So you have an established, or new, hemp CBD business and you’re wondering which demographics to target in your advertising campaigns. Here are 4 proven hemp CBD product marketing tips to integrate into your online or retail dispensary marketing strategy.
How To Target Your CBD Product Marketing To The Most Lucrative Demographics
So how many people in the United States have used, or are currently using hemp-derived CBD products? What are the best target markets and demographics for selling hemp CBD oil in America?
A recent study from Gallup reported that 14% of US citizens (1 in 7) say that they personally use cannabinol (CBD) products regularly.
Thanks to the passing of federal law in the United States which essentially legalized a form of cannabis known as hemp, sales of hemp-derived CBD oil and other CBD products have significantly increased over the last year.
However, to put this into perspective, 14% of US adults use hemp CBD products, but the research also found that 50% of US adults do not use CBD, and 35% of them aren’t familiar with any CBD product.
I look at this as a huge opportunity and so should you!
This study shows that there are a significant amount of people in the US who use CBD, there are actually many more adults who aren’t using CBD but could be very curious about its therapeutic benefits.
Are you focusing all of your marketing at the 14% of the US population that actually reported to use CBD, or, are you targeting the 50%-85% of US adults who aren’t using hemp CBD yet, but are curious and maybe searching for more information and education about CBD hemp products?
In this article, I’ll show you 4 proven digital marketing tactics to market and promote hemp CBD products to exactly the right people, at the right time, and on the right platform.
Below you’ll find are 4 ways to take your hemp CBD product marketing to the next level. But first, let’s take a look at exactly who is using hemp-derived CBD products in the USA.
Who’s Using Hemp CBD Products in America?
While there are more people in the USA who are interested in the health benefits of cannabinol but aren’t ready to buy it just yet, who are the people in the USA you should target your CBD advertising to in order to drive online or retail sales?
The research shows that 20% of US adults younger than 30 say they use CBD, but CBD product usage and familiarity with the cannabinoid decrease progressively in older age groups.
Only 8% of those aged 65 and older say they use CBD, and 49% are not familiar with it.
This data makes sense to me and the same pattern is also found in Gallup data on marijuana usage, with younger adults reporting a higher prevalence of marijuana use than is true for older adults.
How Does CBD Use Breakdown Regionally in the USA?
We have an in-depth and insightful article on our site which covers the top 25 cities in the United States to sell hemp CBD products. You should check that out for additional info on how & where to target your CBD products.
The Gallup research shows that regionally in the USA, 21% of adults in the Western US use CBD products, compared with 13% in the South, and 11% in both the East and Midwest.
This makes sense as well as cannabis use is legal in many Western states, and CBD products have been available for a longer time for residents to enjoy in those states.
Target Your CBD Marketing To These Types of People
So, the data in this article is based on feedback from adults in the USA. However, I feel this data is still useful for companies trying to market hemp CBD products in other countries, like Canada, UK, & Europe.
Things are still very early in the legal cannabis, legal hemp, legal CBD world, and the FDA is still researching the uses, dosages, and effectiveness of hemp CBD products, many marketers claim they have a wide variety of medical and therapeutic benefits.
Many US adults are claiming the same and so is the US media in print, digital, TV, and traditional channels.
Adult CBD users in the US have claimed that they primarily use hemp-derived CBD products to provided relief from pain (40%), anxiety (20%), insomnia (11%) and arthritis (8%).
So how does it breakdown between genders?
Among men and women who use CBD hemp products, roughly 4 in 10 of each say they use them for pain relief.
But, women are more likely than men to use them for anxiety (25% vs. 14%, respectively), and men are more likely than women to use them for help in sleeping (15% vs. 8%).
Pain, Anxiety, insomnia, and arthritis aren’t the only human ailments that hemp CBD products can help to manage.
Here’s the data from the study showing over 15 possible human ailments.
Which CBD Hemp Marketing Strategies Will Help You Targeted These Highly Qualified People?
There is so much opportunity with CBD marketing today. Sure this is exciting for any CBD marketer, but it should be equally exciting, if not more so, for any CBD entrepreneur!
Your marketing strategy should focus on at least 2 out of the 4 stages of the CBD conversion funnel. If you’re not familiar with the conversion funnel, please follow the link.
- Cold – Awareness
- Warm – Evaluation
- Hot – Conversion
- Delight – Upsell
1. Hemp CBD SEO Strategy
For example, one CBD marketing strategy to target the top of the funnel, and a unique CBD marketing strategy to target those at the bottom of the funnel.
An example of this type of strategy would be to use hemp CBD search engine optimization (SEO) tactics to drive curious and qualified, top of the funnel adults who are searching for info on hemp CBD products, to your website via organic search.
This allows you to create brand awareness, increase qualified website traffic, website click-through, and time spent on site.
This all contributes to good SEO and can increase your site’s search engine rankings.
2. Retargeting/Remarketing to Potential CBD Customers Who Are in the “Warm” Stage
Since CBD SEO increases the number of highly qualified potential customers to your website, you’re now able to create retargeting lists from everyone who’s visited your website and engaged with your site content.
You can remarket to these customized audience lists in order to pull cold, top of the funnel traffic, through your funnel into a warm audience who you can retarget with another unique campaign encouraging a purchase.
It’s much easier to get a sale from a “warm” prospect than a “cold” prospect. For more information on this conversion funnel strategy, see our approach to cannabis and CBD marketing here.
3. Targeted Hemp CBD Advertising on Facebook & Google
What about direct sales and targeting bottom of the funnel people?
This is where search advertising, social advertising, native advertising, and display advertising for hemp CBD enters your CBD marketing strategy.
From a hemp CBD marketing perspective, and to target the bottom of the funnel people who are in your funnel and ready to buy, it is possible to advertise some hemp-derived CBD products on Facebook. But, this isn’t guaranteed for all hemp-based CBD businesses.
In order to get Facebook ads successfully approved for hemp CBD products, there’s a lot that depends on the customer journey from the Facebook ad to the product sales page and checkout, to the types of products you sell on your website.
It’s also possible to advertise your CBD products on Google search using Google PPC ads. Again, this isn’t always guaranteed, but it is possible.
Advertising on Google is great because you are targeting people who are using the search engine with the intent to buy CBD oil or CBD hemp products, only.
We can control this by ensuring we are bidding on the right keywords that have the highest volume, lowest competition, and use phrases that show the intent to buy hemp CBD products or CBD oil, or hemp oil, or other short-tail, long-tail, and semantically related keywords.
For an example of some of our work with Google PPC management for cannabis and CBD companies, see our Google Ads Case Study for an online & retail cannabis & CBD dispensary in California.
Or, for an example of our hemp CBD SEO strategy, check out the case study here.
If cannabis advertising is a current marketing challenge, check out how we advertised MMJ on Facebook, Google, and YouTube.
4. Hemp CBD Advertising Using Native Ads/Sponsored Content, Display Ads, & Video Ads
Let’s talk about native ads for hemp CBD products. The Outbrain ad network allows CBD brands to advertise on some of the world’s most popular websites in the form of sponsored content ad placements.
The image below shows an example of a sponsored content ad that could be run on popular websites via Outbrain.
Native ads are sponsored content placements under articles on websites you surf regularly. These ads link to targeted content and/or blog articles on your website.
Sponsored content ads should be targeted to top and middle of the funnel people because they are clicking on an ad promising some insightful or informational content about hemp CBD oil or other products.
After all, they were on a website, reading the content they are interested in and happened to see your content promoted on that site. They weren’t planning on buying CBD products.
But, as it turns out, the ad copy/headline and topic in the sponsored content native ad was targeted well and engaged this person to click to your site to read the content.
Now you have them in your funnel and can retarget them with more content & gain their trust. They then may buy from you when they’re ready!
We suggest using Search Engine Optimization (SEO), blog content writing, and Outbrain native ads as an initial CBD marketing strategy.
Benefits of this strategy include:
- You can create high-quality relevant content for your website and build your domain authority and relevance for hemp CBD products.
- If your blog content is optimized well, with a targeted SEO and keyword strategy, and are ranking for relevant keyword searches, your CBD content will drive free traffic to your site from organic search results.
- Using Outbrain sponsored content ads will also help you drive highly targeted and qualified people to your site from many different popular website’s.
The native ads, in turn, help your SEO and search engine rankings, which then drives more of the right people to your site, at the right time – when they are searching for answers to their questions on hemp CBD products.
We Can Help You With Hyper-Targeted CBD Product Marketing Services
If you feel your business can benefit from any of the hemp marketing tactics outlined in this article, we’d love to help you craft the right CBD product marketing strategy based on your goals.
We have decades of experience with Google Ad management and have been managing cannabis and CBD marketing campaigns on, Google, YouTube & Facebook, for our clients since 2017.
If search engine optimization and blog content writing is part of your CBD product marketing plans, we’ve been “doing SEO” since 2004 and have helped several hemp CBD companies increase search engine rankings and website traffic via organic search results.
Please call us for a free 30-minute phone consultation or email us to request a quote.
We’re Ready To Hemp You Grow!
