The Benefits of Outsourcing Your Digital Marketing Needs

Outsourcing your digital marketing needs to a professional agency can benefit your business. By partnering with a digital marketing agency, you can access a wealth of knowledge, expertise, and resources to help you achieve your marketing goals and grow your business. In this blog post, we’ll explore the benefits of outsourcing your digital marketing needs.

Access to expertise and knowledge

One of the primary benefits of outsourcing your digital marketing needs is access to expertise and knowledge. A digital marketing agency has the knowledge and expertise to develop and execute a comprehensive digital marketing strategy tailored to your business needs. They can help you determine your target audience, select the channels to reach them and optimize your campaigns to generate the best possible results.

For small businesses, it can take time to keep up with the latest marketing trends and technologies. A digital marketing agency can provide you with access to the latest tools and technologies and insights into best practices for digital marketing. In addition, by partnering with an agency, you can ensure that your marketing efforts are effective and that you are reaching your target audience in the most efficient way possible.

Cost savings

Managing your digital marketing can take work. You can save time and money by outsourcing your digital marketing needs to a professional team. A digital marketing agency can help you avoid costly mistakes and maximize your return on investment, ensuring that your marketing efforts are as efficient and effective as possible.

By outsourcing your digital marketing needs, you can save time and resources you could spend on other aspects of your business. Some of these tasks include focusing on product development, customer service, and other areas critical to your business’s success.

Focus on core business functions.

Outsourcing your digital marketing needs can help you focus on your core business functions. By allowing a professional team to handle your digital marketing, you can focus on what you do best – running your business. In turn, you’ll be able to achieve better results and receive a higher return on investment from your marketing efforts.

By outsourcing your digital marketing needs, you can free up time and resources that you can spend on other aspects of your business. Doing so can help you achieve your business goals and grow your business more effectively.

Scalability

Digital marketing agencies can provide you with the flexibility and scalability you need to grow your business. They can adjust your marketing strategies based on your business needs and goals, ensuring you achieve the best possible results. As your business grows, a digital marketing agency can provide you with the resources and expertise you need to continue scaling your marketing efforts.

By working with a digital marketing agency, you can also benefit from their ability to adapt to changing market conditions. They can help you pivot your marketing strategies to respond to changes in your industry or the broader market. Outsource to help you stay ahead of the competition and achieve long-term success.

Ongoing support and analysis

A digital marketing agency can provide ongoing support and analysis to ensure your campaigns deliver the best results. They can monitor your campaigns, analyze your data, and adjust as needed to improve your marketing efforts continually. This ongoing support can help you stay ahead of the competition and achieve your business goals.

You can also benefit from their experience in optimizing campaigns by working with a digital marketing agency. They can help you identify underperforming areas of your campaigns and make recommendations for improvement. Ultimately, you’ll gain the experience to help you achieve better results and a higher return on investment from your marketing efforts.

In conclusion, outsourcing your digital marketing needs to a professional agency can benefit your business. By accessing expertise and knowledge, achieving cost savings, focusing on core business functions,

achieving scalability, and receiving ongoing support and analysis, you can ensure that your marketing efforts align with your business goals and are tailored to your target audience. As a result, you’ll achieve better results and a higher return on investment from your marketing efforts, allowing you to grow your business and stay ahead of the competition.

Ask us how we can help by signing up for a free consultation.

Branding for Business 101 with Sacha Brant of Brand Scrubbers

In a recent episode of A Little Marketing, we chatted with Sacha Brant, owner of Brand Scrubbers, about branding for businesses. Sacha spoke with us about what’s involved with branding and how to get started. Every business needs a brand. Your brand is the memorable impression you leave on customers and lets customers know what to expect from your company.

Sometimes it takes trial and error to establish a brand that works for your business. And that’s okay. Branding can be a learning curve.

Here’s what Sacha had to say:

Defining Branding with Sacha Brant

Sacha Brant from Brand Scrubbers talks branding as our guest on A Little Marketing. 

Sacha tells us that branding is about what you, as a business owner, like and what your customer likes. So, when she’s first working with a client, she asks them questions about their business and customer to learn as much as possible about what the brand should look like: “We gotta know about the customer. Who are they? Where are they? What are they looking for? What are they selling, and why are they selling it?”

The next thing Sacha does is ask the business owner, “What do you like?” So whether it’s specific colours, fonts, designs, and other factors. “Then we take the two groups and marry them together.”

Sacha says the reason that she takes the business owner’s interests into account when branding is because “You have to get excited about your brand. You have to be passionate about your brand. If you’re not, it will not go where you want it to go.”

So essentially, branding is the marriage between what the business represents and how the business owner wants its brand to look. 

Factors that Go into Branding

One of the first factors of branding is colour. “A lot of what colouring is, is an emotional response,” says Sacha. So for Sacha, colour is an integral part of branding, influencing how the business owner and customers feel about the brand.

Other factors include your business’s logo, message, tone, language, voice and name. Figuring out what direction you want to take all of these factors goes back to those original questions – such as who is your brand? What are you selling?

Sacha also mentions that branding is about a “vibe.” Sacha says, “People purchase things because of how it makes them feel…so when your branding plays upon that emotional impact piece, it’s opening the door for people a little faster because you’re making that connection just by the things that they’re seeing…this creates that feeling.” 

Your branding should create a particular feeling or vibe. 

“The more you can work [feeling] into your message, branding, look, and how you do everything, the better you’ll end up,” says Sacha. 

Rebranding

When starting a new business, you have to establish a brand. But even established businesses sometimes need to rebrand. Whether your brand isn’t performing how you want it to or your business has changed since initially branding, sometimes rebranding is necessary.

Regarding rebranding, here’s Sacha’s suggestion, “Even if you’re doing a complete overhaul, we recommend keeping some of those original pieces because we don’t want to cause a complete system shock to your customers.”

Sacha suggests returning to those original questions and answers about your business during the rebranding process and asking, “Is all of this still relevant? If not, what is it now? That will then shape what you change the brand into.”

Dive Deeper into Branding for Your Business

We’ve only scratched the surface. We’d be here for days if we wrote down all of the valuable information about Branding that Sacha shared on our podcast. So be sure to check out the full episode here. And don’t forget to subscribe!

Shop Local For Small Business Month

Shop Local Next Month. And The Month After That Too. 

As so many of you know, October is Small Business Month. It’s a month designed to bring awareness and attention to hardworking business people and entrepreneurs who make our economy go. It’s also a great month to shop local.

The focus is generally on local businesses at our agency – the retailers, restaurants, clinics, and companies where you regularly do business. Essentially, the people you know and support in your neighbourhood. 

Over the last year and a half, some have thrived, but many have struggled to find their footing. As a result, perhaps some of your favourite local businesses may even have closed shop. When they do, you miss them and maybe even wish you did more to support them. 

The good news is that you can. Shop local starting today. 

We strongly believe in shopping local and supporting the business owners who are closest in proximity to you. Perhaps they’re people who live right next door to you!

Think about these questions:

  • Who owns your favourite restaurant? The place where you can pick up a quick and easy dinner on the way home from work.
  • Who runs the dry cleaners you use?
  • Do you have a local mechanic who you trust with your car?
  • Where do you shop for your mom when it’s her birthday? Is there a boutique clothing store she likes?
  • What about your dentist? It just might be someone who lives a few blocks over. 

Of course, not all of these examples may apply to you, but you get the idea. Supporting these hardworking business people feels good. 

Think about the feeling you get when you go into any one of these establishments. Do you get a warm hello? Does someone onsite ask you about your family? Do you get greeted with a silly story or funny joke? Has the person become someone meaningful to you?

It Just Feels Good To Shop Local 

You may answer yes to some of the above questions, no to others. But think about the feeling you have when you leave, when the business owner or staff makes you feel like family. 

Well, sometimes your family needs help. With competition from Amazon and other big-box retailers who have taken their product catalogues online, local businesses need your support more than ever. So shop local and support those in your neighbourhood who need it most. 

Doing Our Part, Too

These aren’t just empty words from us. When the pandemic started, we wanted to do our part too. We’ve done so by launching our Owner Stories series – interviews with entrepreneurs that we post on our website and share on social media to drive awareness for our participants. The series supports our clients, sure, but not only them. It’s open to virtually anyone looking for a positive story about their business to share. Participation doesn’t come with any obligation. We’re happy to help build positive buzz for the small business community. And encourage others to shop local too. 

We also offer free consultations, as we’re happy to hop on a video conference and offer advice to small business owners. Again, with no obligation. 

Supporting local businesses does good. It helps your local economy, supports your neighbours and neighbourhood, and brings focus to people who work their tails off for their families and futures. And if you owned a shop or a corner store, wouldn’t it feel great if your neighbours thought to shop local to support you?

Calling All Local Business Owners

Local Business Owner? Be featured on our website to drive awareness of your business.

If you’ve been following us for a while, or if we’ve recently connected on social media, you may have noticed that we regularly feature local business owners from across North America on our website and social media. And there are two reasons for that!

First, because we love getting to know our community and chatting with other local business owners. Second because we strive to be a resource for local businesses everywhere, by sharing information, trading success stories, and making business connections.

We’re always looking to expand our network and feature new entrepreneurs and businesses on our website. The following is a list of opportunities we have available for you. Just reach out if you’d like to learn more or be featured! 

Note: these features are absolutely free, we don’t accept payment to appear on our website.

Owner Stories Series

Our founder Mark Goren regularly interviews (mostly) local business owners from all varieties of industries for our Owner Stories Series. And it makes for some really interesting stories! From web developers to lawyers,  co-working spaces to ostomy suppliers, and financial advisors, we really have a range of incredible entrepreneurs sharing their stories with us.

You do not have to be a client to be featured in our Owner Stories Series – or anywhere else on our website, for that matter! If you’d like to participate, Mark would love to chat with you. 

Guest Blogs

We have an active blog page that we update quite regularly that’s full of great marketing tips and advice for local business owners. Some of our personal favourites include:

We are always looking for experts who would like to share their knowledge here. If you have advice you’d like to share to help other business owners, we’d love to hear from you.

Case Studies

We have a number of case studies that highlight the successes of real local business owners with Directory Marketing, Google My Business, Paid Search, Remarketing, E-Commerce, and/or Review Marketing.

Industries we currently have featured include Car Dealerships, Eateries, Jewellers, Opticians, and Independent Retailers. If you’ve had success with local marketing tactics, whether you’re in one of these industries or another, we’d love to feature you! Send us a message, and let’s chat about your story.

Of course, not only will we feature your business on our website, but across our social media channels as well, driving increased awareness of your business and services along the way. 

Remember, being featured also gives you something to share on your social channels, allowing you to point to content about your business with pride.

Not interested in being featured but what to keep up with us? Connect with us on our social media channels (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) or sign up to receive our newsletter, which features tips and tricks to help you build your small business. 

If you’d like to be featured on our website in any of these capacities, please send us a message! Mark will reach out to learn more about your story. 

Why 10-20 Marketing is a Tiny Bit Like Ted Lasso

Years ago, when we launched 10-20 Marketing, we were asked what 10-20 means. So why did we choose 10-20 Marketing as the name of our agency? 

10-20 is CB radio speak for “location.” As in, “What’s your 10-20?” (At the time, we answered it in a blog post.) Our primary service then, and still now, is local listings management, a strategy to help location-based businesses build awareness and drive leads via directory marketing – and foot traffic to a specific location. 

It’s a service that’s proven and works. And it’s all focused on your business location. Everything fit together well. 

Pivoting along with our clients

Then the pandemic hit. Retailers were locked down. Suddenly, for those who weren’t among the essential service providers, their specific retail location was no longer the most relevant source of income. As a result, many of our clients pivoted to create an income stream via the web. 

At the time, we felt a great responsibility to help our clients weather the storm. We also felt a great responsibility to support local businesses in general. So we pivoted as well.

We launched our “Owner Stories” series, which put the spotlight on business owners and allowed them to point to themselves with pride. We brought in experts who could help our clients build awareness online. And, rather than only specializing in driving foot traffic, we looked at different ways to drive qualified web traffic to their e-commerce and general websites. Getting leads and closing them online became our top priority because survival was our clients’ top priority. 

Google Ads and paid social media were one way. Managing our clients’ presence on social media was another. Ensuring they became set up to measure the success of our campaigns was vital too. We walked our clients through these processes, took the load off their shoulders and kept our promise to provide low-cost solutions. It was not time to take advantage of business owners who were worried about survival. 

So why is our name a little bit like Ted Lasso?

So here we are almost two years later. And some people may think that our name is still all about location, location, location even though today we promise to drive traffic to your website too. So why does our name, 10-20 Marketing, remain so meaningful to us?

Because, in the same way our clients showed an ability to change, we accepted that the meaning behind our name has too. At first, 10|20 Marketing was about a physical location. And it still is, but it’s also about more. 

It’s more about a mindset. 

Rebecca: Oh, do you believe in ghosts, Ted?
Ted: I do. But more importantly, I believe they need to believe in themselves.

It’s about where our clients are on their journey to success. It’s about what’s in their heads and what’s in their hearts. Whether that’s a physical location. A website. Social Media. It’s also about the buyer and where they are on their journey. 

10-20 Marketing is about believing in your success. About helping you get there, no matter where you are. 

As the chant in the show goes, our clients and their customers are Here! There! Every-fucking-where! 

And we couldn’t be happier to help them along their way. 

How Alex Bottausci And The City of Dollard Are Supporting Local Businesses

Last week we had the chance to catch up with the Mayor of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Alex Bottausci. This article is the result of that conversation.

How Alex Bottausci And The City of Dollard Are Supporting Local Businesses

It’s been a little over a year since the pandemic began, and local businesses across the country have been battling lockdowns, new and changing regulations, and uncertainty for most of the past 13 or 14 months. While minimizing the spread of COVID-19 has been a priority, it has without a doubt been a difficult year for businesses, especially independent small businesses. While business owners and entrepreneurs have been pivoting, so have the towns and cities in which they operate. In Dollard-des-Ormeaux, located on the West Island of Montreal, Mayor Alex Bottausci shared some insights into what shifts have been made, how the city is helping businesses, and what the post-pandemic landscape of Dollard-des-Ormeaux could look like.

When The Pandemic First Reached Quebec

A year ago, Mayor Bottausci explained, the messaging from officials to businesses and individuals was largely education-based:

“At the start, no one knew what was going on. How can a business owner suddenly be expected to deal with COVID-19?”

A lot of time went into first learning about the virus and then transmitting the latest information to business owners. And not only transmitting the information but helping businesses understand and implement health protocols; for example, setting up aisles for appropriate traffic flow.

“A lot of information about the virus was sent to business owners in very formal, official French-language documents, whereas many are Anglophones [or French is their second language]. We helped the best we could with understanding, helping find masks, etc.,” said Alex Bottausci.

The past year has been a long learning curve, but after the initial wave of unknowns the pandemic brought with it, small businesses and communities have now entered a “new reality.”

“Keeping your distance, wearing masks – these things are ingrained now.”

Shifting From Education to Tangible Help

Things shifted from education about the virus to how the city could best help small businesses. The Montreal, Provincial, and Federal governments were able to come together and provide grants for business owners. Mayor Bottausci gave credit to his fellow government counterparts for their collaborative efforts on many fronts. The collaboration includes information about all available funding programs across government levels was shared with local businesses to provide as much relief as possible.

Dollard-des-Ormeaux adopted a Shop Local, Buy Local slogan, and Mayor Bottausci was keen to put the city’s money where its mouth was. For example, last year’s virtual Christmas event featured gifts from local vendors, and the focus going forward is to continue to keep it as local as possible. For Alex Bottausci it’s not just about “keep it in Quebec or the city of Montreal,” but right down to his riding of Dollard-Des-Ormeaux whenever possible.

Infrastructure projects also became a big focus as many restaurants and cafes began opening patios and expanding outdoor dining. Laws were relaxed to allow permits to be granted much more quickly, and car dealerships were permitted to fly flags advertising their businesses.

“Drastic times call for drastic measures,” said Mayor Bottausci. It was important to him and his office to pull out all the stops and allow businesses to take action that would help them survive the pandemic.

The city of Dollard-Des-Ormeaux recently launched a new website. While there are still updates coming, it’s a work in progress Mayor Bottausci is proud of.

“There is a strong business community in Dollard-Des-Ormeaux,” he said. “One of my dreams as Mayor is to really build up that community. We wanted to make sure there was a space on the site where business owners can go to find the information they need quickly and easily – information on things like permits.”

Fostering A Team Environment At City Hall Also A Priority

Mayor Bottausci also took a moment to focus on the hard work his team has been doing. 

“It is easy to focus on the negative when talking about the pandemic, but the City rose to the challenge,” he said. “We’re stronger not only as individuals but as a team. We continue to give services to the community and have become more nimble in how we do that.”

“Moving forward, we have to ask ourselves: were all of these stops really necessary? I think there will be a shift back in some ways, but not totally.”

What does the city of Dollard-Des-Ormeaux look like in the future? Developers are already changing their plans by moving away from large office buildings to creating small eco-systems, with local businesses on the first floor and residential quarters above, the Mayor said.

“It creates an ecosystem where you come home from work and pick up what you need from within your own building. You can’t go from zero to 100, but you can go a little bit at a time.”

For Mayor Alex Bottausci, that shift is what it’s all about: Creating environments conducive to businesses thriving – now, and post-pandemic, too.

– 

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 10|20 Marketing has been supporting small businesses by sharing stories of business owners to shine some light on their effects and keep them in the news. If you own a business in DDO or anywhere for that matter, we’d be happy to share your story too. Just let us know you’re interested and we’ll be happy to work on your story too.

 

Building Community At Centaur Theatre During the Pandemic

The pandemic has strained many businesses in many industries, but what do you do when your business is all about building community through public gatherings and live performances? We recently spoke with Eda Holmes, Artistic and Executive Director at Centaur Theatre in Old Montreal, about planning, pivoting, and re-planning throughout the past twelve months.

Before joining the Centaur Theatre in Montreal, Eda was a ballerina, first with the San Francisco Ballet and later with the Dutch National Ballet and Frankfurt Ballet under William Forsythe. When a knee injury sidelined her, she knew it was time to transition. Eda wanted to stay in the performing arts industry. With a love of storytelling, directing programs was a natural transition, and she eventually landed at Centaur Theatre here in Montreal full-time.

Quality, relevance, and bridge-building

If you’re familiar with Centaur Theatre or the arts scene, you’ll already know the special place Centaur Theatre holds in the local landscape. Eda’s goal was to build on the rich reputation that Centaur has for producing high-quality, relevant contemporary English language theatre and make the organization even more inclusive of all Montreal community aspects.

“My three guiding principles are quality, relevance, and bridge-building so that every aspect of the organization gradually becomes a brilliant reflection of the diversity of languages and cultures that make Montreal such a unique and exciting city,” she told us.

“The pandemic is giving us a moment to really reflect on what place theatre occupies in our society and our lives. We have an opportunity to actively re-examine what we value about the arts and especially narrative art – like theatre. As the incredible African/American playwright August Wilson has said, ‘A community is only as strong as the stories it tells about itself.’ So I am looking to build up our capacity to tell the stories of our times and our city in the most compelling and engaging ways possible – and to become an incubator for artists that reflect our city’s rich diversity.”

Adapting to the new reality

Centaur Theatre has been taking a page from the movie and cinema fields as much as possible (though the budget to test large casts isn’t there). Actors have been rehearsing in preparation for any potential upcoming performances, and spring and summer bring relief and hopes of opening again soon.

But while the desire to reopen is powerful, the danger of doing so too early is real.

“We’re learning how to work and adapt. Compared to last year, we have much more information about the virus, which has helped us make decisions that provide a forward motion but keeps everyone safe,” explained Eda.

Internally, the Social Justice movement we saw in 2020 has changed the conversation around how to support the community. Last year, Centaur launched the Artistic Diversity Discussion (ADD) at Centaur initiative. Throughout the year, the five-member panel will meet with Centaur Theatre board members and Eda to develop more ways to de-stigmatize and celebrate diversity on stage and off. The ADD @ Centaur will roll out through ongoing and new initiatives as the year unfolds, the first of which was the initiative named Saturday Salons. Centaur Theatre has also created a year-long residency for an Indigenous theatre artist interested in stories that reflect the Indigenous heritage of the Island of Montreal and the Province of Quebec. An announcement will be made soon about this residency!

A new Old Montreal scene

Pre-COVID, Vieux Montreal, where Centaur is located, was coming into its own with shops, restaurants, bars, and genuinely unique hotels. It is also a neighbourhood that thrives on tourism, depending on summer travel and winter holiday parties, so the lockdowns have been particularly painful. Typically, a bustling business worker crowd eats lunch and has drinks and goes to the theatre.

When the first lockdown happened, Centaur planned to do more outdoor theatre.

“We hope that it will be part of a variety of projects that will entice Montrealers to come down and discover the incredible beauty that Old Montreal has to offer,” Eda said at the time.

Still, the ever-changing in-and-out of lockdown status has kept Eda and Centaur Theatre on their toes.

“We keep planning and re-planning, but we’re starting to run out of letters of the alphabet,” she joked.

“This virus is challenging to everyone who depends on – and is even defined by – people gathering in warm, friendly and intimate settings. There is much talk of “pivoting,” but that is not something a neighbourhood known for its narrow cobblestone streets and delightful little bars and restos, museums and theatres can do in the short term. We have to try to be as creative and as resilient as possible.”

New projects to be excited about

A new project born out of the pandemic is the Portico project. The Portico Project, a new initiative designed to present theatre safely outside in the Portico and on the steps in front of the theatre, is scheduled to take place again this year in September. Even though some of the performances last year had to be cancelled when the first big lockdown happened, everyone is hopeful that this unique celebration of live theatre outside can go ahead uninterrupted this year. Cross your fingers and come on down to St. Francois-Xavier.

“As a small community, it’s been hard to be constantly planning and re-planning,” said Eda. “But it has been nice to have small business connections in the community to go through this together.”

Learn more about Centaur Theatre’s Portico Project, ADD @ Centaur, or purchase tickets to their upcoming MOB performance. You can also support the Centaur Theatre by making an individual donation.

Best Practices for Google My Business To Lessen The Impact of COVID-19 Security Measures

These are not normal times for businesses across the world. With the COVID-19 pandemic spreading like wildfire, business owners are not just worried for their health, they’re worried what the impact of this new world will be on their business. Our view? It’s time to double down on your online infrastructure where possible. Prepare your business to be the first thing people see when they search for goods and services that you offer. The good news is that there are many things you can do for yourself, especially as it pertains to your online business listings. Follow these best practices for Google My Business.

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10 Ways to Continue Supporting Local Businesses In Challenging Times

Saying times are weird right now might be the understatement of 2020, but it really is new, uncharted waters out there thanks to the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19. A lot of cities – and some entire countries – are on some form of lock-down, and while that might seem scary, it’s a pro-active measure to keep as many people safe as possible.

But while we’re doing our best social distancing, there are still local shops and businesses that are open, even if it’s at a reduced capacity. The Canadian economy as a whole has and will definitely take a hit, but it’s the independently-owned local businesses and their staff who are struggling the most. Many of the gyms, yoga studios, bars, restaurants, and wellness centres (like spas or massage therapy clinics) have all but shut their doors indefinitely.

10 Ways to Continue to Support Local Businesses Today

Fortunately, there are still ways to practice social distancing and support local businesses. Here are our top 10:

  1. Order Take-Out or Delivery

    Many restaurants, bars, and cafes have had to close their dining sections, but are still open for take-out or delivery options. Using an app to order and pay ahead of time can help minimize risks even more by eliminating the need for money to exchange hands.

  2. Purchase a Gift Card

    Birthdays, holidays, and special occasions will still happen this year. Why not order that gift card for that special someone now? Many shops are set-up to allow the purchase of gift cards online, so there’s no need to leave home.

  3. Book in Advance

    Though not mandated to close (yet), many spas, clinics, and treatment centres are experiencing cancellations left, right, and centre. If you cancel an appointment, why not reschedule it for next month? If you don’t have one booked, go ahead and treat yourself to a service – many online booking calendars are still open and taking bookings after we get through the next few weeks.

  4. Order Artwork

    What better time than now to order that painting you’ve been wanting for the living room wall? Many local artists have paintings, sculptures, or other pieces available for purchase, or take commissions. Reach out to your favourite local artist to see if they have what you’ve been looking for.

  5. Sign-up for Online Classes

    Many gyms, yoga studios, and fitness centers are offering live-streamed workouts you can do at home. If there is a paid option available and you have the means, opting for this service versus a free video can make all the difference in helping them keep their doors open.

  6. Purchase Services Still Being Offered

    Online service-based businesses are often still operating Business as Usual! Take advantage of the services they offer now while you have some downtime. If you’ve been wanting to learn more about a topic, now’s a great opportunity to go ahead and sign-up for that online course!

  7. Leave Google and Facebook Reviews

    Today’s consumer puts a lot of weight into online reviews from previous customers when deciding whether or not to make a purchase. If you’ve visited or purchased from a local business and were happy with the service, leave them a review! It really does go a long way to support local businesses.

  8. Buy Groceries from Local Shops

    One of the few things we’re leaving home for is to stock up on groceries. Instead of buying from chain stores, consider heading to a small mom + pop shop if there is one in your neighbourhood.

  9. Do Your Birthday Shopping Now

    Many product-based businesses offer online shopping already! Why not spend some time browsing through their online stores and check off all of the birthdays you have coming up in the next few months. If you’re really ambitious, you could even get your Christmas shopping started!

  10. Share on Social Media

    When you’re scrolling through Instagram or Facebook later, hit that Like button and share their posts. It’s a small act that builds awareness about your favourite local shops, and will help everything return to a sense of normalcy when this all passes.

What are some of your favourite ways to support local businesses? Is there a tip we missed? Share it with us in the comments! And in the meantime, stay safe and healthy out there, friends! And salute small businesses in your own way too!