A preview of the Library Marketing Toolkit
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The document provides an overview and preview of "The Library Marketing Toolkit" by Ned Potter. The Toolkit is a book being published in 2011 that covers all aspects of marketing libraries, including public, academic, special, and archive libraries. It includes practical marketing tools and strategies that can be applied to any library on any budget. The book also features over 25 case studies from leading library marketers around the world, providing best practices and expert advice. It aims to inspire libraries to better market and promote themselves through various techniques and channels.
A preview of the Library Marketing Toolkit
- 1. A preview of… … by Ned Potter
- 2. The Toolkit is a book I’ve been writing during 2011, for Facet Publishing, on pretty much all aspects of marketing libraries. It covers Public, Academic and Special Libraries, and Special Collections and Archives too.
- 4. It is a toolkit of ideas to inspire action.
- 5. The Toolkit covers those important marketing tools every library should have, explained and contextualised with advice on how to use them well. It’s extremely practical, with tons of ideas easily applied to your own library
- 6. It covers marketing with social media and other new platforms in depth. It demystifies strategic marketing and explains the process of creating a marketing plan. It gives guidance for marketing on every budget, including plenty that can be done with no cost at all.
- 7. Best of all, the Library Marketing Toolkit has an unparalleled list of case study contributors from the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. This includes 26 of the most respected, forward-thinking and innovative marketers in the information profession, from organisations like the British Library, the National Archive, New York Public Library, JISC, and Cambridge University, providing a mix of expert advice and details of best practice at their own institutions.
- 9. The Introduction contains a plea for libraries to market themselves and an examination of why this is important, and details of the book and the case studies. The Introduction also emphasises that marketing should not be a dirty word in libraries. Marketing libraries is not like marketing shampoo – no one is stretching the boundaries of truth or trying to hoodwink the public. Library marketing is outreach. You can download the whole chapter for free, via CILIP's website (PDF).
- 10. This chapter introduces some important ideas which underpin the techniques and tools described in the rest of the book: in particular, the need to market benefits rather than features.
- 11. Marketing is more successful when it happens as part of a constantly renewing cycle. The aim of this chapter is to demystify the process of strategic marketing, simplifying it into seven key stages with advice on how to implement each one. Particular emphasis is put on dividing your audience and potential audience into segments, and marketing different messages to each group.
- 12. There are case studies from strategic marketing guru Terry Kendrick, on all aspects of marketing strategy; ace library consultant Rebecca Jones on running focus groups and getting feedback from users and non- users; and Library Journal marketing writer Alison Circle on the importance of measuring in strategic marketing.
- 13. A library’s brand is the sum total of everyone else’s perception of it – we can’t control this, but we can attempt to influence it. The chapter looks at branding your library with a high quality visual identity, designing promotional materials, and even library merchandise.
- 14. In the case studies Jessica Wykes provides expert advice on design on a shoestring and producing high quality printed publications; Katy Sidwell takes the reader through the University of Leeds’ hugely successful “Sshhh…!” bag merchandising campaign; and Stephen Pinfield discusses marketing a converged Library and IT Service.
- 15. Closely related to the previous chapter, this section looks at the design, layout and decor of the library and how this can influence the way it is used. There is also some insightful information on what tangible benefits there are to redesigning and refurbishing library premise
- 16. There are two case studies in this chapter: firstly Kevin Hennah, Library Consultant, discusses visual merchandising and library design; then Fiona Williams takes the reader through the successful results of York Explore’s recent renaming, rebranding, and refurbishment process
- 17. This chapter covers the fundamentals of online marketing: the library website (including Search Engine Optimization), its mobile version, library apps, and successfully marketing with e-mail.
- 18. The chapter features three case studies, starting with library tech blogger extraordinaire David Lee King, who talks about the 7 essential elements for an awesome library website; multi-award winning Aaron Tay discusses mobile websites and apps; and Alison Walbutton gives great advice on how to make marketing with email work
- 19. The development of social media is arguably the most important thing to happen to marketing this century, and more and more libraries are making use of various platforms to talk directly to their audience. Your users and potential users are using tools like Facebook and Twitter, so this chapter gives step by step instructions on setting up library presences on these platforms, and then on taking them to the next level. It also covers blogs and Google +.
- 20. Three amazing case studies come from firstly Frances Taylor at the British Library and how they use several social media platforms in their marketing, Kathy Saeed of New York Public Library on their amazing use of Twitter, and Sue Lawson on Manchester Library’s excellent Facebook marketing.
- 21. There are plenty of new technologies which don’t come under the umbrella of social media, but which still make for exciting marketing possibilities. This chapter contains advice on marketing with video, using image-sharing sites, deploying QR codes and the new wave of location-aware mobile applications such as Foursquare.
- 22. Two case studies in this chapter, from Aaron Tay and Justin Hoenke. Aaron rounds up various Web 2.0 tools such as live-reference chat, and Justin talks about marketing to teens using technology
- 23. This section covers collaborating with people and reaching people, including Word of Mouth Marketing, one of the single most important tools in the library toolkit. Other topics covered include reaching remote users, marketing to multicultural communities, elevator pitches, and cross-promotion.
- 24. In this chapter there are three case studies, the first from journalist Rob Green on how to utilise the media in marketing your library; Oriana Acevedo provides some much-need guidance on marketing to multi- cultural communities; and Joanna Wood discusses reaching remote users, on a budget.
- 25. Internal stakeholders often hold the purse-strings to our libraries, so marketing successfully to them is absolutely essential. The first part of this chapter covers language, telling stories, using statistics, marketing upwards and communicating your message well. The second part covers marketing with internal stakeholders, such as a parent company within whose branding guidelines you must promote the library.
- 26. Rosemary Stamp, Director of Stamp Consulting, provides the first case study of this chapter, on delivering key messages to internal stakeholders; Andy Priestner of Cambridge University covers the importance of marketing upwards and generally getting things done; and Susan Moore talks about marketing within the strict branding guidelines of a parent organisation.
- 27. We are all library advocates now as the industry and profession face difficult times. This chapter looks at how to utilize library advocacy in general to market your library in particular, and also covers the echo chamber problem and ‘Trojan Horse advocacy’.
- 28. We are all library advocates now as the industry and profession face difficult times. This chapter looks at how to utilize library advocacy in general to market your library in particular, and also covers the echo chamber problem and ‘Trojan Horse advocacy’. Elizabeth Elford provides the case study for this chapter, on advocacy and marketing.
- 29. Many of the techniques and strategies described in the previous chapters apply equally to marketing special collections and archives, but these areas come with specific challenges of their own. Covered here are marketing digital collections, promoting ancient materials with modern methods, mounting displays and exhibitions, tapping into cultural events at a national level and harnessing the power of crowds to develop and market your collections. Some of these ideas and techniques are applicable across the board, so the chapter isn’t designed to be read only by those working in special collections and archives
- 30. There are four case studies from real experts in the field – Lisa Jeskins of the Archives Hub lays out the basic principles of promoting an archive service; Caroline Kimbell at The National Archive focuses on digitisation and ‘the halo effect’; Alison Cullingford discusses the University of Bradford’s successful 100 Objects campaign; and Ben Showers of JISC talks about harnessing crowd-sourcing as a marketing tool
- 32. …features supporting webpages with further reading and links for all chapters, plus Essential Tools and Resources, presentations, more information about the contributors, and a blog to cover all the newest developments in library marketing. There are also brand-new case studies which were written after the book was completed, from the likes of the Bodleian Library at Oxford, and The UnLibrary.
- 34. In the UK it has just been released, in other countries such as the US and Canada, Australia & New Zealand, India, Japan, the Middle East, the Far East, Eastern Europe, Spain & Portugal, Holland & Belgium and the rest of Europe, it’ll be out shortly. You can click here to buy in the US, via Amazon.com, or if you're in Canada you can click to buy via Amazon.ca or in the UK you can click here to order via Amazon UK. Alternatively, go straight to Facet Publishing’s website to order a copy there.
- 36. Main background image by SophieG* - see the original at http://www.flickr.com/photos/12804795@N06/3880940774/ Front slide image, by Visualologist, used by permission – see the original at http://www.flickr.com/photos/visualogist/3200391521/sizes/z/in/photostream/