Monday, January 28, 2013

Email Marketing Software For Community Libraries

Email Marketing Software For Community Libraries
If you're looking to receive more funding to improve the quality of your community library, then as a library operator or Librarian, you need to bring your library to the next level with email marketing software. One of the great things about email marketing software is that it has the unique ability to help you focus on your patrons' specific needs. During exams, school projects, or to send reminders to renew or return their books and other items, email marketing software can help you segment your audiences. This way, you will provide them with the scholastic or other opportunities they are looking for. By targeting focused groups with special privileges geared to their interests, you will increase the traffic to your library location. The higher the traffic, the more your library will justify that larger junk of the budget. With more money to spend on great books, academia, better computers, and more study rooms, you will increase the quality of your library. All you have to do is start signing your patrons up for your email marketing software notifications during check-out.

With your employees and volunteers, you can setup a system of sign-up for the users of your library. You first have to tap into their interests. If they are in high school, they will be interested in being able to take out more books for a longer period of time; if they are in elementary school they will want reserved Internet time set out for them during the science fair, or speeches, or other major projects; if they are in university then what they need is to have your library open a little later, giving them more quiet study time (making available some coffee and snacks for sale for these students could earn you a few extra dollars).

It starts with a few simple questions, which you can include in a sign-up sheet by the checkout desk: Do you want to receive an email reminder the week your items are due? (Who is going to say no to a free and helpful service?) Are you in university or high school? Would you like to sign up for "Late Nights and Coffee?" Would you like to receive a newsletter on books that may be of interest to you? Etc.

You will do even better if you provide this privilege for your patrons at opportune times. For instance, keeping abreast of exam times for university and high school, or elementary school science fairs and speeches, will provide greater numbers of sign-ups to your email marketing software notifications, as it relates to the needs of those people with immediacy.

Considering the community nature of your location, another way you will increase the traffic to your community library through the use of email marketing software is through a "forward-to-friends" button. Most email marketing software solutions provide you with options to have a "forward-to-friends" button. In a community, students will forward your notifications about unique opportunities to other students; parents will forward to other parents; seniors to other seniors; someone else interested in Ornithology to others interested in the same topic.

Through email marketing software, your community library can increase the amount of local traffic by leaps and bounds. If you give library privileges to segmented and focused groups that enter your location based on their interests, these people will be much more likely to come in more often. Your budgets are based on traffic to your community library. So, more traffic will attract the necessary attention and result in more funding. This will have a snowball effect on the academic quality of your community library location. The better the quality, the higher the number of people that will come into your library. The more numbers that come in, the larger amount of sign-ups you will receive, meaning even greater numbers returning, and so on and so on?

As a library operator or librarian you can "literally" change the face of your library with email marketing software.


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