The Hidden Benefits of Fractional Marketing for Cannabis Companies ft. Brandon Bobart

The Hidden Benefits of Fractional Marketing for Cannabis Companies ft. Brandon Bobart

Bryan Fields: What's up guys, welcome back to another episode of The Dime. I'm Bryan Fields, and with me as always is Kellan. This week we've got a very special guest, Brandon Bobart. Brandon, thanks for taking time, how are you doing today? Brandon Bobart: Yeah, thanks gentlemen, I appreciate it. Doing well, rocking and rolling here this week and excited to have a nice discussion. Bryan Fields: Excited to dive in. Kellan, how are you doing? Kellan: I'm doing really well, really excited to talk to Brandon and really excited to just learn as much as I can about marketing and fractional marketers and this whole game that's out there right now. How are you, Brandon? Brandon Bobart: Yeah, I'm stoked. I think one of my favorite parts about marketing that we're going to get into today is this feeling that some companies have that one person is going to be a magician, put all the pieces of the puzzle together, execute, receive the data, and align all the objectives with the organization. I think that's way too much for a single individual, especially given the challenges of cannabis today. You need more than just an individual — you need a framework. Bryan Fields: Before we dive into the fun parts, we've got to put you on the map — East Coast, West Coast battle — where do your loyalties lie? Brandon Bobart: I'm based here on the East Coast, near Charlotte, North Carolina. Lived in the South most of my life. I always get funny reactions when I tell people in the cannabis industry that I live in the South — they'll say things like, "how are you in the cannabis industry, don't y'all have some rules and regulations against that?" But we've been blessed — we've worked in most legal markets at this point, which gives us a unique perspective. You've got state experts who really know a particular market, but given our reach we've had a nice global, 30,000-foot view of what's going on in different markets. That helps us bring a holistic perspective when we work with operators, especially in newer markets — as we're watching states like Ohio and Kentucky roll into different growth periods, we're able to bring a nice lens to those clients. Bryan Fields: I love that. So let's start with fractional marketing — for those unfamiliar, can you give us a high-level overview of what it is and how it applies to the cannabis industry? Brandon Bobart: Sure. It's a newer term, and as marketers tend to do, they like to slap fancy words on things that have been around longer than we want to admit. Fractional marketing to me is bringing on subject matter experts to work with small business owners on a piece basis — not full-time. The difference between fractional marketing and a consultant is we really become embedded in the team. We're not sitting on the sidelines saying "it'd be cool if you did this." We become part of the team — weekly, daily, whatever's needed. Fractional lets us bring a variety of skill sets to an operator's team where most don't have the resources, time, or know-how to hire diligently for all the nuanced roles. Take a blog, for example — a simple marketing strategy that's really four or five different people: a keyword researcher, a copywriter, a web developer, a graphic designer. Often that gets jammed into one line item for a marketing director trying to do it all — they're talented and hustle, but it's never the best use of their time or the best output. Kellan: Why do you think the cannabis industry specifically is going to benefit from fractional marketers? Is it company size — a fragmented market without Fortune 500-level budgets for full marketing teams? Brandon Bobart: Yeah, a lot of it has to do with budgeting and resources. In a perfect world, having those assets full-time would be great, but the reality is a single-state dispensary with a handful of locations doesn't need a full-time graphic designer — you can crank out all the design work you need in a day or half a day. So instead of the operator, whose hair is on fire with a million things to do, paying full-time for that, they can bring someone in who's already trained, doesn't require benefits, no W2, no FICA tax on top of the rate, no press release when you have to let them go because the quarter didn't go as planned. It gives operators flexibility to pivot. We're working with an Ohio group right now — phase one is branding, website, foundation. We can execute that, then seamlessly pivot to top-of-funnel, loyalty programs, retention, website management — without starting from square one. That's where we differ from traditional agencies: we can make a fluid pivot between growth phases without the operator having to retrain a whole new team on who they are and what they stand for. Kellan: How complicated is aligning objectives — understanding when a team thinks they should go one direction but really should focus elsewhere? Brandon Bobart: It depends on which part of the cannabis industry we're talking about. We've worked with multi-state brands, and that gets complicated — a lot of different markets, and what works in Arizona won't move the needle in Massachusetts, plus more stakeholders and spread-out teams. For any process, we always start with an audit — understanding the KPIs and North Star metrics the operator cares about beyond revenue. Business owners want another blog or social post like a hole in the head — they need results and outcomes. If you can align early and often on what those are, and focus on delivering a KPI instead of a basket of tasks, that matters. A lot of marketing firms say "we'll give you three posts and four blogs," but what does that actually do for you? That audit process is paid for us — we don't give away free strategy because we've been burned too many times. We interview stakeholders, operators, executives, marketing directors, sales teams, understand their tech stack and tasks — that usually takes 30 to 45 days. From there we align on what we're trying to influence and I can recommend a team, with budget variability, since I'm not limited to one full-time team — I have freelancers, contractors, and other companies. If someone needs organic search improvement, I can offer the "fine bottle of wine" version or the "Two Buck Chuck" version. For operators with slim margins under 280E constraints, that's a powerful unlock. Kellan: How much of that is matchmaking — knowing a certain freelancer will vibe culturally with a certain client regardless of cost? Brandon Bobart: First it's aligning on budget — some folks can't afford a particular service, so we filter that first. Then it's about fit — if I've got a Michigan client needing content, it's great to bring in a local subject matter expert versus someone who just generally knows the cannabis industry. I look at what's most efficient and gives the best value. Some of it is like being a general contractor — finding the best sub for a project, and making sure they deliver, show up on time, clean up after themselves, all those things a good GC does. Bryan Fields: I want to go back to KPIs versus tasks. Someone might say, "Brandon, we want a blog post so we get more sales," but you can't always attribute a blog post to sales. Walk us through what a real KPI structure looks like. Brandon Bobart: For an operator, the metrics that matter are bucketed — conversion source and conversion revenue. Once we set up GA4 and Google Search Console, we can see which channels drive online revenue for a retail location — social, email, organic search, paid media. First we establish a baseline; frankly a lot of folks don't even have that set up — some still have Google Universal Analytics instead of GA4. You get seasoned multi-state operators with it dialed in, and mom-and-pops still working on it. Each bucket has leading indicators — for SEO it's clicks, impressions, keyword saturation, top-three or top-five rankings, heat maps. For website, it's conversion rate, time on page. If we influence those positively, revenue through that channel improves. For loyalty, it's clicks, open rate, number of returning customers, time between visits. We break each bucket into sub-KPIs that influence the North Star KPI — revenue from that channel — and you can extrapolate that to paid, social, PR, and beyond. Bryan Fields: How do you balance scope creep? I imagine clients get a taste of success and want more — how do you keep that fair for both sides? Brandon Bobart: It happens a lot — "just change this," "just one more round of edits, Brandon, how hard can it be." Getting them in the weeds with us helps — instead of just handing over an update, we get them into the project management system so they see the labor behind it. That illuminates it for people — they realize it's actually a fair amount of work. I also look at lifetime value — if a client could become six figures, I'll go above and beyond and take some things on the chin some months, knowing I'll win other months. I'd rather keep a good client than go find another one, since that get-to-know-you process is tough. If it comes up, we try to add a bit of cash or take tasks off the plate that month — we stay flexible rather than rigid. I come at this as a business owner first — I own multiple businesses — not just wearing a marketing agency hat trying to hit an efficiency ratio. Kellan: When you get clients in the weeds with you, is there a balancing act to not give away all your secret sauce — situations where they're essentially trying to get you to train an internal hire? Brandon Bobart: Sometimes that's clearly the goal — we just started with a Canadian manufacturing group that said upfront they want to run 12 to 18 months and then hire internally. If that's the goal from the outset, that's fine — fractional doesn't always mean forever, it can be a bridge to hiring full-time. Full-time people who live and breathe your company are great, and we'll never fully replicate that. I was an educator in a former life, and if you train and empower people they become more successful business owners — I'm not going to hold the knowledge hostage just to make a buck. There are proprietary systems and SOPs we've developed, but most of what we learn came from LinkedIn, YouTube, or courses out there. I'd rather be seen as an equal partner working toward the goal together. Bryan Fields: That shows the under-recognized value of fractional marketing — coming into a situation with no foundation and building it, versus a full-time hire expecting instant results with no systems in place. Is that the hidden value? Brandon Bobart: Marketing is probably one of the most misunderstood executive lanes compared to revenue, sales ops, or HR. A lot of CEOs don't get the distinction between all the micro-tasks and skill sets required. I can communicate with a CEO or executive team in a way that shows them they're skipping critical steps — I can think in days but also in years. That's important for a founder-CEO type who wants to fly fast; we break it into digestible chunks and show the path. Sometimes that's received well, sometimes not — some executives think they know everything and nod along but do something else. That's why we do short-term contracts — we're vetting them as much as they're vetting us. I don't get people to sign 12-month contracts; if the relationship isn't good and we're high-touch, talking daily or weekly, and that becomes a dreaded interaction, it's not worth the money. Bryan Fields: What are some of those microservices people might not be familiar with? Brandon Bobart: SEO is one of the most commonly misunderstood. Everyone wants to rank number one but doesn't know what's required. No one knows Google's algorithm — if anyone guarantees you rankings in three weeks, that's a load of crap; Google doesn't publish the algorithm and has been shown to publicly misstate what's in it. Within SEO you've got link building — someone doing outreach, someone managing it, someone doing research, someone writing the guest post — four to six different people with completely different skill sets. Then there's on-page SEO — copywriter, developer, designer. Blogging alone could be a micro-team of 10 to 12 people. A cannabis operator running multiple dispensaries isn't going to want to hire and vet all of that — it's like building a home, you'd never personally interview plumbers, electricians, and roofers without knowing what to ask. That's why you hire a general contractor — not to do the work, but to manage it so you don't pay for things twice. Kellan: The classic "I'm a marketing director and I have no one to direct" scenario. Brandon Bobart: Exactly — the marketing director doing field marketing, digital marketing, product marketing all at once. It's not a team, it's an island — a single individual. Bryan Fields: Talk to us about the importance of a website — some companies say they don't really need one. What are people missing? Brandon Bobart: It depends on the vertical. A B2B consultant might not need a website at all — I follow a guy on LinkedIn who's social-sold for years, launched a cohort with no website, doing 50 signups a month at a grand a signup, clearing 50K a month. Some people overinvest early — spending heavily on a logo and fancy website before they even know their messaging or persona. But if you're a dispensary or retail customer-facing business selling online, it's far more critical. The site needs to be easy to use, fast-loading, and clear on checkout — people are conditioned to expect an Amazon-like experience. We audit dispensary sites and count clicks from load to checkout — sometimes it's 10, sometimes 15, and you lose people at every step. Design matters, but copy often gets skipped. And it's not set-and-forget — you need analytics to see where people fall off, and email engagement to re-capture people who didn't convert immediately. Kellan: At what point should a small business start deeply investing in analytics and tracking? Brandon Bobart: The sooner the better, since it's easier to measure a baseline and growth from the start. Complexity changes with scale — ten dispensaries versus one means much more data and nuance, like geography. We visited a Michigan store near the Ohio border with insane foot traffic, while a store an hour away did 20% of that revenue — very different analytics. Setting things up early makes it part of your normal workflow; going back later to add tracking feels overwhelming. We use tools like Databox — basically a dashboard for your dashboards — to aggregate everything into one place instead of logging into 15 different dashboards, so owners can set goals and forecast without feeling despair. Bryan Fields: I can imagine those conversations when you show operators visibility into their business for the first time. Brandon Bobart: Totally — flying blind is a good way to put it. In more traditional SaaS or evolved direct-to-consumer industries, CEOs have spreadsheets and KPIs tracked meticulously. In cannabis there's often a gap — what doesn't get measured doesn't get improved. People think "I'll just open a dispensary and sell weed," not realizing they're in retail and CPG. Some operators get it, some don't — I don't judge, I want to educate, but it's an uphill battle when you're asking an already-swamped operator to add more to their plate. Bryan Fields: Does market maturity affect that dynamic — comparing a new Ohio market to a mature market like California, Colorado, or Oregon? Brandon Bobart: Generally, yes — operators still in the game in mature markets have evolved through trial and error and are strong operators who've pivoted many times. The conversations there are about profitability and increasing margins and retention. In a newer market like Kentucky, it's "how do we get people through the door, what's a marketing plan, what data should I track" — a very different ask. It's fun applying zero-to-ten-year lessons from mature markets to save newer markets a lot of headache. Bryan Fields: Do you have more fun on newer projects or later-stage ones? Brandon Bobart: There's a weight in some mature markets — some operators get a little jaded or frustrated. But then you get a Kentucky operator opening their first dispensary, or a husband and wife in Mississippi who both quit their jobs to open one of the state's first legal dispensaries — the giddiness of that is contagious and fun. It's cool to be part of that on a personal level, and we're excited about markets in the South that are still yet to legalize. Bryan Fields: What are the unique challenges of social media for cannabis? Brandon Bobart: Instagram and Meta are not your buddy — they don't care. You can't talk about consuming or selling products, so you have to think about it as a lifestyle play. Wyld has done a great job tapping into what consumers do outside cannabis rather than pushing a 43% THC strain — that's an ingredient company, not a brand. Social media is only powerful if you're actually being social — starting conversations, not just posting cool graphics. That's why TikTok is powerful — it's raw and authentic versus the curated, fake Instagram feed aesthetic. Cannabis also has some haters within it — accounts get reported and pulled down, often out of jealousy, which is an odd dynamic compared to the "we're all one plant" Legacy mentality. Bryan Fields: Are there any cannabis brands doing a great job right now that you'd shout out? Brandon Bobart: We love Arrow Brands — we've worked with them and think they do a great job bringing a lifestyle to life. We also work with Black Buddha Cannabis, a smaller brand founded by Ros McCarthy, who also founded Minorities for Medical Marijuana — she brings a needed perspective and point of view aligned with who consumers are. Bryan Fields: What are some marketing tactics companies should be doing but currently aren't? Brandon Bobart: Good old-fashioned grassroots marketing — community building, aligning with local businesses, collaborating on content, participating in community activations, being present in schools and third places. People think ads and social posts and the lowest price equals top-line heaven, but that misses a lot of the joy of small business ownership and the connection people crave today. Direct mail and sending letters and gifts also work — given how many digital ads people see per day, if you're not hitting them with something amazing and creative, it won't resonate. Standing out in tangible, less-digital ways brings more joy and success. Bryan Fields: Direct mail is absolutely back — I got a direct mail piece for THC delivery and five people told me how awesome it was, versus digital ads I've seen and forgotten completely. Brandon Bobart: 100% agree. Bryan Fields: What question do you wish more people asked you? Brandon Bobart: What can realistically be accomplished in a given time period. People over-assume what can happen in 30 or 60 days — what you do today impacts your top and bottom line 90 or 120-plus days out. We try to avoid clients who think hiring a firm for a few grand a month will save a broken product or broken leadership team — in the South we say "bless your heart." I also wish people asked what we need from them — hiring an external partner doesn't mean you can forget about it; it often means investing more time, since we don't live in your seat every day. Without that ongoing commitment, results won't be as efficient or meaningful. Bryan Fields: What's the most expensive lesson you've ever learned? Brandon Bobart: I invested $50,000 in a CBD franchise company years ago — I opened the bank account, got it off the ground, sold the first 12 or 13 franchises. It's still out there, and the person who owns it speaks about business ethics in the cannabis industry, ironically. I learned an agreement should really be called a disagreement — you need to spell out what happens when things go wrong: distributions, voting rights, all the things I glossed over. That cost me $50,000 and I take contracts far more seriously now. Second lesson: as a service business, keep a rainy-day fund. I had a woman threaten to sue us over a website payment portal issue that was actually her own setup error, but it didn't matter — we had to pay her back rather than fight it. Having six months of runway lets you sleep better and handle inevitable hiccups. Bryan Fields: Prediction time — how might AI change the way cannabis companies approach marketing? Brandon Bobart: AI can take out mundane tasks — organizing spreadsheets, taking call notes and turning them into bullet points and follow-up emails — freeing up human intellect for things that actually move the needle. People get caught up in what AI is taking away instead of what it's enabling. It's gatekeeping and fear of the unknown — like my hair salon business, where staff were still using handwritten paper forms in 2024, and resisted when we tried to modernize, even though it was meant to make their lives easier. Kellan: Agreed — AI eliminates a lot of busy work, like manually inputting data and running correlations before humans can even look at meaningful information. It compresses that front-end work so people can get to actionable conversations faster. Bryan Fields: I think it's also a tool to help people educate themselves — understanding what's necessary before diving in — which pairs well with working alongside someone like Brandon, minimizing the learning gap. Brandon Bobart: Agreed 100%. Bryan Fields: For those who want to get in touch and are interested in fractional marketing, where can they find you? Brandon Bobart: You can email me at Brandon@PisgahPeaksVentures.com, our website is www.PisgahPeaksVentures.com, and I'm on LinkedIn under Brandon Bobart — that's honestly the best way, I'm on there probably too much, my wife thinks I'm crazy. But hit me up with a DM, I'd love to chat — we do no-risk quick audits, an hour or two just talking through your problems, because we want to understand what's going on and know if we can add value before we talk money and retainers. Bryan Fields: Awesome, we'll link all the shoutouts. Thanks for taking the time. Brandon Bobart: Yeah, for sure, appreciate you both — hope you're having a good day.