When it comes to marketing our fiction section, word of mouth/providing readers advisory services have been successful for our small library. Since we are able to get to know our patrons we are able to help them find new books to read based on interests. Another way we promote our fiction books is through our programs and displays. We have had book tastings, blind dates with a book, and we even had a book display where we put “shirts” on romance books with shirtless men. We also promote new fiction books on our library newsletters and social media pages. These are most of the ways we market our fiction books to our patrons and so far it has been pretty successful. However, we also make sure to market our fiction collection during Summer Reading programs since it is our most popular time of the year, especially with our seasonal visitors.
We tried the "blind date with a book" idea a few years ago at my library and the patrons were super not into it, which was so disappointing after going through all that effort! I love the idea in theory, but I guess it was a good lesson to learn not to lean super heavily into one idea.
ReplyDeleteJacob,
DeleteMy library has done a few different rounds of "blind date with a book". One was small and done prior to when I started. Then I did it in 2022, and a coworker did it this year. It seems to have generated increasingly more interest over time, which fits with everything I've learned from running adult programming. The first attempt at a new idea might not capture anyone's attention. The wrong people saw it, or they didn't understand what it was, or they just couldn't make it to the day/time we chose. We still find a way to share pictures of a program on social media even if there were few (or no) attendees, because those sell the idea of the program way better than any ad design our marketing team could create. Then if we offer a similar program again, the attendance usually increases.
Great ideas!
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