Introducing the Cache Code - Local Marketing and List Building for any Business

Keywords

Cash Code, Treasure Trove Toronto, local businesses, rewards program, QR codes, marketing, customer engagement, small business support, community shopping, loyalty program

Summary

In this conversation, Leslie Stoute and Len Marshall, co-founders of Treasure Trove Toronto, introduce their innovative Cash Code program designed to enhance local shopping experiences. They discuss how the program rewards customers for shopping locally, simplifies the process for small business owners, and builds a community ecosystem that supports local businesses. The Cash Code program utilizes QR codes to facilitate customer engagement and marketing, ensuring that businesses retain their revenue and customer data while driving foot traffic year-round.

Takeaways

The Cash Code program extends the experience of treasure hunts into a year-round shopping adventure.
It rewards customers for shopping local, regardless of existing loyalty programs.
Small business owners can build marketing lists without needing technical expertise.
The program is designed to be simple, requiring no app downloads or special software.
Businesses keep all revenue from sales and customer data for future marketing.
The program includes promotional materials and social media support for businesses.
Training is provided to ensure easy implementation for staff.
The Cash Code program aims to drive foot traffic and build customer relationships.
It offers a measurable campaign for businesses to track engagement and success.
The initiative is backed by local BIAs, creating a trusted community ecosystem.

Sound bites

"It's a city wide rewards program using QR codes."
"There's no apps to download and install."
"This is essentially a set and forget."

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the Cash Code Program
01:26 How the Cash Code Works
04:25 Benefits for Small Businesses
07:30 Simplifying Customer Engagement
09:28 Building a Community Ecosystem

Episode Transcript

Leslie (00:00):
Hey Len.

Len (00:02):
Wesley, what's happening?

Leslie (00:03):
Nothing much. Okay. What if we could extend the
experience of our one daytreasure hunts into a long term
self guided shopping adventure?What if we could reward
customers for shopping local andsupporting their communities
regardless of if the businesshas its own loyalty program? Oh!
What if we could help thosesmall business owners who want

(00:28):
to build a marketing list butare totally lost in the
technology, tactics and time ittakes to manage it?

Len (00:34):
Those are all really great ideas and guess what? It's done.
Love to introduce you to

Leslie (00:44):
The cash code program exclusively from Treasure Trove
Toronto.

Len (00:48):
Yes. Let's get into it.

Intro (00:52):
Welcome to the Treasure Trove Toronto podcast dedicated
to transforming your localbusiness into the treasure jewel
of your neighborhood. Each week,cofounders, Len Marshall and
Leslie Stout, bring you creativestrategies, actionable marketing
tips, and fresh ideas to elevateyour customers' experience and
build deeper connections withyour community. If you want your

(01:13):
local shop, restaurant, orservice to stand out, reach more
customers, and make your mark onToronto, you're in the right
place. Now here's Len andLeslie.

Len (01:27):
Alright. Here we are. Here. My name is Len Marshall, founder
of Treasure Trove Toronto.

Leslie (01:33):
And my name is Leslie Stout, the other co founder in
co.

Len (01:37):
We put the Co in Co Founders.

Leslie (01:39):
Right. As you can tell, we're very excited to launch a
new product and we want to talkall about it. The first thing is
first though, why did we dothis? And to explain what it is
really quickly, it's a citywiderewards program using QR codes.
It runs through the TreasureTrove Toronto platform using
emails and text messages, andit's built specifically to drive

(02:02):
in store visits and collect infofor follow-up marketing.
It's contrast to a single daytreasure hunt with an everyday
year round exploration of localbusinesses.

Len (02:12):
That's it. Yeah. You know, I remember I remember it well.
You you said, Len, we need to dosomething like that runs all the
time. And I was like, man,that's gonna be a challenge, you
know.
But we we worked it out. Wehashed it out, and here's here's
how it works, basically. We haveour directory website, and a

(02:35):
business on our directory wouldput up an offer. Now it doesn't
have to be a discount. It couldbe a special item.
It could be an event. It couldbe anything. Right? They put
that up on their listing, andconsumers who are visiting the
website or finding it throughother channels can claim that
offer. Once they claim it, theyput in their name and their
contact information, and whenthey claim it, they get an email

(02:57):
that has this really coolspecial QR code.
And when they take that QR codeto the store to redeem it, all
the store owner has to do, orthe staff, whoever is behind the
counter, all they have to do istake their phone and scan the QR
code, and they put in a specialfour digit verification code
just to make sure that it's theright store, and it's done. The

(03:22):
customer then has an entry intoa monthly contest that we're
gonna run. So there's theincentive for the customer, and
the business then gets thatcustomer's contact information
for their marketing list. Soit's really a win win situation
for everyone.

Leslie (03:40):
Yeah. I'm so happy about it. And it kinda breaks in the
stuff that we've been talkingbefore, the QR codes, making
sure you have something specialfor your clients, and it doesn't
have to be a discount. We talkabout all the time. What is
happening in your store?
What are you doing for theholidays? You know, what's
happening over the summer?What's your back to school? What
are things that people should beexcited about? That's what we
could help promote with thecash.

Len (04:01):
For sure. Yeah. And, you know, another thing that that
was important while we werecreating this was trying to make
it as simple as possible. Sothere's no apps to download and
install. There's no specialsoftware that you need in your
store.
There's no API integrations thatyou need to worry about, and

(04:23):
it's all just works on your cellphone or a tablet, if you have a
tablet part at your counter, youknow, wherever you have it. It
doesn't matter. The the reallycool thing is none of the
customer's information remainson the device that you're
scanning. So you can use anyphone to scan it, fill in the

(04:43):
form, and it's done.

Leslie (04:45):
Yeah. Really easy. And if you have scanned a QR code
before, you can make this workfor you if you're in the store.
So we're really proud of that aswell. We've made it really
straightforward and easy to use.
So all your staff, they allusually have cell phones.
They've all usually scanned theQR code before. They can
interact and do this for you soyou can take part. So it's
awesome.

Len (05:05):
We wanted this to be a little bit different than what
you might expect from a typicalloyalty program. You know, if
you think about those group buydiscount sites, Groupon, and and
those places where where theytake such a significant cut from

(05:25):
your profit margins. WithTreasure Trove, with with the
cash code, there's no extrafees. Right? There's a monthly
fee and a setup fee, and that'sreally it.
Then it just runs, and you keepall of the revenue from each of
those sales, and you also keepall of your customer data.

Leslie (05:45):
Yeah. Which is really important too. Like, we really
made as a focus for you to getnew customers and find a way to
connect with them later. Becausethose customers become your
fans, your lifeblood, and yourmeaning for referrals and your
future marketing where you canjust, you know, use your emails
and text to market to them onyour own. So we figured if we
built a system that starts andbuilds that for you and

(06:06):
incentivizes them to do it,Obviously, by playing with us
and shopping local with us, thisbecomes a system for you to get
hundreds of new customers thatyou can further market to with
your own things in the future.
And and we thought that's areally good way to maximize the
return on investment for you.Right? So, yeah, really proud of
that aspect as well.

Len (06:26):
Something else that we're really proud of is the fact that
we provide so much to eachbusiness. And, you know, we
recognize that a lot of businessowners are just spread thin. And
you might want to do more foryour marketing, but you just
don't have time.

Leslie (06:45):
Well, the most of what's what do we get? Right? What what
are we providing? What do youget? And and what we say is we
take care of everything.
So we create the graphic, webuild the landing page, and we
link that back to your listing.We have a window cleaner we put
in your door, we have printedposters, we have social graphics
that help drive people to thepage that's neighborhood focused
or community focused or eventfocused. Many ways for us to get

(07:06):
people to your offer. We use ourgrowing mailing list, we post on
our social media, and we evenpush traffic from ads on
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube,and Google for people to expect
to see advertising. Promotinglocal business offers, promoting
the chance to shop local, andthe chance to win big by doing
so.

Len (07:23):
Yeah. So that's how we're getting people into your store.
But you might be wondering,like, what do you actually do?
So we again provide you with allthe training that you need. And
look, this is not rocketscience.
You scan the code, you put in afour digit code, and you hit the
button, and that's it. You know,we document all of this for you.

(07:46):
We make sure everyone knows howto scan and how to fill in the
form. The rest of thetransaction just follows your
existing sales process. Yeah.
So none nothing is going tointerrupt your regular sales
process.

Leslie (08:02):
Which we think is really important to state. So I'll I'll
say it again for you. Like, yourjob is to scan the code and put
in your four digit code for cashcode. After that you just put
everything else down and followyour transaction process. You
check out the customer as usual.
There's nothing special to do inputting codes or anything on
your actual machine. Youcomplete the transaction the

(08:23):
exact same way. That customerbuys the exact same thing.
There's no cut that goesanywhere. This is essentially a
set and forget where you're justadding customers to a customer
base and helping them winprizes, which is the awesome
part.

Len (08:35):
That's that's really the key. Right? The the scan is what
builds the business's contactlist for marketing and gives the
customer their ballot into thecontest draw. So that's what
that whole scan redemptionprocess is. And then, of course,
we always give you the contactlist for your marketing email.

(08:59):
We also keep track of the numberof claims and redemptions so
that you get some idea of howgood your offer is going or if
you need to change things or ifyou want to extend it.

Leslie (09:09):
Yep. And the percentage of people that claim the offer
to redeeming the offer is anumber that we wanna keep rising
up and up and up and up. So.

Len (09:17):
Yeah. Exactly. So, you know, the cash code plan is to
drive as much foot traffic inyour door as we can throughout
the year to build your contactlist for marketing and to create
an actual measurable campaignfor you. You know, there's a lot

(09:39):
of a lot of big promises andunfulfilled results Yeah. In the
space, and we wanted to makesomething that was as affordable
and hands free for businessowners, and easy to adopt into
their business withoutinterrupting their typical Yeah.

Leslie (10:02):
And we also present a trusted program that's backed by
Treasure Trove Toronto and yourlocal BIAs that are rooting and
cheering for you guys everysingle day. By partnering with
them to introduce the programand to launch and grow it, we've
built this as an ecosystem whereyou can say, okay, these trusted
advisors and a trusted companyare building something that
everyone can benefit from. Andas usual, we gamify things to

(10:25):
make shopping local fun andawesome.

Len (10:28):
Yeah. Exactly. I mean, CashCode is kind of like the
modern upgrade to a typicalloyalty punch card. Look, if you
wanna give this a try, if youwanna get started and bring
people in the door, let us know.Get us get in touch with us.
We'll help get you set up andmake it as easy as possible.

(10:51):
Alright. That's it for now.Thanks for watching or
listening. If you enjoy thistype of information and content
and wanna get in touch with us,just leave a comment, send us an
email, or message us on socialchannels.
And don't forget to like andsubscribe to the podcast so that
you get notified of each newepisode. And until the next

(11:15):
time, keep following that pathto success.