Core Service · Alpine IQ Certified

Text, email & loyalty marketing for dispensaries — measured in dollars.

Your most profitable customers are already in your point-of-sale system. We run your texting, email, and loyalty program end to end — and report what every message actually made you.

The problem isn't your platform. It's that nobody runs it.

Most dispensaries pay for a retention platform — Alpine IQ, Springbig, or the loyalty tools bundled into their point-of-sale system. Very few use even half of it. The platform can send eight kinds of automatic messages, thousands of texts a month, and a welcome series to every new sign-up. What it usually sends is a birthday text.

Here's what we found inside a real account the day we took it over — a single-location Colorado dispensary paying for a full retention platform:

1
Promotion sent in 90 days — not even a 4/20 text
73%
Of the messages they paid for never got sent
1 of 8
Automatic message types set up — no welcome, no win-back
91%
Of tracked revenue came from messages on autopilot

That last number is the important one. Over 90% of the program's revenue came from a handful of automatic messages nobody had touched in months. Not because those messages were brilliant — because they were the only thing running. The gap between what you pay for and what actually runs is the cheapest revenue you'll ever recover. No new customers required.

Honest framing: those numbers describe the account we inherited, built by the previous marketer. We didn't generate them and we don't claim them. What we claim is the diagnosis — and we publish our own results against that documented starting point about 90 days in.

What we run, every month

Retention marketing is three channels working as one system. Here's what that looks like in practice:

Promotions that go out on a calendar

Weekly or twice-weekly campaigns to your opted-in list — deals, drops, events, holidays. Planned a month ahead, written to pass carrier filters, and sent to the customers most likely to act on them rather than blasted to everyone.

Automatic messages that run without you

These are the "set it and forget it" programs most platforms support and most dispensaries never build. We build all of them, in this order, because this is the order they pay back:

  • Welcome series — a new sign-up gets a first-visit offer, then a short explanation of how your points work.
  • Win-back — a customer who hasn't visited in 30, 60, or 90 days gets a nudge that escalates as they go colder.
  • First-to-second purchase — the single biggest lever in dispensary retention is turning a one-time buyer into a repeat buyer, and it has to happen in the first two to three weeks.
  • Birthday — sent a few days ahead so they can plan the visit, not the day of.
  • Abandoned cart — for stores with online ordering: a gentle reminder, then a final "your cart is expiring."
  • Points reminders — "you have enough points for a free pre-roll" converts dormant balances into visits, and it's nearly free to send.
  • Replenishment — a flower buyer and an edibles buyer run out on different schedules; the message lands when they're due.
  • Post-purchase review request — timed after they've actually used the product, capped so regulars don't get asked every week.

The right message to the right customers

Your platform knows what each customer buys, how often, and how much. We use that to split your list into groups — lapsed regulars, flower-only buyers, high spenders, new sign-ups — and write to each one. A 20%-off blast to your whole list discounts the people who were coming in anyway. A targeted message doesn't.

Sign-up capture that actually grows the list

None of this works on a list that isn't growing. We audit every place a customer could opt in — at the register, on your website, on your online menu, on social — and fix the ones that are broken or missing. Social media is how most new names get onto the list; retention is how the list turns into revenue.

Compliance, handled

Two things make cannabis texting different from texting for any other business, and both are handled for you:

TCPA (the Telephone Consumer Protection Act) is the federal law on marketing texts. It requires written permission before you text a customer, a working way to opt out, and sending only during allowed hours. Violations are a real lawsuit risk — we make sure your opt-in language, your forms, and your sending windows are right.

10DLC (10-digit long code) is the mobile carriers' registration system for business texting. An unregistered or badly registered number gets filtered — your texts simply don't arrive, and the platform may not tell you. We check your registration status on day one, and we write messages the way carriers require: neutral text with the offer on a landing page, not in the message body.

And the reason all of this routes through a cannabis-specific platform in the first place: the big general-purpose texting companies — Twilio, Klaviyo, Attentive, Postscript — prohibit cannabis businesses outright. That's why Alpine IQ and Springbig exist, and why we're certified on Alpine IQ specifically.

How we report

On day one we document where your account starts: revenue attributed to messages, how many customers are actually reachable (opted in, not just in your database), which automations are live, how many messages deliver versus get filtered. That's your baseline, and it's written down before we change anything.

From then on, every result is measured against it — inside your own platform's dashboard, which you can open any time. We use the platform's strict attribution setting (a sale counts only when the customer clicked the message), not the generous one that roughly doubles every number. If the reporting is inflated, the performance fee is inflated, so we have every reason to keep it honest.

Which platform?

You're on…What we do
Alpine IQOur home turf — we're certified and run a live account daily. See Alpine IQ management.
SpringbigWe run it. We'll also give you an honest read on whether it's still the right platform for you.
Dutchie or other point-of-sale loyaltyFor smaller stores these built-in tools are often enough. We'll make them work before we ever suggest spending more on a platform.
Nothing yetWe'll recommend a platform for your size and budget, set it up, and handle carrier registration.

Questions dispensary owners ask

What is retention marketing for a dispensary?
It's everything you do to bring back the customers you already have: text messages (SMS), email, and your loyalty or points program. New customers are expensive to find. Customers who already know you are cheap to reach — their phone numbers are sitting in your point-of-sale system right now. Retention marketing is the work of turning that list into repeat visits, measured in dollars.
Why can't I just use Twilio, Klaviyo, or Mailchimp to text my customers?
Because the big general-purpose texting companies — Twilio, Klaviyo, Attentive, Postscript — ban cannabis businesses in their terms of service. That's why cannabis-specific platforms like Alpine IQ and Springbig exist. Email is more flexible, but SMS for a dispensary has to go through a cannabis-approved platform, and the messages have to be written and registered in a specific way so carriers deliver them.
What are TCPA and 10DLC, and why should I care?
TCPA is the federal law that says you need a customer's written permission before you text them, and that you can only text during allowed hours. 10DLC is the mobile carriers' registration system for business texting — without it your messages get filtered or blocked. Getting either wrong means lawsuits or texts that never arrive. We handle both as part of the service.
Do I have to switch platforms to work with you?
No. We're certified on Alpine IQ and fluent in Springbig and the loyalty tools built into point-of-sale systems like Dutchie. If you already pay for a platform, we start by making that platform do what you're paying for. If you're on a platform that's failing you, we'll tell you — and we'll run the migration.
How do you measure results?
On day one we write down exactly where your account stands — revenue from messages, list size, which automations run, how many messages actually deliver. Everything after that gets compared to that starting point, inside your own platform's reporting, using the platform's stricter attribution setting so we're not taking credit for sales that would have happened anyway.
How much does it cost?
Engagements start at $1,500 a month plus a small share of the revenue we generate above your documented starting point. If your revenue doesn't grow, we don't earn more. Some accounts need a one-time rebuild first — that carries a setup fee, waived on six-month commitments. See how we price for the full explanation.
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program is missing.

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Prefer to just talk? Book a call · or email matt@greensparkmedia.com