How many times have you heard, “I didn’t know the library had that?” from both current and potential patrons when referring to the resources you have made available to them? Your digital collection isn’t exempt. Despite significant investments of money, time, and effort into building it, a lack of community awareness of the collection remains a challenge for many libraries.
Hoopla can help. In addition to incorporating Hoopla records into your online catalog for greater patron discoverability, our resource center offers easy-to-use marketing materials to boost the visibility and usage of your collection. More importantly, Hoopla’s diverse collection of content can support community partnerships and promotions.
Benefits of Digital Collection
Hoopla’s digital collection helps libraries empower, enrich, and entertain all members of their community through a variety of content and formats, including eBooks, audiobooks, movies, comics, music, and more. The collection also removes a major barrier of use, which is the inability for some to use the library during regular operating hours.
Hoopla’s exclusive all-in-one digital experience also makes it much easier to promote the collection to potential users because it shows content that appeals to a variety of interests, and the Hoopla Instant model provides patrons with great user experience.
Furthermore, Hoopla provides access to collection data and insights that will assist libraries in identifying usage trends and opportunities to better serve segments of their community.
Finally, the collection helps position the library at the forefront of digital information services.
Hoopla Can Help Promote Digital Offerings
Hoopla’s Resource Center saves library staff time and effort by providing compelling promotional assets designed to help generate collection awareness and usage. Here are some ways you can leverage these provided assets:
- Ready-Made Marketing Materials
- Our resource site includes a variety of pre-designed marketing materials, including posters, social media graphics, and newsletters. These assets are crafted to highlight the benefits of using Hoopla and the range of digital content available. Customize these materials with your library’s branding and you’re good to go! You can save time while ensuring your promotions are professional and look great.
- Thought Starters for Your Community
- We understand that every community is unique. That’s why many of our resources are not just plug-and-play—they serve as great thought starters. Librarians have told us that these materials inspire them to create campaigns that speak directly to their community.
- Event and Workshop Ideas
- The resource site also offers suggestions for events and workshops that can help promote your digital assets. Consider hosting a “Hoopla Day” (or how about “What’s the Hoopla day?”), where patrons can learn about the Hoopla, explore the content available, and borrow digital materials on the spot.
Connect Collection to Community
Hoopla’s robust collection of content provides libraries with an excellent opportunity to truly connect with different members of their community. By creatively aligning the collection with the lifestyles, interests, and values of the target audiences, it helps improve overall usage, assists with patron recruitment and retention, and most importantly creates true library advocates. Here are some strategies to consider:
- Social Media Engagement
- Use the graphics and promotional templates provided by Hoopla to engage your patrons on social media. Highlight new arrivals, feature popular titles, and share tips for using Hoopla effectively. Regular social media posts can keep your digital offerings top-of-mind and encourage patrons to explore what’s available.
- Community Challenges or Contests
- Consider organizing a reading challenge that incorporates Hoopla’s digital assets. Encourage patrons to read eBooks or listen to audiobooks and track their progress. Offering small prizes or recognition to participants can incentivize library usage and foster a sense of community.
- Promote Collection Through Community Partnerships
- A major marketing mistake is being too “inward” with your promotional efforts. In order to generate greater awareness within the community, you must expand your promotional reach. One way is through promotional partnerships.
- Hoopla content provides opportunities to partner with different institutions and organizations within your community including schools, churches, social service agencies, media, and businesses in order to connect with potential new users. One Hoopla library partnered with a minor league baseball team for a special Marvel Comics Night at the ballpark. The library used this fun event to promote the Hoopla digital comics collection.
- Connect to Lifestyles of Targeted Audiences
- Hoopla content also allows you to connect with the values and interests of current or potential patrons. This could be done by incorporating elements of the collection into library or community programming and promotions. One Hoopla library targeted its residents who love to garden by promoting digital titles on gardening along with their in-branch seed libraries. They also expanded their promotional reach by partnering with a local home and garden show which helped place the library in front of 5,000 event attendees.
- More importantly, this provided a possible connection in which to get attendees to check out content on Hoopla, as well as other library resources.
Measure and Adapt Your Efforts
To be sure that your promotional strategies are effective, it’s essential to track their impact. Monitor the circulation of your digital assets and gather feedback from patrons. Which titles are most popular? Do marketing strategies resonate better with your community that others? By assessing this data, you can refine your approach and better tailor your promotional efforts to meet patron needs. And, in turn, increase circulation!
Let Hoopla be your partner in promoting your library’s digital assets—your patrons will thank you for it!
