AI in Cannabis Marketing: A New Era of Targeted Engagement
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has proven itself to be a useful tool for retailers and brands in not only creating better customer shopping experiences, but also in helping business to run smoothly.
And with the complex regulatory landscape that cannabis businesses face, AI can be a transformative tool in helping brands overcome significant challenges, such as strict advertising rules, intense competition and the need for data-driven insights.
“Over the last couple of years with AI becoming a new option to make our lives easier and more efficient, we’ve been incorporating it in a couple of different ways, depending on the service that we’re offering to our client,” says Josefine Nowitz, co-founder and SVP of marketing agency Cannabis Creative Group.
Navigating Regulatory Compliance
The cannabis industry is heavily regulated, with laws varying by state and even locality. This creates a major marketing hurdle, as companies must ensure their content and messaging comply with a constantly changing legal framework.
According to Nowitz, trained AI platforms can automatically update marketers on relevant laws, reducing manual tracking burdens and preventing costly compliance errors.
“AI can help with some of the regulatory restrictions, aiding with quick research when it comes to what is legal and isn’t legal in a certain state,” she says. “At the end of the day, we always recommend our clients to have legal counsel involved when it comes to marketing, but AI can help to get some of those legal questions answered faster.”
If you don’t have a marketing agency helping you determine the right words to use when promoting your products, AI-powered writing tools can help generate ad copy that avoids prohibited claims, and age-restricted language and images.
Audience Segmentation and Targeting with AI
AI can help cannabis brands precisely target legal consumers by filtering demographics to avoid underage audiences and remain compliant with advertising restrictions.
Similarly, AI helps marketing agencies such as Cannabis creative Group to quickly conduct competitive research to learn more about a client’s product offerings, consumer demographic and competitors.
“We used to put a lot of time and effort into that type of research, which we call the product discovery phase of our process, but AI has helped us reduce a lot of that time,” Nowitz says. “AI is also much more efficient at producing results when it comes to SEO keywords and what consumers are search for online. So now, we’re able to cut down the time it takes to do all that research, allowing our team to spend more time on the creative strategies and ideas for our clients.”
In a competitive market, personalizing the customer experience is key to building loyalty. With the help of AI, cannabis companies can create more personalized product recommendations and more targeted campaigns to win over shoppers.
Additionally, AI-powered chatbots, or “virtual budtenders,” as many cannabis brands put it, can provide 24/7 customer support, answer frequently asked questions and guide customers toward products based on their needs. This alleviates the burden on human staff and improves customer satisfaction.
Optimizing Content Creation and Strategy
AI can streamline the content creation process for cannabis brands, making it more efficient and aligned with business goals. And while marketing agencies like Cannabis Creative Group can help with this, if you’re a smaller brand with minimal marketing budget, AI can assist in the meantime with:
Content Generation. AI writing tools can quickly generate content for blogs, social media posts and product descriptions, saving time and resources. While human editing is often necessary to ensure accuracy and a unique brand voice, AI provides a strong first draft.
Market Trend Analysis. AI can analyze sales data, search queries and online interactions to identify market trends and consumer preferences. This insight helps companies make data-driven decisions about product development, pricing and marketing strategies.
SEO Optimization. AI tools can help cannabis brands with SEO by analyzing keywords and optimizing content to improve search rankings, even in the face of complex search engine filters that may flag cannabis-related content.
But before you publish any content that AI has helped you create, Nowitz suggests double-checking everything.
“Don’t do exactly what AI is telling you to do,” she advises. “Don’t copy and paste everything word-for-word because at the end of the day, AI is getting its information from somewhere. You could be in a situation where you’re plagiarizing or putting the wrong information out there. And in this marketplace, we must be very careful about what we say when we’re talking about these types of products.”
The Future of AI in Marketing Cannabis
In essence, AI helps cannabis companies move from a “spray and pray” marketing approach to a more precise, personalized and compliant strategy, enabling them to build a stronger brand, increase customer loyalty and thrive in a dynamic and challenging market.
“We’re at a point in society where the people that know how to use AI are the people that are going to progress and grow their businesses,” Nowitz says. “It really is a tool that we should all know how to use. But we also need to understand the pitfalls and not rely on it 100%.”
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