Take Your Cannabis Email List From Zero to 1,000 Subscribers

Written on April 27, 2026. Posted in Marketing.

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again — cannabis email marketing is one of the best ways to connect with your audience and scale your business. Not only does it give you a direct line of communication to a warm audience, but the return on investment is somewhere around $36 for every $1 spent.

That’s a massive ROI (3600%!!!) for any brand, let alone cannabis businesses who are already fighting an uphill battle with ad restrictions and a constantly shifting legal landscape.

Whether you’re looking to take your email list from zero to 1,000 subscribers, or scale the one you have, here’s everything you need to know about email marketing strategies for cannabis brands.

Sign up for a cannabis-friendly email marketing platform

Cannabis is becoming more widely accepted throughout the world, but email marketing is still a grey area. If you’re a business that plans to send emails discussing cannabis or cannabis products, you’ll want to be sure you sign up for a cannabis friendly-email marketing platform.

Our personal favorite is Klaviyo, which warmly welcomes cannabis ecommerce clients and permits CBD and THC content. We also love and use Flodesk, which permits CBD and THC content and is a bit more affordable than Klaviyo.

One thing to keep in mind is that hemp and CBD brands may have more leniency than THC-heavy companies. It’s also not uncommon for brands to allow cannabis-related emails while prohibiting SMS. When choosing an email platform for your cannabis business, it’s always best to review your business goals and the platform’s current policies before signing up.

Choose your opt-in lead magnet

Now that we’ve got our email platform picked out, it’s time to convince people to sign up by creating a fire lead magnet! There are a few ways to approach this, and the route that works best for you will depend on your business and overall marketing goals.

Some of the most common cannabis lead magnets for opt-ins are:

Provide a discount on first purchase or shipping
Create a downloadable PDF with valuable information
Set up a quiz to help your customers choose a product
Host a free live training or webinar to solve a common problem
Provide resource lists or plug-and-play templates
Invite your audience to get VIP access to drops

Most people won’t sign up for an email newsletter without getting something in return, so remember, the goal is to offer them something that will make their life better or easier. And of course, to convince them to stick around after you give them the goods!

Build out a landing page for your opt-in

Depending on the type of lead magnet you’re using for your opt-in, you may consider building a landing page to convert leads more efficiently. A landing page can help reinforce the “why” behind your paid or free opt-in by guiding your audience with compelling copywriting, storytelling narratives and imagery while simultaneously sprinkling in strategic CTAs.

That said, it’s definitely not required. Many cannabis brands opt for strategically placed pop-ups and nested opt-in forms throughout their website, which work great too!

Set up an email flow for your opt-in

Now comes the fun part — building your cannabis email flow. Each opt-in should be paired with a corresponding email flow that delivers the promise and then follows up with the customer to suck them in for the long haul.

Your email flow will differ depending on your business. Ecommerce brands may get away with shorter 3-5 email sequences, while B2B or education-forward brands may benefit from a longer 6-10 email series over a two- to three-week period to nurture their audience.

A good email flow for a cannabis opt-in might look like:

Email 1: Deliver what you promised and tell people what to expect
Email 2: Follow up and check on your audience
Email 3: Introduce your backstory and brand values
Email 4: Show some social proof
Email 5: Tell them about more resources you offer
Email 6: Make a soft offer with a CTA

There will always be people who come for the free product and unsubscribe right after. But if you’ve got a strong enough email flow, odds are most of your new subscribers will stick around for more.

Market your freebie to attract leads

Anyone can build lead magnets, but getting them in front of the right people is another story. If you already have solid traffic to your website, this may not apply to you. But for those of you who have newer (or brand new!) websites or low visibility, you’ll need to work on some marketing tactics to get people to your site and on your list.

Depending on the nature of your business, some cannabis brands may be able to run paid ads to promote their opt-in, or you can rely on SEO (a personal fave!) and social media as a means to attract organic traffic. At the end of the day, a little bit of each goes a long way!

Follow Email Marketing Best Practices

Lastly, as much as we wish email marketing were as easy as typing up a cute little email and clicking “send now,” there are some best practices you should follow if you want your audience to stick around beyond that first email.

Our non-negotiable best practices for cannabis email marketing are:

Personalize your email list
Use different formats to diversify your content
Always use human-written content in emails (…that’s not to say you can’t use AI, but be so fr right now, readers can tell and new skeptics are born daily)
Experiment with different subject lines and run AB testing
Segment your audience frequently
Stay up to date on compliance and platform-specific policies
Make sure your emails are accessible and optimized for user-friendliness
Use one CTA per email and make it clear and easy to access
Always follow CAN-SPAM policies and make it easy for users to unsubscribe

Hire CannaSite to run your cannabis email marketing strategies

Easier said than done? We get it — we all have our talents! If cannabis email marketing makes your head spin (and not in a good way), ditch the overwhelm! The CannaSiteCo. has decades of email marketing experience and we get high on that ish! Let’s get rolling and take your biz to the next level.