Situation:

Everest Apothecary (Everest) opened its doors in December 2016. Siarza Social Digital began to support Everest’s marketing efforts in just a month later and was tasked with helping to increase the visibility of the brand, dispensary and Everest’s handcrafted cannabis.

CHallenge:

With limitations on the imagery, and soliscitation of the cannabis sales SiarzaSD could publish on social media platforms, we had to create unique strategies to help promote in-store sales and reach audiences without the use of social media advertising.

A rapidly growing cannabis industry meant a long list of competitors in the market for Everest. Setting apart Everest’s digital presence, voice and visual direction also posed another challenge for the SiarzaSD team.

Tactics:

• A strategic content calendar:
  • SiarzaSD developed social media posts based on in-store sales and product releases making sure not to include pricing, percentages or words like “sale.”
  • Research on relevant third-party articles on medical cannabis health news, New Mexico cannabis law updates, and cannabis culture features were also included. The team also created graphic designs and event flyers that reflected the branding of the campaign.
• A strategic content calendar:
  • SiarzaSD captured imagery that showcased products in a setting were used to illustrate how product was grown in all natural soil and under green conditions for the highest quality
  • Imagery was also captured of individuals wearing Everest gear and active lifestyle shots for Everest’s subsidiary brands HeyDay and hoodoo.
  • SiarzaSD attended key events to provide live coverage social coverage at events Everest took part in including a hemp festival and music festival.
  • Snapchat filters were also created and placed at events like Hemp Fiesta to increase brand awareness.
  • Staff features were created to help Everest humanize their brand.
    

• A cohesive look and feel of Everest’s Instagram helped play to their lifestyle brand goals

• Creating a positive online relationship with consumers
• Providing a resource for online audiences
  • Blog: Because pricing and THC percentages could not be included on the social content, SiarzaSD created a robust blog updated as often as needed to promote these items. Traffic was driven to the blog from social posts.
  • Link.tree: SiarzaSD optimized the use of Instagram’s bio link so that multiple links could be accessed right from the social platform.

• SiarzaSD did regular monitoring of all review sites and responded to all reviews, good and bad, within a timely manner. SiarzaSD attempted to take all negative conversations offline and worked with the Everest team to to direct users to a phone or email to get in touch with a manger on bad experiences.
• Social media monitoring, management and analysis
  • SiarzaSD closely monitored user comments, reviews and questions and responded in a timely manner and earn Everest a 100 percent response rate on Facebook.
  • Monthly analytics were pulled into reports to show social media progress and identify opportunities to shift and continue on what was performing well among Everest’s audiences.

Result:

• Increased store visits
  • SiarzaSD worked closely with the team to see how social postings correlated with patient visits
  • Special engagements offered through social were used to drive traffic to the store

• Strengthened relationships with customers:
  • Responding to all reviews gave patients the opportunity to feel that their concerns were truly heard
  • Increased use of social media as a resource
  • Responding to all reviews showed a positive image of Everest and their customer service to outside users looking at reviews
  • Positive feedback from patients on in-store visits (Insights provided by Everest staff)

• Impressive Growth: Since SiarzaSD began work, Social Media has seen major increases in the following manner:
  • 80.43% increase in Facebook followers
  • 123600.00% increase in Instagram followers
  • 3180.00% increase in Twitter followers

Please note that this campaign is ongoing.