Securing The Top Spot for the Cannabis Banking Authority
How CannaContent’s expertise helped a cannabis banking thought leader generate consistent, qualified leads.
The Client
With CannaContent’s guidance, a cannabis banking client:
- Held Page 1 placement for “cannabis banking” for 2 years
- Landed Page 1 placement for cannabis lending and financing terminology
- Secured Page 1 placement for nearly 500 relevant keywords
The Challenges
Three challenges to reach the cannabis banking audience
The ever-evolving yet still-stagnant world of cannabis banking has undergone no shortage of challenges and changes since cannabis legalization started rolling out on state levels.
1. Correcting false perceptions about cannabis banking
Given advice based upon decades of operating in the shadows, many cannabis industry entrepreneurs have a false impression of the true difficulties surrounding cannabis banking. CannaContent’s client, a New York-based cannabis banking advisory firm, long held that basic banking services for cannabis businesses were indeed accessible.
At the time of the initial engagement with the client, this was contrary to prevailing opinion. In lieu of alternative solutions, the client advocated for transparency and honesty with willing financial institutions. This was quite novel during a time where workarounds, proprietary fintech, and cashless ATMs were the dominant solutions.
2. Building trust with a weary and leary audience
It’s not unheard of for cannapreneurs to be advised to lie to their bank, or they may opt for a scheme laden with false promises that lands them and their business in hot water down the line. The client’s main customer base was stressed, strapped, and understandably weary, and any successful messaging needed to take that into account.
The content strategy ultimately focused on educating the audience about the not-so-sound advice many of them had received in the past and the potential consequences of following said advice. Once it was established that underhanded methods could result in significant blowback, the goal became to make it clear that there were indeed above board options to solve a cannabis business’s banking needs.
3. SEO was a “moving target”
The most relevant keywords for the client’s core services were in flux as new services, concepts, and competitors came onto the market. There was always something to address — a content gold mine.
And yet, CannaContent was up against the dominating narrative at the time, establishing thought leadership while contending with the reality that many potential customers thought something quite different from the facts on the ground.
The SEO content CannaContent would produce had the power to shift the conversation around one of the most painful sticking points of the entire industry.
The Solution
A content-driven approach to organic growth
From the beginning, the CannaContent team knew messaging needed to be anchored in trust, transparency, and a thorough telling of both the real and perceived struggles in obtaining banking, merchant processing, and lending. But the client was far from the only service provider offering cannabis banking help. By leaning on core principles of education, transparency, and trust, CannaContent created a roadmap to take the client’s website to prominent placement on search engines.
Creating web content for both search engines and people
CannaContent developed content for the client’s website based on what business owners who were fed up with banking challenges were already searching for. Called searcher intent, CannaContent successfully matched up keywords with relevant, informative, and unique content. The site quickly climbed the ranks for these smaller volume keywords.
This process established a rock-solid foundation that clearly communicated to search engines that the client was indeed an authority on cannabis banking and their content was worth reading. Readers that landed on these pages found clear answers and helpful guidance backed by expert sources. That created a positive user experience and encouraged readers to stay on the site and to take action.
Building upon the strong foundation in web development
About a year after the creation of the initial web content, the client re-engaged CannaContent to help populate the company’s blog and reinforce the progress that had already been made on search engine results pages (SERPs). The site climbed thanks to the initial site setup, an encouraging sign that the best was still to come. CannaContent knew that the right content would carry the client directly to the top of the most difficult keywords in their sector.
To get started, CannaContent conducted a deep dive into keyword research and competitor research. These essential components uncovered the information necessary to identify, develop, and draft topics that were relevant to both the audience and search engines. Coupled with conversations with the client about their business goals, CannaContent emerged with a thorough list of topics to cover.
Developing the client’s voice
Informed by years spent in the newsroom, the leaders of CannaContent’s editorial team jumped right in, asking the right questions to fully understand the client’s point of view. With expert advice in hand, CannaContent’s editorial staff produced content that checked all the right boxes: Informative, accurate, SEO-friendly, and in the client’s voice.
The content produced was the result of a symbiotic relationship between CannaContent’s editorial team and the client. The material was interesting, intriguing, and engaging, answering important reader questions while establishing the client as a leader and an authority in cannabis banking. And, as the client described it to us, these successful efforts meant he only needed to spend a few minutes reviewing and approving content, as opposed to spending hours writing the content himself. This saved him precious time that he could in turn spend with customers and use to grow the company.
It didn’t take long to see a steady climb up the search engine rankings. Coupled with strategic social media promotion, selective paid promotion, and continued SEO work behind the scenes, the client enjoyed first page placement for close to 500 keywords immediately relevant to cannabis banking, financing, and credit card processing across all sectors. From 2020 to 2022, organic content drove more than 27% of the client’s web traffic and resulted in hundreds of queries from potential customers and financial partners.
And before long, the client’s website hit the holy grail: Multiple mentions on the first page of Google, including the No. 1 spot, for “cannabis banking.”
How we made it happen
Understanding the issues and separating fact from fiction.
CannaContent became fully immersed in the cannabis banking world and developed the ability to create expert level content. With this knowledge base, CannaContent produced blogs and web copy for the client that intelligently dove into these issues.The result was quality content people wanted to read, share, and learn from.This saved him precious time that he could in turn spend with customers and use to grow the company.
Embracing – and elevating – the client’s brand identity.
Content marketing is enhanced by brand identity, giving the content a foundation upon which to develop and attach messaging. Understanding the client’s brand as an authority in the financial space guided what CannaContent created. As a result, the content was unique to the brand and couldn’t quite be found anywhere else.
Identifying emerging trends.
CannaContent’s strong knowledge of the cannabis banking space informed our approach to tackling emerging issues – even topics that were barely a blip on the search radar. This approach solidified the client’s placement as an authority as interest in these topics grew.
A focus on externally-placed content.
In addition to CannaContent’s work on the client’s website, the team collaborated with the client to identify opportunities for the CEO to pen informative guides and op-eds in other reputable cannabis and banking publications, such as Banking Dive and Ganjapreneur. This not only introduced the client to new audiences, but helped establish credibility and authority by publishing on websites affiliated with cannabis, banking, and financial products.
The Results: Holding top spots for tough keywords
Page 1
placement for “cannabis banking” for around 2 years
Page 1
placement for cannabis lending, financing, and similar terminology
Page 1
placement for 485 keywords directly related to cannabis banking and financial services
*Data sources: Google Analytics 4; AHREFS. Data measured from 3/1/22 to 3/1/23.
How we can make it happen for you
The approach CannaContent took with this cannabis banking client can be replicated for any cannabis business, regardless of the sector or state in which you operate. By combining the reporting skills of award-winning former journalists, the imagination of big-brand creatives, and the novel strategies of SEO experts, the CannaContent team can devise a tailor-made strategy grounded in meticulous research and then execute it for you. Through a cohesive, deliberate plan that takes every angle into account, CannaContent gives brands the best chance to compete for organic traffic.