Great Marketing Starts With Great Surveys
Ruth Cuthbertson explains how she ran a marketing campaign to make Quincy Public Library more visible to its Illinois residents. Beginning with research and goals, QPL staffers created two surveys (one for cardholders and one for non-users), then made them available online and at selected events around town. The resulting data told Cuthbertson which library offerings to feature in testimonials and advertisements that QPL ran on TV, on the radio, in newspapers, and on Facebook.

How-To

Creating a Día de los Muertos Workshop
By Sami Lange
California’s Santa Rosa Junior College has a student population that’s more than 25% Hispanic, so the library has celebrated Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, in various ways. In 2016, Sami Lange and her colleagues planned an exhibition and workshop for Día de los Muertos. The event featured an archway covered in handmade paper marigolds and traditional celebratory altars. Students decorated sugar skulls to commemorate their loved ones. The article includes lists of necessary supplies and instructions on how to host your own celebration.

Special Report

At the Intersection of Technology and Marketing
By Kathy Dempsey
Here’s coverage of the Computers in Libraries conference that took place in March in Washington, D.C. Kathy Dempsey, who organized a track on marketing, shares ideas and strategies she heard in that track and other sessions she attended during the 3-day event. Speakers discussed lending musical instruments, playing Pokémon GO and other games, writing marketing plans, creating videos, and segmenting target markets.

Tech Tools and Hacks

Finding Free Stock Video Footage and Music
In this issue, techie and tool lover Jennifer E. Burke reveals four sites that offer free stock video and six sites where you can download stock music and even sound effects. These tools will allow you to enhance your videos without using “legally questionable” clips.

Inside Content Marketing: EContent Magazine’s Guide to Roles, Tools, and Strategies for Thriving in the Age of Brand Journalism
By Theresa Cramer
While this title from CyberAge Books was not written for librarians, Kathy Dempsey found it useful for understanding content marketing and learning how major brands have employed it. Librarians can create non-sales-related content and release it to entice greater usage. Perhaps best of all, they can do it for free.

Promotional info about September’s Library Card Sign-Up Month and October’s Teen Read Week, winners of the 2017 LibraryAware Community Awards, and the announcement of the Library Marketing and Communications Conference set for November.