I know, I know. You’ll say that eBook users are only 25% of readers and that data suggests that people reading on eBooks read more. To that I say: start reading this book right now.

eBooks represent what Christensen calls disruptive technology. In the short term these innovations are more fringe than mainstream, underperform in some ways, but in the near term transform behavior permanently. Some great examples he cites:

Established   Technology                               Disruptive Technology

Printed greeting cards                                            Free greeting cards via the internet

Offset printing                                                         Digital printing

Graduate schools of management                       In-house corporate management training

Cardiac bypass surgery                                          Angioplasty

Standard textbooks                                                Modular digital textbooks

But here’s where we really need to pay attention. Why did companies fail to adapt – like Sears, Kodak, etc.? Because they did the same things that make companies succeed: they listened to their customers.  And I’d suggest that, like many in libraries, we listen to ourselves: because people who work in libraries do so because they love books, they are blinded by their own beliefs and aren’t seeing what is happening.

I was talking recently to a group of staff and talking about how eBooks represent serious competition to our industry that traditionally hasn’t faced competition and so doesn’t recognize it. Oh, no, they said. People in our neighborhoods don’t have eBooks and so that isn’t relevant. But guess what? The taxpayers who fund our work are buying eReaders and are beginning to ask why should they fund an outmoded institution. Seriously. I’ve had this conversation several times this year and it is scaring the heck out of me.

But rather than run scared, I maintain that’s where marketing plays a key role. Marketing helps define value and then – through multiple channels – communicates that value. And we need to make sure we emphasize that value as something much more than books. It will be hard work and we have a lot of people to get on board, but I believe it is possible.

In conjunction with Bowker, LJ surveyed U.S. library users to understand preferences around websites — who uses them and how and why. The study identified the “ePower Patron,” those people who are on your website all the time, either searching/reserving books or doing research.

No surprise: most everyone uses the websites to reserve a book. But interestingly, more and more are using devices other than a PC to access those site, urging the case for a mobile app and/or mobile friendly website.

Your Takeway: what is your plan for a mobile app/mobile friendly? If you don’t have a plan, call me. I’ll hook you up with someone who can help you get started.

Importantly, survey respondents universally said that information is not easy to find. Amen, sister! As libraries, we have traditionally organized our holdings in ways that make sense to us and then we expect the public to learn it. I remember a previous director at my library who proudly said, “we’ve trained our public very well!” But guess what? The world has changed dramatically, and the public brings to their library experience the expectations of the same ease-of-use they experience with Amazon, Target, and so on. Libraries have to wholesale rethink how we organize our information if we are going to be relevant in the future. (Don’t get me started on the term “research databases”!)

Your Takeway: rethink the customer experience from the public point of view, not from what you already know about your library.

eReaders and Tablets are changing the nature of our work. And if this isn’t keeping  you up at night, then call me at 2 a.m. and I’ll explain why it should! Here’s from Patron Profiles:

“When it comes to consuming electronic media content, the new mobile devices are gaining popularity even more rapidly than they are for information access. They account for over half of digital media consumption among survey respondents.”

Your Takeway: Your key staff and board of trustees should schedule a day retreat to map out a strategy to respond to the sonic-speed pace of change around eReaders. We have to face this head on, and not be complacent. Libraries had no competition for most of our history. In the last five years transformative competition has taken over and we’re still focused on very traditional library patterns of fines, circulation, using staff to check out materials for patrons.

Ok, now I step down off my soapbox and finish reading the latest issue of Patron Profiles…..

We talked about creating powerful value messages, getting buy-in from staff and stakeholders and crafting message points.

I am amazed at two things: 1) we are all trying to crack the same nut; 2) libraries are eager to figure this out using limited resources – while understanding the value of a clear and concise marketing message.

Seems like everyone understands the need to define ourselves outside the usual parameters of value: historically we’ve said that libraries are where the public accesses reliable information sources. “We help navigate Google.”

Yet nearly all in the room agreed that this is no longer enough – maybe even true – because these aren’t the kinds of questions we are being asked today. Our public has learned to navigate the web and Smart phones; the library has to be about something more:  something tied to community goals.

Figuring this out isn’t easy. It requires discipline to ask tough questions and honest assessment. What are the important issues facing your community today and how can you position your library to be the unmistakable answer to the problem?

Let me be clear. I do not have an MLS. I have not worked in libraries prior to this gig. And yet, in my new role I will:

• Broaden CML’s commitment to exceptional customer experience strategies by combining innovation with the best retail practices and digital applications.
• Identify and implement an ongoing innovation and transformation effort through all customer service delivery venues: facilities, outreach, web, apps, etc.
• Serve as the leader for all facets of our Public Services Department. All Public Service staff will report up to me.
• Keep customers, branding and marketing strategies at the forefront for our Vision 2020 facilities program (our plan for new buildings over the next 10-20 years).

Talk about a bold vision! And yet this is exactly the kind of thinking that libraries will have to engage in to stay relevant. I was thinking of this today as I checked my inbox and saw an email from Kodak. Now there’s an industry that didn’t change fast enough. The world is changing around us so quickly that libraries must be primed for fast-paced innovation and a sense of urgency.

How lucky am I that I get to lead this effort at my library!? Honestly! I start on Monday, and already I have set up appointments to talk with four Chief Customer Experience Officers of major national companies to learn best-in-class principles that we can adapt.

The awesome thing about libraries is that we don’t have non-compete clauses, so I can share with you all I learn. And already I am deeply engaged in business plans for our key products (Homework Help Centers, Job Help Centers, for example) and Branded Facilities Guidelines that set consistent standards and expectations across all our locations.

When those are finished and vetted I’ll share them with you. Should be within the month.

If you want to know more about my journey to get her, email me or call me. In honor of the late, great Maurice Sendak: “Let the wild rumpus begin!”

A Marketer’s Tool Kit that includes things like:

• Brand Assessment Tool
• Marketing Communications Plan Templates
• Social Media essentials including building the business case, posting schedule templates and metrics dashboards

Here’s an example of what they call a Marketing Activities Calendar (don’t mind the 2009 date!)

White papers on “Harnessing the Power of Facebook Data” and many, many others.

Free (with membership) webcasts on every marketing topic on earth: “Essentials for the Users of Marketing Research,” and “Pinterest: Beyond Lifestyle Scrapbooking to Brand Marketing Tactic.”

They even have a dictionary that explains current trends in marketing and the “official” AMA definition of marketing: “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” Gotta love that!

Hope you’ll check it out. The web resources are complemented by local chapters, which present events, offer a community of marketers as well as networking opportunities. You can find your local chapter here.

What does that have to do with marketing? Everything.

1. Why is this the message we are delivering?

Many libraries have Homework Help Centers or Job Help Centers or do outreach work with elderly or at risk children. Fabulous. By why. That’s the power of marketing. My answer is because libraries today are transformational agencies. This work ties to our vision of “a thriving community where wisdom prevails.” Some libraries do it because of the nature of access in a free democracy. If you can’t tie it to purpose, it’s just a task. And I’d argue that even that is not enough. We need to drive harder to real outcomes in our community: we’re doing Homework Help Centers because only 70% of kids graduate from high school and our goal is to make that 90% because our city’s economy depends on it.

2. Why is this the channel we are using?

How many book marks do you think libraries produce every year? Why do we do it? I suspect because it is the easy answer. Yet we know from research that very few people attend an event because they got a book mark. They mostly attend because of word of mouth — usually our staff telling them. So what is our purpose and might we have a better way of accomplishing that purpose than a book mark.

3. Why are we holding this event or undertaking this tactic?

How does such a thing advance our purpose? For example, a nonprofit agency in town is circulating an impressive action plan for how they are going to address a particular social issue. Yet they don’t have agreement on purpose. I just can’t imagine how you can talk about tactics without clarity around purpose. Why do we do the work we do every day? It should always be driven by that purpose — or we shouldn’t be doing it.

This mantra has come in handy this past week in almost every conversation I’ve had about big things and small. See if you can use it. It’s a small world, after all.

100 library staff from the five-state area around Ohio gathered to talk about how to be the change. Marketing was front and center as people reflected on how marketing can help libraries (continue to) be important. 

Here’s my favorite quote of the day-long session (forgive my bias!) When asked to share a learning from the day, a person at my table said:

“Successful libraries have a successful marketing person.”

AWESOME!! Other great comments included:

• Focus on a few simple ideas.
• Be identifiable (meaning: be recognizable in the marketplace).
• It’s about the experience, not the transaction.
• Base our goals on community goals.

Produced in partnership with Library Journal, organizer David Bendekovic told me that 12 more sessions are planned for later this year, sessions that will be held throughout the U.S. It is fairly inexpensive and attendees gave the experience excellent reviews. You won’t be sorry!

Using Facebook and Twitter, the library asked customers to submit copy ideas for the new cards.

Top ideas made it onto new,branded cards, and customers can choose their favorite:  Show Me Your Card, I’ll Show You Mine; No Brain, No Gain; Anything is Possible With This Card; I Found My Place Like No Other; This Card Makes Me Smart; and Use This Card Until it Falls Apart.

But the library didn’t stop there. 

They created a marketing campaign around the new library cards using posters to promote education and literacy. Posters  feature Hartford’s Mayor Pedro E. Segarra, local business owner Judy Young, Governor Dannel P. Malloy and Cathy Malloy, First Lady and president and chief executive officer of the Greater Hartford Arts Council, and 18 month old Mila Garcia, one of the library’s newest customers.

And they are running  a photo contest, Show Us Your New Library Card. The contest invites customers to submit photos of themselves holding their new  cards in and around the city of Hartford. Three grand prize winners will be selected and featured in posters.

Congratulations, Hartford, for integrating old and new promotion channels with the quintessential icon of libraries: the library card. 

Check it out!

Any marketing professional is obsessed with business intelligence:  what is the goal of our effort and did we achieve it? What do people think, feel and believe about our effort and are we delivering on it? Many marketing tools come equipped with great metrics to help answer these questions. Facebook, for example, offers an excellent dashboard to help you see what content resonates with users and what content doesn’t.

For years I’ve wanted that same kind of dashboard of metrics for our website and now I’ve got it — and it changes everything! I feel like a master of the universe instead of groping blindly in the dark hoping our efforts work. With our new system:

• We’ve set goals for areas of our website, established benchmarks, and now can see if we can reach our goal.
• We can watch responses to what we write. If people click on it, we’ll write more stuff like that. If they don’t, we’ll try something else.
• We can  tag outbound email customer communications with our metrics system to see if those efforts drive traffic to our website.
• We can figure out if our social media is a driver to our website or a destination unto itself.

I can’t wait to get started. And it wasn’t that hard to get set up. If you want to get ideas for what I’m talking about and how you might do something similar, I’m part of a FREE webinar that will go into all kinds of detail about how you can do the same.

 Turning Website Data Into Business Intelligence  will be held on Wednesday, April 18 at 2:00 PM Eastern Time. Register here.  I hope you’ll join me.

P.S. Presenter of the webinar is Bill Balderez of Fathom who spoke at the 2011 LJ Director Summit, Moving from Outputs to Outcomes. Bill spoke on using social media to measure outputs.  He has a lot to offer libraries!

So it piqued my interest to see this headline on one of my favorite websites, The Daily Beast:  “Can Advertising Survive the Digital Age?”

The article profiles Jeff Rosenblum, the cofounder of a 50-person agency called Questus that specializes in digital media and just won an Agency of the Year award from iMedia, a publication that tracks the online marketing industry.  He says:

“Advertising hasn’t changed since the 1960s, but we’re on the verge of a revolution. People are starting to realize that there are more effective ways to build a brand than through advertising.”

He goes on to evaluate the many ways in which today’s marketing channels offer many ways to build a brand that have nothing to do with traditional advertising.

Also, don’t miss this article on The Daily Beast as well: New Wave of Advertisers Consider Consumers the New Medium.

What’s your strategy? Are you still advertising? Does it still provide value to you? Or, are you like me, and finding other ways to accomplish the same goals?