“A great product sells itself,” or does it? Marketing MyReading at the University of Huddersfield Kate McGuinn Northern Collaboration Learning Exchange: Strategic Marketing, January 23rd 2015

Overview Background to MyReading project Early marketing strategy Post-launch evaluation of marketing impact The plateau… and how we beat it! The future What we have learned?

MyReading – the background In 2008… Library received reading lists for only 40% of modules Many lists contained out of date or inaccurate information Manual processes for reading list management were laborious and outdated A systematic, automated approach was required MyReading project groups launched

Drivers for design of MyReading Improve the student experience: –comprehensive availability of reading lists –Better access to reading list items – full text where possible Inform collection development Integrate reading list management with library acquisition processes Make best use of resources and ensure value for money

Overall project goal To ensure the provision of reading lists is a managed, positive experience for staff and students

The decision to build it “in house” Commercial offerings didn’t have the deep integration into our other systems that we felt would be needed: –Student Records –Library Management System –E-Resource products (Summon, 360 Link, etc) –VLE –Off-air TV recordings

Integration with Blackboard MyReading went live in Blackboard at the start of the academic year 2011/2012 Reading list button on every module noticeboard Lists submitted before July 2011 were added to the software by temporary library staff

Early marketing strategy from 2011 Academic consultation was felt to be vital to the success of the project  Focus groups with academics  Online survey for collection and analysis of comments  Presentations to all School committees  reminders to staff to send in lists  Training for academics  Project blog to collect feedback  Online voting system to prioritise developments Online voting system to prioritise developments

Early marketing strategy from 2011 Launch activities to students: Huge posters screen printed onto windows of Central Services Building Leafleting around campus MyReading pens distributed Articles in staff and student newsletters MyReading promoted in new student inductions and refresher sessions for returning students

Evaluation of MyReading within and outside the University Great verbal feedback from staff 2011 MyReading team were finalists in the Outstanding Library Team category at the Times Higher Education Leadership & Management Awards 2012 Dave Pattern received an NAG Award for Excellence for his work on MyReading 2013 MyReading was a runner up at the Guardian University Awards So we knew we had a good product, but the take up figures within the University told a different story…

Evaluation of launch

Usage figures were plateauing after an early sharp rise The project team realised that initial marketing of MyReading was not enough, that we would need to keep on pushing our messages to students and staff A dedicated marketing sub-group was launched

Renewed marketing drive from 2013 Marketing effort launched again with new vigour in early 2013 Initially focused on raising student awareness –Freebies each year in fresher goody bags –New animation commissioned –New posters and leaflets using same theme as animation –Student focus groups in 2013 and 2014

Renewed marketing drive - Students In collaboration with Fifth Planet Productions, an animation was produced animation Same graphics used to produce posters and leaflets Poster campaign on backs of loo doors across campus

Leaflets

Renewed marketing drive - Staff Pro Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and Learning used to contact those who had not yet populated their lists More effective was his announcement at the 2014 Teaching and Learning Conference of an award to the creators of the best reading lists from each of the 7 schools Each was awarded a bottle of wine “from his own cellar”!

Renewed marketing drive - Staff

Followed up with #myreading tweets

Student focus groups Held in spring 2013 and 2014 Have informed most of our marketing strategy since All library student helpers – possibility of bias? A range of subjects covered – Music Journalism, Computing, Childhood Studies, English Literature, Pharmacy, Photography, Psychology Used a pre-planned interview guide of open questions to guide discussion

Student focus groups – barriers to students using MyReading “Yes, all lecturers differ in the way they put their subject areas on UniLearn… some lecturers put reading lists in learning resources, some put them under reading lists, some put them in both places.” Lack of consistency in location of reading lists

Student focus groups – barriers to students using MyReading “My lecturers say “it’s on UniLearn” but you have to click through about a million different links to find it. You eventually find it under a random heading, it’s horrible!”

Student focus groups – barriers to students using MyReading Overwhelming length of some lists “I think that unless you are the reincarnation of Hermione Granger you are not going to go through and read all those…. Lots of students will come here from GCSEs and A levels where they are taught to consume things in a very bite sized manner and this is just like “have everything at once!”

Student focus groups – barriers to students using MyReading Lecturers could promote reading lists more “The only way they are going to [realise reading lists are a useful resource] is if lecturers say “this is available, we expect you to use these tools”, but they just don’t”

Student focus groups – main findings Showed that some staff were only nominally buying into MyReading – they had a list on the system (to avoid being harassed by Pro-Vice Chancellor) but failed to promote it and often maintained a separate paper list in their module handbooks which didn’t match the one on MyReading! We realised that there was no point in focusing solely on marketing to students as staff promotion of MyReading was a key part of this Failure of staff to promote MyReading had to be addressed as a priority

Evaluation of marketing from 2012/13

The future - students Carry on with “maintenance level” marketing to students Make full use of new animation, leaflets and posters Refresh materials annually Continue to use freebies in fresher goody bags

The future – teaching staff Work through the findings of staff focus groups and incorporate into our strategy –Colleagues who haven’t yet fully bought into MyReading are hesitant because they don’t yet understand all the benefits –Communication with staff by , poster or leafleting has only limited effectiveness as these messages are easy to ignore –The best way of communicating with lecturers is face to face, at school “away days” or divisional meetings –The line management process may also have a part to play for some staff –Some aspects of MyReading are not intuitive and it could do with a face-lift!

What have we learned? That a great product does not sell itself but you have to keep on promoting it again and again That you can’t assume that people will instantly understand the benefits of a new product, it will take time and hard work to reinforce messages That the job we had to do when promoting MyReading to students was different from the one we had to do with academics.

Finally, in the words of Winston Churchill… Keep buggering on!

Any questions?