Does your marijuana marketing plan include a strategy specifically designed to attract older, senior customers? if not, here are some recent data that shows people over 65 in the USA have increased their use of cannabis by 75% in the last 3-years.
Marketing Marijuana To Seniors
When it comes to marketing marijuana online or in cannabis retail stores, you might want to consider a unique dispensary marketing strategy targeted to adults of 65 years of age.
Reason being, According to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the number of American’s over the age of 65 that reported using cannabis has dramatically increased.
The study found that marijuana use among seniors in the US increased from 2.4% in 2015 to 4.2% in 2018.
That’s an increase of 75% in 3-years!
What’s even more interesting, and exciting for marijuana marketers us that many of these adults surveyed weren’t first time users.
Joseph J. Palamar, an associate professor of population health at New York University Langone Medical Center and the study’s co-author, said that “the increase was likely due to more states legalizing over the three years and “increasing social acceptability in general.”
Palamar told UPI that he believes a lot of older people are hearing more and more about potential medical uses and many of these people are willing to try it out to see how it works.
In this article on marijuana dispensary marketing we’ll discuss proven tactics that you should be using to market cannabis to seniors in the USA.
Focus On Health & Wellness Education In Your Marijuana Marketing
So why are older people using more cannabis? It’s not just due to legalization in many US states and increased social acceptance nationwide.
As mentioned above, and it bears repeating, it’s important to note that a growing segment of your consumers is interested in using legal cannabis to manage health & wellness issues.
So how do you turn this valuable info into a lucrative dispensary marketing strategy?
That’s where a marijuana marketing agency like us comes in.
In order for this info to translate into sales, you’ll need to start with actively educating older adults on the health and medicinal benefits of cannabis. The key word being “actively”, as opposed to passively.
Examples of Actively Educating Older Adults:
- Regularly publishing high-quality informational & educational blog articles on your site 2-6x each month, for at least 6-12 months. These articles will answer all popular questions older adults are asking about using marijuana.
- Amplify this blog content by promoting articles using native ads/sponsored content ads on popular websites via the Outbrain ad network.
- Host weekly educational seminars, meet & greets, retail pop-ups, and products video webinars on your website. Provide high-quality information & education in return for email addresses and/or mobile phone numbers.
- Implement lead generation tactics on your website to capture email addresses in exchange for product recommendations, product guides and recommended dosages, and e-books.
Examples of Passively Educating Older Adults:
- Publishing blog articles on your site without SEO optimization hoping that people will find your content in search engines.
- Relying on organic search and direct website visitors alone to provide traffic to your valuable, informational and educational blog articles that are designed to educate users in order to increase store revenue.
- Refusing to use native ads/sponsored content ads on popular websites to drive highly-relevant traffic to your website to read your articles and build awareness, and possibly some trust, with new users.
Marketing Cannabis To Different Sub-Groups of US Adults Who Smoke Weed
This JAMA survey includes cannabis use information on nearly 15,000 US respondents, over 65 years of age, 55 percent of whom were male and 77 percent of whom were white.
Out of this group surveyed, they identified increases in cannabis use within certain sub-groups of US adults.
For example, the key subgroups include:
- women
- racial/ethnic minorities
- those with higher family incomes
- those with mental health problems
- older people with diabetes
- older adults who use alcohol
So how can you use this data in your marijuana marketing strategy?
Let’s break it down this way:
The data above shows us that people 65 years old and older, who fit into these 6 specific sub-groups, have all increased their cannabis use.
In other words, there is a huge demand for your product among these sub groups, so your should focus your online marketing & your blog content strategy to specifically target each of these subgroups.
If done properly and effectively, you could have a lucrative marijuana marketing strategy for your online store and/or your retail dispensary.
Distinct Marijuana Marketing For Each Sub-Group
The first step to create an effective marijuana dispensary marketing strategy for each sub-demographic of 65-year olds is to create unique consumer avatars or marketing personas for each cohort.
A cannabis buyer persona or cannabis customer avatar is a fictional person who represents your dispensary’s ideal customer.
Typically, your cannabis advertising company would create your company’s buyer personas to get crystal clear description of your target demographics.
When it comes to marijuana marketing, understanding your target customer and target cohorts is the key to a successful advertising campaign, and is the best way to achieve a positive ROI.
The following shows you high-level cannabis marketing tips for each lucrative subgroup/cohort identified above.
Marketing CBD to Senior Women
- Woman 65+ are a super lucrative demographic
- The JAMA study showed that the largest increase in marijuana use by those 65 and over is with women (up 93%)!
- This demographic is concerned with the following health, wellness, and cosmetic issues which cannabis and/or CBD may hemp:
- Arthritis
- Nerve Pain
- Anti-Aging
- Wrinkles
- Anxiety or Stress
- It would make sense to focus on your marketing to women in a niche. That is, woman who are looking for the beauty & cosmetic benefits of cannabis products like CBD creams for anti-aging and adult acne.
Cannabis Marketing to Racial & Ethnic Minorities
- In addition to cannabis use among women seeing a huge increase (+93%), the study identified that those 65 and older and identified as racial and ethnic minorities – up 336%!
- Clearly, you must focus some of your marijuana marketing tactics on this super lucrative and growing subgroup.
- What’s interesting here is that the survey didn’t ask subjects why they used cannabis products.
- So the study’s lead author Dr. Benjamin Han, assistant professor of geriatric medicine and palliative care at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, couldn’t definitely explain why these specific groups of people reported higher rates of marijuana use.
- We’d highly recommend building a few consumer avatars to help you understand how to effectively market your marijuana store to this cohort.
- One tip could be to use more ethnically diverse imagery and photographs on your website, in your blog articles, and in your email newsletters.
Marijuana Marketing For Seniors With Mental Illness
- We all know that cannabis and/or CBD products can help individuals to better manage their metal health.
- In fact, the study showed that those who had been treated for mental health issues in the past year have increases their cannabis consumption by 157%!
- The most effective way to reach this demographic is to focus your marijuana blog content strategy on publishing high-quality, SEO optimized, keyword rich articles extolling the health & wellness benefits of cannabis on mental health.
Marketing Cannabis to Diabetic Seniors
- Here is something that may be surprising: the number of diabetics that are using more weed has increased 180% between 2015 and 2018.
- It may be worth testing this statistic and creating content for your blog (and email newsletters) where you discuss the health & wellness benefits of cannabis for diabetics.
- Start by doing keyword research on the types of questions people are asking about marijuana and diabetes, and find the phrases that would be most profitable for your specific business/product line.
- Create the high quality, informational, & educational content, publish it on your site, and promote the content using sponsored content advertising placements on popular websites.
We Can Help You Build Your Marijuana Marketing Strategy!
If you’re convinced that your dispensary or online cannabis store needs a distinct marketing strategy targeting the lucrative groups discussed in this article, we can help you with that!
Our team consists of professional and experienced cannabis and CBD content writers as well as highly experienced cannabis SEO strategists.
We’ve been strategically managing and executing marijuana marketing strategy since 2017 and CBD marketing campaigns since 2018.
Please call us for a free 30-minute consult or email us to request a quote.
We’re Ready To Help You Grow!
