How To Market CBD Online and Beat Your Competitors

Now that the world has embraced digital marketing, here is how to market CBD online and beat your competitors hands down. At tough economic times such as this (speaking of the COVID-19 pandemic and everything else that is going on), it comes as a pleasant surprise that the CBD market is still thriving.

But on the flip side there are new entrants joining the market each day and this is creating stiff competition; it’s okay if you are one of them. So, how do you build a clientele for yourself and make profits consistently without breaking the bank? This article shows you how to achieve just that.

Let’s dive right in.

Why is CBD Marketing Important?

Admit it or not, CBD is one product that is treated with enthusiasm and skepticism in equal measure. Therefore it is not enough to just create a top-of-the-range CBD product and expect new customers to come looking for it. You have to constantly and consistently put your product in front of your potential customers and persuade them to try it out.

Once they have tried it out you hope that they will find you the next time around. And as mentioned earlier, the competition in this niche is quite stiff at the moment. Consequently, you have to keep reaching out to you existing customers and give them reason to keep coming back to you.

Before proceeding to online CBD marketing, here is somethings to know about CBD.

There are two categories of CBD in the market; food grade and therapeutic grade. Each grade has its own set of rules and regulations that dictate how the CBD can be marketed and what claims can be made about the product.

According to a report that was released by Market Watch last year, therapeutic grade CBD has a larger market share that food grade CBD which is marketed as a food supplement.

What You Need To Know About Social Media Marketing- CBD

For most products and services, social media is one of the best platforms for digital marketing. At a time when everyone is locked up in their homes and therefore glued to their social media accounts 24/7, there is no better way to put yourself right in front of your customers. However, CBD marketing via social media is tied up in red-tape.

There are so many rules and regulations that make it almost impossible to market CBD openly. At the end of this article you will learn of some common pitfalls to avoid when marketing CBD online in 2020. Meanwhile, here is how to go about marketing CBD on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and through Google ads.

1. Facebook

Technically, you cannot advertise CBD on Facebook. Facebook does not allow for CBD products to be advertised explicitly on this platform. However, they allow ads that feature topical hemp and CBD products. They also allow ads that direct to a landing page featuring topical CBD products.

If you are selling a topical CBD product, you can advertise it on Facebook as hemp oil and have customers directed to your website to learn more about your company and the products that you have to offer.

2. Google Ads (Adwords)

If you attempt to create a CBD ad on Google Ads chances are that the ad will never get approval, and you will not be given any direct answer why it was declined. Currently, CBD ads are not allowed on this platform. The only way to get around this setback is to go all out on search engine optimization (SEO) for your CBD brand. You will learn more about SEO for CBD later in this article.

3. Twitter

Get it from the start that it is not easy to market CBD on Twitter, but it is still possible. You can make a tweet about CBD news and link to an article on your website. This is an easy way to drive traffic to your website. You should ensure that the information you post is factual and informative.

Also do not make any unsubstantiated claims on CBD on this platform if you do not wish to get banned or lose your account on the spot.

4. Instagram

Instagram is a bit more lenient when it comes to CBD marketing. Consequently, this is where all the action goes down. In case you do not have an active Instagram account for your CBD brand, consider opening one.

First you will need to build a following. The best way to go about this is by sharing information that will benefit your potential clientele. Write a list of accounts that have a huge following with the clientele that you are targeting. This could be thought leaders such as Leafly and others. Then begin commenting on their posts and offering insights to benefit the followers.

Very soon you will find that your list of followers is growing exponentially. There are other tips and tricks that you can use to grow your Instagram account, posting videos is one of them. Ultimately you should be aiming to provide useful information otherwise to avoid losing followers with time.

4 Ways to Market CBD Online

Here are some tips to get you started on online CBD marketing.

Use Affiliate Marketing

We are in the age of affiliate marketing for CBD and there is no harm in using this to propel your business further. As opposed to hiring a sales and marketing team which you pay upfront, affiliate marketers go out and bring you customers and only get paid when an actual purchase has been made.

Use Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is slowly catching up in the CBD space, as it is in other industries. Influencers are personas that have a huge following of your target market. You can approach one of them and ask them to review you product/s, of course after sending them some free samples to try out. If they can convince their followers that it is an exceptional product then you will be in business. 

Good Old Email Marketing

Well, email marketing is a hard nut to crack because of the pretty low open rate. 17% is a fair estimate for how many people will open a marketing email on any given day. However, this should not discourage you from trying this marketing method.

First, make sure that you collect as many email addresses as possible. Don’t just collect random emails but rather collect emails from would-be potential customers. What about offering a free CBD guide in exchange for an email address?

Once you have this, create an email marketing strategy that involves sending out highly informative messages with deals, offers, and promos that make your readers feel like they are privileged to be on your email list.

Email marketing does not cost much but it greatly helps in retaining customers, and as you may know it is much cheaper to retain a customer that it is to acquire a new one.

Content is Still King

Marketing CBD can be a daunting task because of all the restrictions in place. In actual sense, the one avenue that will have the least restrictions is your business website. Therefore, you need to make the most of it.

How do you get potential customers to come to your website when there are hundreds of other competing websites?

Create content that is superb and that can be crawled by Google and presented to your clientele. As much as content is king, it needs to show up on Google search results. This calls for the best SEO skills there is out there. Hire an SEO expert to help you with this; it will be worth the investment in the long run.

When customers keep coming back to your website for solutions they will begin acknowledging you as an authority and will be willing to pay for your products.

How To Beat Your Competitors with Content Marketing

Most probably your competitors are aware of most of the strategies mentioned above. However, there is a sure fire way to make your CBD marketing strategy stand out; content marketing.

SEO is just one of the ways to make sure that your content is getting viewership from your target audience. Unfortunately, or fortunately for you, most people culminate their marketing efforts in SEO optimization efforts. To make your brand stand out, go the extra mile to market your content. You can engage the help of a content marketer or handle this by yourself.

Share your content on as many forums as possible and request for comments, shares, and likes from your community. Do this consistently and in no time you will be a recognizable brand in the industry.

Link building is another strategy that can help market CBD online. You can do this through guest posting on reputable sites and linking back to your website. You can also cold-pitch to writers in the CBD industry and request them to link to articles on your website that may be discussing similar issues.

Lastly, do not overlook analytics; numbers don’t lie.   There are different software (some are absolutely free) that you can use to analyze the performance of your website against different metrics. Use the feedback to improve on your content marketing strategy.

Pitfalls To Avoid When Marketing CBD Online

Before wrapping this up, here are three pitfalls to avoid when marketing CBD online:

1. Do not market CBD to an audience that will never be interested, find a suitable audience first
2. Do not go against FDA approvals for CBD marketing, this includes making medical claims about CBD
3. Do not make reference to marijuana or cannabis when marketing CBD, stick to hemp-derived CBD