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 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:
Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
I live with two members of Gen Z. Thanks to them, I know about trending TikTok audio, Temu, and K-pop. They’ve given me skincare and makeup advice.
And they use the library… not because I’m their mom, but because it has books and videos and music for free. One is working part-time while dealing with health issues, and the other is working two jobs to save for a house.
Like many young adults, they worry about their financial future. And they value institutions that build community.
Millennials and Gen Z combine to make up 53 percent of the world’s population. Born between 1981 and 2009, they’re the largest adult demographic.
And while I generally think it’s foolish to lump an entire group of people together for marketing purposes based on their birth year, there are some things we can say, based on research, that these two groups share.
They love BookTok, the special subsection of TikTok dedicated to readers.
They are more educated than previous generations.
They value experiences, like travel and entertainment.
They prefer shopping online to going to a store.
They do their research before buying products.
Now, more research suggests your library can promote books and reading recommendations to teens and young adults using one main promotional tactic.
Email.
I know what you’re thinking: “Young people today don’t read email.”
Have I got some statistics for you!
Millennials and email
According to Pew Research Center, Millennials encompass anyone between the ages of 27 and 42.
1 in 3 millennials check their email as soon as they wake up.
73 percent of millennials prefer that companies communicate with them through email.
Nearly 51 percent of millennials say email influences their purchasing decision.
Now, of course, your library is not selling anything.
Or is it?
Most of the libraries I work with have two overarching goals: increase circulation and increase visitors.
And while library users do not have to pay to participate in those activities, it makes sense for libraries to use the same strategies that brands do for selling products.
So here are four ways to finesse your email to appeal to millennials.
Design is important.
Millennials have a sophisticated eye for visual content. Whatever email marketing platform you use, be sure you follow the best practices for email design. That includes templates with beautifully designed graphics or photos, particularly of faces showing emotion.
Use as little text as possible, in a font of at least 14 points.
Keep your color choices within your brand… no glowing neon blue fonts!
Promote no more than 4 things in your email and add plenty of white space between the email blocks for a clean look.
If your email provider allows you to personalize your emails with a first name, do so. That’s a great way to capture the recipient’s attention in the inbox.
But for true personalization, focus on the content. Spend time thinking about what they want and need from your library. Then, create interest groups based on those wants and needs.
Follow Delafield Public Library’s example. Their newsletter signup is on their homepage.
That link leads to an opt-in page with Hobbies and Interests choices right at the top.
How are you supposed to know the wants and needs of your Millennial audience? Well, if your library does an annual survey, segment your results based on age. What are the aspirations and motivations of this group? For example, if they say they are looking for a place to network and find community, your email messages should focus on the services you provide that meet those needs.
If your library doesn’t do an annual survey, look at the statistics you have on hand, such as circulation or program attendance. You can get a sense of what your patrons in this age group want and need from your library.
You can also reach out to partner organizations that work with this age group for their input on how your library can serve and market to millennials.
Finally, you can use Google Analytics to see what users in this age group do when they come to your website. Use your promotional tactics to market those sections of your website.
Watch your language.
Remember how your high school and college English professors praised you for using big words and complicated sentence structures? They did you a disservice.
The most effective text in email for Millennials is conversational and casual. For your library emails, move away from formal language. Instead, talk to this audience as if they were real people, standing in front of you at the desk.
After you write your email, read it through slowly and check to see if there are any sentences or phrases that you could say more simply. Read it out loud. If your email sounds professorial, try re-phrasing your text to be more conversational.
Share stories of other Millennials using the library.
Millennials love social proof. They want to see people their age using the library.
I know you’ve been gathering stories to share in your marketing campaigns. You can share those stories in your emails as well.
Use a few lines from a story, with a photo in your emails. If you have a longer version of the story on your blog or in video form, add a call-to-action button that allows readers to see the full version.
Gen Z and email
According to the Pew Research Center, Gen Z encompasses anyone ages 14 to 26.
I’m just going to say this again because I know it’s hard for you to believe. But Gen Z does read email. In fact:
58 percent check their inbox more than once a day.
57.5 percent say they don’t mind if a brand sends them emails several times a week.
But here is the biggest statistic I want you to remember: According to Campaign Monitor, the average member of Gen Z gets only 20 emails a day.
That’s an advantage for your library because you don’t have to compete for attention in the inbox. Don’t make the mistake of most brands, who assume this audience doesn’t read email!
Here are three ways to create emails that appeal to this important age group.
Keep it short.
Gen Z members have spent their whole lives scrolling Instagram and TikTok. They are accustomed to short digital content, especially from brands (Yes, they do read and enjoy long books and movies). But their expectation from brands, including your library, is for shorter content.
Send more emails that contain fewer pieces of information.
Gen Z members love a good visual. Graphics work really well with this audience to convey information in a simple way that is accessible to many audiences.
And Gen Z brains are hard-wired for visuals. They’re used to glancing at a graphic and processing the information quickly. So try an email with a graphic to see if you get better engagement than with plain text.
Make it interactive.
Gen Z likes to have fun online. And that’s great for you because it means you get to have some fun creating your emails!
There are four ways to incorporate interactivity into your emails.
Create quizzes using free quiz creators like Slido or Quizmaker.
Add a GIF.
Add a poll or survey to your emails. Google Forms is my go-to for these and it’s free.
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:
In this episode, I want to share some good news for libraries about something called Perfection Fatigue.
This is the idea that people don’t want to see your library in its most perfect form. They’re looking for something much more authentic. And that’s good news for libraries! I’ll explain why.
Kudos in this episode go to Escanaba Public Library. Watch the video to see why they’re being recognized.
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 weekly video tip for libraries.
Thanks for watching!
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.
Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
Self-absorbed. Screen-obsessed. Entitled. Lazy. Those are just four of the many stereotypes I’ve heard about young adults.
I’ve raised two Gen-Zers. My daughters, now aged 18 and 22, are hardworking and socially conscious. They set boundaries for their work-life balance. They have an easier time setting down their phones than I do. And they read books from the library.
Their generation and the one before them (Millennials) are the subjects of a study by two researchers from Portland State University. I first learned the results at ALA 2022. This is one of the only studies that shed light on this key demographic’s reading and library habits.
Dr. Rachel Noorda and Kathi Inman Berens’ findings are part of a larger study that included questions about video games, publishing piracy, and TV and movie-watching habits. Noorda and Berens’ drilled down on the results of about 2,000 Millennial and Gen-Z respondents who were part of their original study.
Anyone born between 1981 and 1996 is considered a Millennial. Anyone born from 1997 onward is Gen Z.
Pew Research Center
Noorda and Berens made a lot of fascinating discoveries, some of which I’ll cover in an upcoming episode of The Library Marketing Show. Here are five key implications their research has on your library marketing.
Millennials and Gen Z toggle between virtual and physical spaces.
What this means for library marketing: Don’t make the mistake of thinking that all your promotions aimed at Millennials and Gen Z need to be in the digital space.
92 percent of people in this age group check social media every day. But 54 percent have visited a physical library location in the last 12 months. That compares with 45 percent of Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1980), 43 percent of Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), and 36 percent of the Silent Generation (born before 1945).
Remember the Rule of 7 marketing principle: it takes an average of seven exposures to your marketing message before a person will act on it. The rule is less about the number. It means you must promote your library services, collection, and events more than once on multiple channels.
You’ll want to check your platform insights to identify the preferred digital platforms for these two age groups. For most libraries, you’ll likely discover that your Gen Z and Millennial patrons prefer TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and email.
And they love print materials, especially mail! This article has lots of great stats about young adults’ attitudes toward print promotions. It’s clear that postcards, brochures, and magazine-style pieces, must be part of your marketing aimed at Millennials and Gen Z.
For more tips on communication with Gen Z and Millennials, watch this:
Millennials and Gen Z reader get their book recommendations from many places including the public library and online library catalogs.
What this means for your library marketing: Collection marketing and readers’ advisory must be a part of your strategic promotions. We want young adults to turn to your library for expert reading recommendations. That will help your library to build loyal users in these two generations.
Booklists need to be front and center on your library’s website. Book recommendations should make up most of your library’s promotions aimed at young adults. And if your library offers personalized readers’ advisory, you should be promoting it specifically targeted to this generation.
Millennials and Gen Z prefer print, eBooks, and audiobooks… in that order.
What this means for your library marketing: Your collection marketing promotions aimed at young adults should include cross-promotion of titles and formats.
The study respondents told Noorda and Berens that they are deterred from checking out digital items by long wait times. So, if there is a shorter wait list for holds in another format, offer a choice. And include read-alikes in multiple formats when the holds list is long.
Don’t feel conflictedabout promoting both your print and your digital collections. Over time, promoting print and digital offerings on a consistent basis will drive home the idea that your library is focused on the wants and needs of your community.
Coming up next week: Key points about digital and print reading habits that will help you create effective promotions of both formats!
1 in 3 members of this demographic bought a book they first found in a library.
What this means for your library marketing: Author events at libraries drive book sales. But publishers have no idea that we are helping them make money.
Most libraries work with authors, not publishers, to schedule events. As a result, publishers are often unaware of library events’ positive impact on sales. They need to know that your work is having a positive impact on sales for these two generations.
Your library needs to track, measure, and communicate your full impact on book sales back to publishers. Develop a media kit that defines the audience of the event, and the actual monetary value of promotional platforms like email, social media, and press coverage. Once the event is over, send that data to the publisher directly.
Millennials and Gen Z readers are motivated to read by escape, self-improvement, and social connection.
What this means for your library marketing: This study uncovered the psychographic motivations of these two generations. Those pieces of information are the key to compelling marketing messages.
The words you use, the images you use, and the emotions you create with your promotions should be focused on evoking these motivations. Think about how you craft your messages to activate the things young adults care about.
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email every time I post. To do that, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page.
In this episode, I’ll share three tips from some recent research that will shed light on how to communicate with Gen Z in your library marketing materials.
Kudos in this episode goes to the Pflugerville Public Library. Watch the video to find out why they’re being recognized!
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, enter your email address and click on the “Follow” button in the lower left-hand corner of the page.
Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion 