SEO

How to Create a CBD Blog Strategy

by Zach

No doubt, cannabinoids are dominating the wellness space and now’s the time to get your hand in the fully legal pot. Yet, the vastness of the CBD market can look scary as a newcomer. You’re stepping into a market with an established $2.8 billion in sales and competition at every turn. From medical practitioners and homeopaths to cannabis/hemp enthusiasts and average joes and janes, new CBD brands are birthed from every direction.

Of course, building a stellar digital marketing strategy should be one of the first things on your list as a newcomer to the CBD space. However, one seemingly small component of your strategy is nowhere near as small as it seems: your CBD brand’s blog.

What is CBD blogging? CBD blogging involves creating content that fits the narrative for your CBD products and brand. Your custom website can be outfitted with a blog section that you can fill with content, content that your brand’s target audience would either like to know or search for online.

To the untrained eye, a blog looks like just more words and pages. Yet, those words and pages could define your success in a highly competitive landscape. Here’s a look at why your CBD brand needs a blog, how to start a CBD blog, and even a few noteworthy examples.

More Than Words – Why Your CBD Brand Should Be Blogging

Did you know 77 percent of people online read blogs regularly? Another good one, blogging businesses have double the email traffic. Let’s get a closer look at the reasons CBD brands should be blogging.

Increase Site Traffic

Perhaps the most noteworthy advantage of a blog is the enhanced ability to take advantage of search engine optimization (SEO). In the world of eCommerce, SEO is everything that matters. In short, optimizing the pages of your website with highly searched keywords and phrases can garner your site’s pages prized rankings on search engine results pages. These words and phrases are used by search engines to determine how worthy a site is to visit when a user keys in related terms and phrases. Every new blog created means your website becomes broader, more enhanced with SEO. SEO leads have an impressive 14.6 percent close rate—an average of 14.6 percent of site visitors that find you through SEO are more likely to make a purchase.

Show Off Your Expertise

Blogs are said to be the fifth most trustworthy way for internet users to get information, and CBD is no exception. By incorporating thoughtful, well-researched blog pieces, you get to show anyone who lands on your site that you know your stuff. Much like most people would expect a hardware store clerk to tell them in-store what kind of fixture will work, website visitors expect brands to know something about what they’re selling.

Build a Community

Your blog can act as an information hub between your CBD brand and your audience, which does a lot to build a community of followers for your brand. Of course, social media marketing strategies and good communication are key, but the CBD blog you create can be consistently updated with communications from your brand. Blogs are an added level of interaction with your target audience, and almost like having an ongoing conversation with those followers.

Breed Brand Awareness

To succeed in CBD, you have to put yourself out there in a way that is more than a proverbial “Hi, My Name Is …” sticker. Imagine stepping into a room with a million other people and expecting anyone to remember your name when you leave. The ones that stand out tell you more about who they are and why you should know them. In a way, a blog helps you establish just that. Instead of just a sticker, people that run across your blog see your name, your products, your brand voice, and your expertise.

Highlight Brand Initiatives and Narratives

Unlike web pages, your blog offers the capability of more freedom with content. You get the chance to really highlight, portray, introduce your brand’s initiatives and share narratives. For example, if you are a CBD brand focused on sustainability and protecting the planet, your blog can serve up those core ideas to your target audience. These blog pages can be the defining facet of your brand—the one that builds that rapport and connection to customers.

The Secret’s in the Sauce – Creating the Most Effective CBD Blog Content

Creating the CBD blog that delivers everything you expect from the investment can take some doing. Naturally, you want your content built around your brand, your brand’s mission, and narrative, but you also have to be mindful of SEO value and what your targets will actually enjoy reading. This can be a big bill to fill, but certain topics tend to generate a substantial amount of traction for CBD brands, such as:

  • Ingredients in your CBD products
  • Where your CBD products are sourced
  • Why how you get your CBD is important
  • How your CBD products can offer certain values
  • Details on how to use your CBD products
  • Information relative to the products you provide (e.g. Spa topics for a brand that offers CBD bath bombs)

CBD is quite the popular cannabinoid—buyers are eager to learn. Give them the information they crave by covering a multitude of topics in a reliable, connectible way, and you’ll see major advantages.

A Look at Some of the Best CBD Blogs

If you take a look at some of the biggest names in CBD, you will definitely find a prominent blog on their website. Here are a few of our favorites.

Jenny’s Baked at Home

Jenny’s Baked at Home is a New York’s limited growers and processors, and they are also one of the few brands offering CBD derived from organically grown hemp. The founder actually found CBD during a transition to plant-based foods to support recovery after breast cancer. The blog is a wealth of information about the body-mind benefits of CBD, which totally matches the brand’s plant-focused wellness roots.

Tanasi

Tanasi is all about “healthy living rooted in science,” so the brand strives to weave that foundational belief into every product and portrayal of their online personality, including their blog. For that reason, the Tanasi blog is outfitted with an impressive collection of science-backed, educational pieces that position the brand as a reliable voice in the healthy living space.

Elmore Mountain Therapeutics (EMT)

Elmore Mountain Therapeutics was founded by a well-known power couple in the cannabis space, Ashley and Colin Reynolds. With EMT having a core mission of operating an environmentally sustainable business built around ideas of well-being, its blog offers the same unique tone. The EMT blog not only uses the blog to educate prospects about CBD and the cannabinoid’s many values but also to shed light on other pertinent topics related to ingredients used in their products.

Feeling Intimidated About CBD Blogging? Understandable—We’re Here to Help!

Is blogging important for CBD brands? Absolutely. Can blogging be difficult in a highly regulated space. Definitely. We get the hesitation when it comes to tacking a blog on a brand-new CBD website. Whatever content you create has to follow regulations set forth by governing entities, such as the ever-domineering Food and Drug Administration. Further, because CBD is a relative newcomer and still affiliated with cannabis, some nuances can get pretty confusing and challenging. It’s easy to make some massive mistakes just by using the wrong verbiage in your CBD blog content. Lastly, not everyone’s a blogger—blogs take time and effort to create, time not always readily available.

If you’re ready to build a blog to define your CBD brand, get traction online, and see better connections, CannaPlanners is here to help you out. We know the rules surrounding CBD products, so we can navigate effectively and build blogs filled with content that works for your brand and keeps you in good standing with the Powers That Be. Reach out to us to get a quote and discuss your ideas.