When researching cannabis digital ads or different kinds of guerilla marketing, you may hear industry people talk about “conquesting” and “prospecting”. These terms describe strategies within the digital marketing realm to target prospective audiences for your brand. Conquesting means, targeting your competitors’ audiences, and prospecting simply means, seeking out new potential customers—both play pivotal roles in the cannabis industry’s growth. By using cannabis digital ads to promote your brand & products, SM Services can target your competitors’ customers and tap into new segments, creating a whole new customer base for your business.
Conquesting Unveiled
Conquesting is the act of targeting your competitors’ business and putting your ads in front of the competitors’ audience. It is most clearly illustrated in geo targeted cannabis digital ads. With SM Services geotargeting services we can set up a geofence around different locations or addresses (like competitor dispensaries, smoke shops, and other points of interest) and serve impressions to people who walk through that specific area. It’s like having fliers taped to your competitor’s door. Conquesting is great for cannabis digital ads because it provides you with a proven pool of customers in an area. This method along with our comprehensive data will provide you with the insight you need to really drive new customers to your business.
Prospecting: Nurturing New Horizons
Prospecting is using consumer insights and demographic data to serve impressions to a likely buyer. It covers people who are interested in cannabis that might not be shopping at any of the dispensaries or smoke shops you’re targeting through conquesting. These are people that may be interested in cannabis or have interests peripheral to it, without ever having walked into a dispensary or smoke shop. They’re on the precipice of purchase, and a few impressions is all it takes to convert them into a customer. Identifying who your likely customers are through cannabis digital ads, and serving impressions to people similar to them.
Striking the Balance
The best cannabis digital marketing strategy, whether you’re doing geo-targeted display ads, SEO, or some other form of marketing, is a mix of both conquesting and prospecting. Conquesting is efficient because it reaches out to an audience of people who are already likely to purchase your product. If you can offer a better experience or value proposition than your competitors, people will switch over to you. Prospecting is still important because as any industry continues to grow, the faces that are most well known are the ones that continue to reap the benefits of that growth. Putting yourself in front of consumers now means you will be the first person they think of when they are ready to give products in your niche a try.
Conquesting and Prospecting, not conquesting vs prospecting
It is important to recognize that the comparison between these two types of marketing is not to draw a line between the two and make you pick one, it’s to help you come to the conclusion that both are important for a successful cannabis digital marketing campaign. Whether it’s an impression based cannabis display ads campaign or a long term SEO campaign, or a guerilla marketing campaign, your campaign will function at its best when it keeps your competitors and bystanders in mind.
At The SM Services, we understand the intricate dynamics of cannabis marketing. Contact us to tailor strategies that seamlessly integrate conquesting and prospecting for your business growth.
