Cannabis Email Marketing Trends: MJBizCon Edition

Be the first to know when new content like this is available!

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive notifications of new posts, local news and industry insights.

Thank you! Your submission has been received!

Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

As we get closer to MJBizCon – the industry’s biggest trade show of the year – cannabis email marketing activity will ramp up as everyone tries to gain exposure, interest, and booth visitors in the lead-up to the show.

Looking at last year's email marketing activity, over 1.65 million emails were sent through Cannabiz Media's Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform between October and December 2023, with over 91,000 emails related to MJBizCon containing a variation of the show name in the subject line. With this volume of show-specific email content, we have a unique ability to analyze email activity for the event to help you optimize your email marketing for the 2024 show.

• The average open rate for MJBizCon’s cold emails was 30%, far exceeding the standard of 20%.
• The highest opening rates of 45% are achieved with email marketing measures that begin two months before the trade fair.
• If you spell the show name with proper spacing and capitalization, you'll have the best chance of engagement, achieving average open rates of 34%.
• The inclusion of words such as “meet,” “see,” “find,” “join,” and “visit” had an average open rate of over 33%, but the inclusion of the booth number had no significant impact beyond that.

Public outreach began up to two months before the show and the overall open rate of these cold calling emails impressively reached an average of 30.26%.

Inbox noise undoubtedly plays a role here. This is a principle that explains that the more emails someone has in their inbox, the less likely they are to open emails. The highest open rates of 45.37% were seen two months before the show, which is well above the overall average and proves that early outreach can yield big results. By November, email traffic increased by 535%, which brought the open rate down to 27.70% due to increased inbox noise. However, the few who persisted and continued their outreach during the show saw the open rate rebound to 34.19%, proving again that less inbox noise increases engagement and disproving the myth that people don't check their inboxes at trade shows.

If you've been to this show before, you've probably noticed that MJBizCon is called and spelled in different ways. And yes, it does have an impact! This analysis found seven variations that resulted in huge fluctuations in open rates.

Unsurprisingly, the correct official spellings of “MJBizCon” and “MJBiz” outperformed the average open rate. And while the impressive open rate for the most similar (but still incorrect) spelling of “MJ Biz” cannot be ignored, it would be remiss to overlook that this variant has the lowest number of deliveries and thus the smallest dataset to consider.

While it doesn't take into account other email marketing best practices that significantly impact open rates (such as subject line length, list segmentation, and sender reputation), it does show that accuracy and professionalism are important.

Using words that encourage in-person meetings, such as “meet,” “see,” “find,” “join,” and “visit,” in subject lines had an above-average open rate of 33.23%, while subject lines without these words saw their open rate drop to 27.85%. However, taking it a step further and including a booth number in subject lines did not have a significant impact on open rates. There was only a 1 percentage point difference between subject lines with and without these words.

Although it is commonly believed that it is beneficial to include a question in the subject line, MJBizCon's email marketing data proved otherwise. Emails without a question had an open rate of 31.07%, beating the average, while emails with a question only had an open rate of 24.20%.

And just for fun, let's look at the 5 most successful subject lines based on open rate. Notice that four of the five most successful subject lines spell out the show name correctly as “MJBizCon.”

1. Let's meet at MJ Biz in Las Vegas
2. NEW CANNA products at MJBizCon
3. Let's meet at MJBizCon
4. MJBizCon starts tomorrow, see you at booth XXXX!
5. Meet us at MJBizCon

It's worth noting that all five of these top-performing subject lines were used on relatively small distributions. Since each of these reached fewer than 2,000 recipients (and one even reached just 200 recipients), it's important to stress that hyper-segmentation and small list sizes are just as important as your subject line! To further illustrate this point, the largest distribution in the dataset, with nearly 4,500 recipients, had an abysmal open rate of 7.25%.

• The sooner you start your MJBizCon email marketing, the better. Start planning your cadence (schedule and content) now so you can start distributing as early as two months before the show.
• Public relations should continue throughout the show. This can be achieved by planning campaigns in advance to avoid putting a strain on your on-site team during the event.
• Take the time to proofread the text and make sure you mean the name of the shipment correctly. Incorrect spellings immediately signal to the recipient that you are not a trustworthy partner of the shipment.
• Although the data shows that one of the emails in your series focuses on a face-to-face meeting, this should only be one element. As per our usual email marketing recommendations, your content must provide value to the recipient and answer the question: “What's in it for me?” In short, don't just talk about yourself! Provide valuable content and explain the benefits of visiting your booth.
• Audience segmentation and list size are just as important as a well-written subject line. Think of it as the one-two punch for successful email open rates.

Success at MJBizCon doesn't start the day you walk into the show. You'll spend months planning your booth, handouts, and talking points, but you also need to add pre-show email marketing to that prep list. In the weeks leading up to October, when you begin your email series, make sure you're ready from a technical standpoint and have a strong reputation in your domain. Consider taking a quick (and free) course from Cannabiz Media Email Success Academy on the technical aspects to lay the foundation for successful email marketing campaigns.

And remember, that's not all. Once you've brought them to your booth and collected their information, you can turn those efforts into sales with your post-show email marketing strategy. Read The Ultimate Guide to Converting Leads into Customers After MJBizCon to develop your post-show email follow-up strategy.