Library Marketing: Sending Text Messages and Emails to Online Library Users During COVID-19

Abstract

Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the College’s Hirons Library & Learning Center (HLLC) library marketing efforts included word of mouth, information literacy instruction session, physical and electronic displays, and announcement on the library webpage to library users. In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the HLLC, in collaboration with the Office of Institutional Research & Training (OIRT), designed two new library marketing campaigns using the project management app, Notion. Both campaigns were designed to meet the new and changing needs of our new, predominately remote, users. In the first library marketing campaign, the HLLC’s marketing goal was very focused and deliberate in purpose. The library emailed the College community messages to increase awareness and usage of the library’s eBook collections. In the second library marketing campaign, the library broadened the purpose of the marketing campaigned to promote online resources, tools, and virtual programs. The library sent text messages to the students. In this edition of the column, we describe how our marketing efforts have changed due to the pandemic, including which strategies we employed, and the extent to which we recognized success with these new efforts.