Library Marketing 101: Preparing your Requests

Notes de l'éditeur

1. Hello, and Welcome to “Marketing 101” Today, I’m going to show you a presentation that will give you a quick and easy overview of how you can Prepare and Submit Work Requests through the library’s work portal system to request Marketing Department services in order to help promote your services and program events. The library’s website portal allows users to submit requests for work to be performed by other departments or colleagues. Users log in to the system, then send their requests to the appropriate department or person. It’s not a difficult system to use, and it helps those involved in a shared project to be better organized in monitoring and tracking the progress the project from start to finish. Not everyone is familiar with how the online work portal works, however, so that’s what I’ll be covering today.
2. The first part of the process begins with you. Generally you are tasked with the creation and development of a project… …whether it be coming up with a new program event to hold—such as promoting a one-time only craft workshop or what may turn into an on-going series or even an annual event such as the Author Series or Fandomonium… Or, your task may be to increase awareness of an existing library product or service, such as promoting online eSources, or updating the Bookmobile schedule. Whatever it is, you have a project, and you’re going to want to raise awareness about it.
3. In the beginning, this is probably how your project starts out—a blank slate—especially if it is a new project that has never been done before. If it is a project that has already been developed in the past, you probably will already have the luxury of previously used materials to work with that only need updating or refreshing. If not, you’re starting from scratch, and thus, the blank sheet of paper—or in this case, a blank blackboard. Whichever it is, you are what Marketing calls “the content provider.” The project is yours; you’re the initiator of it, you’ll be the one developing all the details about it, and its your project to manage. Marketing can help you, but you will be the provider of all the essential content that will be marketed—basically, the “who, what, when, where, how” information. In addition to those essentials, you might be called on to provide a little more insight, such as the style or tone of the creative imagery or expressive tone you would like to see.
4. So…eventually, you come up with a project idea.
5. No, wait… …let’s make that a “brilliant” project idea!
6. Now that you have your project and are developing it, you’re working out all the details, getting things in order and confirmed—maybe tweaking things as you go along to refine the project. As you do it, you should be thinking ahead about how you’re going to generate awareness of your project from you…
7. …to your audience. Who are they, where are they, what are the best ways to reach them.
8. How will you promote it? What would be the best ways? Based on past experience, you might already have some ideas about this. Or, you might want to call Marketing to talk about a variety of ways you can bring attention to your project.
9. There’s a number of ways you can promote your project. You’re not beholden to any one way—the choice is yours! One way you can promote your project is to simply do it yourself. Some people actually ENJOY this! Reasons for taking this option might be because you are the ideal person for doing it. For example, you may have the creative inspiration and technical savvy required to produce your own promotional materials, or perhaps you need to be spontaneous and require a really quick turn-around time. Doing it yourself could definitely be the way to go for some types of promotional project development.
10. If you DO go it alone, know that Marketing has already prepared in advance templates you can use for the most common promotional materials requested. These materials already include all the essential branded library information on them that should be included on most publicity materials: the library logo, branch identification, and a contact reference. Every branch library has its own set of templates to use; they are located on the library’s online network H server in the Publicity / All Branches folder..
11. Another option you have available is to request Marketing create your promotional materials for you. Some people actually NEED this option for a variety of reasons. Reasons can run the gamut…such as they may have never created any marketing documents before and don’t know the general methods or needs, or perhaps they might not be technically savvy using the computer programs and materials involved, or possibly they might need help in developing a creative concept to promote their project. There’s nothing wrong with not knowing or needing help. The Marketing department is here to support you in whatever way it can.
12. If you DO want to use Marketing, know that the department has the capability to create promotional materials far greater than the self-help templates provided on the server. Because of this, the Marketing department is a VERY busy place. Requests come in not only from the 12 branches for their own library services and events, but Marketing also serves administration, circulation, technical, outreach and facilities department requests, as well as producing creative work to support external organizations such as Friends of the Library, the ACLD Foundation, and others.
13. A final option you have to create promotional materials is to collaborate with Marketing. In this option, there may be various aspects of your marketing that you can do, but still need creative assistance to help you along. For example, you might be creating your own flyers and handbills, but need an image searched for and/or modified for use. Or, after creating your own flyers or signs, you might want a reproduction of it enlarged into a poster format and printed. Or you might just need a library logo sent to you for including on your materials. There’s many reasons for and advantages to collaborating together. Marketing is happy to provide assistance in whatever way we can to help your promotion of a program or service be its best.
14. These last two options will require you to use the library’s online request system.
15. To request Marketing to work on a project for you, simply go online to the library’s work portal system. Log in using your user name and password.
16. Create a new work order, then, using the “Project” pull down menu, assign your project request to “Publicity and Printing Requests.” This will assign your project to the Marketing department. For those of you who require a supervisor’s approval, you will see that your Publicity and Printing Request will be assigned to them rather than directly to Marketing.
17. In the “Subject” heading, give your project request a name. The best thing to name it would be using language that matches your product, service, or event title, such as: “Law in the Library” “JobNow!” “Black History Month” “High Springs Building Signage” A good reason for not naming your request something like “Black History Month Poster” is that if further into your request you mention also needing additional items, such as a flyer, a sign, handbills, a webslide or other items, then the actual name of the project would be misleading and incorrect. You’ll have the opportunity to list all your details further into the “Request Details” section.
18. Here’s an example of a fairly well created request. > The requester has given the project a short, easily identifiable project name. > The project directions in the “Request Details” section are clear and to the point. > A due date has been specified (please note that date due is for when you want to have your materials in hand so you can begin promoting your event. It is not the same date as when your event takes place. That would be too late to begin promoting it!). > A quantity is indicated. For multiple projects listed in the same work request, just list the quantities next to the name of the specific individual project. > Related information is attached for reference. Use this for including related existing artwork, photographs, a text document or other relevant reference information. > The project has been assigned to her supervisor, who has then approved it AND re-assigned it to Marketing.
19. Once a work request is created, the people involved in its development will be able to communicate with each other using the Comment dialog thread to stay abreast with the project’s progress. An important aspect of communicating through the portal system is that when you type in a comment, you need to make sure you also type in a recipient’s name. If you don’t do this, the person you want to see your comment won’t know that you made one, and as a result, progress on the project will be delayed.
20. As long as your name has been included to receive notices of comments and changes made to the on-going project, you will receive MS Outlook emails of these updates. You won’t be able to reply directly to the sender of the email because the message doesn’t come directly from that person’s MS Outlook email. Instead, the message is system-generated by the work portal and it includes a link back to the project where the comment or change was made. Please do not overlook these messages. Regard these comments and changes in the same manner that you would for receiving an email sent directly from the person. Work portal system messages are simply another way to correspond by email.
21. During the process of working on a project, you may find yourself being assigned a Marketing project. This is because an action is being requested of you for continuing with the project. Examples of having a project assigned to you include such things as asking for a due date or quantities from an incomplete request, being requested to provide additional information or clarifying a request, or needing an approval to move forward after reviewing and approving a design proof. Just like in the previous slide about notifying a person about your comment, it is important that when you reply to these messages that you ALSO re-assign it to the person who had assigned the request for action to you.
22. So…that’s about it for working with Marketing and making requests through the library’s online work portal! Thank you for coming, and I hope that by showing the request process you can see how easy and helpful it is to use.
23. And of course, if you ever have any questions, we always welcome them. So…are there any questions for today?