5 Marketing Strategies From Tunde Onakoya

A Good Cause Is Not Enough Until You Do These 5 Things

I have been writing ✍🏾 in my 📝 📔 , since Tunde announced his Chess ♟️ Guiness World Record Attempt. Got ideas for some plans for the next 1-2 years.

The same event had me thinking about human psychology. That will be in a different blog.

You will find it here when I publish it: https://substack.com/@bisolamariamsdg10?utm_source=profile-page

Back to the point 😌

If you look around you, there is someone you know who has an NGO,or nonprofit or a (startup ) business or company.

Many nonprofits start but only a few are able to sustain themselves because they lack multiple funding sources.

There’s on one hand the demands from funders who want your social cause to focus on one thing and not another, so you don’t have much flexibility.

There’s also the fact that we think that people will support the good work because we are seeking to change lives. Far from it.

Let me give it to you straight!

Folks (depending on the cultural context) are more likely to give to their religious organizations more than they are likely to give to social causes, but there are ways to make them give or buy into your idea.

It was Sunday 48 hours ago(depending on your time zone) and you probably gave offering in church as usual- it’s not bad o.

Perhaps you do it every Sunday. How many times did you give to a charity because it’s just a good cause?

Tunde Onakoya understands the strategies that make social causes survive, and here are what you should learn from him.

1. Branding. A good cause dies (including a business) because very few people know about it. So, when you ask why is my business or social cause suffering, ask yourself: how much branding and marketing efforts do you do.

   Tunde has consistently shared stories of children whose lives been transformed through Chess in Slums Africa. And he doesn’t share “wakky” or half baked content. Notice the quality of those videos, despite that he was showcasing the most unimpressing conditions. Make your work look good.

2. Partner Only With The Best It takes time to make a brand memorable, so, don’t try to do everything yourself. Find the best people in your field, or who have the same endurance as you. Or simply the gut to make things happen.

   Shawn Martinez, Tunde’s chessmate is a national chess champion. There’s a reason for the African proverb : “birds of a feather 🪶 flock together “. There’s no need apologizing for having high standards for your cause or business. Find and keep only those who are the best, so they can compliment you.

3. Sell To The Right Audience. Hosting the Chess Marathon in Time Square NY is a strategic. It’s one of the largest cities in the US. Also the right place to get attention . If the marathon was in Nigeria, a good number would attend, but he would not have gotten the kind of donations and attention he got.His goal was a million dollars , and imagine if the event held in Nigeria, 🇳🇬 that kind of overwhelming international media coverage, Nigeria does not have it and the earning potential of the audience is critical.

4. Sell To Their Values

The generation of Nigerians who engage with Tunde, a significant number are GenZ, with interest in music and other creative expressions. If it was a dance, music or cooking marathon-like Hilda Baci’s you know our people will turn up.

Tunde understands cultural values and spoke to the savior complex of the west. Particularly, he leveraged the dominant rhetoric of “suffering” “poverty ” “uneducated”, “slum” among others to move his audience.

Selling happens when you speak to people’s values. This is something you must learn!

5. Provide Them With CTAS. Despite the noise on social media, every time Tunde was on a break, he kept giving his audience a call to action. “Donate”. “Help us raise”. Tunde was giving great content by showing up to play the game, but he never forgot to keep using CTAS. When you nurture people or share consistent value, ask for something in return.

It is not that people do not have money, but you have to make them feel. Not just a few of them, several of them at the same time!

I hope these 5 strategies are helpful.

If you care to share, what else would you like to add to the list?

Excited for our upcoming summer branding workshop for small businesses in Chicago. Coming up in May.

Our Summer vacation in African countries are on the way too! More details soon!