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The Business of Life with Dr King
Istiaque Doza: Revolutionizing Nonprofit Marketing Through AI and Strategic Communication
Discover how marketing can be a game-changer for nonprofits with insights from Ispiyak Doza, the renowned marketer to NGOs. Broadcasting from Bangladesh, Doza passionately discusses the critical strategies NGOs need to adopt to effectively communicate their message and secure essential funds. With his rich legacy as a third-generation entrepreneur and Rotarian, Doza is dedicated to amplifying the voices of nonprofit organizations, and he's here to share his wisdom on making causes heard.
Witness the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on marketing with Doza’s firsthand experience. He shares how AI has revolutionized content creation, allowing NGO campaigns to be executed swiftly and efficiently. However, he also highlights the surprising underutilization of AI by many nonprofits today. In this era of digital dominance, Doza stresses the importance of a strong online presence to ensure nonprofit initiatives gain the support they need. This episode is packed with actionable insights and practical advice, making it a must-listen for anyone involved in or passionate about nonprofit work.
The Business of Life
Dr Ariella (Ariel) Rosita King
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written, guitar and vocals by Dr. Ariel Rosita King
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Teach me to live one day at a time, with courage, love and a sense of pride, giving me the ability to love and accept myself so I can go and give it to someone else. Sir Doza is going to be speaking about marketing for non-governmental organizations, or what we call NGOs. Welcome, sir.
Istiaque Doza:Dr King, thank you so much for having me. Yes, my name is Ispiyak Doza. I am joining in all the way from Bangladesh and I am known as the marketer to nonprofits because I work with various nonprofits. And, yeah, I'm here to talk about marketing, which I think is something that not all nonprofits get it right, I guess you could say. And so, yeah, I'm just here to talk about what's some of the ongoing trends that people in the nonprofit sector can onboard to make sure that the message is reaching the right audience, so that they can get that funding in, which is the main. You know you want to. You have a cause that you want to support, but you need funding for everything and therefore you know it's important we get that right. Thank you.
Dr King:Thank you, sir. Listen, you're such an amazing gentleman. Would you just tell us a little bit about you as a person?
Istiaque Doza:You and I know each other in other ways and I think that is quite important. So would you tell us about you as a person, sir? Sure, so I'm a third-gen entrepreneur based in Bangladesh and obviously I'm also a Actually, you know this, but a lot of people may know it I am a Rotarian as well, for the last four or five years, and currently I'm serving as the Digital Image Public Officer for the last four or five years, and currently I'm serving as the digital image public officer for the Rotary Club of Global Impact, and I also serve as the marketing director for an organization out of Washington DC called the Government Blockchain Association. So my passion I think I get this from my dad, who was a member of Lions.
Istiaque Doza:I remember him being a member of Lions when he was younger and we have always had this thing about giving okay and or contributing our time skills. You know whatever we have, you know what we can afford to. You know contribute to nonprofit initiatives, and that has stayed with me guess you know generationally. So my dad is no longer around, but I I am carrying on some of the work you know and um, yeah, that's um and uh. I think it's something about being a marketer also that, um, I do believe that as a marketer, I can make any, can make any cause louder so that more people can hear about, you know, can learn more about what an organization is doing and therefore support it. So yeah, that's where I come in, basically.
Dr King:Thank you. So that was a great introduction, so let's get into it. Let's talk about marketing for NGOs. Let's get into it.
Istiaque Doza:Let's talk about marketing for NGOs, sure, sure. So about marketing, all right, and my background is basically in content creation and, as I mentioned, my job is basically to amplify nonprofit organizations and their voices. And these days, I'll be very honest, almost every organization we know. If they're not using it, they should be using it artificial intelligence, which has made things a lot easier. There was a time when you know you could create a campaign. It would take you sometimes one, two weeks, sometimes even a couple of weeks. Nowadays, you can, you know, you can go from literally that day. I did an exercise where I was trying to create a shop for Printify and, even though the shop has not launched, but the ideation, the design, the logos, everything happened in approximately 24 hour period. That's it, okay. And now I just have to find some digital products that I want to promote and that's it and it's done. So that's the thing, all right. Intelligent intelligence has made it extremely easier, but I don't see that many, unfortunately, I don't see that many nonprofits utilize AI as much. This is something I've seen Today, of course, when it comes to nonprofits, you have to have an online presence.
Istiaque Doza:Today, of course, when it comes to nonprofits, you have to have an online presence. We call it the era of at least, I like to call it the era of digital dominance. If you're not online, if you don't have a strong presence online, your nonprofit is not going to raise enough capital or funding to support anything. And um, yeah and uh, obviously, you know, with all the, you know the way I look at it. I always tell anyone that, listen, you have to have a website, you have to social media profiles and you have to make it as seamless as possible for them to find you and, you know, learn about you and um, contribute to your cause. Um, I call it like. You know, it should be as easy as you know, scrolling on instagram. Okay, no, I finally. Okay, I found a nice profile and I'm scrolling it. Okay, I like this, I like what this person, I like what Dr Ariel is doing. All right, let's just you know there's donated one in there. This is the cause. I'm pressing on that. I'm sending you money, that's it.
Dr King:That's fabulous. Can I ask you? You've worked with various not-for-profits. How do you think that not-for-profits could actually start to look at and learn about marketing and why it's important for them in order to sustain themselves?
Istiaque Doza:a very good question and I'll be very honest, all right, I meet a lot of, I mean, in the non-profit sector. There's a lot of people who are folks who are very passionate about what they do, but maybe they come from a technical background, Maybe they come from a business managerial background and, yes, most people know how to market a little bit, but they don't, um, I think you do need someone with a proper marketing background, like myself, uh, who has a degree in marketing, who knows about every little you know. Uh, like, I'll be very honest, marketing is an exercise, it's a, it's an experiment, that's what I call it. A lot of people from technical background. I've noticed in my work with, you know, some of the technical, uh, non-go's ngos I work with, is that they tend to believe that one plus one is, you know, has to be two, all right. But in marketing it's almost like you know what, yeah, you know, one plus one can be ten, considering the one and the other one is, you know, it's, um, it's the right ones, all right.
Istiaque Doza:And, uh, I think a lot of people I'll be very honest, a lot of us marketers get fired a lot, by the way, all right, because most people tend to hire us thinking they're going to get overnight success and that doesn't come, because it's. I tell them, it's a process. You start right now, maybe two months down the line we'll figure out. Okay, this is our target audience, so we need to cater. These are the people who are sending us the funds, so we need to cater our marketing campaign around them. Okay, bring in more, find more people like those who are supporting us right now.
Istiaque Doza:And it's not easy, it's a process. It's a process and it's not easy. It's a. It's a process, it's a use use. It's a process and it's always being refined. And, of course, the the one of the biggest problems that we have right now is the social media platform that we're using also has also depend on something called algorithms. Right, the algorithms keep changing and therefore, what's working last week may not work this week or next month, and therefore we're like wait a minute, that doesn't seem to be reaching the right impression. So you know we might have to, you know, readjust our strategy, see what else they're doing.
Dr King:Can you tell us more about? Pardon me, can you tell us more? That's such a good point, so please excuse me for interrupting you. Algorithms is so important. Can you explain more to us and the audience what algorithm is, how it works, why it's important and then how it actually affects, for example, a marketing campaign?
Istiaque Doza:Thank you, sir right, it's one of my favorite platforms, but a lot of people don't notice. But linkedin likes to have people. When people are on the site, they want them to be there. So whenever you put a link in a linkedin post that diverts people from linkedin to elsewhere, that post gets less reach. Okay, they, they, you know, you know they don't allow it to get maximum reach.
Istiaque Doza:So algorithm is basically a programming language, the programming on which the social media platforms is built and everything, and the algorithms determine in advance I guess you could say which, based on their business decision and everything exactly which post will reach whom and whatnot. Okay, there's a lot more into that. Obviously, I'm not a technical expert, by the way, but I know enough that you know. Okay, each and every social media has its own nuances that you need to understand and work with and, like I said, you always have to be on your. It's like on your toes all the time keeps you on your toes all the time because they're always updating it. Whenever people figure out how to make funds come their way, okay, let's update it. Make it more difficult, make them more this, make them more that. It's a little bit of an annoyance, in my opinion. It's a bit annoying, but unfortunately these platforms have to make money as well.
Dr King:So you know, yeah, thank you, that was very good. I really appreciate that. So what are your top five suggestions for NGOs to use marketing? And, even more importantly, I think it's I'd love to know more about to explain in the simplest way why it's important to hire a person like you, or to have a person if not hire, have people within the organization that are specifically looking at marketing and, you know, making changes when changes are needed, and why is it important, just as it would be important in a for-profit business.
Istiaque Doza:Yeah. So my pitch for that would be basically most of the people in leadership position in non-profits have too much going on. Okay, they are always. You need someone like me to at least make it a more efficient process. For example, I know I've worked with a lot of nonprofits to know that sometimes they're just they have a completely wrong idea of who they're targeting and what their message should be. Okay, as a result, what happens often is they waste a lot of time chasing. You know going after. You know calling. You know getting on calls with people who will most likely never support them.
Istiaque Doza:A marketer like myself can do something. For example, I used to offer this service called it's called Ideal Customer Profile. So I create a profile for you. You, you know, dr King Solutions. I will go to your website. I'll take some data from there and I'll see. Okay, you know what Dr King she is. This is her target audience. It will come up with demographics. It will be psychographic. It will be, you know, age, gender. You know, I'll come up with the whole thing. Used to charge $250 for that. Now, because of AI and, by the way, it also used to take a lot longer as well Sometimes a week or two it would cost me. Nowadays I charge about $25. I use AI delivery within 24 hours. And once you know that you can target better, you can reach out to your audience more efficiently. So you need someone like me to help you from wasting time on the wrong people. Help you from wasting time on the wrong people, okay, so, and plus, you know a lot of.
Istiaque Doza:There is a when it comes to marketing. There's a lot of, you know, in certain places you have, videos work better in some cases. In some cases, graphics work better. In some cases, posts work better cases. In some cases, graphics work better in some. In some cases, posts work better. So, um, as a leader in a non-profit, would you be spending, you know, hundreds of hours per week trying to work, you know, build, create these, or would you actually be going out there trying to raise funds? Okay, and with the help of the marketing? So the marketing, uh, the marketer in the non-profit is always a supplement. Okay, he will run a supplement. I would say what's the one I'm looking for here?
Dr King:Maybe a partner.
Istiaque Doza:Yeah, partner. Yeah, exactly, so you know it's a partnership. All right, the marketer does all the work. He makes you louder, as I mentioned. Okay, he makes what do we do louder in the ecosystem, because this it's not just your nonprofit, it's every nonprofit out there who's trying to grab attention, and my job is to make, or the job of most marketers is to make them stand out. So that's why you need us.
Dr King:Thank you, that is so well said. Would you give us one or two stories about a company you don't have to name them of how they started, what you did in order to bring them along and perhaps the start of any success they might have? And also understanding that it is a process, that nothing is overnight, of course.
Istiaque Doza:Thank you, so I can probably talk about. There's only a couple of common organizations that I work with. All right, um, but, um, my story wise, it's kind of difficult because most of the organizations I work with are still kind of new and, uh, we are still trying to figure out a lot of stuff. Okay, I don't know if I have any anecdotal, but I do Maybe some. You know, sometimes you know a post One thing I've noticed actually this is not new, but you know, I knew it, but it's just I didn't use it as much.
Istiaque Doza:There was a story I wrote about an organization I'm part of Sorry about that A part of, and it was about how I found the organization, the reasons behind why it happened, and that drove a lot of traffic to the organization's website. Okay, so I wouldn't say that it converted into a donation or something of the sort, but you know, that's the thing you get. People who didn't know about this organization now suddenly know, wait a minute, that's a really cool story that istiak has shared. So, you know, let's visit this website and see what they're up to. And, um, you know, there's a, you can see a spike, you know, in the website, analytics and everything, and, um, yeah, it's um, it's one of the, you know, one of the few. I wouldn't say I have that many wins. I would be very honest, but can I say I think that's a win.
Dr King:Let me say this you know, some people think that the win is just how much money do you get?
Dr King:And yes, of course, for not-for-profits, this is one of the ways that we actually build our coffers in order to deliver services. Yes, but just the fact that more people have gone to the website to know about the business is also a win, because not everything is measured in one donation, right, and one donation is nice, but it's a one-off. But if somebody knows about the organization, perhaps at some point actually tells others about the organization, or even knows that it exists, when it does come that time that they might be thinking about donating in someone's name, donating to someone's birthday, or if someone has passed away, or if they just want to donate, because once a year they donate or not, and sometimes people give other donations besides cash. So I would say that just the fact that you were able to drive more people to an organization that was not known is a win, right? Not every win comes in a donation of whatever in euros, dollars, yens, liras. You know, I think that part of the win also is in knowing about organizations. So wonderful, wonderful.
Istiaque Doza:I do want to mention that. You know, in my opinion, storytelling works okay. Videos work. Videos are really good right now. Okay, if anyone who's listening to this, get on Instagram, get on. I'm not on TikTok, but TikTok is driving you know. Whether you like them or not, it's driving a lot of traffic to nonprofits as well. And use AI tools. If you have a budget, I would say, get a budget of about $200. Get some good AI tools. I've reviewed some of them on my website and you can use some of them. It would help you. Hiring a marketing professional is expensive, by the way, and the AI tools do get you a lot of the way there. That's what I'd say.
Dr King:Thank you. What are your favorite tools that you'd like to tell us about? Just your particular favorites?
Istiaque Doza:So my particular favorites are Jasper it's a marketing tool that I use, um to write copy. I also use for seo purpose. I use surfer seo. Um, that's um, um, it helps me do keyword research. Actually, it also helps me write articles as well, and then I refine them a lot and, um, what else is there? There's also, uh, one more, obviously chat gpt. Is there. Right, you know chat gpt, you know it's uh, everyone's favorite, I think. For graphic work I use night cafe and leonardo. Those are my two favorites and, um, yeah, I think that's that's. Those five are basically what I use, basically, yeah.
Dr King:Thank you. That's really amazing. Thank you so much, and can you tell us also more about I mean, I know that you have a degree in marketing and you do marketing Can you tell us in general more about your business and if you're open to business all over the world and how you do that? So after this podcast you might have people saying, oh wow, you know, mr Doze is the person I want to go to. So could you tell us more about if you work with people all over the world I'm sure you do it and how, so then they know more about the services that you offer. Thank you, sir.
Istiaque Doza:Sure For marketing. Well, obviously I do marketing for a lot of nonprofits and, of course, I do help individuals when, as you know, there's a huge, you know, hurricane, you know, unfortunately devastating the area right now, anyway, so basically I work with a team, depending on the project. All right, if someone reaches out to me for any kind of marketing help, I can you know I offer a 30-minute free consultancy, you know, to anyone. Usually I'll be very honest. It sometimes can last for an hour and a half. Sometimes, you know, because it's just you know, if I find something interesting someone is doing, I'm very curious, I want to learn more, and that can just you know. If I have a slot free, it just goes on.
Istiaque Doza:As for other work I do, I'm also involved in the eco-friendly sector or sustainability sector. I am on a mission to make my country of Bangladesh energy independent. That will, I mean, once the people here start buying it and onboarding it and, I guess, installing the solutions. I do believe that it will save us a lot of money in the long run and we are Bangladesh is not the richest country on the planet Every dollar we send out to buy oil and gas, if I can mitigate, even like 10%, 15% of that in my lifetime, I would be very, very happy. So that's one of the areas that I am eager to work with.
Istiaque Doza:If anybody has a solution, eco-friendly solution that they think that there's a market for in Bangladesh, please come to me. We have already signed a one country exclusive deal with an organization by the name of Clamatenza. They do solar thermal technology and the market size is about $4.5 billion. So you know we are very excited and, yeah, we are looking forward to helping our country. You know, like I said, become more. Thank you, sir, you're truly a renaissance man.
Dr King:You're truly truly a renaissance man. It's really nice to also know that besides marketing you're doing yeah, that you're also looking at environment and looking at sustainability and so on and so forth. That's wonderful. Can I ask you, just as a Rotarian and Rotarians, of course, are in business, not-for-profit, wherever you can find a person, anywhere you find a Rotarian Can I ask, can you just tell me any of your favorite stories about being a Rotarian and what you experienced? Thank you, sir.
Istiaque Doza:I think I don't have a favorite story, because my entire, when I met you first, I was a Rotarian here in Bangladesh, right, and obviously I'm still, you know, I'm still in Bangladesh, but my club now is obviously, you know, in North Karana, under Marty and everything and Dr Pauline. I think you were you, yes, you were our.
Dr King:So tell me about your any experience that you had meeting someone, any experience you had with any talk, anything at all, Because many people don't know about Rotary and I think that Rotary is a quite interesting organization.
Istiaque Doza:Definitely, definitely. Once again, all right, I think it has been honestly a blast. Completely the thing about Rotary is that our club particularly is that we bring in so many different types of guests. It's always amazing to learn about what everyone is doing. We do offer, as you know, we offer twice a month. We bring in guests to tell us about what they are working on, what their passion project is, and I don't know if I can single out any event, but I do know that every month I look forward to the meetings because I want to know who's coming. And well, I know a little bit because I'm the one who's marketing. You know I'm doing the web copy and everything, but at the same time, actually, you know hearing from them their story in its entirety, why they're doing what they're doing, why it's important. I wish more people would find out about them so they could support what they're doing.
Dr King:Basically, Even though you're physically in one country. You belong to an international Rotary Club. Do I understand that you won some type of award? Did you win some type of award, if I'm not mistaken?
Istiaque Doza:Yeah, yeah, I received the award for Rotarian of the Year last year, so yeah, Just by chance.
Dr King:Okay, that's wonderful Rotarian of the Year and your club is an international club for people all over the world. Well, congratulations with that. Thank you so much. Would you like to say any last words when it comes to anything at all to our audience? And thank you so much for speaking about NGO and marketing and telling us about yourself. But any last words, sir, any last words, sir.
Istiaque Doza:There's a lot of nonprofits out there, I think, who should be on everyone's mind but aren't, and that's you know. That's mostly because they don't have good marketing in place. I would encourage you to, even if you can, you know, know, figure out some kind of commission deal with the marketer, like you know, yeah, you know you, like I said, marketers are expensive, all right, so you work out a deal with them. Listen, um, any donation you bring in, I'll give you five percent. Okay, help us do a campaign and, somewhere, work with marketers to enhance your presence online, okay, or even in the physical sense, because, at the end of the, if you are, like I said, people in the non-profit sector are extremely passionate and I I am sorry to say this, but in a lot of people, I worry about certain people that I know.
Istiaque Doza:I think one day they're going to just, you know, their health is going to fall apart because they spend so much time. Even like, I'm seeing someone post at 3 am in the morning, all right, on linkedin their time. This this guy's in his 70s and he's posting at 3 am in the morning. It's like no, no, no, you have to have someone, you have to delegate. You know, learn to delegate some of the work now. Hire a professional to get your marketing sorted so that you don't have to you know, you don't basically die on the job. All right, okay, so yeah.
Dr King:Thank you, sir. I think that's so poignant Love it. I want to thank you once again for being on our podcast, the Business of Life, and, as usual, it's such a delight and I'm so, so happy to know you and I'm looking forward to inviting you back again to talk about environment and then talk about what you're doing in Bangladesh, which is absolutely amazing. So hopefully our next conversation will be about that. Thank you to our audience, sure, and please join us next time for the Business of Life. Thank you.
Istiaque Doza:Thank you so much.