Collections Marketing Tips & Tricks

Merchandising

Merchandising is promoting goods by their physical presentation. It is a top of mind for retail stores, and you are participating in merchandising at your library already! The idea is, you can use your space to guide people where you want them to go (a book display, for example) and make them spend more time in your space with how it is laid out. This is the best way to improve your collection marketing.

Keep important items at the end of sightlines
Ensure the space is comfortable for people to browse in (the more time someone spends, the more items they will take)
- Shelves are far enough apart
- The space is clean (shelves/books are not crusty or dusty)
- Books have enough space on the shelf to comfortably grab one out and easily put it back
Don’t overcrowd spaces with clutter/flyers, by keeping things minimal it will make the items you really want to promote more prominent
Update displays regularly, fill empty spaces when books get taken
Your library is well lit and it is easy to read the spines of books in the stacks

Collection Awareness/ Readers Advisory

In order to successfully market your collection, you have to be well acquainted with it. This may be easy for the person in charge of collection ordering, but everyone that works at the library should make a regular active effort to be familiar with the collection.

When patrons are returning books, talk to them about it! Learn about the book on your shelf without having to read it yourself.
Actively participate in readers advisory training – email newsletter subscriptions, scrolling through GoodReads Lists, seeing what’s popular on social media.

Social Media

It’s important to highlight your collection on social media, but it may not be where people go to get their book recommendations. You’ll want to track the results of this carefully to see if that’s the content your audience is really looking for. Perhaps your monthly new books post isn’t getting any engagement, but bookface Friday is raking in the comments, adjust as needed!

Print Marketing – Flyers & Media

Press releases for best books of the year list, new books, top circulating, etc. are a great way to get a wider audience for your collection marketing. I recommend doing these at least once a year. Other methods for print marketing for your collection are: