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The Library Marketing Show Episode 15: 🤷What to Do If You’re a Librarian Who HAS to Do Marketing!

WATCH NOW

In this short video, we talk about what you should do if your a librarian and your library has asked/forced/demanded/requested that you also handle the marketing. If you don’t have a communications degree, what should you do? Can you do it? Answer: YES!
(Watch episode 14 to see why I generally don’t hire librarians to do marketing).

Also KUDOS to Chicago Public Library for going fine free!

Talk to me! Share thoughts about this video in the comments, LIKE it, SHARE it, and subscribe (Pretty please!). Let’s grow this channel together.

Stay in Touch

Check the Upcoming Events page to see where I’ll be soon. Let’s connect! More events are coming soon.

Have an idea for the next Library Marketing Live Show? Submit it now.

Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page. Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.  

2

The Library Marketing Show Episode 12: How to Convince People that Flyers ARE NOT the Be All, End All of Library Marketing!!

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In this episode, we’ll answer a reader question from Jenny at the Redwood City Public Library about how to address that age-old complaint: WHY CAN’T I HAVE MORE FLYERS? FLYERS ARE AMAZING! from your fellow library staff and how to convince them that digital promotions are worth time and effort. Thanks for the question, Jenny!

You can submit a question or a discussion topic by going to this page and filling out the form.

Also Kudos to Stark County Library in Canton, OH –find out why I think they’re amazing.

And a book review of “Calypso” by David Sedaris PLUS find out which book I couldn’t finish and why!

Stay in Touch

I’m speaking at two conferences this fall and you can register for both on the Upcoming Events page. I just finished the slides for OLC! I’m really excited about that one. Details about the talks at both conferences are on the page and more events are coming soon!

Have an idea for the next Library Marketing Live Show? Submit it now.

Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page. Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.  

1

How Your Library Can Use Google Ad Grants to Supercharge Your Website and Reach a Huge Untapped Audience

Note: A newly updated version of this blog post is now published. Read it here.

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Frustrated with Your Library Marketing Newsletter? Here’s Why You’re Not Getting the Results You Want AND How to Fix It

I hold a controversial opinion. Newsletters are an ineffective tool for library marketing.

I totally understand why libraries create them. Our customers are a wide and diverse audience and our budget is limited. Newsletters are an easy and efficient way to get information to our audience.

But many libraries are frustrated by the lack of demonstrable results from their newsletters, both the print and email versions. And there’s a reason you can’t get good results from a newsletter.

The mistake is: You’re sending the same message to all of your cardholders.

It’s understandable. It feels like the natural thing to do. Your library has great stuff and you want everyone to know about everything.

The problem with that approach is that your cardholders are individuals. One message never fits them all. The needs and interests of your cardholders vary greatly.

I’m not suggesting you ditch your newsletter. By transforming the way you approach your current print and e-newsletter, you can make it actually work! The trick is to make changes that increase your newsletter’s value by refining the message.

Tips that work for both print and e-newsletters

Give your cardholders LOTS more of what THEY want. I know you’ve been keeping track of attendance at events and holds or checkouts of books you promoted in your previous newsletters. If you notice that your newsletter audience turns out for a particular type of event or that they like a particular genre of books or collection items, put MORE of those in your newsletters.

Library marketers are often pressured to promote what their co-workers or bosses think is interesting. Or worse, what their co-workers think the audience NEEDS to hear.

I’ve actually had to gently explain to my colleagues that, while reading classic authors like Ernest Hemingway and Jane Austen are good for the brain, most people are not looking for an intellectual challenge when they reach for a book. It’s like getting kids to eat their vegetables. Veggies are healthy, but if your child doesn’t like them, they’ll clamp their mouth shut and refuse to take a bite.

The newsletter audience is the same. You can’t make people attend events or read books because they’re healthy or intellectual. Library marketers sometimes have to be an advocate for their audience; you have to be persistent in your defense of what your cardholders want.

At my library, we pivoted our newsletter to focus more on our the parts of our collection that our cardholders like. We had the data to back it up. We know that our cardholders really love content about coding and coding classes. We know they love mystery books. We know they love workshops about writing and publishing their own books. We learned all of these nuanced preferences by carefully measuring our audience’s response to marketing in all areas. Patterns emerge. And now, we do a lot of promotion around these areas because we know, for a fact, that our cardholders love this kind of content.

Make your content helpful, not promotional. Your cardholders are regularly bombarded with offers, sales, and promotions, both in their inbox and in your mailbox. To get people to read your newsletter, the content needs to be interesting, useful, or helpful.

Hundreds of studies and surveys about consumer behavior show us that content that is educational or entertaining gets better results that content that is promotional. So how can you promote something while being entertaining or informative? Content marketing in the answer.

Content marketing is a strategic approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience–ultimately, to drive profitable consumer action.

Content marketing breaks through the noise and the clutter by providing compelling, useful information for your cardholder–any type of information. It addresses whatever pain points your cardholders have. It positions your library as the go-to place for information. It builds trust.

And through content marketing, your library gets a better and deeper understanding of your cardholders. You can use that understanding to do a better job of addressing your cardholders’ needs. It’s a constant circle of giving and it carries more weight for a longer period than a traditional newsletter promotion.

Stop thinking of your publication as a newsletter. Start creating news magazines. Most library newsletters that come to my inbox or mailbox are long and contain a ton of text and images. There isn’t much white space and scanning them is difficult, because there is so much to scan.

At my library, we increased the effectiveness of our print newsletter by transforming it into a magazine. We trimmed it from 16 to 12 pages. My graphic artists started to give the publication a magazine feel in layout, using bolder visuals and shorter, more engaging articles. We left some white space. We changed the balance of the articles from 100 percent promotional to 50 percent informational and 50 percent promotional (even I have to fight the battle with my library to be less overtly promotional!).

What happened when we made these changes? Our news magazine became a must-read. People started asking when the next issue would be out. We had to order more copies. Library staff and outside partners vie for space in the publication. The news magazine is popular!

Tips specific to e-newsletters

Keep the text short and scannable. Your e-newsletter is a touch point, not the end of a conversation. Readers should get enough to be left with the feeling of wanting to know more about a particular subject. Drive your recipients to your website or another platform where they can get more information with compelling text and enticing calls to action.

Make it easy to share your e-newsletter. Include social share buttons that link directly to your library’s social pages.

Segment your e-newsletters. You can segment your e-newsletter in a number of ways… by age, by interest, and by location. This means you’ll need to create more than one e-newsletter. But each one will be targeted to a specific audience, which increases effectiveness. This step will be more work for you but it’s worth it for better results.

By targeting your message, you are more likely to say something that matters significantly to your cardholders. That individualized message makes them more likely to take an action, which makes it more likely that your newsletter will be successful.

More help for library marketers

How the Best Newsletters Get-and Keep-Reader’s Attention from Content Marketing Institute

NoveList’s Guide to Best Practices for Library Newsletters

7 Tips for Creating Engaging Newsletters from Mailjet

Great examples of targeted library newsletters

Dallas Public Library’s Young Black Readers Newsletter

Indian Prairie Public Library’s DVD Preview

Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page. Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

 

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The Library Marketing Show Episode 8: Fighting Back Against the Endless Poster-Flyer-Bookmark Cycle!

Alright my friends, you asked for it and I’ve delivered. The Library Marketing Show is now pre-recorded and posted on YouTube! This week’s episode comes to you from the vintage newspaper stacks of my library.

Watch Now

Please subscribe, comment, and share the video. I’d love to be able to grow my channel from nothing to something. This is a great exercise for me. I’m going to learn a ton about YouTube! And there are lots of features I can add if I get a certain amount of views and watch time, as you likely know. Thank you in advance!

What We Talked About

Library news: I discussed the recent decision by four publishing companies to change the lending models for eBook and eAudiobook leases to public libraries. It’s going to affect the way libraries market their collection and cause customer service complaints at libraries to rise. And that makes me angry.

Reader question: Babette from the Licking County Library wrote in to ask me to discuss this: “How to help your ‘traditional’ staff understand and EMBRACE new ways to market. They are so disappointed that we are not doing tons of paper flyers, promoting every program on FB, press releases not being in the newspaper, etc. Staff struggling with the change. Sigh….”

Great question, and thanks Babette! I tried to share how I’ve handled this ongoing issue by explaining (over and over again) to staff that embracing new marketing tactics, particularly digital tactics, is not doing “less” marketing but actually doing more. It’s more efficient, it reaches customers where they are, and it allows us to get our message in front of new customers. I also love to share the marketing statistic that says we have to “touch” our customers 4-7 times with a marketing message before they will “convert” or take an action on any marketing message. If a person doesn’t come into your physical branch, they’ll never see your print marketing materials! I also tried to explain why I’m not ever super worried about press coverage of my library, particularly by newspapers. There are better ways to communicate your message, like a customer-facing blog. And when you’re doing the messaging, you get to control the narrative. For more on that subject, read How to Get Media Coverage Without a Press Release.

Kudos: Finally, I gave a shout-out to my friends at the Jefferson County Public Library for this hilarious and clever response to my stress-related tweet on Tuesday! I laughed all night!

Stay in Touch

I’m speaking at two conferences this fall and you can register for both on the Upcoming Events page. If you come to OLC, you’ll be able to tour the Downtown Main Library where I work! I’m getting ready to add new events soon so check back.

Have an idea for the next Library Marketing Live Show? Submit it now.

Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page. Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.  

2

I Asked a Podcast Host to Stop Interrupting His Guests. 😠 What His Reaction Can Teach Us About Library Customer Service.

A few weeks ago, I had an incredibly disappointing interaction with a man I’ve looked up to for ages. I’m not going to name him or his website in this post. But I’ve been listening to his podcasts for more than five years. I’ve sent staff to his conference. I’ve recommended his website and his materials here on the blog. I’ve met him in person. He was lovely to me.

But about a year ago, he started doing something that really upset me. He got into the habit of interrupting guests on his podcast. All. The. Time.

I’m a manager. I’ve been trying to foster better listening skills in myself and my staff.

It irked me that this person never let anyone finish a thought. It got so bad that he started cutting people off as they were explaining concepts and giving specific instructions on marketing tactics.

I decided to email him to ask him to stop interrupting his guests. I was as polite. I told him I loved his show and website. I said that I wished he would just let people finish their thoughts.

Here was his response:

Thanks for the feedback Angela. I pre-discuss with all of my guests that I often have questions and will likely stop people who are fast talkers and dig deeper. They all know I will do it. Indeed many of my listeners love that I do this. For example: ” I have to say that you have a special gift for asking great questions and making sure the audience can actually visualize the process & pin down your guest to clarify so we fully understand the material presented. It’s like you have a second sense for what we are thinking. I think of a question, and BAM!…you come in with the perfect question that was on my mind. (I don’t even know if I’m saying this right but I bet you know what I mean). I listen every day and look forward to the incredible, valuable and TIMELY nature of what you share. I’ve been a long-term fan of your blog for years and if anyone is seeking to stay current in what’s going on with everything related to social media marketing, you’d be crazy not to take advantage of this invaluable podcast. Thank you, for your gift of putting yourself in your audiences shoes and knowing how to get clarity from your guests. It’s truly an awareness most podcasters lack. Truly inspiring!”

So yes I understand that sometimes I interrupt guests but it really is by design to help make the show better AND the guests are fully in agreement that it’s okay for me to do it.

I NEVER intend for it to be rude EVER. I am actually friends with most of the guests that get on my show so I will reach out to them and see what they say. Thanks again for your perspective. 

There’s a lot to unpack here. In a nutshell, this was a defensive response. I didn’t feel heard. I didn’t feel acknowledged. I didn’t feel that this person was willing to do anything to address my complaint. The unattributed customer testimonial is self-important.

I ended up unsubscribing from the podcast.

And because I always try to learn from my experiences, I decided to use this exchange as a catalyst to think about the best way to respond to negative comments from library customers.

Libraries have it pretty easy. Most of our cardholders love us and rave about everything we do. It’s good to be loved.

But we do have our critics. They may post their comments online or in email. They may express their complaints to you in person at the front desk or at events.

Like this podcaster, your immediate reaction may be to go to defensive mode. You may feel the need to defend your library, its services, and practices. That’s a totally natural response.

But I want you to take a step back (and a big, deep breath) and find the opportunity in that negative comment. There are ways to response to customer feedback, even negative feedback, that acknowledge the complaint without damaging the relationship between your customer and your library.

 

Your response to complaints can also build credibility for your organization. And, because emotions are involved, it’s best to have a process in place beforehand so you can handle complaints professionally and swiftly. Here are your new best practices.

Don’t censor online comments. Unless the comment violates your social media or website standards of behavior in some grave way, don’t hide the comment and don’t want to respond negatively.

Respond as quickly as possible. It’s important to address the issue as soon as you can. The basic rule of thumb for businesses now is to respond to complaints within 60 minutes. I know that’s difficult for a lot of libraries, who struggle to balance staff work time in a 24-hour a day world. Make your best effort to respond to complaints quickly. Never let a complaint sit without an answer for more than 24 hours, even if that means you have to answer it on your off time.

Acknowledge the customer’s words and apologize. By simply telling your user that you hear what they are saying, and that you are sorry for the situation, you can diffuse a good deal of the anger or hurt that can be associated with a bad library experience. An apology is not a sign of guilt. It doesn’t mean that the complainer is right. Just saying, “I’ve been in situations like this before and it’s frustrating. I’m sorry this happened to you” can help to smooth the road for resolving the issue. It increases the likelihood that your complainer will leave the interaction with a renewed love for the library.

A co-worker asked me what I had hoped to hear from the podcast host I emailed. This was all he would have had to say to keep me as a fan and listener: “I’m sorry. I’ve been interrupted while speaking and it is frustrating. I’ll work on that.” 

If the problem cannot be solved easily, take it offline. Ask the cardholder for their email address so you can continue to resolve the complaint without doing so in front of an audience. “I’m sorry to hear you are having this problem. We want to make it right. Can I have your email so I can ask for more details about your experience? Then I can make sure your issue gets in front of the right person and is addressed.”

Realize that you cannot please everyone. Every once in a while, someone will complain about something and you will not be able to fix the problem. Apologize, explain your library’s side of the situation as best you can, and move on.

Don’t forget to join us for the LIVE LIBRARY MARKETING TALK ON INSTAGRAM every Tuesday at noon ET. We’ll talk about library marketing topics for about 15 minutes each week. My handle is Webmastergirl. You can email questions and topic suggestions ahead of time. Just fill out this form.

And check out these upcoming events and webinars where we can connect and discuss library marketing. Registration links included.

Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page. Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.  

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The Library Marketing Live Show Episode 5: Ideas for Marketing Your Library’s Collection

Watch it now

Can you answer this super short survey about the live show? I need some feedback, please!

Things We Talked About

Collection marketing! Tracy from Wright Memorial Public Library asked to talk about marketing the collection. I do this at my library mainly through email and social media. I have a strong relationship with my friends in the Materials and Acquisition Selection department and I talked about that and why it’s important to not take it for granted that your cardholders know that the library has new materials.

Learn More

How to Pick Books and More for Collection Marketing

The Story of the Yeti: Why You Should Make Friends with Collection Developers

Stay in Touch

You still have time to register to attend the free webinar on digital promotions happening tomorrow, Thursday, July 25! You’ll find the link to that plus two conferences where I’ll be speaking on the events page.

Have an idea for the next Library Marketing Live Show? Submit it now.

We’ll chat on Instagram on Tuesday at noon EST for about 15 minutes. My handle is @Webmastergirl so follow me to see the show live!

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How to Launch a Library Blog: A Guide to Pitching Your Idea and Getting It Off the Ground

How to Launch a Library Blog

We did a big, big thing at my library this year.

We launched a blog.

It’s been a long time coming. I first pitched the idea of a blog to senior leadership in 2015. I created a document that explained the reasons why our library needed a blog. It also laid out my bare bones ideas for how the content creation process would work.

Marketing Advantages to Having a Library Blog

  • Easy, cheap, effective way to promote smaller, niche programs.
  • We no longer have to rely on traditional media to get the word out about programs and services. We have our own publishing platform for reaching our audience. Traditional media outlets will follow the blog. The posts will be more engaging than a press release and will pitch themselves as bigger story ideas.
  • The blog will give us something to link to for promotional posts on social media.
  •  A blog would be a place to show our thought leadership. We are the information experts! We can demonstrate why people should care about what we say in a long-form, insightful, and meaningful way.
  •  Easy way to keep our brand top of mind all the time.
  •  Easy way to show the Library’s human side and let our customers get to know one another.
  • Partnership opportunity: We can invite partners to write posts for the library, creating great, shareable content for our users and in turn getting our posts shared by our partners.

So How Would This Work?

  • Marketing would be the centralized location for publication-we would manage the editorial calendar, recruit writers, copy edit, publish, and promote posts.
  • We would set a cadence for posts—one post per week to start—and re-evaluate at a later date.
  • We would recruit post writers from all branches and departments at the Library. We would also recruit Library customers, evangelists, and fellow bloggers and influencers to write guest posts. We would provide them with a simple template for writing their posts, which we would copy-edit and publish. We would ask all guest writers to share the content, once published, on their platforms, giving us instant exposure to their audience.
  • Editorial standards will be high: content must be written in a conversational tone, AP style usage of punctuation and grammar must be adhered to, and posts must be engaging, shareable, and interesting to our core audience.
  • We would also re-purpose content to use as posts, providing new/updated/additional information not seen in print from sources such as Library newsletters, and email.
  • We would evaluate top performing posts once per month and adjust our editorial calendar as necessarily based on data.

I also created a mock editorial calendar listing various post ideas and who might be tapped to write them. After presenting these to my boss, I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

For four long years.

Finally, in the summer of 2018, there was major leadership change at our library. Our previous director resigned and a new person took the director’s role. And a few months after that, marketing got the green light for a blog.

To say that there was much rejoicing and celebrating among my staff would be an understatement. After the confetti was cleaned up and the champagne was gone (I’m kidding–there was no confetti or champagne and I regret this immensely), we realized we had to launch this thing as we had promised. And so, we did! Here’s our beautiful finished product.

Our first blog was published on March 4, 2019. So far, we’ve published 65 posts on the blog.

It has already fulfilled all of the advantages I listed in the proposal document. Traffic to our website is up. Media are now going to our blog for story ideas about the library. Our search ranking increased. We have lots of partner organizations asking for permission to write posts for us. Our staff members are writing posts and using the blog as a way to let the public know about the important work they’re doing in their branches and departments. We haven’t spent any money creating beyond staff time. And it helps us to stay top-of-mind with our cardholders and the community at large.

We did learn some big lessons during the process and I want to share them with you now.

Lessons Learned While Launching a Library Blog

Lesson #1: The hardest part is getting started. It took forever to get buy-in on the idea.  Keep advocating. Don’t give up.

Lesson #2: Building something from scratch is exciting and frustrating. It was liberating to have the freedom to do whatever we wanted. It was also terrifying. Lean into it! Be open and honest about your fears and expectations. Keep your supervisors in the loop about your observations as you work through the process.

Lesson #3: Communication with staff is vital. Get a vision and guidelines set down on paper and approved as soon as possible, then tell staff so they can begin to build excitement among cardholders. Their enthusiasm is your best marketing tool.

Lesson #4: The first year will be about experimentation. Set a posting schedule that you can keep to without having a stroke. Write all kinds of posts to see what interests your audience. Experiment with posting on different days of the week to see which is best for capturing your audience’s attention.

Lesson #5: Promotion of your blog is just as important as your blog itself. Make sure you work out a plan for how you’ll promote the blog once it’s up and running.

My big piece of advice is to actually refrain from promoting the fact that you have a blog until you have a cache of articles. Promote individual posts but wait a couple of weeks to start talking about the blog as a whole service. Once you have a variety of posts up on the blog, then you can do your big promotional push and reveal. You’ll have to do this full push campaign at least once a year to remind the public that the blog exists, and to let new cardholders and community members know that it’s there.

Lesson #6: Your blog doesn’t have to be perfect on launch day. Pick a launch day and stick to it. It can be a work in progress. You can fix things as you go along. But if you wait for it to be exactly perfect,  it’ll never get off the ground.

Lesson #7: Measure and report. Data is your friend. Evaluate what works and what doesn’t. look at the data but also gather feedback from staff and customers about what they want to see.

Don’t forget to join us for the LIVE LIBRARY MARKETING TALK ON INSTAGRAM every Tuesday at noon ET. We’ll talk about library marketing topics for about 15 minutes each week. My handle is Webmastergirl. You can email questions and topic suggestions ahead of time. Just fill out this form.

And check out these upcoming events and webinars where we can connect and discuss library marketing. Registration links included!

Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page. Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.  

2

The Step-by-Step Method for Figuring Out the Best Time to Send Library Marketing Emails and Why You Should Never Stop Experimenting!

I spend a good portion of my day as a library marketer trying to figure out how my cardholders live their lives. What do they do? When to they do it? What parts of their life are difficult? What parts are enjoyable? When do they have free time?

We do know a lot about the people who use the library, thanks to our own library surveys and great organizations like Pew Research Center. But you can also figure out what your cardholders are doing by email marketing experimentation. And your findings can increase the effectiveness of your marketing.

On the Library Marketing Live Instagram show, Dari from Cook Memorial Public Library District wanted to know how to figure out the best time to schedule marketing email to different audiences. The answer, in general terms, is between 6 p.m. and midnight. But I want to dive a little deeper into how I came to this conclusion and why this might NOT be the case for the people using your library!

If you’re just starting out with email marketing, check with the experts. There are a lot of companies (mostly email marketing software companies) which publish research on the best time of day and the best day of the week to send marketing emails, plus a bunch of other data points. So, start by gathering the latest research from these companies. Some of my favorites are Hubspot, AWeber, and Convertful.

Think about the daily life of your cardholder. If you are sending an email to a group of people who use a particular branch, or who are in a particular age group, try to imagine what they do all day. This generalization method will help you identify points in the day in which your target audience might have time to check their email.

Here’s an example: When I’m sending emails to parents of school-age children, I avoid 7 a.m. to 9 a.m., when parents are usually racing to get their kids ready to go to school. I also avoid 2:30 p.m. to dinner time, because many parents are picking up their kids, running them to extra-curriculars, and tackling homework.  I send marketing emails very early in the morning, like 5 a.m., so they are sitting in their inbox when they wake up but before their kids are up. I also send them after 8 p.m. when most school-age kids are in bed.

When I send emails to teenagers, I never, ever, ever send them in the morning. I exclusively email teenagers at night, and the later the better. That’s because most teens don’t have time to relax until 9:30 p.m. or later, after homework and after-school activities. They will likely check their email right before they fall to sleep at night, and they’re more likely to act on email in the late evenings.

Experiment. Send emails for a 3-6 months period of time. If you’re just starting out, try all hours of the day and night. Keep meticulous records of the results including open, click through, and conversion rates on all your emails.

After your allotted experimentation time, comb through the data and figure out which times of day resulted in the most click-throughs and conversions. Those are your optimum times to send emails! Focus most of your email scheduling on your proven best time of day.

And never stop experimenting. Start another experimentation period of 3-6 months, and then re-analyze data. If you notice a decline in click-through and conversion rates, go back to the drawing board.

My latest six-month analysis shows the best time to send email is between 6 p.m. and midnight, for all age categories and for all card types. This was not always the case. Two years ago, I could send my emails any time of the day EXCEPT between 7 a.m. and noon. But, at the end of 2018, that changed and the only emails that did well were the ones I sent at night.

Why did the effective time change? Because people’s lives change. Your cardholder base changes. The way that email gets delivered by various email providers changes. All of these factors mean that you’ll need to be in a constant state of experimentation. Don’t get married to any one time of day. Have an open mind and be ready to change your email scheduling strategy when the data tells you it’s time to change.

The most important thing is to have good content. If your emails contain stuff that your email audience wants to know about, they will engage with them, no matter what time of day it is. Try and keep your emails short. Focus on a few lines of really compelling text and one or two clear calls to action.

Bonus controversial opinion: I am not a fan of email newsletters. They usually contain too much information and too many calls to action. Their subject matter is usually too broad for their audience. I know a lot of us have to send them because senior leaders love them. But they aren’t an efficient use of email marketing. It would be better to take each section of your newsletter and send it separately to a targeted audience.

Don’t forget to join us for the LIVE LIBRARY MARKETING TALK ON INSTAGRAM every Tuesday at noon ET. We’ll talk about library marketing topics for about 20 minutes each week. My handle is Webmastergirl. You can email questions and topic suggestions ahead of time. Just fill out this form.

Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page. Connect with me on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.  

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