Marketing Archives

LIS 701-01 Introduction to Library and Information ScienceFall 2012

Michael San FilippoRachel Sierminski

Perceptions of marketing

• “Most marketing is a bunch of BS”

What are archives?

• Unpublished letters, diaries, and other manuscripts

• Photographs

• Films

• Video and sound recordings

• CDs, flopping disks, and other PC storage

• “Born-digital” materials

Where are archives?

• Federal, state, and local governments

• Historical societies

• Museums

• Schools, colleges, and universities

• Religious institutions

• Businesses

• Hospitals

Why archives are important

• For educational purposes

• For medical research

• To establish legal claims

• For business development/promotion

• “In short, archives benefit nearly everyone, even those who have never directly used them.” (SAA)

Why archives are cool

Why archivists are important

• Define and provide access to the primary sources of history• Protect rights• Educate students• Inform the public• Help us understand our past

The point is…

• As archivists, we have a lot to offer and a lot of potential audiences

• Marketing is key to letting people know our value

Marketing is not selling

Marketing

• Customer-focused

• Long term

• Relationships

• Marketing is everything you do to get the phone to ring

Selling

• Product-focused

• Short-term

• Transactions

• Selling is what you do after you pick up the phone

What marketing IS

• “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” (American Marketing Association)

What marketing IS (cont.)

• “Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promoting, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals.”

4 Ps (The Marketing Mix)

• Everyone knows it, so you should too:• Product• Price• Place• Promotion

More letters

• A – Attention

• I – Interest

• D – Desire

• A - Action

Three questions

• Who are we trying to reach?

• What’s our message to them?

• What’s the best way to deliver that message?

Good marketing

• Is a conversation

• Is customer-driven

• Must be built on quality products/services

Marketing plan

• Define your audience

• Create a powerful message

• Deliver your message

Parts of the marketing campaign

• Physical space

• Good services, programs, and ideas

• Archives as a cultural and social institution

Marketing cycle

Plan and prepare

Test and try out

Report and review

Archives marketing plan

• Mission statement

• Target markets/audiences

• Services provided

• Marketing tools and policies

• Marketing strategies

• Marketing goals and objectives

Marketing tools

• Website

• Social media

• Blogs

• Press kit and news releases

• Newsletters

• Educational programming

• Public presentations

Audiences

• No such thing as the “general public”• Population based on demographics• Geographic, ethnicity, background, interests

• College students• Authors/researchers• Genealogists• Media• Historical societies• Volunteers• Donors (or potential donors)

Case Study: Austin History Center (AHC) - Overview

• Established in 1955; division of the Austin Public Library

• Mission statement: “To procure, preserve, present and provide the historical records that make up Austin’s unique story.”

• Staffed reading room and exhibits• Reading room open 6 days/week, Tuesday-Sunday.

Staff and volunteers process archival material on Mondays.

• Contains over 1 million items

Case Study: AHC – Marketable attributes

• Appealing physical place

• Good services, programs, and ideas• Neighborhood liaison officers

• Archives as cultural and social institution• Oral histories• Traveling exhibits• Photo Heritage Day

Case Study: AHC – Social marketing to minorities

• AHC employed social marketing in order to attract the support of minority groups• Developed name recognition and worked to cultivate

positive attitudes about the center• Worked with Austin Jewish community to prepare for the

125th anniversary of Austin’s first synagogue• Radio trivia contest on station that serves a largely

African American audience• African American and Hispanic community liaison officers• Two exhibits featured on AHC’s homepage:• Building a Community: The First Century of African American

Life in Travis County• Austin’s Mexico: A Forgotten Downtown Neighborhood

Case Study: AHC – Social marketing to minorities (cont.)

• Why are minorities the primary target of the AHC’s social marketing campaigns?• To be successful (in general and in marketing), an

organization must recognize and address problems• Misconception of its relationship to civic government

creates hostility toward the AHC; problematic history between government and minorities

• Community misunderstandings of how materials are processed and made available

• AHC wants to reach large groups of people but they must reach minority leadership first to build trust

Case Study: Northwestern University – Blogging as marketing

• Blogging can easily be directed toward particular markets and can be manipulated to serve the organization’s specific needs

• Low-cost way to promote an institution’s collection and services, and can create unique branding

• Opportunity for two-way communication between archives and patrons

• Lends itself to word-of-mouth marketing and “viral” spread of information

• Connection of digital communication with a historic, physical collection makes the archives seem more relevant

Case Study: NU – Blogging program

• NU archives are located out of the way, difficult to find

• Blogging to increase exposure for the archives, collection and its services; to increase traffic to existing website

• Patrons expect information to be available online• Blogging allows archives to place some resources

online• Online resources are picked up by search engines• Opportunity to “advertise” other non-digital resources

Case Study: NU – Blogging advantages & challenges

• Advantages• Previously used mailings and print media which did not reach

specific populations, including subsets of these populations• Can update at will rather than relying on an external publication’s

frequency• Can “court” other bloggers

• Challenges• Relies on potential patrons going to the blog rather than be part of

something that came straight to them• Staff had to learn new software, find vibe of blog• Had to learn search engine optimization in order to build readership• “Who, after all would seek out our archival pearls if they had little idea

that there was an archival oyster?”

• Low financial cost, but requires much time and effort

Case Study: NU – Blogging for students

• 2008 marketing plan aimed to make blog known to NU students• Make a few hundred students aware of blog in

first week of fall quarter• Students are both users of the archives and

donors (manuscripts and records of student organizations)

• Communicate and spread information to other students quickly

• Email to specific group of students with an introduction to the blog; not spam

Case Study: NU – Blogging for other bloggers

• Other bloggers spreading info about NU’s archives reaches markets otherwise unavailable

• Bloggers and other users will use resources to their own advantage• Incorporates sharing mediums into posts

• Also attempt to reach specific bloggers, found through search engines• Ex. Football blog posts

Case Study: Georgia Archives

• As of September 2012:• Impending November 2012 budget cuts would

reduce staff to three• Georgia would be only state without archives open

to the public on a regular basis

• Archives hold official records of state government• Legal disputes• Genealogy

• Archives are “insurance policy” for the state

Case Study: Georgia Archives (cont.)

• Challenges:• No protocols for gathering and protecting

digital records; proving authenticity of electronic records

• Preservation of technology used for digital records

• Paper records increasing at same time as digital content

• Staffing cuts caused conservation to fall by the wayside

• Lack of digital infrastructure

Case Study: Georgia Archives – Resolution?

• As of mid-October 2012:• $125,000 restored to budget to keep archives

open for rest of the budget year (June 30, 2013)

• On July 1, 2013 archives to be transferred to the University System of Georgia

Selected resources“Cash found to keep Georgia archives open ‘til June 30.” Political Insider with Jim Galloway. October 18, 2012. http://blogs.ajc.com/political-insider-jim-galloway/2012/10/18/cash-found-to-keep-georgia-archives-open-til-june-30/ (accessed December 1, 2012).

City of Austin - Austin History Center. Austin Public Library. http://www.austinlibrary.com/ahc/ (accessed November 28, 2012).

Edelman Berland. (2012). Click Here: The State of Online Advertising. Retrieved from http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pdfs/Adobe_State_of_Online_Advertising_Study.pdf.

James, Russell D., and Peter J. Wosh, eds. (2011). Public Relations and Marketing for Archives. New York: Society of American Archivists and Neal-Schuman Publishers.

Leonard, Kevin B. "Blogs and Blog Marketing: Bringing New Users to the Northwestern University Archives.” The Interactive Archivist: Case Studies in Utilizing Web 2.0 to Improve the Archival Experience. May 18, 2009. http://interactivearchivist.archivists.org/case-studies/blogs-at-nu/ (accessed December 1, 2012).

Lukenbill, W. Bernard. 2002. "Social Marketing for Archives: The Austin History Center Experience." Acquisitions Librarian 14, no. 28: 161. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts with Full Text, EBSCOhost (accessed November 28, 2012).

Miller, Kivi L. (2010). The Nonprofit Marketing Guide. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Potter, Ned. (2012). Marketing Your Library: An Interview With Terry Kendrick, Guru of Strategic Marketing in Libraries. American Libraries Magazine. http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/11132012/marketing-your-library. Accessed November 16, 2012.

Severson, Kim. "Budget Cuts to Hobble State Archives in Georgia." New York Times. September 26, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/us/budget-cuts-to-limit-public-access-to-georgia-archives.html?_r=0 (accessed December 1, 2012).

Society of American Archivists: http://www2.archivists.org/