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Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion

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📈2 Proven Ways To Entice People To Read Your Library’s Emails

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#LibraryMarketing Show, episode 202

I have a tiny favor to ask of my library marketing friends. 😌

I need you to do something different when it comes to email marketing. It is an effortless, quick thing to change! I’ll make my case to you in this episode.

Plus we’ll give kudos to someone doing great work in library marketing.

Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.

Thanks for watching!


Miss last week’s episode? No worries!

Will I see you soon?

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A Library Marketer Shares Her Simple but Strategic Secret for Retaining 70 Percent of Her New Cardholders!

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

When Mary Short was little, the local public library was just a block from her school and regular childhood destination.

“My favorite memory is going to the library with my best friend, Nancy, and being able to pick out whatever books I wanted. I felt so grown up,” recalled Mary.

Now Mary is grown up, and working for that same organization, the Grosse Pointe Public Library, as Marketing and Programming Coordinator. She landed the job five years ago after working in communications for a large, international company.

“Before joining I had no idea all of the fabulous services the library provides,” said Mary. “I’m still learning about them. And I love sharing all the great programs and services we offer.”

Mary’s initial lack of knowledge of the full breadth and depth of the library is not uncommon. But here is a vital fact to keep in mind whenever you land yourself a new cardholder.

It costs 5-7 times more to get people to sign up for a library card than it does to get people who already have a card to use it more.

Harvard Business Review

So, it makes good sense for libraries to get their new cardholders to use their cards and keep using them! And the way to do that is through intentional, strategic library marketing. An onboarding email series works, as Mary will tell you.

“When I first started working at the library, I made my brother get a library card,” explained Mary. “He hadn’t had one in years. And he mentioned to me that he didn’t know what the library offered besides checking out books. And I realized we had no way of introducing the library to new cardholders. So, that was one of the primary goals I had was to develop an onboarding series of emails.”

Mary’s email onboarding series consists of six emails in total. The first email is sent 14 days after the patron has received their library card. It’s a welcome to the library from the library director, personalized with the recipient’s first name.

That first email includes an overview of the library’s services. The language drives home the message that the new cardholder is now a member of the library, an idea she borrowed from another library.

“Being a member is so much more meaningful than just being a cardholder,” suggested Mary. “Membership has benefits and you feel more a part of a team, more invested when you’re a member.”

After that, new cardholders get an email every two weeks until the series is complete.

“Each following email focuses on one service,” explained Mary. “Like downloading or streaming music with your library card for free, getting magazines for free, using our special collections such as the tool library, seed library, Wi-Fi hotspots, and book discussion kits. The final email is 10 totally free things you can do with your library card.”

Using this strategy, Mary’s library now has a new cardholder retention rate of 70 percent, a phenomenal success. Even with that great rate, Mary occasionally tweaks her messages.

“After a few months, I check to make sure the messages are still relevant and update some of the images or add a new service,” explains Mary. “It’s important to keep the messages current.”

When Mary isn’t celebrating her onboarding email campaign success or doing the other library promotions, she is looking for inspiration… from you!

“I signed up for a ton of email newsletters from a variety of libraries including the New York Public Library and the Oak Park Public Library in Chicago,” shared Mary. “I also visit libraries whenever I travel, and I take their materials and see how they position their signage.”

“One of the first ideas I borrowed from a library was from the New York Public Library. They did a promotion as a take-off on Black Friday. They created great graphics around that theme and said everything is 100 percent free at the library. I loved it. I contacted them to make sure it was ok for me to steal the idea and they said, of course, you can use that. That was before I knew libraries are wonderful about sharing ideas.”

“I also go to the Library Marketing and Communication Conference and participate in several Facebook groups, like The Library Marketing Book Club. I attend every free marketing, social media, and email marketing webinar I can and of course subscribe to Super Library Marketing.” (😊)

And Mary considers herself fortunate to do this library promotional work for Grosse Pointe.

“I never would have dreamed I’d be working for my local library,” said Mary. “I feel so honored to have this job. I learn something every day and am so proud of all that our library does for the community.”


More Advice

8 Secrets to Writing Irresistible, Must-Open Library Email Subject Lines PLUS 6 Free Tools To Ensure Success!

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Simple Changes Your Library Can Make To Capture Attention in the Email Inbox📧

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The #LibraryMarketing Show, Episode 196

There’s an easy trick that your library can use to get attention in the email inbox.

What is it? I’m going to share with you in this episode!

Plus we’ll give kudos to someone (or perhaps a group of someones?!) doing great work in Library Marketing.

Do you have a suggestion for a topic for a future episode? Want to nominate someone for kudos? Let me know here.

Thanks for watching!


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8 Secrets to Writing Irresistible, Must-Open Library Email Subject Lines PLUS 6 Free Tools To Ensure Success!

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Your subject lines play a significant role in the success of your library email marketing campaigns. They’re the first thing your recipients notice about your emails. 

And a good subject line is crucial because you can’t get email recipients to take an action, like registering for a program or downloading a book, unless they open your email.

The subject line is also the most difficult part of the email to create, at least for me! So today I’m going to share the tricks I use to write better subject lines. I’ve shared these tips with the libraries I’ve worked as well as my own staff at NoveList. We’re using these tips to increase open and click-through rates.

And I want to issue a challenge.

I want to see your best library marketing subject lines! When you write a great subject line, just forward the email to ahursh@ebsco.com.

At the end of every month, I’ll recognize the best subject lines from libraries in the Kudos section of The Library Marketing Show.

Here are 8 tips to help you create those irresistible library marketing email subject lines. Scroll down to the bottom of the post for 6 free online tools to help you make sure your subject line is the best it can be.

Tip #1: Write the subject line AFTER you create the email.

If you write the body of the email first, you’ll have the tone, the graphics, and the call to action decided by the time you get to the subject line. Those elements will help you write a subject line that works well for the email. By the time you get to it, the subject line might write itself!

Tip #2: Be personal.

Many libraries don’t have the budget for the automated personalization of emails. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still add a personal touch to your subject line.

Email marketing expert Jay Schwedelson says open rates increase when you add a personal touch. According to Jay’s research, here are some specific examples of exactly how much open rates increase when you add this bit of personalization.

  • Geography: 26 percent. Example: Join other readers in Smithville and take the Winter Reading Challenge.
  • Life Event: 31 percent. Example: High school seniors get an extra boost of confidence with the library’s online college prep course.
  • Hobby or interest: 22 percent. Example: Knitters… we want to help you create your next project!
  • Generation: 25 percent. Example: Gen Xers—get a dose of movie nostalgia with Kanopy!

Personalization signals to your community that a real person was thinking of them when they sent this email.

Tip #3: Say something urgent. 

Urgency can create the “fear of missing out”(FOMO) effect in your emails.

For example, you can use urgent language to promote the Big Library Read promotions from Overdrive. This is a limited-time offer and using urgent language in the subject line is appropriate. Phrases like Hurry, Limited time offer, and Ending soon will increase participation.

You can also use urgent language to promote programs with a registration cap. Phrases, like Grab your seat now, will prompt people to open your library’s emails and increase registration and attendance.

Tip #4: Start with an “alert” phrase.

Using words like Alert, Sneak peek, First look, and Hey there to stop email recipients from scrolling past your message in their inbox. You might think they’re so overused by big brands that there is no way a library cardholder will engage with that language. You’d be wrong.

Cardholders are honestly accustomed to very serious library emails which avoid alert language. So, when you do use it, it grabs their attention.

Tip #5: Use sentence case.

Your library emails should be written to connect with people. For everyone but the President of the United States or the King of England, that means a more conversational tone.

Sentence case will make your library email seem like it’s coming from a friend. For example: Do this one last thing for your library in 2022 or If you love free books, you’ll want to open this email.

Tip #6: Use emojis.

Emojis work because the brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than text. More than 90 percent of the information that we process is visual.

The emoji drawing stands out in a line of letters. And if your recipient is using a device that adds color to the emoji, that also makes your subject line pop.

For example, 🎵 Now THIS sounds like a fun Tuesday night! Or Best 👏 book 👏 ever! 👏

Tip #7: Attempt alliteration.

Alliteration can break the monotony for someone scanning through their inbox. It’s catchy and memorable.

And you don’t have to do it for every word in your subject line. Use it on two or three keywords and watch your open rate increase. For example, Fast fixes for the winter reading blahs or Grandparents get groovy at the library’s new exercise class.

Tip #8: Use a subject line analyzer.

There are lots of free choices. Each has its own method for predicting the success of a subject line.

A good rule of thumb is to run your subject line through two or three analyzers. If you consistently get a good score, you’ve got a good subject line!

Here are six free options.


More advice

The Emoji Experiment: The Pros and Cons of Adding Emojis to Your Library Marketing Email Subject Lines

5 Surprisingly Easy Ways to Write Email Subject Lines That People Actually WANT to Read

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Make Sure Your Library Promotional Emails Get Noticed in the Inbox! Here Are Some Tips That Actually Work.

The #LibraryMarketing​​​​​​​​ Show, Episode 162: This episode is my response to a recent comment by a library staffer. They believe that marketing emails aren’t worth their time because people receive too many emails from brands.

That’s a common misconception. I’ll explain why it’s not true and share some tips for making sure your library marketing emails get opened and clicked on!

Kudos in this episode go to Kathy Zappitello. Watch to find out why she’s 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.

Let’s Put This Big Question To Rest Once and for All: Sending Marketing Emails to Your Library Patrons Is NOT an Invasion of Privacy!

Watch the Episode Now

The Library Marketing​​​​​​​​ Show, Episode 153: In this episode, I will try to put to rest a question that continues to permeate the library marketing world.

Libraries are defenders of truth, democracy, and privacy. And in that noble quest, they sometimes hurt themselves by repeating the false myth that they cannot send emails to their patrons because it’s an invasion of privacy.

Email marketing is not an invasion of privacy. I’ll explain why and what you can do even if there are laws (not privacy-related!) that limit the amount of emails you can send.

Kudos in this episode go to the Oakland Public Library!

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 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.

5 Surprisingly Easy Ways to Write Email Subject Lines That People Actually WANT to Read

Courtesy Cincinnati Public Library

First impressions are important.

The subject line of your library marketing email is your first chance to communicate the value of your email to the person receiving it. It may be your ONLY chance to get someone’s attention to engage with the promotional content you’ve worked so hard to create.

A good subject line will drive people to open the email, read what’s inside, and take action. That will lead to an increase in the use of your library. And that’s the whole point, right??   

A bad subject line can lead your email to be marked as spam, which will affect your sender reputation. In fact, according to the marketing agency Convince and Convert, 69 percent of email recipients report email as spam based solely on the subject line.

That’s why I think your subject line might be the most important part of your library marketing email.

I want you to spend the most time thinking about that section. Be very intentional about what you say in the subject line.

There are five best practices to help you create engaging subject lines. Scroll down for some more free tools to help you to test your subject line before you hit “send”.

Tip #1: Use brackets or parentheses in your subject line.

You want your emails to stand out in the inbox. The easiest way is to use these two punctuation symbols as part of your email subject line.

Worldata is a company that analyzes email marketing campaigns and provides free industry metrics based on that data. Their data shows using either brackets or parentheses in your subject line boosts open rates by 31 percent.

That’s because these punctuation marks subconsciously draw the eye to whatever is within the brackets. And that small detail can be enough to entice them to open the email.

Some examples are:

  • “Welcome back to the library! (We missed you.)”
  • “Your Library Giving Day donation will be doubled with a matching gift. (Today only!)”
  • “Homework is hard. We can help. [FREE VIDEO].”

Tip #2: Try using all caps on important words in your subject line.

World Data says that including words in all caps in your subject line can increase your open rate by as much as 14 percent.

You should, however, make sure that you use this technique sparingly. Pick one important word to capitalize. It should be a word that you know will call attention to your email when someone is scrolling through their inbox.

Some examples are:

  • “Fans of James Patterson have the chance to talk to the author IN PERSON next Thursday.”
  • “Your resume needs some SERIOUS help. Let your library make it irresistible.”
  • “Being stuck inside on a rainy day with the kids is TORTURE. Get some museum passes from the library and go exploring!

Don’t capitalize your entire headline. You’ll risk making your email recipients feel like you’re yelling at them.

Tip #3: Don’t spell out numbers. 

Yesware, a business communication company, analyzed 115 million emails and found that email open and reply rates are higher when a number is present in the subject line. (For example, “5” instead of “Five”.)

World Data’s surveys back up that claim. They found that putting a number in the subject line can increase your open rate by as much as 21 percent.

Numerals in your subject line will get your emails noticed. It also saves you in the character count.

For more of a boost, start your subject line with a number. (Example: “5 Great Ways to Get Free Homework Help from Your Library”). Doing that can increase open rates by as much as 18 percent, according to World Data.

Tip #4: Use the “F” word (I mean… Free!) and other power words. 

World Data says spam filters no longer filter out emails with the word free in the subject line.

Their study shows that including the word in the subject line can increase open rates by 37 percent. Plus, there is data to suggest that “free” produces an emotional charge in us. 

Speaking of emotion, there are lots of other words you can use in your subject line to get a response. Data shows email recipients respond to subject lines that convey urgency, curiosity, excitement, and joy.

Here is a starter list of words that World Data says are proven to do well in email marketing. Challenge yourself to add one of these words to the emails you send to your library community.

  • Amazing
  • Ultimate
  • Important
  • Challenging
  • Surprising
  • Best
  • Secret
  • Exact
  • Last Chance
  • Now
  • Final
  • Official
  • Free

Tip #5: Use words your audience will understand. 

Drop the acronyms and library industry jargon like periodicals, database, interlibrary loan, reference, serial, audiovisual, abstract, or resource. Use words that regular people understand–magazines, music, online classes, and helpful information.

Avoid reference to a vendor service like Overdrive, Hoopla, Freegal, BookFlix, Zinio, etc. As far as your cardholders are concerned, all material comes from the library.  

If you are using email to promote one of these services, like Overdrive, your subject line could say, “Free e-books are now available at your library!” You can mention the vendor in the body text of the email.

Free tools to make your headlines irresistible

When I craft an email, I spend a lot of time thinking about the subject line. Sometimes I think about it for days.

I use a couple of online headline analyzers. These free online tools all work pretty much the same way. You put your headline in and you get a score, plus tips on how to improve them. My favorites are:

The higher the score, the better your chances of getting people to open the email. I always shoot for a score above 70

I ran the headline for this post through the three analyzers, as if it were an email subject line. Sharethrough gave me a 71, Advanced Marketing Institute gave me a 73.3, and Subject Line gave me a 75. Those are good scores, so I would likely use this headline as a subject line in an email.


You Might Also Want to Read These Posts

Attention! Here’s How to Write Headlines That People Simply Can’t Ignore for Any Piece of Content

6 Super Easy Tricks to Make Your Library Emails Stand Out in the Inbox AND Get Great Results

Latest Book Review

“You Can’t Be Serious” by Kal Penn

6 Super Easy Tricks to Make Your Library Emails Stand Out in the Inbox AND Get Great Results

Photo courtesy Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

Last week, I wrote about the new email marketing data that changed the way I think about email and libraries. This week, I wanted to share more new tips to help you improve the chances your email subscribers will act.

Some of these come from Nancy Harhut, Founder and Chief Creative Officer of HMT Marketing. Nancy is an expert on behavioral science and consumer behavior. She studies how and why humans behave the way they do when they interact with marketing.

Nancy spoke at Content Marketing World. Her talk included a list of tricks to improve the effectiveness of your library promotional emails. I’ve combined her advice with new best practices I recently discovered while doing some deep research on email marketing.

And there’s a bonus in this post! Scroll down for a special free tool you can use to check the “spamminess” of your emails and get suggestions for improvement.

Tip #1: Make your community the focus of your email.

There’s a common mistake we make in library marketing. We often tell our community what we want them to hear.

But your email recipients are interested in how the library can help them. They have needs and wants that are specific to them.

@nharhut says your email recipients are not interested in everything you want to tell them. They want to know about the one thing they are looking for that will improve their lives.

Here’s a quick exercise you can do every time you create an email. Instead of making a list of items your library wants to promote, ask yourself these four questions about the person who receives your email.

  • What are their needs?
  • What’s driving their decision-making?
  • What are their goals?
  • What are they feeling?

This exercise will help you to focus on the way your library can help your community member. Once you’ve done that, you’ll want to include text in your email that makes it clear your library puts your community member first. It’s easiest to explain this using an example.

  • Library-focused readers’ advisory message: “We can recommend great books for you to read.”
  • Customer-focused readers’ advisory message: “You love to read. You’re busy. Leave the searching to us and get your reading recommendations fast.”

A few simple tweaks in wording put the patron first.

Finally, the images you choose for your email play a big part in making your community members feel that your library is focused on them. Be sure to choose images that reflect your community.

Here’s a real-life example: A library was creating an email to promote a yoga program. They chose a photo of a young, physically fit white woman in a yoga pose as their accompanying image.

But when they talked a bit about who actually comes to their yoga programs, they realized it’s attended by older, more diverse members of their population. Some of those attendees have physical challenges.

So, they found a new image that more accurately reflected their community. The image change helped drive more attendance to their yoga program!

Tip #2: Use first and second-person pronouns in your call-to- action button.

In all your library marketing text, you must connect with your community and make them feel seen, welcome, and invited. Using first and second-person pronouns like “me” and “my” or “you” and “yours” will help your email recipients to imagine themselves using your library.

In fact, using a first- or second-person pronoun for your CTA can result in as much as a 90 percent increase in clicks, according to market research conducted by two content marketing companies, Unbounce and ContentVerve.

Again, this is a simple tweak in wording that can lead to big results. Some pronoun-centered CTAs are:

  • Download my book
  • Claim your seat
  • Reserve your spot
  • Get my library card
  • Make your donation

Tip #3: Pair your calls-to-action.

Library emails tend to include many offers. But, according to Harhut, we should put our calls-to-action together, in pairs!

Why? Giving your email recipients a choice between two options will increase the likelihood that your subscriber will take an action, according to Harhut. In fact, she told us that researchers at Tulane University found pairing calls to action will quadruple the chance that someone will make a choice between the two options at the moment.

Here’s an easy example. Let’s say you are sending an email to promote new books in your collection. Simply pair them together, like this:

Pair book covers together to improve the chances that someone will click on a jacket and place a hold.

If you are promoting databases or events, use the same pairing trick. Put two options side-by-side. Doing this will create a “this or that” decision for your email recipient and increase the chances that they will choose one of the two options.

Tip #4: Try a tiny dose of negativity.

Our library promotional emails almost always emphasize the benefits or advantages of using the library. But Harhut says people are twice as motivated to avoid the pain of loss as they are to reap the benefits of gains. 

This happens because of the Loss Aversion Theory. It was formulated by Nobel Prize-winning psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky.

Their research found that people value a loss more than an equivalent gain. Losses are unpleasant and evoke emotions like fear, guilt, regret, and anger. People will do pretty much anything to avoid those negative emotions.

We can take that fear of losing and use it to strengthen our library. How exactly does this work?

Let’s say your library is creating an email to promote your graduate school test preparation resources. You might try some text that says, “More than 50 percent of the students who don’t study for the LSAT can’t get into law school.” (A fact I looked up for this example… feel free to steal!)

Or, for your next ticketed event, emphasize the need to register before all the seats are taken.

These are just two examples of the way you can work a subtle hint of negative emotion into your marketing. For more ideas, I recommend this well-written research article from the Open Journal of Social Science: When and Why Negative Emotional Appeals Work in Advertising.

Tip #5: Include a good testimonial.

Your library emails shouldn’t just include promotions for products and services. Testimonials can help people to make decisions about whether to use your library. They help people to imagine themselves using your services.

Harhut says we should always be collecting and sorting testimonials so that we can use the best of them in our emails. It’s another great way to show that your library is focused on your community.

Use this list to help you pick your best testimonials.

  • Does the testimonial include details?
  • Is the testimonial focused?
  • Is the language natural and conversational?
An example of a great testimonial courtesy of the Oregon Public Library.

Include a few lines from the testimonial in your email. Try putting it at the top of the email, before your promotions. This is especially effective if the testimonial is from someone who benefited from the program, service, or collection item you are promoting in your email.

Tip #6: Proofread. Then do it again. And again.

Spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors will damage the trust your community puts into your library.

Have a process in place for proofing your emails.

  • Use Grammarly.
  • Copy and paste your email text into Word, then run the editorial review.
  • Ask your co-workers to read through your email.
  • Read your email out loud. You’ll be surprised how many mistakes your brain will gloss over when you read silently.

Bonus: Free email testing tool.

There’s a new free tool I just learned about that can help your email. It’s called Mail Tester.

It was designed by software engineers who wanted a way to test the quality of their own email newsletters. So, they built their own tool and made it free to anyone who wanted to use it.

Here’s how it works.

Take an email that you plan on sending to your community and send it to Mail Tester first. They generate a random email address every time you go to their website.

Next, you click on the “check your score” button and wait for your results. You can see your results for up to 7 days.

I tried it using an example email I created for a presentation. Here are my results:

Pretty cool, right?

Now read this: LOTS of new tips on how to make your email subject line irresistible!


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Try These Two Fun Tests To Improve the Effectiveness of Your Library Promotional Emails!

There is NO SUCH THING as Too Many Library Marketing Emails! Why Libraries are the Exception to the Rule.

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🤯The Latest Mind-Blowing Data on Email Marketing That Made Me Rethink Everything I Know AND What That Means for Your Library

Photo courtesy Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

The most powerful tool you have to reach your community is email.

I know there are some readers who don’t believe me. But here’s a fact that cannot be denied: 90 percent of Americans over the age of 15 use email. In the United Kingdom and Canada, 85 percent of people use email.

That’s a big portion of your community.

The digital divide is real but not as wide as most of us thought. The latest Pew Research Center study released in August 2021 shows:

  • Rural residents have seen a nine percentage point rise in home broadband adoption in the last five years.
  • 72 percent of rural Americans have high-speed internet access.
  • Smartphone ownership also rose nine percentage points among rural residents in the past three years.

For most of my library friends, the percentage of people in your community who can (and should) be receiving email marketing from your library far outpaces the percentage of people who don’t have an email address.

Social media platforms do not care about your library. The press does not care about your library. Google does not care about your library.

Email is the only platform where you have complete control. You build your subscriber list. You create your target audience segments. You get to decide when you send your emails. And you have complete control over the content.

It doesn’t matter how big or small your library is. You have the power in email marketing.

Now, I’ve learned some brand-new information about email marketing. I am not exaggerating when I say this new data has made me re-think the advice I give to my library marketing friends.

This information comes from Michael Barber, who is a brand consultant and marketing strategist. He was the featured speaker of a recent Marketing Profs webinar that frankly blew my mind.

Here are the four big things I learned from his presentation.

Your open rate does not mean what you think it means.

Remember when I said that open rates are a sign of customer loyalty?

My view has changed.

With most email services, the open rate is tracked with the help of a hidden one-pixel image placed in the body of the email message. It used to be that the email counted as being “opened” when the recipient opened the email up.

But now, the email counts as opened when it loads in a recipient’s inbox because that’s when the pixel is now being triggered. Apps like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and any Apple device with iOS 15 will preload images.

That means a human didn’t necessarily open your email.

What does this mean for your library?

Email marketing expert Jay Schwedelson says your email open rate provides direction for your strategy. It can still serve as a benchmark for testing factors like subject lines and send times.

If you work on your library’s email marketing, you’ll need to really focus on the action created by your email.

Use trackable links inside the body to see what people click on. And then measure what they do after they click.

Do they register for a program? Do they put a book on hold? Do they log into a database? Those are human-triggered actions. Those are the true measure of the effectiveness of your email.

The new iOS update isn’t as bad as it seems… for now.

In September 2021, Apple released the iOS 15 update, which includes more user protection from third-party trackers, including mail privacy protection that stops email senders from collecting data on how a person interacts with email.

The new privacy settings keep marketers from seeing who opened their emails, what time they opened them, where they opened them, and what device they used to open the email.

Marketers reacted as you might imagine, with major publications like DigiDay running headlines like “Why email marketers are calling Apple’s iOS 15 update ‘a proverbial nail in the coffin.'”

Michael says it’s not as bad as it seems. First, the privacy protections only apply to people who have actually downloaded the update, and who use Apple Mail.

About 72 percent of Apple users have upgraded to iOS 15. Statistics on the number of people who use Apple Mail vary according to industry and location. But most email providers say they see around 35% of their recipients use Apple Mail.

And so far, according to Michael, not everyone is opting into the privacy protections offered by iOS 15. Only about 48 percent of Apple Mail users are turning on the new privacy settings.

What does this mean for your library?

As always, be watchful of your metrics so you can spot any downward trends in engagement. But don’t panic. Focus on sending great content to your email list.

Your sender reputation is incredibly important

Email sender reputation is a score that an Internet Service Provider (ISP) assigns to an organization that sends email. The higher the score, the more likely an ISP will deliver emails to the inboxes of recipients on their network.

There are three positive signals of engagement that can raise your library’s sender reputation, according to Michael. They are:

  • Replying to your message.
  • Clicking on links inside the email.
  • Adding you to their contacts.

Conversely, there are three negative signals of engagement that can hurt your library’s sender reputation, according to Michael. You want to prevent your library email recipients from:

  • Moving your library’s email to their junk or spam folders.
  • Deleting your email without opening it.
  • Leaving your email unopened and sitting in their inbox. Michael says this is a stronger negative signal than unsubscribing! (WOW, right?)

What does this mean for your library?

Michael says replies are a “super strong signal of engagement.” He encourages email marketers to stop using the “no-reply” return email address in their emails. Use a real email address for replies.

And you’ll want to go a step further by directly asking recipients to reply to your emails. You could ask for their feedback on a service. Or ask recipients to reply with the name of a book they think should be included in your next booklist or book display. This is a chance for you to be creative! You don’t have to respond to every email reply. But this is an opportunity to improve your sender reputation while gathering information that will help you to better serve your community.

You’ll also want to focus on raising your email click rate. Here are five ideas.

Finally, include great content in your email so your recipients will never let it sit in their inbox unopened.

We need to start thinking about how “dark mode” affects design.

Dark Mode inverts the colors on your device to decrease the amount of light on your screen. Dark mode turns the default white background with black text to a black background with white text.

Dark Mode eases the strain on your eyes, especially at night or in dark conditions. It also helps preserve battery power.

What does this mean for your library?

The way our emails are designed will need to change. Michael recommends that, if your email provider has this data, you may want to start tracking how many of your email recipients look at your emails in dark mode.

You’ll also want to test your emails using dark mode to determine if your library’s brand colors work with the darker background.

Finally, make sure your email provider is mobile responsive. This will ensure your emails will be converted properly.

Next week: 6 super-easy tricks to make your library emails stand out in the inbox and get results!


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