Marketing and branding class for cashpoor nonprofits and socents based largely on my personal experience of transitioning from a big budget telco marketer and ecommerce head in 2009-2012 to a zero-budget one person outpost for Kiva.org in New York in 2013. The lesson? Even when you don't have the budget to pay for media exposure, there are dozens of ways to hustle and "earn" your own media. Here are trial and error learnings from my Kiva experiment in DIY Earned Marketing. The second part of the class - given in Oct 2013 at Leaderonomics' DO GOOD ACADEMY (dogoodacademy.com ) - included borrowing simple marketing and media brainstorming techniques from large professional ad agencies to aid zero-budget startup marketing. Learn more about those techniques at www.thinkthings.co

1. DIY Marketing,
Branding & Web for
Not-So-Rich Startups,
Socents & Non-profits

2. Q1) ....Why are you
interested in “marketing”?
(show of hands)
Increase funding, broaden donor base, increase
grant income
Get more public support and awareness behind
your “cause”
Recruit experts, volunteers and probono
assistance to improve your ‘product’, serve your
NGO’s constituents better

3. Q2) ....Which kind of
startup/non-profit are you?
the kind with more cash, less time/sweat
the kind with less cash, but more hustle

4. 2009-2012
$57mil p.a.
A&P budget

5. 2009-2012
2013
$160mil p.a.
A&P budget
$14.95 for
4 months
(200 namecards)

6. How?

7. Paid + Owned + Earned

8. Paid + Owned + Earned
(in $$ cash)
(Not “Free”, just paid
for in Hustle & Heart)

9. Paid + Owned + Earned
Paid
Owned
Earned
Big Company
Startup
0
25
50
75
100

10. Paid + Owned + Earned
• Namecards (B/w @ $5)
• Print Flyers $15
• Location-specific biz: Small ads/classifieds
• Very niche/specialized: Google Adwords $30-50/mth
• Web $0-10 month

11. Paid + Owned + Earned
THINK: What ‘Marketing + Media Assets’ do you already own?
• Your own friends and family, and their connections
• Your knowledge/expertise/experience in your head - just needs to be
written down, documented
• Website
• Your physical space and/or location - walls, windows, counters, toilets
• Your products (their packaging, receipts, bill statements, sizing tags, stickers)
• Your happy customers
• Your future employees
• Your everyday comms: emails and letters and envelopes
• Your vehicles (and your friends’ ad families’!)
• You! (your apron, cap, notebook, wristband, even your famous catchphrases)

12. Paid + Owned + Earned
THINK: Which areas can you out-sweat, out-perform others?
• Video/Music - YouTube
• Long-form Writing/Blogging
• Short form Writing - Tweets, Tumblr
• Pictures/Visual design/style - instagram, Pinterest
• Humour/Comedy/Acting
• Public Speaking
• Proving logically/ proving efficacy
• Networking/ Connecting in big rooms
• Networking/ Connecting online
• 121 persuasion/selling
• Story-telling
• Getting people to do favours for you
• In-depth/specialist area knowledge and experience - slideshare
• Local area/community contacts no one else has - googlegroups
• Making customers say nice things about you - Youtube
• .... or have friends that will gladly help you out for free
Basically, whatever
it is you do well,
make something
shareable and ask
help to share it

13. e-flyers +
piggyback media
- free!

14. Piggyback media??
I ASK people i meet to piggyback on their networks and connections and fans
•people who belong to large, relevant Google groups (invite me or post for me)
•Personal networks (write me an intro or allow me to say “Shana dressler recommended we speak”)
•Mailing lists/ Newsletters (help me blast this out)
•Association/Club Member lists (help me blast this out)
•Large facebook following >1000 (share this link or share this photo or share this blog)
•Twitter following >1000 (retweet me)
•Active Message or Bulletin boards (help me post or allow me to post)
•Events / Panels / Conferences / Meetups (let me plug, help introduce me to so and so)
•Board or Roundtable meetings (let me plug, help introduce me to so and so)
•Business Plan Competition (let me observe or judge)
•Those scheduled to speak to small biz financing (include 2 slides from me about Kiva Zip)

15. Invade events your customers
are likely to attend.

17. Web Presence in an hour
Building web presence in an hour for less
than RM250

18. Really? Just one hour?
Probably like 2 to 3 hours, but 1 hour
sounds good for the title :)

19. Really? Just RM250?
Yes, Really !!

20. Let's get started
Total Cost so far : $0

22. Ingredients for a basic website
• Domain Name
• Logo / Tag Line
• Design
• Content (Text)
• Images and Videos
• Contact Information

23. Domain Name
Physical Address:
247 Lorong Maarof
Bangsar
59000 KL
Malaysia
Online Address:
http://www.Thinkthings.co

24. Where to buy a domain name?
• Namecheap
• Gandi
• Name
• Go Daddy :(

25. Total so far
RM70 , 3 years

26. Domain name tips
• short
• easy to remember
• indicative of your business
• .com instead of .org, .net, .us etc
• Whoisguard subscription

27. Ways to build a website
• Hire a agency
• Hire a freelancer
• Hire a high school kid
• Build an about.me page
• Do It Yourself, using website builders

28. Website builders
• About.me (good start, might not be enough)
• Weebly
• Wix
• Strikingly
• Squarespace
etc

29. Strategy?
Get started with About.me - very quick and easy
BUT
Use weebly (or wix or squarespace) to build a multi page
website

30. Tips for efficient design
• Decide number of pages
• Decide what goes into each page
• Make the pages short, simple and easy to read
• Write the outline of the website on paper before
starting to build it

31. "Assembling" a website

36. How much did we spend?
For one year:
Domain Name - RM70
About.me - RM0
Strikingly - RM60 * 3 = RM180
Total : RM250 3 years

37. Next Steps
• Poke around Strikingly, weebly etc
• Pick one
• Buy a domain name
• Make an "About.me" page
• Make a complete website
Need help? mail me

38. Think
Things
52 little cards to help
anyone think like a big ad agency

39. ~How to Navigate Think Things~
For easier navigation, all 52 Thinks are grouped into four broad
directions - N, S, E, W - that indicate four general schools or
methods of approach when agency folks are faced with a marketing
challenge.
N is for Think Needs: simple techniques to help unearth unmet, underserved
or underrated customer needs - both conscious needs and unconscious ones
E is for Think Essence: ideas inspired by your brand, its products, their untold
stories and unsung strengths
W is for Think Who-When-Where: explore oft-overlooked locations, seasons,
times and triggers relevant to your product and target audience
S is for Think Switch: creative ways to shake up the status quo, disrupt
competition, change behaviors and redirect the path to purchase

40. “Think Left and Think Right
and Think Low and Think High,
Oh, the Thinks You can Think
If You Only Try.”
~Dr Seuss~
Just as marketing disciplines have expanded over the years to
now include advertising, media placements, path-to-purchase
conversion, design, activation, social media, branded content,
apps and so on...
...the 52 Thinks here emulate the diverse ways that the many
different schools of marketers, planners and creatives ideate
around marketing problems.

42. (Cards sit in the
hollow here)

43. Marketing for startups is only
1% cash, 9% luck, 90% sweat.
The more stuff you put out,
the more people you ask to piggyback,
the more “sweat” you put into good content,
the more attention you put into tagging content well.
....the luckier you will get.

44. Sponsored message by my
favorite non-profit :-)

45. Thank You
& Questions
Twitter/Instagram: @sulinlau
Email: Hellosulinlau@gmail.com
WWW.ThinkThings.co
Facebook.com/trythinkthings
Credit for borrowed web slides:
Kiva NYC captain Vijay R who taught this class with me at
DEFY Ventures in April 2013