About Gold Standard Solutions

Cannabis Marketing
Built in Queens

We are a cannabis-only marketing agency based in Queens, New York. We do one thing: help licensed dispensaries build the customer relationships and revenue that make their businesses last.

Gold Standard Solutions was built around one observation: most cannabis dispensaries have the product, the location, and the license, but they do not have a marketing partner who actually understands the cannabis retail business.

General marketing agencies treat dispensaries like any other retail client. They apply retail playbooks that were built for industries where Google Ads, Facebook campaigns, and national brand awareness spending are reliable tools. In cannabis, Google Ads are unavailable for products and Meta is heavily restricted, requiring a completely different approach. The restrictions that govern cannabis advertising require a different approach entirely.

We built our practice around the channels that work within those restrictions: email, SMS, loyalty programs, SEO, CTV advertising, and geofencing. These are the tools that produce measurable, documented revenue for cannabis dispensaries operating in regulated markets. We know them deeply because they are the only things we work on.

Being based in Queens, at the center of one of the most competitive and legally complex cannabis markets in the country, means we operate in the same environment our clients do. We understand New York's adult-use rollout, the gray market competition, the OCM compliance requirements, and the neighborhood-by-neighborhood market dynamics because we are here every day.

Gold Standard Solutions founders at Stashmaster Cannabis dispensary Brooklyn New York
Gold Standard Solutions founders at a New York City cannabis community street event
NYC Cannabis Industry
How We Work
Cannabis Only, Always
We do not work with general retail clients, restaurants, or brands outside the cannabis industry. Our entire operation is built around dispensary marketing. Every template, every workflow, every compliance check is designed for this specific regulated category.
Documented Results, Not Promises
Every result we cite is a documented number from a real client campaign. $12.9M in attributed program revenue. A 33x open rate lift from a full domain warmup rescue. 27,000+ loyalty members reached across profiled accounts. These are not projections. We run the campaigns, pull the numbers, and show our work.
No Long-Term Contracts
We operate month-to-month with 30-day cancellation notice. Our clients stay because the work produces results, not because they are locked into a contract they cannot exit.
Compliance Is Non-Negotiable
Every campaign we produce is reviewed against applicable state cannabis advertising regulations before it goes live. We do not treat compliance as a checkbox. A single regulatory violation can carry consequences that damage a license. We protect our clients from that risk at every step.
Data Drives Every Decision
We segment by purchase behavior, engagement history, and product preference. We test subject lines, send times, and offer structures. We report on revenue per message, not just open rates. Marketing decisions at Gold Standard Solutions are made from data, not intuition.
$1.18M
Total revenue generated, Long Island and Brooklyn chain
33x
Open rate lift from a full domain warmup rescue
90.3%
Active loyalty member rate, Park Slope Brooklyn
$12.35
Revenue per message sent, Brooklyn luxury retail

Built for the New York Cannabis Market

New York's adult-use cannabis market is one of the most complicated in the country. The OCM licensing process stretched over years. The gray market built a massive, entrenched customer base before licensed dispensaries could open. The advertising restrictions are among the strictest in any legal state.

We built Gold Standard Solutions to serve dispensaries operating in exactly this kind of environment. Not the easy markets where a dispensary can run Google Ads and Facebook campaigns reliably and acquire customers without thinking too hard about it. The markets where you have to be genuinely good at the few channels available to you because the shortcuts do not exist.

Our client base is concentrated in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, three states where regulatory complexity and gray market competition require sophisticated marketing operations to build a durable customer base. We know these markets in detail because we work in them every day.

The dispensaries that will dominate their markets in five years are the ones building customer data infrastructure and loyalty right now, before their competition figures out it matters.

The dispensaries that built strong email and SMS lists, cultivated loyal customer bases, and maintained consistent marketing operations during the difficult early years of legalization will have durable competitive advantages that late movers cannot easily close. We help our clients become those dispensaries.

Gold Standard Solutions founders inside Stashmaster Cannabis dispensary Brooklyn
Queens, NY — Client event outside a licensed dispensary
Address
2030 31st Street, Astoria, NY 11105

The Principles That Drive Our Work

These are not marketing values. They are the operating principles that determine how we make decisions, what we recommend, and how we report results to every client we work with.

Revenue Is the Only Metric That Matters
Open rates, click rates, and engagement scores are leading indicators, not results. We measure every campaign by the revenue it produces and report that number clearly, without burying it in vanity metrics.
Compliance Protects Your License
A cannabis license is not replaceable. Every campaign we produce is reviewed for compliance with the advertising regulations of the applicable state before it goes live. We do not take shortcuts with compliance, ever.
Specialization Creates Expertise
We work exclusively with cannabis dispensaries. That focus means every insight, template, workflow, and strategy we develop is directly applicable to your business. We do not spend your budget on a learning curve.
Retention Beats Acquisition
The most profitable cannabis marketing is not acquiring new customers. It is maximizing revenue from the customers you already have. We build the loyalty infrastructure and retention campaigns that make every existing customer more valuable.
Segmentation Beats Broadcast
Sending the same message to your entire customer list is the most expensive form of cannabis marketing. Segmented campaigns targeting the right customer with the right offer at the right time produce 3x to 10x better returns on the same send volume.
Consistency Compounds
Cannabis marketing works through consistent, well-timed contact with your customer base. A single campaign does not build a relationship. A 12-month calendar of well-executed campaigns builds a loyal customer base that sustains a business through market fluctuations.

The Dispensaries We Are Built For

We work best with dispensaries that are past the opening phase, have a customer list they want to monetize more effectively, and are ready to invest in the marketing infrastructure that drives compounding returns over time.

Gold Standard Solutions founder with Carmelo Anthony at Terp Bros Cannabis dispensary Queens New York
With Carmelo Anthony · Terp Bros, Queens
Gold Standard Solutions at The Bronx Dispensary Showroom cannabis industry event
The Bronx Dispensary Showroom
Gold Standard Solutions exhibitor at Revelry cannabis conference
Revelry Cannabis Conference · Exhibitor
Gold Standard Solutions at Renarts Queens cannabis community event
Queens Community Activation
Gold Standard Solutions founder with dispensary clients at Flower neon sign cannabis event
Dispensary Client Event
Gold Standard Solutions with Green Genius dispensary team New York
Green Genius · Manhattan, NY
Single-Location Independents
Community-rooted dispensaries building a loyal neighborhood customer base and competing against chains through personalization and service quality.
Multi-Location Operators
Growing chains that need consistent marketing execution across locations while building the centralized customer data infrastructure that supports scale.
New License Holders
Dispensaries approaching their grand opening who need to build a customer list, establish brand awareness, and enter the market with momentum rather than starting from zero.
Established Dispensaries
Dispensaries with an existing customer base that have never run systematic email, SMS, or loyalty programs and are leaving significant revenue on the table as a result.

What We Are

+ A cannabis-only marketing agency that works exclusively with licensed dispensaries
+ A team that produces documented, measurable revenue results for every client
+ A compliance-first operation that reviews every campaign before it goes live
+ A month-to-month partner with no long-term contracts or lock-in
+ A Queens-based team embedded in the New York cannabis market
+ A full-service partner covering email, SMS, loyalty, SEO, and paid media

What We Are Not

- A general marketing agency that works with cannabis clients on the side
- An agency that measures success by impressions and engagement rather than revenue
- A team that outsources your campaigns to offshore writers unfamiliar with cannabis retail
- A vendor that locks you into 12-month contracts before proving any results
- A remote-only team with no direct knowledge of your specific state market
- An agency that starts with brand strategy decks and delays actual campaign execution

Let's Talk About Your Dispensary

We start every new relationship with a conversation about your current marketing, your customer list, and where you want to go. No sales pitch, no deck. Just a direct conversation about what would actually move your business forward.