Guide · Hemp & CBD

Klaviyo email for hemp and CBD brands: what works when ads are limited

By Amber Nowlin, Founder of Nowlin Parks · November 2026 · 6 minute read

If you sell hemp, CBD or THCa products, you already know the problem. Meta and Google reject or limit a lot of your ads, and the ones that run can get pulled with no warning. Email is the one channel you own, so it usually ends up doing more of the selling than it would for a typical store.

We've run email for hemp brands for close to two years. At Preston Herb Co., email brought in over $1.3M in the past year and made up nearly half of online sales. Here's what we've learned about making Klaviyo work in this category.

1. Build the list on purpose, because ads won't do it for you

Most brands get their first subscribers from paid traffic. When ads are restricted, the signup form has to work harder with the traffic you do get from search, social, creators and wholesale partners.

• Give a clear reason to join. A first-order discount, a free sample or early access to drops all work better than "join our newsletter."
• Add an age check that fits your products. If you sell THCa or other 21+ products, confirm age at signup and keep that answer in a Klaviyo profile property so you can filter on it.
• Collect more than an email when it helps. One extra question, like "what are you shopping for," lets you send people to the right products from the first email.

2. Set up the flows before you worry about campaigns

Flows are the emails that send on their own when someone signs up, abandons a cart or places an order. For a small hemp brand, they often earn more than every campaign combined. Start with these five:

1. Welcome series of three to five emails: the offer, your story and how you test your products, then best sellers and reviews.
2. Abandoned checkout showing the exact products left behind, with the first email inside a few hours.
3. Browse abandonment for people who looked at a product but didn't add it to their cart.
4. Post-purchase with how to use the product, then a reorder reminder timed to when a typical customer runs out.
5. Winback for buyers who haven't ordered in two to three times your usual reorder window.

3. Write like a compliance reviewer is reading over your shoulder

This is where hemp email is different. Keep your copy away from health claims. Talk about the product, the experience, the flavor and the testing, not what it treats or cures. Put your lab results and age requirements where people can find them, and add any required disclaimers to your email footer so they go out on every send.

Before you launch, check Klaviyo's current acceptable use policy for your product type. Rules for hemp and CBD are stricter for SMS than for email, so don't assume a text message program is allowed just because your email program is.

4. Protect your deliverability

A blocked or spam-foldered email can't sell anything. Send from your own domain with SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up, keep spam complaints under 0.3%, and add a sunset flow that stops mailing people who haven't opened or clicked in months. Smaller, engaged lists beat big, tired ones every time.

5. Use campaigns for launches, drops and big moments

Once the flows are running, campaigns are where you create spikes. Plan a calendar a month or more out around new strains and flavors, restocks, bundles and the big sales days. Black Friday and Cyber Monday can be the biggest month of the year for hemp brands. At Preston Herb Co., email revenue in Black Friday month grew 82% year over year, with the sale planned across email, Discord, social giveaways and creator pushes.

Segment every campaign. Buyers, non-buyers, repeat customers and your top spenders should not all get the same offer.

6. Let your other channels feed the list

Creators, affiliates, Reddit, Discord and wholesale partners can all send people to your signup form. Give each source its own form or link so you can see which ones bring in subscribers who actually buy.

Where to start this week

If you only do one thing, check your welcome series. Most hemp brands we look at either don't have one or stopped at a single email. A real three to five email welcome series is usually the fastest win in the account.