Library Marketing Basics

Here is an accessible, step-by-step, easy to understand, and hands-on resource for any librarian who is interested in learning basic marketing tips to raise the profile of their library. While other books on library marketing are dense and assume that the library has a full-time marketing staff person, a publicist, a graphic designer, and a big fat budget., this book offers tips and tricks (often free) that any librarian can do to market the library. It will focus on the small changes to the services a library provides to raise its profile. Library Marketing Basics is designed for beginners who are new to library marketing. Any librarian can market their library, but they must understand what true marketing is all about, and how to do it right. In this guide, you'll: Learn what true library marketing is, and what it’s not Plan a large scale marketing campaign / awareness campaign on a shoestring budget Learn how to market yourselves as librarians! Develop your own professional identity and brand Learn tips and tricks on obtaining buy-in from your colleagues and the entire organization, even if they are resistant! Learn how to develop relationships with stakeholders in order to raise the profile of your library You'll also find practical examples from the non-library /corporate sector on how to use currently existing marketing tools and apply them to your library. The book focuses on developing a “library” brand, in addition to creating an effective marketing plan, social media guidelines, identifying assessment tools, and providing best practices when developing signage, writing website vocabulary, and designing promotional materials. Library Marketing Basics will show that you don’t need a big budget to market the library. You just need a small team of like-minded colleagues to brainstorm creative ways to raise awareness with your audience. Marketing is all about the valuable intangible and tangible aspects (of your library) and how you connect them with your users.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. What Marketing Really Is Identifying the different branches of marketing Learning marketing-related terms used throughout the book Applying the 4Ps of marketing Illustrating the 5 elements of the promotional mix Understanding the cycle of true marketing Discovering why library employees confuse marketing terminology Chapter 2. Segmentation: Identifying Your Target Market Overview of market segmentation, targeting, and positioning Different ways of segmenting markets Differences between target market and target audience Positioning statements, product differentiation, and perceptual maps Library-specific differentiation techniques Chapter 3. Defining Market Research Distinguishing market research from marketing research Market Research Steps Assessing your current situation Conducting a SWOT analysis Conducting a community needs assessment Identifying your target market Designing your research approach Using primary and second research methods Evaluating data and making informed decisions Chapter 4. Creating Your Library Marketing Plan Why library marketing plans are useful Selecting the key members who will develop the plan Key elements of a library marketing plan Sample library marketing plans Chapter 5. Campaigns: Developing Activities, Events, and Materials to Promote Your Library Defining a Campaign Types of Campaigns Components of a Campaign Examples of campaigns from libraries and the corporate sector Chapter 6.Creating Your Own Library Brand Defining “brand” and “branding” Identifying the key elements of a library brand Conducting a brand audit to learn your library’s story Creating your library’s unique brand Creating your own personal brand Chapter 7. Identifying Library Spaces as Marketing Opportunities Highlighting the library as the “third place” Examining merchandising techniques for the library Introducing user experience (UX) design, as it applies to library space Identifying library touchpoints Illustrating best practices for signage Chapter 8.Using the Web to Market the Library Using your library web site as a marketing tool Understanding mobile and responsive web sites Understanding User Experience Design, as it relates to the web Examining web site usability testing methods Exploring search engine optimization (SEO) and Google analytics Chapter 9. Social Media Marketing Introduction to social media Explanations of the major social networking sites and how to use them Posting strategically Automating social media posting Social media policy guidelines and sample policies Social media advertisements Social media analytics Chapter 10. Advocacy: An Integral Component of Marketing Your Library Anyone can be an advocate Friends of the Library and Library Foundations Training Staff as Advocates Word-of-Mouth Marketing (WOMM) Advocacy Campaigns Speaking with the Media Speaking to Legislators

About the Author :
Mark Aaron Polger is the First Year Outreach Librarian at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York (CUNY) and an Information Literacy instructor at ASA College. He has written and presented internationally on topics such as library marketing strategies, faculty outreach, information literacy campaigns, and library signage. He has been working as a professional librarian for the last 20 years. Originally from Montreal (Canada), Polger moved to New York City in 2008.

Review :
Polger (College of Staten Island, CUNY) provides a comprehensive overview of library marketing. He walks librarians through the process of identifying a target audience, conducting market research, creating a marketing plan, and undertaking a whole suite of activities to carry out that plan. Examples pulled from successful library marketing practices illustrate how Polger’s advice looks when applied to real-life situations. Polger follows his own advice regarding information organization: he divides chapters into short sections with clear headings, a format that makes navigating the information on a specific task or campaign easy. The effort to include all library types. . . draws attention to the transferability of approaches across academic, public, and special-library marketing. This practical book is also a reminder that anything from a retweet to library furniture plays a role in marketing the library. This volume will be valuable for professionals taking on the task of marketing for the first time and for students in library and information science marketing courses. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals. Librarians often shy away from marketing because it sounds like corporate salesmanship, and the idea of a library as something to be commodified and sold makes many uncomfortable. If they do manage to overcome their anxiety and brave the marketing world, their lack of training means their efforts are often misguided and ineffective, even uninformed, sporadic, and not centered on the user. This thoughtfully written guide is designed "to reduce your fear and resistance to library marketing." In contrast to the idea of selling a product or service, Polger posits that marketing a library is all about building relationships and making sure that specific audience needs are met. In clear language and with step-by-step instructions, he guides the reader through audience segmentation, market research, marketing plans, branding, web and social media marketing, and library advocacy. Numerous examples, drawn from university, public, and special libraries, illustrate the key elements of successful marketing plans, like survey questions, timelines, target audience matrices, and promotional materials. Readers are introduced to concepts like brand statements, taglines, positioning, budget, and return on investment. A well-conceived, highly practical, and highly recommended reference guidebook. This book, Library Marketing Basics, is one of the tools you can study to help you achieve marketing greatness . . . Studying [this book] will enable readers to understand the what, why, and how of the craft. Library Marketing Basics is extremely accessible and methodical introduction to library marketing, and one that is written with a great deal of enthusiasm. 315 pages of pure gold that should be required foundation reading for everyone in the profession. This is an excellent overview of the marketing of a library with promotional concepts, terms, and strategies for librarians working in any field. . . . [readers] will find the author's experience, enthusiasm, and clear writing incredibly valuable to their understanding of marketing in libraries. The information presented in Library Marketing Basics gives a good introduction to marketing in general, but the greatest value to librarians lies in its specific applications to and examples from a variety of different libraries. The explanations are thorough and present sometimes complex marketing concepts in an easy-to-read and understandable manner. The examples are very valuable in that readers can see how other libraries have applied the concepts detailed in the book to develop real-world analyses and implemented marketing plans and campaigns. I plan to keep this book on my reference shelf to consult before developing marketing strategies in the future. The best thing about this book is how well thought-out it is. The chapters begin with defining marketing and selecting targeted audiences and progress through step-by-step basics of marketing tools from signs to social media presences. In the forward to the book, Kathy Dempsey, founding chair of Library Marketing Conference and author of The Accidental Library Marketer, notes that this book is unique among library marketing books in the attention that is given to process and why things can work rather than relying on anecdotal examples alone. Library Marketing Basics is a good approach to step-by-step, true marketing, offering example marketing plans and insight into newer media tools. Polger’s enthusiasm for marketing is catching! Polger has written a must-read primer for anyone who is new to library marketing. This will be your go-to guide to get you thinking like a professional marketer! This is a comprehensive introduction to library marketing, full of useful examples and great ideas. It guides you through the whole process and gives you tools you can use right away.