Legacy Operator Scales Up Using Effective SMS and Email Marketing with HCA & BLAZE® POS

Few cannabis retailers can boast a birthdate of 2006, but MMD can and is proud of their OG status. This story is how MMD combined the solutions of BLAZE Retail and Happy Marketers to scale up their operations and revenue.

The Problem

MMD has been there, done that with so many SMS marketing platforms. According to Ilana Dreicer, Director of Marketing, “We’ve lived the full experience of what it’s like to text in cannabis.” She said deliverability was all over the place, service wasn’t awesome, and that the big guys are growing too rapidly while the smaller partners had no integrations.

Data was a huge source of frustration for MMD. They’ve previously worked with SMS providers that weren’t connected to their POS in the past causing them to spend a lot of time manually making sense of disconnected data. In 2019, they switched to BLAZE Retail after a number of bad experiences with other systems. Two years later, they switched to Happy Cabbage, an integrated partner of BLAZE. They’ll never have to manually analyze disconnected data again.

The Solution

With better service, deliverability, and integrated data systems between BLAZE and Happy Cabbage, MMD was ready to start driving great results. They were free to focus more on connecting to their customers with their culture and community work.
While they communicate discounts to their customers, particularly for recapturing lost ones, they know that community engagement works to increase loyalty. MMD now regularly sends out weekly and monthly email and SMS campaigns.

MMD uses discounts to bring customers in the door. They also useSMS and Email to tell them all about their community work, like Black History Month in Feb or Pride Month in June, where they sponsor the LA and Venice Beach festivals. By purchasing cannabis at MMD, customers aid in donating to these movements.

Each store is proud to serve their communities in unique ways that cater their specific needs. The reason SMS is so vital is that it’s the best way to communicate with people, period. Social platforms get shut down all the time, eyeballs aren’t there like they are with SMS.

Being able to target well-defined segments within Happy Marketers is a great way to communicate to specific customers the way we want.
- Ilana Dreicer, MMD Director of Marketing

The Results

Recaptures are one of their favorite campaigns because the results are incredible. They send these campaigns weekly, and have been able to win back so many customers, which they can only reach through this medium.

For instance, MMD started using the new email feature in Happy Marketers, and recaptured a customer that hadn’t shopped in over two years. They’ve visited twice since, spending over $1,000. For the location of the store this person visited, spending that much is most unusual.

26

email campaigns sent

277

customers recaptured through email

$21,005

in sales by customers recaptured through email so far

MMD has been able to recapture 277 lost customers, with 95 of those shoppers coming back within 24 hours of receiving an email. These recaptured customers have generated over $21k in revenue for MMD in the two months they've been sending emails through Happy Marketers!

The Lesson

Authenticity to your community and to the culture connects you with customers. It gives them a reason to shop with you. It motivates them to suggest your store to others.

However, along the way, your competitors are going to grab their attention. We say often that the last person to reach your customers is the one that wins their business.

You can’t rest on your laurels! Your reputation may be huge, but your customers’ attention spans are short. Stay top of mind with them using SMS and Email through Happy Marketers; and when they haven’t showed up in over 90 days, win those customers back by reaching them where they are!