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“A great product sells itself,” or does it?
Marketing MyReading at the University of
Huddersfield
Kate McGuinn
Northern Collaboration Learning Exchange:
Strategic Marketing, January 23rd 2015
Overview
• Background to MyReading project
• Early marketing strategy
• Post-launch evaluation of marketing impact
• The plateau… and how we beat it!
• The future
• What we have learned?
MyReading – the background
In 2008…
• Library received reading lists for only 40% of modules
• Many lists contained out of date or inaccurate information
• Manual processes for reading list management were laborious and outdated
• A systematic, automated approach was required
• MyReading project groups launched
Drivers for design of MyReading
• Improve the student experience:
– comprehensive availability of reading lists
– Better access to reading list items – full text where possible
• Inform collection development
• Integrate reading list management with library acquisition
processes
• Make best use of resources and ensure value for money
Overall project goal
To ensure the provision of reading lists is
a managed, positive experience for staff
and students
The decision to build it “in house”
• Commercial offerings didn’t have the deep integration
into our other systems that we felt would be needed:
– Student Records
– Library Management System
– E-Resource products (Summon, 360 Link, etc)
– VLE
– Off-air TV recordings
Integration with Blackboard
• MyReading went live in Blackboard at the start of the
academic year 2011/2012
• Reading list button on every module noticeboard
• Lists submitted before July 2011 were added to the
software by temporary library staff
Early marketing strategy from 2011
Academic consultation was felt to be vital to the success of
the project
Focus groups with academics
Online survey for collection and analysis of comments
Presentations to all School committees
Email reminders to staff to send in lists
Training for academics
Project blog to collect feedback
Online voting system to prioritise developments
Early marketing strategy from 2011
Launch activities to students:
• Huge posters screen printed onto windows of Central
Services Building
• Leafleting around campus
• MyReading pens distributed
• Articles in staff and student newsletters
• MyReading promoted in new student inductions and
refresher sessions for returning students
Evaluation of MyReading within and
outside the University
• Great verbal feedback from staff
• 2011 MyReading team were finalists in the Outstanding
Library Team category at the Times Higher Education
Leadership & Management Awards
• 2012 Dave Pattern received an NAG Award for
Excellence for his work on MyReading
• 2013 MyReading was a runner up at the Guardian
University Awards
• So we knew we had a good product, but the take up
figures within the University told a different story…
Evaluation of launch
0
30.96
46.53
0
55.5
80
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
2010-11 2011-12 2012-13
Perc
en
t u
sin
g M
yR
ead
ing
Academic Year
Use of MyReading - Students & Staff
Students
Staff
Evaluation of launch
• Usage figures were plateauing after an early sharp rise
• The project team realised that initial marketing of
MyReading was not enough, that we would need to keep
on pushing our messages to students and staff
• A dedicated marketing sub-group was launched
Renewed marketing drive from 2013
• Marketing effort launched again with new vigour in early
2013
• Initially focused on raising student awareness
– Freebies each year in fresher goody bags
– New animation commissioned
– New posters and leaflets using same theme as animation
– Student focus groups in 2013 and 2014
Renewed marketing drive - Students
• In collaboration with Fifth
Planet Productions, an
animation was produced
• Same graphics used to
produce posters and
leaflets
• Poster campaign on backs
of loo doors across
campus
Leaflets
Leaflets
Renewed marketing drive - Staff
• Pro Vice-Chancellor for Teaching and
Learning used email to contact those who
had not yet populated their lists
• More effective was his announcement at the
2014 Teaching and Learning Conference of
an award to the creators of the best reading
lists from each of the 7 schools
• Each was awarded a bottle of wine “from his
own cellar”!
Renewed marketing drive - Staff
Followed up with #myreading tweets
Student focus groups
• Held in spring 2013 and 2014
• Have informed most of our marketing
strategy since
• All library student helpers – possibility of
bias?
• A range of subjects covered – Music
Journalism, Computing, Childhood Studies,
English Literature, Pharmacy, Photography,
Psychology
• Used a pre-planned interview guide of open
questions to guide discussion
Student focus groups – barriers
to students using MyReading
“Yes, all lecturers differ in
the way they put their
subject areas on
UniLearn… some lecturers
put reading lists in learning
resources, some put them
under reading lists, some
put them in both places.”
• Lack of consistency in location of reading lists
Student focus groups – barriers
to students using MyReading
“My lecturers say “it’s
on UniLearn” but you
have to click through
about a million
different links to find
it. You eventually find
it under a random
heading, it’s horrible!”
Student focus groups – barriers
to students using MyReading
• Overwhelming length of some lists
“I think that unless you are the
reincarnation of Hermione Granger you
are not going to go through and read all
those…. Lots of students will come
here from GCSEs and A levels where
they are taught to consume things in a
very bite sized manner and this is just
like “have everything at once!”
Student focus groups – barriers
to students using MyReading
• Lecturers could promote reading lists more
“The only way they are going to
[realise reading lists are a useful
resource] is if lecturers say “this
is available, we expect you to
use these tools”, but they just
don’t”
Student focus groups – main findings
• Showed that some staff were only nominally buying into
MyReading – they had a list on the system (to avoid being
harassed by Pro-Vice Chancellor) but failed to promote it and
often maintained a separate paper list in their module
handbooks which didn’t match the one on MyReading!
• We realised that there was no point in focusing solely on
marketing to students as staff promotion of MyReading was a
key part of this
• Failure of staff to promote MyReading had to be addressed as
a priority
Evaluation of marketing from 2012/13
0
30.96
46.53
71.77
0
55.5
8083
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14
Perc
en
t u
sin
g M
yR
ead
ing
Academic Year
Use of MyReading - Students & Staff
Students
Staff
The future - students
• Carry on with “maintenance level” marketing to students
• Make full use of new animation, leaflets and posters
• Refresh materials annually
• Continue to use freebies in fresher goody bags
The future – teaching staff
• Work through the findings of staff focus groups and
incorporate into our strategy
– Colleagues who haven’t yet fully bought into MyReading are
hesitant because they don’t yet understand all the benefits
– Communication with staff by email, poster or leafleting has only
limited effectiveness as these messages are easy to ignore
– The best way of communicating with lecturers is face to face, at
school “away days” or divisional meetings
– The line management process may also have a part to play for
some staff
– Some aspects of MyReading are not intuitive and it could do with
a face-lift!
What have we learned?
• That a great product does not sell itself but you have to
keep on promoting it again and again
• That you can’t assume that people will instantly
understand the benefits of a new product, it will take time
and hard work to reinforce messages
• That the job we had to do when promoting MyReading to
students was different from the one we had to do with
academics.
Finally, in the words of Winston
Churchill…
Keep
buggering
on!
Any questions?
