Prepare Your Holiday Cannabis Promotions Now

It’s never too early to start preparing for the holiday season. After all, the end of the year is notoriously exciting (read: busy) for all of us. Whether we’re observing holidays, hashing out chaotic travel plans or buttoning up Q4, all of these factors combine to create a hectic energy before the new year. The fast-paced nature of the season is exactly why it’s not a bad idea to plan creative cannabis promotions and the best marketing strategies for ecommerce right now. To run a truly successful campaign, most marketers suggest advertising six to eight weeks or more prior to the event or promotion start date. So let’s brainstorm some cannabis marketing ideas and start planning!

Creative Cannabis Promotions

If your company is a cannabis dispensary or an ancillary cannabis business, now is the time for developing unique cannabis marketing ideas or dispensary promotions that will stand out amongst the competition. Here are some tips to help you prepare your holiday promotions:

1. Lean into the Season

For brick and mortars, getting customers in the door is step one to a successful promotion. Fortunately, there are tons of creative ways to use the season’s festivities to your advantage. Use known holiday tropes to create buzz, such as the “12 Days of Christmas” with different deals on each day. Or include branded merch with purchases — think mugs for hot cocoa or beanies with the company’s logo or tagline. Depending on your bandwidth, your business could take this a step further by having in-store events such as “pictures with Santa” or by putting together deals specifically for “stocking stuffers” or creating curated gift boxes — since gift-buying makes up about 53% of holiday purchases.

2. Utilize the Power of Social Media

Social media allows businesses to promote products and services to a large audience. It’s also a great way to expand brand awareness and launch holiday promotions. Even with the tricky landscape for cannabis businesses on social media platforms, there’s still room to amplify your company’s best promotions on Instagram, TikTok, etc.

Try posting once per day leading up to the promotion, and if possible, ask your staff to share the posts on their pages to increase its reach. Another fun, interactive way to create buzz is by sharing a giveaway. Customers can tag your business and repost the promo onto their own pages to win a predetermined product or service. This not only creates conversation around your promotion, it also spreads the word across a wider network of individuals, meaning you could gain many new customers in addition to increasing your average sales expectations.

3. Work with Partners to Discount Certain Items

The holiday season is an ideal time to work with your vendors and brand sales representatives on discounts. Since most businesses are looking to promote certain items or increase sales during this time, it’s possible to put together amazing deals for your customers on pricier items.

Does your dispensary or ecommerce shop have a high-priced item or lots of slow-to-move inventory? Now is a great time to discount and promote! A survey published by Insider Intelligence noted most consumers believe a 20-35% discount is ideal when making holiday purchases. Many of these same consumers stated they will wait until the last minute to take advantage of discounts.

Use social media to your advantage and highlight any inventory you need to move before the end of the year. This strategy doesn’t only make for happy customers, but it’s a way to strengthen relationships with vendors and partners through mutually beneficial marketing strategies.

4. Push Creative Cannabis Promotions with Email

Email marketing helps businesses reach their audience, promote their products and services, and increase brand awareness, which ultimately leads to sales. Emails are also a good place to include news, upcoming events, featured products and more. By sending out email campaigns early on in the holiday season, news of your business’ promotion will be on your customer’s radar. Especially if you’re selling consumer products — whether at a store or on an ecommerce site — sending a well planned email blast about cannabis holiday promotions can lead consumers to your store or site.

The holidays can be really kind, but they can also be a real buzzkill. Making the gift-buying process easier for consumers is a legit way to snag some extra sales as folks rush to buy gifts or stock up on much-needed cannabis products before the holidays.

5. Work with a Local Charity or Organization

In true holiday spirit, working with local charitable organizations helps your business make meaningful connections with your local community. Forbes published an article discussing “cause marketing” — a collaboration between for-profit businesses and nonprofit organizations.

Simply stated, Millennials are more likely to invest in products or companies that are mission-driven. Since Millennials possess nearly $2T in purchasing power according to insights by Ypulse, it may be wise to participate in these types of creative cannabis promotions.

Plus, there’s no harm in doing good for your local community. Some ideas that may work for your business include a toy drive, donating a percentage of your sales to a local charity, a pet adoption day or a fundraiser event.

Plan Your Holiday Cannabis Promotions Early

There are many ways to promote your business, products or services over the holiday season. Spend some time brainstorming cannabis marketing ideas. The trick to creating the best marketing strategies for ecommerce and in-store that will keep momentum going throughout the holiday shopping season is to start planning early. Whether you’re marketing directly to consumers or to other businesses, it’s a busy time of year and ripe with opportunity to gain new customers, forge new business relationships and get involved with your local community.

Pro tip: Your website is your digital headquarters. Most of your other marketing efforts — social, email, paid advertising, messaging — lead back to your website. Do you have a strong foundation? If not, we can help! Whether your website needs an update or you’re starting from scratch, CannaSites make brands look legit.