Engaging your Community through Active Strategic Marketing

Terry Kendrick has over 30 years’ experience of delivering information and marketing training courses. Originally qualified as a librarian, Terry has run his own information and marketing training and consultancy company – Information Now Ltd – which was established in 1989. He specialises in strategic marketing planning facilitation and training, strategic risk management, management consultancy skills, internet search techniques and competitive intelligence. In addition to information activities Terry has in the past been Director of the MBA Programme at the University of East Anglia and Director of Executive Education at Leeds University Business School. In his freelance information and marketing activities Terry has worked on projects in over 20 countries. Terry is a CILIP Onsite trainer, presenting a number of tailored programmes for organisations. He has also written articles on marketing planning and is the author of Developing Strategic Marketing Plans That Really Work: A toolkit for public libraries (2006).

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Tables

Introduction

1. The need for a professional approach to engagement



Defining engagement and strategic marketing
Outline of this book

2. Strategic marketing planning for engagement



Identifying planning goals and processes to achieve them
The engagement story

3. Ambition: the basis for all activity



Vision, mission and values
How to write a statement of ambition for your library

4. Understanding users and potential users



Defining the marketplace
Understanding existing users
Understanding and engaging potential users
Profiling your potential library community
Survey research
Focus groups
Researching user experience and satisfaction
Understanding competition

5. Identifying value and segmentation



Creating segment-specific value propositions for stakeholders
Options for segmenting stakeholders
Effective segmentation is not easy...
Value propositions by segment

6. Managing stakeholder engagement



Three elements of a stakeholder management programme
Engaging employees

7. Making choices and creating engaging offers



Priorities
Engagement objectives
Engagement strategies
Creating offers for users, potential users and stakeholders
The marketing mix
Engagement and customer relationship management as a strategy
Finalising engaging offers for specific segments
Some other aspects of marketing strategy for engagement

8. Crafting engaging messages



How often should users be contacted?
Should library marketing communications be general or event driven?
Options for a communications mix
Communications strategies
The return on marketing communications investment
Do users and potential users respond to library communications?
Marketing communications at different stages of the user life cycle
Event-driven and segment-specific marketing communications messages
Media kits
Writing copy for marketing communications
Promotional activity

9. Effective marketing channels for engaging messages



Non-digital methods of marketing messages
Traditional media
In-library messaging

10. Digital channels and engagement



The pivotal role of the library website
Library blogging
The major social media
How social media platforms support libraries’ engagement activities
Social media policies and guidelines
Practical hints for writing engaging social media posts
Digital support for engagement strategies

11. Evaluating the response to engagement activity



Evaluating engagement outcomes from social media presence and participation
Evaluating employee engagement
Reporting evaluations and assessments

12. How to give marketing and engagement the best chance of success

References

Recommended reading

Index