Dispensary Digital Marketing

In this chapter, you'll get an overview of the strategies we'll be covering throughout the eBook and why they matter. The focus is on helping cannabis retailers increase their eCommerce revenue by fixing the biggest leaks in their sales funnel, capturing more leads, and leveraging automated email and SMS marketing to convert more customers. Rather than relying on complicated tactics, the goal is to implement proven strategies already used by some of the world's largest eCommerce brands and adapt them specifically for the cannabis industry.

In this chapter, Hilart Abrahamian shares the experience behind the strategies in this eBook. After spending more than a decade at the intersection of cannabis and eCommerce, including co-founding Webjoint and helping build websites for hundreds of cannabis retailers, he gained a unique perspective into what drives online sales in the industry. The chapter explains how that experience eventually led to the creation of RevenueKit, where those same lessons are now being used to help dispensaries increase their eCommerce revenue through proven digital marketing strategies.

In this chapter, you'll learn how the cannabis eCommerce funnel works and where most dispensaries are losing potential customers. By following the customer journey from their first visit to your website through the checkout process, the chapter identifies three major problems: losing the majority of website visitors before they engage, losing potential customers before they complete a purchase, and failing to capture enough leads for future marketing. Understanding these bottlenecks is the foundation for the rest of the eBook, as every strategy that follows is designed to improve one or more stages of the funnel and ultimately increase online revenue.

In this chapter, you'll learn why lead generation is the foundation of successful cannabis eCommerce and why most dispensaries are leaving money on the table. The chapter explains how businesses often wait until checkout to collect customer information, resulting in the loss of the vast majority of potential buyers. To solve this problem, it introduces a simple but highly effective lead capture strategy that can dramatically increase the number of emails and phone numbers collected from website visitors. By capturing contact information earlier in the customer journey, dispensaries gain the ability to continue marketing to visitors who don't purchase on their first visit, creating more opportunities to convert them into paying customers over time.

In this chapter, you'll learn about the three automated marketing sequences that generate the highest return on investment for cannabis eCommerce businesses. Once you've captured more leads, the next step is turning those leads into customers and encouraging existing customers to come back. The chapter introduces the Welcome Sequence, Abandoned Cart Sequence, and Post-Purchase Sequence, explaining where each fits within the customer journey and why they should be considered essential for any dispensary running email and SMS marketing. Together, these automations help increase conversions, recover lost sales, and maximize the value of every visitor that enters your funnel.

In this chapter, you'll learn how to convert more first-time visitors into paying customers through an automated Welcome Sequence. Most website visitors leave without making a purchase, often because they lack trust, information, or a compelling reason to buy right away. The Welcome Sequence is designed to bridge that gap by educating prospects about your business, building credibility through social proof, addressing common objections, and strategically introducing incentives that encourage them to place their first order. When implemented correctly, this automation can turn a large portion of otherwise lost traffic into future customers.

In this chapter, you'll learn how to recover revenue from customers who were ready to buy but left before completing their purchase. Abandoned cart sequences target shoppers who have already demonstrated strong buying intent by adding products to their cart, making them some of the most valuable leads in your funnel. The chapter explains how to identify and address the common reasons customers abandon checkout, such as unexpected costs, lack of trust, or purchase hesitation, and how a short series of automated email and SMS reminders can help bring them back to complete their order.

In this chapter, you'll learn how to maximize the value of customers after they've already placed an order. While many businesses stop marketing once a purchase is complete, the post-purchase sequence focuses on strengthening customer relationships, generating repeat purchases, collecting reviews, and encouraging referrals. By staying engaged with customers after the sale, dispensaries can create a flywheel where satisfied customers not only return for future orders but also help bring in new customers through reviews, word-of-mouth, and referral programs.