I’m going to flesh this blog post out in the coming weeks with details about Hoopla usage after an email push….look for a huge influx of content from PGCMLS as I wrap up my work here and process my thoughts (I’m off from work and in the US between August 5-10).
I follow a few library-related groups on Facebook and have noticed that there’s a lot of discussion about promoting resources via displays and other clever things, but not so much about the nuts and bolts of building effective email lists. Today, there was a thread asking for “ideas or signage about promoting e-magazines” in a library that had just switched vendors. One clever suggestion: placing signs next to magazines that are available digitally, and placeholders for online-only magazines. Of course, we can promote these services on our websites and social, and we do! But, you’re going to get a bigger adoption rate with email marketing (and a nice bonus is that some of the vendors will actually provide you with content and pay you to send it to an email marketing list that you create – so, you don’t end up handing over your patron’s contact information to an outside party!).
I didn’t run any organized social media campaigns at PGCMLS, but I can tell you that I saw huge spikes in signups and logins after sending a vendor email described above (and continued sustained use of the product at those levels). And, I managed to get permission to send a special email announcement about a high-profile library event – I’m convinced that that email helped us wildly exceed attendance expectations. I managed to collect several survey responses at that event (check back for more detailed post). A big thing here is the impact that teacher emails have on parents: if you can get your library’s digital services mentioned in a classroom email, I guarantee that you’ll see bigger returns there than on a social campaign.
Your patrons use email, and they want to hear from you: [open response rate in Savannah, add comments about average open rate]
It won’t come as a surprise to anyone that I have some desires for product enhancements in Savannah, but this is a good and powerful tool for email marketing and building lists, and I appreciated the ability to see open rates in one screen. Having this page created was a huge win for me. It felt like a big step in the right direction, and I was surprised to see that our most popular mailing list was actually the one for adult programs.
So, back to our Facebook Library example: how do you promote your new magazine vendor’s services? Here are 2 data sets that I can almost guarantee you have in your possession.
Your old vendor’s customer records: Hopefully you’re thinking about this before migrating platforms, because you want to send a notification to everyone who signed up for your old service to provide continuity.
Your ILS: Can you query your ILS to generate a list of customers who checked out print magazines? Here’s how to do it in Polaris:
De-duplicate the email addresses in Excel, and you’re done.
You could combine the results from the above 2 data sets into one email list, or send slightly different emails to both groups (“we’ve discontinued X service….” vs “you’re a magazine reader – did you know we have digital versions”?).
You might even be able to get the titles of magazines that these folks checked out, and send email notifications to users of ones that are available digitally.
(Note to libraries: I am not interested in your digital subscriptions unless they are to the following: The Atlantic, the New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue.)