What may be a medium written off by other industries should be regarded as an opportunity for marketing that packs a punch for your dispensary. You see, Americans spend 70% of their waking hours outside their homes, and 96% of them will come in contact with a billboard during their day. Well, you ask, how many of them actually remember seeing it? Is it relevant to an age of marketing that’s shifted towards favoring digital mediums? The answer is yes and according to OOH Advertising, 71% of people who see a billboard, will remember it. So, how can you take advantage of billboard advertising for your dispensary? There’s an art to it, and we’ve broken down our top tips for you below.
1. Regard Marijuana Dispensary Billboard Advertising as a ‘Secondary’ Medium
We’re addressing this tip first because it’s critical to the success of your billboard marketing campaign – Do not plaster your dispensary’s phone number, full address, or your website URL on your billboard. Aside from taking up valuable space on your newly acquired piece real estate, it’s more often than not useless and irrelevant to your viewer. They’re passing by, not standing in front of you plugging your info into their browser.
Billboards are meant to be a secondary medium to enhance your other marketing campaigns, digital or otherwise, so design it accordingly. Use this opportunity to brand yourself, speak to your customer, incite interest so that next time they see your print ad in the local magazine or your banner on Leafly or WeedMaps, they recognize you and take action.
2. Keep it Simple
It’s a billboard, not your website – Keep it simple, clean and focused. When it comes to design aesthetic, give everything on your billboard some breathing room. Don’t try to squeeze everything in – it will look cluttered and overwhelming and your potential customer won’t even bother themselves with a glance in your direction. When choosing your message, we’d challenge you to limit yourself to a maximum of 6 words. If that sounds crazy to you, your message is probably too confusing, to begin with, and it’s time for a round-table with your team.
3. Be Witty, Not Clever
This goes along with our ‘simple is best’ advice above. Use this space to make an impact – show your customer you have a personality, but don’t get too clever. Remember, they’re passing by, not posting up front for the 3 minutes it takes for your joke to make sense to them. Be quick-witted and ensure that your message can be digested in a millisecond.
4. Your Strength is in Numbers
In general, marketing is often more successful when it’s a campaign broadcast across multiple channels. It’s about strength in numbers and billboard marketing is no different. When considering whether or not to use this medium for your dispensary, plan to invest in multiple billboards – They’re much more effective as a pack. Again, we’ll reiterate what we said above – Billboards are best for building awareness and to do so, you’ll need to appear before your customer multiple times. It’s a method called repetitive frequency and it goes something like this (adapted from Thomas Smith’s book, “Success Advertising”):
The 1st time people look at your ad, they don’t see it.
The 2nd time, they don’t notice it.
The 3rd time, they are aware that it is there.
The 4th time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it before.
The 5th time, they actually read your ad.
The 6th time, they thumb their nose at it.
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The 10th time, they ask their friends or neighbors if they know about you.
The 11th time, they wonder how your company is paying for all these ads.
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The 13th time, they start to feel your product has value.
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The 17th time, they make a commitment to buy your product.
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The 20th time prospect sees your ad, and they buy what you’re offering.
5. Be Visual, First and Foremost
When we say to use this as an opportunity to brand yourself, we don’t mean popping your dispensary logo on a white background and calling it a day. While we do recommend including your logo and honing in on your messaging, remember that billboards are meant to be visual, eye-pleasing marketing assets.
Ask yourself: How can we catch someone’s eye and make a lasting impression? When you’re confident you’ve crafted a creative answer to this question, you’re ready to take full advantage of the value marijuana dispensary billboards can bring to your marketing campaigns!
