Digital Innovation Skills Certificate (DISC) Program helps local businesses grow
The Digital Innovation Skills Certificate (DISC ) Program was a collaboration that provided an immersive training program to assist companies with building their digital marketing and e-commerce skills using real-world projects.
As first round participants in the City of Kitchener and Wilfrid Laurier University partner program, owners of Cocoon Apothecary, a local plant-based skin care line, have gained valuable e-commerce advice and tools to help their business grow in the digital world.
“We used to be one of a handful of other natural beauty companies in Canada, but thousands have popped up over the years,” says Jessica Burman, owner and founder of Cocoon Apothecary. ” The natural beauty industry is trendier than ever with a different clientele than the eco-conscious consumer we have served in the past so we must always be evolving.
Since becoming a participant in the DISC Program and having access to a team of six graduate-level students, Cocoon Apothecary was able to relaunch a new Canadian ecommerce platform and drive traffic to the new site with a digital marketing campaign. “We’ve been very successful and have recently expanded into bath and men’s products, but as a small business we do face challenges” Burman explains.
With a small number of staff, in-house production and a storefront, Burman thought the DISC Program was the perfect opportunity for talented students with previous work experience and education to use their skills to help advance the business online and reach a larger audience to stay competitive. “I knew our website wasn’t performing the way it should and needed an overhaul,” states Burman. “The DISC Program seemed like an amazing opportunity to get the website we needed to grow and reach an international audience.”
Through partnerships with Shopify and Hubspot, the program trains 30 graduate level students in digital marketing and e-commerce best practices. The students, along with an industry coach, are paired with a local small business to create an ecommerce solution and a digital marketing campaign. “When the DISC students introduced themselves and their backgrounds, all I could think of was, dream team,” Burman says. “They are developing a new website that draws more traffic and gets more sales, something that will represent our brand much better than what we currently have.”
“I highly recommend this program,” says Burman. “Success for me is building the company to a point where my husband and I can step away from it more. Having a compressive digital strategy to sell our products online is an important step to grow our business to a point where we can be able to relax and enjoy life more.”