“The cannabis industry is composed of legal cultivators and producers, consumers, independent industrial standards bodies, ancillary products and services, regulators and researchers concerning cannabis and its industrial derivative, hemp. The cannabis industry has been inhibited by regulatory restrictions for most of recent history, but the legal market has emerged rapidly as more governments legalize medical and adult use. Marijuana (drug) sales in North America reached $6.7 billion in 2016, representing 30% growth year-over-year. According to a report by university researcher Jon Gettman, cannabis is the United States’ largest cash crop and “”a pervasive and ineradicable part of the national economy””. A 2015 ArcView Group report stated that it was the fastest growing industry in the United States. The industry in the United States is expected to grow from $2 billion in 2014 to as much as $10 billion in 2018, depending on legalization outcomes. By one estimate the industry in the United States could be $35 billion in 2020. According to GQ magazine in mid-2017, it was the second largest cash crop in the U.S., after corn, and worth over $40 billion. The national (non-psychoactive) hemp market was $600 million in 2015. Accurate predictions of potential future legal markets for hemp are deemed impossible to predict due to “”the absence since the 1950s of any commercial and unrestricted hemp production in the United States. cannabis, cannabis oil, sativa, indica, cannabinoid, hemp, marijuana, cbd, chemotype, terpenes, tincture, edible, tea, smoking, vaping, vaporizing, THC, mucosal, psychoactive, non-psychoactive, sublingual topical, transdermal, dab, cartridge, budtender, weed, rig, cannabis flower, bowl, pipe, bong, ganja, pot, cake, cookie
Why EQ in Marketing & Sales Is More Important Than Ever
Emotional intelligence will and should always be present in sales and marketing, even more so with the implementation of artificial intelligence and martech. As long as we serve humans, we need human empathy to balance the AI biases and impersonality.
The Art of Using-Persuasion-Angles In Marketing & Sales
Persuasion angles are nothing new, but they are important when considering how to craft personalized messaging for marketing and sales outreach.
Optimizing Your Sales Pipeline During COVID-19
AI also traditionally relied on historical data to make predictions about the future. But we’re in a new world now; the past can only tell us about the past. Today’s AI and automation are equipped to start aggregating new data to begin to make accurate predictions/prescriptions.
How marketing and sales AI can make your brand more human
AI helps us collect, build, and act on, a huge bank of emotion-related data. And personalization -- if it's going to be effective -- must invoke human emotion.
This is a Good Time to Revisit Your Value Proposition
Depending on context, the value proposition a company has today — no matter how good — might need to change. Perhaps some your prospects have altered or changed their priorities? Does your value proposition still resonate with these new priorities?
Using AI to do business mid-crisis and beyond
The brands that are doing the best marketing/outreach right now in the time of COVID-19 are those that understand their target audience’s fear and struggle, not just right now with the world turned upside down, but all the time.
Cold Calling is Not Dead
At this time, while we’re all on limited contact with people, cold calls might be appreciated and come back in style, especially when it’s done right. Everyone’s craving contact -- yes, even introverts. The cold call just has to be done right.
Keeping the balance against AI biases
Algorithms are only as good as the humans who create them. And humans can try, but can’t prevent, having their own biases. AI develops its own, which can lead to wrong decisions that can be disastrous if the humans who make them rely solely on AI data and don't balance the biases.
Marketing & Sales Beyond the Pandemic 101: Keep Building
Crisis management is for achieving some modicum of stability amidst incredibly choppy waters. When it has no end in sight, adjusting replaces managing. We accept this new environment we need to work in (we have no choice), so we need to think about ways we can prepare to face it with competence now and later on.
COVID-19 Marketing: Goodwill Marketing is the Current Brand Marketing
For some companies, it's business as usual in some ways. But at the same time, it’s not at all business as usual at all. Crisis marketing has evolved to include goodwill marketing. There are delicate nuances marketers should consider and apply to their messaging.
Marketing in the Time of COVID-19
Revisiting Personas: Why they matter in the age of personalization
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) 101
The rise of micro-moment: tiny moments, BIG impact
Personalized marketing is omnichannel marketing
The shift toward guarding customer data will boost influencer marketing
New tech makes account based marketing more achievable
The marketing landscape is shifting in this new decade, thanks to marketers finally implementing martech (including AI) to adapt to customer demands and expectations. The same agility and intelligence we can utilize for hyper-personalization can be applied to account based marketing.
Customer Data 101—How to Collect and Use It in Lawful and Good Ways
It’s projected that 2020 is the year marketers will finally stop being so scared that personalization is invasive, by making personalization impressive.
The marketing trend of the decade: insight-driven and customer-focused
It’s hard or near impossible to plan for the future, especially with constant changes and updates to marketing innovation, but marketing leaders are always a good sounding board on giving insight and even predicting what would catch on sooner or later.
Is CRM finally ripe for disruption in 2020?
CRM can and should serve marketers on the challenge of attracting new prospects and keeping existing customers. The answer to that challenge is staying relevant and in step with customer preferences and expectations.