The Best Cannabis Writers For Every Niche

From marketing copy and blog content to employee training manuals and investment pitches, professional-quality writing is a crucial, yet often underestimated, asset for every type of cannabis business. A quick glance at the freelance writing market reveals no shortage of writers-for-hire who will happily take on cannabis writing jobs, but it’s not worth trusting your business or message to just any writer. Writers with cannabis industry expertise deliver significant advantages over even most of the best-rated all-purpose content writers. In this article, we’ll look at why hiring professional cannabis writers is a critical move, and where to find the best ones.

Cannabis Writing – A Fast-Growing Niche

As the legal cannabis industry continues to expand worldwide, the demand for writers who can meet the needs and convey the voice of this unique and heavily regulated industry does as well. Writers who have developed a niche in cannabis are uniquely positioned to deliver content that is professional, compliant, accurate, engaging, and easy to understand.

Who Can Benefit from Hiring Cannabis Writers?

• Businesses that produce, process, or sell cannabis and/or CBD products, including dispensaries, grow operations, and testing labs
• Ancillary professionals serving the legal cannabis market, including accountants, lawyers, marketing firms, security providers, software developers, and many more.
• Medical practices authorized to recommend medicinal marijuana
• Cannabis researchers
• Blogs and magazines
• Informational sites dedicated to cannabis topics
• Content creation companies that want to offer their clients cannabis niche services

Areas Covered by Cannabis Writers

Cannabis writing is not a one-size-fits-all area of expertise. There are an incredibly wide variety of cannabis writing jobs ranging from highly technical research papers to conversational-tone blogging. Most cannabis writers will have expertise in one or more of the following specific areas.

Marketing, Branding, and Copywriting

Helping your company or website develop a consistent voice that speaks directly to your target audience or customer base and makes your company stand out from the competition. This category includes sales copy, press releases, social media content, product descriptions, and other marketing materials.

Consumable Content

Creating original blog and website content that utilizes best SEO practices, offers value to readers, and is engaging enough to attract (and keep) their attention. This type of content may be educational, informative, or entertaining, and can cover nearly any cannabis industry, science, or lifestyle topic. Cannabis content writers also pen white papers, informational pamphlets, infographics, and even books and e-books.

Educational Content

Developing educational content for cannabis courses and training programs. These types of programs may be targeted to individuals interested in cannabis topics or to businesses looking to enhance their employees’ knowledge. Topics can include anything from cannabis cultivation to budtending, medicinal use, cannabis investing, or best marijuana business practices.

Investment Decks

Writing pitch decks and investor decks expertly designed to demonstrate what makes your business a safe and solid financial bet to attract potential investors.

Business Operation Materials

Crafting detailed, easy-to-understand operations manuals, SOP (standard operating procedures), employee training materials, human resources handbooks, and job descriptions to ensure every employee knows precisely what their responsibilities are and provide a roadmap of how to keep the business running smoothly and in compliance.

Technical Writing

Handling any writing tasks that require technical details and deal with sensitive regulatory and compliance issues. Marijuana technical writing jobs include business applications, facility planning (including security planning), contingency plans, and any other regulatory, policy, or legal documents.

What Sets Cannabis Writers Apart

What sets cannabis copywriters, technical writers, and content writers apart from their all-purpose cohorts? Dedicated knowledge and expertise in the following categories make a critical difference.

Professional Writing Technique

First and foremost, high-quality writing automatically imparts a sense of credibility and inspires higher levels of engagement – interesting readers in what your company or brand has to say. In addition to being engaging and free of glaring grammatical errors, your content must flow nicely, convey your brand voice with a professional tone, and arrive fully proofread and ready to put into use.

SEO Expertise

Knowledge of best SEO (search engine optimization) practices and the effective use of keywords within a piece of writing is crucial for making the content you’ve paid for visible to as large and relevant an audience as possible.

Research Skills

The ability to find information, discern reputable sources, and effectively present research is a crucial skill set for cannabis writers of all types. There is considerable liability present when making claims about product efficacy or safety. Therefore, it’s essential that any claims or theories be backed by citable studies.

Awareness of the Current Cannabis Environment

To create content that strikes the proper tone for today’s cannabis market, awareness of the current legal and social environment around cannabis is essential. Widespread social attitudes toward cannabis use are still shifting, and cannabis copywriters and content writers mindfully and professionally play to this sense of legitimacy, which significantly downplays marijuana’s prior status as an illegal and misunderstood substance.

Marijuana Knowledge

It’s important for any professional cannabis writer to have a solid working knowledge of marijuana’s characteristics, including impactful cannabinoid compounds, benefits, risks, and side effects of use, delivery methods, and popular strain types. Depending on the niche, additional expertise may be necessary in areas such as growing and cultivation, dispensary operating procedures, cannabis culture topics, or the characteristics of different marijuana strains.

Appreciation and Enthusiasm for Cannabis

Hiring a writer with enthusiasm and sincere interest in cannabis goes a long way – lending an additional, organic layer of interest and engagement to their writing. Fortunately, most writing professionals who’ve developed their niche in cannabis chose to do so because they are genuinely interested in the topic and excited to contribute their skills to legitimizing this new industry. While being an active cannabis user isn’t mandatory for cannabis content writers in most fields, some level of personal familiarity with its effects and delivery methods is helpful for authors of particular types of content, such as strain reviews or various cannabis culture topics.

Privacy and Confidentiality

Marijuana technical writers, copywriters, and others who come into close contact with the inner workings and business strategies of your company must be trusted to uphold the privacy and confidentiality of any sensitive information they come in contact with. It is typical for professional cannabis writers to require an NDA (non-disclosure agreement).

What to Look for in a Cannabis Writer

Independent Writers vs. Writing Firms

In recent years, a number of cannabis-specific writing firms have risen up to make screening and selecting candidates with proven cannabis writing track records easier – and make it easier for skilled writers who love cannabis to find work. Interested parties can browse these firms’ websites for individual writers’ profiles, portfolios, and rates to find those best suited to their needs.

Alternatively, many individual writers have opted to cut out the middle man by developing their cannabis niche and expertise into sole proprietor cannabis writing operations. Independent writers typically have their own websites outlining areas of expertise and portfolio links in a similar fashion to writing firms.

References and Portfolio

Before entrusting the voice of your business – or the regulatory details that can make or break it – to a particular writer, you must be confident that they’re up to the task. Ask for references and take a careful look through their portfolio and any writing samples. In addition to general writing expertise and flow, you’ll want to ensure their writing voice appeals to you, and/or that they can adeptly create the type of voice you want.

Availability

In the rapidly-growing cannabis niche, highly-rated writers tend to get booked up quickly. Before signing on the dotted line, ensure that the writer you want to work with is capable of delivering what you need within your desired timeframe. If you’re interested in hiring the same writer for multiple or recurring projects, it’s a good idea to communicate your intentions early on. Most writers-for-hire will prioritize stable, ongoing cannabis writing jobs wherever possible.

Areas of Specialization

Don’t underestimate the importance of hiring a writer with a deep understanding of the type of content you need. A cannabis blogger may not be the best choice to write an operations manual for your grow house, nor a technical writer to create your social media captions. It’s worth the extra effort to find a writer who specializes in creating the specific type of content you need.

Ultimately, your hired writer must be able to convey your message in an effective, engaging, professional manner, understand the unique challenges of the legal cannabis industry, and appreciate the benefits and enjoyment of cannabis. If you’re ready to find a cannabis writer whose words will elevate your business operations and draw the attention of new clients or investors, our list of trusted and recommended cannabis writers is an excellent place to start your search.

Our Recommended Cannabis Writers