Marketing within the cannabis industry is a complex endeavor that demands meticulous attention to detail and constant vigilance to comply with local regulations. Nonetheless, the effectiveness of your marketing strategies can be the decisive factor in the success or failure of your business, particularly in a fiercely competitive market.
Many cannabis brands grapple with a significant decision: to invest in professional cannabis marketing agencies, such as ours, or to take a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach. DIY marketing may entail using a smaller in-house team, individual efforts, or business owners taking on marketing responsibilities.
While both avenues have their merits and can be suitable depending on a business’s unique requirements, one thing is clear: skimping on marketing is not a prudent choice. The decision to outsource your marketing efforts should be carefully weighed, especially if budget constraints are a primary concern.
If you find yourself at a crossroads, uncertain about whether to engage a cannabis marketing agency or tackle marketing on your own, this article will provide you with a comprehensive overview of the pros and cons, drawing from our experiences with various clients.
Pros of Hiring a Cannabis Marketing Agency
Certainly, as a cannabis marketing agency with a track record of winning awards, it’s natural for us to have a certain bias. However, we firmly believe that a full-service agency is an ideal choice for brands seeking a substantial transformation in their growth.
If your brand aligns with the following criteria:
- Desires to make significant investments in marketing and branding.
- Operates multiple physical locations.
- Aims to cultivate a thriving community beyond its product offerings.
- Requires scalable solutions and wishes to unburden internal resources.
In such cases, collaborating with a specialized agency is likely to be a more suitable option than in-house hiring or self-training. Below, we’ll outline the advantages of enlisting the services of a cannabis marketing agency:
Specialized Industry Knowledge
While individual participants in the cannabis industry may possess some familiarity, it takes specialized marketing professionals to truly comprehend the intricate landscape of legal rules and regulations governing online cannabis advertising.
Digital marketing encompasses a broad spectrum, including areas such as website design and development, SEO, social media management, content marketing, email and text message (SMS) marketing, branding, photography, videography, and more. Regardless of the specific channels your brand employs, it’s imperative to understand how to leverage each effectively while steering clear of potential pitfalls, especially when it comes to the stringent regulations surrounding cannabis marketing. From the risk of having your Instagram account suspended to facing limitations on running paid advertising campaigns, there’s a considerable amount of red tape and risk associated with marketing in this industry.
By collaborating with a specialized cannabis marketing agency that possesses profound industry knowledge, you can leave these concerns in the past, as you’ll have an entire team guiding you through the intricacies. Moreover, a marketing agency is better equipped to allocate the time and resources required to stay abreast of continually evolving legislation, trends, and other time-sensitive matters that an in-house team may struggle to manage effectively.
For instance, we’ve encountered numerous “marketing teams” composed of individuals like budtenders or interns who are eager to contribute. While having someone interested in assisting with your marketing efforts can be beneficial, it may not be the optimal solution for achieving substantial online brand growth.
Time and Resource Efficiency
Entrusting your marketing endeavors to an agency can provide you, as a business owner, with the freedom to concentrate on your core operations while concurrently conserving valuable time and resources. Agencies are equipped with dedicated teams, specialized tools, and ample resources to execute marketing campaigns with efficiency and effectiveness.
Choosing the DIY route may seem like a way to cut costs initially by avoiding agency fees. However, it often results in financial losses as you redirect your time and resources toward acquiring new skills or training your in-house team. This shift can lead to reduced productivity, fewer leads, and diminished conversions. In the long run, DIY marketing tends to be less cost-effective when compared to the option of hiring an external agency.
A cannabis marketing agency can shoulder the burden of digital marketing tasks, freeing you to focus on your core business activities, including operations, sales, compliance, cultivation, harvesting, and nurturing vendor relationships, among others.
Access to Industry Contacts and Relationships
Cannabis marketing agencies possess an extensive professional network, thanks to their diverse client base and their background in marketing. These agencies typically have well-established connections and affiliations within the marketing industry, which keeps them constantly updated on the latest marketing trends and advancements in the cannabis sector.
Furthermore, agencies handle multiple clients simultaneously, which means you’ll collaborate with a team that continually enhances their expertise, tailoring their skills to benefit your business. Additionally, partnering with a reputable marketing agency can open doors to collaborations, alliances, and exposure to a wider audience, as you gain access to their professional circles.
We understand the importance of giving back to the industry. With this level of access, cannabis businesses, at any stage of their journey can unlock their full potential and achieve remarkable growth, seizing the most valuable marketing opportunities available.
Cons of Hiring a Cannabis Marketing Agency
Naturally, there are additional factors to ponder when contemplating the engagement of a cannabis marketing agency. Not every business is invariably ready to team up with a comprehensive marketing unit.
It’s crucial to be both financially and operationally prepared to harness the expertise of a marketing agency to your advantage effectively.
Fees
One significant aspect to keep in mind is that, in the short term, the cost associated with hiring a professional marketing agency is often higher compared to the immediate expenses of opting for DIY marketing.
When you engage a marketing agency, you can anticipate ongoing monthly expenses to support a dedicated marketing team. While there is the possibility of undertaking one-time projects, such as building a cannabis brand from the ground up, fostering a long-term relationship with a larger team is typically essential for genuine business growth.
Furthermore, partnering with a cannabis marketing agency necessitates collaboration and ongoing communication. You’ll need to keep the agency informed about upcoming events or changes in your business. In other words, occasional hands-on involvement is still required to ensure a fruitful partnership.
It’s worth noting that the expenses involved can vary based on the range of services and expertise offered. Nevertheless, a reputable marketing agency should be adaptable and able to accommodate diverse budgets. Here at CannaMack, we acknowledge the financial constraints faced by emerging dispensary brands, which is why we’ve developed a launch package with startup budgets in mind.
Diminished Control Over Small Details
The idea of entrusting your digital marketing to an external agency may raise concerns, particularly if you’re someone who prefers to be hands-on.
When you collaborate with an agency, there is a degree of relinquishing direct control over the day-to-day intricacies of marketing activities and strategies. While you still retain a pivotal role in steering the overall direction of campaigns and aligning with the agency’s goals, it’s improbable that you’ll find yourself editing every cannabis blog that goes up on your website.
However, for most businesses, this is not viewed as a drawback. In fact, it’s often seen as a significant advantage.
Managing digital marketing initiatives demands a substantial amount of time and effort. By stepping back from the minutiae, such as deciding which hashtags to use on Instagram or how to optimize Google My Business, business owners can free up valuable time and mental energy to focus on other aspects of their business, fostering growth and development.
Pros of DIY Marketing
Many startups in the cannabis industry often choose to embrace a DIY marketing approach during their early phases. This essentially means taking full ownership of the marketing process, strategies, and decision-making for your business. This entails responsibilities like:
- Establishing your marketing objectives
- Defining any necessary market research or gathering customer feedback
- Devising a plan for which marketing channels to establish a presence on
- Overseeing the content creation process across various channels
- Crafting and refining marketing campaigns
- Evaluating and analyzing the results of ongoing marketing efforts
And much more! Some ambitious teams may divide these tasks among themselves, while others might bring in a few freelancers to assist in managing the workload. However you opt to approach it, DIY marketing can offer several advantages when you’re in the early stages of your cannabis business for a few key reasons:
Cost Savings
For businesses operating with constrained budgets, DIY marketing presents a cost-effective solution. This holds particularly true in the near-term, when immediate financial resources for cannabis marketing and branding might be limited.
During this phase, there are numerous budget-friendly marketing tools, platforms, and educational resources available to assist. These resources encompass platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn Learning, and workshops conducted by agencies and experienced professionals. Engaging in DIY marketing serves as an effective means to economize on expenses until you are prepared to pursue a more substantial partnership.
Direct Transaction
One clear benefit of DIY marketing lies in the complete autonomy it offers over marketing choices, strategies, and brand representation. Every aspect falls under your jurisdiction.
Furthermore, it provides you with enhanced adaptability to swiftly enact alterations and improvements when necessary. In the event of unexpected developments, such as a last-minute pop-up event or internal changes within your business, there’s no need to engage with a third party.
Instead, you can promptly adjust your marketing channels as required.
Cons of DIY Marketing
However, the benefits of DIY marketing largely end there. In the realm of cannabis marketing, managing it on your own can be an arduous endeavor. In the grand scheme of things, it’s more advantageous to invest in a professional who can alleviate the burden on your time and energy. (After all, who truly wants to grapple with Meta Support over issues like having your cannabis account shadowbanned?)
Inexperience
The primary drawback of handling your own cannabis marketing is the substantial limitation imposed by your own limited experience and knowledge. Moreover, you’ll forego the valuable insights gained from collaborating with a diverse range of clients.
Not only are your marketing efforts likely to miss out on the nuanced strategies employed by agencies, but there’s also the potential risk of inadvertently tarnishing your business’s reputation by unknowingly infringing upon marketing rules and regulations.
Limitations in Time and Resources
Redirecting your internal resources towards marketing, especially when it’s not their core expertise, is a formula for potential disaster. Allocating time or financial resources to marketing endeavors without the requisite experience typically leads to mediocre outcomes, effectively squandering those valuable resources.
Furthermore, the extra time and energy demanded by self-managing marketing activities for your business will detract from your primary business operations and place added stress on your current team.
Limited Connections with Other Marketing Experts
Irrespective of the nature of your cannabis business, you might find that your connections and networks within the cannabis marketing sub-industry are fairly limited. In contrast, marketing agencies maintain constant connections with various marketing news sources, forge partnerships, and engage in extensive professional networking.
Your primary focus might be directed towards areas that have a more immediate impact on your business growth, such as cultivating investor relationships. However, due to your restricted access to other cannabis marketing professionals, you’ll need to invest additional time and effort to stay abreast of marketing trends, regulations, and best practices.
All of this, naturally, compounds the demands on your plate, which already includes financial management, operational responsibilities, human resources, networking, and more.
Choose CannMack as Your Comprehensive Solution for Cannabis Marketing
As you’ve observed, when you take into account short-term and long-term cost savings, expertise, time and resource availability, industry connections, and more, collaborating with an agency emerges as the option with superior advantages.
Nevertheless, businesses should conduct a thorough assessment of their specific requirements, available resources, and objectives before making the choice between engaging a cannabis marketing agency or handling marketing in-house.
Discovering the right equilibrium between professional proficiency and in-house capabilities is vital for effective cannabis marketing. If you’re seeking a team that combines data-driven insights with strategic thinking centered on human engagement, consider enlisting CannaMack for all your marketing needs.
Our expertise extends across various domains, encompassing digital and traditional marketing, with services ranging from print and packaging design, professional photography, to website design and development, and search engine marketing.
To kickstart your cannabis marketing strategy, reach out to our team today.