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Super Library Marketing: Practical Tips and Ideas for Library Promotion

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How a Library Director’s Secret Strategy Transformed Community Outreach

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Amanda Weakley was pursuing a master’s degree in English when a comment from a professor changed the course of her career.

“I took an elective in Library Science,” recalls Amanda. “The class went well, and the professor commented that I would be a great librarian. Shortly after that, I noticed a vacancy at a local library and applied. Once I started working in libraries, I knew it was where I wanted to be.”

Amanda grew up in Rappahannock County, Virginia, located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. She’s been a cardholder of the Rappahannock County Library since she was a preschooler.

Now she serves as director of the library, where she started working 14 years ago. Rappahannock County Library is a small, rural library that serves a population of just over 7,000 people.

“Currently, we have 3.5 FTE employees, me included, so we all do a bit of everything,” explains Amanda. “If there is an idea, we work together to see it through, usually a person or two handling every detail from planning to presentation and assessment. It is a lot of work, but the reward of successful library services and programs is immeasurable.”

With such a small staff, the library must get the most out of every tactic they use to promote their library. Rappahannock County excels in two areas: their word-of-mouth promotions and their partnership promotions.

Partnership marketing involves collaborating with other organizations, businesses, or influencers in the community to achieve mutual goals. Word-of-mouth marketing is all about building a buzz through community members, staff, and volunteers. It encourages people to spread positive stories, experiences, and testimonials about the library.

Staff members are often the key to both strategies. They are trained to spread news about new services and upcoming events and look for partnership opportunities.

“It really is a way of optimizing resources,” says Amanda. “Especially with a small staff and a small community, it helps to have as many happy patrons as possible and community partners advocating for you and spreading your news. We have friends of friends, clients, and members of partner organizations attending our events, using, and recommending our materials and services.”

“For as long as I have worked in libraries, and even prior, my focus has been on positive experiences and connections. I want everyone to have a positive experience or association with the library, be it through participating in a program, staff interaction with individuals, or staff collaboration with community partners.”

“We know people talk, so let’s give them wonderful things to say about the library and library staff! In a small community, I think word travels faster, and our organic tactics have evolved into strategic decisions.”

Amanda says libraries of all sizes should focus on what they do best in their community. Then, build and maintain healthy relationships with patrons and community partners around those key resources.

And don’t be surprised if it takes time to see the results from word of mouth and partnership marketing.

“There is a reality that you can work hard to get the word out and make connections, but there will always be people who will not receive your message,” explains Amanda. “It’s frustrating when you do everything to share information and someone says, ‘I did not know you offered that!’”

“If you have the opportunity, talk to the person, and see where they seek or find out information. Learn from each interaction and try to meet people where they are with a positive library or library staff experience. After a positive experience, your mentions will stand out and have more impact.”

The strategy’s success is easy to see if you look at Rappahannock County Library’s Facebook page. They are often tagged in photos and posts by their partnership organizations. That gives their library exposure to a whole new audience of potential patrons.

“We want our patrons and partners to tell people about us, send people our way, and even send us or our services to people. It’s a cycle of working for people, and if all goes well, they seem to work for us by continuing to market for us without even realizing it!”

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The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How Two Neighboring Libraries Teamed Up To Create a Fake Rivalry Video for Promotional Success

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Tamara Murray moved around a lot as a kid. But her family settled in Westerville, Ohio when she was 11 years old. She’s lived there ever since and now works for the library she used as a youngster.

“The Westerville Public Library was the first place I went after getting my driver’s license to return my (ahem, overdue) library books and pick up the newest Steven King novel,” recalled Tamara. “I still remember the glorious sense of freedom I had on that warm spring day, driving down the road towards the library.”

Tamara graduated in 2001 from Miami University (Ohio) with a degree in Creative Writing.  While struggling to find a full-time job, a friend suggested she look into librarianship.

“I kind of hated the idea at first,” admitted Tamara. “I was worried it would be boring. But I took her advice to apply as a volunteer, just to get a sense of what it was like. And when an opening came up in the Outreach Department where I was volunteering, I was encouraged to apply.”

“From there, I earned my MLIS from Kent State University and have now held numerous positions at the Westerville Public Library – Outreach Associate, Adult Services Librarian, Web Content Librarian, and now as Marketing Manager.” 

The Westerville Library marketing staff consists of Tamara and two staff members. They’re extremely agile. Projects, services, and other initiatives are often conceived of and implemented on short timelines. They are always experimenting with new things.

One day, Tamara spotted a Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) digital billboard while driving. It was positioned on the border of where CML and Westerville’s library district meet. Tamara mentioned it to her Executive Director, Erin Francoeur.

The two hatched a plan to create a friendly rivalry piece about CML encroaching on Westerville’s “home turf”. They approached CML to brainstorm the idea.

“Our initial thoughts were that we could pretend to hack or graffiti the CML billboard,” recalled Tamara. “Then we also considered filming a guard whose job it is to ‘patrol’ the border between our two districts and creating a fictional history around that idea.” 

“After we realized that the billboard was only scheduled to be live for a short time, we brainstormed other ways we could represent a rivalry using our current spaces. It occurred to me that a simple ‘apples to apples’ comparison would allow us to highlight our differences and similarities in a way that would be a win-win for both libraries.”

The group decided to create a video using library cards as the main characters, fighting over which library was cooler. They added googly eyes to the library cards to give them personality and made them seem more like real characters in the story. 

“The hardest part was figuring out how to add the googly eyes to the library cards in a way that wouldn’t look messy,” laughed Tamara. “I’m always thankful for the ingenuity of our children’s librarians who suggested sticky tack.” 

The actual filming took less than an hour. Connor Dunwoodie, Digital Storyteller Specialist at CML, visited each highlighted location and filmed clips with a helper to model the library cards. 

“Connor previously worked as a news reporter and anchor and has a gift for visualizing the space and getting the shot on the first try,” said Tamara. “Connor then took the video footage, edited it together, added sound and text, and made it live within 48 hours.” 

Tamara and her counterparts at CML were hoping the promotion would spark engagement from those who already know and love both libraries. They also wanted to reach new potential patrons who live near the border of the two districts, an area that both systems refer to as a “library desert.”   

“As a single branch medium-sized suburban library, we don’t think of ourselves as direct competition with the 22-branch Columbus metropolitan system,” explained Tamara. “We both are amazing in very similar and very different ways. In Ohio, we are lucky to share state funding for public libraries, which creates some built-in camaraderie since we’re not competing with each other for basic funding.”  

Tamara and her team continue to do great work, creating fun promotions and highlighting how the library helps patrons (more on that in a future post!). Tamara says she finds inspiration for her library marketing campaigns nearly everywhere she looks.

“We’re marketed to almost everywhere we go, and I try to take note of what marketing is effective with me personally, as well as what’s effective with my friends and family members,” she shared.

“I ask a lot of questions. ‘Where did you hear about that?’ ‘Why did you buy this product instead of this product?’ It helps to understand what channels, graphics, and calls to action are the most effective.”   

More Advice

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“Pure Chaos”: A Library Marketer Reveals How She Turned a Scavenger Hunt for Six Baby Dinosaurs Into a Promotional Win

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Paid Partnership for the Win! How a Library System Turned a Holiday Tradition Into an Opportunity To Reach New Library Marketing Goals

Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Trenton Smiley’s job in a library is what you might call a full-circle moment.

At the age of 21, Trenton went to the library with his future wife to research careers. While inside the library, he decided to study communications in college.

Years later, he is working in communications for a library, specifically as Director of Marketing and Communications for Capital Area District Libraries (CADL). Located in Lansing, Michigan area, the library encompasses a service area of approximately 230,000 residents.

Every year, CADL does something extraordinary to reach new audiences. Beginning in 2020, the library launched a Christmas Eve Radio Storytime in partnership with 99.1 WFMK, one of the top radio stations in the Lansing market, especially among female listeners. During the holiday season, the station switches to an all-Christmas Music format, which provides a nice fit for storytime.

“We decided to read Clement Moore’s 1837 poem ‘Twas the night before Christmas because it was part of the public domain,” said Trenton. “Each year, we select one of our youth librarians to read the poem over a wonderfully produced music bed (done by the radio station) that also included special sound effects.”

“A holiday greeting from our executive director Scott Duimstra is always included along with a message from a special guest. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer appeared in 2020 and 2022, while a cast member of Disney’s Broadway Show Frozen appeared in 2021 to promote the show, which was coming to our community a couple of weeks after the storytime aired.”

The radio storytime, which is about six minutes in length, aired twice on Christmas Eve. Listeners could also hear the storytime on sister station 1240 WJIM every hour until midnight. To become more inclusive, CADL launched a Spanish version of the storytime which airs on two NPR radio stations and a Spanish podcast owned by WKAR.

The cost is about $500 to air the storytime, but the station helps promote the special through free commercials and placement on the website and social media.

In addition to promotion on the radio, CADL began working with a local TV station WILX TV-10 to promote their reindeer visits and other holiday events.

“In addition to on-air ads, we also run homepage takeovers of WILX.com,” said Trenton. “A homepage takeover allows us to have 100 percent share of voice by using all available ad positions for a 24-hour period. We use this practice often to generate a great deal of web traffic over a short period of time.”

The library has taken that one step further by sponsoring the station’s broadcast of How the Grinch Stole Christmas and 5 More Sleeps Til Christmas. It’s a fantastic opportunity to reach people who never interact with the library.

“The idea to sponsor the holiday block of specials is really based on the homepage takeover concept,” explained Trenton. “We would secure all the available local ad positions during the hour block of holiday specials, which translated to two minutes. We would use this ad time to air 2, one-minute segments featuring a duo of librarians demonstrating a craft that was related to one of the holiday specials.”

It only took one day for the library to receive clearance from station management. The station also offered to help produce the library segments and promotional ads, as well as help create awareness of this special program the week leading up to the air date. It took another hour to shoot the segments and promos for the event.

Trenton said his library had specific goals for this paid partnership: to find ways to share the library experience. Specifically, Trenton had three main goals.

  • Increase marketing reach and frequency. “We focus on a more outward approach to our marketing. The larger pool of people we can engage with the greater chance we have to convert them to users of the library. The same is true of how they are seeing and hearing our messages and content. “
  • Strengthen brand awareness. “These programs provide us with an opportunity to highlight our expertise, create awareness of CADL, and position the library differently in the minds of the viewers and listeners.”
  • Expand promotional inventory. “Creation of programs like these provide CADL with content in which to promote other services and generate sponsorships.”

“Since the specials aired during primetime on Friday evening, December 23, we were confident that there would be a large viewing audience and worthy of the $800 price tag,” shared Trenton. “The total planning time on our part was about an hour.”

The television and radio events were marketed via email, social media, branch digital signage, press releases, a holiday guide, and promos on radio and television stations. “All the tactics helped spread the word about the specials,” said Trenton. “But I favor the digital ones because they provide real-time reporting on engagement.”

And, the partnership was indeed a success. “Based on the audience sizes of both our television and radio programs, we were able to accomplish our goal of increased marketing reach,” shared Trenton.

“Through the partnerships with both the television station and three radio stations, we received free promotional ads which helped with our goals of increased frequency, strengthened brand awareness, and more content in which to use to cross-promote services and use for sponsorships. Discussions have also begun about expanding the number of radio stations airing our special storytime.”

Trenton says his library marketing inspiration comes from the for-profit world including Disney and retail outlets.

He has advice for library marketers looking to leverage events to promote their libraries.“Negotiate from a position of strength,” he said. “Libraries have so much they can leverage including their expertise, content, goodwill, footprint (digital & physical), and customer base.”  

More advice

The One Question Your Library Staff Should Ask Every Single Guest To Unlock Promotional Success!

Building Advocates and Allies: How One Library Marketer Used Storytelling To Improve Promotions and Unify His Library

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