As a dispensary operator, you are typically spending time thinking of ways to increase sales, store traffic, and average order value. However, marketing your dispensary and the cannabis products you provide is challenging because of the heavy restrictions placed on the industry.
One of the few marketing methods still available and effective for dispensary owners is SMS Marketing. In today’s world, customers are constantly bombarded with advertisements in almost every possible way. It can be challenging to present your brand and offerings to your potential customers through channels like social media, email, and so forth.
However, an SMS campaign provides you with a way to develop your own marketing channel that makes its way directly to your customers, who are more likely to pay a return visit to your dispensary. Keep in mind that everyone you target through these text messages has a smartphone device. Text message marketing campaigns are a proven strategy to boost your chances of prompting customers to spend more, which eventually results in a rise in sales.
Research has proven how effective SMS marketing is by identifying that the average individual checks their phone 85 times a day. Furthermore, the researchers behind this study also discovered that 55% of smartphone use is made up of short bursts of less than 30 seconds of activity, which is habitual behavior for most people. Moreover, SMS messages have a 98% open rate, making them far more superior to email marketing. Text marketing campaigns provide instant deliverability, with it taking only seconds for the message to arrive, and 90% of those text messages are read within three minutes.
If you have not integrated text messaging into your marketing strategy, then you need to continue reading on to know why it’s critical you do so.
Text messages prompt customers to respond immediately
The text messages you send out to your customers can involve loyalty programs or inform customers of the latest special deals, birthday or holiday greetings, and any other beneficial information on events and other promotions. For instance, you can send out a text message to your customer on their birthday, wishing them a happy birthday and letting them know about a special deal on a type of edible or flower they can purchase. One of the most obvious examples would be providing a special during 4/20 and sending out an SMS to your customers to let them know about the deals you’re having during that holiday.
Consider the amount of traffic your dispensary can generate by strategically sending out a timed text message to your existing customers. For example, the promotional message can be sent out during the afternoon when everyone is starting to get out of work. Text message marketing offers your dispensary a limitless way to advertise to your customers, especially when you are capable of timing your message to be sent out when your target is prepared for making a purchase. There are no other tools in the market that allow you to communicate instantly with your customers, like SMS text messaging, making it a valuable tool for your dispensary.
Easy opt-in for customers
Sending out a text message to your customers requires the dispensary to gain their permission to remain compliant with the laws. To ensure your text message marketing campaign is staying compliant, your customers need to give you their permission to opt-in to our text messaging program. If you provide enticing deals through the messages (such as special offers), it becomes easier to get them on board.
You should always make sure you are offering your customers the option to join these marketing programs. The last thing you want to do is anger your potential or existing customers by spamming them with messages they never wanted to receive. Plus, there are laws in places that can penalize your dispensary if you break these rules. While sending out a text message promoting your dispensary’s latest products and keeping them up to date with your latest deals is ideal, you want to let your customers have the decision to opt-in. Doing so will make them more comfortable dealing with your business in the long run.
It’s a win-win scenario for you in terms of marketing. Watching the number of customers who opt-in to your text messaging updates provides you with information that can be used for future promotional deals in your dispensary SMS marketing strategy.
Massive open-rate
You’d think with the number of apps out there available for communicating with others, text messaging would be the less used form of communication. Fortunately for you, that is not the case. Text messages are still read by plenty of people. As previously mentioned above, text messaging campaigns have an average open rate of 98%. That alone should be enough to convince you why getting an SMS marketing campaign up and running is crucial to your dispensary.
According to Campaign Monitor, the average email open rate is between 15-25%. Furthermore, social media messages only tend to reach around 2-3% of the total audience. As you can see, text messaging is still a far better way to reach out to your customers. When it comes to running a dispensary operation, you need to do everything you can to ensure that your store is selling its cannabis products and making a profit.
Dispensary owners need to ensure that people are returning to their store, whether it’s physically or online, so the dispensary can remain in operation. Including text messaging in your dispensary’s marketing strategy will ensure that it continues to see growth.
Doesn’t require internet
Another excellent bonus is that SMS text messaging does not require the customer to be connected to the internet 24/7. When it comes to your online marketing strategy, you are most likely using places like Instagram, Twitter, or even Google to reach out to your customers. Social media platforms are a fine place to send updates concerning your dispensary. However, text messaging has an edge over them that not most people don’t take the time to consider.
Let’s say you are planning to send out a timely promotional message, and your target customer is not connected to any WiFi. The lack of WiFi will prevent them from seeing that message during a time that could convince them to stop by your store. Fortunately, text messaging can still be sent out without the need for internet access. Your customers will never miss out on any of your promotional messages. Even if they are somewhere without access to the internet, they will still receive text messages.
Refines your customer loyalty program
Any reputable dispensary will make their customer service an integral part of their dispensary loyalty program. It doesn’t matter whether you are operating an online dispensary or a brick-and-mortar store. Serving your customers is crucial for providing a good customer experience.
Text messages can make a dispensary customer support system far more effective compared to other methods. Not only does it make it easier for you as the dispensary owner, but for your budtenders and customers as well. The communication process will become far more seamless for everyone involved. For instance, your customers can send out inquiries or concerns and receive answers in real-time by a budtender or automated by using the marketing chatbot.
Combining text messaging with an automation tool, such as Facebook Messenger chatbots, allows your customer service to improve vastly and places you ahead of the competition. However, if the issue is more complicated, then the issue should be taken care of by a human instead of a chatbot. There should be an option that allows your customer to reach out to a human budtender who can answer their questions through text messaging or over a phone call.
By utilizing SMS text message marketing in your dispensary marketing strategy, you can efficiently manage any frequently asked questions. That makes your customer service a driving force behind the boost of sales and increasing customer loyalty.
Improves communication with customers
Text messaging can also boost your communication efforts with your existing and future customers in the long run. Since communication is vital for developing an excellent relationship with our customers, text message marketing can become a beneficial tool for your dispensary in developing these profitable relationships. Marketing plays a crucial role in the communication efforts with customers and prospects since you are sending them a personalized message.
The communication you start with them can be promotional-based and not come off as spam, especially if you are letting them in on a special deal that is being held at your store. Even sending them a hearty thank you message with a coupon code attracted after they made a purchase can improve your communication with them. Moreover, integrating text messages into your marketing strategy can allow you to allow customers to place orders for pick up through text messaging. You can reply to them after to let them know that their order is ready to be picked up.
Text messaging marketing provides your dispensary with a seamless, quick, and reliable method to communicate with every customer. It’s an unobtrusive method that most people are comfortable using.
Conclusion
Text messaging is an effective way to ensure that your customer base continues to return to your dispensary. If you have not implemented an SMS text messaging system in your dispensary, then you should consider going soon. The benefits you’ll reap from text messaging will have your dispensary seeing more traffic and revenue flow into its doors. Take everything we mentioned here into consideration and see if SMS is something for your dispensary.
