1. Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
Unit 1.4: Some key principles for marketing
and for marketing in a library context
Purpose:
To introduce participants to some concepts for marketing in a library context, and to the 7 Ps of marketing.
To help participants to think about why e-resources are of value, and to use this to extract key messages to communicate to users; to assist participants to identify different approaches to communication, including social media; to assist participants to understand how to use social media well.
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2. Ned Potter’s principles
1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
Ned Potter’s principles
Ned Potter, The Library Marketing Toolkit
Ned Potter is an academic liaison librarian in a university library in the UK
The facilitator explains some of the key concepts for library marketing identified by Ned Potter, and suggests that some of these are also useful when thinking about e-resources (note: Potter identifies 7, for simplicity the concepts which seem to be of most value to e-resources are extracted below). These are:
Move on to slides, below list for info only
1. Help users get from A to B more effectively
2. Think about marketing a service not a product
3. Market your people
4. Identify different value propositions for different groups
5. The value users gain is relative to the effort they put in
6. Never market something you can’t deliver
22/09/2018
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3. 1. Help users get from A to B more effectively
1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
1. Help users get from A to B more effectively
That your aim should be to help users get from A to B more quickly and more effectively.
Your users are busy and may be under pressure / short of time – or overwhelmed by the amount of information available. So how can you improve things for them?
Links to idea of knowing your users as the services we provide need to be on same path…
22/09/2018
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4. 1. Help users get from A to B more effectively
1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
1. Help users get from A to B more effectively
Example of database customised with name of host institution / single search box
22/09/2018
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5. 2. Think about marketing a service, not a product
1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
2. Think about marketing a service, not a product
That you should think in terms of marketing a service, not a product. To do this you need to be explicit about why something – eg a particular resource – is useful to them – don’t expect them to work it out for themselves. You should also focus on what will result from them using it – so that they can see the benefit – rather than just the features.
So in the case of e-resources, you shouldn’t tell them ‘we subscribe to 30 databases’, but instead ‘we subscribe to information that you won’t find on Google’.
22/09/2018
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6. 1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
Focus on the benefits…
As a world class library, we have equally subscribed to world class journals to enhance your scholarship.
Don’t draw attention to resources without outlining benefits of using them – enhancing scholarship
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7. 1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
3. Market your people
Market your people, not just your products or your content. It is your people which make your service particularly distinctive from other ways of finding information – e.g. your people are specialists, who can help users navigate, make sense of and understand information.
He also suggests that you shouldn’t insult Google in order to market your e-resources: people like Google, so insulting it will cause them to ‘switch off’ from the library, and make you seem out of touch. Instead, explain how you can help them to use it more effectively.
22/09/2018
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8. 1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
Uganda Martyrs University
22/09/2018
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9. 4. Identify different value propositions for different groups
1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
4. Identify different value propositions for different groups
Identify different value propositions for different groups. This means developing distinct messages for distinct groups. A one-size-fits-all approach will not work. This is really important for e-resources.
22/09/2018
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10. 1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
“The library sends us regular s with a list of all the new books and journals. It’s good to see that the library is doing really well. But I don’t really have time to read a long list. I just want to know ‘what have you got for me?’ ”
Chemistry professor, Kenya
This would be a way to satisfy the chemistry professor we met earlier
22/09/2018
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11. 5. The value users gain is relative to the effort they put in
1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
5. The value users gain is relative to the effort they put in
The value users gain is relative to the effort they put in. The value or benefit that users gain from using a service – in this case e-resources – must be more than the ‘cost’ to them – or the effort that they put in to access them. So even if e-resources are free to users, costs include cumbersome entry routes, passwords, registration procedures etc. All of these are barriers and obstacles for the user which erode (reduce) the value to the user.
22/09/2018
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12. 1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
Make it easier for the users. Strathmore University in Kenya have a proxy server on the home screen of the library website. Once users have logged on to this, no matter where they are working from, they are automatically connected to all the e-resources in the library.
22/09/2018
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13. 6. Never market something you can’t deliver
1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
6. Never market something you can’t deliver
Never market something you can’t deliver. You must meet your promises – a poor service that doesn’t live up to your marketing claims does more harm than not marketing it at all
22/09/2018
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14. The several Ps of library marketing
1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
The several Ps of library marketing
The facilitator then explains that when thinking about marketing, it can be helpful to remember the ‘Ps’.
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15. 1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
Marketers have 4 Ps
Product Promotion Place Price
The 4 Ps: Marketers typically talk of 4 Ps which should guide any approach to marketing
Product (or service) – in other words what we offer our users, in this case e-resources (remember Potter’s point about focusing not just on the product itself but the benefits it brings)
Promotion – in short, this is all about how we communicate what we do for our users/potential users
Place – in the case of e-resources, this is online But it’s important to show that it was the library that put the content there (by arranging the subscription) – often our users have no idea that the library has spent money to gain access ….
Price – e-resources may be free to the user, but as explained earlier, there can be other costs, particularly the time it takes them to access resources
22/09/2018
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16. 1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
Librarians add 3 more
People
Processes
Physical evidence
People – the skilled librarians and information professionals
Processes – this refers to the service and how users experience it – but remember they often don’t want or need all the detail, just help to get from A to B
Physical evidence – environment in which product or service is delivered, where the library and user interact
22/09/2018
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17. 1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
How can you explain the value of e-resources? Developing your messages…
22/09/2018
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18. 1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
Activity…
1.4.1 Activity - Developing your messages.docx
25 minutes discussion
20 minutes report back
22/09/2018
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19. Go back to your user profiles…
1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
Go back to your user profiles…
How can e-resources help them?
What are the key messages you would wish to convey?
What do you have which is relevant to them and their interests?
What would you need to know about the resources that you don’t already know?
How would you go about building a tailored hand out, poster or training session for each user?
What would you highlight? What would you choose not to mention?
Exercise 1.4.1: Developing your messages.docx
The groups discuss and report back on these questions, with the facilitator prompting and asking questions, and guiding the discussion as necessary. The facilitator emphasises that it should be about making things relevant to specific needs. So a presentation about ‘e-resources for chemists’ rather than a general presentation about e-resources is likely to be more appropriate.
22/09/2018
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20. Some possible approaches
1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
Some possible approaches
A subject / faculty / college librarian’s blog?
A subject or faculty newsletter?
Putting a presentation together and making it available online
Recording a short video and uploading it to YouTube
Open days and events
Approaches to individual academics
22/09/2018
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21. 1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
Discuss…
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22. What channels could you use to get messages to users?
1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
What channels could you use to get messages to users?
Plenary discussion to contribute suggestions
Facilitator can type feedback straight into slide
22/09/2018
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23. 1.4 Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
22 September 2018
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22/09/2018
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