Is Cannabis Email Marketing Non-Existent?!

I work for a digital marketing agency, and so naturally one of our services is email marketing. One of my clients is a Cannabis company; so like we do for our other clients- we want to implement an effective email marketing strategy for them, but I’m finding it difficult to even do a proper competitor analysis for email marketing in the cannabis industry.

Here’s what I’ve noticed so far:

  • Email sign-ups are rare: I’ve checked dozens of cannabis brands, including some big and innovative ones, and at least 60% don’t seem to have any email sign-up options on their sites.
  • Pop-ups and sign-up flows are lacking: For the 40% that do have email sign-ups, around 15% don’t even have an automatic pop-up. You have to search their site to find where to subscribe.
  • Follow-up emails are almost non-existent: I signed up for a ton of email lists to see what kind of content they send. Only 2 companies even sent me a subscription confirmation email, and after I confirmed, there was no welcome email or any follow-up communication. I’ve checked my spam folder, so that’s not the issue.

So this search has left me pretty surprised and confused—why does email marketing seem to be so Non-existent in the cannabis industry?? I know there are restrictions, but it’s hard to believe that NO ONE is doing great email marketing in this space.

Through my search, I’ve even come across cannabis-focused marketing agencies that claim to drive major sales through email marketing for their clients, yet when I checked out their clients’ sites, many didn’t have email sign-ups. For the few that did, none of them sent me any welcome emails, or really anything so far.

So, Here's where I was hoping to get help:

  1. Has anyone here worked on email marketing for cannabis brands, dispensaries, or e-commerce?
  2. Do you know of any companies in the cannabis space that are doing email marketing well? If so, whose email lists should I sign up for to see great examples?
  3. Are there specific barriers or best practices for email marketing in the cannabis industry that I might be missing?

I’m based in Canada, so insights specific to this market would be particularly helpful, but I’d love to hear from anyone with ANY experience in this area, TIA!!