Effective PR Tips for Cannabis Brands

With the help of strategic relationship building and influencing, companies in the cannabis industry can reach a lot more consumers and generate conversions.

Most cannabis brands make the mistake of not honing in on their PR efforts and simply hoping that they’ll be good enough to generate positive results.

However, even with a little bit more effort, cannabis brands can use PR to streamline the buying journey while generating positive media coverage.

Data

With traditional public relations strategies and campaigns, one of the most important metrics for success is brand awareness. Then, companies can also implement a revenue model to keep better track of the connection between their brand awareness and their conversion or sales rates.

Inside Google Analytics, companies can track whether their content is driving referral sessions, as well as whether that content managed to generate conversions or sales.

However, there are plenty of other tools and platforms outside of Google Analytics that companies can rely on to keep better track of the data that their promotional efforts are generating. For example, companies in the cannabis industry can set up SEO and email sign-up targets.

Through those two, they’ll be able to get a better understanding of how consumers are learning about the business and the buying journey. These types of data are incredibly important for businesses as they can be used to figure out the performance of a current campaign, as well as create future PR campaigns a lot faster and easier.

Pitching

Pitching content to journalists and media outlets should always be focused on the reasons why the journalist or outlet should be accepting and publishing the company’s pitch.

By figuring out the reasons, companies in the cannabis industry will be able to highlight that they understand and share a target audience with the outlet, that the business is a credible and authoritative source of industry information, and that the opinions and tone of the piece of content that the business is pitching are aligned with the ones the outlet has.

When creating a pitch, companies need to include an outline or the angle of the piece of content, and even some important points that are covered in it. They should also include a brief explanation of the company with its key messages and a spokesperson that the outlet can reach out to if there are any other questions.

Topics

Finally, when companies are trying to create content for their public relations efforts, it’s important to ensure that those topics are going to be relevant to the business itself. That means companies in the cannabis industry need to have a great understanding of both the micro and the macro topics that can affect them and the overall industry.

That way, when companies are creating their PR content, they’ll always be prepared to talk about issues that can directly affect business operations even if they’re not focused on specific information about the business itself.

While companies should always be creating PR content such as the benefits that consumers can get from purchasing the company’s products, or educating them on the different sides of the products, those are micro topics. On the other hand, macro topics include subjects such as the current progress of medical research into the products and their benefits, or farming and legalization issues.

By 2026, the global cannabis market is expected to reach over $90 billion, according to reports.

Given the size and continued growth, plenty of businesses have started popping up in the market, making it a lot more difficult for brands to establish themselves and stand out from the crowd. Fortunately, one of the things that many cannabis brands haven’t been focused on is public relations efforts, which means the companies in the industry that start incorporating PR strategies will manage to get a competitive advantage.

Media Relations

One of the key elements that can help companies in the cannabis industry set themselves apart from their competitors while also presenting themselves as industry experts are by building and nurturing relationships with reporters, journalists, and influencers.

In fact, this is especially true in a fast-growing industry like cannabis, as well as in countries where the industry is still in development.

With the help of this strategy companies in the cannabis industry will be able to become go-to sources of information for both the public and the media.

Speaking Opportunities

It’s important for companies in the cannabis industry to follow the latest trends in the market as well as monitor key events that they can utilize as speaking opportunities.

Events such as leadership conferences or expos give spokespeople of cannabis brands a great opportunity to showcase their market or industry expertise.

By getting the company’s ideas presented and heard in front of different audiences, composed of people such as investors, partners, or even consumers, businesses can get a chance to highlight their knowledge and the quality of their products to stakeholders.

Out of all the different communications channels that companies in the cannabis industry can utilize to communicate their key messages, it’s important not to forget events and their speaking opportunities as they’re a very effective communications tactic.

Brand Awareness

Most companies tend to have very interesting stories that they can share with the media and the public, and with the right public relations strategies, those businesses can tell their stories to the right audiences.

In the cannabis industry, however, there is still plenty of stigma and misinformation. When coupled with the fact that legislations are constantly changing and there is a significant involvement from various governments all over the world, it’s not always easy for companies in the cannabis industry to tell their stories.

Fortunately, through public relations, companies can create the right messages that will be sent to the target audience at the right time and on the right channels, or alternatively, figure out when a company should avoid promoting its stories or key messages.

This way, companies in the cannabis industry can figure out how to communicate with the right people at the right time, while still keeping an eye on public policies regarding the use of cannabis.