your audience at the best times.

Key Lessons Learned About Email Marketing For The Cannabis Industry In 2022

I leave you with two important quotes from the Litmus 2021 State of Email Report:

• “Email marketing is becoming more and more important for business success. No question about it: email has always been important. But now? It is important.”
• “Personalization is a must. Personalization is no longer nice one day. The time is now. “

Are your email marketing personalization strategies and budget ready for a prosperous 2022? If not, now is the time to make some changes.

Schedule a demo to see how the Cannabiz media license database can help you connect with cannabis and hemp license holders to meet your sales and marketing goals (including your email marketing goals).