Angela Hursh leads an outstanding team of marketing and training professionals at NoveList, a company dedicated to helping libraries reach readers. A 2023 Library Journal Mover & Shaker, she has also created courses on LearnwithNoveList.com designed to help library staff learn how to create effective marketing. Before her job at NoveList, Angela led the content marketing team for the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. She also has more than 20 years of experience as an Emmy-award-winning broadcast TV journalist.
Nothing is worse than working on library promotional content, only for somebody to tell you it’s no good. 😔
How can we gracefully accept and incorporate criticism of our library marketing? I’ll give you some tips in this episode of The Library Marketing Show.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. Thanks for watching!
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Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
If you’ve spent any time in the library marketing space, you are likely to know John Jackson. John is head of Outreach and Engagement at the William H. Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University. His love of libraries started with his mother’s volunteer work.
“My mother volunteered in a small church library in Florida,” recalls John. “As a child, I often spent my weekends helping build book displays or checking out materials to patrons. I knew about OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) and bib records before the age of 12.”
“One of my favorite memories from that time is traveling with my mom annually to attend a regional conference for church librarians. We’d pack up a U-Haul full of library display materials and then recreate those displays at the conference.”
John landed a job with Loyola Marymount in 2015. The private R2 university has approximately 10,000 students, including those pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees. John says the university has a central marketing and communication unit, with employees who cover all areas of external relations work, including photography, graphic design, social media, and licensing.
“At the library, the outreach team is comprised of three full-time employees: me, a student engagement librarian, and an event manager,” explains John. “We also have part-time student employees who assist with various aspects of our programming and outreach work.”
“The library’s marketing support currently consists of me, a student graphic designer, a student social media assistant, and a student videographer. I should note here that marketing is only a portion of my job. Like most librarians, I wear many hats, including collection development, research support, and faculty liaison responsibilities.”
I reached out to John after seeing one of the videos from the Library Fans series, produced by his library. Links to the full series are at the end of this post.
John says the idea came from a presentation on empathy-centered storytelling at the 2023 Library Marketing and Communications Conference and from the videos produced by the Los Angeles Public Library.
“I wanted to create a series that told true stories of library users and did so using high-quality video production,” explains John. “My goal was to promote the individual ways that students from diverse backgrounds (e.g., undergraduate, graduate, commuter, transfer, first-generation, parents) use the library in their day-to-day lives on campus.”
“I also wanted to show, as a proof of concept, that high-quality video production was worth the investment of time and resources. This was also a way to celebrate and recognize some of our hardcore library users: the folks we see regularly in the building every day.”
-John Jackson
John says his team worked on the video series over one semester. They recruited students who were heavy users of the library and familiar faces in the building. They also asked library staff to solicit nominations.
“Our student videographer, John Mac Menamie, is an amazing cameraman and (thankfully for us) owned all his own equipment,” says John. “We were incredibly lucky to hire him onto our team when he was a first-year student, and it’s been amazing to watch his skill set grow over the years.”
“For each of the shoots, we preselected the location so our videographer could spend a few minutes setting up the camera and lighting before the ‘Library Fan’ arrived. We sent prompts and guiding questions to our interviewees in advance to give them an idea of how the conversation would go, but we did not write a script for each interview.”
John used a trick that journalists often employ. He spent the first five to 10 minutes of the interview in small talk with his subject to help them feel more at ease. John says filming usually takes only 10 to 15 minutes. Then, depending on what the interviewee said, John and the videographer needed to shoot footage, known as B-roll, to match the narrative and cover the edits.
Once the videos are edited, John shares them on Instagram, knowing it is the preferred platform for his students. But he’s also taking this opportunity to experiment on other platforms, like YouTube.
“We know from sources like Pew Research Center that usage of YouTube exceeds all other platforms among traditionally aged college students and in the next generation of 14–17-year-olds,” declares John. “So, I’m hoping to build up our content library there. We already have hundreds of tutorials and event recordings on YouTube, but the Library Fans videos are our first attempts at short form on the platform.”
“Most academic libraries are not breaking records when it comes to social media. We’re not likely to ever be the next Milwaukee Public Library. Because our primary target audience (currently enrolled students) is limited and has a churn rate of more than 25 percent every year at graduation, our socials will not grow over time. So traditional growth metrics like followers, likes, and view counts don’t mean as much to me.”
“I tend to focus on the metrics like watch time, sentiment analysis of comments, and sends or reach. Those are the measures that will answer the question, ‘Did this hit right?’”
-John Jackson
“If I want to get the word out about the library, I rely on email marketing. But if I want to ‘set the vibe’ for the library among our students, Instagram, and in particular Reels, is where I spend my time.”
The library’s videos have performed exceptionally well. As of mid-May, the series has received more than 13,000 views, accounting for 26 hours of watch time. That’s incredible! Now, John has plans to use some of the video content for other promotions.
“Because these videos are already so short, I haven’t been pulling soundbites for stand-alone marketing assets,” explains John. “However, I expect I’ll be using pieces of these videos in future promotional videos: New student orientation videos, for example.”
John says his first piece of advice for any library looking to replicate his success is to buy its own equipment.
“Our videographer graduates this year, and with him goes the camera he used to make these videos,” laments John. “I should have done that from the start, and now I am in the unfortunate situation of having to find funding for our own equipment before the next school year begins.”
John finds inspiration for his work from many different organizations.
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Have you ever stared at a piece of library marketing content and thought, should this be a quick update or a deep dive? Let’s settle that today! Here is how to know if you should use short-form content or when it’s time to go to long-form content in this episode of the Library Marketing Show.
Plus, we’ll give kudos to the subject of a past Super Library Marketing profile who just won a huge award.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address. Then, click the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
Facebook always tries to make life difficult for library marketers, and their security options are no exception. A viewer wrote in to ask if staff can use their work email address to create a profile, separate from their personal Facebook page, to manage the library’s Facebook page.
The answer, and tips on how to keep your library’s Facebook account safe without burdening your staff, are in this episode of The Library Marketing Show.
Plus, we’ll give kudos to a library that entices readers and builds book FOMO (fear of missing out!) with a straightforward and strategic column in their local newspaper.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address. Then, click the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
I have a hot take on marketing and programming. They are two completely different things. But confusion over the roles is making it difficult for many libraries to do effective marketing.
I’m going to defend my hot take and give you some guidance on why this distinction is important in this episode of The Library Marketing Show.
Plus, we’ll give kudos to a library for their series of onboarding emails and the brilliant way they get people to sign up for targeted email marketing.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address. Then, click the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
How many times have you said “no” to promotional requests in the past week or month, or year? If the answer is “never”, this article is for you.
I bet some of these situations sound familiar to you:
A librarian running a small program like a knitting group or a recurring storytime asks you for posters, flyers, social media posts, a press release, and newsletter space, even though the program doesn’t align with the library’s big strategic goals. Saying no can feel like you’re not supporting your co-workers.
A library director loves a specific service (like the seed library) and wants a big promotional push for it, even though your user data shows it’s a niche interest with low engagement. It’s hard to push back against leadership!
A department forgot to tell you about a major event until a few days before, and now they want a huge promotional campaign. (This happened to one of my library marketing friends recently!) You want to be a collaborator, but rushing something often leads to poor results.
Every year, the library promotes a National Poetry Month event with posters, displays, and social media blasts, even though turnout and interest have been very low for years. You’ve likely heard the sentence, “But we’ve always done it this way” before! It’s hard to change traditional promotional campaigns without seeming like you’re devaluing them or being difficult.
Someone suggests you start posting to a new platform, like Threads or TikTok. Even if it doesn’t fit the strategy or audience, there’s a fear of “falling behind” if you don’t jump in.
As hard as it is to do, it’s important to say “no” sometimes because library marketing is not just about being busy. It’s about being effective. If you can learn when to push back, you’ll demonstrate to your coworkers and supervisors that your job isn’t just to be a “promotional service desk.” Your work has a strategic purpose.
To help you make those strategic decisions, you’ll find a link at the end of this post to a guide I’ve created. It has a list of questions to ask so you can decide how much promotional support to give to each request.
So, how do you politely say “no” to requests outside of your strategy? Here are some scripts you can use.
Scripts to help you politely say no:
“Thanks for thinking of the marketing team! Right now, we’re focusing our resources on initiatives that directly support our library’s strategic goals for the year. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to take on additional promotions at this time.”
“I really appreciate your enthusiasm! We have a full slate of promotions already planned that align with our library’s key priorities. I won’t be able to add this to the calendar, but I’m happy to brainstorm ways you could promote it independently.”
“Our current marketing plan is tightly focused on [example: increasing card signups among new residents], so we have to prioritize projects tied to that goal. I’ll keep your event in mind for future opportunities.”
“We won’t be able to offer a full campaign for this event, but here’s a customizable poster template you can use. We can also share it internally with staff to help spread the word.”
“While we can’t do a full feature in the main newsletter, I can add a short mention in our ‘Upcoming Events’ section if you get me the info by [deadline].”
“This project doesn’t align with our current focus areas, but it might be a great fit for our [bulletin board / in-branch digital sign / social media story]. Let’s talk about some of those options.”
The importance of buy-in from your supervisor
Whenever you find yourself in a situation where you need to say no, it’s a good idea to give your supervisor a heads-up. You can say:
“I wanted to let you know that I’m going to recommend a lighter promotion plan for [person or department]’s [project/event]. It’s a great initiative, but based on our marketing priorities for [this quarter/this year], it doesn’t align with those priorities. I’m offering [a few options] instead to support them without pulling too much from our strategic efforts.”
You might also consider asking your boss for guidance and support in managing these requests. This invites your boss into the decision without making it feel like you’re just refusing work or being lazy. You can say:
“I’m seeing more requests come in for promotions that aren’t tied to our current goals. To stay focused, I’d like to suggest that we prioritize projects based on [brief criteria — like audience reach, strategic importance, or alignment with core services]. Would you be comfortable if I used those filters to decide what we promote fully and for what we offer lighter support?”
And what if your boss is the one making these requests? Try saying:
“That’s a really interesting idea, and I am happy to do it. As you know, our marketing plan is heavily focused on [strategic goal], and I’m concerned that if we stretch ourselves and our work too thin, we won’t hit the targets we’ve committed to. Can you help me prioritize this work?”
When you receive pushback from a supervisor, remember to frame your response in terms of impact, like meeting goals and maximizing results. Emphasize that you’re thinking of the big picture and trying to protect library resources. Sometimes, offering alternatives instead of a flat-out “no” is a good way to redirect a request.
Library Marketing Promotion Decision Guide
To help you choose between full promotional support and lighter promotional support, I created a cheat sheet of sorts. The Library Marketing Promotional Decision Guide contains questions that will help you and will help the requestor understand your decision. You can download the guide for free here.
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How can a Friends of the Library group successfully spread the word, attract more donations, and recruit new members? They need marketing and branding! But they often don’t have the expertise or budget. So… then what?
This is a very niche episode that you’ll want to send to your friends of the library group!
Plus, we’ll give kudos to a library with a brilliant idea for a simple library storytelling video.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address. Then, click the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
If your library is having trouble getting new cardholders and you want to attract more people but don’t have any money, what do you do? In this episode of the Library Marketing Show, I’ve got four tips for you!
Plus, we’ll do kudos but with a twist. This shout-out goes to a podcast and all the librarians who have appeared on it.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Do you want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here. Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog, and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address. Then, click the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
Two weeks ago, I led a library marketing workshop with a group of Tennessee library staff. Most of them are doing promotions all by themselves for their whole library system… including one staff member who also happens to be the library’s director! (When does she sleep?)
A section of the workshop was dedicated to metrics: What should we measure, and what are good numbers to shoot for? For most of the folks in that room, the goal was to measure quickly. They don’t have time to sit and mull over spreadsheets and contemplate numbers the way they might like to do.
On the way home, I thought about how you, dear readers, are likely in the same position. You want to measure your promotions so you know what is working and what isn’t working. But you may only have a few minutes once a month to dedicate to this task.
That’s how this post was born. I narrowed down all the metrics you could track, so the task will take you about 30 minutes or less once a month. Think of this check as your “mini performance review” for your library marketing. Checking these numbers will guide your weekly or monthly promotional planning, so your marketing becomes more effective overall.
Metric #1: Check your most and least engaging posts on each social media platform.
Time spent: 10 minutes.
This is one of the quickest and most effective ways to assess your social media performance. By identifying the most and least engaging posts, based on likes, comments, shares, saves, and clicks, you get a fast snapshot of what’s resonating with your audience and what’s falling flat.
This metric helps you:
Spot trends fast: If all your top-performing posts are all Instagram Reels or have a certain topic focus (like humorous behind-the-scenes library content or book recommendations), you’ve instantly got a direction for future posts.
Get platform-specific insights: What works on Instagram might flop on Facebook. This check helps you tailor your content for each social media audience.
Stay focused on effective posts: You may love producing certain types of posts. But if they consistently underperform, it’s a sign to let them go. Use your energy and time on the content your audience is most interested in.
Metric #2: Check the top clicks on your emails.
Time spent: 5-10 minutes, depending on your email volume.
This metric gives you direct insight into what your email subscribers find most compelling.
This metric helps you:
Determine what your community of readers cares about: A high open rate is a good start to email success. But clicks show true interest. If everyone’s clicking on your booklists and skipping your storytime registration link, you know where to focus your energy… on the books!
Inform content placement: If most of the clicks happen in the top half of your email, you’ll want to make sure your most important content is placed there. Or, if something buried at the bottom gets lots of clicks, consider bumping it up in your next email.
Spark ideas for future email content: Your most-clicked items can inspire follow-up content, like expanding a popular booklist into a blog post or writing a promotional piece for your local newspaper about an upcoming event.
Refine your messaging: The wording or format of your most-clicked items might be more effective than the rest of your email. Did you use a strong call to action? A particularly eye-catching image? These clues can improve your future emails.
Metric #3: Check your website traffic.
Time spent: 10 minutes.
A quick glance at your website analytics can uncover a goldmine of insights. Focus on four key things:
Top traffic sources (from email, Facebook, organic search, etc.)
Top-performing pages
Lowest-performing pages
Search queries (from Google Search Console or internal site search)
This metric helps you:
See what’s driving people to your website: If your library is getting most of its web traffic from email or from a specific social media platform, then you know to concentrate your efforts there.
Highlight content worth your time: Pages that get strong traffic and engagement could be promoted again on social media or email, or repurposed into new formats (like a short video or carousel post). For example, if your passport services page gets a lot of hits, you’ll know this service is in demand in your community. You can promote it via email and social media to reach even more people.
Weed your website: Low-performing pages might need to be archived. This will improve the search ranking of your website.
Decide on content placement: Search queries can spark blog posts, social media content, FAQs, or updated landing pages. If users keep typing “summer reading start date” into their search engine of choice in May, make sure that info is front and center.
Metric #4: Check QR code scans or trackable URLs on print pieces.
Time spent: 5 minutes
If you’re adding QR codes or trackable URLs (like Bit.ly links or UTM-tagged links) to posters, bookmarks, newsletters, or flyers, check the data on scans. Most QR code generators and short link tools like Bit.ly include basic scan and click tracking data. This is the best way to figure out if your print marketing is working.
This metric helps you:
Prove the value of print: Libraries often wonder if anyone scans those QR codes or types in those custom URLs. This data gives you the answer!
Decide what to repeat: If your “storytime sign-up” flyer gets tons of scans but the “download the library app” one doesn’t, you know to double down on the storytime flyers and go back to the drawing board to drive awareness of your app.
Track placement: You can use different QR codes or URLs for separate locations (e.g., one for the front desk, one in the teen room, one in community centers) to see where your print pieces are most effective.
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Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion 