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Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library
My co-worker Yaika recently returned from StokerCon with an amazing library marketing story.
Yaika was on a panel. The organizers of the panel brought about 700 Advanced Reader copies, or ARCs, to the session. An ARC is a version of a book that is made available before the official publication date.
The ARCs were set on tables before the presentation. The panelists then talked about the various ARCs during the session, naming them by title and author and discussing the most intriguing things about each book.
Of course, they gave a quick summary of the plot. But, every time they talked about a book, they mentioned the appealing factors that make people want to read a book: the characters, the tone, the setting, the pacing, and the themes.
And once the audience heard the appealing factors, a bunch of people would jump out of their seats and run to the ARC table to see if the book was available.
Why did attendees, who seemed hesitant to pick up a book before the session, feel compelled to grab books during the session?
It’s because the panelists were book-talking.
A book talk is a short presentation about a book to convince other people to read it. Book talking is not a formal book report or review. It’s more of a mini-commercial.
And book talking is one of the most effective ways to promote your collection, especially when you describe the book using those intriguing story elements.
Whether you are a degreed librarian who works on library promotions or a communications professional who works in a library, everyone… and I mean everyone… can talk about books in this way.
Your passion for the collection, not your degree or expertise, is what makes this type of marketing so special. And promoting your collection is incredibly important to the success of your library.
Your collection is the reason most people get a library card. Books are your brand. You should promote your collection all year long.
If you are a front desk worker, you can book talk with patrons during every interaction! But how do you book talk if you aren’t working at the front desk?
Here are 5 promotional tactics that you can use to book talk with readers when you aren’t working directly with the public.
Email
Every month, I get an email from the Jacksonville Public Library that drives me to the catalog EVERY SINGLE TIME I get it. Do you know why? The email is a book talk in digital form!
I don’t even live in Jacksonville. I don’t live in Florida! But this email makes me want to read books.
The email contains a list of books, usually fewer than 10. Next to each book is a summary of the plot, plus a little extra something: a review, or a hint at something appealing about the theme, genre, or characters. It’s intriguing! And it makes me add to my TBR (to-be-read) pile.
I also love this example from Jefferson Public Library. Scroll to the bottom of the email to find a promotion that includes those appealing elements which can be more helpful in describing a book than the plot.
Print
The folks at LibraryReads offer a downloadable PDF flyer each month that is a book talk in print. Each of their selected titles is listed, along with a description of the book that includes not only the plot, but words that describe the book’s genre, intriguing factors, and the author’s style.
On your website
I must confess that every time I visit my library’s website, I am on the hunt for books. Your readers are too. Your job is to make those books sound enticing enough to compel them to place a hold.
Create a page on your website, like Naperville Public Library. They have their book recommendations divided by genre and age group.
And they describe more than the plot. The annotations next to each title help readers decide which of the titles to check out.
Bookmarks
Your library can “upsell” books using bookmarks. Upselling is a sales term in which customers are encouraged to buy a more expensive version of a product than they originally intended.
For libraries, upselling is any action that compels your cardholders to check out more items than they originally intended. And bookmarks are the easiest way to do this.
Start small and manageable. Pick 3 categories to focus on, like cookbooks, horror, and Westerns. You can also choose age-based categories like adults, teens, and early readers.
Once you’ve decided on your categories, make one bookmark for each of your categories. Each bookmark should feature 3-6 books (3 if your bookmarks are one-sided, 6 books if your bookmark is two-sided).
For each book on your bookmark, add a photo of the cover (because book covers can also be enticing!) and the title. Then, write one line about the plot. Write a second line about the characters. Write a third line that describes the book using intriguing language like “quirky,” “thought-provoking,” and “funny.”
Challenge yourself and your staff to hand out a bookmark during every patron interaction. Make it a game to match the bookmark with the patron’s interest using context clues.
For example, if you saw the person browsing your new arrivals display and they’re an adult, you can hand them your adult fiction bookmark.
If someone comes to the drive-through to pick up their holds and you notice they’re checking out a whole stack of picture books, give them one of the early readers’ bookmarks. Heck, give them an adult bookmark too!
If someone checks out a cake pan from your Library of Things, give them a cookbook bookmark. And so on.
Videos
Ask a fellow staff member or patron to talk on camera about a book they read and loved. Challenge them to do it in under 60 seconds, like Thayer Public Library does!
Then, post the video natively to all the social media platforms your library uses with a direct link to the book in the catalog. You know how social media platforms LOVE videos!
Bonus idea
I have to share this infographic created by Lester Public Library. They gathered stats on book talks they provided to local students. It’s such a great way to prove the value of the library to the community, parents, and stakeholders like local legislators and funders!
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This is a very special episode of The Library Marketing Show.
That’s because you are going to get marketing advice from not one… not two… not three… but four of the top professionals in the library marketing industry.
And I’m bringing it to you as my gift because this, my friends is… the 200th episode of The Library Marketing Show!
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?
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
I must be honest. I’ve never seen survey results like this one.
My library marketing friends are ALWAYS trying to figure out which social media platform will give them the best results for their goals.
And if your library is trying to drive circulation, it turns out there is a definitive answer.
TikTok.
The platform now boosts a million posts every two months JUST ABOUT BOOKS. And those posts are having a measurable impact on reading habits.
In May of 2023, Casino.org surveyed 10,000 TikTok users between the ages of 18 and 45 (the Gen Z and Millennial generations) who live in the United States and Canada.
Yes, an organization dedicated to gaming did a survey on reading. 🤷
They asked three reading-related questions.
Are you reading more because of the BookTok community?
If the answer is yes, how much more?
Have you ever read a book as a direct result of a BookTok recommendation?
Hang on to your hat, my friends.
48 percent of the survey respondentsin the United States and 53 percent of Canadian respondents said they are actively reading more books because of their exposure to BookTok.
Americans said the platform resulted in a 60 percent increase in their reading activity, with Canadians reporting an increase of 58 percent.
That means that a member of Gen Z or the Millennial generation who previously read 10 books a year is now reading as many as 16 books a year because they watch #BookTok videos.
Holy Kansas.
Casino.org also collected location data and used that to compare the impact that BookTok had on reading by location.
Here’s another stunning result: every state or province reported an uplift in reading among TikTok users.
In the United States, the impact on reading was the most profound in Maine, Nebraska, Idaho, Utah, and Kentucky. Other states where readers reported reading more because of BookTok were California, Nevada, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Illinois.
In Canada, Saskatchewan saw the biggest increase in reading due to BookTok. But 57 percent of TikTok users in Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta also stated they are reading more because of BookTok.
If your library is posting on TikTok, you should 100 percent be creating videos that promote books. Here are five tips on how to drive circulation and promote your collection using this specific social media platform.
Ask a question of your staff.
Troy Public Library asked staff members to name a BookTok book that they think is overrated. The video is short, and it’s shot in a way that builds suspense. That’s the perfect way to get people to watch the entire video.
Use trending audio.
Scranton Public Library used this very popular piece of audio from a popular #BookTokker in this video. Chambers County Library System used audio from the Creepy Book Club account on TikTok to share reading recommendations from two of its library staff.
Using popular audio will boost the organic reach of the video by increasing the chances it will show up on a reader’s For You page. And if you’re running low on ideas about what to post on TikTok, just check out the trending pieces of audio as a place to start.
Use humor.
Vaughn Public Libraries used a short snippet of a popular movie soundtrack to create this hilarious clip. At just under 10 seconds, it perfectly introduces the library to a trigger-happy TikTok scroller.
It also subtly promotes the fact that the library’s BookTok recommendations are popular and nudges readers to follow the library account for great book recommendations.
Do something unexpected.
Most people think a library would only promote books with great reviews. But McHenry Public Library turns that notion on its head to highlight a one-star review of a book that most people would consider a classic. And they used a Taylor Swift song, capitalizing on her popularity to boost their organic reach.
Take advantage of staff creativity.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that the script for this hilarious and creative TikTok came from staff at the Los Angeles Public Library. We’d expect nothing less from a city just seven miles from Hollywood.
I bet there is someone at your library who is brimming over with creative ideas for BookTok videos. Put out a call for the best script or concept from staff and fill your content calendar while getting buy-in for the impact of BookTok from your co-workers. They’ll be more likely to share your videos on their personal accounts when they’re personally invested in the process.
For more tips on how to market your library using BookTok, here’s a great article by my co-worker Yaika Sabat. I must give her credit: she called out the impact of BookTok long before Casino.org did!
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Your library’s website is more than a website. It’s actually a digital branch. And it’s an incredibly important way to drive people to your library and to help them find out about your services and items.
I have three big tips for you that you can implement to make your website more discoverable out there on the fast internet. And you do not have to be a fancy website developer to put these tips into practice!
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.
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
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.”
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.”
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I would like to issue a challenge to my library marketing friends. I have three phrases that I want to hear you say more often: to each other, to your coworkers, and to the world in general.
I’m going to explain why these three phrases are so important to the success of your work 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.
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:
There’s a new social media platform in the world. It’s called Threads and the release has been unlike anything I’ve ever witnessed in my career in communications.
It’s become the most rapidly downloaded app EVER. And you’re probably wondering what this means for your library promotions.
I decided to record an emergency episode today instead of a regular blog post. This episode will break down what your library needs to know about Threads and help you figure out the first steps to managing an account.
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.
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:
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!
Subscribe to this blog and you’ll receive an email whenever I post. To do that, enteryouremail addressand 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 