REVIEWS ARE CRITICAL FOR CONSUMERS MAKING HEALTH-RELATED CHOICES. THAT MEANS THEY’RE KEY TO MEDICINAL MARIJUANA PROVIDERS.
Medical marijuana can help consumers to address a surprisingly broad array of health issues.
Researchers have found positive impacts in patients dealing with chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, inflammatory bowel disease, schizophrenia, post- traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, and more.1
But marijuana remains illegal on a federal level in the United States, and active campaigns to demonize even medical applications have skewed and confused public opinion.
And where do people turn in this situation? Online. Three-quarters (74.6%) of consumers go online to look for providers related to their health needs, and over two-thirds (69.9%) consider a positive online reputation to be very or extremely important when choosing a provider.2
Because of advertising constraints, many offering the modern-day word-of-mouth advertising upon which marijuana businesses rely (see the chart below).3
This makes reputation management a must do for any CBD or THC product provider. But what does that mean? What, exactly, must you do? That’s what this paper will show: how to use reputation management to build a powerful pipeline of prospects.
In This Paper...
1: What makes reputation management so effective for the cannabis sector in particular
2: Boosting discoverability
3: Establishing credibility and legitimacy
4: Top 8 reputation management do’s and don’ts
Reputation management is one of the most cost-effective customer acquisition channels for CBD & THC products.
Discoverability is a major challenge for marijuana businesses. Facebook and Google, for example, disallow drug-related promotions on their sites. And because marijuana is listed as a Schedule I drug – alongside heroin and cocaine – under the Controlled Substances Act, it is a felony to advertise for the sale of cannabis products.
“It’s definitely problematic,” Aaron Varney, the director of Dockside Cannabis, a Seattle retailer, told Marijuana Business Daily. “There’s not as many avenues to reach people.”4
Fortunately, reputation management offers a tremendously helpful vehicle to cultivate a pipeline of new prospective customers, largely because it defeats the advertising constraints on cannabis related businesses.
That’s because laws against advertising apply to the business, not to their customers.
Happy, satisfied customers can rave about your product or services without restraint. In fact, the unique circumstances of the cannabis industry make word-of- mouth and social media the most effective marketing techniques in the sector, according to the Marijuana Business Factbook.5
As a result, reputation management – including managing the business’s presence on social media, directory listings, and third-party review sites – enables medical cannabis providers to reach their target customers with a powerful sales message despite the difficulties of advertising in this space. Third-party review sites in particular can solve this challenge in a powerful way by supercharging discoverability.
Benefits of Online Reputation Management for Medical Cannabis
Extend social media reach Increase social media engagement Increase social media following
Cultivate a more positive brand reputation Build trust, credibility, and legitimacy Drive more traffic to your main website
Rank better through Google’s search ranking algorithm
Boost conversion rates and encourage faster conversions
“THE BEST ADVERTISING IS DONE BY SATISFIED CUSTOMERS.”
Philip Kotler, Author & Professor Emeritus of Marketing Northwestern University Kellogg School of Business 6
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Discoverability Through Directories and Review Sites |
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Mini-Googles |
Search Rankings |
SEO Strength |
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Think of review sites as their own mini Googles. Consumer visit them to learn more about specific providers and to discover new providers that can meet their needs. If your listing appears high enough among your competitors in the review site, it’s like appearing in a Google searching listing. Someone who’s looking for you but doesn’t know your organization exists yet can find you through your review site listing. And unlike Google, these sites will often let cannabis providers promote their listing to improve visibility. |
Review sites also appear in Google search rankings. If your own business website doesn’t have enough traction to appear at the top of the first page of search results, you lose a massive amount of visibility. However, third-party review sites frequently do make the first page for related consumer searches – like “Best THC Pills”, “Best CBD Oil and Tinctures”, or “Best CBD Oil Gummies for Anxiety”. If your organization is listed prominently on those review sites, you can achieve a de facto first page listing on Google for such searches. |
Review sites can strengthen your website’s SEO standing. Google’s search ranking algorithm pays attention to directory sites, review sites, and other sites that “cite” your organization. The algorithm notes the number of reviews and what reviewers say. In fact, reviews contribute between 13% and 16% of the weight for how high your site appears in the search listing, especially for local searches.7 That’s a huge amount of weight for just a single ranking factor. That means reputation management is an offsite SEO tactic that can raise your website’s standing with Google. |
Reviews further establish credibility and legitimacy, which is critical in a field with so much buyer uncertainty.
The power of reviews for medical marijuana go further than just discoverability.
Specifically, reviews pack such a powerful punch because they can also convince skeptical buyers to make a purchase decision. Uncertainty around whether a CBD- or THC-derived medical product will actually work, reputational harm from the demonization of marijuana, and the prevalence of misinformation in the marketplace can make cannabis-related purchases a fraught choice for consumers – especially those who are new to such products. They may be hopeful that they can find a solution to their personal health issues but confused and uncertain about what marijuana products can actually do for them. That skepticism can extend to distrust of claims made by the provider.
Reviews and social media discussion can counter that skepticism with real-world testimony from other customers. Thus, reviews can address every concern that even a skeptical buyer might have (see the table below).
Interestingly, you don’t need a perfect catalogue of five- star reviews to achieve these outcomes. In fact, studies have found that the likelihood of purchase peaks at ratings between 4.0 (out of five) to 4.7.8 The likelihood actually decreases as the rating gets nearer to five out of five. That’s because, once again, consumers don’t trust the reviews they read if they’re all too good. Search Engine Journal found that businesses with a negative one-star rating were significantly more likely to get conversions than a business with no reviews at all.9 In other words, any reviews are better than no reviews, and a slightly imperfect review score is better than a perfect one.
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Concerns About Side Effects |
Skepticism Of Claims |
Limited Understanding of Benefits |
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First, consumers want to know if their medical marijuana product will have undesirable side effects. Providers obviously have to be careful that they say here; they can’t make unprovable claims, and advertising limitations mean they can’t say some things at all. Reviewers, however, can talk about their experience freely and help prospective buyers to understand that marijuana can be genuinely helpful with few or even no side effects. |
Second, consumers want some kind of proof that benefit claims are realistic and achievable. Consumers tend to approach their research into medical marijuana with their BS meters turned to high. Worse, marijuana is often positioned as a miracle cure, and prospective buyers can be suspicious of this “overselling.” Reviews that testify to actual benefits – particularly if pulled from happy customers – make a big difference. |
Finally, consumers often have knowledge gaps they are trying to fill from trustworthy sources. Review sites can also address the sheer confusion around marijuana. Unfortunately, the average consumer has been exposed to an array of mixed, contradictory messages about medicinal applications. Reading a series of reviews about actual patients’ experiences with treatment can bring clarity where there was confusion. |
Top 8 do’s and don’ts for cannabis product providers when managing reviews
- DO ACTIVELY MANAGE REVIEWS.
Reviews affect your website and your business whether you do anything about them or not; ignoring them is just surrendering power and control over how they affect your business. - DON’T TRY TO MANAGE REVIEWS ON EVERY SINGLE WEBSITE.
It’s logistically impossible for most businesses to manage their reviews on every third-party website. Focus on the big ones – Google, Facebook, Yelp – and cannabis industry-specific ones. - DO MAKE SURE YOUR LISTING IS VISIBLE.
If you think of review sites as mini-Googles, you want your listing as close to the top as possible. If you can’t reach that position organically, you should strongly consider promoting your business listing. - DON’T TREAT REVIEW MANAGEMENT LIKE A ONE-TIME TASK.
48% of consumers only pay attention to recent reviews, according to BrightLocal.10 The good news: businesses with more than 9 reviews posted within the last 90 days earn 52% more than average.11 - DO ASK FOR REVIEWS.
Most customers will leave reviews if you simply ask. On the plus side, asking for reviews is correlated with an increase in overall rating, if only because you can control who you ask. - DON’T FREAK OUT ABOUT NEGATIVE REVIEWS.
Obviously, you want your overall rating to be high, but a negative review here and there is nothing to worry about. Do not respond defensively or combatively; it will backfire on you. - DO RESPOND TO NEGATIVE REVIEWS.
Want an easy way to double patient satisfaction? Per to the Patient Perspective 2019: Online Reputation Survey, that’s what happens when health groups address a patient’s negative feedback.12 - DON’T PAY FOR OR FALSIFY REVIEWS.
There’s a significant risk it will backfire. Fake reviews can lead to loss of reputation.13 They also violate most review site’s terms of service. It’s one thing to pay to promote your listing so it’s more visible; it’s another to falsify information on your listing.
References
1 https://www.webmd.com/pain-management/features/medical-marijuana-research-web#1
2 https://www.patientpop.com/blog/online-reputation-reviews/patient-perspective-online-reputation-survey- report/
3 https://mjbizdaily.com/weedmaps-faces-review-quandary/
4 https://mjbizdaily.com/weedmaps-faces-review-quandary/
5 https://embedsocial.com/blog/cannabis-marketing-ugc/
6 https://twitter.com/kotlerimpact/status/935254417560961024?lang=en
7 https://www.searchenginejournal.com/third-party-review-sites-seo/209190/
8 http://spiegel.medill.northwestern.edu/online-reviews/
9 https://www.senioradvisor.com/blog/2014/05/positive-consumer-reviews-double-move-rates-for-senior- living-providers/
10 https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/
11 https://www.womply.com/impact-of-online-reviews-on-small-business-revenue/
12 https://www.patientpop.com/blog/online-reputation-reviews/patient-perspective-online-reputation-survey- report/
13 https://mjbizdaily.com/weedmaps-faces-review-quandary/
