Using Electronic Newsletters to Market Your Library

Presented by Susan Briant, Director of the Haddonfield Public Library & NJLA

President, on April 27, 2010

Using E-newsletters

• Today’s objective is to give you an overview of using electronic newsletters to market your library, pros, cons, and some best practices

• You will learn how to use your creative side and have fun!

Why use electronic newsletters to market your library?

• Inexpensive to use• Easy to use• Reaches large target audience (your email

subscribers and others)• Can be tailored to smaller target audiences • Attractive, low maintenance, and fun to create• Easily archived• Reduces postage and paper costs –

environmentally sound

Features that might be cons

• Only 25-40 % open rate ?• Track record is not as well known as paper• Those without email cannot be reached by this

format• Works better with shorter articles• Not for large newsletters with many pages• Short attention span of people – what is the

impact? Does it grab them? Jury is out.• How much are archives used?

How does it work?

• Subscribe for a year or less– price depends on number of subscribers – free trial is available

• Select a template from many choices• Choose your color schemes and borders, fonts• Import graphics to showcase programs• Import websites and link them in the newsletter • Import your borrowers or other database- or add

subscribers manually• People can self select to subscribe or opt out• Very easy to maintain database of subscribers

How does it work?

• Very easy to edit• Use spell check before finalizing• Give yourself time to finalize- proofread

several times• Access is with account name and

password • Access can be shared with multiple

contributors

How does it work

• After content is finalized, follow procedure to archive and send

• Newsletter can be sent immediately or later

• Archive on your webpage • Once sent, you receive confirmation as

well as an activity report • Once default template is set up, you can

copy ahead for months

How is a newsletter put together?

• Plan your content list and it might be a few hours work

• Choose theme/ stories and organize accordingly

• Feature new & older services / staff / Friends activities/ people

• Tell your story – capture readers’ attention

How is a newsletter put together?

• Make a Table of Contents• Advertise events – import photos for

author programs• Use color to emphasize • Color borders to add style

Other features

• Reports are available with graphs, percentage of opens, clicks to links, bounces, etc.

• Works with Excel & ILS’s to import data• Once sent, no edits can be made• Newsletters may appear differently in

various web browsers – experiment with colors for best viewing

• Help is available via email and FAQs

How to guarantee success?

• Plan ahead to market your services and programs

• Solicit content from staff and public• Allow yourself to be creative – try a wide variety

of features• Carry your camera & get great photos • Remember to get release forms for your photos

before posting any photos of the public to the website/ newsletter

• Tend to your subscription database

Let’s see some sample newsletters

• From our webpage at http://www.haddonfieldlibrary.org/index.php/about/library-electronic-monthly-newsletter or www.njla.org

• For more information or free trial, visit www.constantcontact.com

• For questions, email sbriant@haddonfieldlibrary.org

New Jersey Library Association

• Thanks for coming• Enjoy NJLA and be an active member