Review

Module 2: The library marketing planning process

1. Begin the marketing process by examining your library's mission or purpose.

Marketing requires careful planning and begins with understanding the mission of the library. Marketing can help you succeed in your mission, establish a positive image for the library in the community, and determine the best way to provide service to users.

For market planning, consider a mix of team members to provide a broad viewpoint. Consider staff, users, non-users, board members, local businesses, vendors, supporters, media representatives, and others, to represent the specific demographics of your community. Look for expertise, willingness, and motivation.

2. Assess library capabilities with a marketing audit, an internal assessment.

The marketing audit consists of an internal assessment of strengths and weaknesses and an environmental (situational) assessment of factors in the community that will affect library marketing.

Effective marketing strategies must be based on a realistic assessment of internal capabilities and an analysis of what the library has to offer: the library marketing mix (products, price, place, and promotion).  (Module 3)

3. Know your user through market research.

What do your users want from you? Which services or resources do you have but need to promote, which do you need to acquire or create? Market research takes many forms (e.g. surveys, focus groups). Results help you select a target user group (market segment) and choose a specific product to promote or problem on which to focus.

With careful market research, you can determine how your users perceive the library, what they expect from the library, and how they decide whether or not to use your products.

The marketing process includes an analysis of the threats and challenges that will affect your marketing efforts. Report the analysis in your marketing plan and include strategies that will overcome the barriers.

4. Develop goals and objectives to market the chosen products (e.g. service, program, or event).

Define specific, measurable goals. Outline the objectives for the goals. For example, if your goal is to bring in more retirees to an event, an objective might be to state the percentage attending who will be retirees.

Whatever the scope of your marketing plan, completing all the steps in the marketing process will allow you to set realistic goals and devise the best plan to achieve them.

5. Select strategies to promote your products that will work best, be affordable, and reach your customers.

Different strategies of promotion work better for specific groups and for specific types of products. Promotion methods are determined through the planning process! What you learn about how your customers make decisions determines the most effective methods of promotion -- direct marketing, special advertising, public relations, press releases, displays, newsletters, etc. (Module 4). Include the Internet in your plan (Module 5). Look at what others are doing (Module 6).

6. Put goals and promotion strategies together in a detailed, written market plan.

State your target audience and the product/service to be developed or promoted, based on your research of customer needs and your audit of library capabilities and situation. The goals and strategies together are the basis of your market plan, part of which is a detailed action plan of specific tasks necessary to accomplish the goals. Be realistic in your expectations, and be specific in outlining the details of managing and accomplishing the project, step by step. Create a timeline, and consider who will be assigned each task, the costs, and availability of resources.

7. Evaluate how well you have done.

Setting measurable goals and including specific methods of evaluation in your plan will make it easier to determine if your goals have been met.

What worked, what needs improvement? Methods include surveys, focus groups, statistical analysis of usage, polls, etc. Did you meet your goals? Use evaluation results to develop a new or ongoing marketing plan.

The result of following the marketing process is the development of a marketing plan of goals and strategies that will promote library products to targeted customers, based on their specific needs.

Quiz