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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Setting goals for library marketing is incredibly important. A couple of weeks ago, I issued a challenge.
You all responded and I accepted. So here’s the payoff: we’re going to set some goals in 60 seconds in this episode. And you’re going to see just how easy it is.
Plus someone will receive kudos!
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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We are coming to the end of a very stressful year.
In addition to all of the things that you’ve been doing in library promotions, you’ve been fighting book challenges, plowing through summer reading, trying to reach new audiences, struggling to stay up to date with social media changes, and more.
And by now you are feeling very tired and very burnt out. I know this because one of my viewers asked how to manage that feeling.
I’m not your therapist. But I’m gonna play one in this episode! I have four of my personal tips for managing burnout that I’ll share.
Plus someone will receive kudos!
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 to 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:
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:
Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
A few months ago while at a conference, Meghan McCorkell, got the email of a lifetime. The chief of Marketing, Communications, and Strategy for the Enoch Pratt Free Library, she called back to Baltimore and put her team on speaker phone.
Meghan was delivering great news: her team won the coveted Library Marketer of the Year award from Library Journal.
“We all jumped around excited (them in the office and me in a hotel lobby),” recalled Meghan. “More than anything I am so proud that we won as a team. We had to keep it a secret for about two months. So that was challenging.”
Meghan’s road to award-winning library marketer began in the 7th grade when she volunteered to shelve books for her hometown library, the Brielle Public Library on the Jersey Shore. Little did she know that years later, after a successful career as an Emmy-award-winning television journalist, she would assemble a team and lead the marketing for the vibrant Enoch Pratt Free Library.
“I love being surrounded by creative people, who all think differently than me,” explained Meghan. “I’m constantly blown away by the ideas that bubble up from our team. Six years ago, the Pratt didn’t have a marketing department. With support from the CEO, we built it.”
“The Print & Design studio was originally part of the Programming department, with four talented designers, Katherine Marmion, Eric Archibald, Jamillah Abdul-Saboor, and Jack Young. The studio was reorganized into a new marketing department.”
“We hired Andrew Klein to oversee the robust work that department does, as well as to lead the revamp of our Compass magazine. Our social media manager, Vianey Becerra, was made full-time, and translation duties were added because Vianey is bilingual.”
“A few years in, as we built out our email marketing strategy we brought on Ashley Barnes, a digital marketing strategist. And finally, I advocated for a photographer/videographer position. John Cassini was a former news photographer, so given our skill sets together the Pratt now has its own full-service production studio.”
Like many libraries, Enoch Pratt really had a challenging time communicating with patrons during the Covid lockdown because of the digital divide. Nearly 40 percent of Baltimore residents had no access to a computer or Wi-Fi at the time lockdown began.
“When we knew we’d have to close library doors, we started working nonstop to figure out how we’d serve the customers who rely on us,” remembered Meghan. “We started trying new things to see what worked.”
“We used census data to send targeted postcards with QR codes and unique URLs in communities where internet in households was unreliable. We let them know about device lending and our free outdoor Wi-Fi. We geofenced those communities and pushed targeted ads that looked like those postcards.”
“We sent targeted emails based on location and library usage trends to customers. We were specific in how we reached people, who we were trying to reach, and measuring what was successful.”
“That all may sound pretty complicated and expensive, but targeting that way actually really cuts down on the cost. If you can mine the data and figure out who needs to hear your message, you can send 5,000 postcards instead of 50,000.”
Once the doors of Enoch Pratt reopened, the team faced a huge challenge: rebuilding cardholder usage.
“It was a daunting task,” admitted Meghan. “We define active cardholders as customers that used the library in the past year. During COVID we lost more than half of those cardholders. But we learned a lot of lessons along the way too, and we doubled down on what worked.”
“Pre-pandemic we sent around 5-6 emails a month. That expanded massively as we launched more regular campaigns and saw success.”
“Today, we send anywhere between 35-40 targeted emails a month to different audiences, have an unsubscribe rate of less than 1 percent, and regular open rates close to the 50 percent mark.”
“Our print publication, the Compassused to be a 16-page list of programs. Over the past 4 years, we’ve expanded to a 24-page magazine that tells the library’s story. Staff across the library also stepped up with dynamic programs and services responding to community needs. Last week, we hit 3,000 more active cardholders than our pre-pandemic high. So, we’ve climbed the mountain.”
Reflecting on the work, and her team, Meghan clearly gives credit for their LJ win to her team, whom she says make it a joy to come to work. They even came up with a creative approach to their award photo shoot.
“Library Journal let us take our own picture for the feature, and of course, we couldn’t give them something normal,” exclaimed Meghan. “The Brady Bunch style photo perfectly captures the spirit of everyone on the team. We shared a behind-the-scenes video on the Pratt’s Instagram page of our photo shoot.”
Though Meghan has a wealth of riches in her large and talented team, she still faces struggles in terms of budget. Many of the tactics her team uses to reach cardholders can be replicated by smaller libraries.
“My advice would be to look at low to no-cost tactics,” explained Meghan. “I think targeted emails can really change the game.”
“Start a sign-up list at your library for people interested in kids’ events. Create a really specific monthly email for that audience and keep an eye on how it performs and if it’s achieving your goals of getting more people through the doors. That’s how we started our email strategy. Then we were able to leverage the success of those lists to convince our Board that we could be more successful with fancy software.”
“I also think you should try things, and if they don’t work, let them go. Just because things have always been done a certain way doesn’t mean you should keep doing it. Try new things. Fail. Try more things.”
Meghan’s team is now focusing on cardholder retention and data collection.
“I don’t like throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing if it sticks,” said Meghan. “I want to run measurable marketing campaigns the whole way through.”
“We’ve got some fun upcoming projects like our Macy’s-style winter windows that have become a Baltimore tradition thanks to our amazing graphic design team. We’ve got some challenges too including messaging out a Master Facilities plan and a series of upcoming renovation projects. Our designer Eric is probably already stressing the design of next year’s Summer Break Baltimore shirt! His design this year has been directly cited by customers for a 36 percent increase in program participation. (no pressure, Eric!)”
When she needs inspiration, Meghan looks at the work of other library marketers.
“I’ve made amazing friends in library marketing. I send them emails and say ‘What do you think about this’ all the time. The environment is so collaborative.”
“For inspiration, I’m often looking at other industries and seeing how we could adapt ideas from there. Right now, I’m in love with our Library Card Sign-up Month video campaign. That was born out of a brainstorming session with our whole team. Our graphic designer Katherine said, ‘What about those annoying lawyer commercials?’ That idea led to a 3-video campaign that is becoming wildly popular on social media. We even have it running on a TV station and in a movie theater now.” (Here are the videos: Lawyer Commercial, Car Commercial, Pharma Commercial.)
Meghan wants my readers to know that, although she’s had a lot of success in her current role, there was a time not too long ago when she was uncertain. For support, she turned to you… the community of library marketing professionals!
“Six years ago, I felt like I was just figuring out what the heck I was doing in a new career,” remembered Meghan. “One of the things that helped was finding the community of people in this field.”
“Library marketers are really collaborative and we’re all facing the same challenges. I love hearing from colleagues who want more info on going fine-free, or major renovations. I reach out to friends in the field to talk about ideas. From this blog to social media groups, and conferences, there is a sea of people out there all rooting for each other to succeed. Go find them!”
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page. You can also follow me on the following social media platforms:
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:
Photo courtesy Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County
As a child, Jamie Hemingway wandered acres of backyard and admired the lush scenery of her home in North Carolina. When she wasn’t exploring the outdoors, she was at the library.
“I still have memories of my school library, and asking my parents to take me to the public library where we lived near Winston-Salem,” she remembered. “Libraries have been a constant in my life. I went from checking out my favorite creepy books in North Carolina to walking to the library from my house in Bakersfield, California as a teen, and later, seeking out the library as a quiet refuge in college.”
It’s no wonder she ended up working in a library. While working towards a bachelor’s degree from the University of Reno, Nevada, Jamie started her career with the Washoe County Library System.
“When it comes to working in the book industry, with a last name like Hemingway, you either write them, or you do the work to get them into readers’ hands,” exclaimed Jamie. “I’ve done a little bit of everything. I started out as a part-time shelver, then became a Youth Services Library Assistant. I was quite satisfied with that job for many years and had a great time doing hundreds of story times with my trusty monkey puppet.”
“One of the things I have really enjoyed about my time with Washoe County Library is the ability to transfer into different jobs at different library locations. The options for variety really allow you to re-invigorate a long-term career. In 20 years, I’ve worked at three different libraries and held three different positions. In 2016 I made the conscious decision to pivot my resume towards library marketing and joined our Marketing and Communications team. My ultimate goal was to get where I am today!”
Jamie does much of the same work as many of my readers: producing flyers, sending emails, and working on social media posts. Unfortunately, she’s also had to become skilled at handling backlash.
Her library held its first Drag Story Hour in 2019. Jamie recruited the performers and acted as emcee.
“I bought a rainbow suit, brought along my monkey puppet for moral support, and had the distinct privilege of introducing our fabulous drag performers, Aspen Meadows and Ginger Devine,” explained Jamie. “That year we had 800 people walk through our library doors. We also had hundreds of supporters outside who came just to cheer us on.”
Washoe County Library held several more Drag Story Hour events. The last happened in 2022. When plans were made earlier this year for another event, the library faced opposition from a small but vocal sector of their community. A group of self-described “Nevada patriots” led by the Washoe County Republican Party chairman sent a mass email urging people to come to a county commission meeting. His goal: to urge commissioners to put an end to Drag Story Hour.
The group was not successful. However, Jamie and her coworkers knew they needed to address the misinformation. So, they decided to create a video featuring one of the drag performers out of costume, choosing books for storytime.
“The idea for the video series came about through conversations between our Youth Services and Library Events team, Library Administration, the local LGBTQIA+ nonprofit community space called Our Center, and our drag performer, Ginger Devine, AKA Christopher Daniels,” explained Jamie. “We all felt it was important to show our patrons who Ginger/Christopher was out of costume. De-mystifying our friend Ginger seemed like the best route to potentially flipping the script. At the very least, we hoped our patrons would see the great and normal person that Christopher is all the time—whether they are dressed in their workweek clothes or decked out in a fabulous costume.”
“We worked with Christopher to develop a general goal for the series and then let them come up with a draft of a script. Christopher has worked as an actor, improviser, theater director, and entertainer for many years, so we knew we were in capable hands with the script content.”
Jamie’s team was well-prepared for video production, something they got very good at during the pandemic. It took two days to shoot the video and two days to edit it.
“We divided the series into segments based on Christopher’s tips for storytellers, and we included a video about how they get ready for Drag Story Hour,” recalled Jamie. “Chris is an engaging performer and knows how to keep a theater audience entertained, so we wanted to share some of their tips for families who might want to make storytelling at home even more fun and theatrical.”
Here are the tips for storytellers from Christopher:
Tip 1: Character Development
Tip 2: Tempo and Tone
Tip 3: Asking Questions
Tip 4: Keeping it Fresh.
Tip 5: Audience Participation
Washoe County Library shared the videos on Facebook and Instagram and promoted the series in our weekly newsletter. (That’s where I first spotted it!) The feedback was positive.
“The video of Chris getting ready for Drag Story Hour by visiting staff members at different libraries was especially funny and heartwarming,” said Jamie. “People got to learn more about Christopher and see them as a person who lives in their community (and loves the library!), and that was one of our main goals.”
The library plans to include video promotion for the event in its marketing plan for 2024 and beyond. The library’s director, Jeff Scott, also talks about the Drag Story Hours on a local news segment.
“It’s a great way to build excitement and get the word out,” advised Jamie. “And we love giving our community a behind-the-scenes look by showing people what the event is about–promoting literacy for all kinds of unique kids and families while sharing great picture books about kindness, self-acceptance, and self-esteem.”
Jamie is also working on the launch of a new grant-funded Bookmobile,
“We use parade appearances as an additional marketing and outreach tool, so next up on our list is to debut the Bookmobile at the Sparks Hometowne Christmas Parade,” said Jamie. “It’s one of our favorite parades and it really gets us out there in the community. People love seeing a librarian dressed up as a snowman pushing a book cart down the parade route! I highly recommend parade participation for libraries. It’s a fun way to build goodwill and remind people that they’ve got a great library system and some seriously fun librarians in the area.”
For any library systems looking to add a Drag Story Hour program to their roster, Jamie has some advice.
“A great starting point is the Drag Story Hour 501(c)(3) nonprofit,” counseled Jamie. “They provided us with some great tools for how to improve our program and it was a big reminder that no one should have to go it alone.”
“Interested libraries might even discover that a Drag Story Hour chapter exists in their community, or for that matter, doesn’t yet exist. It’s a great time to get involved and get active. It might not always seem like things are changing for the better, but I like to look at the big picture. Twenty years ago, we never would have hosted Drag Story Hour. But it’s here now, and it’s not going away.”
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The 13-year-old son of one of my viewers has been giving some library marketing advice to his mom and to others. He says libraries should be posting on YouTube Shorts.
Is he right? I’ll let you know whether this kid is a future library marketer in this episode.
Plus someone will receive kudos!
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:
Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion 