Peace River CBD was a new brand to the CBD industry scene. They had an idea to make a high-quality product for the most affordable price on the market. In such a restricted space, they needed to break into the marketplace without legality issues. Content needed to be precise and accurate, the branding needed to represent peace and tranquility, product labeling had to be perfect. Joining the oversaturated crowd of “high-quality” CBD businesses was going to take a creative approach.

Starting with the branding, we targeted mood above all else. The logo itself would speak in tones of relaxation, harmony, and peace. The website would be designed with desaturated bright colors to reflect the brand’s goal of instilling a calm experience for the user. Since it’s a highly restricted industry, a unique payment process would be necessary per state in the USA where the product could be sold.

Out-of-the-box strategies would be necessary to develop a marketing campaign that would launch this brand into the marketplace with a splash. Market and competitive research analyses would guide the content creation process across platforms.

After a couple of design variations, we settled for a sleek, modern look for the website that honed in on a cool blue and gray color scheme. This would achieve the feeling of “calm” throughout the user’s experience. Cornering pitfalls meant ensuring that no false claims about CBD were found anywhere on the website’s internal pages. Everything had to be carefully structured so as not to violate FTC and FDA guidelines and regulations.

The remaining parts of the marketing campaign were what made this brand lift off. We had to create a system that relied on each department’s expertise while leaning upon one another. Since usual advertising efforts were banned on Google and Facebook, we needed to expand our platform reach. Influencer marketing became a need in the launch of the campaign to acquire qualified leads and generate user-created content.

Social media focused on education and speaking directly to the client’s target audience with valuable industry insights. We kept with a “knowledge is power” approach across mediums, using user-generated content as go-to imagery to share the “cost-plus” pricing model Peace River was built on. Other forms of product photography focused on the “natural” and “holistic” side of CBD, incorporating it into regular life and active lifestyles.

Search engine optimization and content marketing focused on creating a unique user experience to rank. Taking a “this should be normalized” approach to CBD content, we created exclusive assets that reimagined landing pages and articles. Building trust with users and Google required making new content, not reused information.

With tracking installed across the website, we re-engaged with customers through email marketing drip campaigns for abandoned carts, upselling, and repurchasing. Heat maps were used to track customer interactions across the website to create a smooth, seamless buyer’s journey as we updated page elements based on real-user engagements.