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Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion

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How Do We Get People To Come Back to the Library? Four Ideas That Can Help You Rebuild Use of Your Library

Here is something I’ve noticed in my conversations with library staff over the past six months.

Staff share a profound feeling of separation from their communities. They’ve been working for more than a year without the normal interactions with the public. And that has led to increased anxiety about whether things will ever return to normal.

The big questions I’m getting are: How long will it take before circulation returns to normal? How long will it take before program attendance is back to where it was before the pandemic?

I can’t answer those questions. I’m not sure anyone credibly can.

But what I can do is help you to rebuild use of your library through marketing and promotions.

Here are four ideas that libraries can strategically use to bring people back to the library, re-engage cardholders, and get new community members to use the library.

Renew everyone’s library cards automatically and incentivize people to use them. Then, use that interaction to re-connect.

If you have a system where cards need to be renewed, a blanket automatic renewal is a great promotional tactic. Automatic renewal of library cards is a customer service best practice. And doing so right now, when we are coming off more than a year of service limitations, is strategically smart.

If your senior leaders have concerns about a blanket renewal, ask them to read Cordelia Anderson’s book. It explains the advantages of this action.

The next step is to gather prizes from partners, like you would for summer reading. Let people know they’ll be entered into a drawing to win a prize if they use their card. If they check out a book or use an online resource, they can fill out an entry. If your priorities are to drive attendance at in-person programs or to get people to physically come into a branch, you can tell people they get two entries in the drawing!

Once they come back, make sure you do everything you can to re-connect with these cardholders. Have your staff do three things with every person they interact with.

  • Get their email address.
  • Get them to self-identify their interests. Are they looking for help solving a particular problem, like finding a job? Are they looking for books for entertainment and relaxation? Ask your public to name at least one topic they would want more information about.
  • Give them a print piece of marketing material to encourage further use of the library. Don’t let them leave this interaction without something in their hands. Remind them that the library is open and actively providing service to your community again.

Rebuild a sense of community.

One of the things that library users said they missed most during the pandemic was social interaction. This is another opportunity for libraries to rebuild.

Rather than re-starting our one-off programs, let’s spend our energy putting together programs that everyone can participate in. Wider-ranging programs, which focus on getting large groups people to do an activity together, help to build a sense of community.

One idea: everyone reads the same book, or watches the same movie, or listens to the same piece of music. Then, your library creates ways for your community to share their thoughts and experiences around that group activity.

Another idea: ask your patrons to share their pandemic stories. Encourage them to share how they survived their time in lockdown, what they learned, and how the experience changed them.

Let the public know you’ll be posting their contribution on a special landing page of your website, and sharing them through social media and in email. You can even print short versions of the stories on a bookmark, which you’ll slip into holds and checkouts to encourage other library users to share their stories.

Finally, hold an event where people can have the chance to read their stories to an audience.

A shared experience builds community. And a community that feels connected to your library, and to each other, will keep coming back to use your services.

Use your virtual programs and videos to encourage your community to expand their library use.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, libraries have embraced livestream and video programming. Now we can use the platforms and audiences we have built for promotions.

Do a livestream from inside your building. Show your audience one thing they can do in your library that they haven’t been able to use since the building was closed or operating under limited services. Save the video and repost it later for on-demand viewing.

Do a livestream where the community can ask questions about the library… an “ask me anything” type event. During your livestream, be sure to mention programs or services that may be interesting to those asking questions.

It’s like working the front desk: people ask questions and you provide the answers. You’ll be demonstrating your staff’s expertise and reminding people that the library is there to help.

Buy two kinds of social media ads.

We know social media algorithms do not work in favor of organic posts. Use some of your budget to circumvent the system by purchasing ads. 

Your ad approach can have two methods. One ad should focus on followers. They don’t necessarily see your posts because of the algorithm. But a purchased ad will make sure you are in their feeds. Use the ad to alert them to your expanded changes in service.

The other ad should be focused on people who aren’t library users or followers. You can even split this audience into people you think might be interested in coming into a branch versus people who might want to use digital resources. Social media platforms do a great job of helping you to target specific audiences with your ads.

Spend $25 and see what kind of results you get. If you have more money, use the data you’ve received from this smaller test to run larger, longer ads.

You Might Also Like These Posts

Why NOW Is the Time To Experiment With Your Library Marketing and Promotions!

Your Summer Reading Challenge: How Your Library Can Use Big Events To Gather Compelling Content for Promotions During the Rest of the Year

Angela’s Latest Book Reviews

Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea Summers

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Your Library is Reopening: How to Communicate New Rules to Your Staff and the Public During a Pandemic

Photo courtesy Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

What is your #1 library marketing worry or concern right now?

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Your message has been sent

In many parts of the United States, library boards and senior staff have decided to reopen in the next few weeks. My social media feeds are filled with posts from library staff airing concerns over a return to “normal” library duties.

The plans vary. But it appears that most institutions are slowly phasing in services. Some libraries are doing curbside only. Some are opening drive-thrus. And some are fully allowing patrons back inside their physical buildings. 

When your library settles on what to do, it will be your job to let your staff and community know what’s happening. This week, I spent a lot of time compiling the best advice I could offer to help you communicate a library reopening during a pandemic.

As you know, communicating is SO important. Your staff, your regular customers, and your community need to know what you are doing and what changes you are making to keep them safe. They will need you to say it more than once. And they will need time to digest all this information.  

A guide to communicating your library’s new policies

It starts with the staff. So many libraries think about customer communications first and forget that staff need to know what is happening. If your library is contemplating reopening, be open and honest with your staff about all aspects of what that will entail. Ask for feedback and listen respectfully to staff concerns and ideas. Adjust your plan where you can.

And expect pushback. It’s uncomfortable. People are scared. And there are members of your staff who will be vocal about their disapproval. If you are a library leader, find ways to address the concerns of staff. The Library Management Group on Facebook is a helpful resource for advice from other managers.

When sharing news with your community, use all your tactics. Create a page on your website where you put all your re-opening information. Link to it from your homepage and, for the time being, in the bio of all your social media accounts.

Make a video, or several videos, to explain the changes. If your library has accounts on multiple social media platforms, use all of them to tell people about your plans. And make your re-opening plans the exclusive focus of a social media live event. You can really build excitement and interest by publicizing the livestream where you’ll unveil the plans and take direct questions from the audience in the comments or chat.

Send emails to your community and patrons. Ask community partners to help share information about your reopening. Finally, pitch your reopening as a story to your local media. 

Create one core message and repeat it. You are going to have to say the same things and repeat the same information before the changes sink in.

Remember the Marketing Rule of 7? People need to hear a message seven times before they are compelled to take an action. It applies in this instance. And, with the vast amount of information coming at them from various sources, your community may need MORE than seven messages to fully grasp your library’s new service requirements. 

For maximum effect, settle on a few sentences as your core message or talking points. Repeat those on all your channels.

For social media, post your message at varying times of the day to make sure that it’s seen by as many followers as possible. Add your message to all your email marketing campaigns. Ask staff to practice your message as talking points so they can deliver a consistent answer when they receive questions from people at the desk, at the door, or by phone. Add the message to your holds slips and receipts. Add your message to videos. If you do live virtual events, ask staff to repeat the message before they go into their main program. 

It’s going to seem redundant to you. But a consistently repeated messaging campaign works.

But don’t overwhelm people. I received a reopening email from a library this past week with no less than 18 calls to action! It was overwhelming. And I didn’t click on any of them.

Don’t make that mistake. The services you provide are going to be different for different people. If you can break your messages up by audience, do so. And instead of sending one message with EVERYTHING in it, send two or three messages containing your core talking points, plus two to three details that pertain to a targeted audience. Your readers will be better able to digest and retain the information.

Use your signage wisely. I know many libraries are putting a good deal of information on their signage to keep interactions with the public to a minimum. But remember that too much signage will look crowded, cluttered, and overwhelming to your patrons. Take some time to plan where you’re place signage, and what they will say, for maximum effect.

Don’t forget to keep stakeholders and legislators in the loop. It’s important to send regular updates about what your library has been doing during the shutdown and what it is doing now as it plans to resume physical service. Highlight the many ways your collection was used even when your building was closed.

Legislators love numbers… so check your library statistics for use of digital resources. Point out trends. Show how your library helped the community cope with the stresses of the shutdown. 

Why is this so important? Right now, we must send the message that the library is always valuable. A time is coming when the economic crisis caused by this pandemic will lead to budget cuts. We need to do everything we can on the front side of this crisis to save as much of our funding as possible. And that starts now, with communication. 

Resources to help you deal with reopening

Self-Care for Library Social Media Staff in the Midst of a Crisis like #COVID-19

Don’t Stop Communicating! Tips for Handling Library Promotion Overload During a Crisis

Libraries and Social Media Facebook Group

Libraries Step Up in a Time of Crisis Facebook Group

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Now is the Absolute BEST Time to Prove Digital Promotions are Essential for Library Marketing. Here’s How to Gather Evidence.

PHoto courtesy of Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

I had a wonderful conversation with a librarian from Canada this week. She heads technical services at her library. We were brainstorming about ways to market her library services, programs, and collection during the COVID-19 shutdown. And we both realized something. The pandemic is awful and scary. But it also affords one big opportunity for librarians and library marketers.

Now is the time to prove the value of digital promotions 

The Marketing Rule of 7 states that a prospect needs to “hear” the advertiser’s message at least seven times before they’ll take action to buy that product or service. This marketing maxim developed by the movie industry in the 1930s. Studio bosses discovered that a certain amount of advertising and promotion was required to compel someone to see one of their movies. 

What does the Marketing Rule of 7 have to do with your library? Digital promotion helps you fulfill the rule of seven. It’s the most efficient way to get your message in front of eyes in a variety of places.

In fact, if you’ve been thinking of slowing down the communication you do right now, don’t. Ramp it up! Your community needs to hear from you.

You should be sending more email to your cardholders. You should be posting to social media more frequently. You should be putting more notices about digital resources on the homepage of your website. 

In this moment, we can accurately measure the results of digital marketing because of the lack of competition from more traditional means of library marketing, like book displays, flyers, and posters. No one is seeing those at this moment, because no one is coming into your physical library building. Digital results are easy to record.

And, if we take this unique moment to gather data to prove that our work yields results, we can provide solid evidence of our worth in the community. We may prevent layoffs and budget cuts. When this is all over, we can say the library was there–and people turned to it for help. 

Statistics to gather now to prove your worth later

Measure virtual program viewing. Many libraries are putting together great virtual programming, particularly story times. If you do live streaming or on-demand videos, be sure to gather metrics on views.

Some platforms will tell you how a person got to your video and some will tell you how long they watch. Most will give you demographics on your viewers, like their age, identified gender, and location. All will give you stats on reach, engagement, and follower growth.

All those data points are valuable. Start a spreadsheet now and track the results day by day. You’ll be able to prove that people watched, how they found out about the video, which videos they liked most, and how long your library held their interest.

Send more emails, and track results religiously. Your library can use email to promote everything from services to events to the collection. Tell your cardholders about the new eBooks and eAudiobooks in your collection. Use your email to drive usage of those hidden treasures in your library, like online homework help, streaming music, and resume or job-hunting databases. Then…  

Tracks holds, checkouts, and usage for digital collection items. Be sure to write down how many holds and checkouts there are before you market, and one week after. It’s easy to prove the value of digital collection marketing when no one can walk into a library to check out a book. Every checkout is likely coming from your efforts!

Ramp up your social media posting schedule on two platforms. Social media is the second method most effective method for digital promotions. And it’s the best way for you to reach non-library cardholders right now.

Current research shows that people are Tweeting a lot more right now. With the amount of content on that platform, I would not recommend posting more frequently on Twitter. There’s too much competition and your posts are likely to get lost in the shuffle.

However, those same stats also show growth in use of LinkedIn and Pinterest during the pandemic. If your library is not posting on those platforms, now is a fantastic time to experiment and reach a new audience.

On LinkedIn, you can share collection items, services, and events that focus on job-hunting, career advancement, personal wellness, diversity, literacy, and entrepreneurship.

On Pinterest, post new eBooks and eAudiobooks added to your collection. If you have DIY, STEM-activities, or story time videos, you can also post those to Pinterest. People are using the platform for inspiration and to find activities to fill their time. Now is a great time to give them some content so they can discover your amazing library.

One more thing to do

Advocate to change your marketing emails from opt-in to opt-out. That means every cardholder who gives your library their email address, in the past or in the future, is on your marketing list. If they want to opt-out, they can (but they won’t!).

I know many libraries will find this to be a radical shift. Libraries worry about angering their cardholders by sending them emails. They don’t want to be one of the “bad brands” that sends spam. Many libraries have actual board policies making opt-in mandatory for emails.

Now is the time to advocate for change. Here’s why.

A library is NOT a business. The normal consumer sentiment about spam email does not apply to you. Your cardholders want your emails.

People love the library. They love what you offer them. They want to know what’s going on at the library. 

You are not going to spam people or make them mad by sending them emails. Unwavering cardholder loyalty is the one big advantage libraries have over their competitors in the profit world. And we should use it!

In addition, people are accustomed to opt-out emails. They know that if they give you their email, you’re going to message them. 

My argument for opt-out emails comes from lots of experience. When I worked for a public library, we sent marketing emails nearly every day of the week. My library’s unsubscribe rate was ZERO percent. I usually saw about 10-15 unsubscribes for every 10-thousand emails I send. Across the non-profit world, the average unsubscribe rate is about .19 percent, according to Smart Insights.

I worked the library outreach table at a book festival every year while I worked at the public library. Without prompting, customers asked about the library’s marketing emails. One lady said she heard her friends talking about them and wondered why she wasn’t receiving them! Several others mentioned they learned about new books and services from our emails. I had people GIVING ME their email addresses to check their status.

Do you think customers of other companies ask about their emails or talk about them with fondness to other customers?  I never have, and I sign up for A LOT of marketing emails from other companies.

Start sending your emails to every customer. They want to hear from you! And you can track usage and circulation increases from those emails to help prove your library’s worth.

You might also want to read these⬇️

What Metrics Demonstrate Your Library’s Social Media Marketing is Working?

How to Reverse Engineer Your Library Marketing Social Media Audiences!

The One Social Media Shortcut That Can Tank Engagement and Cost Your Library in a Pandemic–or Anytime!

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. Connect with me on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.  

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How #COVID-19 is Impacting Social Media Marketing and What That Means for Libraries

Watch Now

In this episode,  I’ll share the latest research on how the #COVID-19 or #Coronavirus pandemic is affecting social media marketing. This research comes from Rival IQ.

I mentioned I’m doing three live webinars this Thursday, March 26 on social media marketing for libraries for EBSCO. The content is all the same for each so register for the time that’s best for you here.

Also Kudos to the Peters Township Public Library in McMurray, Pennsylvania. Like many libraries in the US, they are closed to the public but they created a Hogwarts Digital Escape Room that is pretty fantastic.  

More Help

Library Marketing During a Pandemic: Tips for Working from Home or the Office and Dealing with the Stress of a Crisis

Self-Care for Library Social Media Staff in the Midst of a Crisis like #COVID-19

If you have a topic for the show, kudos to share, or want to talk to me about library marketing, contact me using this short form.

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Your message has been sent

Want more Library Marketing Show? Watch previous episodes!

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

This blog consists of my own personal opinions and may not represent those of my employer. 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.   

7

Self-Care for Library Social Media Staff in the Midst of a Crisis like #COVID-19

Watch Now

In this episode, Angela shares tips for self-care for anyone who is trying to manage a library social media account in the midst of a crisis, like a global pandemic.

More Help

Library Marketing During a Pandemic: Tips for Working from Home or the Office and Dealing with the Stress of a Crisis

How Libraries Are Responding to the Coronavirus Threat and How Your Library Can Prep for Any Crisis

Plus kudos go out this week to the Lake Macquarie Library system in Australia. They have a new app and it’s pretty darn amazing.

Subscribe to this series to get a new video tip for libraries each week!

If you have a topic for the show, kudos to share, or want to talk to me about library marketing, contact me using this short form.

Go back

Your message has been sent

Want more Library Marketing Show? Watch previous episodes!

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

This blog consists of my own personal opinions and may not represent those of my employer. 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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