In this episode, I’ll answer a question I got from a library staffer: What are the biggest mistakes you see library staff making in their marketing and promotions?
I’ll talk about the three most common boo-boos and give you ideas for avoiding these pitfalls. Don’t worry… you can do it!
Watch to find out who gets kudos!
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments.
And subscribe to this series to get a new video tip for libraries each week.
Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on the “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page.
In this episode, I answer a question from Jenny of Burlington Public Library: “Can you share some ideas for Library Card Sign-up Month in September? I’m especially looking for video ideas and outreach for youth, but I’ll take any ideas!”
Kudos in this episode go to the Saint Louis County Library for offering enrollment in Headspace with a library card.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments.
And subscribe to this series to get a new video tip for libraries each week.
Thanks for watching!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, click on the “Follow” button in the bottom left-hand corner of the page.
Before I worked in library marketing, I spent nearly 20 years as a broadcast television journalist.
I was a newscast producer for a local TV station. I created a nightly newscast from scratch. I decided which stories would be told, who would tell them, how long they would be, and more.
Every day, I was part of the newsroom decision-making process. I know why certain stories get airtime and others don’t (ratings). I know why important facts end up “on the cutting room floor” (time constraints). I know why online media outlets and newspapers write sensational headlines (clicks).
For the last eight years, I’ve been on the other side of that world. I’ve been the one sending press releases and asking, sometimes begging, for coverage of my library or for the libraries I work with in my current job.
A library blog and a video marketing strategy are the best ways to control the narrative and tell your own library story on your terms.
But let’s be honest… media coverage can be great for your library.
So here are my top six tips to help get more positive press for your library.
Did your library get amazing press coverage? How did you do it? Share your story by clicking on the feedback button in the lower left-hand corner of your screen.
Send news releases early.
For events like author visits, grand openings, and other programs, send press releases four to six weeks before the event. Then, send a reminder to the media again about a week before the event.
If your library is unveiling a new service, send your press release one to two weeks before the new service launches.
For big announcements, like awards, send the press release one week before the official announcement and include a line that embargos the release. That means the news outlet can’t cover the story in print or on air until the day the embargo ends. Put the embargo right in the sub-headline of the press release, to be sure the journalists see it.
Write a news story instead of writing a press release.
If you send the newsroom a publishable piece of content with photos or video, you win on two levels.
First, you’ll increase the chances that your library will get coverage. Second, the narrative is exactly as you want it! You make the important points. You have control.
So, write a story which the media outlet can copy and paste into a script or column. Use Associated Press style and these four basic journalistic principles:
A catchy lead sentence;
The who-what-where-when-why sequence, interspersed with a quote or two;
Clear writing without library jargon or technical terms. If you must use a technical term, explain it clearly. And,
A concise ending.
Make your quotes sound like they come from a real person.
Reporters and editors can spot a manufactured quote a mile away.
I know a manufactured quote is often a necessity in libraries. So, if you must make up a quote from your director, don’t write: “Our dynamic approach to customer service is central to our strategic initiatives. We are scheduled to implement more of these forward-thinking tactics.”
This is so much better: “We are adding an online, real-time reading recommendations service because we wanted to do a better job of answering our patrons’ questions and help them find the books they want. We’re hoping to really shake up the service experience. But mostly, we want to make it easy for people to get personal attention and a great book.”
Don’t send your press release in a mass email.
A reporter is much less likely to follow up with you for a story if they are part of a large group of journalists who’ve all received the same story. Journalists want the “exclusive,” even on small things. So don’t let on that you are also sending your release to other outlets.
When you create your list of media contacts, include information about that outlet’s target audience, the kind of stories they usually cover, and the reporters with whom you have a personal connection.
Then, match your potential story with the right reporter rather than sending your release to every reporter you know. It’s a better use of your time and energy, and you’re more likely to get media coverage.
Find good interview subjects ahead of time.
Reporters are looking for compelling quotes that add depth to a story.
They’ll love a quote or a soundbite from a child who finally catches up in reading because of extra tutoring from a children’s librarian. They’ll jump at the chance for a quote or soundbite from an immigrant who got help at his library filling out a naturalization form.
Arrange diverse interviews, including people from all different backgrounds and walks of life. Most newspapers, TV, and radio stations will tell you their target audience is women, ages 25-54. Your interview subjects should be relatable to people in that demographic.
Pick interview subjects who are comfortable on camera and can “talk in soundbites”. That means they can make a point in three to four sentences.
Respect the reporters’ deadline.
When I was a journalist, it was frustrating to call an organization hoping for an interview or answers to questions only to be told that the person was out of the office or wouldn’t be able to call me back until late in the day.
If a reporter is calling you, chances are that they’re working on the story for today’s edition or newscast, which means they’d really like to have all the elements by early afternoon at the latest, to give themselves time to craft the story. Tomorrow is too late.
Move heaven and earth to accommodate the reporter as much as possible. When you do that, you’re more likely to get coverage every time you ask for it.
Newsrooms often have crews available at odd hours, like 10 a.m. or 8 p.m. Sometimes reporters will squeeze in a story during a very limited window in their day. They may call you and say they can come to the library in 10 minutes. Make sure you and your interview subjects can accommodate those last-minute requests.
I have a special request.
I’m putting together a conference presentation and I’m looking for some examples.
Libraries that have reopened and have had some success drawing people back into the physical branch.
Libraries who believe they’ve figured out the hybrid program model.
Libraries who are trying to turn their pandemic digital users on to other services now that the library has reopened.
I know you are doing amazing work. I want to highlight you on a national stage! Thank you in advance.
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A picture is worth a thousand words. That’s so true in marketing.
The visual you choose to accompany your promotions can make all the difference. The quality of that image may determine whether a person engages with your content… or moves on.
Most libraries don’t have a budget to hire a photographer for every campaign or marketing initiative. They may not have a graphic designer to create illustrations. So, they rely on free stock photos and art to create promotional material that looks professional and modern.
But libraries must navigate the tricky legal maze of copyright issues associated with images, icons, and photos.
The basics of copyright laws
Unless you have a stock photo subscription, your library should use images in the Public Domain or images that are covered by Creative Commons.
Public Domain: If a photo of image is in the public domain, that means the creator has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all his or her rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, change, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
Creative Commons: Anyone can then use the work in any way and for any purpose, including commercial purposes, subject to other laws and the rights others may have in the work or how the work is used.
This post gives a thorough explanation of copyright issues surrounding stock photos in particular.
Finding the right image for your library promotions
Your library can purchase a stock photo subscription. But, if you are working with a limited budget, there are many websites where you can find high quality, free stock photos. That’s where this list comes in handy.
I based my list on a couple of factors.
Websites where finding a photo or illustration is easy.
Websites where you don’t need an account to download photos or images.
Websites that had photos and/or art of subjects that pertain to libraries, like books, reading, and diverse populations.
I have provided a brief explanation of the copyright licensing for these websites. But, to fully protect yourself and your library, read the license requirements for each site thoroughly before you download.
The complete list of ten free stock photo websites for libraries
Creative Commons: This site is dedicated contains the most diverse selection of shots I’ve seen on a free photo site to date, with more than 500 million photos available. You can search by license so you can be sure to get the photos that you can use in any situation with or without attribution, according to your preferences. You can also search by the sources, and by the way in which you wish to use the photos. Attribution is required for most photos.
Freepik: Freepik has a limited number of free photos for download. You can use them for commercial or personal projects and in digital or printed media. Attribution is required.
Gratisography: This site contains a limited number of free photos and vectors. They are bright and eye-catching, even whimsical. It’s divided into easy-to-understand search categories. You can use the photos for personal and commercial projects including advertising campaigns, websites, blogs, and social media. Attribution is required.
Negative Space: Another site under Creative Commons with full use of photos for commercial purposes. Their photos are organized into collections for easy searching. They have plenty of photos of books and readers.
Pexels: A great site containing lots of high-quality photos and videos. They’re all free to use on your website, blog or app, in print materials, on social media, and in ads. Attribution is not required. You can modify the photos and videos.
Pixabay: The site contains 2.3 million free images and royalty free stock photos as well as free illustrations, vectors, videos, and music. You can download and modify content for commercial or non-commercial use without attribution. You cannot use the content for any products for sale, like t-shirts or other library merchandise.
Reshot: You can use any of the 25,000 photos and icons from this website for social media, online ads, education, commercial, and editorial projects for free. No attribution is required. Photos are searchable by orientation.
Stockvault: This site offers more than 138,000 free photos. You can search by license, but there are plenty of free photos for libraries licensed as Creative Commons CCo, which means you can use the works for personal, education, and commercial purposes without attribution.
Vecteezy: This website contains free vectors, photos, and videos. There are premium pieces for purchase, but their selection of free art is great. I like the modern feel of the work on this site. You can search by orientation, image style, number of people or age of people in the photo, and the composition of the photo (head shots, full body, etc.). Attribution is required and there are limits to the ways in which you can use the art under the free license.
Unsplash: An amazing site with a huge selection of high-resolution photos. Their license allows you to download and use the photos for free for commercial and non-commercial purposes. No permission is needed, although attribution is appreciation.
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In this episode, I want to inspire you to experiment with your library marketing and promotions this summer. I’ll give you some ideas to help you do this, and I’ll explain why right now is the perfect time to try things you’ve never tried before.
Kudos go to the Iowa Library for the Blind and Print Disabled. They were honored by the Library of Congress for their work during the pandemic.
Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know in the comments. And subscribe to this series to get a new video tip for libraries each week.
This week, I heard a truism about email marketing.
Marketing expert Ann Handley said, “Email is the only place where people, not algorithms, are in control.”
When the pandemic struck, email became the only reliable way libraries had to communicate with their patrons. More libraries are sending email newsletters. And they’ve gotten good at the basics.
So, it’s time to take the power of email newsletters to the next level.
Focus less on the news, more on the letter
Handley has one of the best newsletters I’ve ever seen. It stands out because she focuses less on the news part… and more on the letter. Sign up, and you’ll see what I mean.
What I’ve learned from Handley is that your newsletter is your opportunity to directly connect with cardholders in their inbox. What does your community need? What can you provide for them? And most importantly, how can your library demonstrate the way it is different than any other organization?
Ann recommends you lose the marketing voice for your newsletter. Instead, write as you would if you were trying to convince a friend or family member to use the library. Be personable and relatable. Your authentic voice will connect to your readers.
New topic ideas for your library email newsletter
Your library newsletter can and should contain more than book recommendations and announcements about programs and services. Here is a list of ideas that go beyond the typical library information.
Send simple how-to instructions for using your library.
There are all kinds of opportunities to share instructions. Write simple steps for using one of your services. Or share instructions on how to complete a task outside of your library, like fill out an absentee ballot form or make a COVID-19 vaccination appointment.
Step-by-by-step instructions shared in your newsletter will help you build a relationship and form trust with your community. It demonstrates your library’s ability to find solutions to your community’s most pressing problems.
Answer frequently asked questions.
Ask your front line staff, your chat service operator, or the person who handles your library’s main email inbox to share the questions they get most frequently from the public. Then, answer them in your newsletter!
Your email audience will learn new things about your library. You’ll make your library more accessible. And you’ll build trust with your community by proving your library is a place where answers are found.
Promote blog posts.
Use your newsletter to promote your blog and get more views.
Take the first few lines of your post and use them to tease your newsletter audience. Include a photo or graphic from the post to tie your newsletter into your blog. If you send one newsletter a month but post several blogs, tease each post and include a link.
Your newsletter audience will be introduced to a new way to interact with and get news from your library. It will also give you valuable information about which blog posts your newsletter audience is interested in.
For instance, if you see that your newsletter audience always click on links for blog posts about genealogy and history, then you’ll know to write more posts on that topic and include them your next newsletter.
Promote your videos.
If your library is creating and posting videos on YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, or another platform, your newsletter is the perfect place to give those videos an extra boost. As with the blog posts, share a sentence or two to entice your audience to click on a link to the video.
One note: Include a link to the video on the original platform to which you published. Don’t embed the video in your newsletter. Many email services view embedded video code as suspicious, and will mark your email as spam.
Create lists.
There’s a reason Buzzfeed articles are so popular… they contain listicles, which are articles that feature a numbered list (Hey, this post is a listicle of sorts!) A list is easy for your audience to digest and remember.
Create a top ten list of anything: your staff’s book picks, the ten things a patron can create in your Makerspace, the best albums to download from the library… the possibilities are endless. Your email readers will love it. You can even ask your readers to suggest a topic for a list in your next email newsletter!
Share social media content in your newsletter.
If you library had a popular social media post, you can replicate it by adding it to your newsletter.
For instance, if your library posted a book review that got a lot of comments, likes, and shares, put that post into your newsletter, along with a link so your patrons can visit the social media platform, see the original post, and interact with it.
Likewise, when your library gets a great piece of user-generated content, share it in your newsletter as well as on your social media audience.
Share testimonials and reviews.
We know that trust is built between your community and your library through social proof: namely, other community members talking about how they’ve used and loved your library. So, when you get those reviews and testimonials, insert them into your newsletter.
You should also ask your email readers to share reviews and testimonials of your library. Include an easy way for them to send you feedback on what they love about your library. Then share those in your next newsletter and on social media.
Advocate your library.
As a library staffer, you likely know about all the good work your library is doing. But your community has a very limited understanding of the value of your work.
Your newsletter is a great way to begin to share examples and stories of how your library works to make your community a better place. Share short tidbits or an infographic to explain your library’s value.
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In just a few weeks, the annual summer reading program will kick off at libraries in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. And for the second year in a row, libraries are struggling to create a program that engages the community without risking their safety.
Last year’s pandemic Summer Reading program was a challenge (boy, that’s the understatement of the decade). Many libraries were physically closed. We were still learning about how the virus spread and trying to figure out how to mitigate the risk with physical materials. Staff members were doing virtual programming for the first time. We counted any participation as a success.
I think 2021 is going to be the first rebuilding year for summer reading. Attendance and participation numbers are not going to return to pre-pandemic levels this year. Many libraries are still dealing with limited service. Zoom fatigue is real. Vaccines are not widely available. It’s going to take us a couple years to get back to “normal.”
It’s okay. Do the best you can. Celebrate any growth you see this year. And use these ten tips to make your summer reading program as successful as possible.
Drop the library card requirement.
Let anyone in your community participate in summer reading, not just library cardholders.
Dropping the requirement to get a library card sounds counterintuitive. But it opens your program up to a whole population of people who don’t regularly use the library, particularly those in under-served communities. It makes your program more inclusive. It’s a goodwill gesture.
Of course, at registration and check-in, your front-line library staff should still suggest participants get a card. Doing so will grow your cardholder numbers. But don’t make it a requirement to register or get prizes.
Make participation super easy.
Don’t ask your participants to jump through complicated steps to earn a prize. Summer reading should be three-step maximum– read, log your reading, claim a prize.
If you want to push participation in programs, I suggest making that a bonus: let people earn extra prizes or points toward prizes by attending virtual programs or in-person events, if that can be done safely in your area. You can also reward people for watching a streaming video or listening to free streaming music.
Let adults participate.
It still surprises me when I see a library that limits their summer reading program to only teens and kids. Children who see the adults in their lives reading are more likely to read themselves. So why not entice parents to participate?
This year is an opportunity to get more adults engaged with your library. Plus, the adults in your community deserve to have some fun! If you can provide that for them, they will be grateful and supportive of your library.
Add experiences to your participation elements.
Create themes for each week of your summer program, like DIY, arts, nature, and sports. Make suggestions for activities people can complete to earn participation credit, like cooking a recipe from a cookbook they got at the library, going on a nature walk, visiting the zoo or a park, painting a picture or making sidewalk art, building something with LEGOs, writing a story… the possibilities are endless.
If a participant doesn’t read 20 minutes a day but still completes an experience activity, they should get credit. This is another way to make your program more inclusive and enticing to people.
Offer both print and digital tracking options.
Many libraries have an app or an online software platform that participants use to track their reading. But your under-served community members don’t have access to a computer or Wi-Fi at home. They can’t log in to track their reading and they can’t download or use an app.
In addition, many of your connected participants may find the process of downloading the app, putting in their information, and then using it to log their reading to be cumbersome. Add a paper tracking option to ensure everyone can participate.
Print copies of your tracking log and add them to your curbside pickup bags or slip them into holds. Let participants bring it back to your drive-thru or curbside window for credit.
Ask partner organizations to help you promote summer reading.
Now is the time to “call in favors” with your partner organizations. Ask them to show support and help rebuild your summer reading program.
If you don’t have partners, you can use summer reading to build partnerships! Ask local realtors and rental agencies if they can hand out a summer reading promotional piece to prospective homeowners or new renters. Give information and promotional pieces to day care providers, teachers, summer camps, recreational centers, your local zoo, your local park board, and other civic organizations. You can even ask restaurants to include a summer reading promotional piece in their takeout bags!
Use your email list to its full potential.
If your summer goal is to increase the number of readers and the amount of materials they read, then keep suggesting things for them to read! This is a great time to promote parts of your collection that don’t get a lot of use, like online graphic novels, as well as your backlist titles.
Build a template with whatever email service you use and fill in the blanks. Send two to three suggestions to your cardholders every two weeks during your summer program. It’s a great way to re-engage cardholders. You can also use email to remind your cardholders to participate in summer reading and boost your circulation numbers for the year.
Spend money on targeted social media ads.
This is the most efficient and cost-effective way to reach people and summer is the perfect time to buy social media ads. You barely need a budget to get started. $25 is all you need to get started.
Summer reading is also a great opportunity to buy ads on several platforms and compare results. The platforms will guide you through the process of picking your target audience. If you see success on one platform, you can use that data to create other small budget campaigns for your library during the year.
Incentivize user-generated content.
Hold contests to encourage people to post photos and videos of themselves using your library and participating in summer reading. Offer a chance to win a prize drawing for submitting reviews and testimonials about your library. You can use that content to further promote summer reading.
You may discover someone who is a super-fan of your library. That person could be an “influencer” for a future library promotional campaign!
Put good customer service on display.
Even with the pandemic, you’ll likely see a boost in visits to your library for curbside or holds pickup during the summer. You’ll definitely get more visitors to your website. Make sure everything is in tip-top shape, attractive, and easy-to-use.
Stress the importance of good customer service to staff, including those who work on responding to comments and questions via email, chat, and social media. Give them talking points to help them promote a few year-round services and challenge them to pick one to mention during every customer interaction.
Put your expertise on display front and center on the website. Is your staff great at readers’ advisory? Do you have an amazing e-newsletter? Are your virtual programs fun and innovative? Use summer reading to promote the best of your year-round services and collection items.
Is your library doing anything innovative this year for summer reading? What concerns do you have about the program this year? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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Once you have taken a look inside the minds and lives of Gen Z, you can focus energy on teens as a target promotional audience. Here are seven tips to create effective promotions that reach your teen audience.
Create personas that reflect your diverse teen audience.
Teens have widely different tastes in just about everything-music, movies, clothes… the list goes on and on. That makes it hard for a library to market to them. But, if you can pinpoint exactly what kind of teen will be interested in the program or service you want to promote, you can do a better job of marketing.
Before you write any copy or create any graphics, build a persona to help you imagine the exact teen you wish to reach. How old is the teen you’re targeting? What kind of student are they? What do they like to do in their free time? Are they a regular library user or do they barely ever interact with the library?
These questions will help you decide what to write, what graphics to use, and where to put your promotions. For example, a poster is not effective for reaching an older teen who is an ambitious and college-focused student, who has very little free time, and who mainly interacts with the library online. For that teen, you’ll want to create digital promotions with photos or graphics that accurately reflect that specific population.
Build relationships with people who can help you.
Adults who regularly interact with teens, including teachers and teen librarians, will be your library’s secret promotional weapon. These adults can give you insight on your specific teen audience, including their interests, transportation situation, and struggles in school. Use these insights to build those targeted personas.
Of course, you’ll want to keep your teen librarians and the teachers in your local school district informed about new programs and services. You can also ask them to recruit teen influencers to help spread the word. Kids put more trust into recommendations from other teens as well as from adults they trust.
Ask teens what they want.
In my former library job, I was asked to promote our homework help service. I created a target persona and wrote some marketing messages.
Then, I went to a group of teens I know and I asked them for feedback. That led to a fascinating and enlightening conversation. Not only did they share their thoughts on my proposed marketing, they also provided feedback on the homework help service itself.
They thought it would be even more helpful to have homework help late at night. They also suggested that libraries schedule teen programs later to accommodate their schedule. And the teens all said that they prefer to do things in groups with other teens, so they wanted us to do more group-oriented programming.
That conversation left a lasting impression on me. I came to understand that teens are not often asked for their opinions by adults. Doing so makes them feel engaged and connected to the library. The conversation itself was a form of marketing! I also gained some insight that helped my library improve it’s services to teens.
If you don’t have access to a group of teens yourself, ask your teen librarians and teacher friends to run ideas by their patrons and students to get preliminary feedback on your services and your marketing.
Let teens market to other teens.
Teen Read Week happens every year here in the U.S. For the first few years in my former job at a library, I was very general with my marketing message. “Hey teens, it’s Teen Read Week. You should… read.” You won’t be surprised when I tell you that never worked very well.
One year, I decided to create a specific reading recommendation list for teens created by other teens. I recruited the help of our teen librarians. They asked teens to write down their favorite book along with a one-sentence explanation of why they would recommend that book to other kids their age.
We compiled the responses into a book list which was our main promotional focus during Teen Read Week. We did social media posts. Then, we created an email that we sent to our teen cardholders with a direct link to the list.
The results were fantastic. We saw a 29 percent increase in circulation for the books on that list during Teen Read Week. And we had more teens than normal who shared the social media posts about the booklist because they had helped to create it.
This list worked because teens love to be asked for their opinions about books. And they’re more likely to read something suggested to them by another teenager.
You can recreate this success for all kinds of promotions. Ask your teen librarians to recruit teens who love the library and who are willing to talk about it with other teens. Let them create TikTok videos, Instagram Stories, and Instagram Reels talking about your library. Encourage them to tag your library when they’re at the library, posting selfies on social media. Teen influencers are the most effective marketing tactic for other teens.
Market to teens’ parents and adult caregivers.
In my former job, my library received a grant for a financial literacy program. During the first year of this two-year program, we tried targeting our message directly at teens. That tactic was only marginally successful. Attendance was never at the level we wanted.
So, when it came time to plan for year two of the program, we changed course. We started targeting our message to the teens’ parents and teachers. We used the same promotional tactics-fliers, posters, emails, social media posts, and a paid ads. But we changed the message to appeal to adults who are worried about the financial literacy of their teens. We encouraged teachers to offer extra credit to students who attended.
And it worked–attendance rose significantly during that second year. You can replicate that success by taking the same approach at your library.
Emphasize the social value of your library.
Research shows teens appreciate companies and products that support good causes. They want to be involved in organizations that help to transform the world. Your library can tap into teen activism by emphasizing the social value of your library.
Create content marketing for teens to educate them about the work you do. If you have programs and services for underserved populations, let your teens know. If your library is actively involved in social justice causes, let your teens know that too. Then, make sure there are ways for the teens in your community to volunteer their time to help you!
Don’t forget the collection!
Kids still love to read. Don’t let anyone tell you any differently. They want reading suggestions. They want to know when new books are added to your collection.
Ask teens if they want to sign up for an e-newsletter so you can send them reading suggestions directly to their inbox. (Yes, teens read email!) Market your readers’ advisory service to teens. And ask teens to help you compile reading lists to send to other Gen Z patrons.
Did I miss anything? Has your library had success marketing to teens? Share your ideas in the comment section.
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It’s been one year since I started working for NoveList.
I don’t often talk about my day job here on the blog. But the work I do gives me a unique perspective on library marketing.
I get to meet (virtually, of course) with library staffers from all over the world and spend time talking about marketing. It’s a privilege to learn from the people who are kind enough to share their insights, problems, and dreams with me.
Part of my job includes offering advice to help strengthen the position of libraries. And one thing I’ve noticed is that libraries of all sizes and shapes are making some small but common marketing mistakes. All of these little mistakes are fixable!
What’s the most common mistake you think libraries make in marketing and promotions? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Little mistake #1: Trying to promote everything your library has to offer, all at once and all the time.
Libraries are amazing. They quite literally have a service or collection item that is perfect for every single person in their community. The difficulty libraries face in marketing their breadth and depth of service is centered in matching each community member to the right service or collection item.
In the quest to make that match, many libraries will try to market everything they offer, hoping that the person who needs that item the most will see it. I had a boss who would have called this “an error of enthusiasm.”
Promoting everything you offer all at once waters down your message. It makes your marketing come off as noise to the community you are trying to reach. And it’s less effective.
How to fix it:Focus with precision on your library’s overall strategy.
What goal is your library trying to accomplish right now? Are you hoping to increase your circulation to pre-pandemic numbers? Are you helping to bridge the pandemic educational gap for elementary school students? Are you implementing a step-by-step plan to ensure your library is truly accessible to everyone? Are you undergoing a facilities improvement project?
Your promotions should be centered on whatever your library is trying to accomplish this year. When you focus your marketing with precision on your library’s strategy, your marketing will be more effective. You will avoid spreading your message thin.
Little mistake #2: Sending every email to all your cardholders.
This happens as a result of mistake #1. Sending an email to all your cardholders feels like common sense. When you are hoping to get people to check out an item, use a database, or attend a program, you want as many people as possible to know about it for maximum success.
But imagine if you had the entirety of your library service community all gathered in the same place, like a large stadium. If you stood on a platform to survey the crowd, what would you see?
There would be all kinds of people, from different backgrounds, with different economic statuses, of different ages. And if asked just ten people in that crowd to tell you a little about themselves, you would hear ten different stories from people with ten different wants, needs, and interests.
Your service community is diverse. One email isn’t going to inspire action in all your community members. Think of your emails as magazines – is there a magazine that includes every interest? Even general topic magazines like Better Homes & Gardens have a target audience and covers matters of the home and garden – not political news or sports or celebrity gossip. (My thanks to my boss, Kathy Lussier, for this brilliant analogy).
Little mistake #3: Assuming your community will see your marketing.
Remember back before the pandemic when we were all exasperated every time we talked with someone about all the services we offer besides books? We were constantly asking ourselves how it was that there were still people in the community who had no idea their library had e-books or homework help or small business resources. We were certainly marketing them! But it kept happening because our community was not always seeing our marketing messages.
Think back again to your community, gathered in the stadium. Each person in that crowd has a different preference for how they consume marketing. Some are signed up for your emails. Some come into the branch and see your posters. Some have never been in a branch before and only interact with your website… and they may have the catalog bookmarked on their computer, so they never even see your homepage promotions!
How to fix it: Target your promotional tactics.
Tactics are the specific methods you use to market your library. They include social media, emails, your website, your catalog, your digital signs, your print promotions, and more.
You don’t need to market each of your library’s overall goals using every tactic. Instead, think about where your target audience is interacting with your library. Then, choose the tactics that your target audience is most likely to see during those interactions.
For example, if you are promoting your new themed storytime, your target audience will be parents, caregivers, and educators. They may interact with your library in emails, on social media, and when they pick holds or use your curbside service.
You can target your promotional tactics specifically to this audience in the places where they are! You’ll want to send them a targeted email message, create social media posts that speak directly to them with wording that focuses on skills their children will learn in the storytime, and slip a flyer or bookmark promoting the storytime into holds or curbside pickups that contain picture books or books about parenting.
Little mistake #4: Letting fear prevent you from implementing a great promotional idea.
The ability to trust your own marketing instincts takes time to nurture. You may be worried that your great promotional ideal will fail. Or you may face difficulty in convincing others that a new promotional idea has merit.
I speak from experience. It took me five years to convince senior staff at my former library to let my department start a blog. It was frustrating. But my good idea did finally see the light of day.
How to fix it: Don’t give up.
Five years is a long time to advocate for a blog. But I did it because I knew it would be good for my library and good for my community.
I’m not advocating insubordination. But, if you truly believe in your idea, don’t give up. Be patiently persistent.
Your supervisors are a target audience, so use what you know about their priorities, motivation, and work beliefs to build your case. Keep gathering data to back up your idea. Recruit like-minded co-workers or peers to advocate for you.
Keep trying. The real winners will be your service community.
Little mistake #5: Thinking you must be an expert to be a good library marketer.
It’s a bonus to have formal training in communications and marketing. It gives you extra confidence. But for many of my readers, the role of promotions was handed to them as part of “other duties as assigned.” It’s hard to do good work when you feel unqualified.
How to fix it:You are already doing it.
If you read this blog or spend any time researching marketing trends, you’re already adding to your expertise. Keep seeking out advice from websites, videos, professional development courses, and conferences. No one understands the importance of lifelong learning better than librarians!
Remember, the more promotional work you do, the more you will learn about your audience and what works for them. The better you will get at marketing. And the stronger your library will be.
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Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion 