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Ultimate Guide to CBD Marketing

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With the legalization of marijuana happening left, right, and center, it was just a matter of time before the cannabis industry enjoyed unprecedented growth. The legal cannabis market in the US alone is projected to be a $20 billion dollar business by 2020.

One specific subset of the cannabis industry is all the rage right now, so much so that it is turning into a multi-billion-dollar industry on its own. According to market analysts, the CBD oil segment is expected to be worth around $20 billion by 2024.

As a consequence, more and more players are entering this market.  It is already an uphill battle trying to differentiate your CBD e-commerce business from your competitors.

It therefore becomes obvious that brands need to adopt a proper CBD marketing strategy if they are to rise to the top of the graph and stand apart from their competition.

To that end, we’ve put together a comprehensive cannabis and CBD oil marketing guide to give you a holistic picture of how to market your CBD brand like a pro in 2019 and beyond.

 

What is CBD?

Cannabidiol – often abbreviated CBD – is a popular compound that is extracted from the flowering tops, leaves, and resin of two strains of the cannabis plant: industrial hemp and marijuana. You can read more about it here.

CBD belongs to a broader class of compounds called cannabinoids that are found in abundance in the cannabis plant. There are around 113 known active cannabinoids on the plant; THC is the most prevalent, with CBD right behind it.

Unlike THC which, when ingested or smoked, is known for delivering the “high” feeling typically associated with marijuana, CBD doesn’t produce a sense of euphoria, hallucination or psychoactivity when consumed.

The marijuana plant has plenty of THC — or Tetrahydrocannabinol; it is also a decent source of cannabidiol.

 

How big is the CBD market?

A doctor holding medical supplies for CBD marketing

The CBD market is already huge, and it is growing rapidly-thanks to increasing acceptance by consumers, continued research into its benefits and favorable legislation like the federal Farm Bill 2018.

Conservative figures say CBD sales will rake in more than $1.8 billion annually by 2022, an impressive jump from sales of approximately $500 million in 2018. For a couple of years, experts have forecast that the CBD consumer market will soon outperform the entire legal cannabis industry.

However, a closer look at performance trends shows that the CBD market in America is actually following in the footsteps of the legal marijuana market, which is estimated to be worth over $23 billion in the next half decade or so.

 

Why has CBD become so popular?

Why are millions of consumers indulging in CBD products these days? The following noteworthy benefits may explain its popularity:

 

CBD is not psychoactive. This is the overarching property that makes CBD be perceived as more acceptable and safer than other cannabis products. As already mentioned, unlike THC, CBD doesn’t have any psychoactive effects when vaped, smoked, ingested, or applied to the skin. In short, anyone can use it without the risk of getting high, which is a big plus.

 

It’s legal. Perhaps the most defining reason why CBD has enjoyed a popularity wave is that the sale of CBD products became completely legal after passage of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (aka Farm Bill 2018). You cannot say the same about other cannabis products in the US, such as marijuana, which has yet to be legalized in the majority of US states.

 

It’s an effective alternative treatment. There are hundreds of scientific research studies and reviews showing that CBD is indeed effective in addressing a wide array of conditions related to depression, anxiety, and pain. Here are some demonstrated CBD benefits:

  • CBD oil fights pain. Studies have shown that CBD is a promising alternative treatment for the pain associated with a number of conditions: migraines, Multiple Sclerosis, muscle spasms, arthritis, lupus, digestive problems, cancers, and much more.
  • CBD oil soothes depression. CBD has been found to increase the levels of happy-feel hormones such as serotonin. These biochemicals promote calmness and deactivate the compounds responsible for sadness, hopelessness and other symptoms of depression.
  • CBD oil helps with cancer pain relief. CBD has shown great potential for alleviating pain related to cancer and cancer treatments, for example: chemotherapy.

If that isn’t incredible enough, scientists and researchers have carried out studies that seem to suggest CBD can be a potential treatment for many cognitive decline and brain-related conditions such as: Huntington’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, PTSD, bipolar disorders, Parkinson’s Disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS), and more.

In fact, the first-of-its-kind CBD-based drug for epilepsy, Epilodex, has recently been green-lighted by the Food and Drug Administration.

 

 

To read the full article, click here: https://www.digitalauthority.me/resources/cbd-marketing/

The ABCs of CBD Marketing

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US-based CBD brands can now sell on Shopify, opening up the industry to the platform’s serious potential to propel growth. Find out what you need to know when marketing your eCommerce CBD business.

 

With Shopify’s announcement that US merchants can now sell CBD products on its platform, brands across the country have a new opportunity to tap into an industry set to reach $22 billion by 2020.

For the uninitiated, CBD is cannabidiol, derived from the hemp plant and used in a range of products from pain relief creams to dietary supplements, cosmetics, and more. With its meteoric rise in popularity, it’s an industry ripe for eCommerce takeover.

However, even though hemp-based products are in high demand, navigating in this space can be tricky, and brands are taking creative approaches to growing their business. Like all direct-to-consumer brands, those selling CBD products can turn their Shopify stores into a massive success by being smart about their marketing strategy and encouraging existing customers to spread the word.

Here are three key tips for effectively marketing CBD products online:

1) Turn your best customers into your biggest advocates

Most shoppers would rather buy a product recommended by a friend or family member, and 60% of loyal customers recommend the brands they love. So, with the odds in your favor, the smartest thing to do for your CBD brand is set up a referral program.

You can add the option to refer directly onsite, so shoppers can share as they checkout, or you can send a post purchase email promoting referrals. By incentivizing referrals — offering 15% off for referrer and referee, for example — you not only encourage the natural phenomenon of word-of-mouth marketing, but you also have control over the acquisition cost and don’t have to go through traditional advertising channels.

Make sure shoppers have to option to share referral links privately, since the one-to-one effect really makes a difference. A personal link sent through Facebook Messenger or email is up to 15x more effectivethan just posting it on Facebook or another social platform.

Once a customer refers a friend, the benefits continue to grow: the LTV of a referred customer tends to be 3x higher than that of an average shopper, since they feel more connected to the brand from the get-go.

2) Start small on social

Influencers are your friends when traditional social advertising is not. But it’s not just any influencer who can bring high-intent traffic to your CBD store. Look for micro-influencers who post unique, high-quality content and whose followers are engaged. CBD products are often highly personal, and when influencers have hundreds of thousands of followers, the experiences they share with those products are unlikely to resonate as deeply across such a broad follower base.

Once you have a few micro-influencers who love your products, make sure you nurture those relationships. Treating your influencers like friends rather than business opportunities helps strengthen their connection to your brand and encourages them to create better, more engaging content.

 

To read the full article, click here: https://www.yotpo.com/blog/cbd-shopify/

Facebook Alternatives: 7 Alternatives to Advertising on Facebook to Consider

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Alternatives to Facebook Marketing

Listen to your Grandma: Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

Sure, your Gran probably wasn’t talking about Facebook marketing, but her wisdom holds true.

For some time now, the cost of advertising on Facebook has increased while impressions have gone down.

Facebook Advertising Costs

Relying too much on one form of customer acquisition is dicey for any business. You’re bound to get caught with your pants down at some point.

Plus, you’re missing out.

People don’t just use Facebook. In fact, the average internet user has an average of 7.6 social media accounts!

There are also tons of other advantages to diversifying your advertising channels, such as cross-channel retargeting.

Bottom line, diversity brings security and advantages.

In this article, you’ll get an overview of seven channels that are great alternatives to Facebook.

Let’s dive in.

Post Contents [show]

Facebook Alternative #1: Google Ads

Google Ads is one of the best alternatives to marketing on Facebook.

In fact, Google is the only digital advertising channel that receives more U.S. digital ad spend than Facebook.

This is unsurprising when you consider that Google processes more than 4.5 billion search queries each day – that’s over 70,000 search queries every second.

You can use Google Ads to advertise on their Search Network and/or their Display Network.

Advertising on Google’s Search Network is when you bid to place your ads on Google’s search engine results page, or “SERP.”

Here’s an example from footwear company Vivobarefoot:

Google Ads

Next, advertising on Google’s Display Network lets you place ads on websites which use Google AdSense:

Google Network Ads

There are numerous benefits to using Google Ads, such as:

  • Advanced targeting
  • Budget control
  • Highly measurable
  • Fast results
  • Remarketing tools

Google Ads is based on a pay-per-click auction system.

In essence, advertisers bid on keywords, and the highest bid wins the advertising opportunity. Then, advertisers pay Google each time someone clicks on one of their ads.

To get started, check out our guide: Google Adwords Tutorial: A Step-by-Step Guide to Your First Campaign.

Facebook Alternative #2: Instagram

Instagram may be owned by Facebook, but it’s a different beast entirely.

Instagram has experienced massive growth in recent years and now has more than one billion monthly active users.

Plus, more than half of Instagram’s users visit the platform at least once per day, making it a brilliant alternative to Facebook.

So much so, that many advertisers are shifting ad dollars from Facebook to Instagram.

In fact, performance marketing agency Merkle recently reported that ad spend on Instagram was growing at four times the rate of ad spend on Facebook.

Specifically, year on year during Q2, Instagram’s ad spend went up 177 percent compared to Facebook’s 40 percent increase.

And there’s more.

This advertising channel is ideal for businesses outside of the U.S. or those looking to expand internationally, as 80% of the platform’s user base lives outside of the U.S.

Unsurprisingly, most of Instagram’s users are Millennials. In fact, 31% of Instagram users are 18 to 24 years old, and 30% are 25 to 34.

You can run five different types of Instagram ads:

  1. Photo ads
  2. Video ads
  3. Carousel ads
  4. Slideshow ads
  5. Stories ads

AirBNB Instagram Ads

It’s also easy to get started with Instagram ads if you’re currently advertising with Facebook. This is because Instagram ads are managed through Facebook’s ad manager.

To learn more, check out: Instagram Ads: How to Successfully Sell Your Products.

Facebook Alternative #3: YouTube

YouTube now has nearly 1.8 billion monthly active users.

It’s Google’s most popular service, with viewers watching more than 1 billion hours of video each day.

Here’s the crazy part…

YouTube on mobile alone reaches more 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S.

This advertising channel is well worth exploring, especially as video content is expected to claim 80 percent of all web traffic by 2019.

And according to “The State of Video Marketing in 2018,” 81 percent of people are convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video. Plus, 76 percent of businesses say video helped them increase sales.

When it comes to marketing, YouTube is a suitable alternative (or addition) to Facebook, with advanced targeting, remarketing capabilities, and plenty of other features.

There are six types of YouTube ads you can use:

  1. TrueView ads
  2. Non-skippable instream ads
  3. Bumper instream ads
  4. Sponsored card ads
  5. Overlay ads
  6. Display ads

These various advertising formats allow you to get extremely creative with your messaging and content.

For example, check out how Nike showcases their brand personality in this six-second bumper video ad:

YouTube also allows you to set your video campaign objective from one of the following:

  • Leads
  • Website traffic
  • Product and brand consideration
  • Brand awareness and reach

YouTube Ad Types

To get started, check out: YouTube Ads for Beginners: How to Launch Your First Campaign.

 

To read the full article, click here: https://www.oberlo.com/blog/alternatives-advertising-facebook

Amazon vs. Google: Decoding the World’s Largest E-commerce Search Engine

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A lot of people forget that Amazon is a search engine, let alone the largest search engine for e-commerce. With 54 percent of product searches now taking place on Amazon, it’s time to take it seriously as the world’s largest search engine for e-commerce. In fact, if we exclude YouTube as part of Google, Amazon is technically the second largest search engine in the world.

As real estate on Google becomes increasingly difficult to maintain, moving beyond a website-centric e-commerce strategy is a no brainer. With 54% of shoppers choosing to shop on e-commerce marketplaces, it’s no surprise that online marketplaces are the number one most important digital marketing channel in the US, according to a 2018 study by the Digital Marketing Institute. While marketplaces like Etsy and Walmart are growing fast, Amazon maintains its dominance of e-commerce market share owning 47 percent of online sales, and 5 percent of all retail sales in the US.

Considering that there are currently over 500 million products listed on Amazon.com, and more than two-thirds of clicks happen on the first page of Amazon’s search results—selling products on Amazon is no longer as easy as “set it and forget it.” 

Enter the power of SEO.

When we think of SEO, many of us are aware of the basics of how Google’s algorithm works, but not many of us are up to speed with SEO on Amazon. Before we delve into Amazon’s algorithm, it’s important to note how Google and Amazon’s starkly different business models are key to what drives their algorithms and ultimately how we approach SEO on the two platforms.

The academic vs. The stockbroker

Google was born in 1998 through a Ph.D. project by Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin. It was the first search engine of its kind designed to crawl and index the web more efficiently than any existing systems at the time.

Google was built on a foundation of scientific research and academia, with a mission to;

“Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” — Google

Now, answering 5.6 billion queries every day, Google’s mission is becoming increasingly difficult — which is why their algorithm is designed as the most complex search engine in the world, continuously refined through hundreds of updates every year.

Amazon doesn’t have searcher intent issues

When it comes to SEO, the contrasting business models of these two companies lead the search engines to ask very different questions in order to deliver the right results to the user.

On one hand, we have Google who asks the question:

“What results most accurately answer the searcher’s query?”

Amazon, on the other hand, wants to know:

“What product is the searcher most likely to buy?”

On Amazon, people aren’t asking questions, they’re searching for products—and what’s more, they’re ready to buy. So, while Google is busy honing an algorithm that aims to understand the nuances of human language, Amazon’s search engine serves one purpose—to understand searches just enough to rank products based on their propensity to sell.

With this in mind, working to increase organic rankings on Amazon becomes a lot less daunting.

 

To read full article, click here: https://moz.com/blog/amazon-vs-google

Email Attack Protection Best Practices and Anti Spam Techniques

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The costs of email attack is devastating for businesses. These costs include financial loss and payout, but also the negative branding and reputational harm. The average cost of a spear or phishing incident runs upwards of anywhere between $1.6 and $2 million dollars. Part of the reason that this is the place where businesses are vulnerable is that it is up to each individual employee to read and interpret emails to make sure they are legitimate.

email attack main image

Most of the time, large businesses are hacked when a small or medium business that they do business with has been put under email attack. The cybercriminals use this channel to get to the data of the larger company as well. The types of the breadth of email phishing attacks vary. A few examples from 2018 exemplify the scale of phishing attacks. These include rentals during the World Cup in which people wanted to gain personal information through promising free trips or lodging to the World Cup. Another example is email account takeovers where the behavior of the customer is studied.

Verizon conducted a report and found that about 50 percent of the people who receive a phishing email, actually click on the link. The email attacks lead directly to data breaches and possible identity theft. This spear fishing represents an evolution of email attack from broad and general to targeted and focused.

Information Gained

Cybercriminals have different reasons for wanting to gain entry into a customer database or other dataset. These include malware, authentication credentials discovery, and corporate information requests.

Malware is a general term for any type of malicious email attack that puts a virus, spyware, or worm on a computer. Authentic credentials discovery is a prime way that identity theft happens. The email attack is designed to access databases full of private information. Cybercriminals often want some level of corporate information including proprietary or patent information.

To read the full article, click here: https://www.motocms.com/blog/en/email-attack-protection-antispam/

HTTP vs. HTTPS: Which is Better?

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Unless you are tech savvy and are constantly keeping up to date with the latest digital trends, the average user would probably not understand what HTTP or HTTPS even means. In simple terms, HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol and is the most common way to connect and access websites. On the other hand, HTTPS is another iteration of HTTP but adds a layer of security to handle confidential material. Another protocol that can be used with HTTPS is the secure socket layer (SSL) which checks to make sure that the information from one party sent to another is consistent without any tampering.

HTTPS is used for e-commerce businesses or banks who require online payments via credit card since the added layer of security and encryption make it a safer choice than HTTP. Now that you know which one is better to use, how does HTTPS contribute towards Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? When it comes to Google search, Google tends to put preference towards safer websites which HTTPS fulfills. Ultimately, this leads to slightly increased rankings for websites that use HTTPS but what mostly changes the ranking is still website content.

E-Commerce Sales are Increasing by more than 17% this Holiday Season

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The holiday season is approaching and with the months of November and December having the most demand in consumer shopping its time to prepare your business. According to eMarketer, digital sales are expected to be 10.7% of the total retail that represents $94.71 billion this year. With the increase in demand of online shopping, businesses are not only expected to stock up their shelves but to have their websites and mobiles sites prepared. That is because US e-commerce sales are growing by 17.2% this holiday season. Mobile retail is another important factor of holiday sales accounting for $115.92 billion of sales this year. By the year 2020 it is expected for mobile retail to be nearly half of all e-commerce sales. This year $67.23 billion represent mobile commerce on smartphones. With research demonstrating the increase in demand of e-commerce and mobile commerce, businesses are expected to have the most innovative technology for their consumers. This includes, websites and mobile applications that make it simpler for consumers to do their shopping. RG Pacific can help your business develop the website you need for this upcoming holiday season. Be a part of the innovative businesses that contributes to the billion-dollar sales of e-commerce.


For more information about RG Pacific’s e-commerce services, click here.

To read the full article from eMarketer click here.

 

Instagram is Changing the Way Businesses Advertise on Social Media

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RG Pacific has actively proven that Social Media Marketing (SMM) can elevate a company’s customer base and increase sales in a dramatic way. SMM implements social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to successfully brand and market a business among today’s largest communities. Through years of successful experience and training, our web and marketing team at RG Pacific has mastered the algorithms behind top and upcoming social media platforms to help our clients create an impactful social media marketing plan. We like to live on the cutting edge of marketing innovation so our customers’ businesses stay ahead.

Until recently, marketing boutiques such as RG Pacific had little control over the reachable demographic on the image based social media platform: Instagram. On the other hand, Twitter and Facebook had optimized features, such as paid in-app advertising, feedback on activity, and interactive platforms. Instagram was a relatively elusive platform for the purpose of SMM.

According to a Pew Research Center report, 72% of online American adults use Facebook. So, when Facebook purchased Instagram in 2012 they also acquired the data from Instagram’s younger demographic. Since its acquisition of Instagram, Facebook has already begun making changes within Instagram that allow the RG Pacific’s marketing team to use Instagram in innovative ways to bring more customers to our clients. We are able to gain more insight into our target demographics’ preferences through the use of Facebook and Instagram’s detailed demographic data. Additionally, Facebook has incorporated their algorithms into Instagram news feed, which allows relevant and personalized content to be featured on a user’s Instagram homepage, placing our advertisements in the hands of potential customers.

Our team of experts recognize the immense value Instagram presents to our clients when it comes to accessing potential buyers and brand followers. Instagram now has 500 million users, and 300 million of them actively use the app every single day. Collectively, Instagram users are tapping the “like” button on Instagram 4.2 billion times per day, placing Facebook’s latest project on the forefront of user interaction. Our team at RG Pacific has years of working with Facebook algorithms which are now being implemented within Instagram. By combining this knowledge with our creative content development, we have finally gained control over how our clients are represented on Instagram.

With a highly comprehensive grasp on the back-end functions of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, RG Pacific has completed the SMM trifecta and we are excited to bring this knowledge to our clients. RG Pacific uses our client’s accounts to create content that reflects the culture of the consumer using the data provided on Analytics reports, social media insights, and e-commerce data. Our creative team works closely with the companies we represent to increase their online presence and generate leads to their products and services. We customize our SMM services to develop inspired marketing campaigns and engaging content to increase followers. In addition to these services, our team creates reports on conversions, clicks, and levels of engagement to help our clients keep track of the progress they are making on the online community. Give us a call at (888) 568-2555 to learn more about how the team at RG Pacific can help your company get into the hands of thousands of potential new customers.

Resell to Your Customers in Their Pockets- Mobile App E-Commerce is Here

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Mobile has now become a household name. In just a few years, having a mobile website has gone from a novelty to a must have. Nearly 80% of new websites are now built on a “responsive” platform, meaning that the site can respond to any screen size, most importantly mobile devices.

Online Stores have known the importance of mobile for a while. E-Commerce giants like Amazon and Best Buy have re-aligned their marketing strategies that are heavily based on mobile with the creation of mobile apps for devices. Amazon created the “one click” checkout option that made buying on mobile phones easy; some even prefer it over the regular desktop website. Best Buy began offering deals solely available on their mobile applications, giving users an incentive to carry Best Buy in their smartphones. As these E-Commerce giants paved the way, small businesses online only hoped that one day such an option would be available for their own stores. That time is now.

Mobile Application development has never been easier and more affordable. With the growth of the Android Platform and popularity of Apple iOS, both platforms have adapted more web friendly application code, which has allowed web developers to also code for mobile. Since 2006, mobile app development costs have dropped nearly 40% due to the growth and rapid popularity of Mobile.

But, as many online stores looking to develop an app ask- do you really need it? Aren’t you doing enough by simply having a mobile responsive website? The answer is a confident NO. And here is why.

mobile-app

1. A Mobile App is always on

Think about it. Google Maps. Facebook. Foursquare. All these apps are usually always on when you are using your phone. Google Maps tracks you via GPS. Facebook sends you messages and alerts you as they come in. For your online store, you have un-interrupted access to your customers when you need to give them alerts. Have a special sale coming up? Send them a notification! Is their order ready to ship? Send them their tracking order directly. Being always available to your customers with their smart phones is more effective than Email, Social Media, and Website Messages COMBINED.

2. Your store is always OPEN

Imagine the ease of your customers when, instead of walking over to their laptop and coming across your email (remember that only 5-10% of emails get read on average), they simply open your store application and see what is new. This is the instant access that will seperate you from your competition. The mobile application does not have to be a MOBILE STORE, it can simply be a gateway to your current mobile site. The advantage is  in the perks of an online app- location tracking, easy login, more personal preferences, and ease of communication.

Again, you do not need to develop a whole new shopping experience- unless you want to. Both linking to your online store or creating a shopping experience work. The latter takes advantage more of the advantages of an online mobile app shopping experience- better images, easier checkout,  custom shopping process experience, and more importantly, instant tracking data when, where, and how users buy your products in real time.

The time to get mobile is now. So get in your customers pockets!

How Much Does an E-Commerce Online Store Website Cost? Depends on What You Really Need

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As an E-Commerce Development company, many bricks-and-mortar retailers always call and ask me this question before anything else is discussed- “how much will an e-commerce website cost me?” And I always reply with the same response, “What do you need?”

An online store can go from simple to complex, because its functionality can vary. Are your customers local or national? Do you sell to consumers or wholesalers, maybe even dealers? Do you drop-ship? Will your site be public or private? Those are just a few questions that I pose to retailers looking to get online, and the answers are different each and every time. For a few hundred dollars, you can get an online store up. Yahoo, Godaddy, and template based websites give you E-Commerce sites for cheap. BUT do you really want to give your customers the impression that you are a run-in-the-mill company? Will you be comfortable knowing your online store will look like thousands of others?

Imagine this: You are walking down the hallways of your local shopping mall. On one side you have Coach, which is a store that stands out, exudes class and brand. On the other side, you have a ROSS store (no offense to those who love that store), a location that looks like a low-end clearance store. Which store you think will appeal more to your customers? Visualizing that scenario should give you an idea of what it takes to create an Online Store.

There is so much functionality that can be done. An Online store can be customized in two ways- look and feel, and functionality. The way your online store looks is vital. The homepage must be an attention grabber, similar to what you experience when walking into a retail store. Also consider that 46% of local searches are done on mobile phones now, so if your business has a local reach, a “responsive” design, which has both a web and mobile version, should be considered. Functionality will really determine your overall investment. A simple store will allow categories, product detail pages, and checkout. But what if you want to add more?? Coupon codes, social media sharing, posting reviews, price comparison, filters, and other options are add ons, but for many retailers, must haves. Those development tools are functions that you should consider in order to realize an adequate budget.

As you see, an online store takes considerable planning. You must determine who your target customer is, what you want your visitors to experience, and how unique you want your online shopping pathways to be to your visitors. Once you figure out what exactly you need, you will be able to fetch adequate quotes with options that are ideal for your business.

 

We are now Shopify Plus Partners!

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