The Marketing Audit

What are the capabilities of the library?

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Begin the planning process with a marketing audit to determine the library's capabilities, products, and challenges. The marketing audit establishes where the organization is, and why. The marketing audit can suggest directions to meet the library's mission or to improve library usage and performance.

The process of conducting the marketing audit contributes to the final marketing plan by providing a basis for informed decision-making. Effective marketing strategies must be based on internal capabilities, realistic assessment of what the library CAN do, not unrealistic or arbitrary goals. What makes your library unique or special? What do you have to offer? Who says so? What can you do? What can't you do? Can changes be made? What's holding you back?

Take a close, hard look...

The audit has two components: the library self-analysis of strengths and weaknesses and an assessment of the environment or situation in which the library operates. Assessing what the library can do may be difficult. Sometimes "what we've always done" makes it difficult to know "what we really could do."

The 4 Ps

The marketing audit also analyzes the "4P's" of marketing (i.e the marketing mix):

Product - library services available to clients such as interlibrary loan.

Price of Service - direct and indirect costs to produce and deliver the product, or actual fees if any.

Place - delivery and distribution of the products and services.

Promotion - methods to promote products.

Learn more about the marketing audit in Module 2 Planning.

A marketing audit is a systematic self-examination and assessment of the library's activities, including needs and capabilities, and the marketing mix (the 4Ps of product, price, place, and promotion).

Analyze the products of your library:

How many "products" does your library have to offer? Include services as well as resources.

Examples would be reference, children's programming, special events, etc.

Market research

What's new in library marketing?

What are other libraries doing? Start with a good checklist!

Maine Library Association Public Library Standard for marketing and advocacy has an outstanding series of checklists for library marketing assessment.

Ohio libraries

Miami Township Branch clown makes visitors welcome!

Happy the Clown at Miami Township Branch Library helps put visitors at ease.

Learn more?

SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats. Learn more about the marketing audit in Module 2 Planning.

Know the competition

Washington-
Centerville Public Library, Massillon Public Library and Euclid Public Library assess where users spend time.

Ohio book recommendation

Marketing & Libraries DO Mix: A Handbook for Libraries and Information Centers, the State Library of Ohio and H. Baird Tenney, et al. Columbus, OH: State Library of Ohio, 1993. The book describes a six-step process for marketing including defining markets and planning products. About 50 libraries in Ohio own this book.