Salford Royal Trust Library Marketing Plan September 2012-August 2013EVALUATION
The Trust Library’s strategic marketing plan was implemented in September 2012.
The following document evaluates the library’s marketing and promotional activities
over the past twelve months against the objectives set out in the marketing plan.

Objective a-Increase awareness of resources provided by the Trust
library with particular focus on electronic resources
To help achieve this objective a publicity action plan was put together with the
aim of promoting a resource or service once a month. Various methods were
used to disseminate publicity materials including an e-mail signature on all
outgoing e-mails, the Trust’s newsletter Siren and the intranet pages. We had
numerous requests on how to access resources promoted on the e-mail
signature which suggests this method had some success in increasing staff
awareness of a particular resource. A more structured and focused approach
needs to be taken next year with regards to promotion of the library’s services
and resources. The promotional calendar worked but needs to be adapted
slightly to accommodate all of the different methods we can utilise to promote
the library. From September 2013 the promotional calendar will be taken to
the team meeting on a monthly basis to ensure all staff are updated and
aware of promotional activities taking place.

Objective b-Increase usage of the Trust library by staff based in the
community by increasing awareness of the Trust library’s Outreach
Service
The Trust’s outreach service has been promoted via flyers-posted out to
community bases, e-mail signatures and visits to bases by the outreach
librarian. Staff based in the community are now using the library on a regular
basis requesting literature searches, resources and training. 5% of training
sessions conducted in 2012-13 took place in the workplace. The effectiveness
of visits to team meeting by the outreach librarian will be reviewed in the
annual outreach report. This objective will be carried forward into 2013/14
when a possible re-brand of the service will be considered.

Objective c-Conduct an information needs assessment to inform next
year’s marketing plan
Good progress has been made on this objective. The pilot of the data
collection tools has taken place using the Speech and Language and Dietetics
departments. It is planned that the Information Needs will be rolled out to
other departments in the Trust from September 2013. Whilst the Information
Needs forms an integral part of the marketing plan (i.e. it will form the basis of
our market research) this objective will not be carried forward into 2013/14.

Objective d-Increase awareness of the Trust library’s current awareness
service
Data collected from the information needs assessment will be used to
determine how our users keep up to date with recent developments in their
field. Some market research has been conducted into how other libraries
provide a current awareness service to their users e.g. CASH bulletins and
investigations are underway as to how we can integrate this into our intranet
and web pages. Forms have been produced listing the majority of Electronic
Table of Contents (ETOC) and current awareness bulletins the library
subscribes to. From September 2012-August 2013 we have signed up
approximately 20 members of staff to 115 bulletins. Numerous staff members
have requested full-text journal articles as a result of receiving current
awareness bulletins from the library. This service is promoted in the library
(forms are available from the library counter) and via training sessions and
inductions were appropriate.
Recommendations and further actions
This is the first year the Trust library has put together a strategic marketing plan
which has provided a solid base to build up the library’s marketing and promotional
activities. Reflecting on how this year’s plan has been implemented
recommendations and further actions are listed below:
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
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The objectives and actions need to be more publicity focused and SMART.
Remove the information needs assessment from the marketing objectives and
incorporate the results into the market research section of the plan.
Modify the publicity action plan to incorporate a checklist of resources and
how to promote these. Take this document to each team meeting to ensure all
staff are up to date with the library’s promotional activity.