For local businesses in Sarnia-Lambton
Your customers, your link, your revenue. We do the rest.
#local is a community platform that sends paying customers to local businesses - and pays you 100% of every gift card they spend with you. It costs you nothing to join.
Free. Takes about three minutes.
100%
of every gift card they spend with you
$0
It costs you nothing to join.
No cap.
No commission. No discount.
Marketing is the job nobody trained you for.
You didn't open your business to write captions. But here you are, boosting a post for forty dollars, watching it reach a few hundred people, and wondering whether any of them will ever walk through your door.
That's the deal most local businesses are stuck with. You rent attention. The moment you stop paying, it's gone. You have nothing to show for it except a receipt.
Meanwhile the people who would genuinely love your business - the ones who live fifteen minutes away and have never heard of you - are somewhere else entirely.
We built #local to fix that specific problem.
A community that pays to shop local.
Thousands of people in Sarnia-Lambton are on our list. Every week they get The Weekender - what's happening, what's new, who's got something worth going out for.
Some of them go further and become Insiders. An Insider pays $100 for the year. In return they get $50 in gift card credit to spend at local businesses, 50 credits toward Limited Offers, automatic entry into our monthly sweepstakes, and a shot at the Million Dollar Vault.
Read that again: they pay us $100, and we hand $50 of it straight to local businesses. That's the model. We are, functionally, a machine for moving money from residents into local tills.
Insider
$100
$50
local businesses
- 50 credits toward Limited Offers
- monthly sweepstakes
- the Million Dollar Vault
A hundred dollars in, a hundred dollars of local value back.
You're one of the tills.
Fifty dollars claimed is fifty dollars paid to you.
Here's the part people don't believe the first time.
When you become a Partner, you switch on gift cards. Your business is then listed in our gift card marketplace, in $10, $25 and $50 denominations. When an Insider spends their credit on your gift card, you receive the full face value.
No commission. No discount. No cap.
We don't take a cut, and there's no limit to how many you can sell.
How it works, start to finish
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They choose you. An Insider browses the marketplace and picks your business. They can split their credit however they like - $25 here, $25 there, or the full $50 with you.
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You get an email. The moment they claim it, we let you know. You know they're coming before they arrive.
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They show up with a QR code. Every Partner gets a unique code. The customer scans it on their phone and shows you the result: a big green check if it's valid, an error if it isn't. It can only be claimed once, so it can't be reused or double-dipped.
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You hand over the goods. Same as any gift card.
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You receive payment. At the end of each month we total every gift card claimed at your business and send payment ten days later.
Example
We've been running gift card programs like this for years. The format has changed; the principle hasn't. Customers arrive knowing exactly how it works - we send them the instructions every single time.
Note: we also accept a paper backup. If someone turns up with proper documentation instead of a working QR code, you honour it and we sort it out on our end.
Getting them in once is easy. Getting them back is the business.
That's what offers are for. There are three kinds, and each one does a different job.
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Unlimited Offer
Brings people in the first time.
- Who gets it
- Every Insider, automatically.
- What it costs them
- Nothing. No credits.
- How long it runs
- 30 to 90 days, with no limit on how many people use it.
For example
$10 off a $100 purchase
Pick something you still make money on. It's a reason to try you, not a loss on every sale.
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Limited Offer
Brings them back.
- Who gets it
- Insiders who choose to spend credits on it.
- What it costs them
- Credits, priced by #local from what the offer is worth. A $10 offer is about 5 of their 50.
- How long it runs
- Your dates, and as many as you want to give out.
For example
Sixty percent off something you're trying to move
Your best offer, in limited numbers. Make it one people talk about.
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Sign-up offer
Rewards the customers who joined through your link.
- Who gets it
- Only people who join as Insiders through your sharing link.
- What it costs them
- Nothing. It cannot be bought with credits.
- How long it runs
- As long as you keep it up. One at a time.
For example
A free coffee with a doughnut on their first visit
A thank-you nobody else can get. More on your link below.
Why a Limited Offer isn't a coupon
Every Insider gets 50 credits to spend on Limited Offers. Two things make those different:
Intent.
Nobody stumbles into your offer. They spend credit on it deliberately, which means they've already decided they want to come to you.
Scarcity.
#local prices each offer in credits from what it's worth, and the credit pool is finite. An Insider can't take everything. They choose.
Whichever kind you run, you write it - the description, the limits, the dates. Every use shows up in your dashboard, and the customer uses it by scanning your #local QR code at the till, the same way they use a gift card.
One honest note.
Offers are your own promotion, and you fund them, like any sale you'd run. Gift cards are different: every gift card dollar claimed is paid to you in full, with no discount and no commission.
This is the return-visit engine. Use it that way.
Every customer you sign up brings $50 back to your till.
This is the one Partners get excited about.
Once you're set up, you get a sharing link - your own link, to post on social, put in your newsletter, print on a receipt, display on your counter, mention at the till.
When one of your customers signs up as an Insider through your link, two things happen that don't happen otherwise.
- Your link
- Your customer joins as an Insider
- Walking back through your door
- $50 gift card to your business
One: their $50 gift card is yours.
Normally the Insider takes their $50 into the marketplace and spends it wherever they like. Not here. When they come in through your link, we automatically issue that $50 as a gift card to your business. You brought them in, so the spend comes to you.
Two: they get a bonus only you can give.
You can attach a sign-up offer - a bonus available only through your link and not purchasable with credits by anyone else. Your customers get an offer nobody else can get. That's yours to design.
So the math is simple. Every customer you sign up is a $50 gift card paid to your business, a customer walking back through your door with credit to spend, and one more Insider in the community.
Example
Each Insider who joins through your link = one $50 gift card to your business. Illustration only, not a forecast.
You have an audience already. Hand them the link.
Revenue calculator
Boosted posts are a cost. This is revenue.
Three numbers you already know. We'll show you what your sharing link could bring in over the next 14 days, and exactly what it takes to get there.
A rough guess is fine.
0 if you don't have one.
Facebook and Instagram together. 0 if none.
Your next 14 days
You could earn
$0
0 new Insiders x $50 gift card each, paid to your business.
Fill in your numbers to see your 14 days.
- At your counter About 1 in 15 of the different customers you'll see
- Your email list 1 in 75 of your list, from one email with your link
- Social media 1 in 150 of your followers, from three posts
We cap every 14-day goal at 20 Insiders, so each line is scaled down to fit. Your link keeps paying after that.
Your numbers carry into sign-up, and your 14-day plan is emailed to you.
An estimate from your numbers, not a promise. Each Insider who joins through your link becomes a $50 gift card for your business, paid on the 10th of the following month.
And then there's everything you don't have to do.
Connect your Facebook page when you sign up and we take it from there.
We pull in what you're already posting and push it back out to the community. Your specials, your events, your new stock. It lands in The Weekender every Thursday and on our daily community page - what's on, what's new, who's got something going.
You don't file anything. You don't remember to send us anything. You post the way you already post, and thousands of local people see it.
That's not a bonus feature. That's the point of a community hub. You're in it by default, from the day you join, at no cost.
Your customers come out of this very well.
It matters that this is a good deal for the people you send our way. You're putting your name on it.
There's always something running. Monthly enter-and-wins. Daily spins for stretches of the year. Prizes that are, almost without exception, gift cards to local businesses - which means even the prizes come back to the community.
And then there's the Million Dollar Vault.
Every Insider chooses their Lucky Six - six numbers, theirs for the year. Those numbers ride along in various contests we run. And if they match the Vault, they win a million dollar local shopping spree.
Not cash to a stranger in another province. A million dollars, spent here.
So when you tell a customer to sign up through your link, you're handing them $50 to spend locally, Unlimited and Limited Offers, entry into everything we run, and a real shot at a million dollars. You look good for sending them.
Three steps. About three minutes.
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Claim your business.
Your name, your email, your website. That's the whole form.
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Turn on gift cards.
One agreement, one checkbox. Your business goes live in the marketplace.
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Share your link.
Post it tonight. Start earning on the customers you already have.
Free. Takes about three minutes.
Questions, answered straight.
What's the catch? How is this free?
There isn't one. The membership is what pays for all of this. An Insider pays $100 and gets $100 of local value back: a $50 gift card, Unlimited Offers, credits for Limited Offers, and entry into everything we run. Partners are what makes that worth buying, so charging you would be backwards.
Do I really get 100% of the gift card value?
Yes. Whatever is claimed is what you're paid. Ten dollars claimed is ten dollars paid, fifty is fifty. We don't discount it and we don't take a commission.
Is there a limit on how many gift cards I can sell?
No.
When do I get paid?
We total your claims at month end and send payment ten days later.
What if I'm busy and forget how the QR thing works?
You won't have to remember. We email you when a card is claimed, and the customer gets the instructions every time. Scan, green check, done. Your staff don't need training either, since your Partner kit includes a one-page FAQ for behind the till.
What if someone tries to use the same card twice?
They can't. Each claim is verified once and then it's spent.
How many people are actually on your list?
Thousands, across Sarnia-Lambton, and growing every week.
Do I have to create an offer?
No. You can add one any time from your dashboard. Most Partners do, starting with an Unlimited Offer, because an offer is what brings a customer back a third and fourth time, not just a second.
Who pays for an offer?
You do. An offer is your own promotion, like any sale you'd run, so make your Unlimited Offer one you still make money on. Gift cards are the other way round: every dollar claimed is paid to you in full.
Someone's already claimed my business.
It happens - often it's a co-owner or a manager. We'll show you a partially hidden version of the email on file. If you don't recognize it, email support@hashtaglocal.com and we'll sort it out.
Am I locked into anything?
No contract, no term, no fee. Switch gift cards off whenever you like.
You could be making money on this tonight.
It takes about three minutes, it costs nothing, and by the time you close up you could have a link out to your customers that pays you fifty dollars every time one of them joins.
Free. Takes about three minutes.
Step 1 of 7
- You
- Business
- Gift cards
- Your numbers
- Offer
- Kit
- Done
First, who are you?
First things first - we'll set you up with a free #local account. You'll get The Weekender and can enter our monthly sweepstakes. No charge.