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How Will You Promote the Texas Reading Club?

A key factor in the success of the Reading Club will be your ability to get the word out regarding the programs and activities you will provide. Promotion is the fourth component of the 4 P's that comprise the marketing mix: Price, Product, Place, Promotion.

Promotion of the Reading Club can take place in three basic ways:

• in house
• in person
• in the media

Full scale promotional efforts include strategies for each of these.

In House Promotion

Noted marketing consultant Charles Leonard maintains that "the best time to reach a user or prospective user is similar to the best time to sell a home owner a vacuum cleaner or a washer-dryer combination. When they are in need or in the mood to purchase. Therefore, most of our [promotion] of the library can be done within the confines of the library. Why? Because people are already there. They are in a library mood" (Leonard, 1985, p. 13-14). According to Leonard, in-house promotion is one of the most powerful and under-utilized tools at your disposal.

In-house promotion might be defined as any publicity pieces that are either displayed or distributed at the library. In-house promotion could include bulletin boards, posters, exhibits/displays, brochures, bookmarks, bibliographies and/or flyers.

If you are fortunate enough to have a graphic artist on your library staff, take full advantage of his/her knowledge and expertise. This is a co-worker who can play a major role in the success of the Reading Club.

While the services of a graphic artist can be a definite asset, the libraries that employ such personnel are few and far between. It is likely that you will have to act as your own designer for in house promotion. Like so many other aspects of the Reading Club, this is an area that will take some careful thought and planning.

In-house promotional displays and publications have both informational and aesthetic aspects that must be considered. Your intent is to publicize the Reading Club in an attractive and appealing manner.

Keep in mind as you consider the aesthetics of promotion that your knowledge of design and layout may be greater than you think. As a reader and a librarian, you have absorbed a wide variety of design elements through your experience with books. Additionally, as a member of our consumer-centered society, you have been on the receiving end of countless promotional campaigns. As you design bulletin boards, bookmarks and brochures keep these experiences in mind. Your aim is to package and to present Reading Club information. Designing promotional pieces can be a satisfying and creative undertaking.

In terms of content, it is important to include all pertinent information - explaining what is happening, when, where, and for whom. As you compose the information for a promotional piece, keep the intended audience in mind. A flyer for parents and adult care providers of preschoolers would have a different slant than one promoting crafts to school aged children. It is particularly important with publications that are intended for distribution to include the library's name, location, and phone number. The customer who takes a brochure from the library may not be the only customer who utilizes the information. This basic information about the source of the brochure could be of key importance to the second and even third customer who accesses the piece.

One last bit of advice regarding promotional publications: PROOFREAD! The information you provide needs to be accurate as well as complete. Indicating that a film program will be held on Tuesday, June 6th when Tuesday is actually June 5th can cause confusion and cost you a customer's confidence. Typographical errors also reflect badly on you and on the library. Always have a co-worker do the final proofreading. Your ability to catch your own errors may be limited, but a fresh pair of eyes may quickly spot any problems. You may find that proofing is best accomplished from a photocopy of your final draft. In addition to providing the proofreader with a copy on which he/she can mark, the cleanliness of the copy often helps in the effort to locate mistakes.

The importance of proofreading cannot be over emphasized. It is a vital step in the process of producing promotional materials. You will feel much happier to have found and fixed that spelling error before 500 copies of a brochure are printed!

In Person Promotion

Any time you converse about the Reading Club you are engaged in promotion. Whether you are talking informally with a customer or co-worker or making a planned presentation before a group, you have the opportunity to positively promote the Reading Club.

Leonard suggests that personal promotion has the best chance of success when you interact with individuals or small groups, and when your message is short, clear, and directed. By directed he means one goal, one message, one product. "Don't sell the library. Sell its services; sell its features; sell its products - but one at a time" (Leonard, 1985, p. 14).

For example, consider a school visit. According to Leonard, you will be more effective in promoting the Reading Club if you visit individual classes. This is not to say you should reject offers to address school assemblies. Certainly a promotional presentation at an assembly is more effective than no presentation at all! But, keep in mind that potential customers can feel the personal touch to a greater extent when the group is small. Keep your presentation short and to the point. You want to promote the Reading Club, so talk about the Reading Club. If you want to include a story, make sure that it can be related to club themes or activities and be remembered as a library related occurrence, not just as an entertaining diversion as the school vacation approaches.

In addition to in person promotion through school visits, you can also consider visits to day care centers and appearances at organizational meetings such as the PTA, the Scouts, etc. Any place that Reading Club customers gather, whether those customers are children or adults, is a place to engage in promotion. You are limited only by time and inclination.

Promotion in the Media

Both broadcast and print media can be utilized to promote the Reading Club. Generally, media promotion takes place in the form of either press releases or public service announcements. There are some conventions to follow with each of the formats that may increase your rate of success in obtaining media coverage.

First, it is important to bear in mind that the media is not considered a public utility. Which is to say, that while you can expect the water department to respond quickly and effectively every time you turn on the tap, you cannot expect the local newspaper or television station to respond as positively to your need to promote the Reading Club. You must be sure that the items you submit to the media are newsworthy, are of interest to the media's target audience, and are received in a timely fashion, well in advance of the expected publication or broadcast date.

When writing and submitting press released it is important to include all pertinent information. Answer the who, what, when, where, why and how questions in the opening paragraph. Use later paragraphs for explanation and the final paragraphs for miscellaneous or general information. This style is sometimes referred to as the inverted pyramid. The top of the pyramid, the beginning of the story, is broad based, containing the essential elements of information. The bottom of the pyramid, the close of the story, narrows to contain less pertinent material. This style of writing allows the news editor to quickly shorten the story if there are space or time constraints.

Public service announcements (PSAs) are shorter and less formal than press releases. They are designed to be aired over a radio or television station. Generally, they are read by an announcer or on-air personality.

Sample press releases and PSAs can sometimes be found in the annual Reading Club manual. The samples in the manual will provide you with thematically based copy from which to build promotional pieces tailor-made for your library.

In all your publicity efforts it is important to weigh the time and expense required against the potential return. You want your publicity efforts to have a payoff. While a roadside marquee may be very visible, it is also very expensive to lease and may require the services of a professional graphic designer. Conversely, getting a message on the local access cable station's character generator may not be viewed by as many potential customers, but it is free and requires a minimum of time and effort. Your goal in promoting the Reading Club is to get the word out in the most efficient and effective way possible. Work smart as you promote the Reading Club.

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