Lessons from the Booksellers:
Marketing Strategies for Libraries
Carla Ketner
Those of us who want people to read, borrow or buy books face stiff competition. Television, video games, sports, and other pursuits often take priority over reading as leisure-time activities. Work and school tasks limit time for pleasure reading. People don't take the time to stop at the library or bookstore.
Bookstores face other forms of competition, too. When Barnes and Noble, Borders, Sam's Club, and the internet arrived on the scene a few years ago, many people predicted that small independently-owned bookstores would not survive. It was said that independent bookstores wouldn't be able to compete with the chains and their discount pricing, larger selection, and huge sales volume.
To some extent this has been true. Small, independent stores cannot compete on the same terms as the chain stores or Amazon.com. There are, however, many locally-owned bookstores that are surviving and even thriving. These stores succeed because they capitalize on their strengths, rather than trying to match the larger stores on price or volume. They do this by focusing on what they do better than the big stores, and there are many things that they do better. These are the same things libraries can do to build circulation and attendance at library-sponsored events.
One strength of the small locally-owned store is that the staff knows nearly all of the clients who shop in their stores by name and by reading habits. At my store, Chapters Books & Gifts, we greet our regular customers by name, When Lynne comes into the store, we show her the new poetry book we've ordered with her in mind. We know that Jim likes thrillers by Stephen King and James Patterson, and watches the bestseller lists for their new books, but that he dislikes John Grisham. We know that Josh always heads for the “Stony Man” books to see if we have any new titles in the series, and that Vikki does the same for the “Mitford” books. If there are no new releases in those series, we recommend other books of the same genre that we think they will like. If a new book is available, we call them and invite them to stop in when they're downtown. We not only greet our customers warmly when they come in, we also buy books based on our knowledge of our specific customers and their interests. Our computer and our “black notebook” help us keep track of our customers' habits. We've found that people appreciate not just polite service, but individualized service from the staff, and they often buy the books we suggest for them. We hope they also encourage other people to shop at our store.
A second strength of the independent bookstore is that we are a vital presence in our town. Our goal is to do more than simply sell books. We also support our community, through book drives at the holidays; donations to local organizations; discounts for schools, libraries, and churches; and educational promotions, such as guest readers who highlight the importance of reading during “Read Aloud to a Child Month.” We plan special events to bring the community together, which have included a town-wide midnight celebration of the latest Harry Potter book and a visit by local author Ted Kooser, the United States Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner. Our goal is to co-operate with other local businesses and organizations, to everyone's benefit. We view our wonderful public library and its staff as allies in the pursuit of literacy, rather than a competitor for readers and book buyers, and want to help them promote their programs. Our motives are, of course, not completely altruistic. By supporting the library and working with other local businesses, we cultivate a spirit of co-operation that works to our advantage, too. When businesses and organizations work together, we can share our customer bases and advertising budgets, and increase our exposure, thereby increasing our chances of attracting and keeping customers.
Another way in which we attract customers to Chapters is by keeping them informed. We send out regular newsletters, both by US mail and e-mail, reminding our customers of upcoming events, author visits, and books of interest. We advertise in the local newspaper and other media. Our store window displays highlight seasonal books or authors who will be visiting. We include a flier or bookmark promoting an upcoming event in the bag with each customer's purchase. We contact schools and preschools, which are often willing to send home information for us about storytimes and children's events. In short, we work to be sure that anyone who might be interested in a program or event knows about it; if they don't know about it, they can't come.
We also increase our bookstore's chances of surviving and thriving by offering other products that appeal to our customers and complement our inventory of books. We sell audio books, bookmarks, magnifiers, blank books, and book lights. We sell activity books and science kits for children, as well as other toys that will appeal to parents and grandparents who like to buy books and unique gifts for children. We pair a Junie B. Jones book with a Junie B. Jones doll, a Clifford book with a Clifford puzzle, a stuffed dinosaur with a dinosaur book. By displaying books and non-book products together, and by changing our displays frequently, we increase the chances that customers will notice—and buy—the products we are selling.
Libraries can use all of the same strategies as bookstores to attract and satisfy their clients. Library staff can greet patrons personally with a book they've selected knowing that patron's particular interests or reading habits; check your computer for details if you can't remember every patron's interests. Library staff can make the effort to remain active in the community, supporting local businesses, planning special events, and promoting community service projects, all of which build awareness of the library and its services and attract people to the library. They can spread the word about their events in a variety of ways, many of which are not expensive, from an advertisement in a newspaper to a sign in the jewelry store's window. Libraries can diversify their services, by offering access to computers and audio books, puzzles, or software. The staff can highlight books of interest in their displays.
In short, all the marketing strategies used by a retail bookstore can be adapted to meet the library's needs. And I would be happy to recommend a few good marketing books, if you're interested in purchasing any.
