Creating Marketing Plans on a small Budget

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Creating Marketing Plans on a small Budget
A Toolkit and Proof it works!
Karen Thistle, Service Team Lead - Capacity
Building, Ontario Library Service
North Douglas Davey, Chair of the Marketing
Committee - Halton Hills Public Library
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Agenda

• Karen
• Why libraries need to engage in marketing
  planning
• What that means for a small / medium size library
• The Toolkit
• Douglas
• The HHPLs marketing plan
• How the plan was developed
• Implementation Evaluation
• QA

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Ontario Library Services - North

• Marketing
• Tool Kit

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Marketing- What are we really talking about.

• Marketing is
• Increasing awareness of the value of a product or
  service.
• The process of through which services are
  planned, values are assigned to services,
  services are promoted and through which they are
  delivered.

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For the Public Library Marketing is

• Making sure the public knows
• Who you are
• Where you are
• What you do
• and
• The Value you bring to the community

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Why Market a Public Library?

• Raise profile in community
• Library users
• Library non-users
• Community Stakeholders and Decision Makers
• Promote the Library as a Community Destination
  Point
• Directly promote services and programs

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Small and Medium Size Libraries the quest for
resources

• Making the most of free opportunities
• Using resources already in the library
• Establishing a plan of action
• Keeping it Realistic and Manageable

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The Toolkit

• Created by OLS-North to assist libraries in
  creating a marketing plan for the library.

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Situational Analysis

• To better understand Environment
• SWOT
• Internal Environment
• Mission Statement
• Vision Statement
• Statement of Values

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Understanding Services

• What services does the library offer?
• What value do they have to clients?
• What services should be continued?
• What services should be discontinued?
• What services should be developed?

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Assessing Goals

• What are the long term plans for the library?
• (Strategic Plans)
• What are the libraries goals over the next three
  years?
• Which goals are priorities?
• What are the libraries timelines in achieving
  these goals?

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Target Markets

• Geographic, Demographic, Psychographic and
  Behavioral
• Who is currently receiving the libraries message?
• Who in the community is not receiving the
  libraries message?
• Who in the community does the library want to
  reach?

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Understanding Competition

• Who are the libraries competitors?
• What are the libraries threats?
• How does the library compete?
• How can threats be turned around?

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Marketing Strategies / Budget

• Direct Marketing
• Advertising
• Networking
• Web Resources
• Campaigns
• Media
• Events at the library
• Public Displays

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Drafting the Plan

• Library Background
• Mission Statement
• Services
• Goals
• Target Markets
• Strategy
• Timeline
• Budget
• Measures of Success

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Evaluations

• What does success look like?
• How will the library measure success?
• Increased Public Awareness
• Increase in library usage
• Circulation increase
• Program Use
• Customer Satisfaction
• Tools to measure success

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And now for the proof

• Halton Hills Public Library

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Halton Hills Public Library
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Halton Hills Public Library

• Halton Hills Georgetown and Acton
• 2 branches
• Total Pop. 55, 300

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Who Created our Plan?

• No marketing staff
• The Marketing Committee
• representatives from different departments and
  branches within the Library
• input from other relevant staff
• Met once a month during development

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Why a Marketing Plan?

• To remain vibrant and relevant
• To support current users and reach new ones
• To direct our resources effectively
• To meet the objectives of the Strategic Plan

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Steps

• Called in an expert to teach us how to market our
  services
• Decided to market ourselves via expanding and
  promoting our services
• Research to get results

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Marketing Then and Now

• THEN Broad-based marketing
• traditional
• focus is on product
• NOW Service-based marketing
• modern
• focus is on customer

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Service-Based Marketing

• Shift the way we think about services
• Instead of trying to please everyone, think about
  certain segments of users
• What can you do for them?

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What is our Marketing Plan?

• In general, we followed these steps
• Segment the market
• Develop representative personae
• Develop service initiatives
• Implement service initiatives

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Step One Segmenting Our Market
Defining the segments

• What are our hot demographics?
• Determined using info from demographic and other
  documents
• Segment Age (now part of registration)
• Sub-Segment Library use associated with that age

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What are our Segments?

• Youth aged 8-14
• Adults aged 40-64
• Adults aged 65

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Segmentation Worksheet
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Youth aged 8-14

• Sub-segments
• Youth who select library material for fun
• Youth who select library material for school
• Youth who use the library computers
• Youth who use library as study space
• These came from an earlier study we conducted

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Adults aged 40-64

• Sub-segments
• E-resource users
• Small business users
• Recreational users
• These came from a desire to reach these groups

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Adults aged 65

• Sub-segments
• Recently retired and active
• Elderly and homebound
• Recently retired with ability issues
• These came from a comparison of mobility and
  stage of
• life

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Step Two Developing Personae

• For each sub-segment representative personae were
  created
• Details of the personae were created by
  Marketing Committee members using a combination
  of personal experience and reasonable supposition

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Persona Worksheet
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Step Three Developing Initiatives

• A service initiative was developed for each
  persona
• Each initiative matches its personas
  characteristics (age, etc.) and also its values
  (e.g. a healthy community)

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Initiative Worksheet
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The Initiatives

• Youth aged 8-14
• Film Festival - fun
• Exploration Stations - computers
• Homework Help Zone - homework

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The Initiatives

• Adults aged 40-64
• HOP-ping Titles recreational /e-resouce
• Information is Our Business small business
• Are you E-Ware Pt. 1 e-resource
• Are you E-Ware Pt. 2 e-resource
• Stay Connected e-resource

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The Initiatives

• Seniors aged 65
• Coffee, Books and Conversation
• Expand Your World
• Silver Learning
• Volunteer Connection
• Are you an E-Ware Senior
• Friendly Faces

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Step Four Implement Initiatives

• Each initiative has a detailed implementation
  strategy including
• Who will be involved?
• How will it be promoted?
• When/where will it happen?
• How much will it cost?
• What will be the outcomes?

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When Will the Plan Begin?

• Half of the initiatives were to begin in 2007
• The rest to start over the next four years
• An assigned Coordinator investigates the best
  possible timing for each initiative
• Initiatives will be rolled out progressively to
  avoid staff overload

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What does the Plan cost?

• Each coordinator will assess the cost of their
  initiative
• No initiative should cause undue strain
• Soliciting alternate funding has already begun

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How is the plan evaluated?

• Each initiative will have a complete report
  created to evaluate the different aspects of the
  program

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Status of the Initiatives

• Film Festival
• Ran one film festival (Indiana Jones) and just
  began another (Creature Feature)
• Approx. 10 teens per showing
• Increased interest in / cachet of library
• Moderate success

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Status of the Initiatives

• Exploration Stations
• Early Literacy Station - one up and running and
  one more on the way
• Approx. 600 uses / month
• Increased customer satisfaction, improved
  computer skills and literacy
• Huge success

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Status of the Initiatives

• Expand Your World
• 9 displays targeted to seniors - displayed in
  prominent local spaces
• Statistics are hard to track
• Positive feedback a success

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Status of the Initiatives

• Coffee, Books and Conversation Acton
• 2 sessions have been held
• 8 first session, 5 second
• 2 circs / participant
• Increased interest, patron satisfaction and
  interaction
• Good success

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Status of the Initiatives

• CBC Georgetown
• 3 sessions have been held
• 12 each session (12 on a wait list more)
• Circd stacks
• Library knowledge and
• appreciation
• Amazing success

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Status of the Initiatives

• H.O.P.-ping Titles
• Available to public since Dec. 07
• No stats yet
• Increased use, satisfaction and tech cred
• Success? TBA

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Questions?
Contact Us

• Karen Thistle
• 705-675-6467
• ext. 206
• kthistle_at_olsn.ca
• www.olsn.ca
• marketing_at_olsn.ca
• 705-675-6467 ext.507

• Douglas P. Davey
• 905-873-2681
• ext. 2508
• daveyd_at_hhpl.on.ca
• www.library.hhpl.on.ca