This document provides guidance on marketing the library through effective communication strategies. It emphasizes that libraries must promote themselves in order to attract users, as people will not automatically know about improvements or new offerings. The key recommendations are to clearly define the target audience, positioning, promises, and desired actions when marketing the library. Specific tactics discussed include newsletters, displays, events, and finding creative ways to engage both regular and new users. The overall message is that libraries need an intentional promotion plan to build awareness and encourage greater use.

1. MARKETING THE
LIBRARY
P r e s e n t e d b y
P h i l i p B l a k e
Australian School Library
Association Inc.

2. Housekeeping
Australian School Library Association Inc.
Sue Johnston
ASLA Board Director
Chair ASLA Professional
Learning Project Team
Facilitator for this webinar
Housekeeping:
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 Question facility
 Post-webinar
information
 Future PL events
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3. Questions
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4.  ‘I trust a good deal to common fame, as we all must.
If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs,
to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles
or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a
broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in
the woods.’—Ralph Waldo Emerson

5. A better mousetrap
 ‘Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a
path to your door.’

6. ‘The world will beat a path to your door…’

7. No it won’t.
 The only way the world will beat a path to your door
is if you tell them about the better mousetrap behind
the door.
 This applies to libraries too.
 It doesn’t matter how good you are, or how
innovative the library is; if you don’t tell people
about it, nobody except the regular users will know
or care.

8. How to tell the world
 Your library needs to be in the public eye. There are
plenty of ways to get it in the public eye:
 Send out a regular newsletter
 Find out what themes the teachers are working on,
and talk to them about how the library can help.
 Set up displays and advertise them.
 Organise competitions
 Get guests or speakers into the library

9. How to tell the world (2)
 Keep up with current affairs, make the library topical
– and advertise it.
 Have a ‘library opinion’ about everything in the
school – and publicise it.
 Offer the library as a venue for school events
 Take the library on the road – go with kids on
excursions, or put together an outdoor library event.
 If nothing is happening –
 Make something happen.

10. You need to be creative
 You need to be creative

11. How to tell the world (3)
 If you’re not creative, get the help of people who are.
(Lots of kids are creative.)
 When you want to do something different, don’t
listen to people who say either:
 ‘That won’t work – it’s never been done before’ (and
they do say things like that) OR
 ‘We tried that and it didn’t work’.

12. Key facts
F E A T U R E S A N D B E N E F I T S , P R O B L E M S A N D
O P P O R T U N I T I E S , C O M P E T I T I V E
A D V A N T A G E S A N D D I S A D V A N T A G E S

13. Ask yourself these questions
 What are the library’s main resources?
 What can the library do for its users? (WIIFM)
 What is the library’s main problem?
 Can you turn that problem into an opportunity?
 Where is the library ahead of the competition, and
where is it behind them?
 Who or what is the library’s competition?

14. Positioning
V E R S U S A T L E A S T T W O M A J O R
C O M P E T I T O R S

15. Positioning: ‘The one that…’
 Positioning simply means placing yourself in relation
to major competitors.
 So first you need to find out who or what your
competition is.
 If people aren’t using the library, what are they
doing? That activity is your competition.
 It’s not your library versus another library.

16. Who or what is the competition?
 If people are not coming to the library, what are they
doing?

17. The competition
Are they doing nothing?
And can you provide them with a more comfortable
environment to do nothing?

18. The competition
Are they texting or playing games?
And can you text to them?

19. The competition
Are they being too busy?
Note the difference between ‘Are they too busy?’ and ‘Are
they being too busy?’

20. Positioning
 Whatever they are doing instead of using the library,
you need to tell them that
 ‘The library is the place where…’(for example)
 You get the answers
 It’s warm
 You will be safe
 It’s fun
 We can do some of the work for you
 That’s positioning. Decide on your own positioning
statement.

21. Key communication
I F Y O U C O U L D O N L Y S A Y O N E T H I N G , W H A T
W O U L D I T B E ?

22. One thing
 If you only had ten seconds in which to tell someone
why they should use the library, what would you say?
 (N.B. This is one of the most important questions
you need to ask yourself. From this comes a
consistent message that you can hammer home with
every communication.)

23. Target audience
 Who are your targets?
 Students?
 Teachers?
 Heads of department?
 Parents?
 The Principal?
 Visiting specialists?
 Others?
 All of the above?

24. Preach to the converted
Never use the
library
Always use
the library
Hardly ever
use the
library
Sometimes
use the
library

25. Target Audience
 Your audience is different people at different times.
But don’t forget that you are really only speaking to
one person at a time. Others will see your message,
but they only read it one at a time. So be personal, be
direct, as if they were in the room with you (which is
what you want to achieve anyway.)
 And the principal is a primary target. Because the
principal has the power of life and death over the
library. So whatever you’re doing, make sure the
principal knows about it. Unless something goes
wrong, in which case create a diversion.

26. Promise
W H A T W I L L T H E L I B R A R Y D O F O R I T S
C O N S U M E R B E T T E R / M O R E T H A N I T S
C O M P E T I T O R S ?

27. Promise
‘Promise, large promise, is the soul of advertising.’ Samuel
Johnson

28. Promise
 What can you promise? It isn’t just a library. It’s
what the library can do. Make a list of what the
library can do for its visitors – both the regulars and
those who are not using it at the moment.
 Remember also that it does different things for
different people.

29. Promise
‘We are not here to sell a parcel of boilers and vats, but the
potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.’
Samuel Johnson

30. Examples of promises
It can get you out of the rain; it’s warm, cosy,
comfortable…

31. Examples of promises
You should be able to find what you want

32. Examples of promises
It’s fun

33. Examples of promises
The school pets like it here.
(If you haven’t read Dewey the Library Cat I suggest you
do. I’m not a cat lover but I found it an enchanting story.)

34. Supporting evidence
W H A T P R O O F C A N Y O U O F F E R T H A T Y O U
C A N D E L I V E R W H A T Y O U A R E P R O M I S I N G ?

35. Supporting evidence examples
 Take surveys from people you have helped. Ask them
what the library has done for them, and then use
their responses as testimonials.

36. Supporting Evidence
‘He wasn’t interested in
South America – but he
had a one-track mind
about soccer. The library
showed him the other
sides of both soccer and
South America!’

37. Supporting evidence
‘I didn't know how many
different ways to search
there were…’

38. Supporting evidence
‘In the last month, the library has had 1000 visitors. There
must be something here worth doing! ’

39. Tone and style
H O W D O Y O U W A N T T H E L I B R A R Y T O C O M E
A C R O S S ? I S I T F R I E N D L Y A N D W E L C O M I N G ?
I S T H E R E A L O T O F L A U G H T E R ? I S I T A
P L A C E F O R S E R I O U S S T U D Y O N L Y ?
W H A T E V E R I T I S , T H A T ’ S H O W Y O U W R I T E
A B O U T I T .

40. Net take-out
H O W O R W H A T D O Y O U W A N T P E O P L E T O
T H I N K A B O U T T H E L I B R A R Y ?

41. Net take-out
 Examples:
 ‘I didn’t know you could do that in a library.’
 ‘That’s cool.’
 ‘Not just for nerds, then.’
 Well, if they’re going, I’ll go.’
 ‘That looks interesting.’
 ‘What they do on Tuesdays at lunchtime looks like fun.’

42. Desired consumer response
W H A T D O Y O U W A N T T H E M T O D O A S A
R E S U L T O F Y O U R C O M M U N I C A T I O N ?

43. Desired consumer response
 Examples:
 Make the library the first port of call
 Attend an event
 Take a tour
 See a display
 Hear a speaker
 Enjoy what you send them
 Or even: Stay out of the library while it’s being
repainted

44. AIDA
 When writing advertisements, the simple formula is
‘AIDA.’
 Attract Attention
 Arouse Interest
 Create Desire
 Ask for Action
 And everything you send out of the library by any
medium is an advertisement for the library. A side issue
is that the most effective advertising of all is word of
mouth. So make sure you are delivering what you
promise.

45. Attract attention
R E M E M B E R T H E M O U S E T R A P , A N D
R E M E M B E R Y O U R C O M P E T I T I O N . B E F O R E
Y O U C A N D O A N Y T H I N G W I T H P E O P L E ’ S
A T T E N T I O N , Y O U H A V E T O A T T R A C T I T .

46. Arouse interest
 Now that you have their attention, give them a
reason to read on.

47. Create desire
 You’re trying to sell something. Make them want it.

48. Ask for action
 It’s incredible how frequently advertising writers
forget to tell people what they want them to do.
People are very much more likely to do what you
want if you ask them to do it.
 (Salesmen call this ‘closing the sale’; it’s the moment
when you ask them to commit.) We may not be able
to ‘close the sale’, but we can open the way.

49. And if you get stuck…
 If you are scratching around for ideas and coming up
with nothing
 If you’re getting fed up
 If you’re feeling lost
 If you think the library is becoming a poor relation…

50. Read your way out of trouble!
 The internet is full of advice about how to market
your library.

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