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Participant Marketing Ideas: M&M: Maximum Marketing/Minimum Investment   
A rich collection of marketing ideas collected in chat from February 9, 2010, session with Janie Rutherford and Cindi Hickey as part of the Technology Essentials 2010, online conference.
Author:
Session Attendees and compiled by Cindi Hickey
Date Posted:
2/18/10
Topic Pages:
Marketing
Technology Essentials 2010
M&M_participant_marketing_ideas.pdf (43.8k)
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

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From M&M: Maximum Marketing/Minimum Investment session at Technology Essentials 2010 Online Conference

 

M&M:  Maximum Marketing/Minimum Investment Participant Marketing Ideas from the Chat Area

Advertisements:

  • Think about advertising the need rather than the service.
  • Weekly ads in the student newspaper about services and hours.
  • Weekly article in the local newspaper
  • Example:  “since we are big on football, we put an ad in the football program on one of the pages with the players photos, very visible" – where else would a library ad work?

 

Advocating:

A library value calculator lets customers see the value of library services they use.  EngagedPatrons.org offers a Library Savings Calculator free to all public libraries.

 

E-mail:

  • Create an e-mail group of interested library customers
  • E-mail newsletters (program updates, advance sign up and more)
  • Use an e-mail blaster

 

Electronic calendar tools:

 

Foursquare, Google Maps and Yelp – Local reviews for your library:

.

Resources for more ideas:

 

Local Media and other local outlets:

  • Local TV
  • Keep a list of radio stations and newspaper fax numbers to send info to
  • Will the clubs that meet in your meeting rooms give you free advertising?

 

Marketing electronic databases:

  • Table tents for databases
  • Share – show local businesses how they can use the databases
  • Offer training classes and send info to places where people would use it, such as guidance offices
  • Use the database company’s marketing section on their website, or other promotional materials that you can give away.
  • Share database functions on Twitter and Facebook, with neat facts found using the database.
  • Post video tutorials to YouTube
  • Create a desktop and/or screensaver for the library public computers.

 

Marketing inside the library:

  • Check out “slip” includes messages (upcoming programs, etc.)
  • Digital picture frame, computer or kiosk (with wifi) with slide show featuring library programs and services and/or photos at or near the circ desk

 

Marketing Planning:

  • See Alison Circle’s blog posting about a marketing plan template developed by Linda Hazzan, Toronto Public Library at http://bit.ly/aC5Qo5.
  • Ideas for targeting your marketing and verifying your audiences:
    • Demographics from the automated circ database to segment audience
    • Census data
    • When you are surveying the community - start OUTSIDE the library!

 

Marketing strategies:

  • Where's your potential audience? Go there.
  • Set up an editorial workflow to ensure the final product is ready for your community.
  • Recruit local marketing/business students as interns
  • "Those who aren't great at writing copy are good to put on the twitter account. At 140 characters, they usually can't do harm!"
  • "Does anyone have a PR committee? i feel like we have 10 people that do "marketing" but it's not a cohensive venture.”
  • "Our marketing is not coordinated, but it's not a problem, because all our promotion materials go through our director for final approval - she is able to  catch duplication, etc."
  • People need to see something about 5 times to hit them
  • Anticipate the need for information by looking at local initiatives and then target that group
  • Don't limit your target audience to who already shows up

 

Measuring your marketing impact:

  • Do something that requires patron response - forgive fines with a can of food - that way you can measure response.
  • Constant Contact for e-mail newsletter http://www.constantcontact.com also provides statistics
  • Demographics in Facebook for fans
  • Ask people how they heard about an event/program in evaluation/feedback forms.

 

Paper marketing:

  • "Use free business cards available online to boost your activites. Let patrons help you. For instance, moms can hand out biz cards about your storytimes when they're on the playground."
  • List our programs and services on bookmarks
  • Placemats (for the local diner)
  • Monthly newsletter
  • Fortune cookies
  • Table tents at the computers to market databases
  • “Library 24: We never close" bookmark lists day hours and what you can do in the building and closed hours and what you can access through the website.  (ACLS)

 

Partners, collaborators, helpers:

  • Partner with other local organizations such as public radio, chamber, merchants associations
  • Find the bloggers in your community and share events/press releases with them; put your postings on other local blogs
  • Build good relationships with local media  Examples:  "Marion, IN Public Library has a good relationship with a local radio personality. We are often on the the air with him during his morning talk program."
  • Network with local schools, other educational organizations
  • If you do an activity like National Novel Writing Month, you can use its forum to publicize your activities, attracting new patrons to your programs.
  • School break eFlyers to parents  --  free/low cost activities to keep kids learning
  • Volunteers with tech skills would help with time - http://www.VolunteerMatch.org
  • Ask the grocery to hand out coupons for library programs and services

 

Practice subversive marketing!  What is it?  Writing your library’s website url on chalkboards on the sidewalk (sidewalk chalk), putting your search widget on other people's websites… what creative, subversive ideas have you tried?

 

Presentations, events and outreach:

  • Display at local health fair
  • Community's craft fairs – “people love seeing us out in the community”
  • Local senior fair
  • Missoula Public in MT shows up with library services in unexpected places... farmers market, fair and does outreach at community clinics and foodbanks
  • “Library takeout" - go to community events, sign folks up/let them know about services and programs
  • “We've had a booth at our community's downtown festivals, frequently with children's department doing crafts.”
  • "Each fall we do a special program for the local Learn More Center (low-income families) and introduce them to library programs, services, library card sign up.

 

Programming to bring the customers in:

  • Game night
  • Coffee night during exams
  • Georgia Center for the Book - outstanding authors bring in a lot of patrons
  • For National Library Week we are buying small flowers with a label of our library.  Patrons get two flowers, one to keep and one to give to a friend.
  • At my little library, we had customer appreciation day with cookies and cider-they loved it!
  • Do a Brownie-Bakeoff.  Patrons enter brownies, patrons (and staff!) taste and vote for their favorite brownies, and the winners receive a free cookbook and get their names in our newsletter, along with their "award-winning" recipe

 

Social media:

  • Facebook     

Examples:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Marion-IN/Marion-Public-Library/73054986168,

      http://www.facebook.com/ButtePublicLibrary

 

  • Flickr

Examples:  I'm marketing digital history database on Flickr... images each include link to entire text and the digital history website, I saw a librarian load book covers to flickr and posted reviews. awesome.

 

  • RSS feeds (library website, blogs, etc.)

Examples: Teens, I have a blog The Librarian's Brain to promote databases and our information guides.

 

  • Twitter

Examples: "if you want to save time, you can update both facebook and twitter http://www.facebook.com/twitter/"

 

  • YouTube (video tutorials, library advocacy)
  • Podcasts

Examples:  we do podcasts of authors, we are making podcasts tutorials and also oral history podcasts and link on our web site

 

  • Library website and putting library info on other organizations’ websites

 

Special libraries:

Example:  "I run a special library, so we have a dedicated intranet page (in Sharepoint) and update it regularly to keep people coming back.  I also make announcements in our internal newsletter."

 

Tools:

 

Try some video:

  • Check out YouTube EDU as an alternative to your own channel

 

Web-based library catalogs:

Evergreen (Georgia) - http://gapines.org/opac/en-US/skin/default/xml/index.xml

 

Word of mouth resources:

Our entire staff markets our library!

library volunteers are great supporters/word of mouth for library

"Use free business cards available online to boost your activites. Let patrons help you. For instance, moms can hand out biz cards about your storytimes when they're on the playground."

e.g. video of patrons talking about what they love about the library? librarian's video reviews? Etc.

Your patrons are part of your marketing department!

 


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