Marketing your library service should not be considered a luxury but a necessity. Many institutions are facing difficult times and departments are competing for a slice of strained budgets. Institutional managers are looking for value for money and if a support service cannot provide this they will start to look elsewhere. If libraries are not just to survive but grow and develop, they need to ensure they are demonstrating good value.
Marketing, however, is not just about this, it is also essential to help us remain connected to our users at all levels. It ensures we are providing the most appropriate services to our customers and helps predict future needs.
More than promotion
Good marketing also promotes a professional, up-to-date image and enhances the library’s reputation.
It is easy to fall into the trap of ‘promotion = marketing’. Marketing is much more than promotion, and the concepts of marketing cannot be separated from the concepts of good management practice. As Sheila Webber1 says, ‘Somewhere along the way you need to acquire a marketing mindset which enables you to think strategically and holistically, not just tactically, and to start with the customer not the product. If you are working in an organisation, which itself doesn’t have a marketing mindset, it is easy to lose track of the holistic approach to marketing and return to let’s-do-a-leaflet mode.’
Developing a marketing mindset
In July 2001 the library at Imperial College London embarked on a major change programme which helped us develop our ‘marketing mindset’. It included a new mission statement, strategic plan and the creation of the Faculty Support Services Directorate. The mission statement demonstrates the ethos of our service:
‘Imperial College, as a leading institution for research, teaching and education in science, engineering, medicine and management, needs a world-class information service to support it. The Library will meet this need by connecting people to the best information and knowledge available, in the form and at the time of most benefit to the user.’
The overarching aim is to provide the right service, to the right person, at the right time! The first strategic theme in the library strategic plan is:
‘The library will integrate more closely with all the college’s research, teaching and learning activities so that we are better able to understand, anticipate and respond to the needs of our users.’
This meant building on our customer relationships. In an environment where we deliver many services electronically to the desktop, we needed to ensure that librarians didn’t stay within the library but took every opportunity to go out and meet the users.
We have worked hard at getting library representation on faculty committees and creating opportunities for collaboration and participation in cross-college projects. Networking helps build relationships; librarians begin to be part of the subject teams, which helps them to understand and anticipate user requirements as well as sell the library service at appropriate times and at point of need.
Getting feedback
We carried out user surveys and focus groups to help us find out more about our users and their needs. The feedback told us what we were doing well but also revealed areas that needed work. It also provided more in-depth information on particular user groups. Separating your users into groups or segments helps develop a better understanding of their requirements and allows you to target your services and the marketing of those services to certain user groups at appropriate times.
Two important groups of users for us, with very different needs, are research students and staff, and taught-course students.
Research students and staff are interested in:
*primary research literature
*up-to-date information
*desktop delivery
*easy access to electronic full text
*document delivery.
Whereas taught-course students highlight these areas as important:
*books and recommended reading
*PC provision
*study space – quiet and group
*long opening hours
*information literacy teaching.
You should consider all possible user segments and decide which are the important groups for your library; in a university library this might include distance learners, international students, users with special needs, support staff, etc. Gathering this type of information is time-consuming but well worth the effort, as it provides the basis for strategic planning and yearly operational plans.
Here are some of the improvements and developments we have implemented over the last three years in response to the needs of our different users:
* more e-journals
* introduction of library portal and improved linking
* introduction of electronic document delivery
* longer opening hours
* 24/7 opening at Central Library in run-up to exams
* PCs replaced / wireless network installed
* information literacy embedded in curriculum for 70 per cent of taught-course students.
Olson2 says:‘A library’s image is composed of everything in and about the library that a client encounters.’ We therefore took time to stand back and look at how we were presenting and promoting our services through our customers’ eyes. What would their first impression be?
This led us to re-brand and create a public communications group to monitor the production of all publications to ensure consistency and quality. A glossy newsletter was introduced, branded appropriately, which acts as a vehicle to sell our services and our staff and to advertise new developments within the library.
Promotional items were designed and themed for freshers fairs and launch parties. Launch parties are a useful way of bringing new services to the notice of high-level managers. They allow you not only to market the new services but also to reinforce the message of the high quality of what you’re doing.
The people working within your library service are your best resource. The way library staff act, speak and dress reflects on the professionalism of your service. Motivated, informed and empowered staff are the most effective marketing tool you can have. In recognition of this, we applied for and achieved Investors in People accreditation, the standard which assesses how an organisation communicates with and develops its people in the context of its overall plans. We made a number of improvements as we worked towards accreditation, including the production of a communication strategy for staff, the introduction of personal review and development plans for all staff and a management development programme.
This year the library created a marketing strategy group. The aim of the group is to capitalise on what has already been achieved and develop it further. The various strands of marketing that have been developed in a slightly ad hoc fashion will be drawn together by the creation of a marketing strategy and an operational plan. The group will review customer segmentation and ensure that we target promotion more effectively. Marketing is the responsibility of all the staff within the library and therefore we will also develop a training and support strategy to ensure that all our staff understand the importance of marketing and feel confident in their role – from smiling when they answer the phone to strategic talks in Senate.
References
1 Sheila Webber. ‘Marketing information and library services: are people learning about it?’ Business Information Review, 18(4), 2001, pp. 16-23.
2 C. Olson. ‘Test your library’s marketing IQ.’ Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 12(3), 1993, pp. 75-83.
Debbi Boden (d.boden@imperial.ac.uk) is Faculty Team Leader (Life Sciences), and Elizabeth Davis (e.davis@imperial.ac.uk) is Assistant Director, Faculty Support Services, Imperial College London