CBD products are all the rage right now, and if early indicators hold, it will remain this way for the foreseeable future. If you haven't heard about CBD, it's time to up your social exposure because CBD is everywhere. CBD products claim to offer relief for everything from pain to inflammation, treatment for anxiety disorders, and a myriad of other ailments. Because of the multiple uses, CBD has caught the attention of today's consumer. This has resulted in a flurry of CBD brands flooding the market and has made breaking out of the brand noise feel like the Wild West. Add to this consumers confusion about the seemingly similar CBD products available for sale, and you have one monumental marketing challenge on your hands. I haven't even talked about the regulatory environment, platform restrictions and other limitations CBD brands already face. What's a CBD brand to do? This article will break down the top 3 strategies CBD marketers should use to stand out from the crowd.


1.Get Grassroots

The digital marketing landscape is tricky for CBD brands. At present, Google, Twitter and others do not allow CBD brands to engage in paid advertising. That means that CBD brands need to get creative. One of the best opportunities is for CBD brands to focus their efforts offline and connect with potential customers via experiential marketing. Festivals, Farmer's Markets, outdoor expos, health and wellness retreats and hyper-local events provide the perfect outlet. This grassroots style lets your CBD product speak for itself by being explained, tested, smelled, tried and consumed. This approach also provides interesting and authentic photo and video fodder for social media marketing. Images and videos of real people trying your CBD product which artfully captures their natural expressions and honest feedback can be priceless on social media. It also provides an opportunity for user-generated content which is equally beneficial for capturing your customer's trust. A little raw and genuine content can go a long way in separating your brand from the competition. More than that, all of this provides valuable, customer-centric content that engages and informs your target audience. Get your booth, tabletop and outdoor gear ready and go after it!

2. Be All about the Influencers

It's no secret, Influencer Marketing works and influencer partnerships should be a top priority for CBD brands. An ideal approach is to seek influencers who can help tell your brand story through insightful blogs and articles. Influencers who are also bloggers have a loyal readership and are skilled in the art of storytelling. That makes them not only a great resource but also a worthy investment. Influencers could discuss their personal issues with pain or anxiety and explain how CBD helped to offer relief. To keep the cost down, CBD brands would be wise to use micro-influencers who have smaller follower counts but tend to have more loyal and engaged followers. This is also a clever way of utilizing unique and original content marketing tactics through digital platforms to expand your brand's reach and engage new audiences. If you haven't thought of using influencers, it is time to give this marketing opportunity a try.

3. Social with a Purpose

To be honest, most of the time I'm underwhelmed with brands on social media. They tend to feel too much like non-distinct copy-cats of other brands. However, I recently stumbled upon a CBD brand that is doing many things right on social media: SundayScaries. First, they have aligned their brand with a higher purpose through cause marketing and social issues which resonates with more and more consumers. In fact, according to the Cone/Porter Novelli Study, 77% of Americans feel a strong emotional connection to purpose driven brands. Specifically, SundayScaries have partnered with The Trevor Project and donate $1.00 from each sale of their jerky product to provide intervention and suicide prevention for youth within the LGBTQ community. Second, they appreciate the native environment of Instagram. It is clear that they put a great deal of thought into the curation of images on their Instagram page. They speak to the creativity and aesthetic nature of Instagram users. Their brand page feels distinct from other CBD brands. Plus, their fun memes add an element of levity that captures the brand's essence. While their engagement rate could use a little work, they have been clever in using contests with complimentary brands to increase their engagement and reach. One area of improvement would be for SundayScaries to begin writing and distributing interesting blogs or articles which concentrates on the lifestyle interests and needs of their customers. This will afford stickiness on their website while providing another connection point on social media. Other CBD brands take note, SundayScaries methodology shows that there are many organic opportunities to improve your visibility, engagement and reach on social media.

The truth is that some of the limitations to CBD marketing will gradually go by the wayside as platforms determine how best to support this growing industry. Still there is no time like the present to increase the exposure of your CBD brand by following these simple tips. After all, the Wild West only lasts so long.


WRITTEN BY

Shahla Hebets