Cannabis Email Marketing Deliverability | Improve Inbox Rates

For cannabis dispensaries, email marketing delivers an astounding $36 return for every $1 spent—nearly double the average across other industries. Yet despite this impressive ROI potential, many dispensary owners watch their carefully crafted campaigns disappear into the digital void, never reaching their intended audience.

The harsh reality? Cannabis businesses face unique email deliverability challenges that mainstream retailers don't encounter. Between overzealous spam filters That flag cannabis terminology, restrictive email service provider policies, and the lingering stigma around the industry, getting your message to land in inboxes requires specialized knowledge and strategy.

When your emails don't reach your customers, you're not just missing engagement opportunities—you're leaving significant revenue on the table. Let's break down what email deliverability means for your dispensary, why it matters, and, most importantly, how to ensure your messages consistently reach your customers.

Email deliverability refers to your ability to get emails into subscribers' inboxes rather than being filtered to spam folders or blocked entirely. It's often confused with delivery rate, but there's a crucial difference: delivery rate measures whether emails were accepted by receiving servers, while deliverability measures whether those emails made it to the inbox.

Standard email deliverability metrics for cannabis businesses differ from those in other industries. While most businesses aim for 95%+ inbox placement, cannabis companies typically see rates between 70-85% due to industry-specific challenges. Understanding this benchmark helps set realistic expectations but also highlights the significant room for improvement.

Your deliverability rate directly impacts every email marketing metric, including open, click, and conversion rates. It all depends on your message first reaching the inbox.

The consequences of poor deliverability extend far beyond vanishing emails:

Revenue Loss

When promotional emails featuring your weekend specials or new product drops fail to reach customers, the impact is immediate and measurable. One multi-location dispensary we worked with increased monthly email-driven revenue by 42% after implementing deliverability improvements—without changing their email content or sending frequency.

Damaged Sender Reputation

Email service providers track how recipients interact with your messages. Poor engagement damages your sender reputation, creating a downward spiral where future deliverability worsens.

Wasted Marketing Resources

Creating compelling email content requires significant time and resources. When that content never reaches its audience, your marketing dollars effectively disappear.

Competitive Disadvantage

In competitive cannabis markets like California, the dispensaries with superior deliverability capture more repeat business and maintain stronger customer relationships.

Implementing these cannabis-specific deliverability practices can dramatically improve your inbox placement:

1. Maintain pristine email lists: Regularly remove unengaged subscribers and bounced emails. For cannabis businesses, list hygiene is especially crucial—high complaint rates from even a small segment of your audience can trigger industry-wide filtering.

2. Use cannabis-friendly language: Avoid explicit terminology that triggers spam filters. Instead of "weed" or "getting high," opt for "products" and "effects." Create a dispensary-specific word bank of terms that maintain deliverability without sacrificing clarity.

3. Implement proper authentication: Configure SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to verify your identity to email providers. Without these technical protocols, cannabis emails face heightened scrutiny and filtering.

4. Warm up new sending domains gradually: When launching email marketing for your dispensary, start with small batches to your most engaged customers before scaling to your full list.

5. Segment by engagement levels: Send to your most engaged subscribers first, then gradually expand to less engaged segments. This progressive approach protects your sender reputation.

6. Maintain consistent sending patterns: Sudden spikes in volume raise red flags with email providers. Develop a consistent calendar for sending messages that match customer expectations.

7. Optimize for mobile experience: Over 60% of cannabis emails are opened on mobile devices, so ensuring proper display across devices improves engagement metrics and directly supports deliverability.

Use this checklist to monitor and diagnose your dispensary's email deliverability health:

• Track inbox placement rate: Use specialized cannabis-friendly deliverability tools like GlockApps or 250ok to measure actual inbox placement across major providers.

• Monitor bounce rates: Anything above 2% requires immediate attention and list cleaning.

• Analyze spam complaint rates: The cannabis industry standard should be below 0.1% – higher rates damage deliverability across your entire program.

• Conduct regular seed testing: Send test emails to a network of addresses across different providers to identify delivery problems before they affect your entire list.

• Review engagement metrics: Declining open rates often indicate deliverability issues rather than content problems.

Red flags that suggest deliverability problems include sudden drops in open rates, increasing bounce rates, or customer feedback that they're not receiving your communications.

If your deliverability is already suffering, follow this recovery roadmap:

1. Immediate triage: Pause large campaigns and focus only on sending to your most engaged subscribers.

2. Deep list cleaning: Remove all unengaged contacts from the past 90-180 days, hard bounces, and any complainers.

3. Authentication audit: Verify your technical settings are correctly implemented with the help of your IT team or email service provider.

4. Content revision: Review recent campaigns for potentially problematic cannabis terminology and adjust your approach.

5. Gradual volume increase: Slowly rebuild your sending volume over 4-6 weeks, adding back segments of your list based on engagement levels.

6. Professional remediation: If problems persist after self-help attempts, consider working with a cannabis-specific email deliverability consultant who understands the industry's unique challenges.

Most cannabis businesses can expect deliverability improvements within 30 days of implementing these measures, though complete reputation recovery may take 60-90 days of consistent good practices.

Email remains one of the few digital marketing channels where cannabis businesses can communicate directly with customers without platform restrictions. Protecting and optimizing your deliverability isn't just a technical consideration—it's a business imperative that directly impacts your bottom line.

By implementing the best practices outlined above, regularly using the diagnostic checklist, and swiftly taking action when issues arise, your dispensary can achieve inbox placement rates that rival or exceed those of non-cannabis retailers.

The dispensaries that master email deliverability gain a significant competitive advantage: more consistent customer communication, higher promotional response rates, and ultimately, increased revenue and customer loyalty in an increasingly competitive market.

Need help optimizing your cannabis email deliverability? Our cannabis email marketing specialists can audit your email program and develop a customized strategy to maximize your inbox placement and ROI.