Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Have you ever wondered what you could do for your library if you had more people working on promotions?

Staffing up in library marketing is very uncommon. I believe this is a huge mistake that many libraries make. Leaders and board members don’t understand the essential connection between smart, strategic library marketing and the organization’s success.

So when I learned that Nicole Fowles of the Delaware County District Library successfully advocated for and got an extra library marketing staff member, I had to ask her how she did it! Nicole grew up in New Philadelphia, Ohio, and was a regular visitor to the Tuscarawas County Public Library Main Branch.

“I have fond memories of storytime with Mrs. Pittman,” remembers Nicole. “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt was a classic! But even more special was bringing my own children back to that library when we visited the grandparents for them to get to enjoy a storytime.”

Nicole is now the Communications Coordinator for the Delaware County District Library, a five-branch system with a bookmobile and other outreach services. DCDL serves a population of nearly 166,000 people.

Nicole came to the library in 2012. She had one Communication Specialist but was certain she needed more help.

“As the Library grew, the strain on our department of two grew, as well,” explains Nicole. “In 2018, the Library passed a levy with the promise to build a new branch. Feelings of overwhelm were setting in, and we knew it was time to really look at what jobs we accomplished for the system, what was being asked of us, and what we could realistically provide to the best of our abilities.”

“The first thing I did was sit down with my Communications Specialist and perform a job task audit. We each took a stack of colored Post-it notes and in about 30 minutes wrote down every job that we do or anticipate doing with the construction of the new branch.”

Nicole says it became clear their job responsibilities were unbalanced and not always aligned with the library’s priorities. So, she decided to use a graphing technique she had learned from business books.

She created a chart. At the top, she put two columns: Library needs and Library doesn’t need. Then, on the side, Nicole made two rows, one labeled I like, and one labeled I don’t like.

“Take your tasks and put them into those squares,” directs Nicole. “What do you like doing, but the library doesn’t need? What do you not like doing but the library needs? This gives a clear, hard-truth picture of tasks that might need to be eliminated or that could be given to a different person.”

“We took the Post-its that remained and looked at the common themes. Much of the work that was overwhelming me had to do with maintaining the website and managing email communications. I liked those tasks, and the library needed those, but I was doing both jobs poorly because I was not giving them the time or investment of education they deserved.”

“I knew the potential we could reach with email segmentation, but I had no desire to even begin to creep into that world because I was already overwhelmed with the basics of simple bulletin communications.”

“Our patrons were not being served in the best way that they could be. We knew a second Communications Specialist was needed to focus on the website and email communications.”

-Nicole Fowles

Nicole says the next step was to approach her director. But before that meeting, she did some additional prep work.

“I looked at the job description and had to decide if we’d keep the same job description or if it would need to be a new title,” remembers Nicole. “We decided to keep it the same, as this person would still have much cross-over with general communications duties. We’d post it with clarity that we were focusing on digital comms. I also needed to be sure that the organization’s pay scale for the title was appropriate for the job we wanted to accomplish.”

“When I had title, job description, and overall benefits and pay impact figured out, I listed the things I wanted to do and the cost if I simply contracted them out. I got various quotes for full-scale website management from other companies. I also got quotes for contract email support or PR for-hire agencies.”

“In the end, the benefit of hiring someone who would do the work of those two contracts (web and PR agency), in addition to being a DCDL employee and helping as needed with other Communications Department duties (campaigns, community events, etc.) outweighed the cost of hiring external contract help.”

Armed with that pitch, Nicole was ready to make her case to the director.

“The Director was sympathetic to our anecdotal evidence,” recalls Nicole. “He was also receptive to the financial analysis of what those things would cost if we used outside contractors as opposed to an internal employee.”

Nicole had to get approval for the potential staff member’s salary and benefits from the Board of Trustees. She knew the board liked to be on track or ahead of similar libraries, so she made sure to provide that information.

“Take a close look at your Board of Trustees and attend a Board meeting, if you aren’t already,” advises Nicole. “It’s wise to know where they dig in and where they relinquish control to their Directors.”

“I had already learned after many years of attending Board meetings that they were big on the numbers side and slightly competitive, and those would be the angles I’d need to use to approach them.”

-Nicole Fowles

As you know from the title of this post, Nicole was granted an extra staff member! That meant her original Communications Specialist could focus on print communications and social media. Nicole says the work she put into advocating for a second Communications Specialist focused on digital marketing was well worth it.

“Our website was not showing up on Google searches well, but she cleaned up our Search Engine Optimization,” says Nicole. “We did not have a great place to utilize news. We now effectively have a blog. A widget that I constantly broke but desperately wanted to use was something she took and ran with and used on several other pages that needed it! Our website needed a drastic facelift, specifically regarding organizational hierarchy; she led the charge.”

And Nicole’s second staff member also took the library from sporadic monthly emails to email marketing success.

“Our new employee was able to build many segments and help us reach our cardholders more appropriately for targeted messages,” shares Nicole. “She helped create a brand-new Mature Reader newsletter that specifically reaches our 55+ community, a Pre-K newsletter utilizing our mascot, and an A-Z newsletter specifically for children going into kindergarten. Our reach has grown leaps and bounds.”

What’s next for Nicole and her staff? She’s now building the case for an internal communications specialist after seeing an inspiring presentation by the Spokane Public Library at the 2024 Library Marketing and Communications Conference.

Nicole has one final piece of advice for her fellow library marketers.

“Read the business books!” she implores. “Most of what inspired me to do our task analysis came from a book called Do More Great Work by Michael Bungay Stanier. There are many more out there!”

One way to get more business books into your TBR is to join The Library Marketing Book Club! I’m now the co-host of the club with Anna Lowry of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library. Want to join? Contact me here.

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