Why Is Your Cannabis Content Marketing Not Working?
Your time is valuable and your attention span is short so let’s cut to the chase. I’m the co-founder of Trichome 5 and I want this article to be the last “content marketing troubleshooting” article you ever have to read. Hire our team today and you’ll never have to worry about your customer experience and content strategy again.
Your Problem
Your content marketing efforts are failing to convert website visitors because 1-30% of website visitors lose interest in the first few seconds of reading. This is a fact. Even if you’re an award-winning writer, the likelihood of someone reading all of your work is around 50%! This means most of your website visitors aren’t even seeing all your hard work. It also means that the majority of your effort and time needs to be spent optimizing the first 50% of your content.
I’m already about to lose nearly 17.7% of my initial readers so before you leave to go waste more time researching content marketing best practices, please do yourself a favor and download the Trichome5 Content Marketing Strategy. No need to keep surfing the web for marketing solutions when we have all the solutions you need. Your cannabis or hemp brand has other projects to be tackling and Trichome5 is a full-service marketing agency that can help your brand stand out in-store and online. Our only objective is to become your long-term growth partner and we’re eager to EARN your business.
Our Secret Weapon
We are the only full-service marketing agency that specializes in helping cannabis and hemp brands sell more products by engaging consumers 5 senses (hence the name Trichome5). We work with industry leaders to help our clients not only perform digitally, but we offer marketing materials that actually smell like the cannabis strains they’re promoting. 60% of cannabis shoppers prefer to smell cannabis strains during the shopping experience and this provides a great LEGAL option. Scented marketing material can be used to entice website visitors to opt into online campaigns or can be used for marketing material at dispensaries. We also work with full-spectrum hemp brands that are looking to improve the unboxing experience for their CBD shoppers. – Learn more about selling cannabis with smell here – Cannabis Sensory Marketing.
Now let’s get back on topic...
Solution
So what’s the solution for short attention spans and improving content marketing results?
The solution is to do exactly what I just did in my first couple of paragraphs. Content marketers need to get straight to the point and stop wasting the reader’s time. Marketers need to fill the first 20% of their content up with CTAs and offers that add immediate value and help move your customer down the sales funnel and closer to a conversion. Some content developers may say this comes off too pushy, but the alternative is that your readers don’t see immediate value and leave. At Trichome 5 we know that many of our potential marketing clients don’t have the time to read a 25-minute blog post that was optimized for Google bots.
If your cannabis or hemp products are as good as you say they are then you are doing your customer a great service by getting directly to the point. Ask yourself the question of why did the website visitor land on this piece of content and what is the specific problem they are trying to solve? Providing immediate value could mean signing up for a new ebook offer or sending your customer directly to a product page for a quick checkout.
Trichome 5 - 80/20 Rule
If you’re a business owner, chief marketing officer, or executive you’ve already heard of the 80/20 rule and at Trichome 5 we have our own spin on it. In a nutshell, the 80/20 rule is designed to identify your company’s top priorities and claims that 80% of the outcomes (eCommerce revenue) come from 20% of the work.
At Trichome 5 our spin on the 80/20 rule is that 80% of our work time is spent on improving the first 50% of their content (first half) and only 20% on the second half. The final 50% of content still matters (especially for search engines), but when it comes to converting traffic and retaining readership it’s all about the first 50%. If your content doesn’t have a good hook or if you fail to get to the point within the first few seconds, then nothing else matters.
One could argue that 80% of the conversions come from the first 20% of the content, but we’ve chosen to focus on the first 50%. Online researchers have concluded that the bulk number of readers will leave your page around 30-50% completion. In order to keep people hooked on your content, you’ll want to throw a curveball, add more value, or spice things up when you’re about a third of the way into your writing. These same numbers can be applied to video marketing and we love writing video scripts.
The traditional 80/20 rule can also be applied to the amount of traffic your website generates. 80% of your traffic will come from only 20% of your indexed website pages and always remember that 80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers.
Get To The Point
Your website visitors are looking for information about your brand or products and web surveys have suggested that 60% of readers leave websites because the article wasn’t getting to the point. Before writing this blog I knew that you and anyone else who is still reading this blog has eCommerce and content marketing problems, so I got straight to the point. There’s no sense in creating long drawn-out articles of 1,500+ words unless you’re trying to rank higher in search engines (we do that too). Longer articles do help websites rank higher for search, but even when you’re writing long articles you should be able to condense everything into a half-a-dozen sentences. This executive summary should go at the top of the article along with your high-performing CTAs. Longer articles should also be edited to make sure there isn’t a dull spot in the middle and there should be similar CTAs and offers throughout the blog or article. Content marketing can be incredibly complex and readers may also leave your content because it’s unauthentic or too similar to your competitors. Don’t follow your competitors and create your own path. Download our full content marketing guide to learn the rest of our cannabis marketing secrets.
Long or short content
The reality of the situation is that marketing teams in companies all across the world are fighting an unseen marketing war. SEO experts want longer articles that rank higher, but the users that land on these pages don’t have time for a full tutorial. The end result is having blogs that rank high but have low conversions. At Trichome 5 I have personally created writing SOPs that keep our entire team of creatives focused on optimizing SEO results, while also respecting the reader’s time and the 80/20 rule. 80% of our team’s time is spent on the first 50% of your article or landing page. Our competition will typically pay their writers depending on how many words they write and this tends to create long-winded articles that fail to get to the point. Writing great articles and website copy is hard and most marketing agencies don’t have their incentives aligned to produce the best results for the client.
Who We Serve
Our preferred client is as passionate about sun-grown and biodynamic cannabis or hemp. They take pride in optimizing the full spectrum of bioactive chemicals and take great care of their trichomes (hence the name Trichome 5). Call us today, or send my co-founder (Casey@trichome5.com) or me (scott@trichome5.com) a direct email, we want to hear about your problems. If you have a cannabis or hemp product and it passes our smell test we would love to have you as a client. If your product sucks we can also help you out by referring your business to one of our competitors.
Who We Don’t Serve
If your peddling overpriced and low-quality cannabinoid isolates we’re probably not a good match. Science supports full-spectrum plant extracts and eating a diet of whole foods. If you’re selling and promoting isolated cannabinoids then you’re throwing the baby out with the bathwater. However, if you’re currently selling isolates and want to make a change, we may be able to help. Contact us today about launching your rebranded products and if needed we can set you up with our favorite private label manufacturer.
Marketing Lesson
The first 50% of any landing page or blog article needs to be your highest priority. By focusing on this high priority you will have the biggest impact on improving your content marketing ROI. If you have something important to say or if you want the reader to take the next step in their customer journey then you need to have multiple call-to-actions (CTAs) in the first half of your article. Even if your creative writing skills are an A+ the reality of the situation is that the majority of your readers are highly unlikely to make it to your conclusion, story wrap-up, or CTA at the bottom of your blog post.
When it comes to creating great online content for your brand you’ll need to have a great writer and know the best practices of writing for SEO optimization, but the real marketing experts focus on the top 50% and specializes in implanting CTAs that don’t feel too salesy. At Trichome 5 we challenge our writers to delete sentences while improving the clarity of our messages.
Conclusion
Wow, you’ve made it to the end!
I know that if you’ve made it this far that you’re looking for transparent and candid communication about your eCommerce problems and now you know that Trichome 5 can be your final solution. When it comes to the next steps please download our full Trichome 5 Content Marketing Guide (if you haven’t already) and contact us today. If you send us an email with the subject line “80/20 (insert brand name)” we will give you a 20% discount on our first month’s onboarding fee.