Mary has been honored with two National Library Marketing Awards, the 3M Check-It- Out Yourself Day and the 2005 ACRL Academic and Research Library Marketing Best Practices @ Your Library Award. His first experience as a marketing team designer at American University The Library was awarded the Best Practices in Marketing Academic and Research Libraries @ your library Award by ACRL in 2005.
We’ve all been sold a bill of goods that whenever you
This book puts that assumption to rest. It
Introduction
Word-of-Mouth Marketing
A New Paradigm Has Emerged
What Is Word-of-Mouth Marketing?
What Makes WOMM So Powerful?
The trick to a successful WOMM
For many librarians, the idea that people would choose to listen to a non-authoritative source runs counter to the fundamental belief that people need experts as guides.
Philosophy of WOMM
What Is WOMM?
They may like the product or simply believe that the company warrants support because it reflects their values. Libraries have always provided lifelong learning opportunities, but now we may want to promote the idea that we provide personalized learning environments.
Libraries are perfectly positioned to be major players in the current economic crisis . People need
The way to bring people to our doors is not to convince them that we have the materials they need, but to help them feel that by using our materials they are becoming the people they want to be. Above all, this means that customers must like what you offer enough to want to talk about it.
A Bad Rap for Libraries
Start by Turning On a Flashlight
This question will give you an idea of how close the respondent's social network is to the library. The further the network is from the library, the better your chance of bringing in a whole new population to your library if the respondent becomes an advocate of the library!).
When you get the survey back, ask if there is anything a library could do or offer that would bring the person in. Ask if he or she would be willing to review the plan if the library decided to pursue the proposal.
Pam Jaskot, library consultant for communications, State Library of North Carolina
Either way, you'll have a much better idea of the obstacles you'll have to overcome in creating and marketing new programs.
Basic Elements of WOMM
In fact, if you can get your message across to your target audience and it resonates with enough people, and those people each influence two friends, you can have pretty powerful results. Be clear, write your material for your specific target audience and tell them what you need and what they will get out of it.
Here are some sample posts to attract influencers
Probably the easiest way is to ask people to participate by posting on affiliate websites, blogs, posters, flyers, newsletters, and any other promotional material you create that targets your target audience.
Free iTunes
Have a Say in the Kinds of Programs Your Library Hosts!
One person starts by whispering a sentence to the person next to him or her and that person whispers the sentence to the next person until it reaches the last person. Be sure to create different key messages for the different ways people will share your message.
Printed materials such as bookmarks, rack cards or brochures that people can hand out to friends. Widgets that allow people to share on their favorite sites, such as SocialTwist and ShareThis (if you see a button on a web page, click on; if the code is free, you can use it as a tool on your own site) .
Take a look at the fantastic article at the website Digital
Libraries used to provide bookmarks and flyers that people could share with their friends and family. Be careful not to get caught in the trap of positive testimonials and call it WOMM.
12 Signposts for the Transparent Library,
But even if they have a really compelling character or story, they won't inspire others to speak up. One new measurement trend that could work for libraries is measuring customer engagement and tracking how your customers progress from tool to tool on their way to a desired outcome.
The New-Media Marketing Manifesto
It sounds a bit complicated, but the association has published a report on its website and will update it as it learns more. What is important for libraries is to start looking at measuring results as a process rather than a concrete number.
WOMM Checklist Find and Encourage Influencers
Is Your Message Simple?
Cool Tools
Hosting a Conversation
Evaluate
Libraries and the Long Tail
Have you figured out what trends your influencers are talking about and made the connection to
Types of WOMM That Work Well for Libraries Buzz Marketing
Influencer marketing identifies key communities and opinion leaders who are likely to talk about your organization and have the ability to influence the opinions of others. Encouraging volunteers to engage in local outreach for your organization requires you to organize and provide the motivation that will start a movement.
Niche Marketing
The idea of not having control over messaging is a recurring theme in WOMM, but when it comes to grassroots efforts, focus on the passion of the outreach and look at details that aren't being done the way your organization would prefer. Depending on the budget, the kit can be comprehensive with promotional materials and tabletop displays or as simple as a handout with key talking points for your activists.
WOMM with Social Networks
Ideas to Tie Together Social Networks and the Offline Community
Tools at Work
If there is any doubt about the power of Web 2.0 tools, just look at Barack Obama's presidential campaign. What's so great about Obama's campaign is that libraries can do the same things, perhaps with the exception of paid advertising (which, by the way, included television, radio, video games, and webinars).
Bring Your
Library to Life with a Story
Why Tell a Story?
To build support and a new vision of value, libraries must create new stories that ring true for their communities.
What Makes a Good Story?
Are Testimonies and Stories the Same Thing?
Telling a Great Story
For example, this could be when your character is on the verge of success, but falls apart. The ending is also where you connect the dots between your character's success and the library.
Tips for Great Storytelling
Stories for WOMM
Everyone is always talking about how libraries have changed or how valuable we are to a community,
Story Banks
The page should tell what the story bank is, why you are collecting stories and any parameters you have set for sharing the stories. In the second year, the State Library and the New Jersey Library Association plan to use the stories for a statewide marketing and advocacy campaign.
Quick List of Questions to Guide Your Story Contributors
The Multnomah County Library: Guiding Customers to Tell Their Stories
How to Market Electronic
Resources
We are used to being repositories of thousands or millions of volumes of books, almanacs, encyclopedias, dictionaries and magazines. In addition to the physical changes this shift brings, it also changes the ways we market these resources.
How Do We Connect Users with Electronic Resources?
Reference collections, periodicals and more and more monograph collections of libraries are increasingly being delivered electronically. This scientific database contains more than 3,600 peer-reviewed full-text publications on every subject.”.
Do Not Cut and Paste the Vendor’s Explanation of a Database!
Your Databases Provide Rich Content
Marketing Resources through Wikipedia
Right now the dominant user-generated site for combined search is Wikipedia, but that may change in the future
Bridging Print to Electronic
Federated Search
The New Collection Management
Summary: Marketing Electronic Resources
Public Relations 101
Be the Press
The New-Media Mix
Strategies for the New Media
Press Release Newswires
Creating a Media List
Creating a Media List for Staff Releases
Posting Press Releases to Your Website
Writing Your Release
It will make it easier for you if you create a new distribution list for each type of mail you send. If you only rely on traditional media, you put the success of your activity/.
First Things First—Is It News?
There's a fine line between a human interest story and an infomercial, but reporters can spot the difference a mile away. Remember to keep the story about human interest and let your library play the supporting role.
How to Send Your Release
If a congressman, senator, mayor or a local or national star is coming, make sure the reporter knows. On the other hand, if that person cancels, you should take the time to let the reporter know.
Deadline
News Release Format
Attachments
How to Write a Traditional News Release
The first paragraph should answer the who, what, where, when and why of the story. Choose to quote the people in your organization that are relevant to the story.
Common Parts of Press Releases
The best way to get interesting quotes is to ask for a specific topic to be covered in the quote. If this is your first time sending an attachment, check with the reporter to find out his or her preferences.
The Media Advisory
What Kind of Release Should You Send?
Headlines
Basic AP Style
Sending Your Release through E-mail
Press Releases Don’t Always Have to Be about an Event
A Note about Releases for New Services
Two Tips about Keywords
Get Better Results from Your Releases
Public Service Announcements—PSAs General Guidelines for PSAs
Thirty second announcements are the most frequently played, but prepare ten or fifteen second announcements to use as padding.
Outreach
Not to school, but to the soccer field, which happened to be right next to the library. The librarian who wanted to get teenagers into her library saw her outreach as the first step to filling her library.
Trade Shows
Once you know why you are going, ask yourself what you want to achieve with the outreach. One of the biggest mistakes libraries make is paying for a table when all they want to do is network with attendees.
Five Steps to a Successful Show
An example of a key message for libraries might be: "The library just launched a new small business center." Keep it short and sweet. The secondary message adds a little more information, such as "The Small Business Center holds professional workshops and training sessions on an ongoing basis."
Detailing Your Brand
Tell them they can use their photos in their newsletters, but ask them to credit the photo to your library. If you claim to be the best place for teenagers, make sure your table is MTV worthy.
Taking Why to Wow!
If you received comments or suggestions at the conference, mention them on your blog or website. Recreate a popular TV game show with your library as the theme and invite people to participate.
Outreach: The Why Matters—A Worksheet Planning
Plan Your Booth or Table
Design the Booth
Design the Table
Advocacy
Call to Action
If you have a budget allotted for your advocacy efforts, Capwiz XC is Capitol Advantage’s leading online
Make Your Case
Let Other People Tell Their Stories about Your Library
Minnesota, the Southeastern Libraries Cooperating, and the Southeast Library System have created an
Provide an Opportunity for Supporters to Join Your Cause
Set Up Social Network Pages
Set Up a Media Page
Sample Advocacy Campaigns
A Campaign to Keep a Library Open—Jamesburg Public Library
Ohio Libraries
Advocacy Can Change Minds
The New
Marketing Tools
Tools in a Marketing Mix
In the old days, whenever we tried to reach members, we had to spend a lot of money on printing and mailing. The more we understand how these tools work and who uses them, the more effective we are in getting the message out.
Blogging
Love the clear language they use: "On our blog - acpl.info - we'll post cool websites, highlight materials available at the library, and share information about library services you might not have heard of before. To leave a comment on someone else's blog is one of the best ways to increase traffic to your blog.
The Next Step: Making a New Marketing Mix around Web 2.0
Get creative and copy the MOO card idea by making miniature cards with cute photos from your blog on them. If your blog has reviews of books, be sure to post them on Amazon.com as well.
Advertising
One way to expand the reach of your presentation is to allow others to use it for their presentations. This is a great way to help other groups get to know your library.
You can offer discounts for print, fax, or copy services at your library or offer coupons for the library store, paid programs, or give a free book sale item. As marketers, it's our job to be aware of the tools as they appear and to choose the ones that help us best get our message across.
Wikis
An incredible example of the power of "tweeting" took place all over Topeka, Kansas, home of David Lee King (www.davidleeking.com). David and the general manager of the local television station tweeted the board's public comments and deliberations.
Mobile Phones
Flickr
You must have an attorney-approved photo policy for your library before posting photos. Post boards in your library and ask people who post photos from your library to tag them with a tag of your choice.
Videos
The problem with videos is that they can be time consuming to make and edit. You can also include the link in your newsletters and as part of your email signature.
Funny, Cool, or Inappropriate?
If you don't have the staff or the budget, you can have your clients create videos for you, post them on YouTube, and then simply cut and paste the embed code to your website, blogs, and MySpace pages. The advantage of YouTube is that it is the number one site, so you can easily embed YouTube videos on most social media pages, which is important for beginners.
Add secondary polls that ask kids to name people they'd like to poll on the topic. And the great thing is that because it's online, you can reach children at home.
Podcasting
Keeping in mind that podcasting is about building relationships will help you stay focused. If you are using a unidirectional microphone, if the bang is too big, you can aim the microphone at neck level.
Grid Test
Once you have chapters, you can also add links to the chapters so listeners can click on a URL to learn more. In addition to factual information, you can also add advisory information for your podcast, from clean (suitable for all ages) to explicit.
Design
Dollar-Store Solutions
You and Your New Best Friend (Hint, It’s a Designer) Initial Stage of Working with a Designer
Being specific doesn't mean telling the designer to move some text to the left by an eighth of an inch. You can't be afraid to say what you want, but you should also try to be open to the ideas and feedback the designer offers.
Choosing a Designer
Be sure to check out their portfolio (if you're inquiring about print work, ask to see print work - don't choose online work). You can work with a different designer on each project to find out which visual style suits your target audience.
Finding Stock Photos, or… The Death of Clip Art
If you download a ton of images in a month, it makes sense to pay for a subscription plan (for a flat rate you can download a certain number of images each day). If you're considering a subscription plan, take a week and evaluate the quality of each site's collection.
Design Terminology
If you're struggling to match your marketing message to the free image you found, it's time to do your research and research paid sites. If you change your message to match the image, you will end up confusing your customers.
Clip Art Alternatives
You can easily convert any image to your desired DPI, but you will affect the final image size. If you have a designer create a logo for you, be sure to get a vector version of the logo so you can use it on anything from the Web to a billboard without losing image quality.
Pantone
A color printer typically represents any color by printing different amounts of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black on a piece of paper. A computer screen or television displays any color in varying amounts of red, green, and blue.
Professional Printers versus Ganged Printers versus Office Printers
For the little ones, look at a compact printer, or if you're trying to build a relationship with a professional printer you've worked with in the past, it might be worth giving them the job if the price difference is enough nominal. Unless you have stock in a paper company, you'll be limited to the paper you have on hand, and other than folding and double-sided printing, you won't have many finishing options.
Printer Cheat Sheet
The price a printer quotes for a job can vary greatly from printer to printer, depending on the specifications of that job. Stick with the office printer when printing things for which quality is not paramount.
A Note about Your Marketing and the Web
Branding
The first step is to select one or two fonts for use on each publication of the organization. The second step is to design or update your logo and make sure it is used on anything and everything the public can see.
Brand Czar
Branding is crucial to your marketing success; your marketing materials should be instantly recognizable the moment someone looks at them.
A brand czar is someone at your institution who is the clearinghouse for any piece of information released to
Branding is important, but your first step should be to set standards for your brand. But it's probably best to keep educating and hope they come in droves.
Baby Steps to Branding
Don't worry if you're not happy with your logo; instead worry about creating visual consistency now to lay the groundwork for that new logo when you get it. If we establish ourselves as players in the community using our brand, we will have much more flexibility to be creative with our programs, products and services.
Elements of a Brand
Branded Materials
Marketing Best Practices
Repositioning
Getting to Know Your Audience
Think of every ad you see or hear as research material
Important Things to Look For
There is nothing worse than a person outside of a certain age group using slang inappropriately, so do it sparingly.
Be Aware of Marketing and Design Everywhere
Assessment
You want patrons to tell you exactly what they think of your resources, services, or whatever you ask them about. That's why it's so important to find someone who can ask questions impartially without being emotionally invested in the answers.
Corporate Sponsorship
To-Dos
Internal Marketing
Internal marketing is all of the communication that you
Result: The people in your organization understand the role of marketing in supporting the VMGs. Result: The people in your organization will begin to understand the role marketing plays in articulating your value.
Marketing is about communicating values clearly and concisely
Internal Marketing Ideas Create a Publication Wall
A sign-up sheet that departments, teams or committees can use if they want the marketing team to come to their meetings. Create a marketing portfolio of all the designs you've created with the corresponding typography sheet – you can do this on paper or invite people electronically to view the information and comment.
Take the time to document your marketing best practices so that you can build the institutional
Take the time to document your marketing best practices so you can build the mindset.
Succession Planning
Index
