Dan Serard: How to Market Cannabis When the Platforms Are Against You

Most cannabis brands believe the product sells itself. Dan Serard, Chief Revenue Officer of Cannabis Creative Group, has watched hundreds of them find out it doesn't. On this episode of Unscripted Cannabis, host Mr. Gudwudz (Just Jay) puts his own brand on the table and Dan turns the conversation into a live consulting session.

Dan has been with the agency since it started in 2018 under the name Champ Digital. It has since worked with more than 600 clients in about 36 states, all with in-house, US-based staff. Before cannabis he ran fitness clubs in downtown Boston and Santa Monica, where he set out to be "the mayor" who knew every member and business owner. That education-first, no-hard-sell habit is what he brought to cannabis. His profile is on the Cannabis Creative Group team page.

The full written recap, with the 90-day plan laid out step by step, is at Dan Serard: How to Market Cannabis When the Platforms Are Against You.

In this episode

• Why Meta and Google flag cannabis and ancillary brands: no promotion of sales, no "$30, buy one get one" offers, and no smoke or smoking imagery. Dan's team still runs compliant digital advertising by leaning on lifestyle and education, and he explains why AI-written ad copy misses those nuances.
• A live teardown of Gudwudz, the $20 handcrafted walnut smoking accessory: show it in people's hands, use real-world use cases and testimonials, and put the value proposition at the very top of the site, because you have less than a second to catch a scroller.
• "If you build it they will come" as the deadliest belief in the industry. Start local or regional, prove the concept, then expand, the way one client grew from 60-plus stores in Nashville to 20 more in South Carolina.
• Why cannabis spreads by word of mouth: the porch at the house party, where strangers become best friends.
• The two channels nobody can shut off. First, organic SEO, plus a Google Business Profile. Second, email marketing, which means building the list at events and trade shows.
• Acquisition versus retention: SEO, ads and awareness bring people in, and email, SMS and loyalty platforms like Alpine IQ keep them buying.
• Premium versus merely expensive. Nail the brand identity first (voice, tone, blacks, golds and mattes), stay consistent for three to five years, then refresh based on what customers say.
• What an engagement costs: everything is custom scoped, brand packages typically start around $5,000 and digital retainers around $1,500.

"That's the kiss of death. I think if you build it they will come because you might have a great friend network, a great product, and you know, you think everyone wants it? Well, you gotta educate people why." - Dan Serard

"SEO is always gonna be king when it comes to searching products online." - Dan Serard

Dan's 90-day plan for any small brand: run a rebrand or positioning exercise so the brand reads as premium, fix the website's call to action and value proposition, and get the product into people's hands at events with a camera rolling.

More on this theme from Unscripted Cannabis: You Have To Educate People Why, and Just Jay: The Church Elder Who Sells Smoking Accessories, the story of the host behind Gudwudz. Just Jay's writing is at MrGudwudz.com.

This episode was underwritten by National Vapor.