http://www.cilip.org.uk/international-library-and-information-group/conferences-courses-and-seminars
A practical definition of marketing:
"Marketing is a dialogue over time with specific groups of customers whose needs you understand in depth and for whom you develop an offer with a differential advantage over the offer of competitors"
Professor Malcolm McDonald
Cranfield University
I booked to attend this ILIG training day because a need to improve promotion of our Library Service had been uppermost in my mind since our reader survey a year or so ago. The survey had highlighted a lack of awareness of who we are here to help and what we can help with, so this study day seemed like a good opportunity to learn some marketing skills without costing the Library too much money!
I travelled up to London the evening before to stay with my daughter (who by coincidence is in PR & Marketing herself...so I expect I could learn a lot from her now I think about it!) and endured a rush hour commute to CILIP HQ the following morning. There were quite a few of us in attendance (well over 50) from all sectors of the profession and areas of the country, but despite this and as is often the case at these events, many of us had links to one another's home towns and had Library Professional acquaintances in common.
The trainer for the day was Terry Kendrick, an ex-Librarian turned Strategic Marketing Guru who is an enthusiastic and witty speaker. It was whilst he was demonstrating (by charging up and down the meeting room) how people move towards a goal not having time to be deterred by things of little relevance that get in their way (unwanted Library Information in this case) that I realised I had watched this "performance" before...in fact I'd been on his course before! However this certainly wasn't a negative and in retrospect I think that I learnt a lot more this time, not least because I've reflected here, but also because my role and responsibilities have changed a lot in the interim, so that what I have learnt should be easier to implement.
Throughout the morning, presentations and discussion were the main focus, with contributions occasionally from the delegates breaking off into groups to discuss the topics covered and then reporting back. The afternoon was more hands on, each sector of Library Professional being represented on a separate table and as a result sharing some common ground on which to develop a marketing strategy targeting a particular Library User category in their own field. I'm not sure quite how successful this was on our particular table however! We all worked in Healthcare related Libraries, but in a very tenuous way as the organizations represented were a bit diverse. As a result we did tend to go "off-piste" a bit with our musing, but none-the-less it was a valuable exercise in learning about one another’s methods of working, and although we didn't end up with a particularly focused plan (to say the least!) it was a valuable exchange of ideas.
Several of the discussions throughout the day really hit home, not least the physical demonstration previously described. The idea that people do not want to be bothered with the superfluous, and in fact can be negatively affected by it, was a thought provoking realisation. Knowing your User base well, targeting your audience, refining the product that you have to offer them very specifically to their needs is key to a good campaign and should be honed well before attempting to market your service was the clear message. Makes sense, but I think that often it is far too easy for us to just blanket promote our service with a "one size fits all approach" which all too often misses the mark. Thinking about "junk" email received myself (because junk is probably how a lot of recipients will view our lovely, carefully worded, Library missives), I myself find it really tiresome to be repeatedly told of something I have no need for or interest in, even if I might find the information useful in the future. It was also demonstrated that Champions of your Library and testimony from satisfied Users are key to engaging others; Peer influence can have a powerful effect. Also knowing what you have to offer and how this is better than the competition (Google Scholar versus HDAS being the obvious comparison in our Sector!) is pretty critical. There is little point promoting a resource that falls short of the competition, however much we want it to succeed.
Applying this practically to our service, I think I will rethink the message we give out at Induction, both in our own Trust and in the Community. Pontificating about all the marvellous things we can offer has little relevance to the whole or indeed any of the audience, and although raising awareness of our very existence is important, I'm not sure that it is wholly successful in the way we have been approaching it. As a result of what I have learnt from this training day I have decided to use more examples in my talk to delegates of how the service we provide has had a positive effect. The examples we have available to us of this are a far more powerful message of what we do than our opening hours or the quantity of books that can be borrowed (even if we don’t charge fines!) So now the focus of my message in all situations where I wish to promote what we do will be on how engaging with the Service can achieve a benefit (the benefit being the marketable bit) So it's not about what we physically have for them to use but about what it can do for them, either in helping them professionally or in enhancing patient care. The real value being when the User gets more back from the relationship with the Service than the effort they have to put into using it...quick wins for both User and Library.
In summary this was a very thought provoking day which I know will make a difference to the way I can demonstrate how valued the Library is within the Organisation and how engaging with us can reap only positive benefits. Time will tell if this approach is effective in our case, but hopefully the next time we survey our Users they will have more of an understanding of what we can do to positively push them along their chosen path rather than negatively side-tracking them with information that serves only to hinder or worse irritate!
