burke lmc15 strategy-first library marketing
TRANSCRIPT
Help! I have to market my library NOW!
Common mistakes in planning your marketing -- and how to
avoid them
Jennifer Burke @theinfohound1
Let’s do some research
How many had any courses or exposure to marketing in LIS school?
How many have taken CE or similar courses in marketing? [not counting this or other conferences]
Let’s do some research
How many have numeric-based goals for the library in your marketing plan?
Have you been measuring your outreach efforts?
How frequently do you update your plan?
You are MarketersAnd that’s not an evil word!
I’m multilingual … I speak:
Marketing
Sales & Customer Service
Library
Academic-ese
Research
Jenn i fer Burke, MS L ISPres ident , Inte l l iCraf t Research
Marketing Is Not Tactics!
There are plenty of mistakes in marketing …
and they aren’t limited to libraries!
Mistakes Fall in 4 Main Categories
Strategy
Are you saying the right things, to the right people?
Is everyone on board with your plans?
NumbersYou have to have real #s to shoot for, measure against – otherwise it’s just a nice vision.
ExecutionI never said tactics don’t matter! They just aren’t 1st.
People
A fuzzy strategy can be as bad as no strategy.
10 Common Marketing Mistakes
Not having a full strategy before tactics
No objectives Not having measurable,
quantifiable goals Metrics are missing No targeting, no
personas (AKA trying to do 1-size-fits-all)
Too much ‘me/we’ talk. It’s about ‘them’
Not having a schedule/calendar
‘Wrong’ tactics for wrong purposes
Feature dumping No calls to action
10 Common Marketing Mistakes
Not having a full strategy before tactics
No objectives Not having measurable,
quantifiable goals Metrics are missing No targeting, no
personas (AKA trying to do 1-size-fits-all)
Too much ‘me/we’ talk. It’s about ‘them’
Not having a schedule/calendar
‘Wrong’ tactics for wrong purposes
Feature dumping No calls to action
STRATEGY COMES FIRST
“Tactics have changed. Customers will change.
Strategy does not.”
Strategy
Goals
Strategy
Tactics
Strategy Avoids Stuck
GOALS = WHAT YOU’RE AIMING FOR
“Enrich Educational experience and Intellectual Growth”
“Heighten the value and impact of the Libraries through digital programs and services”
“Young children (5 + under) will have programs and services designed so that they will enter school ready to read, write and listen”
“We will coordinate the information literacy efforts in the University Library and work with the University community to incorporate information literacy in the University curriculum”
What are these?
Oh dear . . . Those were labeled ‘goals’ or worse - ‘action steps’ -in real library documents.
YOU NEED MEASUREMENT
Did it work? Did you adjust? 2 types of metrics
Ongoing (analytics)
Campaign-focused
Measurement tied to actions
Measure for success
A good content-based strategy involves setting measurable long-term goals and monitoring results.
Goals and Measures
Some tactics just work better for certain audiences
Some tactics are better for broad goals vs more specific
Don’t confuse ‘promotion’ with marketing
Right Tactics, Right Purpose
No to ‘feature dumping’ Not about how many databases you have, # journals,
or free wi-fi
No ‘kitchen sink’ ads, flyers or promotional features
Yes to Benefits and Outcomes Emotional benefits are stronger drivers of action vs.
functional benefits
What will free wi-fi and 25 specialized medical databases get the patron?
Talk Benefits, Not Features
Calls to ActionMarketing is about driving
action
Change minds of high schoolers about using specialized databases vs. Google for research
Increase attendance at story hour Call your local politician about supporting
library bonds or increased funding Get freshman to come to a library seminar
on plagiarism, copyright and proper citations
Change – Attitudes, Behaviors
Let’s try it out on a case example
A CASE EXAMPLE
Objective - Increase teen pleasure reading through school library in 2016
Goal - Increase fiction circulation 25%
Target - Freshmen - Juniors Initiative - Monthly book club,
student advisory council picks books
Tactic(s) - In-school flyers, in-library displays, Students create Tumblr acct for books read + share related pics/posts
A CASE EXAMPLE
Objective - Increase teen pleasure reading through school library in 2016
Goal - Increase fiction circulation 25%
Target - Freshmen - Juniors Initiative - Monthly book club,
student advisory council picks books
Tactic(s) - In-school flyers, in-library displays, Students create Tumblr acct for books read + share related pics/posts
What else?
“Libraries are very good at doing things. It feels good
to do something … but thinking your way through is hard work … and we’d rather do than think.”
-- Terry Kendrick, ‘guru’ of library strategic marketing
Jennifer E. Burke [email protected]
@theinfohound1
Slides, Handouts, Case Studies and More at: www.intellicraftresearch.com/LMC15