Marketing and Advocacy
Your IFLS staff person for marketing and communications is Rebecca Kilde (kilde@ifls.lib.wi.us).
Questions about advocacy can go to John Thompson (thompson@ifls.lib.wi.us).
New! Marketing Tea
virtual meetup to talk about marketing
Once a month Reb will host a short little virtual cup of marketing. You can expect two marketing tips in the first 20 minutes, and then we’ll throw it open for questions for another ten minutes. At that point Tea is officially over, but Reb is delighted to stay as long as there are questions. The first half hour will be recorded and listed on this page. Watch the Weekly Digest and the IFLS calendar for details.
2024 schedule: first Monday of each month at 10:00 am.
Marketing tools and templates
for IFLS libraries
MORE app marketing toolkit
MORE e-card Facebook post or blurb graphic Suggested text: If you don’t have a regular library card from a MORE-member library and you’re a Wisconsin resident, you can get an e-card to use MORE’s shared electronic resources. Find the e-card self-registration form here.
Library Love Story
Library Love Story toolkit, updated each year prior to Library Legislative Day. You can use this testimonial-collection tool all year.
Annual Reports
- NEW! Template to present your data, updated Feb 5, 2024
- The DPI has an infographic tool. Instructions are on their website.
- The WPI also has some tools for visualization, available on their website.
Oldies but goodies
Canva templates 2022 (created in 2023 for 2022 report)
2022 Marketing Monthly: Annual Report, It’s the Stories
2023 Marketing Monthly: Annual Report, A goldmine of data & Who will be looking at the visualization? What do they need?
Angela Hursh’s 2021 Create an Annual Report Masterpiece
Anne Hamland’s 2021 video: adding annual report info to your website
Non-IFLS Marketing Resources
The best resources, curated by Reb
Marketing resources
- Angela Hursh’s Super Library Marketing blog. This is the best library marketing blog I’ve found: it’s timely and actionable. She does a great job of covering social media trends.
- From 2020, a Marketing Plan template developed specifically for libraries by marketing staff from several Wisconsin library systems. There’s also an introductory webinar available.
General design resources
Accessible Design Handbook I found this handbook from The Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario. The first chapter is on print design and it’s a clear and concise explanation of what’s important, with examples.
This pdf is a handy chart that explains different file formats and color formats for different applications. PROPR-File-Color-Guide-v01-1
Cole Zrostlek’s Canva Resources (from Tech Days)
Communications
Press releases
Most news outlets are ridiculously understaffed. They aren’t likely to have enough journalists around to read a press release, figure out how it applies to their audience and then write a news story about it. I think it’s much more effective to tell a story: https://allgoodtales.com/press-release-tell-story/
Website and digital
Advocacy tools and resources
Understand advocacy
Don’t run away from this critical tool for your library’s current and future success! Start here:
New Staff Pick! Board Support for Success webinar (Slides Recording) from the 2024 Wild Wisconsin Winter Web Conference Find all the recordings and slides on the conference archive page.
The Reluctant Library Advocate webinar with Jill Markgraf
- Reluctant Library Advocate Recording
- Reluctant advocate slides
- The Reluctant Library Advocate Activity Report
Advocacy 101 with Jim Tripp and Rebecca Kilde
Advocacy Resources
Because local advocacy is so unique to a particular community and time, templates are difficult to find. Here are some more recent resources to help you frame your message.
- NEW! From Wild Wisconsin Winter Web Conference 2024’s Board Support for Success session (Slides Recording). Then look through Cedar Rapids Public Library’s Advocacy Toolkit. Five stars! Excellent resource! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
- From OCLC, this informational page includes some local examples.
- Wisconsin DPI Funding and Budgets page has an infographic.
Library Legislative Day, 2023
Library Love Story handout created for 2023 Library Legislative Day
- Use this Print version IFLS 2022 Library Love Stories pdf to print on a copier
- Use this Digital 2022 IFLS Library Love Stories pdf to display digitally.
designed by IFLS
black lines are cut marks
designed by library staff
Library Card design and ordering
Each year in the fall IFLS does a group library card purchase. If you purchase cards through the group order you’ll be assured that the design works for the printer’s format, you can order a smaller quantity than the standard minimum order, and your price per card will be lower. You can ask Reb to design your card, or you can design your own. When you place your library card order, you’ll be asked to confirm your last bar code. Here’s an explanation of how bar codes work.
You can order outside of the group order. Contact Reb for details. If you order outside of the group order, it’s your responsibility let Reb know (kilde@ifls.lib.wi.us) so she can keep the spreadsheet and design records up to date.
Your library’s card can also be a fun way to promote your library. Here are a few examples from our system.
Marketing Tea and Marketing Monthly
Marketing Tea Archives
2024
July: How Bloomer manages social media with Meta, July recording
June: How-to add a simple animation in Canva, recording is about 7 minutes long
April: no recording, content shared in Marketing Monthly
March: table tents, world’s shortest marketing plan, librarians share how they promote their Friends group
- March recording
- Canva templates: table tent short and table tent tall
February: brochure design for in-house printing on your copier; annual report data and how to communicate it
2023
December Marketing Tea: Freedom to Read campaign, information hierarchy, getting responses to Library Love Story recording
November Marketing Tea: Accessibility Using templates on Canva, marketing for the holidays, how to update Google business listing, making open hours easy to find recording
October Marketing Tea: walk-through the Canva Brand Kit, tools to pick a color palette. recording
Color picker links:
Wix reviews of 7 color palette generators.
September Marketing Tea video: Design: balance, white space, resizing, 5 things to remember about images. Marketing: finding people where they are, QR codes. Comments: Bloomer is doing a community-wide scavenger hunt. Recommended QR code generator: Beaconstac.
5 things to remember about using images
1. Facebook penalizes images with a lot of text, so use very few words. All details and links should go in the body of the post.
2. Tockify images also need very little text. The date and title appear right below the image. All information, including any registration links, go in the body of the calendar post.
3. Alt-text really helps people who use screen readers.
4. Use PDFs for documents to download only! Text-heavy PDFs don’t work on phones, and that’s where most people look at this information.
5. Images are a wayfinder tool for your users. Use consistent color, font and image across platforms to help people navigate all the information you’re sharing.
August Marketing Tea video: MailChimp statistics; design concepts in Canva–alignment; Q&A, “Why won’t my MailChimp e-letter fit on a phone screen?”
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Past Marketing Monthlies
Here are the design and marketing support services that IFLS offers:
- Annual bulk library card order (November), library card design.
- Marketing Monthly, an e-letter about design and marketing; Marketing Tea, a monthly half-hour check-in of tips and answers to your questions..
- Logo design, as time allows: Reb has been designing logos for almost 30 years. If you don’t like her style, Reb can help you make sure that the logo you design comes in the formats you need to be used for small and large scale applications. Here are some examples of Reb’s work: Wilberg Memorial Public Library of Osceola, Glenwood City (from student-created sketch), Turtle Lake, Mosaic on a Stick, Spring Hill Community Farm
- Marketing and advocacy strategies.
- General design assistance: (Somerset info sheet, Lisa requested help with the Menomonie Public Library annual report brochure), accessibility, editing (I encourage Plain Language).
- And more. Just ask.