6 Signs Your Dispensary Digital Marketing Isn't Working (& What to Do About It)

You’re Seeing a Low Return on Investment

How much are you expecting to get back on your marketing investment? And how much are you actually getting?
If you’re spending money on marketing but not seeing sales, that’s a huge problem. (And if you can’t measure your ROI or track which sales can be attributed to which marketing channels, that’s also a problem.)

Different marketing channels will result in different ROIs. It’s crucial to track each one individually so you can determine what works best for you dispensary and then adjust your budget accordingly.

That way, if you’re seeing that one has a lower ROI from one month the next or that one channel just has a low ROI in general, you can make changes to your marketing plan.

No One’s Engaging With Your Social Posts

If you’re taking the time to create and post thoughtful content to Instagram and other social networks but aren’t getting followers or comments, it’s time to revisit your social media marketing plan.

While you can’t share sales on Instagram, there are plenty of ways you can engage. Try different post types, like a behind the scenes video or a trivia post to get people talking. Also consider what your goal is with social. Because you can’t advertise on social media, brand recognition tends to be the most common goal for dispensaries. If you’re expecting to see an increase in sales from your social posts, you will be disappointed.

Extra tip: Think about using your social presence to drive SMS signups so that you can advertise to your followers via text.

You Have Traffic, But They Aren’t Buying

You have people coming to your website! Great!

But they aren’t doing anything. Not Great.

Failing to convert traffic could mean one of two things:

1. You have a bunch of traffic from people who aren’t ready to buy
2. Your website is turning people off or making it difficult to order from you

Both are problems, and they haven’t different solutions.

If you’re seeing traffic from people who aren’t ready to buy, or who are looking for something else and then end up on your website somehow, it may be that you’ve cast too wide of a net with your digital marketing efforts.

Ultimately, you don’t want everyone to show up at your website. You want people who are interested in buying cannabis. Identify where your marketing efforts could be hurting you and implement better targeting to ensure you’re reaching your ideal customer.

If interested people are coming to your website and then leaving, you may have a design or UX problem. Your website should be geared towards conversions and make it easy to access your online menu. You should have strong CTAs that compel people to click on your menu. Your site should also be mobile responsive and look great on a variety of devices.

Your Traffic is Running Dry

If you aren’t getting website traffic or if your website traffic has declined, you need to consider which marketing channels you’re utilizing to get visitors to your site.

If you haven’t changed anything, it’s possible that a search engine algorithm change has led to your decreased traffic or that the channels you’re using have become less effective over time.

Remember, digital marketing isn’t “set it and forget it.” You need to consistently monitor and optimize your different marketing channels in order to continue to see returns from them. By working with a dispensary digital marketing team, you ensure that your marketing efforts are continually being managed and optimized.

You’re Sliding Down Google’s Rankings

When you run a Google search for “[your city] dispensary,” where do you rank?

If your shop isn’t one of the top three results, then you likely aren’t getting much organic traffic. 75% of web traffic goes to the top three results—if you want more traffic, then you need to implement an SEO strategy that will help you improve your search rankings and get your dispensary website in front of more potential customers.

A solid SEO strategy will include both on-site and off-site factors and showcase that your website is reputable, relevant, authoritative, and trustworthy.

You Just Aren’t Sure Whether It’s Working

If you found yourself questioning what your ROI is for your different channels or unsure of what your conversions or traffic numbers are, then you need to make sure you’re measuring the right things.

If you’re not measuring, you have no way to gauge your success.

And you aren’t alone. Many dispensaries don’t track and measure their marketing efforts.

As a digital marketing agency focused on the cannabis industry, we’re working hard to introduce revenue attribution to more dispensaries so that they can better invest their marketing dollars. We’ve encountered teams that didn’t know this was possible as well as tech programs that hinder data collection.

But don’t worry—we can help you get everything set up so that you can address any dispensary digital marketing issues quickly. Contact us to learn more.