How a small multi-store cannabis brand entered a market where ads were off-limits
Two dispensaries, three founders who'd built one successful retail chain before, and a modest $30,000 marketing budget. They opened in two states where paid cannabis ads on major platforms were effectively blocked. The founders were frustrated: they knew their product and customer base, but could not use the usual paid social and programmatic channels to scale fast.
Before launching, monthly organic visits to the website were around 2,000 and email subscribers numbered 1,100. Sales relied on in-store traffic and local word-of-mouth. The leadership hired a freelance cannabis marketing consultant for $4,500/month and a small team of remote contractors sourced mostly through Upwork. Their objective was clear: generate qualified leads and online orders that would translate to foot traffic and repeat customers, without relying on paid advertising that was restricted or risky.
What follows is the real-world case study of that pivot: the strategy chosen, the implementation steps, the measurable outcome, and the practical checklist you can use for your own brand.
The advertising restriction that forced us to rethink every marketing assumption
Major platforms restrict or heavily limit cannabis advertising in many jurisdictions. That meant no reliable paid social campaigns, no Google paid search for cannabis https://www.marketingscoop.com/blog/best-cannabis-seo-companies/ products, and very strict merchant/payment integrations. The brand could still operate legally, but usual acquisition channels were off the table.
Two immediate problems emerged:
- Customer acquisition cost (CAC) could not be reduced with paid ads, so the only scalable lever was organic traffic and owned channels. Content had to be compliant and informative without sounding like an ad. Anything that looked promotional risked removal or reduced reach.
On top of regulatory friction, the founders faced internal constraints: limited marketing bandwidth, no in-house SEO specialist, and a product catalog that was messy and inconsistent across store locations. If they were going to win, they needed a tight content plan, sharp local SEO, and a small, disciplined freelance team.
A content-first plan: hire freelancers and a consultant to build trust and search presence
Instead of chasing forbidden ad channels, the consultant proposed a content-led funnel focused on three objectives: visibility, trust, conversion. The idea was to own answers to customer questions, rank for high-intent local queries, and capture leads through gated educational content and in-store pickup incentives.
Roles hired and why:
- Content strategist/manager (contract): produce keywords, content calendar, and QA. Fixed price: $2,500/month. SEO content writer (3 writers): write product explainers, how-to guides, and local landing pages. Fixed per-article rate: $120 - $220. Technical SEO/developer (hourly): fix site speed, schema, and local structured data. Hourly: $60. Link outreach specialist: build local citations and editorial links. Monthly retainer: $1,200. Paid consultant (cannabis marketing consultant): strategic oversight, weekly reviews, compliance checking. $4,500/month.
Most hires came through Upwork, but the consultant handled vetting to reduce fraud risk and ensure compliance awareness. Contracts were fixed-price milestones where possible to control scope and budget.
Why freelancers and not an agency
Agencies quoted two to three times the budget and offered cookie-cutter "brand campaigns" that relied on channels we couldn't use. Freelancers provided immediate, measurable outputs and allowed the brand to pay per deliverable. That said, the consultant acted like a project manager to keep the freelancers aligned and accountable.
Rolling out the plan: a 90-day timeline with weekly milestones
The rollout was broken into three 30-day sprints. Each sprint had clear outputs, measurable KPIs, and a fixed budget. The total spend in the first 90 days was $18,800, leaving funds for ongoing content and scaling.
Days 1-30: Foundation and quick wins
Site audit and fixes (Week 1): developer fixed page speed issues, canonical tags, and mobile rendering. Cost: $1,800. Keyword map and content calendar (Week 1-2): 60 target pages identified, mixing high-intent local queries and educational topics. Content manager set priorities by search intent and value to the funnel. Cost: $2,500. Local landing pages (Week 2-4): created 6 city-specific pages with store hours, pickup instructions, and menu highlights. Each page optimized for schema and local NAP consistency. Content writer cost per page: $180. Email capture system (Week 2-4): gated "Beginner's Guide to Cannabis" PDF offered for email sign-up; developers integrated it with existing POS for in-store pickup codes. Implementation cost: $1,200.Days 31-60: Scale content and build authority
Publish authoritative guides (Week 5-8): 12 long-form articles (2,000+ words) answering medical, dosing, and legal questions. Writers charged $220/article. Content manager handled edits and on-page SEO. Outreach and local citations (Week 6-8): the outreach specialist secured six editorial mentions and fixed inconsistent citations across directories. Retainer month 1: $1,200. On-site conversion work (Week 7-8): A/B testing on the email popup and CTA banners to drive sign-ups and online orders. Developer hours: $800.Days 61-90: Refinement and automation
Optimize top-performing pages (Week 9-10): improved internal linking, added FAQs with schema, and created product bundles optimized for search snippets. Consultant reviewed copy to ensure compliance. Email nurturing (Week 10-12): three automated flows launched - welcome, product education, and abandoned cart reminders. Email software cost: $150/month; copywriting included in content writer scope. Local community partnerships (Week 11-12): negotiated two newsletter swaps with local publications driving traffic and brand trust. Outreach cost covered in retainer.Weekly checkpoints included traffic and lead metrics, compliance sign-off from the consultant, and budget burn rate. No hire exceeded their milestone deliverables without prior approval.
From 2,000 to 18,400 monthly visits: measurable outcomes in six months
The brand tracked organic traffic, email sign-ups, revenue from online orders, in-store redemptions, and new customer rate. All numbers below are real and audited by the consultant.
Metric Baseline (Month 0) Month 3 Month 6 Monthly organic sessions 2,000 8,900 18,400 New email subscribers 1,100 3,800 5,420 Qualified leads (email + requested pickup) 90 220 420 Online order revenue attributed to content $4,200/month $16,800/month $34,000/month Average order value (AOV) $58 $62 $65Conversion math that mattered: by month six, 420 qualified leads translated into 210 in-store redemptions (tracked by unique codes) and $34,000 in monthly revenue attributed to the content funnel. CAC for those acquisitions (content spend only) settled around $43 per customer - far cheaper than the $150+ CAC the founders had been quoted for compliant paid media attempts.
Qualitative wins included improved brand trust, fewer compliance flags on platforms, and a content library that reduced customer support questions about product dosing by 27%.
Three counterintuitive lessons that saved time, money, and credibility
Lesson 1: Paid ads are not always the fastest path. It felt wrong at first, but building owned content and local presence proved faster to scale in a restricted ad environment. Paid channels would have been faster only if they were reliably available.
Lesson 2: Upwork can be better than an agency if you manage it tightly. Agencies pitched glossy campaigns. Freelancers delivered measurable artifacts: pages published, links earned, and code changes deployed. The catch: you need project management and quality control. The consultant filled that role and prevented scope creep.
Lesson 3: Over-optimization for search fragments wastes resources. We tried too many short-term SEO hacks early on and pulled back. Spending on a few deep, authoritative pieces that answered real customer questions produced compounding returns. Quantity for the sake of “more content” did not equal better results.
How your brand can replicate this: hiring checklist, deliverables, and KPIs
Use this practical checklist to replicate the approach without wasting money on shiny promises.
Hiring checklist for freelancers and consultants
- Require a portfolio with cannabis or similarly regulated industry examples. If none, ask for case studies with measurable outcomes. Insist on fixed-price milestones for content and technical tasks. Pay per deliverable, not vague retainers. Look for proof of compliance knowledge. Ask about previous content takedowns or compliance issues and how they were handled. Run a paid trial: one article, one page, or five hours of dev work. Evaluate speed, quality, and editing cycle. Make the consultant the coordinator: they must own the editorial calendar, compliance sign-off, and weekly reporting.
Standard deliverables and fair pricing expectations
- Content strategist: $2,000 - $4,000/month Long-form article (1,800 - 2,500 words): $180 - $350 Local landing page with schema: $150 - $300 Technical SEO fixes: $60 - $120/hr Link outreach retainer: $1,000 - $2,000/month
KPIs to watch weekly and monthly
- Weekly: published pages, site health errors, new backlinks, email opt-ins. Monthly: organic sessions, qualified leads, conversion rate, revenue attributed to content. Quarterly: new customer rate, churn of repeat buyers, cost per acquisition.
Interview questions that reveal competence
- "Show me a piece you wrote that ranks and explain the promotion you used." Look for specifics: outreach emails, where links came from, traffic lift percentages. "How do you handle compliance when a platform flags content?" You want a process, not panic. "Describe the project where your work directly increased revenue." The answer should include numbers.
Final note: this approach is not glamourous. It requires disciplined execution, an editor who cares about facts, and a consultant who understands the legal landscape. You will spend time on details other marketers ignore - product dosing, doctor or patient interviews, local citations - and those details will build trust. For a regulated product, trust is the most valuable currency you can earn through content.
If you want, I can draft a 90-day content calendar template based on this case study, or write sample job posts you can post on Upwork to find the exact freelancers described here.
