Marketing with Restrictions

Due to trademarks, copyrights, and contractual obligations, the brand details were specifically omitted.

While the Cannabis industry has grown quickly in many states, State and Federal laws prohibit how those who work in the industry promote their products and services. In this scenario, a group of young mental health counselors was launching their practice with certifications in cannabis-related services. They were specifically adding unique services to their practice that spoke particularly to those who rely on cannabis for medicinal purposes.

The core of their strategy was centered around a newly developed website that addresses how their practice functions within the state statutes and federal laws. They provided the research and I directed the development team in creating a website that brought life to their brand. Other digital platforms included establishing a CRM to integrate into their website, creating social media pages, and a series of graphics that promoted the new practice and its practitioners. Since the State was a fairly new entrant to cannabis use for medicinal purposes, many questions remain in the community. Their strategy is currently centered around a few KPIs related to securing leads for both mental health support, as well as educational events targeted at developing referral partnerships with local dispensaries to spread the word about their unique offering.

To promote the sessions, the design team created a couple of different brochures that were manually distributed to dispensaries. This allowed them to develop a personal relationship with someone at a specific location, and avoid potential complications that could arise from the promotion of their service through social media platforms. The goal with this was to direct guests to their website where they could develop an email listing through which they could promote future educational events as well as counseling services.

The initial phase of their practice roll-out went well. The following around their Social Media increased through word of mouth and referrals received within desired goals, but even though they were careful to follow policy guidelines from Facebook, they pulled back on relying on that activity because Facebook’s questioning became too cumbersome to juggle with success in other ways. They continued to use the brochures to support their visits to local dispensaries and use a CRM workflow to properly channel inquiries from clients and dispensary partners. The ultimate feedback resulted in a short list of training materials to be developed to support the continued advancement of their goals which will launch new touch points to their conversational workflows.

The result of this project was the seamless creation of an effective communication system that included their website with CRM integration. The customers were trained on how to manage the engagement effectively to continue to grow relationships through email communications to both counseling patients and dispensary partnerships.

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Julia Eudy – Digital Strategist

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