Mikaela McLaughlin, VP of Retail Business Development for the digital marketing platform Springbig, says that when she came to the company two and a half years ago with a marketing and advertising sales background, she immediately felt the pain of cannabis retailers not having the standard options that most companies do because of stringent regulations. Since then, she’s worked to implement Springbig into more than 1,600 cannabis dispensaries nationwide, including some of the highest-volume locations in the U.S., providing streamlined solutions to customer acquisition, loyalty programs, text message marketing and more.
In an interview with Cannabis Dispensary, McLaughlin shares her six top tips for cannabis dispensaries to improve and accelerate their loyalty program and text message marketing programs.
1. Understand the Tangible Value of Text Message Marketing
Text message marketing is a way to get directly in front of consumers and patients who won’t see a dispensary’s advertising on billboards, print ads, radio spots, and other traditional places where they’re not permitted. And not only is text message marketing an open pathway, but it also is highly effective.
“We know that text messaging has crazy, through-the-roof open rates,” McLaughlin says. “Numbers we wish we could get out of email.” She says that text campaigns average a 98% open rate. “But even more compelling is 93% of those open within the first two minutes they’re received. So our retailers say that on average, they see the impact in their store within an hour.”
McLaughlin adds that with Springbig’s point-of-sale integration, retailers can track the conversion of every recipient to show the dispensary how the campaign performed.
2. Be Compliant, Always
However, as with all things legal cannabis, the first thing to keep in mind with a text message marketing campaign is compliance. “That starts with how we enroll customers in the program,” McLaughlin says. “We provide retailers with a suite of compliant tools that capture signatures for every customer that enrolls.” That means, if a customer comes back three days, three months or three years from now and say they’re not sure they opted in, retailers will have documented proof.
It’s also important to understand how carriers will treat cannabis text message marketing.
“Carriers view us the way the federal government does, as illegal,” McLaughlin says. “So we have to be careful about sending content that is not going to get flagged as spam. On our platform, we have a couple tools that helps dispensaries do this.”
One of those tools is a phone number filter by carrier, which helps retailers understand which carriers are going to deliver MMS (messages with video or images) versus SMS (text only messages) at a higher rate.
“We also have what I like to call in layman’s terms: our ‘no-no filter,’” she adds. “If they type a word that we know could cause issue with the carrier, we actually pop up on the platform in real time” and display word replacement suggestions. For example, “edible” could be swapped with “goodies” or “infused treats.”
Springbig’s deliverability meter also helps retailers gauge if they used too much capitalization, used too many special characters or other formats that could potentially be flagged as spam.
“The way that you stay out in front of it is by partnering with someone that has a team dedicated to understanding the ever-changing landscape because, let’s be honest, the carriers don’t tell us how they filter. We have to understand that and we make constant improvements to the platform based on what we see,” McLaughlin says.
3. Create a Text Message Marketing Strategy
While the proof is in the pudding that text message marketing works, it’s not enough to just get out a message, McLaughlin says. “It’s about being the message people can’t wait to get. And in my experience, the most successful retailers do that through a proactive strategy as opposed to a reactive strategy of, ‘It’s Tuesday, it might be slow, let me push out a promo,’” she says.
Ways that successful retailers have used text message marketing include:
- Restock alerts
- New product launch updates
- “It’s been too long since you’ve been in” promotion
- 10th visit at the store promotion / Been with the program for a year promotion
McLaughlin says it’s important to be “peppering that relationship with personalized, individual, data-driven messaging.” Springbig’s AutoConnect acts as a “set-it-and-forget-it” feature and gives retailers the ability to set those milestones, and the integration does the rest.
“For example, we [can] tell our Springbig platform, ‘Every day at 10 a.m., I want to text anyone who has a birthday that day and let them know that they’re going to get something special,’” she says, adding that the function can be further personalized to include purchase-driven incentives. Those who purchase edibles more frequently can even receive edibles birthday texts and those who enjoy flower will receive a discount on flower products.
Promotions can be even more aggressive for higher spenders, she adds.
“After a customer’s third visit, [a retailer could] send them a link to [the] menu and make sure that since they’ve tried us out and know what we carry, they know our most convenient way to order,” she says.
4. Analyze Text Messaging Campaign Data
A major advantage of a text message digital marketing platform is the ability to measure how well a campaign performed or how a retailer may need to course-correct.
One possible scenario: A retailer finds out their average ticket is $30 below the average in its market. Through automation, a text message campaign can reward extra points when customers spend more than the amount a retailer is shooting for. If you’re at $70 and want to be at $100, everybody who spends $100 gets 50 instant points to help staff offer that upsell.
“It’s so flexible, we can really build a true relationship management tool,” McLaughlin says.
It’s also important to analyze the difference in spend between a loyalty member and a non-loyalty member, she says, adding that loyalty members often spend more and visit more on average. “That’s a great benchmark,” McLaughlin says. “If you don’t see a difference, you want to dig into what’s causing that. Is it your loyalty program isn’t competitive? Is it not easy for customers to use? … All of those things can contribute there.”
5. Make Your Loyalty Program Easy
“Since the first wave of adult-use legalization across Colorado and the Pacific Northwest, dispensaries knew right away that keeping customers is a must because customers are hard to get. So loyalty has been a cornerstone of the cannabis retail playbook,” McLaughlin says.
That’s why retailers must make their loyalty program enticing and hassle-free. One way to achieve this is by allowing those enrolled to check their points easily while they’re outside of the dispensary.
“If a customer has to be in your store to find out their points, that’s a pitfall,” she says. “We want them thinking about that $10 off [discount] or that free pre-roll when they’re sitting on their couch figuring out where they’re going to restock.”
Springbig’s Rewards Wallet also helps entice loyalty members. “What’s cool about our Rewards Wallet is that it is so simple for customers to use because every time they shop they get a digital loyalty receipt,” McLaughlin says. That receipt comes in the form of a text message when a customer is on their way out the door, letting them know how many points they’ve just earned with a link to access their wallet. The Rewards Wallet is web-based, so no apps, log-ins or passwords are involved.
“They can bookmark that page to their home screen if they like, then we give the dispensary HTML codes that they can embed on their website as well as in-store QR codes that customers can scan to get links texted to them to get to their wallet if they can’t find them,” she adds. “Again, the less barriers to entry for a customer, the better.”
6. Incentivize New Customer Referrals
“Loyalty members account for the top percentage of spenders in the retail environment. So it’s a natural next step to leverage those relationships you have with your loyalty members for referrals,” McLaughlin says. “A strong loyalty program is the best tool to a great referral program. These people already love you, so they’re a natural shoe-in to be your best source of referrals.”
Springbig’s loyalty program is completely digital, making access to the referral program easy via its Rewards Wallet.
“For the dispensary, it’s just as easy because there’s no manual tracking. Everything happens through the behavior-based automation. So it’s been a huge asset for our clients that have been able to add this to their customer acquisition strategy,” she says, adding that the “canna-curious” demographic is one that’s most appealing to her.
“We’re seeing abundantly it’s easier to acquire that demographic off of a referral, which makes sense. If my mom hasn’t tried cannabis in 20 years, she’s much more likely to check out a dispensary if I tell her I’ve been there and I love it and they’ll help you find what you’re looking for,” she says.
