The human brain is the headquarters for every single process in your body, including decision making. It relies on shortcuts, so if you study the hard-wired biases of the human brain, you can elevate your marketing in the cannabis industry. You can apply marketing psychology to your copywriting, design, brand presentation, and even your direct messaging. The approach here isn’t to change the way your target audience thinks, but to use how they think to your advantage. Let’s take a look at five marketing psychology tactics you can use for your cannabis dispensary campaigns!
Paradox of Choice
It sounds fancy, but it’s quite simple. When the number of options you have increases, you feel more stressed about making a decision. Typically, you won’t make a decision at all if there are too many options or you will harbor plenty of doubts on whether or not you made the right choice. Keep your options in your marketing campaign to a minimum. For example, don’t stick 15 different products in your email blast. Choose a few of your best sellers and promote a deal. You can also use the paradox of choice on things like your website by decreasing the amount of options on your navigation bar. By cutting down the amount of options, you’ll increase your conversion rates.
Anchoring Bias
The tendency for a person to use the initial piece of information as a benchmark/anchor is called the anchoring bias. This bias comes in handy when you are pricing items, packages, or services. One way to use the anchoring bias is to indicate the mark-downs of your products. A higher initial price will allow your audience to see the deal as more attractive. However, you still have to study how your audience perceives pricing concerning the quality of the cannabis products. Perhaps, making the mark-down a limited-time deal will help in ensuring your audience the quality of the products is still exceptional. You can also use the anchoring bias when pricing subscriptions. For example, the annual subscription can be cheaper than the monthly subscription.
Reciprocity Effect
It is in our human nature to reciprocate, which means we respond to one action with a similar action or gesture. The reciprocity effect works for both negative and positive behaviors. How can we use the reciprocity effect in cannabis dispensary marketing? The simplest way is through providing incredible customer service. By providing exceptional customer service both in-person and through the digital world, your customers will have more incentive to return the favor via reviews or by adding something extra to their cart. Also, you have a better chance of earning their loyalty to your dispensary. You can also unlock the reciprocity effect in your cannabis marketing by offering free trials, items, or valuable information (e.g. free courses or blogs).
Mere Exposure Effect
The mere exposure effect is when you expose your audience to your brand enough they develop a preference for it. Brand awareness is crucial for any dispensary. Therefore, display ads are important even though they are dismissed as ineffective due to low click-through rates. The more exposure for your cannabis business, the more familiar your audience becomes with it, leading them to develop trust with your brand on a subconscious level. However, do not overdo your brand awareness advertising. There needs to be breathing room between brand awareness campaigns so your cannabis dispensary doesn’t become seen as an annoying brand. Also, create brand awareness campaigns across all your social media channels for more touch points.
Social Proof
It is common for people to follow others in novel situations where they are not aware of the “right” behavior. Therefore, social proof is essential. We follow others to feel safe or accepted, so gaining reviews is crucial for your cannabis dispensary. Set up a testimonials section on your home page if you don’t have one already, and highlight testimonials from your most popular buyers. Also, encourage customers to leave positive reviews on sites like Yelp, as people will head there during the consideration phase. If you have gained partnerships with big names, include their logos on your website, using them as trust icons. Also, you can utilize social proof by showcasing the number of people that signed up for your newsletter or loyalty programs.
Are you looking to upgrade your cannabis marketing strategy? We can help you improve the design and effectiveness of your campaigns. Whether you want more traffic to your site, leads, signups, or conversions, we have the expertise to get it done. Contact us today!
