Promotion in the Mix

Letting customers know

The visible part of marketing

The 4th "P" of the marketing mix is promotion. Promotion lets users know what the library has to offer. It may be the most familiar part of the process to you or may be what you think of when you hear the word marketing, but promotion doesn't happen until the marketing planning is completed. Understanding library strengths and weaknesses and knowing the customer are assets in successful promotion strategies.

Methods

What you find out about the decision-making processes of your users from market research helps determine the best way to promote, i.e. what will make customers use or reject a library service? Some users will respond to mailings or phone marketing, others may respond negatively. Some users respond to web promotions and never read newsletters, others like to get print newsletters at home. Some users prefer national newspapers and others only read the local newspaper. For many users TV is the primary source of information. Some users come regularly to the library and will see displays, others will visit only online. Learn more about promotions in Module 4.

Branding

Branding is a marketing concept that concerns the way customers identify and recognize products. It is one way to get users to identify the library as a leading source (the "leading brand"!) of information services. Branding deals with what makes one product stand out or be well known when others fail. It includes many types of promotion. (See Module 4 for more on promotion and on branding.)

Promotion is a highly visible part of marketing, but it is only part of marketing. It is most successful when the selected product, the target market, and the marketing plan goals are based on research.

Look around the library at displays, flyers, posters, signs, etc.

What methods of promotion are easily visible to your users?
How successful do you think these visible promotional materials are in "selling" a service to your customer?

Review

What's new in library marketing?

Marketing to teens

"What Would Madison Avenue Do? Marketing to Teens", Anastasia Goodstein, School Library Journal, 5/1/2008. "Before we consider the best strategies to attract Generation Y, it’s essential to understand how its members use social media, like blogs, social networking sites, virtual worlds, and podcasts... Teens expect content on demand and are used to downloading their favorite tunes and videos from peer-to-peer networks and watching TVs hooked up to TiVos and DVRs - getting what they want precisely when they want it - on their favorite devices, including iPods, iPhones, and game consoles. That’s drastically changed the way marketing professionals evaluate (and present) media... Take advantage of social media’s ability to reach vast audiences by sending out weekly MySpace bulletins, Facebook notes, or fun messages to fans about what’s happening at your library."
Lessons learned:
-Teens are multitaskers.
-Teens prefer byte-sized entertainment.
-Teens expect content on demand.
-Teens want to participate.
-Enlist teens to manage your social media.
-Don’t try too hard to be cool.
-Know your audience, different age groups use the web differently.
-Don’t sweat the design, but sites should addresses kids’ fundamental needs.
-Support causes that kids care about.
-Use text messaging and IM, but only if requested.
-The best way to discover teen trends is to ask them!

More Ohio examples

Module 6 has many examples of promotion by Ohio libraries, some marketed on library web sites.

Resources and marketing ideas

Library Media & PR offers many marketing tools for the library.