Strategy First: Common mistakes in planning library marketing and outreach

Strategy FirstCommon mistakes in planning your

library marketing / outreach -- and how to avoid them

Jennifer E. BurkeIntelliCraft Research

ALCOP 2013 Conference

Before we get started…

A little on my background and why I’m talking marketing with you

I’m multilingual … I speak:

Marketing

Sales & Customer Service

Library

Academic-ese

Research

Jenn i fer Burke, MS L ISPres ident , Inte l l iCraf t Research

Marketing Is Not Tactics!Tactics are the ‘shiny objects’ of marketing.Good, but practically useless without a plan.

Strategy.That’s the focus here today.

Marketing Cycle

Research/Eval

Implement

Segment

Services

/Product

Continuous Cycle

It begins and ends with research – situ now & post efforts.

Target markets, target messages.

What products/services/programs are you offering to fit each segment

Different media, tactics, channels for different segments.

What are you going to actually do and when?

MarketingMix

Let’s do our own researchHow many had any courses or exposure to marketing in LIS school?

How many have taken CE or similar courses in marketing? [not counting ALCOP or attending other conferences]

Let’s do our own researchHow many have #-based goals for the library in your marketing plan?

Have you been measuring your outreach efforts?

How frequently do you update your plan?

You are MarketersAnd that’s not an evil word!

Common Mistakes in Marketing Planning

And hopefully how to avoid them!

Mistakes Fall in 4 Main Categories

There are plenty of mistakes in marketing … and they aren’t limited to libraries!

Strategy

Are you saying the right things, to the right people?

Is everyone on board with your plans?

Numbers

You have to have real #s to shoot for, measure against – otherwise it’s just a nice vision.

ExecutionI never said tactics don’t matter! They just aren’t 1st.

People

A fuzzy strategy can be as bad as no strategy.

1. Not having a full strategy before getting into tactics

2. No objectives3. Not having measurable,

quantifiable goals, set upfront

4. Metrics are missing5. No targeting, no personas

(AKA trying to do 1-size-fits-all)

6. Too much ‘me/we’ talk, instead of all about ‘them’

7. Not having a schedule/calendar

8. ‘Wrong’ tactics for wrong purposes

9. Feature dumping10.No calls to action

10 Common Marketing Mistakes

Strategy

A strategy is like a blueprint – solid foundation to build on

Let’s talk about ‘bad’ vs. ‘good’ strategy Not making choices = bad strategy

Template, fill-in-the-blank mission/vision/values = bad strategy

Good strategy = coherent action backed by argument, with an underlying structure

Strategy comes first

Other strategy mishaps - Mistake of moving too fast “SOS” [Shiny Object Syndrome]

No strategic plan, like going to the grocery hungry, before dinner and no list. You get a cart full of cookies! That’s bad.

Strategy comes first

What are you aiming for? Broader than Goals

Milestones – how you will measure achieving mission/vision

Focus on 1 objective for each strategy + campaign

Examples Increase profit margin, market share, customer satisfaction

Increase onsite visits, media coverage, attendance at events

#2 What are objectives?

“Enrich Educational experience and Intellectual Growth”

“Heighten the value and impact of the Libraries through digital programs and services”

“Young children (5 + under) will have programs and services designed so that they will enter school ready to read, write and listen”

“We will coordinate the information literacy efforts in the University Library and work with the University community to incorporate information literacy in the University curriculum”

Objectives/goals? What are these?

Oh dear…Those were labeled ‘goals’, or worse, ‘action steps’ in real library documents.They’re not goals.

Might be objectives.

More likely a nice vision statement.

Goals can’t be an afterthought S M A R T

Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Reasonable, Time limited

Objective = increase market shareGoal = move market share from 20 -> 25% by FY 2014

#3 Need measureable goals

Did it work? Did you adjust? 2 types of metrics

Ongoing (analytics)

Campaign-focused

Measurement tied to actions

#4 Measure for success

“The customer is always right ….

But not necessarily right for you.”

No 1-size-fits-all approach

Not designing the message to fit the target

Not picking the right media/channel/tactics for

target

#5 Need a target audience

Targeting and Personas

What’s a persona?

An archetype – to flesh out a picture

A representation of your ideal customer/patron, donor, volunteer

• Demographics

• Psychographics and behaviors

• Online activities and media preferences

• Your best guess (or data if you have it!) on their motivations +/or concerns


What’s a persona used

for?

Design and Messaging

Help you design messages, imagery and services through the eyes of your ideal target.

See their perspective and help eliminate your own biases/subjectivity.


How do we create

personas?

Start with the data you DO have!

But get beyond demographics!

What motivates this person? What are their views?

Why are they searching and sharing info?

What are her day-to-day worries and aspirations?

What behaviors is she trying to change?

Targeting and PersonasBecause knowing your target is a 25-44 year old woman won’t help much …

Maybe if you know she is a 30-36 yr old single mom, with 2 kids under 10, at least some college education, an income of <$45K, working in a customer service/support staff position, living in an older suburb, struggling to keep up financially, hardly any time to herself, prefers reading fiction, and very focused on getting her kids academic help and support …

Now THAT you can work with!

Customers need to see the value of what you offer in THEIR lives

Little value in talking about resources if users don’t see & believe in value of those resources to THEM

Where are their pain points? Everyone has them! Yes, even library visitors and users.

#6 What’s in it for me?

Let’s work on some CasesA brief example for a Public, Academic & Special

library situation – work on objectives, goals, tactics

A CASE EXAMPLE

Target - Freshmen - Juniors

Objective - Increase teen pleasure reading in school library in 2014

Goal - Increase fiction circulation 25%

Initiative - Monthly book club, student advisory council picks books

Tactic(s) - In-school flyers, in-library displays, Students create Tumblr acct for books read + share related pics/posts

One-off promotions, events, initiatives = a mistake Can’t be 100% spontaneous in marketing Every tactic, media effort, promotion needs to be

on your calendar

#7 Schedule or calendar = a

must

Some tactics just work better for certain audiences Some tactics are better for broad goals vs more

specific Don’t confuse ‘promotion’ with ‘marketing

#8 ‘Right’tactics,‘right’purpose

No ‘feature dumping’ Not about how many databases you have, # journals, or free wi-

fi

No ‘kitchen sink’ ads, flyers or promotional features

Benefits and outcomes Emotional benefits are stronger drivers of action vs. functional

benefits

What will free wi-fi and 25 specialized medical databases get the patron?

#9 Benefits, not features

Marketing is about driving action An attitude, opinion or behavior change

Attendance up at story hour, more e-book checkouts by students, increased donations, change opinions about special databases

The CTA isn’t just about ‘sales’ The CTA doesn’t have to be ‘pushy’

#10 The Call to Action is your friend

Additional Myths

“Free” Marketing

ALL marketing comes with some kind of ‘cost’

Time, energy, resources, staffing

Word of Mouth Marketing

No such thing really as WoM Marketing

Why? Because you can’t control WoM

WoM is 1:1 – no efficiencies of scale; and marketing is about those efficiencies

But DO encourage WoM and let customers be the ‘star’

Build it + they will come

You have to remind, inspire, engage, nudge, prompt and often incentivize to get people to take action.

“Libraries are very good at doing things, it feels good to do something … but thinking your way through is hard work … and we’d rather do than think.” -- Terry Kendrick, ‘guru’ of library strategic marketing

Prove you can THINK and DO!

Want more [email protected]

www.intellicraftresearch.com http://www.slideshare.net/IntelliCraftResearch

For more marketing info, tips, trends:www.theinfohound.com

@theinfohound1

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Strategy First: Common mistakes in planning library marketing and outreach

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