HighDef Studio

October 26th, 2025

A little while ago, I ran a poll on LinkedIn asking what you see as the biggest problem with dispensary loyalty programs.

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The top responses might surprise you. (They sure surprised me!)

• 49% said the rewards aren’t worth it
• 23% said staff don’t promote the program
• 20% said the tracking isn’t there
• 9% said structure is the issue

Nearly half of you said that the rewards leave much to be desired.

Rewards are often set up without strategy. Points per dollar issued, and if you’re lucky, 5% return on that spend. Full stop. Loyalty programs are rarely leveraged as the meat of retail retention programs.

Soooo.. What do you do instead?

If you’re launching a new or improving an existing loyalty program, focus on these three things:

1. Design rewards around what people like to do after a visit to your dispensary
2. Avoid overwhelming your retail team with too much messaging. Train talking points around what patrons are missing out on by not signing up for marketing messaging.
3. Track message engagement, visits after click, brand, category, or product sell-throughs, and reward conversions: DATA MATTERS!

Make sense? Let me know by replying to this email.

PS:

I released another FREE campaign in my Resource Library: Harvest of Thanks.

It runs through November and helps you drive repeat visits and bigger baskets using tiered milestones.

Access the campaign here and shoot me a reply if you have any questions about it.

Until next month!

~ Steph