CBD is currently one of the most strictly regulated markets across global jurisdictions, and major search engines like Google have literally prohibited its online advertising in any form.
Despite these hurdles, CBD products are the most sold grey industry items in the world, so much so that their trade is considered highly competitive. This brings us straight to our question: if you’re tasked with promoting a CBD brand under these circumstances, what strategy would you employ? There’s no need to brainstorm, as this case study has all the answers!
5 Proven Strategies
Working alongside CBD brands has led us to devise a 5 step-proven strategy for gaining new users. Recently, we tested these strategies on one of our CBD clients who had just launched their online business and was looking to attain a decent consumer base for their products. Here are the highlights of the plan we implemented.
Strategy 1: SEO Optimization for High-Intent Keywords
We started with keyword research for the client’s top products like CBD gummies, CBD oil, and CBD vapes. The goal was to prepare a list of terms with high search intent. We used several keyword research tools like SEMRush, Moz, and Google’s Keyword Planner for the purpose.
With the list prepared, we revised the website’s existing landing pages and blogs for optimal keyword placement. Our focus was to place the keywords in the meta tags, headings, and introductory paragraphs.
Strategy 2: Influencer Marketing
CBD is the choice of the young generation, and our strategic approach takes full advantage of this fact! Since most of our young users rely on social media platforms for crucial information, we approached responsible, niche-specific influencers to sponsor our client’s CBD products.
Influencer marketing requires consistent engagement, so our strategy was to build long-term relationships with influencers. To boost conversion, we provided influencers with promo codes that offered discounts to their audience if used within a limited time frame.
Strategy 3: Build a Strong Email Marketing Funnel
Email campaigns are another successful strategy for acquiring new CBD users for our client. Drawing a list of email subscribers, though, was a hectic task. We promoted our email signups on dedicated landing pages, social media platforms, newsletters, and blogs.
Besides, we offered discounts on popular products in return for email signups to incentivize potential users. Once the subscriber list was ready, we ran targeted and consistent email campaigns with persuasive CTAs to drive conversions.
Strategy 4: Paid Advertising on Niche Platforms
Since search engines had already banned CBD advertising, we ran a paid advertising campaign for other influential niche platforms like cannabis review platforms, magazines, and industry news sites. Although this cost a few bucks on our part, the results were worth it!
Strategy 5: Offer Referral and Loyalty Programs
The point of the entire strategy was not just to get new users but to convert them into regular customers for the client. For this, we used several loyalty incentives such as discounts on subsequent purchases, freebies on buying a certain number of products, and reward coins to customize offers later on. Besides, we also offered rewards on referrals that spiked our word-of-mouth promotion immensely.
Results and Impact
Our 5-step strategy helped drive massive traffic on key product pages and raised the number of online users by 50%. With the new user base, the client’s online sales volume increased by 40%, surpassing the million-dollar mark for the first time. All these tangible benchmarks were met within 8 weeks after we took up the project.
However, the impact was not as short-lived! The client’s site still retains 90% of its user base from what he had generated as part of the project. Besides, most of its product pages rank among the top 3 SERP responses for their target keywords on Google. The best part is the conversion rates from influencer marketing, email campaigns, and referral programs we started have now reached 100%.
