2025 Review & 2026 Strategy — American Extractions

Overview

Strategy session with American Extractions (Mark Schweiger, Caitlin Doak) and Asymmetric (Karly Oykhman, Avoke Onorimuo) to review 2025 marketing performance and set direction for 2026. The central outcome was a significant strategic pivot: repositioning American Extractions from a THC/CBD-focused manufacturer to a mainstream "wellness powder manufacturer" in response to anticipated hemp regulation. This pivot unlocks broader keyword targeting, removes advertising restrictions, and opens a larger addressable market.

Attendees:
- Caitlin Doak — American Extractions
- Mark Schweiger — American Extractions
- Karly Oykhman — Asymmetric
- Avoke Onorimuo — Asymmetric

Key Decisions

1. Strategic Brand Pivot: Wellness Powder Manufacturer

Mark confirmed that hemp-derived Delta-9 THC is likely to face federal regulation imminently (a clause in the budget bill). Rather than wait, American Extractions will proactively reposition:

• Old positioning: THC/CBD/hemp manufacturer with stick packs as a product line
• New positioning: Wellness powder manufacturer for drink mixes; cannabinoids are an optional ingredient, not the core identity

"We are a wellness powder manufacturer with a variety of potential actives. If cannabinoids remain legal, that's just like a sub-point — another ingredient like alpha-GPC or creatine. But it's not the driver." — Mark Schweiger

This affects all channels: Google Ads keywords, blog content, landing pages, email targeting, and social media.

2. Pause ClearMix Google Ads; Reallocate to Stick Packs

The ClearMix campaign is ineffective and will be paused. All Google Ads budget will shift to stick packs/drink mixes once keyword research is complete. Mark's direction: all budget to stick packs, not "most."

3. Email Marketing as Primary Lead Gen Channel

Email marketing is now the top-priority lead generation channel. A prior small stick pack campaign yielded 3–4 responses, demonstrating strong ROI relative to Google Ads. The plan:
- Purchase a 1,000-contact list from a lead broker
- Target beverage manufacturers (not cannabinoid brands)
- Load contacts into Pipedrive; send stick pack email campaign
- Karly will draft a target segment profile (job title, industry, geo) for Mark and Caitlin to review before purchase

4. 2026 Goals Narrowed to Top Three

Original five goals were reviewed. Mark and Caitlin aligned on focusing 80% of marketing effort on:
1. Increase lead generation (primary — email marketing, Google Ads, new channels)
2. Improve conversion rate (messaging alignment, lead quality)
3. Increase average order value (cross-sell: e.g., stick packs → gummies/shots)

Goals 4 (brand authority) and 5 (customer referrals) are deprioritized as nice-to-haves.

2025 Performance Review

Google Ads

• Overall: Underperformed due to low search volume for hemp/THC/CBD keywords and advertising restrictions on those terms
• ClearMix campaign: Ineffective → pausing
• Stick pack campaign: Higher CTR but still limited by low impression volume
• Root cause: Niche hemp keywords have insufficient search volume; B2B-specific long-tail terms (e.g., "contract manufacturer for hydration stick packs") are too low-volume to drive meaningful traffic

Website & SEO

• Website health score: 100
• New user traffic trending up over last 90 days
• Top organic query: "white label product manufacturing" — 111 clicks (down 15% over 3 months)
• Most ranking queries tied to Delta-9/THC terms → low click volume due to low search demand
• Issue flagged: Significant drop in stick pack form inquiries since website relaunch (previously ~4–5/week; now ~2–3 total since launch). Mark to pull data; Karly to investigate.
• Inbound backlinks: primarily homepage only; Karly to pull full backlink report

Social Media

• LinkedIn: +60 followers, 13,000+ post impressions over the past year
• Facebook: significant increase in page views
• Assessment: solid brand presence; B2B social drives awareness, not direct leads

2025 OKRs

Goals were largely missed. Primary reasons:
- Foundational work (website rebuild, Pipedrive setup) took longer than anticipated, delaying lead gen execution
- Google Ads strategy failed to generate sufficient leads at the volume needed
- ClearMix and stick pack OKRs both relied on Google Ads as the primary lead gen mechanism — a flawed assumption in hindsight

2026 Marketing Strategy

Primary Channel: Email Marketing

• Why: High ROI, fast turnaround, proven even at small scale (3–4 responses from a short prior campaign)
• Plan: Purchase 1,000-contact list targeting beverage manufacturers (small-to-mid size); exclude cannabinoid brands
• Execution: Load into Pipedrive; deploy existing stick pack email sequence to new contacts
• Next step: Karly drafts target segment profile → Mark/Caitlin review → finalize → purchase list

Google Ads (Relaunched)

• Focus: Stick packs and drink mixes exclusively
• Keywords: Broaden to "drink mixes," "hydration powders," "energy drinks," "custom beverage formulas" — not hemp-specific
• Landing page: Rework to reflect mainstream wellness positioning (current page is too hemp-focused)
• Budget: ClearMix budget reallocated after keyword deep-dive with ads specialist

Content & SEO

• Blog pivot: Shift from THC/CBD topics to new product formula categories
• New formula pipeline (target: marketing-ready by January 1):
• Energy
• Focus
• Sleep
• Relax
• Pre-workout
• Post-workout
• Caitlin's point: start building keyword rankings now — products don't need to be fully white-label-ready to begin content marketing around them
• Keyword research: Karly's team conducting deep dive into non-cannabinoid stick pack / drink mix keywords

New Channels Under Consideration

Conversion Rate & Messaging

• Current self-reported conversion rate: ~65% of qualified inbound leads close
• ~20% fall out at MOQ stage (too small)
• ~5% each: pricing, not-ready, miscellaneous
• Implication for messaging: Don't lead with low MOQ — risks attracting customers too small to convert. Focus messaging on capability, formulation expertise, and wellness positioning.

Website Imagery

• Current AI-generated gummy images flagged as unprofessional
• Decision: hire a professional photographer for product shots (gummies, stick packs, etc.)
• Karly to recommend photographer and provide pricing

Action Items

Related

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