Are you looking to bump up your CBD sales online?
This is the right time to get started or look at ways to increase sales. CBD sales are projected to hit $1 billion in revenue in just a few short years.
If you’re a retail store, you can sell your products online, too. Consider that about 65% of CBD sales happen online.
That’s a huge opportunity to grow your business.
Ready to learn how to grow your CBD sales online?
Let’s get started.
What’s Legal and What’s Not
The starting point for online CBD sales is the legality around it. The laws are very vague regarding the products, and it can be very confusing for product manufacturers, consumers, and retailers.
Big retailers such as Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Target have sold CBD products but have since backed off.
This is important to know because your customers are going to want to know if they’re within the law. You also need to know the law, so you can protect your business.
Your best bet is to check with an attorney who is well-versed in cannabis laws.
Start with Education
When you’re marketing your product online, you have to think of the entire buying cycle. This doesn’t mean that you have to go out and build fancy funnels to increase your business.
Focus on the basics, just like you’re working with someone in person.
That starts with building a relationship with your customers. Your initial job is to build rapport and trust with your clients.
When you build a solid relationship with your customers, they trust your brand enough to want to buy from you.
That’s why education is so important. Educating your clients about CBD products will establish you as a trustworthy expert about the product.
It will also help your customers find the information they need. When they feel good about the products and have enough knowledge about them, they trust you enough to make the purchase.
You need to foster that trust every step of the way from someone first becoming aware of your brand, to educating them about your products, to the buying experience, to following up with them after the purchase.
When you focus on each of these points, you’re not just creating customers, but you’re creating customers for life.
Make it Easy for Your Customers
In the buyer’s journey to find information about CBD products and then make a purchase, they want to find what they need right away.
Otherwise, they’ll go to a competitor.
Your website will be the determining factor in keeping customers on your site long enough to make a purchase.
The design, speed, quality of information, and ease of purchase and support will all play a role in creating more CBD sales.
One recent study evaluated consumers’ level of trust when they looked at a website. They noted that 94% wouldn’t trust a company because of the design of a website.
They referred to slow load times, designs that were too busy, too boring, or had too many pop-up displays.
A great example of good website design is Highland Pharms. They make it incredibly easy to find products on their top menu. They also make it easy to find information that can educate consumers just by scrolling down on the home page.
Check out their site for more info.
Drive Traffic with SEO
How will you drive your customers to your website?
One way to do that is through search engine optimization. SEO is a complex web of algorithms that turn into search results when your customers are searching for information online.
If you don’t appear on the first page of those results, you might as well not exist. Let’s look at a few things you can do on your own to help boost your SEO rankings.
Your Website Matters
Your website does tie in with SEO rankings. Google is focused on providing its users a great experience with search results. If they started to rank sites that were slow, or people didn’t stay on for long, the users will start to look for another search engine.
Google wants to provide search results that are valuable and relevant to its users.
Site speed and bounce rate are two major indicators of providing value to people.
That’s why you need to create a website that is attractive, fast, and easy to use.
It also needs to be mobile friendly, as more people are searching for content on mobile devices.
Backlinks
Getting links from other quality sites is a strong indicator that your site has quality content that’s worth sharing. It also gets your site to rank higher in search results.
One way to go about getting backlinks is through writing for other sites.
You can promote your brand, products, and show off your expertise in the CBD arena.
Provide Incredible Service
It was mentioned earlier that you want to be with the customer every step of the way during their buying process.
That includes customer service. Take a look at your current customer service procedures. Are you proactive or reactive?
Do you only have customer service when someone has an issue or question with a product or do you go out of your way to follow up with customers to see how they like to product?
This is part of providing a top-class experience for the customer. That level of service can set you apart from the competition, create customers who return over and over, and they tell their friends.
One final benefit is that you can charge premium prices for a superior brand and customer experience.
Drive CBD Sales Online
CBD sales are taking off and most of those sales are happening online. You want to put yourself in the best position possible to make the most of that opportunity.
The simplest way to do that is to always focus on your customers. Provide excellent service and information at every step of the way, and you’re sure to have an increase in CBD sales.
For more great tips on marketing your online business, check out our blog.