Before 2019, the world was a much different place. Our team was scattered throughout Maine doing different jobs and still trying to find purpose in our careers. The owner of North Atlantic Seed Co, Beth Mathieu, was working as a medical care giver in central Maine. Providing clones and care to her patients opened her eyes to the need for accessible genetics in the United States. Maine Clone Company was already established and connected her with locals that reaffirmed that need.
North Atlantic Seed Co. launched in 2019 and Beth started to find a few breeders to work with and distribute their genetics. We were fortunate to work with a few that had proven quality including Ethos Genetics, Barney’s Farm and a few more. As demand grew, Beth hired me to help with marketing and expand our reach domestically so she could continue to balance her other businesses. Back in 2020 when I first got my start, Covid forced people to stay at home and many were looking for a new hobby as well as alternative forms of self-care. I quickly discovered how fortunate we were to launch when we did. Word of mouth was the most important marketing we could do so we put all our focus into top-notch customer service and improving the customer experience with our website. We still have that mentality today because we understand that builds loyalty in our community and will continue to set us apart.
As time went on we started working with more breeders, hired more friends and family, got a payment processor to work with us and customers helped build trust online about our business. Marketing cannabis online has always posed a challenge. Our industry has never had access to common marketing tools like GoogleAds, social media sponsored content, text marketing and standard SEO tools so we have had to get creative. Seeds have been legal since the 2018 Farm Bill but algorithms and community standards have been unable to differentiate our legal business from the illegality of cannabis at the federal level. We adapted our approach to each platform and learned some lessons the hard way.
Meta (Facebook and Instagram)
These platforms have a large audience for our target demographic but can be the most restrictive in reach. Facebook flags bud pics and removes our content more than any other platform so we use it more as a re-direct for our customers these days. There are also scammers on Facebook that pretend to be us so we try to manage that as much as possible. We will never ask for money on any social platform so be aware of these common scams!
Instagram used to allow more than it does currently. They have started to remove cannabis accounts altogether. Our original account went down when we had 11k followers. The backup account had 30k followers and all content archived or deleted when it went down. This was incredibly frustrating when our account was removed based on content that could not be reported. Meta was completely incompetent when providing ‘support’. They refused to provide the report of what content triggered the removal. Their community standards are intentionally vague stating that they don’t allow the sale of illegal goods - even though seeds are legal and they are wrong. This allows scammers to thrive on Instagram and we see more scam accounts here than any other platform. Meta often won’t remove these scam accounts when they are reported. Further proving that their platform is broken.
We still have accounts on both platforms today. For Instagram we have started leaning towards more educational and lifestyle content than cannabis or promotional content. Even now, giveaways trigger the algorithm, most content is not populating followers feeds and we run the risk of losing our accounts at any moment.
X and BlueSky
X and BlueSky are the least restrictive but have a smaller audience. We can post more promotional content here compared to any other social platforms. Follow us HERE and HERE to stay up to date on all our best drops and promotions.
YouTube and RSS
YouTube recently tightened restrictions and has consistently taken down our content. We have seen this happen to many other cannabis YouTube channels as well. This is unfortunate because YouTube has a lot of reach potential. All the video content can be found on an alternative platform - Vimeo. Most of our video content comes from our NASC Cast team where they interview breeders and learn their backgrounds, what they love to grow and what the future looks like for their brands. NASC Cast has interviewed some of the best in the industry like Solfire Gardens, Twenty20 Mendocino, Gnome Automatics, Brothers Grimm, Dirty Bird Genetics and MORE! If you haven’t checked the NASC Cast out, you can listen or watch anywhere you get podcast content or watch on Vimeo.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is our best way to get our drop info and promotional info directly to you. Plus you get a 10% OFF code when you sign up! If you want to stay up to date and be the first to hear about things like 4/20 specials, please sign up!
Reddit has proven to be valuable from the very beginning. Long before we had an account, customers would advocate for North Atlantic Seed Co. on Reddit when people would ask where to buy seeds. We are grateful for everyone that ever gave us a shoutout on Reddit and sent customers our way.
Follow us on Reddit to stay up to date on our blog, educational content and see what others are growing! We will be more active here in the months to come so make sure to join and engage with the community HERE!
Discord
Up until recently, Discord was a fantastic community building platform. We lost our Discord channel twice and decided to pivot towards other options. Getting our community to move to a new platform every few months is not ideal but we remain optimistic and hope you all continue to find ways to stay active in our community.
Patreon
Today we launch our newest community option on Patreon. We are so excited about this FREE to join Patreon that allows cannabis content and should prove to be similar to our Discord. Please join us on Patreon for educational content, a growing community and so much more!
Here’s a word from Jaden, Marketing Associate, on both Discord and Patreon.
“Discord was a platform that was a major back and forth battle for us. The community aspect of Discord was something far different than traditional social media and it was amazing to see so many people from so many different places come together and share their love for growing. Getting to know the members of our community was always one of my favorite parts of my job. Whether it be through them sharing plants, pets or some of their other favorite activities, I was always interacting with the NASC community in one way or another. Unfortunately on the other side of the coin there was an increase of action taken against cannabis servers on the platform. With constant violations being given to both us and our members, our server being taken down multiple times, and the majority of other cannabis servers facing the same issues as us, we ultimately decided to move away from the platform for the foreseeable future.
With all of that being said there was a light at the end of the tunnel. After once again losing our Discord server I started to look for alternative platforms that have a strong emphasis on building a community, that we also wouldn’t face as many struggles with. So, I am excited to announce that as of today we have launched a free Patreon page that utilizes the platform's community chats feature to allow a similar experience to Discord and the ability to share your plants freely. Along with that we will be using the posts section to keep you updated on all of our future educational content. Blogs and NASC Cast episodes will be posted there, allowing us to have a strong emphasis on education. Also be on the lookout for future paid tiers for more exclusive content available on Patreon, as we plan to expand what we offer while always keeping the community free to access. I am excited to dive back into the NASC community and see faces both new and old. Please visit https://www.patreon.com/cw/NorthAtlanticSeedCo and join for free today!”
2026 will prove to be a pivotal year in our industry. Cannabis rescheduling and the potential hemp ban will shape the future of genetics in the United States. Please support our efforts in Keeping Seeds Legal by purchasing packs HERE or making a donation at checkout. All proceeds will directly fund the legal future of cannabis seeds.
Read more about this important cause HERE
Thank you for reading and for your continued support! We wouldn’t be here without you. Please follow us anywhere and everywhere you engage online. We want to hear from you and grow with you!
As a small token of our appreciation, please use this 10% OFF code on your next order:
MattSentMe
Good for one time use. Exclusions apply. $25 min. Expires 4/17/26.
-Matt Pagliaro, Marketing Manager