In recent years, CBD has become increasingly popular to aid anxiety, seizures, pain, acne, or even cancer. At its core, it’s a miraculous anti-inflammatory substance. Yet the negative connotations associated with cannabis has long been a plague for the industry. Despite the legalization of marijuana across countries, and scientific studies proving the health benefits of CBD, media and those disconnected with cannabis exhibit derision towards marijuana companies.
If that sounds like an exaggeration, consider the fact that none of the social media giants allow promotion or advertisement of CBD products. Even traditional media such as television and radio are off-limits to the CBD industry. This, while alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, and various other products, which have been proven detrimental to one’s health, are given a free run.
Wealth of opportunities
While we can go on a harangue about how unfair advertising regulations are, and how they stifle the growth of the market, few people decided to do something about it. Although not in the way you might assume.
When the CBD and Cannabis markets were flooded with new entrants, the need for marketing became imperative and along with it professionals who knew how to execute a sound strategy. The advertising challenges and ideas needed for the CBD market were wholly unique and could not just be approached like with any other company. This led to the burgeoning of marketing agencies specializing in the cannabis sector.
The Rise and Fall of Cannabrand
Established in 2014, Cannabrand was a pioneer in this field. Led by Olivia Mannix, it was the first agency focusing solely on the cannabis market. Bringing in a wealth of marketing experience to a nascent industry that desperately needed an expert workman’s hand, Cannabrand quickly became the visionary and, for a long time, first among equals. However, being the de-facto leader without competition has its own pitfalls, and Cannabrand soon found itself in a string of controversies. The company’s worst moment came when it tried to portray itself as a professional, corporate firm while keeping a distance from its core base of smokers and weed enthusiasts.
It never really recovered since then. This misstep gave an opening to its competitors who went onto win more clients, improve their service offering, and eventually grab a chunk of the market share. While Cannabrand is still a big name in the industry, there are many alternatives that provide superior services for lower costs. So let’s take a look at a few of them.
Cannabound
Top on the list is Cannabound, a leading cannabis marketing agency. Working with big-name Cannabis and CBD brands to supercharge their growth, Cannabound is renowned for its influencer marketing, managing the largest network of cannabis & CBD influencers in the world.
The company’s stated objective is to make ‘cannabis brands go viral’. With the industry’s best influencer network in their repertoire, Cannabound connects advertisers and publishers to reach a broad audience at minimal costs. They offer everything from native advertising and PPC ads to press releases and even tested social campaigns.
Cannabound also specializes in SEO, content creation, social media management, where their ‘content first’ model has been hugely successful in getting costumers into the sales funnel. Affiliate marketing, PPC, and paid advertising are a few among various other services offered by the company.
Cannaine
A relatively new entrant in the field, Cannaine is driven by a young, energetic team based out of Canada. Focusing on lead generation and social advertising, Cannaine provides a complete marketing strategy that includes SEO, influencer marketing, affiliate marketing, copywriting, and full-fledged campaigns.
Cannaine has been involved in several brand launches and marketing campaigns, nurturing over 10,000 leads for the Bwell Market and boosting sales revenue of companies like Nanocraft and ItsPrimo through locally targeted campaigns, email marketing, and paid advertising.
Based out of the US, the Cannaverse team has decades of experience and a portfolio to back up its tall claims as well. Focusing more on the design aspects of a brand, Cannaverse brings in a dash of creativity to the cannabis world.
Cannaverse offers services that include branding, website design and development, marketing activation, custom packaging, and more.
Marijuana Marketing Gurus
With a name like that, you can sure be assured these guys are direct with a clear purpose. Their goal is to provide best-in-class digital marketing with cannabis industry expertise to new and upcoming brands. With a strong technological background, the company focuses on SEO, social media marketing, and analytics-driven strategies to reach their target metrics.
Visit Marijuana Marketing Gurus
Puf Creativ
PufCreativ is a full-service marketing firm that helps create strategies and advertising solutions for cannabis companies. They focus on the creative aspect of marketing strategies, with a desire to stand out from your run of the mill geo-targeted campaigns. Their boutique services of social media management, content creation, SEO, website development, and graphic design are punctuated by an engaging creative that is usually missing from other firms.
4blooms.guru
Focusing on a niche area of marketing, 4blooms know what they are good at and aim to grow through it. Helping companies and brands develop their own identity through branding and design, 4blooms offers a bouquet of services such as logo and website designs, packaging, public relations, CRM automation, and more.
New marketing agencies are blossoming every day. But with the rapid growth of the cannabis industry, opportunities for talented players will always crop up.
Do you know of any upcoming cannabis marketing agencies? Please write about them to us in the comments below.
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