To market my project, I will target all of the stakeholders for my school including students, parents, families, support staff and community partners. The content of my marketing will focus on information about the vending machine, the book making station, the reading nook and book drives. My campaign will include:
- Weekly newsletters-Strawbridge Elementary sends out weekly newsletters called “Shark Bites” that give families information about events and happenings at the school. This is emailed with text reminders for those families signed up for the notifications.
- Website advertising-The school website has a moving banner at the top of its page notifying visitors of important events. This is a great place to highlight book drives to fill the vending machine and reading nook and also a way to display student-created books from the book-making station.
- Social Media-Teachers at Strawbridge are encouraged to post about learning experiences or happy moments in student learning. I will send out reminders to teachers to post on their Twitter pages any students who get to use the vending machine, take time out in the reading nook, or who get to create a book in the book-making station.
- Shopping bags from book fair-Velasquez (2019) suggested putting flyers in shopping bags as a way to get the word out about projects. Our book fair is an extremely successful event each year with a huge turnout from families. Putting flyers in the shopping bags would be a great way to advertise the need for book donations for the book nook and the vending machine.
- Contests-Lamb & Johnson (2020) included “do something unexpected” in their list of ways to market in libraries. Who doesn’t love a contest? During book drives, I would have grade level contests to see which grade level could donate the most books. Another idea for a contest is to see which grade level earns the most tokens to use the vending machine. For our competitive teachers, I could host contests for them to post about the project on social media.
- Flyers or posters-These could be utilized for the times we hold book drives for the vending machine and reading nook. I know that keeping the vending machine stocked will be the biggest challenge so I intend to hold frequent book drives. These flyers can go home with students in monthly folders. They can also be posted at our local community partners such as restaurants and supermarkets. Posters can also be made for the community. Also, motivational posters can be placed around the school asking questions such as “Have you created a book lately?” or “How many vending machine tokens do you have?!”.
- Morning Announcements-This is the number one way our student body receives information about important events and also the number one way they get excited about them! Not only do our students view this daily, but families of our virtual students are also exposed to the information daily as well. I will put a weekly reminder in the announcements to earn vending machine tokens, to try and visit our reading nook, and to experiment at bookmaking in the book-making station. These reminders will range from fun video clips to showing actual students using the areas and of course include graphics that will motivate the students.
As suggested by the Library Marketing show (2020), I will use these strategies in my marketing plan to create a circle of promotion. By giving repetitive messaging in various places, I will make sure that my community all receive the news of my project.
References:
Lamb,A., Johnson,L. (2020, May 4). Message design, branding, and the library’s story. eduscapes: Marketing for libraries. https://eduscapes.com/wp/marketing-for-libraries/
Library Marketing Show. (2020, May 20). Why the circle of promotion is your #librarymarketing best bet . Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxOFCj5yONc.
Velasquez, D.L. (2019). Marketing. In L.K. Hussey & D.L. Velasquez (Eds). Library Management 101: A Practical Guide (2nd ed). (pp.119-133). American Library Association.