Cannabis Email Marketing Trends: 2024 | How to Successfully Send Emails to Operators

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.

So far in 2024, over 3.6 million B2B emails have been sent through Cannabiz Media's Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform. These campaigns are largely from ancillary businesses (from lighting manufacturers to payment processors, POS systems to extraction equipment, etc.) looking to market their product or service to licensed cannabis operators. With such a large and specific email volume, we have a unique opportunity to report on the email marketing engagement of cannabis operators in the US.

Please note that email marketing campaigns sent through Cannabiz Media's Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform are considered cold calling, which is measured against other engagement benchmarks when compared to the average open and click rates of standard opt-in email marketing.

• Cold email outreach to cannabis operators exceeds the recommended benchmark of 20% open rate.
• With an average open rate of 48%, emails from the areas of vocational training, advertising, PR and marketing are among the top performers.
• Operators with less common license types such as Marketer, Processor and Tester pay more attention to their inboxes and have an average open rate of 31%.
• States with newer, smaller cannabis programs are the most engaged in email marketing, with an average open rate of 30% and a 9% click rate.
• The average email open rate is 24% from Monday to Thursday, but rises to 33% from Friday to Sunday, making weekends the busiest time for operators.

Within the Cannabiz Media Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform, users can segment their mailing lists in a variety of ways. One of the most commonly used filters within the Cannabiz Media Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform allows marketers to target their audience by state.

This is critical to success because each state operates its cannabis market independently and the value proposition a marketer must deliver varies greatly by location. What operators in Virginia are looking for may be very different from what operators in Nebraska need. Let's take a look at the top 10 states whose operators engaged the most with email marketing in 2024, both in opens and clicks.

Most of the states in the top 10 have relatively new, smaller programs. Success in these locations is likely due to low inbox noise, a principle that explains that the more emails someone has in their inbox, the less likely they are to open emails. Because these are newer, smaller programs, they are not on the radar of many suppliers. These email results suggest that there are significant benefits to being first in a new market.

Looking at the entire dataset, all but three states exceeded the recommended 20% open rate for cold calling. The three states that fell short were Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Delaware. Oklahoma in particular, which has by far the most active licensed operators, consistently shows low engagement. The abundance of operators attracts ancillary businesses like a magnet, meaning they are inundated with much more sales prospecting than other states. As mentioned earlier, the more noise there is in an inbox, the less engagement emails receive.

The impressive click-through rates of the top 10 states further reinforce the notion that smaller markets create less noise in the inbox and therefore have higher engagement. Interestingly, there is no overlap between the states with the highest engagement rate by opens and the states with the highest engagement rate by clicks, suggesting that there is an inconsistency between well-written subject lines and well-written calls to action. It seems that email marketers are struggling to succeed in both areas.

Another common filter for segmenting mailing lists in the Cannabiz Media Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform is by license type. This allows marketers to separately target growers, dispensaries, retailers, manufacturers, etc.

The results show across the board that Cannabiz Media users exceed the 20% minimum recommended open rate for cold calling, demonstrating an impressive level of engagement from cannabis operators of all types.

You'll notice that the less in-demand license types like marketing, research, and testing outperform the more popular license types like dispensary, retail, cultivation, and manufacturer. As mentioned, this is likely due to inbox noise. The smaller license types aren't approached as frequently by ancillary businesses (i.e. less inbox noise) and therefore have higher engagement.

In addition to analyzing recipient segments, such as license type and location, we can use our knowledge of the email marketers' industries themselves to determine what types of content resonate with operators.

The types of side hustles that use the Cannabiz Media Cannabis Market Intelligence Platform to do email marketing vary widely, but can be broadly divided into 16 categories.

Generally, we can see that certain groups outshine the others. This might mean that these groups employ stronger marketing teams, but it is more likely that their goods and services are in higher demand among operators. For example, security services and equipment are likely to be required by most, if not all, license types, whereas extracts and edibles only benefit manufacturers.

And from a marketing professional's perspective, it's reassuring to know that advertising, PR, and marketing agencies are among the top performers! Perhaps groups like testing and lab services, media/publications/information, accounting, packaging and supplies, and extracts and edibles should hire an agency to improve their results beyond the recommended average.

The question every email marketer asks: What is the best day to send email campaigns? Some email marketing service providers, like Cannabiz Media, offer tools that will show you the best day and time to send based on your specific mailing list so your campaigns are as successful as possible. But here's what we've seen in 2024… the results aren't what you'd expect.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday have long been considered the best days to send email campaigns. These days were considered optimal to avoid the hectic Monday schedule when people are catching up on the weekend, the absent attitude of Friday and the perceived black hole of the weekend. So why are Friday, Saturday and Sunday the days with the highest activity? Back to the topic of inbox noise, perhaps email volume plays a role, so let's take a closer look.

Similar to previous discussions about inbox noise, it seems that quieter inboxes on weekends give an engagement boost to campaigns delivered on Saturdays and Sundays. Once deliveries increase during the week, open rates drop. This makes for an interesting parallel to the basic economic laws of supply and demand. This may be unique to the cannabis industry, which is often operational throughout the week, compared to other industries and business types that experience quiet on the weekends.

• Don't exclude newer, smaller cannabis markets from your marketing. Their engagement rates show increased interest from fringe businesses.
• When segmenting your mailing lists and choosing send times, keep in mind that inbox noise is one of the biggest threats to your success, so consider your audience and send times to avoid the chaos.
• Focusing solely on click-worthy subject lines isn't the key to success. Your email needs to deliver on the promise of the subject line in the body, so spend just as much time crafting your calls to action.

The rules for successful email marketing are constantly changing, which is why it's important to stay on top of the latest trends in your specific industry. The cannabis industry in particular has proven time and time again that it's unique in many areas, including email marketing. To set yourself up for success, invest time in yourself by taking courses specifically for cannabis email marketing. Free programs like the Cannabiz Media Email Success Academy can be incredibly valuable for learning what makes cannabis email marketing unique in terms of segmentation and content creation. But most importantly, keep testing and evolving based on what works best for your brand and audience.