Library Marketing Basics

by Mark Aaron Polger

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442239630
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/26/2019
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	332
Sales rank:	558,044
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.00(d)

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.

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

Editorial Reviews

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.

Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association

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.

Choice Reviews

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.

Marketing Library Services

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!

Christie Koontz

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.

Booklist

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!

Laura Solomon

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.

Ned Potter

Reviewer: Scott Buchanan, Master's in Library Science(Duquesne University)
Description: This is an excellent overview of the marketing of a library with promotional concepts, terms, and strategies for librarians working in any field.
Purpose: The book presents a foundation and next steps for library workers who have just started promoting their institutions. Beginning with a survey of basic terminology and concepts, the book acquaints readers with the landscape of marketing in libraries. Th author takes great care in describing the varying degrees with which library workers may carry out the work of marketing their libraries. In a field where staffing is often lean, the author shows that marketing and promotion is infrequently the sole responsibility of one particular position or department. The first chapters also illustrate the growing importance of marketing library services and programs as usage data and other metrics continue to show a decline in traditional library services.
Audience: The author's experience is as an academic librarian in the CUNY system who has actively published and presented on his library marketing work. But the book is not just for academic library workers. The lessons and practical instructions for successful marketing can be applied to public and special libraries.
Features: When the book moves past the overview and situational analysis, readers find a very practical guide to marketing libraries using traditional and nontraditional methods. Possibly the most important chapters (and most likely to go out of date quickly) are those about online and social media marketing. The author guides readers through several frequently used social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), first explaining the tools and how they are generally used, then providing practical information such as the best times to post, how to converse with your audience, and how to automate posting with auxiliary programs like Buffer or Hootsuite. Library marketers may find the sections on web analytics and user experience helpful as they look forward to reporting the impact of their marketing efforts.
Assessment: While the book is geared toward first-time marketers, even novice readers may find the initial descriptions of the concepts and programs unnecessary. Once readers make it past the introductory material, they will find the authors experience, enthusiasm, and clear writing incredibly valuable to their understanding of marketing in libraries.

Doody's Review Service

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.

-- "Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association"

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.

-- "Choice Reviews"

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.

-- "Against the Grain"

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.-- "Booklist"

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!--Christie Koontz, School of Information, Florida State University

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!--Laura Solomon, author of The Librarian's Nitty-Gritty Guide to Content Marketing

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.-- "Public Services Quarterly"

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.-- "Marketing Library Services"

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.--Ned Potter, author of the Library Marketing Toolkit

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.-- "Doody's Review Service"

From the Publisher

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.

Against the Grain

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.

Booklist

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.

Choice

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.

Public Services Quarterly

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.

CHOICE