Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 188
•
Trim: 8½ x 11
978-1-5381-0848-2 • Paperback • October 2018 • $72.00 • (£55.00)
978-1-5381-0849-9 • eBook • October 2018 • $68.00 • (£52.00)
Carol Ottolenghi is Director of Library Services for the Office of the Ohio Attorney General. Previously, she served as the public relations/marketing director of two different public library systems. She also ran the Ohio Humanities Council/American Library Association’s Let’s Talk About It series in which she shepherded 25 different under-funded libraries each year through every aspect of hosting and publicizing eight to twelve weeks of programming.
List of Snapshots
Preface
Chapter One:Intentional Marketing & Your Library
Chapter Two: Cultivating Your Library's #1 Stakeholder Group and Marketing Force
Chapter Three: Adopt and Adapt: Marketing Ideas Come from Everywhere
Chapter Four: Artifacts Are Not Just for Archeologists
Chapter Five: Branding, Social Media & Communications Best Practices
Chapter Six: Content Is King! (And Not Just in Social Media)
Chapter Seven: Digitizing with Intent
Chapter Eight: Using Displays and Exhibits to Strut Your (Library's) Stuff
Chapter Nine: Outreach Is Just Getting into Their Space
Chapter Ten: Programming to Market
Chapter Eleven: Spreading the Word Intentionally: Word-of-Mouth-Marketing (WOMM)
Appendix A: What Exactly Are You Marketing? Defining Your Library
Appendix B: Who Is "Buying" Your Library? Defining Your Stakeholders
Appendix C: Strategic Plans
Appendix D: Marketing Plans and the Intentional Marketing Initiative Shortcut
Appendix E: Sample Exhibit and Display Policy
Index
About the Author
The public forms an impression of a library based on interactions with library staff, knowledge of collections, awareness of programs, and use of the physical spaces and virtual services. Ottolenghi (director of library svcs., the Office of the Ohio Attorney General), who has experience with public relations and marketing in public libraries, argues that since everything is marketing, the library needs to be intentional in its messaging and present a unified approach to communication. The author advocates being user-centric and addressing the needs and wants of current and potential clients. The goal is to show the library doing good work and to build and maintain a relationship with users. This book covers marketing theory but is more of a handbook on establishing a marketing program, with guidance and examples. Twenty-nine marketing snapshots offer tips from many types of libraries; for instance, the Contra Costa Library System teamed with their local transit authority to produce Snap & Go posters with QR codes to allow commuters smartphone access to ebooks, library staff, and more. VERDICT Library administrators and marketers will find here many useful strategies and ideas.—Judy Solberg, Sacramento, CA— Library Journal
[This book provides] a steady momentum and an engaging read. Ottolenghi’s writing is swift and accessible. She inspires the reader to develop new marketing campaigns derived from the ideas presented and encourages a shift in the reader’s thinking from a product-centered to a user-centered model of library marketing . . . The guidance, resources, examples, and tools provided in Intentional Marketing are just what an effective library marketing team needs to implement a unified approach to messaging that will, as Ottolenghi says, help your library “be seen doing good work” (p.2).— Law Library Journal
Ottolenghi’s book comprises eleven chapters with 29 marketing snapshots that provide an innovative approach to marketing your library. She discusses the Intentional Marketing Framework, a set of principles that help you create a unified marketing message. The book’s themes are: ‘everything is marketing’ and ‘positioning is the key to success.’— Mark Aaron Polger, Academic Librarian and Library Marketer, City University of New York (CUNY)
This easy-to-read guide is designed to teach librarians in all types of libraries to apply the intentional marketing approach, a user-centric approach that focuses on the needs and desires of users, potential users, potential partners, and other people and organizations, rather than focusing on library products. Chapters and appendices show how to use this approach for branding, social media, digitization projects, displays, exhibits, outreach, programming, word-of-mouth marketing, strategic planning, defining the library’s stakeholders, designing marketing plans, etc. This is the ideal book to re-energize a library’s marketing plan and the library employees who must implement it.
— Carol A. Singer, professor, Library Teaching & Learning Department, Bowling Green State University