Online Shopping Is the Future
Statistics indicate that online shopping is growing rapidly. According to a recent survey, an estimated 8.8% of global retail sales were made online in 2018, totaling approximately $2.489 trillion USD.
Moreover, the numbers would indicate that the switch to online shopping is a trend that will continue well into the future. According to the same study, online sales steadily and consistently rose by 2.9% from 2014 to 2018. As such, dispensaries would do well to establish themselves online, allowing online shoppers to find them much easier.
While many dispensaries may not directly sell their products to online customers, they can still effectively promote them. An attractive and well-established online presence will allow shoppers to find you over the internet, and visit you in person.
Print Marketing for Dispensaries Is Inefficient
Online advertising and social media have significantly changed the way in which audiences process marketing messages.
According to a recent survey by the McCarthy Group, 84% of millennials do not like or trust traditional forms of advertising such as print. Millennials who were raised in the digital age simply do not respond to printed content as well as digital content.
Additionally, the conversion rate for print marketing is notoriously low. For instance, according to the Direct Marketing Association, flyer distribution has a response rate of approximately 1%. While print marketing may raise local awareness for a product, service, or business, it does not usually lead to many conversions.
Google Is the New Yellow Pages
Search engines like Google have become the modern version of the Yellow Pages.
The search engine has become a tool for quickly and efficiently finding local products and services. Using local SEO to help customers find you more easily on search engines could pay off big in the long-run.
According to Moz, the average Google search lasts just under a minute. Moreover, 34% of ‘near me’ searches result in a store visit. This data would indicate that many people utilize search engines as a way to find local stores and services.
Additionally, search engines expose potential customers to products, as well as local places they can buy them. A recent study by eMarketer indicates that 34.6% of product searches take place on Google. Putting yourself in a position to connect potential customers with these products will lead to more sales. To be found online, though, dispensaries must take an active role in digital marketing!
Dispensary Marketing in a Digital Age
Investing in print marketing for dispensaries is a one-dimensional solution in a complex digital world. Grabbing the attention of today’s shoppers will require more than just a flyer in the mail or a poster on a bulletin board.
For dispensaries, this means that taking advantage of digital marketing solutions like SEO and PPC can result in more customers and more sales. Even if your dispensary does not sell products online, successfully positioning your dispensary to online shoppers will lead to more business.
