You need to talk about your library, and all your cool stuff. And you need to do it All The Time! You never know when you are going to make a connection, or say something at just the right time for people to hear it.

Like anything, publicity has a system you can follow. In this case, it’s often called the six Ps of Publicity. We are going to walk through them briefly here, and you can find more info online or in books or articles about marketing.

• The right Product: This includes all the stuff your library has to offer to your community members. You want it to be things they want to use, or things they need.
• The right Price: Many of your items will not be charged for directly, but you may have some things that are for sale directly, or that you charge for (meeting room rentals, special access to researchers, etc.), and you want to be thinking about how to charge for that.
• The right Place: You want to be connected to the community, so you need to be where they are. If you are in an elementary school, you are probably right in the same building; if you are in a university library,  an increasing number of your students are probably off campus and maybe not in your state or even your country. Develop online and mail resources to be in place!
• Promote the right way: Too many libraries use marketing material that looks like a kid made it – and not in a good way. You want to know how to use good colors (not salmon, for example), how to use good graphics, and how to assemble material that does not look like an amateur did it. This can really diminish your image when done poorly.
• To the right People: You want to know your community. This does not mean people who live near you; instead, a community is all the people who you are serving. So you want to be able to connect with individuals in that group, and with groups within the larger group. Different people will want different things; you need to know what they are.
• At the right Point in time: Think about promoting programs and services: not too long in advance, or people will forget, and not too close to the time because people won’t be able to change plans.

Keep promoting yourself!!!

Remember: CMLE is here to help members who want to work on this kind of stuff, and are not sure where to start or want to bounce around some ideas. We are here for you!