You might be writing the same great library emails, but getting very different results lately.
That’s because email platforms like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook are changing how messages are delivered and displayed, with AI playing a bigger role than ever.
In this episode of The Library Marketing Show, I walk through what these changes mean and how to adjust your email marketing strategy to keep reaching your audience.
Plus, a library nominates their neighboring organization for kudos… find out why!
Do you have a suggestion for a future episode’s topic? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
Photo courtesy Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library
When most libraries talk about branding, they’re really talking about logos, colors, and templates.
But branding isn’t only what your materials look like.
It’s how your library feels to the people you serve.
And that experience doesn’t center only on the work that your communications staff does. It comes from every single staff member. This is especially true for small or rural libraries and for large metro libraries.
A solid library brand will define your library in a crowded world. It’s the thing that makes people say, “I love my library.”
But many libraries struggle with branding. When I asked, “What do you need help with?” in the State of Library Marketing survey, one of the most common answers was “branding.”
So, we’re going to tackle that! This is the first in a three-part series all about library branding.
Branding Is Not a Logo
We’ll begin with this concept, because it’s the root of the problem.
Branding is often confused with:
Your logo
Your color palette
Your graphic templates
Those things matter. But they are expressions of your brand, not the brand itself.
In fact, research into library branding shows that a library’s brand encompasses multiple dimensions tied to user experience, perception, and emotional connection — not just visuals.
That means your library’s brand is shaped just as much by a storytime experience, a conversation at the circulation desk, the tone of a Facebook post, or signage in your building as it is by your logo.
Here’s the truth: Your library already has a brand! People in your community have an existing impression of your library. This is true even if you’ve never written a brand guide, your graphics are inconsistent, and your co-workers all seem to do their own thing when it comes to library promotion.
So, you’re not starting this journey from scratch.
Real Library Examples: When Branding Becomes Part of the Library Experience
One of the best examples of true library branding is the transformation of Rangeview Library District into Anythink Libraries.
Here’s what happened: The Rangeview Library District was considered by its community to be old-fashioned, small, and unappealing. In 2009, as part of its renewed branding efforts, the District changed the names of its libraries to Anythink libraries.
But the library did more than a name and logo change. They renamed every branch. The changed staff job titles to include “Concierge” and “Guide.” They reframed the entire library experience around creativity and curiosity.
It was a complete alignment of experience, language, and culture. And it worked.
The rebranding led to higher circulation and visitor numbers. The system was able to connect with users and pass a levy, which helped them build or renovate libraries. And they were awarded a national Medal for Museum and Library Service.
My own library, the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library, also went through a rebrand in the last five years. While our name change is not as significant (previously, we were The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County), we are transforming our connection to the community.
Yes, we created a completely new visual palette. But the core of our new branding is focused on our beliefs, which every library staff member is committed to living out through their work. Our beliefs are:
Empathy: We believe in everyone’s innate value and potential.
Enjoyment: We believe there is no prescribed path to knowledge, so why not make the journey fun?
Connection: We believe we got farther, together.
Community: We believe libraries are incubators of community.
That defined focus on those four beliefs is strengthening the connection our library has to the community, elected officials, and donors. That’s the power of branding.
Many libraries have also leaned into branding through physical experience and design. In fact, studies show that libraries are increasingly positioned as community hubs and cultural spaces, with branding tied to how people use and feel in the space, not just what they see.
Branding encompasses everything. The building, the programming, the atmosphere — all of it contributes to the brand.
Where Most Libraries Go Wrong
Most libraries don’t have a branding problem. They have a disconnect problem.
It usually looks like this:
Marketing creates one type of message
Youth services create another
Branches design their own flyers
Social media has a completely different tone
This creates a fragmented experience. And from a patron’s perspective, it feels like interacting with multiple different organizations instead of one library system.
So What Is Library Branding?
Here’s the simplest, most useful definition I can give you:
Your library’s brand is the consistent experience people have every time they interact with you.
Branding is not owned by the marketing department. Branding is created by the entire staff.
That means every flyer, every conversation, every program description, every social media post is either strengthening your brand or weakening it.
Coming Next
In the next post on April 27, we’re going to tackle the biggest challenge libraries face when it comes to branding:
How do you actually get an entire library system to act like one brand?
Meanwhile, if your library has worked on branding, I’d love to hear what worked, what didn’t, and where your staff struggled. You can let me know by commenting below or by emailing me.
Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
Library circulation isn’t what it used to be — and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
A viewer recently asked about these changes, so I dug into the data. In this episode of The Library Marketing Show, I walk through five circulation trends and what they mean for how libraries should market their collections moving forward.
Plus, we’ll give kudos to a library whose promotion helped some unhoused people move into a safer situation!
Do you have a suggestion for a future episode’s topic? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
AI can generate quick answers, but that doesn’t mean it replaces the value of a library collection.
A viewer recently asked how libraries can promote their collections as an alternative to AI, and I thought it was a fascinating question.
In this episode of The Library Marketing Show, we explore ways to position the library’s collection as something deeper, richer, and more trustworthy than an AI summary.
Plus, find out why a project that involves the whole of the United States is getting kudos!
Do you have a suggestion for a future episode’s topic? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
Photo courtesy Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library
Lauren Tolman learned to read when she was just three years old.
“Books have been part of my life since I was little,” she explains. “My family made weekly trips to our local public library. I tore through Arthur,The Baby-sitters Club, Little House (on the Prairie), and any series I could get my hands on.”
“As a kid, my dream job swung between ‘mermaid’ and ‘librarian.’ The librarians at my local branch sat at this big wooden desk surrounded by paperback spinner racks, and they’d read to kids on carpeted risers. I visited the library again thirty years later… the same desk, the same brown carpet, the same happy library noise.”
Lauren’s first library job was as a shelver. In her 20+ year career, she’s been a page, a story time performer, a clerk, a children’s librarian, and a supervisor. Now, she’s the Communications Specialist in the Marketing Department at Utah Valley University’s Fulton Library.
Lauren and two other staff members market the library to the school’s 47,000 students. Lauren supervises the department full-time and handles project management, social media, and campus outreach. Her work is complemented by a part-time graphic designer and a part-time copywriter.
Lauren says the most effective channel for reaching her audience is Instagram. The library appears to have a formula down that works well for their audience. All the videos are short-form with a healthy dose of humor.
The library is also really, really good at putting its own, unique twist on trends, as they did for this video. (You will remember when this song was all the rage on Instagram and TikTok videos!)
But beyond social media, Lauren and her staff have other ways to reach students on campus.
“Our staff is our best ‘channel,’” shares Lauren. “They talk with students constantly through instruction sessions, resource fairs, research help, circulation desk interactions, etc.”
“Students love seeing other students in marketing. We also work with peer mentors, ambassadors, and other student leaders who help share our posts or pass along information to their programs.”
Recently, Lauren and her team worked through a library campaign refresh with new branding, colors, iconography, and more, called “Find It at the Fulton Library.”
“We aim for a new brand campaign every 3-4 years to keep our image fresh and current for our students,” explains Lauren. “The process can take 6-9 months, as we work with our campus marketing, communications, and photography departments to produce all the materials.”
“They help us with concepts and developing a brand kit with colors, fonts, and more to help maintain a consistent look among all of our deliverables. They also help us with student lifestyle photoshoots, giving us a high-quality photo library to use throughout the next couple of years.”
As you can see, this new brand has a vintage feel, while being fresh and colorful.
But not everything is all fun and games for an academic library looking for promotional success. Like most library marketers, there have been times when the strategiesy Lauren has tried just didn’t land with her audience.
“I will say I’ve had many disappointments where social media posts or Reels get low engagement,” explains Lauren. “It always seems to be the ones that are really informative or take forever to make that turn out to have the lowest interactions. That can be frustrating, but I try to learn from it. If even one student is helped by the content, that’s great. And there are always other channels to try to share that information!”
To that end, Lauren has some advice for libraries of all sizes and types when it comes to marketing.
“Get to know your audience, what they care about, where they hang out, what they struggle with. Lead with approachability and benefits. Our audience likes to feel seen and have their problems solved.”
“Track your results, even informally. This will help you figure out your strengths and weaknesses, and the direction your content should go. And don’t be afraid to experiment with types of content, even the casual kind. While we keep our language kind and professional, students love it when we go a little unhinged or use pop culture references in our content.”
Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
Should libraries stick with traditional opt-in email marketing or consider moving to an opt-out model?
A viewer recently asked this question, and it opens up an important conversation about reach, engagement, and email reputation.
In this episode of The Library Marketing Show, I share my perspective on this sometimes controversial topic and offer guidance for libraries that might be considering a change.
Plus, we’ll award kudos to a library using social proof to promote its value across its whole community.
Do you have a suggestion for a future episode’s topic? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
What do you do when one format in your library collection just isn’t circulating the way it used to?
A viewer of The Library Marketing Show is facing exactly that challenge and reached out for advice. In this episode, I share a few marketing ideas that could help revive interest and invite you to contribute your own suggestions as well.
Plus, we’re giving kudos to a library that is handing out VERY special, limited edition library cards!
Do you have a suggestion for a future episode’s topic? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
Photo courtesy of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
Library marketing looks different everywhere.
At some libraries, it’s one person doing promotions part-time. At others, it’s a small communications team. Sometimes it’s staff at different branches or departments all creating their own flyers, emails, and social posts.
Many of you who are tasked with that work don’t have a marketing background. You may be librarians, programmers, or outreach staff who were asked to “help promote things.”
Library promotion often starts the same way: A program or service is planned, and then everyone rushes to create the promotional materials.
But effective marketing doesn’t start with tactics. It starts with a strategy.
Before you create the flyer, schedule social media posts, or draft the email, take a few minutes to answer five simple questions that will shape your promotional approach and set your library up for marketing success.
What are your library’s goals and priorities?
Start by writing down your library’s goals and priorities for the next 6-12 months. This step helps you define your promotional focus.
For example, let’s say your library wants to bridge the learning gap for children in kindergarten through third grade. To do that, the library plans to increase participation in early reader services by 5 percent and boost the circulation of children’s books by 10 percent. With this defined priority, a large percentage of your promotions should primarily target parents, caregivers, and teachers.
Goal setting and prioritization matter because library marketing is often very activity-driven. We promote every program, every service, every resource equally.
But success requires strategy, and strategy requires prioritization. When you know the library’s big goals, you can decide what deserves the most promotional attention and what might get lighter promotion.
Write those goals down and keep them visible. Every promotion should connect back to them in some way.
Next, take a few minutes to write down what you know about your community and your current users. This might sound silly, but it is crucial. The more clearly you understand your audience, the easier it becomes to create promotions that speak to their needs and interests.
Ask yourself:
Who are your cardholders?
What do they typically use the library for?
Where do they live?
What groups of people in your community are not using the library yet?
You should also think about what competes for your audience’s attention. That might include bookstores, streaming services, after-school programs, and Google or AI.
Next, do some analysis of the data you have at hand, including:
Circulation trends
Foot traffic to your branches
Database usage
Program attendance
Email engagement
Social media engagement
Website traffic
Any survey data you may have from patrons or community members
You may think you know the current state of your library. But once you’ve done this analysis, you’ll likely make some interesting discoveries that will make it clear exactly what you need to do to be more successful in your library marketing.
What things can you use to promote your library?
Take inventory of your promotional tools. Write down every communication channel your library uses. This might include:
Your library website
E-newsletters
Social media platforms
Digital signage
Flyers and posters
Press releases and media outreach
In-library displays
Staff recommendations and readers’ advisory
Partnerships with schools or community groups
Many libraries discover during this exercise that they’re using more channels than they can realistically manage well. (Raise your hand if you suspect that’s you!)
That’s okay. The goal here isn’t to use everything. The goal is to understand what tools are available so you can choose the right ones for each promotion.
Ask yourself:How can you put your library’s promotional tools to work?
This is where strategy starts to take shape.
Consider your goals and your audience, then decide which promotional tools will work best to reach them.
For example, you may know from past experience that most people register for summer reading after clicking links in your e-newsletter. If that’s the case, the newsletter should be a major part of your summer reading promotion. Or, if you know that the majority of attendees at your author events are also members of a book club, you can partner with book clubs hosted by other organizations, like bookstores or community groups, to reach your target audience.
You don’t need to promote everything everywhere. Instead, focus your energy on the channels that are most likely to reach the people you want to serve. This step is really about matching the right message to the right audience in the right place.
If that sounds complicated, I created this guide to help you use AI to match audiences with channels.
How will you measure your success (or failure)?
Too often, libraries judge marketing success based on vague feelings like “that seemed popular” or “we saw a lot of people talking about it.”
Feelings aren’t facts. You must measure the effectiveness of your promotions so you can replicate successes and stop doing the things that don’t work.
This part of library marketing success does not need to be complicated. Write down a few clear success measures. For example, with summer reading, you might track:
Clicks on the registration link in your e-newsletter
Weekly registration totals
Program attendance
Circulation of summer reading titles
Not every promotion will succeed. That’s okay! The important thing is learning from what happens.
When something works, try to understand why. When something doesn’t work, resist the temptation to repeat it out of habit.
Need help with metrics? I created a mini-metric toolkit. And here are 4 metrics that will evaluate your library marketing success in 30 minutes or less. Easy peasy!
Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
Today I’m sharing some personal news: I’m starting a new chapter in my career that brings me back to where my library marketing journey first began — my hometown library.
In this short episode, I’m sharing where I’m headed next, why this opportunity meant so much to me, and what it means for the future of Super Library Marketing and The Library Marketing Show.
Do you have a suggestion for a future episode’s topic? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion 