Monday, June 20, 2016

#blogjune Post 21 - Another missed post

So I missed another post.  Well, yesterday I had to be super quick getting ready to work so had no time to post in the morning, then in the evening I had no motivation left to post - so slack me, slap my wrist!!

On Sunday, my friend and fellow librarian wrote a post about brand identification.  She wrote about how the marketing of electronic resources in libraries is often left to the library staff.  Where she felt the vendors that sell libraries these products had great responsibility to market their products or brands.

I had a staff meeting yesterday and raised this with my staff.  I said it was interesting how lots of library visitors ask us about Ancestry.com because they saw the advertisement on television.  We don't have access to the commercial Ancestry.com but we do have access to the library version.  But it was the point that the television advertising got them asking.  Ancestry.com has done this well.  And with shows like "Who do you think you are?" being popular, it has also brought to light online resources like Trove.

I remember a few years back, our neighbour Coffs Harbour Library doing a series of television advertisements on home library service.  The result was a number of people coming to our libraries asking if we did home library service because the advertisement said libraries do.  So even though the advertisement was from a different library service, the viewer only noted library and the service, and assumed all libraries are the same so they must all do it.

So then you would think vendors would have it easy.  Create a generic advertising campaign.  Mention their resource, mention library and da da - people will seek out their library to use the product.

But then you must ask, what is in it for them?  The vendor doesn't really gain more money from this, or do they??  If more users are using the resource then the library service is more likely to continue providing access and purchasing the subscription.

Like my friend said in her post, posters, in house advertising etc only targets the users who already are on board and seeking this out.  Let's target those that don't know about all the electronic resources that libraries offer.

I recently ran an advertising campaign on our local radio stations promoting our online resources to those that can't get to the library because of time restraints or opening hours not meeting their needs.  It highlighted the ebooks, eAudio books, eMagazines and eMusic collections that our library service provides.  It mentioned you only have to come in to join and then you never have to set foot in the library again!  Just out of this advertising campaign I had 4 people that mentioned they had heard the advertising on radio join the library because they didn't know we had those resources.  I imagine more joined because of this but didn't mention the advertising they heard.

So yes, vendors should spend time advertising - a generic program is really all they need to cover all library services.  And libraries should do some advertising that goes beyond the walls to those that don't come through the doors.

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