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The Challenge
Having grown through rapid acquisition, the brand acquired over 50 locations, and dozens of websites, each with varying digital platforms and untracked customer acquisition approaches, each with low or no brand awareness. Moreover, the highly-regulated and relatively new market was characterized by a rush of competitive entrants, unknown and varied regional adoption curves, and advertising limitations due to the product’s federal legal status. The brand wanted to quickly establish the largest footprint for cannabis brands in North America and continue to grow, while maintaining a posture for potential acquisition.
Insights
In order to increase market share for the brand, Arcalea needed to assess a number of dimensions, including customer acquisition, internal data platforms, and infrastructure, and prescribe appropriate attribution modeling and targeted market tactics. As each acquisition maintained different data and commerce platforms, the first action was a migration planning assessment to consolidate all locations’ digital assets, while maintaining and increasing the legacy domains’ relevance and authority. Advertising limitations demanded that a national and local organic strategy was required and implemented, with national SEO and targeted local SEO to capture the tremendous opportunity represented by the 3 million monthly searches for cannabis-related national keywords, and the corresponding and substantial local searches.
Arcalea identified and managed the transition of dozens of acquired domains, integrating various digital ecosystems, building a single domain, national website with a location section containing all local pages. A national SEO strategy ensured digital equity was maintained or increased, while targeted local SEO strategies were implemented across a subset of storefront locations. Data aggregators were used to identify incorrect or out-of-date directory listings for every location and corrected and enhanced across 4000+ directories–increasing NAP integrity and corresponding local SEO.
To guarantee all current and future acquisitions were consistently integrated with the brand, the partnership designed an annual budget for existing operations, and a turnkey solution for executing all digital campaigns and assets, webpage buildout, social media, SEO, and business directory pages. The collaborative strategy integrated local and national efforts, and unified communications from pre-market launch, through to sale, eventually nurturing maximum customer lifetime value.
Key to future success, standardization of data and e-commerce platforms could now be measured across locations. Attribution modeling through micro-conversions captured customer interactions, helping to define the customer journeys and enhancing the customer acquisition model.