Example 1 — The 45-day win-back
Segment: customers whose last purchase was 45 to 75 days ago and who bought at least twice before. Excluding one-time visitors matters — they respond at a fraction of the rate and dilute your numbers.
Timing: late morning on a Thursday, so the offer is live for the weekend but the customer has a weekday option if they want to avoid crowds.
Offer: a category-specific discount rather than store-wide. "20% off flower" to flower buyers converts better than "20% off everything" to everyone, because it reads as knowing them.
Message: "Green Leaf: been a while — 20% off flower through Sunday. Show this text. Reply STOP to opt out." Typical result for a store with 400 in this segment is dozens of visits inside 72 hours from a send costing about ten dollars. This is the campaign that convinces most owners.
Examples 2 and 3 — Restock and replenishment
The restock alert. Segment: everyone who purchased a specific SKU in the last six months, and nobody else. Timing: the morning the product hits the floor. Offer: none — the news is the offer. "Green Leaf: back in stock, the live resin cart you bought in June. Limited units today. Reply STOP to opt out." Response rates on these routinely beat discount campaigns, at zero margin cost.
The replenishment nudge. Segment: individual, not group. The message fires at roughly 1.2 times each customer's own purchase cycle — day 25 for a three-week buyer, day 50 for a six-week buyer. Timing is the entire campaign. Offer: usually none, occasionally a small one.
"Green Leaf: running low? Your usual is in stock and we're open till 9. Reply STOP to opt out." It looks almost too plain to work, which is why so few stores send it. It is consistently among the highest-converting automations in the account because it arrives at the moment of actual need.
Examples 4 and 5 — VIP drops and slow-day fills
The VIP drop. Segment: top 10% by lifetime spend. Timing: the evening before the drop, so they can plan. Offer: access, not discount. "Green Leaf VIP: new batch lands at 10am tomorrow, 30 units, first come first served. Reply STOP to opt out."
This costs nothing in margin and does two jobs at once — it clears limited inventory fast and it makes your best customers feel like insiders, which is the cheapest loyalty mechanic in retail. Stores that run these consistently see their top decile widen over time.
The slow-day fill. Segment: customers within a short drive who have shopped on a weekday before. Do not send this to your whole list — you will discount sales that would have happened anyway. Timing: same day, late morning.
Offer: modest and time-boxed. "Green Leaf: quiet Tuesday means 15% off store-wide until 6pm. No line. Reply STOP to opt out." Judge it on incremental traffic during the dead hours, not total redemptions.
Examples 6 and 7 — Loyalty and the welcome sequence
The loyalty nudge. Segment: members within one visit of a reward, or with points expiring in the next 30 days. Timing: mid-week. Offer: their own points, which they already earned. "Green Leaf: you're 1 visit from your next reward — and 500 points expire on the 31st. Reply STOP to opt out."
Redemption is the only part of a loyalty program that produces a visit, so this message is where most of the program's value actually gets realized. Stores that add it typically see redemption rates jump immediately.
The welcome sequence. Segment: brand-new opt-ins. Timing: message one within minutes of opt-in, message two about five days later if they have not returned. Offer: a next-visit incentive on the first, a nudge with a deadline on the second.
New subscribers are the warmest audience you will ever have and most stores let them sit until the next monthly blast. Two automated messages capture that heat while it exists.
The common thread — and how to run all seven
Look across the examples and the pattern is obvious: the winning campaigns are narrow. Small, well-chosen audiences. Timing tied to the customer's behavior rather than your calendar. Offers that reflect what the person actually buys. The store-wide blast to everybody does not appear once, because it is the campaign that produces opt-outs and carrier complaints without producing visits.
Running seven precise campaigns manually is not realistic for a retail team, which is exactly the problem Cannabis Text Marketing solves. The platform reads your POS, builds each of these segments automatically, calculates individual reorder cycles for the replenishment nudge, drafts and screens the copy, and fires the automations on their own schedule.
It also protects delivery with proper registration, content screening, and automatic list hygiene — the campaigns above only work if the messages arrive.
Create your account, connect your store, and start with example one. Messages start at $0.025 with no contract, so the first win-back typically pays for months of sending.
Frequently asked questions
What are good cannabis SMS marketing examples?+
The highest performers are 45-day win-backs to repeat customers, restock alerts to people who bought that exact product, individual replenishment nudges timed to each customer's reorder cycle, VIP early access to limited drops, and loyalty reward reminders.
Do restock alerts work better than discounts?+
Often yes. A restock alert sent only to previous buyers of that product converts strongly at zero margin cost, while store-wide discounts pay for sales that would have happened anyway.
When is the best time to send a dispensary text?+
Late morning to early afternoon on days you are staffed, with weekend offers going out Thursday. Avoid early mornings and evenings, and always respect quiet hours.
How many people should each campaign go to?+
Fewer than you think. Narrow, well-chosen segments outperform full-list blasts on revenue, opt-out rate, and deliverability all at once.
Can these campaigns run automatically?+
Yes. Welcome, replenishment, win-back, and loyalty messages all run as automations triggered by each customer's own behavior once your POS is connected.