The Five Best Library Marketing Techniques You’re Not Using

Where marketing is concerned, libraries face an interesting challenge. While librarians are increasingly becoming a more plugged-in bunch, with access to high-tech tools and innovative ideas, public opinion of libraries still paints them as plain-jane municipal buildings without much real use outside of, maybe, getting books for kids. Library marketing professionals have some real work in front of them.

Library marketing needs to have the best of both worlds. It requires traditional marketing techniques to keep the current clientele coming. But library marketing professionals also need to take advantage of new approaches to sell libraries to an increasingly media savvy audience. Here’s how they can do it:

Your Library: More Than Just Books. Books aren’t the only storage medium for human knowledge. And we’re not just talking about microfiche. Many libraries offer CDs, movies, and even downloadable documents. And some libraries in oh-so-progressive Scandinavian countries even offer expert opinions. Why take out a book on engineering when you can spend an hour picking an engineer’s brain?

Blog, Blog, Blog. If you live in Seattle (or even if you don’t), you can take advantage of Shelf Talk, the Seattle Public Library’s own blog, to learn about new developments at your local branch. But just because Seattle is the most literate city in America doesn’t mean they should hog all the blogging. Why not try out a blog for your library?

Lists! Lists of Books! And More Books! Is Christmas coming? Why not make a list of the 50 Greatest Non-Dickens Christmas Stories of All Time? Or, during Halloween, a list of the 20 Greatest Spooky Stories Ever Written? Or ten books you’d like if you loved Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road?” Be sure to post the list on your blog — and don’t forget to tell everyone where they can get all those books!

Now Appearing At Your Library: Pop Culture. Remember when Iron Man was number one at the box office? Right there was an opportunity to pitch books on technology and engineering to your clientele (not to mention the comics themselves, if you’ve got them on hand). Take a look at what’s going on in the world, and what people might be interested in right now. Then create a display to let everyone know where they can find the right books.

Make the Web Work For You. Are you on Facebook? How about Squidoo? Are you Twittering? Do you have a Flickr photostream? Do you know what these things are? If not, get learning — the World Wide Web is a wonderland of marketing opportunities.

D. Michael Kirby is a freelance writer living in California. He writes about travel, education, marketing, health and wellness, home improvement, and a plethora of other topics. One of his clients, MarketingWorks, is the premier provider of education market research.

Visit MarketingWorks here: http://marketingworks.com/

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