The Industry
Cannabis is one of the most complex marketing environments in the world. Platforms restrict paid ads. Influencer rules are murky. Compliance varies by state, city, and sometimes block. Data tools built for traditional retail don't map to dispensary economics. And the brands that win aren't outspending competitors — they're out-executing them on organic search, local presence, and community trust.
That's the environment I've spent the last five years building in.
What I've Done in Cannabis
Across two major California cannabis brands, I've led digital strategy end-to-end — from technical SEO and AI content systems to marketplace optimization and retail-level local search.
Organic Search at Scale
Built and executed SEO strategy for brands with 30–64 retail and delivery locations. That means managing local search signals across every location, maintaining content pipelines under compliance constraints, and finding organic territory in a space where half the normal playbook is off-limits.
Results: 80% organic traffic growth in under six months at one brand. 150% organic growth and 110% ecommerce revenue lift at another.
AI-Powered Marketing Workflows
Before AI workflows were a marketing trend, I was building them. Automated content briefs, AI-assisted creative reviews, and workflow systems that let a lean team produce at the volume of a team three times larger.
Team output increased 50%+ without adding headcount.
Marketplace Dominance
Weedmaps and Leafly are the search engines of cannabis retail. I built the strategy that took marketplace share from 3% to 10%+ — optimizing listings, managing reviews, and coordinating with retail ops to keep inventory data and promotions in sync across dozens of locations.
Local SEO for Multi-Location Retail
37 to 64 locations, each needing its own local search presence. I built the systems to manage Google Business Profiles, local citations, and geo-targeted content at scale — turning each location into its own searchable asset.
The Constraint That Makes It Interesting
Cannabis marketers don't get to run Google Ads. Meta restricts the category. Most programmatic networks won't touch it. That means every visit has to be earned — through search, through community, through content, through reputation.
That constraint is what pushed me to get good at the fundamentals. And the fundamentals are what compound.
What I Believe About Cannabis Marketing
The brands that will own this space long-term aren't the ones with the biggest ad budgets. They're the ones building real organic presence, earning local trust, and using technology to execute faster than anyone else.
I've seen what happens when you do that right. The numbers don't lie.