5 Secrets to B2B Christmas Marketing Success in the Cannabis Industry

The holiday season is here, and if history repeats itself, four of the biggest cannabis sales days of the year will come before the end of the year. According to a report by Headset, the top 11 days for Cannabis sales in 2021, and that’s not expected to change this year. As such, it’s also a critical time for companies that sell products and services to cannabis license holders to increase their investments in B2B vacation marketing.

To help you capitalize on the holiday sales opportunity, here are five secrets to developing and executing successful B2B holiday marketing programs to cannabis business licensee audiences.

1. Identify your audience focus

Not everyone on your email marketing list, prospect list, social media followers, etc. is ready to buy your products and services at any given time. The holiday season is no different. In fact, the last two months of the year people get inundated with offers to sell, so it’s more important than ever to invest your time and money in the people you can quickly convert into customers.

With this in mind, segment your audience lists and focus on people who are in the later stages of the buyer journey – the people at the bottom of the funnel who could be persuaded to buy with the right offer before the end of the year are designed specifically for them (more For personalization see #3 below).

Let’s take your email marketing list as an example. Hopefully you’ve tracked how the people on your email list (including the leads you’ve sent campaigns to using the email marketing tool in the Cannabiz Media License Database) are interacting with your messages. If this is the case, you can identify the most engaged recipients – people who have opened many of your messages and clicked on many links in those messages over the past few months. These highly engaged recipients are likely to be the leads most interested in the products and services you offer. They should be your main focus during the holiday season.

Once you know the specific audience(s) you want to convert in the last few weeks of the year, you can create a marketing plan that effectively tailors offers to their specific wants and needs.

2. Give to get

It’s the time of giving, so giving your target audience something to convince them to buy – or even just to reach you – is very important. It’s the perfect time of year to offer lead magnets – freebies you give leads so they can achieve three things:

• Receive contact information for leads (e.g. they must give you their email address in exchange for the giveaway)
• Put your brand on their radar screen and build brand trust
• Motivate leads to contact you for more information or to make a purchase

Typically, lead magnets are offered online — through your blog, social media channels, websites where you post guest content, or any digital ads you could place. The process is simple. They promote the lead magnet and provide a link for people to visit your website where they will find a form to submit their email address and any other information you request (tip: the less info you request, the more submissions you will receive). . Once the form has been submitted, they will receive the lead magnet from you via email.

Both B2B and B2C buyers are familiar with lead magnets, and many are very willing to provide their email addresses in exchange for something they believe offers them equal or greater value than the perceived value of theirs Email address.

Lead magnets are also effective for nurturing relationships with people who are already on your marketing prospect list. For example, if you already send email campaigns to leads from cannabis licensees via the Cannabiz Media License Database, you can use lead magnets to push people down the marketing funnel and ultimately close sales. While worksheets and checklists typically work best at the top of the funnel to build brand awareness, lead magnets like webinars, case studies, ebooks, playbooks, guides, and white papers can work very well with people at the bottom of the funnel, that are in later stages of the buyer’s journey.

By tracking what types of lead magnets are requested by the people you already email, you’ll gather more information about their wants and needs. This information helps you create targeted, personalized offers that have a better chance of converting leads into sales.

3. Personalize

All marketing these days needs to be as personalized as possible. Sending out generic email marketing messages, for example, makes recipients dissatisfied and more likely to click the spam button, which no email marketer wants!

In marketing, personalization refers to much more than just putting a person’s first name at the beginning of an email message. That means you tailor the content of each communication and the details of each offer to the audience that will see it.

For vacation marketing programs, consider personalizing the products or services advertised, the types of discounts or savings offered, and the text and messages used to promote each offer to each audience. Different audiences will respond to your offers very differently depending on who they are, what their goals are, and what type of product or service you offer.

For example, if you sell accounting services to cannabis license holders who operate throughout the supply chain, don’t send every lead in the Cannabiz Media License Database the same message promoting the same discount. Instead, think about the biggest pain points and goals that breeders have versus dispensaries versus producers at the end of the year. Create offers that help alleviate those pain points or offers that help your audience achieve their goals.

Also, do not send the same message to everyone who works for a licensee. An employee working in a security role for a pharmacy will not be interested in an email message about accounting services. Only send to people who are actually interested in your messages (see #1 above for identifying your audience) and only send personalized offers that actually matter to each recipient.

4. Create targeted landing pages

Following the idea that generic offers and marketing messages don’t work, the same applies to what happens after someone clicks on your ad, social media post, or email marketing message to receive the vacation deal you’re promoting . You need to create a highly relevant end-to-end consumer experience to maximize conversions. This applies to both B2C and B2B marketing.

Whether you’re promoting a lead magnet or a specific product or service discount, your audience should be able to click a single link and be taken to a page that has all the relevant details. This is called the landing page, and the page should make it as easy as possible for people to take the next step to get the offer. If you’re offering a discount on a specific product, your social media post, ad, or email marketing message should include a link that takes people straight to a landing page that provides details about the offer and a button to get started now Buy contains.

Similarly, if you offer a lead magnet, the link in your post, ad, or message should go directly to a landing page with details about the lead magnet and a form you must submit to access the lead magnet – No additional steps should be required to get the information they need to complete the process.

For example, if you send an email marketing message to cannabis license holders for a discount on their most popular product using the email marketing tool in the Cannabiz Media License Database, the email message should include a call-to-action -Include a link that takes you directly to a landing page that promotes the sale of the product and includes a Buy Now link. Bottom Line: When people land on your landing page, there should be no doubt that they’re in the right place.

5. Go to Omnichannel

In 2022, an omnichannel marketing strategy is by far the most effective, which means your B2B vacation marketing plan should include social media, email marketing, advertising (where possible), and more to engage people with your brand and offerings surround.

Although your cannabis or cannabis-related business is unlikely to be allowed to place ads on social media platforms, you can post content, share content, and engage in conversations to get the word out about your promotions. You just have to be careful to follow each platform’s rules for posting content. For your advertising budget, look for sites that are cannabis-friendly—sites that your target audience is already spending time on.

When it comes to email marketing, use both your opt-in email list and the leads available in the Cannabiz Media Licenses Database to get your vacation deals in front of a very targeted audience. Segment your lists and send personalized emails and promotions for best results.

Remember, not every social media post or email marketing message should be promotional during the holiday season. Nobody wants to follow an ad! Instead, send a mix of interesting, educational, entertaining, informative, and engaging messages, as well as some promotional messages that include details about your pre-holiday specials, last minute deals, and post-holiday deals.

HELPFUL TIPS:

Key insights into the secrets of B2B Christmas marketing success in the cannabis industry

Make this holiday season the best ever by planning your holiday marketing investments to the right audiences and personalizing your promotional messages. Even though the cannabis market is struggling right now, you can increase sales with the right strategies and investments.

To ensure the right people see your holiday promotions, subscribe to the Cannabiz Media License Database and get access to cannabis and hemp license holders in the US and international territories with built-in email marketing, CRM, sales contact, and research tools . Schedule a free demo to see how it can help you achieve your goals.