Marketing in regulated industries often feels like an obstacle course of compliance challenges. One wrong word in an SMS can trigger fines. A misplaced claim on a website might get your company sued.

As a Klaviyo Champion who has worked extensively across regulated spaces including healthcare, telecom, financial services, gambling, children’s products, spirits, craft beer, cannabis, CBD, hemp, and supplements, I've learned that success isn't about finding shortcuts around regulations. It's about building smarter systems that thrive within them. 

Today, I'm sharing proven strategies that will help you stay compliant while driving competitive growth. Let's break down how to do it.

How is marketing different in highly regulated industries?

In regulated industries like cannabis, CBD, alcohol, healthcare, and financial services, marketing comes with unique challenges that traditional marketers don't face, such as:

• Strict approval processes: Some content may require legal review before publication, extending timelines dramatically.
• Content restrictions: Certain claims, words, imagery, and even some marketing channels may be prohibited by law or platform policy, requiring heightened creativity.
• Platform limitations: Many advertising platforms (Meta, Google) restrict or outright ban promotion of regulated products.
• Geotargeting requirements: Regulations often vary by state, province, or country, requiring location-specific campaigns.
• Age verification: Most regulated industries must verify audience age, adding friction to the customer journey.
• Evolving regulations: Rules change frequently, requiring constant vigilance and adaptability to comply with relevant regulations and platform guidelines.

The stakes are also significantly higher. While a traditional brand might face customer backlash for a marketing misstep, regulated businesses risk substantial fines, license revocation, or even criminal charges.

What does compliance look like through the customer journey?

Compliance isn't a one-time checkbox—it's a consideration at every touchpoint with your customer. That might include:

• Website entry: Use age gates that genuinely verify age to avoid selling to minors.
• Lead generation: Comply with local marketing and advertising restrictions. For example, some states don’t allow out-of-home advertising, some states restrict banner ads, and so on.
• Messaging and design: Comply with state laws on messaging and design. For example, a dispensary retailer that was a multi-state operator had to design two unique website experiences for their Colorado and Florida store locations due to strict advertising laws in Florida. The Florida website had to be very restricted on marketing messaging, in addition to having a design that did not appeal to minors—no colorful images, no smoking, etc. Business owners and marketers also have to fact check information on appropriate certificates and disclaimers.
• Retention marketing and loyalty: Structure referral or rewards systems to comply with industry-specific regulations.

Navigating the compliance landscape

There are many laws, regulations, and other considerations to keep in mind when looking at compliance across your multi-channel marketing. To name a few:

Industry-specific regulations

• Cannabis: state-specific advertising rules, prohibition of health claims, restrictions on depicting consumption
• Financial services: FINRA/SEC regulations, required disclaimers, transparency requirements
• Healthcare/pharma: HIPAA compliance, FDA restrictions on claims, fair balance requirements
• Alcohol: age verification, responsible consumption messaging, promotion limitations
• Gambling: addiction warnings, responsible gambling messaging, odds transparency, restricted targeting

Cross-industry regulations

• Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA): regulates telemarketing
• CAN-SPAM Act: email marketing requirements for commercial messages
• GDPR/CASL/state privacy laws: data collection and usage requirements
• FTC guidelines: truth in advertising standards
• ADA compliance: accessibility requirements for digital marketing

The complexity multiplies when marketing across borders, as each jurisdiction brings its own set of rules.

The real cost of non-compliance: cautionary tales

The hidden danger of skipping email verification

A cannabis dispensary failed to implement proper email verification systems, resulting in a customer's order confirmation being sent to the wrong person. This email contained sensitive information including the customer's name, birthdate, and purchase history. The recipient was able to learn extensive personal details about the customer.

This type of situation creates significant liability for the business. Negligent handling of customer data could lead to harassment, blackmail, or privacy lawsuits, as outlined by Anne Mitchell and her team.

Accessibility lawsuit against a cannabis retailer

According to the Green Market Report, New York's first licensed cannabis retailer faced a lawsuit over website accessibility issues. The plaintiffs alleged that the website was not accessible to individuals with visual impairments due to inadequate screen reader compatibility, poor navigation, and a lack of essential accessibility features such as text alternatives for images and effective color contrast.

This case highlights the importance of not overlooking ADA compliance, even in emerging regulated markets. 

Top marketing strategies for regulated industries 

Strategies will differ based on the needs of your unique business. For example, you may want to build a loyal local following through your new experimental craft beers and hemp beverage line. 

A few foundational tactics will help you succeed in any regulated space:

1. Own your channels

In regulated industries, losing access to third-party platforms (like social media) can damage your marketing overnight—which is why owning your channels and customer data isn’t just an advantage, it’s a necessity.

• Lean into marketing channels where you own your data, including cost-effective channels like email marketing. 
• Make sure you always have a direct communication channel with your customers—particularly important if a platform like Meta changes their policy and you lose your social media account.
• Focus on SEO to drive organic traffic to your owned properties (website, blog, etc.).

2. Leverage automation to scale

Create compliant marketing systems that scale without increasing risk:

• Welcome sequences to educate new customers
• Abandoned cart and browse abandonment flows to drive high engagement and  attempt to recoup sales
• Post-purchase flows to encourage reviews and repeat purchases
• Re-engagement sequences for lapsed customers
• Automated compliance checks in content workflows

I work with a hemp company in Wisconsin that saw 470% ROI from abandoned cart and welcome automations. That’s revenue on autopilot! Now, automations account for 35% of their total revenue.

Automation boosts efficiency, ensures compliance, and maximizes customer lifetime value (CLV). Tools like Klaviyo can help monetize customer data and put revenue on autopilot.

3. Use strategic segmentation

• Segment by location to respect regional regulations.
• Create different journeys for verified 21+ vs. 18+ customers (where applicable).
• Develop product-specific segments to provide targeted education.
• Implement behavior-based triggers that comply with regulations.

Precise segmentation allows you to deliver the right message within appropriate compliance parameters for each customer group.

4. Prioritize retention marketing

Customer acquisition and retention are both crucial for business success and driving growth. When acquisition channels are restricted and costly, customer retention becomes more important than ever.

• Launch regulation-compliant loyalty and referral programs
• Build replenishment campaigns for consumable products
• Implement win-back strategies for lapsed customers

A solid retention strategy will ensure you’re increasing CLV and building loyalty. Loyal customers tend to spend more than first-time purchasers, and automations are critical in helping turn customers into brand champions in a scalable way. 

The tactics I describe above will play a pivotal role in helping you achieve your marketing strategy. For more tips, check out this Market Like A Badass podcast episode featuring two Klaviyo Champions to learn how Klaviyo supercharges ecommerce growth in highly regulated industries.

What do you need to launch your strategy?

The right technology stack makes compliant marketing possible at scale, but it all comes down to your people, process, and technology. 

The best tech stack reduces compliance headaches for your employees, rather than adding to them. With the right people, processes, and platform (👋 Klaviyo), you’ll spend less time worrying about fines and more time driving growth.

So often, in highly regulated industries, you’re dealing with integrating data from disparate platforms due to the regulatory environment. For example, a spirits client’s abandoned cart flow is triggered through ReserveBar to remain compliant with laws and regulations, and the remaining flow triggers might be through the client’s Shopify website. 

Understanding the way your tools work together and integrate will help you create a compliant marketing program where you can fully monetize your customer data.

I once spoke to a cannabis delivery client that earned zero dollars in revenue from their email program in 6 months with another agency and platform. They had built nearly 10,000 contacts, but they failed to integrate their email technology properly with their website and POS data.

This client was email blasting a static list in another email system with no segmentation strategy. They were using all-image email designs that did not leverage alt text, and their emails were landing in spam and going unseen by their customers. Now, their email list is dead and unengaged. 

So what about you? Do you know if your data is coming into these various marketing tech platforms correctly? Are you using the technology because it helps with performance or because it’s what you think your company needs to use?

Real-life success stories

Let’s put my playbook to the test and check out some real-life examples and success stories.

Case study 1: CBD brand grows email revenue 560% with compliant automation

A national CBD brand was struggling with limited advertising options and frequent payment processing issues. We implemented a comprehensive email strategy leveraging Klaviyo, featuring:

• Educational content sequences for new subscribers
• Detailed product guides addressing concerns without making claims
• Abandoned cart flows with compliant messaging
• Post-purchase education sequences

Results:

• 560% increase in flow-attributed email revenue
• 170% increase in average monthly revenue
• 35% of company revenue comes from automations

Case study 2: Supplement brand increases CLV to all-time high, despite restrictions

A national supplement brand was struggling to monetize their customer data. They had recently acquired a new brand under their wellness portfolio, they had no segmentation strategy, and email revenue was on the decline. We implemented a new strategy in Klaviyo based on deep brand work and data, featuring:

• Updated segments for targeting
• New automations to put ecommerce revenue on autopilot
• Updated messaging to increase subscription adoption
• Updated email designs based on A/B testing

Results:

• 300% increase in contribution margin YoY
• Increased click rate percentage to an all-time high
• Increased CLV to an all-time high
• Repeat business at an all-time high

Conclusion: thrive within the lines

Marketing in regulated industries isn't about finding loopholes. It's about mastering the fundamentals with precision and creativity within the regulatory and compliance frameworks that exist. When you build systems that ensure compliance by design, you create sustainable competitive advantages that can't be easily replicated.

Remember that regulations exist to protect consumers. By embracing them rather than fighting them, you build trust that translates to long-term customer loyalty.

And in industries where trust is often in short supply, that might be your most powerful marketing advantage of all.