October 17, 2018
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If you’re marketing your products or services to marijuana license holders, then the data in this article about email engagement will help you make strategic decisions that can maximize your email marketing ROI.
Cannabiz Media analyzed email open and click-through behaviors for marijuana license holders who received messages from clients who subscribe to the Cannabiz Media License Database. Using the data, Cannabiz Media analyzed how email recipients engaged with the messages they received. In this analysis, engagement refers to the overall amount of license holders who have either opened a message or clicked on a link in any one email message that came from the Cannabiz Media License Database during the past 12 months. The results might surprise you.
Based on the data used in this analysis, testing facilities, retailers, and delivery companies are more likely to open email marketing messages. Overall, 72.04%, 68.63%, and 67.13% in each respective category have opened an email message coming from the Cannabiz Media License Database. On the other hand, dispensaries, cultivators, and distributors are least likely to open email marketing messages with only 47.15%, 48.69%, and 49.40% of license holders opening an email, respectively.
Once an email recipient opens a message, they have to decide whether or not they’ll click on any of the links in the message. Microbusiness, testing, and manufacturing license holders are most likely to click on a link in an email marketing message. Only 26.72%, 26.34%, and 26.06% of license holders in each of these respective groups clicked on a link in an email message.
At the opposite end of the engagement spectrum are distributors, dispensaries, and cultivators. Among these license types, 13.98%, 17.40%, and 21.15% clicked on a link, respectively. This isn’t surprising since these three types of license holders are also the least likely to open email marketing messages. You can’t click on a link in a message if you didn’t open it.
The chart below compares license holder engagement based on open and click behaviors, so you can see all of the specifics.
Cannabiz Media analyzed email marketing open and click behaviors for three license statuses: active, applied, and approved. As the chart below shows, opens and clicks were similar for active and pending licenses.
In addition, opens and clicks for active and pending licenses were much higher than opens and clicks for applied licenses. This makes sense as active and pending licenses are already in operation or close to operation while license applicants are much further from actually doing business. Marketing offers would be more interesting and relevant to active and pending license holders then license applicants.
In order to determine if the number of marijuana licenses in a state affects open and click behaviors for email marketing messages, Cannabiz Media extracted data for five states with a larger number of licenses and five states with a smaller number of licenses (approximately 150-384 licenses in total) that actually have email activity.
The five states with a larger number of marijuana licenses overall for the purposes of this analysis are Alaska, California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. The open and click-through behaviors for license holders in these five states shows they are more engaged than license holders in the five states with far fewer licenses: Arkansas, Arizona, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Nevada.
The charts below show the specifics for each state and license type. Here are some highlights extracted from the charts:
Using click-through behaviors as the best indicator of conversion, the highest number of clicks rates among license holders in the five states with a larger number of licenses were from Washington cultivators, Washington manufacturers, and Oregon dispensaries. The lowest number of clicks came from Washington distributors, Oregon distributors, Oregon cultivators, and Colorado cultivators.
Based on click-through behaviors as an indicator of conversions, the largest number of clicks among this audience were from Arizona distributors, Arizona manufacturers, and Arizona testing facilities. The lowest number of clicks came from Michigan cultivators, Michigan dispensaries, and Nevada distributors.
Based on the data compiled by Cannabiz Media from the Cannabiz Media License Database email marketing platform, you can tweak your email marketing strategy to improve your future ROI. Here are some tips to help you.
People open email messages based on the sender’s name and the subject line. If they know and trust the sender, they’re more likely to open a message, and if the subject line promises relevant, interesting content, they’re also more likely to open it.
Focus on sending highly-relevant, high-quality content and offers. Also, take steps to improve your message deliverability, and more marijuana license holders should open your messages. Follow the link to learn how to write email messages people actually read.
The first step to improve click behaviors is to improve open behaviors. Remember, email recipients can’t click on the links inside your messages if they don’t open those messages first. Therefore, re-read the above section about improving open behaviors before you do anything else.
If a lot of license holders are opening your messages but they’re not clicking on links in your messages, then you need to figure out what obstacle is keeping them from clicking. Test different offers, message copy, and images to see if more license holders click. Modify your targeting to learn if you’re mailing to the right people or not. Test sending your messages at different times and different days. In time, you’ll find the right recipe to optimize click behaviors.
You can do all of this and more with the email marketing tools built into the Cannabiz Media Licensing Database. Follow the link to schedule a free demo.
