Cannabis companies that treat their customers well outperform those that don’t in every metric, which isn’t really a big secret. The big question is this: how do those organizations go about maintaining a positive, healthy relationship with their target audience? One of the ways is by creating a dispensary marketing customer journey map. The path to purchasing items at a dispensary is not linear, as antiquated maps suggest. We’ll show you a basic customer journey map you can use for your cannabis dispensary, so you can gain and retain customers.
Initial Consideration/Trigger
Many customers don’t automatically latch onto a dispensary brand—they need a trigger. In short, you need to create a need for your products. You’re not just targeting current cannabis lovers but also the canna-curious. What can the products at your cannabis dispensary do for people? They can help them deal with anxiety, be a sleeping aid, act as a post-workout recovery supplement, be a substitute for alcohol or other substances, help them relax, and more. You can be as broad or as hyper-focused as you want, depending on your target audience, but you have to promote how your products can address pain points or needs. Without a doubt, creating the trigger is an essential part of your dispensary marketing plan and customer journey map.
Evaluation
During the active evaluation phase, the potential customer is looking at the pros and cons of your dispensary compared with others. Many factors may come into play during the evaluation phase, such as the variety of your products, service, the knowledge of the budtenders, cleanliness, and even location. Also, the way you present and market your brand is considered as well, even if your potential customer is not fully aware they’re evaluating it. If your brand narrative is relative to your target audience, your dispensary has an edge in the evaluation phase. Canna Media can help your brand resonate with your target audience on a deep level through our personalized marketing services.
Purchase
Obviously, this is the moment the potential customer becomes a customer by making a purchase at your cannabis dispensary. However, you have to ensure you’re tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) so you can try and identify the connection to the purchase. Analyzing the touchpoints and seeing how they may impact consumer decisions to make the purchase is essential. Your budtenders, physical store, and website all contribute to the purchase, so keeping everything on-brand and user-friendly is imperative. Canna Media can help you sharpen your brand narrative and presentation through personalized dispensary marketing, helping many people reach the purchase portion of the customer journey.
Post-Purchase Experience
The digital world has amplified the influence of the post-purchase experience. Within the customer journey, this part is a bit tricky since dispensaries carry a variety of products. Your dispensary not only takes responsibility for the experience of presenting the cannabis product but also the quality and efficiency of it. Customers who have a good experience typically won’t go out of their way to leave reviews, so your brand must make that a call to action. On the other hand, customers who do experience something negative are more inclined to leave reviews. Creating a survey to gauge each customer’s experience is pivotal in learning about touchpoints and the post-purchase experience of each cannabis product. We can help you create a survey that’s easy to do and blends in well with your dispensary marketing plan.
Enter the Loyalty Loop
If all goes well and your customer feels like you’ve earned their trust, they enter the loyalty loop. This part of the customer journey map is where you’ll need to track ongoing cannabis sales for each person moving forward. What did they buy? Are they coming back to purchase the same cannabis products? How did they find your dispensary? Across the board, it can be less costly to sell more products to your loyal customers than investing in rounding up new ones. To encourage customers to enter the loyalty loop, you can do a variety of things. For example, you can establish a rewards program, provide discounts for a future purchase, ensure stellar customer service throughout the journey, and more.
In dispensary marketing, a customer journey map is crucial. CannaMedia can help your cannabis dispensary create a customer journey map and support each section with personalized marketing strategies. Contact us today for more details!
