Be Prepared for the Next Big Revolution in Online Marketing: Weed Tech

Whatever your political position on marijuana, a great deal of interesting information has been pouring forth from investors and businesses related to this notable cash crop from areas where it is government-sanctioned. And given that a Washington Post policy reporter notes five major states (including California and Arizona) are all voting strongly in favor of legalization, it might be that the weed business might soon become of national interest to marketers and entrepreneurs. And not for the reasons that you think!

Not every entrepreneur has the skillsets, wherewithal, or desire to directly enter the industry as a grower. But the likely trend of legalization will revolutionize marketing and entrepreneurial fields by allowing for a whole new segment of consumer goods and paraphernalia. The most interesting of these opportunities, sometimes called ‘High Tech’, involve the marriage of high-tech concepts and- you guessed it- marijuana.

The liberal-leaning Silicon Valley crowd has always been a big supporter of legalization, a fact emphasized by the rush of many big-tech names to finance marijuana-related technology startups like MJ Freeway. But tech greats aren’t just funding marijuana businesses… they’re starting them. Consider Loto Labs, founded by Neerj Bhardwaj, which produces a high-end, beautifully-engineered vaporizer, the Evoke. Or Flowhub, a tech company with marijuana producers in mind, which offers seed-to-sale logistics software. Flowhub recently had an equity stake taken out by a new weed-related social network, Massroots. Marijuana consulting is even a growing business.

With all elements of the marijuana industry are ripe for tech-minded entrepreneurs, but still unable to take advantage of a lot of traditional technological opportunities (like Adwords, Twitter, or Facebook), there’s a latent transformative power for growth all across the board. Individuals are creating new platforms not just to improve growing and delivery logistics, but to bring new levels of convenience to consumers.

New product development has soared in marijuana-related industries: and not just for vaporizers. The Leaf growing system is an all-enclosed growing pod which is plug-and-play: planted seeds and clones can be monitored from a smartphone app, and the device monitors everything from moisture levels to soil Ph. Handheld testers like the Luminary Beacon easily asses the quality of individual plants, providing data on cannabinoid content. Products like these represent hundreds of millions of dollars spent a year. Even more ancillary services, like software and consulting, also represent a massive industry that’s currently under-served.

A safe supply of cannabis takes a lot of work, from a lotofpeople. Health officials, growers, lawmakers, investors, customers, and stakeholders of a hundred different varieties make this industry a booming one. But the barriers to individuals in this market to actively advertise and operate online in a conventional fashion have created a large and growing need to be able to build and service that infrastructure in new ways. In short, the marijuana industry is proving that you can create new vehicles for fast-growing markets… if the demand is significant enough.

In today’s on-demand economy, the ability to deliver commodities fast is a high priority, and increasingly, consumer decisions are being driven not just by price, but time to delivery. Marijuana-related entrepreneurs understand this, and are increasingly working to change the game as it is, and finding ways to push hyperlocal applications.

Agribusiness has adapted with new technologies on a general scale, but the needs of marijuana growers are dragging that industry into the future, pushing the development of apps and software which do everything from grow and monitor plants for you to ensuring full-scale costs tracking from the seed to consumption. A whole new market of ecommerce opportunities for ancillary products is opening, too, and the market for high-end marijuana goods is booming. And since advertising options for the entire industry are limited, the opportunities for marketing professionals and data scientists are staggering… and growing.