Weedmaps Alternatives to Attract New Customers to your Cannabis Store

Ever heard the saying that any press is good press? When you’re running a cannabis business, getting exposure for your business is king. But, if you’re just relying on WeedMaps to do the heavy lifting for your advertising strategy, you could be missing out on valuable opportunities to reach your ideal customer base.

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What is Weedmaps?

Weedmap’s notoriety comes from its “Yelp”-like appeal, serving as a hosting site for dispensaries to promote themselves and be rated by customers. In essence, it functions as a marketplace for customers, Weedmaps is a great resource for businesses in the cannabis space and a great way to get exposure- but it’s not the only option for cannabis brands looking to expand their reach. 

Don’t Limit Your Advertising Approach

Let’s pretend you’re heading to the grocery store. You take your time cruising the familiar aisles, and on your way to the checkout, you find yourself distracted by the end-cap with tabloids and candy bars. You already knew you wanted to go to the grocery store, the end-cap was just what you happened to find by looking for the grocery store itself. In this situation, Weedmaps is the end-cap- it can only influence and reach the customers that already knew they were interested in finding a dispensary or cannabis products.

At MediaJel, we’re interested in reaching customers for your cannabis business before they ever even hit the “grocery store” doors. Whereas Weedmaps aims to target customers that already exist within the cannabis space, we utilize a toolbox of advertising practices to help you reach your loyal customers you’ve already influenced as well as new customers you can connect with for the first time. 

Why Choose MediaJel?

Let’s get real, these days we’re more connected than ever. Every day as you use Google, mobile apps, watch that new series on TV, or listen to your favorite podcast- you’re being reached and influenced by ads, even when you don’t consciously realize it. At MediaJel, we help you leverage those multi-media advertising options to help you increase your return on ad spend (ROI) at every step of the customer journey through strategic exposure. 

We power your ad campaigns with the magic of programmatic advertising to connect you with cannabis consumers while they’re near your retail location or within your delivery service area at the top of the marketing funnel. But what’s more, we can help you re-target customers by allowing you to place ads that “follow” potential customers around during their day-to-day web browsing until they make a purchase. Smart, right?

But, what does this look like in practice? Let’s say someone in your area has visited a dispensary within the last 6 months. We can draw a geofence around competing dispensaries in your area, create an audience, and then show these users ads to direct to them your store instead- effectively helping you “swipe” customers from the competition. Leveraging the power of programmatic advertising puts the power in your hands to “target” customers based on real information about how they browse and shop, and when- but, we don’t stop there. 

Our team will leverage the power of Google to connect with consumers when they have the intent to purchase. Customers are already ready to buy when they search on Google for keywords like “cannabis store” or “buy weed online.” So, it’s important for you to invest in cannabis SEO to position yourself at the top of the search engine results page, in order to be seen by those customers that are ready to act. 

If you’d like to skip to the top of search results, you can launch a cannabis pay-per-click campaign (PPC) through Google Ads or Bing Ads to position yourself at the top. MediaJel has the ability to manage scalable PPC campaigns for cannabis businesses in a compliant fashion.
As part of an integrated marketing strategy, it’s best to use a combination of all three tools: programmatic advertising, SEO, and SEM to ensure the customers are reached at every step of the customer’s journey. 

Don’t be dependent on Weedmaps to reach new customers for your cannabis company. The aforementioned marketing channels will connect you with large audiences of new cannabis consumers through search engines and mainstream media publications, apps, tv, and podcasts. 

Ready to get new customers? Contact us today to increase your digital presence and top-line revenue. We look forward to connecting with you and learning about your business