Advertising Advice from 1885

"Thomas Smith, a nineteenth century London businessman offered the following advice to advertisers in 1885. It is still applicable today.

1. The first time people look at any given ad, they don't even see it.
2. The second time, they don't notice it.
3. The third time, they are aware that it is there.
4. The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they've seen it somewhere before.
5. The fifth time, they actually read the ad.
6. The sixth time they thumb their nose at it.
7. The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it.
8. The eight time, they start to think, "Here's that counfounded ad again."
9. The ninth time, they start to wonder if they're missing out on something.
10. The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbors if they've tried it.
11. The eleventh time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads.
12. The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product.
13. The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value.
14. The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time.
15. The fifteenth time, they start to year for it because they can't afford to buy it.
16. The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future.
17. The seventeenth time, they make a note to buy the product.
18. The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty for not allowing them to buy this terrific product.
19. The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully.
20. The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what is offering."

From Home Business Magazine, October 2001 (p44)

Now if we consider this in terms of libraries and services we offer...

Nine times seeing an ad before they start to wonder if they're missing out on something?
Ten times seeing an ad, and they'll ask their neighbors "So, have you attended any of those lectures (book discussions, movies, classes, etc.) at the library?"
Thirteen times seeing an ad before they start to feel the library has value?!?

According to this example, it probably takes about 15 times seeing an ad before that patron actually attends the program/visits the library/checks out that book.

Ok, so how to use this to your advantage?

Tell 'em, tell 'em again, and tell 'em again!
Rolling out a new service at the library? Make sure the message gets out to the neighbors that the curious will consult with!

Promote upcoming events on a bookmark that they take with them, and then they'll see that advertisement each time they pick up their book in that 2 week loan period. Make them durable enough to last just long enough to convey the message 15 times, but flimsy enough so they need a new bookmark next time they check out.

Do you print receipts of what a patron just checked out? Customize it to feature upcoming events!

Advertise in multiple places. Local paper. Flyers in the library in different locations. Give them something to read while waiting in line at the circ desk! 3"x5" cards taped to the circ desk where patrons stand as their items are checked out were promoting computer classes. Circ said more people asked about classes then, than any other time, even though the same signs were on all the computer terminals! (Similar to the point-of-purchase concept in marketing.)
Senior groups. Our director recently spoke at the Mayor's monthly senior meeting, and when she talked about Homebound Delivery, one of our homebound patrons was in the audience and was able to say how much she enjoys it. (skip ahead to #10 on the list, a neighbor tried it!)

An in-house newsletter they take home could reach the whole household (who all may not be users.) If you have the funds to mail a newsletter, super!

Local cable TV station. Our local cable station donated a TV which is now at the Circ Desk so people can look at it while they wait, reaching the people who don't have cable! (approx 75% of the ads are for our events & services.)

It's obvious you need to make the publicity portable for them to see it 15 times. Granted, some people's threshold would be lower when you hit upon something that really interests them.

How long would it take to reach your average patron 15 times?
How long if they come once every 2 weeks like clockwork?

Is your book display for that movie-tie in up early enough? Are there portable take aways like bibliographies, read-alikes, bookmarks for them ponder over? Is the call # on the info, so when they decide a week after you change the display that they are really interested in Egypt, pirates, DaVinci... they can browse on their own?

Coordinate a part of your display case with items that tie in to upcoming programs!

Mark Twain is coming to our library in late September, and our Mark Twain book display, complete with photo of "Mark," who is appearing with Will Rogers, and information about the program, has been up for over a week. You give patrons a month to read a book for a book discussion, why not the same time frame for a program tie-in?

Carnival of the Infosciences #50

Carnival of the Infosciences
Originally uploaded by nomextra.

It's the Golden 50th issue of Carnival of the Infosciences.

Many of you must be celebrating by demonstrating the phrase "Silence is golden."

This is my first time hosting, but I was very surprised to receive no submissions.
None. Nada. Zero. Zilch. So, you're going to get what I found interesting this week!


Under the Big Top in Ring #1:

A few bloggers mentioned redesigns of their library websites.

Chad over at Hidden Peanuts highlights some of the changes

The site didn’t get a complete overhaul - our link structure is probably 99% the same as it was. Secondary pages on the site are untouched except for a nice new banner at the top which will let us highlight upcoming events, and will be redone more completely as time goes on. But our new front page design, in addition to looking more modern, is flexible in both design and content. Our old design was functional, but adding or removing anything from the page tended to make the design explode. Very hard and frustrating to work with. And with the addition of dropdown menus, we’ve been able to bring a lot of deeper pages’ links to the surface without destroying the menu items people are familiar with from the old design.

A comment there led me to Rochelle's mention they had launched some new features too, along with a warning directed to us IMming libraries that she's added us to their buddy lists for practice! :)

Have a gander at our brand spanking new Flickr account and our remodeling blog. Just around the corner: IM ref. And, the library has been doing gaming since spring.

For those of you who do IM ref, be on the look-out for lplconnects. I've added several of you to our buddy list, and have encouraged staff to practice on y'uns all!

Scott over at BiblioTech Web also says they've done a redesign of their site. I like these two features he mentions:

One new feature is an embedded RSS feed from our library blog, DawgBlog, which provides a link to the blog and the three most recent headlines. This way our “Library News” section stays dynamic without having to draft people to regularly write “news articles” to keep the news changing.

Another nice feature is the Ask A Librarian program. We had that before on the old site, but only as a link at the bottom of every page. Now we have a more prominent graphic that includes the faces of every librarian who works at the Reference Desk. When you click on Ask A Librarian, you are taken to a page that tells you how to get in contact with the Reference Desk, with the choices of telephone, email, or instant messenger. If you follow one of those, you know you’ll be speaking (or typing) with one of the people you’ve seen on the website.

Under the Big Top in Ring #2

Back-to-School is just around the corner, and Off the Shelves (the blog from La Grange Park Public Library in the Metropolitan Library System) linked to the annual Beloit College mindset list. For the class of 2009... here's an excerpt:

49. Libraries have always been the best centers for computer technology and access to good software.
Cool, but...how will we continue to serve these patrons? Keep in mind that the college students are already voters, and potential backers of library referenda.

Andrea Mercado's back-to-school project, with the aid of an Eagle Scout, is the revival of the Netguides program.

Netguides is a program where volunteers (mostly teens) are recruited and trained to be one-on-one technology help for patrons.

This segues nicely to ...

Swinging from the Trapeeze.... it's a bird, it's a plane, no it's Libraryman! Michael Porter teamed up with Brenda Hough to present an OPAL program: Top Notch Technology Training for Patrons. (neatly archived here.) Although I couldn't 'attend' the presentation as it took place Friday morning... I was in the process of: The Worst Upgrade Ever. (Long story short, OPAC broke. Server issues preventing repair of OPAC.)...anyways, I listened to the podcast on my way to work today. I think most of the major concepts carried over to the audio version.

It's definitely worth a listen to hear about some tech training classes you may not have considered offering to your patrons. We're getting further away from the old truth that all seniors don't even have basic mouse skills. How relevant will the class of 2009 think we are if the only computer classes we have are Intro to Mouse & Intro to E-Mail?

How about offering classes in blogging, RSS, podcasting, videocasting, using flickr, del.icio.us, MP3 audiobooks, or MySpace & online safety? Perhaps some of these classes will also appeal to the under-70 crowd, and (gasp--LOL) even the teens!!! Sometimes these tools are not as intuitive as they could be, and more people would love to use them, but are stuck with how to get started. Andrea Mercado's Geek Out Don't Freak Out hands-on classes are also mentioned, as she invites patrons to bring their digital cameras & manuals, and they'll figure it out together.

[Disclaimer: I swear I'm not just mentioning because MPOW was mentioned. (thanks Michael) I was hoping the presentation would be blog worthy, even before I listened.]

Under the Big Top in Ring #3

Web 2.0 tools--new features

del.icio.us rolled out a new front page, with thumbnail images of the top bookmarked sites like ask.com's results list.

Blogger is currently rolling out new features in what they're calling Blogger Beta including controlling who can read your blog, categories, more feeds: comment feeds, and RSS2.0. They're gradually switching current users over. To see a demo, visit Christina Pikas' blog here. This is super news for all the libraries with zero budgets trying to start a fast easy blog, soon the features of the fancier blogging platforms will be at their fingertips. Being able to control who can read your blog could open up the possibilities of an internal blog when you don't have the time or resources to set up a staff intranet.

Take a look at the tools you use (search engines too) and subscribe to their blogs. It's an easy way to stay up to date on all their new features that you might be missing.

Don't miss Meredith Farkas' great article on the TechEssence blog about Getting help from tech experts when you don't have any on staff.
I can't tell you enough how great I think Engaged Patrons is!!! Using Engaged Patrons has increased the visibility of our upcoming programs, and since we didn't have an RSS feed for programs before using EP, now our events are syndicated on a local site.

Since the comment came in this week, I have to mention a post on one of our library blogs. We've just started a new inititave in the Youth & Teen depts where a selected staff member is assigned to blog about something/anything during that week. It's cool to see the different voices emerge on the blog. Rebecca though has the honor of the most interesting comment to date. She posted a detailed review of the magazine New Moon. You can tell she's a mom as she emphasizes that the magazine has no advertising. We subscribe to approx 300 magazines, and none of us had ever thought to blog about a title! Who posted a comment though? The publishers of New Moon! Great job Rebecca! Kudos to New Moon for keeping the conversation going!

Next week, the Carnival moves on to David's Random Stuff for #51 Send your submissions to dwfree[at]gmail.com

The big five-o

Carnival's coming back to the US next week.

If you'd like to be a part of the historic fiftieth installment of the Carnival of the Infosciences send me your post!

Other historic events on Aug 21?
1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates begin
1920 Christopher Robin's birthday (open WorldCat is awesome)
1959 Hawaii becomes 50th state

email: nomextra [at]sbcglobal [dot]net . The deadline is Sunday, August 20 at 6 pm EST.

How will you be celebrating National Library Card Month?
Share your best "bally" and "call"!
Don't feel you need to stick to a theme though, any infosciences topic welcome.

Watch for the post sometime Monday the 21st.

If you need the guidelines, they are here.

#49 coming to you from Canada.. click over to Connie Crosby!

Google's Phish Net

If you're not using the Google Toolbar (or turned it off to make more browser space) then you might not have noticed a few new features.

IE version 4 adds protection for your search settings protecting you from spyware that attempts to change your default search engine, a new 'send to' option for easy blogging, email or SMS, and a new portable bookmarks feature.

The new firefox version 2 has an easy subscribe button in the toolbar to subscribe to RSS feeds! If multiple feeds are available, you get a drop down menu listing (for example) the main feed, comments feed, and the podcast feed. Wow! You can choose to add the subscription to Bloglines, Firefox live bookmarks, My Yahoo, Google personalized home, Newsgator, or Pluck.

I hope they add this to the IE version soon.

The new "safe browsing" feature is cool too! A warning pops up if you visit a suspected phishing site! yes, this was an extension, but now it's built in for everybody! I think they should have called it PhishNet.

If you've been waiting for a reason to try Firefox... maybe this is it!

IE version 4 link
Firefox version 2 link

Perhaps nervous about us building our own toolbars (now updated with open WorldCat!) with sites like effectivebrand.com ... they've also released: Google Toolbar Enterprise Edition link