On Men, Elevator Speeches, and Market Segments

from Illinois Libraries Matter blog  post on May 10, 2013

At the 2012 ILA Conference in Peoria, a librarian told me about a frustrating experience she’d had.  She’d tried to convince a young man in his ’20′s that the library had relevance for him. She was unsuccessful.  She told me the story, and turning to me, she asked, “What’s the benefit?”"What’s the benefit?” is a phrase that comes to us from advertising, and I think what she meant was, “what could I have said to this young man that would have persuaded him to come into the library?”  I’m afraid I was completely unprepared for this question, although I shouldn’t be:  it seems to come up every so often.

On another recent occasion, I found myself making conversation with the man who helped me when I ran out of gas. I asked him about his reading, and he said that he had a Kindle, that he liked to read W.E.B. Griffin, and that he saw no need for libraries in the future because everyone would be using an e-reader. I should have said something to contradict him, immediately, but I didn’t.  I didn’t have an answer, or “a benefit,” for him, either.

Poplar Creek Public Library’s Laura Brad reading W.E.B. Griffin’s The Spymasters.

 After some thought, I’ve realized that thinking about market segmentation for guys in creating an elevator speech is a way to respond to these particular challenges.  For the kinds of real-life encounters I’ve described, it’s good to be prepared with an “elevator speech,” a list of two to three items you can talk about at a moment’s notice.   To create this ready-made answer, it’s important to think a little about market segmentation.

Market segmentation is a marketing strategy that involves dividing a broad audience, like the users of a library, into subsets of customers with common tastes or needs. Having a teen department is an example of market segmentation.

Identify the library’s market segments and identify the products most likely to excite that segment.  In the case of preparing an “elevator speech,” it’s even more important to think about the male segment.   Men are more frequently not users of libraries, so it is more important to be prepared with a short list of items likely to appeal to men.

I should have suggested to my colleague at ILA that in a similar situation she could offer an elevator speech of two to four items, something like, “There’s a lot for guys your age at the library:  videos, CDs, video games and graphic novels.”

I should have suggested to the man with the Kindle that, with a librarian as his guide, he might discover many other authors that might interest him. I might have said to him, ”If you enjoy Griffin you might enjoy knowing you can “check out” Griffin books on your ereader for free from the library website.” If he were a commuter, he might enjoy listening to Griffin on audiobook. And if he ran out of books to read, he could turn to his librarian for suggestions for new, but similar, authors to read.

One of my favorite examples of market segmentation I learned about from Building a Buzz: Libraries & Word of Mouth Marketing. The director of a library in Wyoming visited car shops in her community, distributing posters and stickers on the Chilton’s car repair database that featured the “Mudflap Girl” of truck mudflap fame, now shown reading a book. The guys in the repair shops found it funny, while some librarians questioned its taste. But it sparked a lot of discussion, and the uses of the Chilton’s database jumped to 800 a month.Use market segmentation to think about who your audience is and make your marketing appealing and accessible to that segment. When I organized a job fair for my library, I asked myself where I could find job seekers and then publicized the event at the unemployment office and the Township’s job club.

Men and boys are often underrepresented among the users of libraries, and perhaps are the most likely to believe that the library has nothing for them.  Considering them as a market segments will be the first step in converting them into regular users.  Identify the products that appeal to them, and get your elevator speech on –  promote those products for given in ways that are likely to reach them, and enjoy the pleasure of bringing library patrons together with the things they love!

I would love to hear from you in the comments! Let me know what kind of elevator speech you use to promote your library?  Do you have more than one?  Which has proved to be most effective?

Elizabeth Neill is the Outreach Librarian at the Poplar Creek library.

Recording the Love

During National Library Week, Altoona Public Library tried something new.  They asked people to explain why they love the library or why it's important to them and write it on a slip of paper.  They collected these and it was quite impressive. 

They also had a Patron Appreciation Day midweek which helped them get more responses.  A few library board members came by to chat with patrons and help out.  They sat by a table and encouraged everyone walking by to fill out a slip.

Library Directory, Christina Jones, had a nice chat with the mayor about the importance of having a way to convey the impact of the library on the community beyond just hard numbers.  This was a good (and easy) way to start gathering these types of lasting impact the library has on the community.  Nice work Christina!

Marketing Libraries Is like Marketing Mayonnaise

By Ned Potter in lj.libraryjournal April 18, 2013 

Ned Potter

If you make one small change to the way you contextualise your marketing efforts, it can yield big results. It’s subtle but important, and here’s how to go about it.

Marketing libraries is a tough business, for all kinds of reasons. Lack of time, lack of funds, lack of other resources. The fact that public perception of what libraries actually do is about 15 years behind the reality in a lot of cases. But also the fact that there’s often a fundamental misunderstanding about what marketing should actually achieve.

People will often run a small marketing campaign—perhaps some posters, some leaflets, some emails—and are disappointed when the return on investment isn’t what they hoped. We told people all about our new service, so why didn’t more of them show up? But think about how much it takes to make you, as a consumer, take any actual action. Think about last time marketing ‘worked’ on you—was it a one-off promotion? Did you see an advert for a car, then get your coat on and go out and buy a car? Almost certainly not—most marketing works over a long period of time. A lot of library marketing expects people to see, for example, a promotion for a session on genealogy, then rush out there and then and book place to start researching their family tree. Of course, it’s possible to achieve this on occasion, but you need to be some kind of marketing genius to do it regularly!

In marketing workshops I like to use the example of Helman’s Mayonnaise. Helman’s (which, Twitter reliably informs me, is also known in different parts of North America as Best Foods Mayonnaise) advertises in a lot of places. The company advertises in magazines. It advertises on the subway. It advertises on television. It even advertises on the bonnet of the racers in NASCAR. They key thing to remember, which I’ll return to in a moment, is this: no one ever rushed out from a NASCAR race to buy some mayo…

Here’s one of Helman’s TV adverts in the UK:

Now, as it happens, I don’t find the folky, cutesy tone of this advertisement particularly appealing—but here’s the thing: I do have some Helman’s mayo in my fridge at home. Why? Because when I was in the supermarket and I needed mayonnaise, they were the first brand I thought of (because of all those ads across all those different platforms)—the jar was there on the shelf, I’d heard of the brand, I associated it with what I needed, and I’m not some kind of mayonnaise expert who can make extremely discerning choices…

Now think about your library marketing. How are you expecting people to respond? One-off promotions expect too much of our users and potential users. It’s more important (and more realistic) to build up awareness of the services we offer to relevant groups over a period of time, so that when they DO require something we provide, we’re the first thing they think of. When that person eventually gets round to researching their family tree, they think ‘Ah, I know the library can help me with this.’

This is why strategic marketing works so well—a joined-up approach, rather than a series of unrelated promotions. It’s ‘a series of touches at key times,’ as marketing guru Terry Kendrick would say, in the way the users live their lives. It’s different versions of the same message across multiple formats (traditional marketing, social media, and so on) to reinforce the message and to reach people who wouldn’t otherwise hear what you have to say. If everything you do works together and builds on what you’ve done before, it creates an ambient awareness of the services the library provides, and enables us to be what people think of when they need what we do.

Is your marketing the equivalent of trying to make people rush out of the NASCAR race early to buy the mayonnaise? If so, you may be disappointed. But if, over time, you position the brand of the library to be the authoritative source of the kinds of services you provide, then people will think of you when they need you, and then they’ll walk in through the door—and from there you can build a more meaningful relationship and introduce them to what else you have to offer.

A GREAT WAY TO INCREASE ACCESS TO DIGITAL CONTENT

Finally I wanted to mention what New York Public Library is doing with digitized collections. To quotethe press release:

“The NYPL Digital Collections API not only provides access to the digitized collections of the NYPL, but provides access to over 1 million objects and records that can be searched, crawled, manipulated and integrated into websites and applications. This advanced programming capability has been made possible due to significant portions of the digitized collections being made available as machine-readable data.”

This is FANTASTIC. I don’t want to get into the technical details of what API means, but there are two useful examples to illustrate why this is such a good idea. First of all, it was the fact that Twitter opened up its API which allowed third-party developers to create the useful social media dashboards and apps which in many cases improve the Twitter user experience—it’s what helped Twitter grow to the second biggest social network in the world. And the iTunes App Store’s massive popularity (and, therefore, that of apps in general) is almost entirely down to Apple opening up the production of apps to all, rather than limiting them to their own proprietary creations. In both these cases, massive popularity and growth has come from making a platform available and letting others come in and use it, just as the NYPL is doing. I can only imagine this is going to be hugely successful, and I think it’s a fantastic example for others to follow. We spend an enormous amount digitising our collections, so let’s make sure as many people have access to them, and benefit from them, as possible.

Ned Potter is an Academic Liaison Librarian at the University of York, where he’s also heavily involved with marketing activities. He’s the author of The Library Marketing Toolkit (Neal-Schuman, 2012) and writes and speaks widely on the subject of marketing information services. You can follow him on Twitter @theREALwikiman, and find his website atwww.librarymarketingtoolkit.com.

IFLS System Wide Planning Meeting

On Wednesday April 3rd, IFLS hosted a day-long planning meeting at Florian Gardens, in Eau Claire.  About 63 IFLS staff,  our member library directors and staff as well as ILFS trustees attended the day.  Large and small group discussions took place on a variety of topics relating to IFLS.  There was a lot of great input and ideas that will help IFLS proceed wisely.  Thank you to all who attended.  

IFLS Director, John Thompson

National Library Week is Coming! April 14-20th

Celebrate National Library Week 2013 with the theme:  Communities Matter @ Your Library

National Library Week Honorary Chair: Caroline Kennedy

There are some nice FREE promotional materials available from ALA: 

A printable color poster, PSA's (public service advertisements), a press release, scripts and sample letter to the editor as well as a couple audio PSA's.  ALA offers more materials for purchase.  You can use the digital PSA's  on your website or facebook post!

Visit this link to download:

http://www.ala.org/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/natlibraryweek

EveryoneOn Campaign

Public Libraries and the "EveryoneOn" Ad Campaign: Getting Prepared. 

Join the Department of Public Instruction library teams for a webinar at 9 a.m. on Thursday, February 21, to learn how individual Wisconsin libraries can benefit from EveryoneOn, an upcoming nationwide library marketing initiative. The EveryoneOn campaign, which launches on March 21, 2013, has the potential to heighten public awareness of the key role libraries can play in fostering digital literacy. During Thursday’s webinar, library directors in Wisconsin will learn about next steps your library can take to participate in this program. One goal of the program is to encourage members of the public to learn the skills they need to do one new thing online to facilitate education, careers, and connecting with family.

Through the webinar you’ll learn about the next steps your library can take to ensure your programs and services are accurately represented on the EveryoneOn website and resource list. Public library systems and resource libraries are encouraged to help coordinate the rollout, by highlighting local digital literacy resources and tools, planning local outreach efforts, and sharing the training resources being developed by DPI, BadgerLearn, the Public Library Association, and the Connect2Compete community.

The February 21 training session for public library directors or their training staff will be held from 9 to 10 a.m. on Thursday, February 21, as a Blackboard webinar. To login (within 30 minutes of the session), please go to (shortened link) http://bit.ly/VUbh6a and enter your name to join the session.

Login recommendations:
If you have not used Blackboard Collaborate before, please allow at least 5 minutes before the session to download the software and login. More time may be required if you need to update your version of Java. You should have speakers or headphones for your computer for the audio (a microphone is not required—questions can be submitted via chat)

A recent version of Java is required. To test to ensure that your current version of Java works with Collaborate, please go to: http://bit.ly/BbSystemTest If you need to update or download Java, go to:http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp

How to Make Library eBooks More Visible

By Michael Kozlowski

from blog http://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/how-to-make-library-ebooks-more-visible/

Many libraries are investing in a digital infrastructure to allow patrons to borrow ebooks on their phones, tablets, and e-readers.Overdrive currently is the largest company that facilitates the entire lending process and many libraries are suffering from poor visibility to their visitors. Libraries traditionally spend $10,000 or more in setting up their digital ecosystem and trained staff on how to assist customers. The big issue is how do libraries promote the fact they have ebooks and what measures can they take to ensure public awareness?

Recently, staff members at Sacramento Public Library came up with a clever way to connect its physical and digital collections: they place “Now in eBook Format!” stickers on the covers of corresponding titles in the physical collection. These stickers were printed in bulk and direct customers to the library’s website where people can sign up to borrow books online. It promotes the ebook service, without having to spend more money in marketing materials.

Another great way to promote a library’s ebook collection is to develop shelf cards. These can be inserted into the books themselves or placed underneath them. This gives patrons a picture of the cover art and name of the book, as well as a web-link to the book entry in the library’s computer system. This is a little bit more extensive, but libraries have seen a 100% increase in loan-checkouts when they employ this method.

The Mid-Continent Public Library developed a number of savvy posters and then digitized them to promote it on their website. These marketing materials were aimed at people who never used an e-reader or borrowed a digital book before. It encouraged people who had an e-reader that they had the ability to borrow books for free. Since they employed this method, checkouts increased by over 54%.

eBooks dwell exclusively in the digital space and sometimes it’s hard for libraries to promote their digital strategy. Crossing over from the electronic world to the tangible world can be a daunting endeavor. Libraries can do simple things like add stickers to all of their books and make some posters in Adobe Photoshop to promote them. Setting up WIFI hotspots is also relevant so people can visit the library if they don’t have that sort of internet at home to borrow books wirelessly. Staff can also organize training sessions for borrowing ebooks. All of these things require very little overhead and are proven to increase visibility and checkouts.

In the end, it can be a daunting challenge to promote your library ebook collection. Whether you are dealing with Axis 360, Overdrive, 3M, or a myriad of others, it can be challenging. The best thing to bear in mind is that some promotion is better than none at all. e-Reader and tablet visibility are at an all time high, because of the sheer amount of stores selling them. It is critically important that if you have invested in a digital content distribution system, that you do something to advertise rather than nothing!