Promoting Your Library to Diverse Populations
Format: Online
Fee: $75 for those in the California library community and Infopeople Partners, $150 for all others.
(An Infopeople Online Learning Course)
January 12, 2010 – February 8, 2010
According to the U.S. Census almost 40% of households in California speak a language other than English. Look closely at the demographics of California and you'll see more than language diversity. Did you know that as early as 2010, one in five Californians will be 60 years of age or older? Or that California is home to almost six million people with disabilities?
Libraries serve communities that are diverse not only in race and ethnicity but also in sexual orientation, physical abilities, and age. Each group has its own needs, predispositions, and responses to promotional messages. How can you avoid using a "cookie cutter" approach while making all members of your community aware of library resources that are valuable to them?
In this online course, multicultural marketing expert Susana Baumann will help you to:
- Build culturally-based promotional strategies
- Apply a communication model that encourages target groups to take action
- Create effective messages, select appropriate media, and pre-test impacts
- Monitor and evaluate these strategies to improve results
By the end of the course, you will have developed a promotional mini-campaign targeting a group of your choice.
Course Description: During the course you will be reading background materials, completing assignments, and participating in online discussion forums. In the first two weeks, you will explore social marketing ("marketing for a cause"), specific promotional strategies for a mini-campaign, and appropriate media outlets. In the second half of the course, you will complete a hands-on project, with content and images for promotional materials, a creative brief, and a media plan. You will also learn to evaluate your promotional efforts, monitor customer satisfaction, and make recommendations for future promotions.
With over 15 years of experience in multicultural marketing, instructor Susana Baumann will provide resources, best practices, and useful tips and techniques for social marketing strategies that can be applied immediately to the library environment.
Preliminary Course Outline: Using your web browser and your Internet connection, you will log in to the Infopeople online learning site and complete the following learning modules:
- Week 1: Why Social Marketing?
- Differences between traditional and social marketing promotional approaches
- Seven steps to start a promotional campaign
- Getting to know your target audiences
- Week 2: Promoting to Diverse Populations: One Size Does Not Fit All
- Defining market segments with your customer in mind
- The notion of competition in a library environment
- The three As: Awareness, Acceptance, Action
- Differences between promotional strategies and tactics
- Week 3: A Promotional Mini-Campaign: Specific Services for Specific Needs
- Creating effective messages—the creative brief
- Creating effective messages—what images do for you
- Selecting media, timing and scheduling
- Week 4: Implementing Your Mini-Campaign and Evaluating Promotional Efforts
- How to implement your promotional mini-campaign
- Evaluation of promotional efforts—is it a waste of time?
- Pre-test your campaign—why and who
- During and after the campaign: What should be evaluated and how to interpret results
Pre-workshop work: Background materials will be provided by the instructor for those who do not have experience in marketing or marketing techniques.
Time required: To complete this course, you can expect to spend 2½ to 3 hours per week. You can work on each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night. However, it is recommended that you complete each week's assignments within that week to stay in sync with other learners.
Who Should Take This Course: Anyone working in public, academic or institutional libraries, especially decision-makers or those with planning responsibilities. The course is relevant to public information officers; staff responsible for public services, marketing, outreach or promotion; and anyone interested in marketing and advocacy for libraries.
Online Learning Details and System Requirements may be found at
http://www.infopeople.org/training/learning_details.html.
Course Start: This 4-week-long online learning course starts on January 12, 2010.
If you would like to subscribe via RSS and be notified whenever new Infopeople training events are available, you can use these links:
**For new on-ground or online workshops: infopeople.org/workshop/rss
**For new podcasts: feeds.feedburner.com/InfopeoplePodcasts