Library Marketing: Why it Absolutely Matters

Yesterday, I (finally) finished typing up the brainstorming sheets from our session at the team meeting about Workshops and Programs. While I hope to spend some blog space talking about each portion of that brainstorming session, marketing is foremost in my mind.

I relate to marketing and marketers. Part of my love of marketing stems from the stigma attached to being a young library director - or a librarian at all. I've had to consistently challenge the views of non-library colleagues, friends and family about the value and rigor of my work. Most conversations about the library with non-librarians have been, at least in part, a sales pitch.

Another part of my love of marketing is my love of making something different out of what already exists. An interior design term for this concept is "repurposing". It's kind of like taking leftover roast turkey and turning it into a casserole or soup. Although, unlike a turkey soup, the results of repurposing related to marketing are usually fresh, innovative, and easy on the eyes & the stomach.

Marketing is vital to our role as librarians. Without a degree in marketing or an understanding of its ins and outs, I'd even argue that it's essential to almost any job. At very least, we must self-market. Very few products in today's world truly sell themselves; the worker bee is the least of these. No matter how good you are at your job, you have to make others aware of the great job that you are doing and the great job that you're going to continue to do. It's not bragging; it's self preservation. What is a commercial other than a company bragging about how good its product is? However, self-marketing is for a different day.

We are not a culture of students and faculty who clamor to the library in search of the depths of our databases, piling on interlibrary loans and seeking obscure texts. I think that as a team we could agree that we are a culture of the "instant answer" - dare I say Google - or maybe even a culture of apathy where no research is preferred to any research. How then, in this culture, can we expect students to seek out tools such as NetLibrary or Points of View? Marketing. Because the secret of marketing is not to tell students what they should use, but instead to reveal to them what they've needed all along.

So how does resource marketing work?

1. Create a need. Consider a carpet cleaner commercial. How many times is something spilled or stained in a commercial? And it's always something impossible to get out - wine or grass stains or ketchup. Consumers who see this commercial can relate to the need. In other words, you need to think about the timing and the audience that you are addressing when you are marketing a database. Are you advertising childcare resources in your child care classroom? What do you put in the Digital Design room?

The need concept works well when marketing to faculty, too. They have needs to provide content related to the course, to provide assignments, to enhance learning, to collaborate. How can a database meet this need?

2. Introduce the product. Yes, we have links to the databases on our website - but how many students and faculty have you spoken to that don't know how to access the Portal? Advertisers use pictures and text everywhere to convey the message that something is available to meet a need. How can you physically market a database to attract a user without singing its merits?

3. Be specific. Don't introduce a suit of databases, or a database and Noodlebib, in one marketing "campaign." Address one need at a time, and address it concisely so that your consumer isn't overwhelmed with data. Very few commercials will try to sell more than one product at a time (unless they are closely related and complement each other).

4. Meet the need. You've introduced a problem to your consumer (and just one problem). How do you solve that problem? A student needs books that they can search. Netlibrary lets you search books - how about that! Remember that you are control of the marketing destiny of each product that you put out there. You have to make up the mind of the consumer before you even put your plan out in public.

5. Use professional tools. Don't create a brochure when a poster will do. Use images instead of text - but make sure they are clean images that don't like copied and altered thrice over. Use easy to read, large fonts in attractive colors. When available, use glossy, heavy-weight papers.

6. Think outside the box. One suggestion from the brainstorm was to use baby bibs to promote Noodlebib. Or, you can create a poster of pastas with a phrase "what's your favorite noodle"? NetLibrary suggests putting a beach chair with a sunhat and sunscreen in a location with a sign on it that says "ebooks wherever you are.. or wherever you want to be". The possibilities for promoting your resources in new and alternative ways that spark interest because you are meeting a need will bring in results.



What are your ideas for marketing our resources?