Content Marketing for Cannabis Companies

Incredibly efficient and cost-effective, content marketing is a crucial part of every cannabis and CBD company’s marketing and SEO strategy.  

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is a vague term that gets thrown around a lot. Hubspot defines content marketing as “The process of planning, creating, distributing, sharing, and publishing content to reach your target audience.”

I like this definition because it highlights the process of creating content, but I think it’s missing one key thing- value.

Content marketing is a strategic way to provide your audience with content that introduces them to your brand in a way the provides value to their lives. Good content marketing always provides value: it offers new knowledge, resources, tools, and (occasionally) even discount codes.

The key to effective content marketing is understanding your audience and creating content that answers their questions.

The easiest way to find what questions your audience wants answered is with the keyword strategy in your SEO strategy. Your content marketing keyword strategy should support your overall SEO strategy.

Content marketing for cannabis companies

Currently, cannabis companies have a limited number of paid channels and outlets through which to market. With federal prohibition still in place, private companies like Mailchimp can (and do) outright refuse service to cannabis and CBD companies.

With the stigma and repression tactics from large companies in place, the channels you can own as a cannabis brand become that much more valuable. You won’t be banned from your website, and Google won’t remove your site from their pages (they could, but it’s not in the best business interests). In 2019, searches for CBD were up 117% from 2018.

Additionally, creating content gives cannabis and CBD companies a chance to provide educational resources and counter the misinformation that has spread throughout public perception over the last century. Providing information on cannabis and its effects can reassure first time users and help convert doubters to customers.

What kind of content should I have?

There are all types of content you can produce, including blogs, podcasts, e-books, infographics, guides, newsletters, and emails.

For SEO purposes, a blog is one of the most useful pieces of content marketing a brand can have. A strong blog supports a site-wide SEO strategy by niching down and addressing specific search queries, particularly for buyers at the beginning stages of their buyer’s journey.

Blog content can also be reused as podcast episodes, video content, long form e-books and guides, or infographics. The same content presented in different ways can attract different audiences.

Content also has a longer shelf life compared to other marketing pieces. Billboards and TV commercials are fleeting, and social posts have a short half-life. But blogs live on your site forever, and can be updated and re-promoted as you see fit, so you’re not constantly inventing new content.

Why hire a content writer?

Content marketing, particularly writing blogs, can be time intensive. Pieces need to be researched, drafted, edited and posted which can take days or weeks depending on your workload and priority list.

You could just start writing blogs, but knowing if they’re in alignment with the search results you want to rank for is tricky without prior analysis. Hiring someone for your content strategy who understands SEO ensure that not only are you providing value to your audience, but you’re also increasing your organic search engine ranking.