Readers Day Toolkit
09. Marketing and promotion
The look and feel of the publicity must be appropriate to the target audience. There is potential for a very wordy document advertising your event- this won't necessarily attract a young or socially excluded audience, when word of mouth and outreach will be more productive.
Publicity
Always produce as much publicity as you can afford especially if you are trying to reach a new audience but remember that the concept of the readers' day is likely to be unknown and you will need to back up printed material with personal contact, word-of-mouth, news stories etc. Do get as many library staff as possible aware of and involved with the day. They can "talk it up" with library users and are vital for spreading the word.
Some examples of publicity leaflets produced within the region can be found as part of this toolkit.
Booking
It must be clear that advance booking is required and ideally your flyer will include a booking form or details of how bookings can be made. A system for dealing with bookings must be set up before the publicity is distributed. People always like their bookings and choice of workshops to be confirmed.
Promotion
If you think attracting an audience is likely to be difficult you must get your publicity materials ready as early as possible. This gives you time to keep extending the range of places you take it to.
Do keep as many library staff informed about the event as possible, ideally through meetings rather than written information. Your frontline staff and readers' group leaders will be the best promoters of the day.
Try to think widely about how new audience might be attracted. If you are hoping to attract a young audience you will need to reach them where they are e.g. through schools, colleges, youth groups, other projects. You may need to try and organise some intensive outreach work in advance of the day, to encourage people to attend.
Librarians in the North West have pioneered partnership working to encourage new readers into libraries. Time To Read is a partnership of librarians engaged in reader development activity in public library authorities in the North West Region. All 23 public library authorities in the region currently support Time To Read.