No, it’s not summer reading. They are planning a giant event at their branch. And they want to know how to get the community excited enough to attend this event in droves. We’re talking a filling-the-parking-lot and running-out-of-chairs-level excitement!
🥳It’s a mashup of marketing and party planning in this episode of the Library Marketing Show. Plus we’ll give away kudos to a deserving library doing great marketing work.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
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A few weeks ago, we talked about eliminating the word “resource” from your library marketing. That video started a conversation that resulted in a whole list of words to eliminate from your library marketing vocabulary.
Get the list and the reason why this change is so important (I promise I’m not trying to be a pain… there is a good reason) in this episode!
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
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Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
This week I want you, my dear reader, to make me a promise.
Please, for the love of all that is wonderful and majestic about libraries, add one critical step to your library marketing and promotions.
I want you to start setting goals.
Now, I know this may make you sigh/scream/cry/get angry at me. I know you are incredibly busy. I know you are trying your best every day to create effective library promotions. And I want you to have ALL the success possible.
Which is why I am asking this tiny but incredibly important thing of you.
Goals are an absolute necessity for library marketing success. Full stop.
And they will make your work EASIER for you. I promise.
Why you should set goals for your library promotions
Goals will help you:
Focus your efforts, allowing you to measure your progress and determine whether your promotions are successful.
Establish priorities so you can show your supervisors, your co-workers, your community, your donors, and yourself where your energy is best spent.
Stay motivated. Goals will help you identify your successful promotions so you can repeat them and create more success!
Reach your library’s overall strategic goals more quickly.
Where to start with goal setting for library promotions
Your marketing goals should align with and support your library’s overall strategic goals.
For example, let’s say your library’s strategic plan includes an objective to improve the kindergarten readiness of children in your service area. A goal you could set for your library marketing is:
To increase the circulation of our library’s picture book collection.
But that goal isn’t quite good enough. To turn this from an okay goal to an effective, meaningful marketing goal, you have to add two things:
A number to reach for
A time frame for reaching your goal.
Here’s your new, more meaningful goal:
To increase circulation of our library’s picture book collection by at least 10 percent before June 30, 2024.
Here’s another example from a real library. The Buda Public Library’s strategic plan includes this objective: “Create and circulate Maker Kits, for wider accessibility of the library’s technological resources.”
Their library will likely do all sorts of things to promote the Maker Kits: emails, social media posts, bookmarks, and more.
A meaningful goal they can (and should!) set is:
To get 100 checkouts of our library’s Maker Kits in a 12-month period.
See how easy that is?
The most important thing to remember about goal setting for library marketing is to define what you want to do specifically.
Do you want to increase circulation? By how much? And in what time frame?
Are you looking to boost the use of a certain part of your collection, like your digital materials? By how much? And by when?
Are you trying to get more people to participate in your event? What percentage increase in attendance do you wish to achieve in what amount of time?
You can set both long-term and short-term goals for library marketing success. A long-term goal might be to get 500 downloads of your library’s new app by December 31st. A short-term goal might be to increase Kanopy streams by 25 percent before the end of the month.
One important question to ask yourself
A key element of library marketing goal setting is to make sure your goal is realistic. If your goal is too far-fetched, you and your coworkers may end up feeling demoralized when you fail to achieve it.
For example, if you try to double traffic to your library website in a month, you are likely setting yourself up for failure. Instead, ask yourself this question when you are setting goals: Is this goal ambitious AND achievable?
The final step
Once you’ve set a goal, write it down. Why? Studies show the most successful people write their goals down on paper!
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Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
Terrance is a senior in high school, with a bright future ahead of him.
He’s gregarious, curious, and extroverted. He lives with his dad and two younger siblings. His dad is managing to make ends meet, but there isn’t a lot of money left over for things like vacations or extra-curricular activities.
Terrance doesn’t have a car, but he’s been using public transportation all his life. He really wants to go to college. He’d be the first in this family to go. But the application, the financial aid paperwork, interviewing, and essay writing required for admission feels overwhelming to him.
Terrance isn’t a real kid… not exactly. He was a target persona I built when I worked at a library.
Terrance was based on real teens who used our library. And when I read that description, I could clearly see Terrance in my mind. (I still can–can you?) More importantly, I could find the words I needed to say in library promotions that would reach Terrance.
Terrance helped me figure out how to create effective library promotions.
What is a target persona and why do we need them?
A target persona is a fictional profile of a person who represents one of your key target audience groups, based on the characteristics of your community members.
Target personas help us get granular about our target audience. Getting granular helps us create promotions that let our community members know that we see and hear them.
Simply put, we can use target personas to create marketing that convinces those community members to use the library.
A target persona is not supposed to detail one specific person. It should never be based on one specific individual. It’s a composite sketch, like Terrance, that should reflect most people it is supposed to represent.
How to build target personas for your library
Your community members can be broken down into core segments, or groups, based on their wants, motivations, and the problems they need your library’s help to solve. Those are your target personas.
The number of target personas your library will need will depend entirely on your library’s strategic goals and your marketing goals. Some libraries only need 2 or 3 target personas. Some will need more.
The first thing your library will do is gather demographic information about the community or target group for which you are building a persona. You may do this by researching census data or other data available from your city or town government. Settle on a general answer to these questions:
Age range
Income
Education level
Living situation (Married, single, living with multiple generations in one house, living in an apartment, unhoused, etc.)
Transportation situation (Do they have their own car or do they use public transit?)
Current library usage
Then you want to add depth to your persona. Write down answers to these questions:
Their motivations. Are they career or money-motivated? Are they family-focused?
Their attitudes. Can you identify their perspective on social issues like environmental welfare, human rights, or intellectual freedom?
Their pain points: What problems are they looking to solve?
Their aspirations for the future.
The activities they participate in, both inside and outside of the library.
Their religious and political affiliation.
Using ChatGPT to create target personas
Once you have gathered as much information as you can on your target audience by answering the questions above, it’s time to create your target persona. ChatGPT can help you get started.
Let’s say you want to build a target persona for someone who might use your library’s small business center.
Put all the information you have on your target persona together in a description and feed it into ChatGPT like this:
“Pretend you are a marketer. Build me a target audience persona for a person who is in their mid-50s, who was laid off from the job they held for more than 20 years. This person has always wanted to start their own business, and they figure now is the time. But they do not have a business or marketing degree, and they have very little money. They are single and are living off savings now. They do have a bachelor’s degree in English. They have their own car. They use the library to check out books about once a month. They could use library resources to help them start their small business.”
ChatGPT generated a target persona for “John Anderson, a resilient midlife entrepreneur on a mission!” ChatGPT assigned characteristics that I hadn’t considered, like tech savviness and media consumption.
Here’s the rest of the ChatGPT-generated target persona for John Anderson.
Goals and Motivations
Fulfilling a lifelong dream of starting his own business.
Achieving financial stability and independence.
Creating a legacy and finding personal fulfillment through his work.
Challenges
Limited budget and financial resources.
Lack of formal education in business and marketing.
Navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship later in life.
Hobbies and Interests
Enjoys reading, especially classic literature and business-related books.
Values community engagement and local events.
Appreciates the arts and cultural activities.
Media Consumption
Relies on traditional media like newspapers and local community bulletins.
Limited online presence and social media usage.
Listens to podcasts or watches videos for learning and entertainment.
Tech Savviness
Basic computer skills but may need assistance with advanced online tools.
Open to learning and adapting to technology for business purposes.
Values
Values hard work, perseverance, and integrity.
Desires to make a positive impact on the local community.
Values practical and actionable advice.
How the Library Can Help
Access to beginner-friendly business books and resources to guide him through the basics of entrepreneurship.
Workshops and one-on-one assistance on creating a business plan, marketing on a budget, and utilizing digital tools.
Free or low-cost online courses for building essential business skills.
Networking events to connect with local entrepreneurs and mentors.
ChatGPT also said, “Understanding John’s unique situation and tailoring library resources to cater to his specific needs will be crucial. Marketing messages should focus on the practicality, accessibility, and community support the library provides for someone like John as he takes the leap into entrepreneurship.”
If I worked at a library, I qould take this ChatGPT generated persona and add or subtract the things that apply to my community.
Are personas too generalized?
There is nothing that replaces a personal conversation with a community member. But it is physically impossible to talk to everyone who lives in your service area.
Personas allow us to find the commonalities of the different segments of our audience. This exercise will lead you to create promotional items that connect with your target audience.
Your target personas will likely change over time. They may be different for different programs or goals that your library is trying to reach. That’s okay! Your target personas should be like your library: adaptable, flexible, and able to change to meet the needs of your community.
But by having defined target personas, you are better equipped with the insights needed to build an experience that consistently and efficiently speaks to your patrons as individuals – with content that’s super relevant to them.
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Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
A few weeks ago, I walked through my neighborhood listening to the Library Marketing for Library Marketers podcast. Katie Rothley was interviewing a woman named Sarah Tolle, who manages content for a large Canadian agency. And Sarah said something that literally stopped me in my tracks.
“People take comfort in hearing the same story repeatedly. They like knowing that they know the story and that they understand you. And they anticipate the ending. “
-Sarah Tolle, content director for Black and White Zebra.
I was standing there on the sidewalk, staring at a squirrel gathering nuts from the front yard of an indiscriminate house, and I thought, HOLY SMOKES, this woman is dropping some truth bombs.
Sarah was talking about the value of a consistent message. The timing of this episode could not have been more perfect. In my day job, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how library marketers can get the most bang for their buck.
Many of the libraries I work with are struggling to figure out how to do three big things:
Drive more visitors to their buildings
Get higher attendance at their programs
Get their cardholders to use their cards more often.
They’re working alone or with a small team, with very little money, and very little time. It’s an impossible formula.
Except, as Audrey Hepburn once said, “Nothing is impossible. Even the word itself says, ‘I’m possible.'”
And the secret to success may be found in the form of a marketing axiom that’s nearly 100 years old.
The Marketing Rule of 7
The Marketing Rule of 7 was developed by the movie industry in the 1930s. Studio bosses discovered that a certain amount of advertising and promotion was required to compel someone to see a movie.
It takes time and consistent marketing to make people aware of your library. One message, delivered on one platform, one time, is not going to be enough. We must work to make sure people are familiar with our library.
Now, I know what you are thinking. The Marketing Rule of 7 makes sense. But it’s also in complete contradiction to another marketing fact that is entirely a product of the digital age.
The Reality of Content Shock
Marketing expert Mark Shaffer, author of more than 12 books on marketing, defines Content Shock as “the phenomenon when exponentially increasing amounts of content intersect with our limited human capacity to consume it.”
In other words, there’s too much stuff to read and not enough time to read it. (Are we talking about my inbox or my TBR? Or both?)
So how do we square both marketing truths? And how do we figure out a way forward so we can reach the goals of our library marketing?
First, the number 7 in the Marketing Rule of 7 is an arbitrary number. It could take somebody more than seven times the exposure before they become a loyal library user. Or maybe it will only take five times. Or two times.
Don’t focus so much on the number. Focus on the consistent message.
Because when your audience is overloaded with content, sharing one, consistent message, repeatedly, will break through.
Political candidates know this is true. When they’re trying to get elected or whip up support for a bill, they come up with a main message. They repeat it everywhere: on fliers, social media, in interviews with the press, in speeches, etc. They do this because they know they must repeat the message to make sure their constituents hear and understand it.
How to Create a Consistent Message
Let’s say you work for a high school library and your goal is to get more kids to check out books to read for pleasure (because, let’s be honest, most kids do not find reading Catcher in the Rye all that pleasurable).
First, write a few lines that succinctly encapsulate the message you want to get across.
Read something for once just for fun! The library is filled with books that won’t give you class credit but will take you on an adventure you’ll never forget.
Now, use those two lines across your promotions: on bookmarks, posters, displays, and in morning announcements. Repeat it to kids who wander into the library looking for something to read. Do it all year long. By the end of the year (and probably sooner), the message will have sunk into the kids. That’s consistent messaging.
Next week: I’ll give you a four-step plan for repurposing any piece of content you create across multiple channels without losing your consistent, core message. (Yes, it can be done!)
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Your library’s website is more than a website. It’s actually a digital branch. And it’s an incredibly important way to drive people to your library and to help them find out about your services and items.
I have three big tips for you that you can implement to make your website more discoverable out there on the fast internet. And you do not have to be a fancy website developer to put these tips into practice!
Plus we’ll give kudos to someone doing great work in library marketing.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter youremail 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:
There’s a new social media platform in the world. It’s called Threads and the release has been unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed in my career in communications.
It’s become the most rapidly downloaded app EVER. And you’re probably wondering what this means for your library promotions.
I decided to record an emergency episode today instead of a regular blog post. This episode will break down what your library needs to know about Threads and help you figure out the first steps to managing an account.
Plus we’ll give kudos to someone doing great work in Library Marketing.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter youremail 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:
There’s an easy trick that your library can use to get attention in the email inbox.
What is it? I’m going to share with you in this episode!
Plus we’ll give kudos to someone (or perhaps a group of someones?!) doing great work in Library Marketing.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? 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, enteryouremail addressand 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:
Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion 