Facilitator Notes
This document gives comprehensive facilitator’s notes for the unit
Course title
Marketing and promotion of electronic resources
Module title
Module 1: Thinking through the challenges
Unit title
Unit 1.2: What is marketing?
No. of unit
1.2
Session day/time
Day 1 Session 2
Length of session
30 minutes
Objective
To frame marketing and promotion as being about engagement and
communication – core aspects of the librarian’s role; to encourage
participants to think of how to be specific and tailored in their
approaches.
Participant profile
See MarketingEResources-Workshop-outline.docx
Pre-workshop activities
None
Room layout
Set up with tables each seating four participants, with chairs in a
horseshoe around each table, facing the presenter (café style).
Number of participants
20 - See MarketingEResources-Workshop-outline.docx
Materials
Sticky notes (post-its) or pieces of coloured paper (A4 cut in 4)
Flip chart and pens
Files
1.2 Presentation – What is marketing.pptx
1.2 Facilitator notes – What is marketing.docx
Customisation
Equipment needed
Computer with PowerPoint, Word and Excel linked to data projector,
internet connection for facilitator’s laptop
Module/Unit outline
Timing (30 minutes)
30 minutes presentation, allowing time for discussion
Slide Information
1.2 Presentation – What is marketing.pptx
The Facilitator has a choice:
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Either: Copy slides from Powerpoint into this document before printing (instructions below)
Or
Print note pages directly from Powerpoint.
To use Powerpoint feature to copy slides into Word.
In PPT presentation
 File
 Save & send
 Create Handouts
 Create handouts (again)
 Select Notes next to slides format
 OK
Word document opens, cut and paste slides into this file
Annex A: materials for activities – facilitator’s version
So what is marketing?
Facilitator:
The facilitator begins with a slide on what participants might think when it comes to marketing.
“I’m a librarian, not a marketer”
“I haven’t got time to do marketing”
“I don’t have the expertise or the skills – we need someone with a qualification in marketing”
The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines it as:
“Marketing is the management process that identifies, anticipates and supplies customer
requirements efficiently and profitably”
Of course this is what being a librarian is all about - identifying, anticipating and satisfying user
needs, and doing so efficiently
But what does this mean?
Ned Potter, the author of The Library Marketing Toolkit, explains:
Marketing is not simply a poster featuring details of a new database. That’s advertising.
It’s not simply an online campaign about a new service, either: that’s promotion.
It’s not an article in the newspaper about the head librarian: that’s publicity
Instead, he explains…
What marketing is, is an on-going conversation with your target audience, which combines promotion,
publicity, PR, and advertising in an organized, strategic way
You don’t need a degree or a diploma. Marketing is nothing special – it’s all about engaging with
users and being proactive, it’s about reaching out. And this is what being a good librarian is all
about, it’s part of their core role.
The facilitator explains that participants already have some experience of marketing and many of the
skills to tackle it effectively, but it’s about framing it properly, and deploying these skills to best effect.
In doing so, it’s about demonstrating your value.
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