EP 293 - Want to Do Charity Work as a Marketer? Start Here

Fab: Hello, Rebel, welcome back to our marketing school. It's Fab here, your marketing fairy godmother and her teacher at the school. I just wanted to remind you that today you're going to hear a by-size lesson taken from our very own summer school. So if you want to hear the full conversation with our incredible summer school teacher and marketer of the record, then all you have to do is go to amschool.

clickslashsummer. repeat. Quarina Sultana: ⁓ Fab: today we have with us the lovely Corrina Sultana and ⁓ the beautiful thing about this is that actually we've had you not too long ago chatting to us before amschool.co.

uk slash summer or check the link in the description to listen to the whole conversation plus 12 weeks worth of conversations, which now sounds like every hour on the hour 12 weeks. Now every week we drop a new conversation. So still lots of conversations to keep you company all over summer. If you'd like to join us, all you got to do is join summer school for free.

In the meantime, let's hear an extract from When you came back and you were like, I want to you a bit more about my journey. I was like, well, yes, of course, tell me more. So thank you so much for taking the time to share a bit of the behind the scenes of the actual journey as a marketer and not just your incredible expertise when it comes to anything inclusion, anything accessibility, anything representation as well. I really appreciate that.

Quarina Sultana: I'm so excited to be here. Fab: That's potentially true but there's also might be a bit of fear because I said I was gonna spring a question upon her to introduce herself, which she didn't know and so I'm gonna do it right now. If you were to describe what you do with up to three emojis before you tell us what you do, which emojis would you choose? today's class.

Quarina Sultana: Okay. Fab: All right, that's your takeaway for today. If you want the rest of the good stuff, 11 off-the-rackon conversations dropped each week over summer. And don't worry if you join us late, optional binging is also encouraged.

You can join us now for free at amschool.click slash summer. And until then, classes dismissed. Quarina Sultana: Okay, so I would use the smiling one with all the hearts around it, you know, the like showing love.

I would use the pile of books emoji and then the third one would probably be the graph one. It's like one, one graph emoji. That's like literally like a spreadsheet. Fab: Awesome.

Wonderful. So how do you think that explains a bit of what you do and who you are? Tell us bit more about who you are and what you do with that in mind. Quarina Sultana: Yeah.

Yeah. So I'll start backwards. So the graph, because we love data, I love data. I think data will kind of potentially go into it a little bit because I think it's going to shape my journey.

But I think data is such a good, important like standing point. And I'm always looking at different data, whether that be lived experiences or like people or just whatever data you have. The books because where would we be if we weren't curious rebels and learning and continuously learning all the time. And the love emoji because that's what we want to do.

We want to make your customers fall in love with whatever your product or your service is. Fab: Now onto your truths and one lie. I'm gonna read this out and I'm gonna take a second to guess which one is a lie and which ones are the truth. Did Corina used to know how to play minesweeper?

Can she juggle? Or is she allergic to heel and that class of fish? ⁓ She can do or she has abilities on two of these things, but one of these things ain't the truth. Which one would it be?

I'm going to guess two. I'm going to say that you cannot juggle. Quarina Sultana: That is actually true, I cannot juggle. I'm still a lesbian.

I'm terrible, I have very little hand eye conglomation. don't know if I should be admitting that. Fab: I guess the laundry! So tell us what Minesweeper is in case somebody doesn't know what Minesweeper is, because I want to know.

Quarina Sultana: In case you are also not from the 90s lore or the 80s lore. So it was a free game that was on all windows and the idea was that you would press some random buttons and you would try to figure out where the bomb is. Now if you press on the button it would give you ⁓ like Sudoku sort of numbers and those numbers corresponded with how many spaces there were around that cell. that were free of mines and the whole idea is you did not want to step on a mine.

You had to step on different cells with everything but the mine. Fab: What do you think is one of the most common mistakes that people might make if they want to actually move into charity work? And is there anything they can do to avoid some of these mistakes? Some of the things that maybe you have seen when you entered this world as to work with some of these clients?

Quarina Sultana: We've. Yeah, I think it's underestimating that lived experience and the institutional memory, right? Like when you're coming in with solutions before really listening to what the human problem is, right? Because I think there's a difference and like, yeah, these systems are not working.

But what is the impact of that? But also, what do people think? You know, your charity, the charity work isn't about the charity, it's about the people that they are trying to help. And unless they are being held, unless they feel safe and trust your sector, your charity, it's not going to work.

So you have to respect that knowledge that's already there. So your stakeholders become wider. I think it's not just the charity that you are managing as ⁓ a marketer, but you are managing the stakeholders off the customers much bigger than it's like internal management. which is definitely something I kind of came in and I was like, I know exactly how to fix this.

Let me tell you. And I was like, ⁓ actually, hang on. What does it packed up this day to be? Fab: How do you find a conversation of billable work versus also the mission driven, not only outcomes, but also the mission driven data and metrics and things we're going to look at?

I'm talking to somebody who is literally into inclusion, diversity and representation. And I think that's actually like a big thing, especially when it comes to equity, just the metrics and the way that we can quantify success. I can only imagine, I don't have it worked very, very briefly with charities as well, but. Quarina Sultana: is Fab: There are so many other ways that you can measure the marketing growth because it's so much more about relationships and trust than some other sectors that we might think of.

So was kind of wondering how have you found a new or different way to bring these conversations in, maybe to present results, maybe to encourage, think about what success looks like for them within marketing, or you found that that's something that they were probably not tuned in anyway. Quarina Sultana: Again, I think in the charity world, people value marketing a lot more. So I think there's less of a sell, right? Because if you can say it's going to change people's lives and thus bring in donations and fundraising.

It's an easy sell because you know if you're changing people's lives, it's immediately going to result in hopefully donations or volunteering or engagement. Whereas in the corporate world, it's a little bit harder because the two don't really go together as neatly, know, just because someone might know your brand doesn't mean that they're going to buy your product or engage with your services. And I think that's when it becomes a little bit. of like, of proving those KPIs of like, ⁓ well, who cares about awareness as long as you like bring in the money in the corporate world.

Whereas I think a charity is like, ⁓ no, we definitely want awareness because the more people know about us, there is a direct correlation of the more people will likely to give to us. Fab: final question before we get to the actual final question. What is the most rewarding thing for you ⁓ it comes to working within ⁓ sector and working with charities as well as all the other work that you do? Quarina Sultana: I think for charity, it's seeing that impact, you know, like I think when the bits have moved me as when someone has come in and they've just spoken about experiences.

I did a... work for like a national charity. And I was like, yeah, it's just a campaign for their like winter spend. Okay.

Like you're doing the PPC, you're doing the meta ads and you, you kind of get into that day to day. I'm like, okay, full of delivered it. And somebody said, Oh, you know, I saw your ad and it got me in a time when I don't think I would be here without coming to your helpline. And when you hear that it's the direct impact, I think it's It's so easy to underestimate that and forget that you affect actually a lot more lives and the impact you have and your marketing has is significantly bigger.

You know, they say like, we're not saving lives here, but actually in sometimes in the charity sector, you are in a very roundabout way. That's not, that is not a way for like, if any managers are listening, that is not a reason for you to say, great, I'm going to make my team work till 11. don't do that. But it's that impact, I think.

And I think you can get really emotional, I think, to like just thinking about it. Fab: ⁓ So even if you are working for a company that necessarily have a charity tie-in, can you make that charity tie-in yourself? Can you build those opportunities and relationships? ⁓ And I think that's the thing that we're both passionate Quarina Sultana: ⁓ Fab: But I think it's also a great reminder of some of the little things that you might want to do or you might want to encourage, know, clients, company, whatever you work with to do will have that impact.

And you can see it in beauty. And sometimes the hardship of it, because let's be honest, is that as marketers, we see so much more firsthand because we tend to be the receivers of those messages and those conversations and those relationships, which, know, can be great and sometimes a bit of a challenge. Quarina Sultana: ⁓ Yeah. Fab: And I think part of the journey, like bridging the gap between marketing and customer service sometimes and customer relationships.

⁓ And ⁓ don't it's talked about enough. And I do wonder whether in the charity sector, there's even more of that crossover and marketing has to actually support and help and guide and work closer to that customer or, you know, kind of a donation or whatever relationship, right? Quarina Sultana: Yes, yeah. Definitely, think that the customer service you are as a marketer.

you become the customer service because often you more than ever you are like okay if someone if this campaign is going out for example at the time of this recording this chaos in the middle east right and every charity i've worked in has been like okay how is this going to affect the people that we serve what is the impact of that and you're directly talking to you know people calling the helpline for example to say I've been affected in this way and they're talking about very personal stories and very deeply concerning stories sometimes.

As a marketer, it's your job to find the comms to say, okay, well, what do we say when people say that? What is our script? And you can become that bridge. But I also will say, this was like maybe five, six years back, I used to work for FX, right, which I actually still do, they swings around about.

bit circle of life for me but I had a manager that that's director that said people buy people and I think that's true people do buy people people you know you as a marketer they will they will go with your services because they like you because they like the way you're working because they've seen your value that you add but also from the other side your customers will buy into your product because it feels human not just because it's the best of what you do. Think about it's why like the Dyson's and the Spotify sell that lifestyle to you, not just the product.

Fab: That leads me to my final question, ⁓ which is going back into a bigger picture though, because I love what you said there and I think it's such a great reminder of some of the skills that we're all building, right? With some of the examples that you brought us. But now let's kind of bring it back to the career side of this, to your career, to your gorgeous and wonderful journey. Quarina Sultana: Yeah.

Thank Fab: Let's think about just as a marketer and it can be within some of the things that you do or it can be just as a marketer in general. Somebody's trying to build a career right now. Yes, June's Generations keep coming in. I swear it's fun down here.

What's the skill or maybe even mindset that maybe is not talked about enough that they need to think about or that they should reflect upon or maybe look at. Not even mastering, but just crafting and practices upon. Quarina Sultana: Learn how to let go of your identity. And I don't mean that in the sense, I mean that your job title, your sector, even your expertise will change over time, you know, depending on the seasons and that's normal.

But what shouldn't change is your values, right? Being able to evolve without clinging to a version of yourself of five years ago is probably one of the most important career skills there is because that's how you Learn how to let go of your identity. And I don't mean that in the sense, I mean that your job title, your sector, even your expertise will change over time, you know, depending on the seasons and that's normal. But what shouldn't change is your values, right?

Being able to evolve without clinging to a version of yourself of five years ago is probably one of the most important career skills there is because that's how you evolve. That's how you grow and that's how you stay authentic to yourself and while still growing. evolve. That's how you grow and that's how you stay authentic to yourself and while still growing.

⁓ And that's why you always stay curious, right? Because you're constantly like, okay, ⁓ these are values, these are in shape, this is the core of me. But ⁓ next? What ⁓ does the season of me right now ⁓ contribute?

What the skills I bringing? Because you're already, like if you're, if you're sticking to an old version of you, You won't appreciate the skills that you have right now and what makes you you right now is what's going to make you the best marketer right now, not you from five years ago. I don't know if I've explained that very well. Fab: You did, you did.

And I think it's so important. So thank you for sharing that There's so many examples of people doing their own thing and doing things differently, which is super exciting, but also can be daunting. And I think we don't talk about that enough, that side of things. ⁓ And ⁓ remembering that we can fluid it's a...

It's an industry that is meant to be fluid. Going back to the beginning of our conversation, we there is so much evolution in the field that we're in. Quarina Sultana: You know. Fab: And so us being open to evolve, I think is also beautiful mindsets to have.

So thank you so, much, my dear. Quarina Sultana: Thank you so much for having me. This has been so good. Like I've really enjoyed it.

Fab: please remind everybody of the best ever URL on LinkedIn in the whole universe. Quarina Sultana: You So LinkedIn is ⁓ LinkedIn.com for a slash life of a sultana. Sultana is not like the raisin.

⁓ It doesn't mean raisin, it means queen as I try to remind everybody. And my email is quarina at q-a-m-d-c-o dot u-k.