19 Digital Libraries Marketing and Promotions

Dinesh Gupta

I. Objectives

• To make aware of the meaning of marketing concept in general and in its applicability libraries

• To make familiar with the functions of marketing vis-à-vis philosophy and functions of libraries and information centres.

• To discuss about the marketing functions in digital library context.

• To enlist strategies for marketing digital libraries.

II. Learning Outcomes

After going through this lesson, learners would attain knowledge on basic concepts of marketing and its applicability in the library environment in general and in digital libraries in particular. They would learn that web-based marketing strategies offers ample opportunities to connect with the users and serve them in an effective way to build up long-term relationships.

III. Structure

1. Introduction

2. Defining marketing

3. Integrating library philosophy with marketing

4. Functions of marketing

5. Marketing functions in digital library context

6. DL marketing imperatives

6.1 Marketing is intrinsic for DLs

6.2 Role of marketing expands with technologies

6.3 Marketing to become people centred

6.4 People behaviour is changing

7. DL marketing strategy

7.1 Situation analysis

7.2 Segment analysis

7.3 Marketing mix strategy

7.4 Web marketing strategy

7.5 Monitoring/ control / evaluation

8. Summary

1. Introduction

We all know that marketing originated in commercial world to increase sale, increase profit, or to increase market share. But, when Kotler propagated the idea of not-for- profit marketing, the interest of other institutions which were not involved in making profits started taking interest in marketing. Such organizations include: hospitals, charitable trusts, educational institutions, museums and libraries. Later marketing theories, such as service marketing, social marketing and internet marketing, digital marketing expanded the application of marketing in libraries. Scope of marketing is much wider than envisaged by ancestors. Marketing signifies that marketing is essential for organizations of all sectors to the extent that it is equally applicable to the social enterprises, governmental agencies and every other organizations which concerns making customers feel happy and satisfied.

To understand the scope of marketing more precisely, we must understand the scope of marketing by way of its function which is universal in nature. The common functions of marketing include: buying, selling, transporting, storing, standardization and grading, financing, risk taking and market information functions. Let’s understand the meaning of marketing, philosophical propositions of librarianship and its closeness and integration with the marketing concept. It will also discuss the marketing functions and strategies of digital libraries.

2. Defining Marketing

Marketing has been defined and explained in many ways by different marketing authors. The National Association of Marketing Teachers, a predecessor of the AMA, adopted what seems to be the first official definition of marketing in 1935:

“Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producer to consumers.”

In 1985, AMA defined marketing as: “Marketing consists of individual and organizational activities that facilitate and expedite exchange relationships in a dynamic environment through the creation, servicing, distribution, promotion and pricing of goods, services, and ideas.”

Again in 2004, the AMA the definition was revised to read: “Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.”

CIM proposes to redefine marketing in 2007 as the strategic business function that creates value by stimulating, facilitating, and fulfilling customer demand. It does this by building brands, nurturing innovation, developing relationships, creating good customer service and communicating benefits. By operating customer centrically, marketing brings positive return on investment, satisfies shareholders and stake-holders from business and the community, and contributes to positive behavioural change and a sustainable business future.

What is important to remember is the notion of managing the exchange process between an organization and its publics with a view to developing relationships between both the parties is at the heart of marketing. It involves philosophical thinking, strategic outlook, and operational tactics for all libraries including digital libraries. Digital library marketing is not about technologies rather about people they serve.

3. Integrating Library Philosophy with Marketing

Although at first sight it may appear that ‘marketing’ and ‘libraries’ belong to different world. Let’s observe Ranganathan’s Five Laws may also be library activities integrated with marketing as extended in the following table:

Five Laws	Main focus of the work	Marketing Activities and Decisions
Books are for use	Optimum use of resources, facilities and services.	Acquiring appropriate information material and ensuring sufficient resources and services are available for the use of users. Convenient location, effective signage, and longer opening hours; helping hands for using resources and services.
Every reader his/ her book	Meeting users need satisfactorily	Collecting and interpreting information, understanding the needs of users and matching with the organizational resources.
Every book its reader	Reaching out to users	Publicizing value and benefits, promotional campaign, advocacy, public relations, personal communication, etc.
Save the time of user	User benefits and preferences	Repackaging information into appropriate form, availability of information when they need. Ensuring quality of services and offerings.
Library is a growing organism	Adapting to future user needs	Mobilizing resources, Dealing with uncertainty about future user needs, new services, new customer groups, etc.

Much of the debate surrounds just how marketing fits into library and information services. Such views infer that marketing is not a natural activity for library and information professionals. If marketing is not seen as a natural consequence of what we do every day, every time, then marketing is misunderstood and misplaced. Most of the time we take decisions about the location of the library, opening hours, acquisition of books, archiving or storing or digitizing library material, planning a new facility or service, offering services according to users/ user groups, making free or priced services, and so on. May not be necessary that while taking each of such decisions marketing theory is applied or considered, but while looking at these decisions from marketing point of view, we can easily find that most of the acts can be well covered in the scope of marketing library services.

Let’s also consider integration of digital/ media technologies with the traditional approach to librarianship. As the “collection in the [Digital] library should have copies of all the documents [Media] created. It should be able to give any information or knowledge sought. Its organization should be perfect [Like semantic web]. It’s potency for service should be supreme. It should be easy to select whatever is of the highest value [through Media Integration]. The instance a reader calls, all that can satisfy his specific want should be given to him expeditiously and in plenty…..Dr. S.R. Ranganathan”. Thus, it is clear that the integration of technology and marketing with the philosophy is easier and suitable.

4. Functions of Marketing

Marketing is considered as an exchange process, usually involves buying and selling. The buying function means looking for and evaluating goods and services to be bought or acquired. The selling function involves motivating the buyer to buy the product or promoting the product. It may include the use of personal selling, advertising, and other direct and mass- selling methods. The transporting function means the movement of goods from one place to another by some means of transport. The storing function involves stocking and holding goods until customers need them. Standardization and grading involve sorting products according to size and quality or any other suitable parameter. Financing provides the necessary cash and credit to produce, transport, store, promote, sell, and buy products/service. Risk taking involves bearing the uncertainties that are part of the marketing process. An organization can never be sure that customers will want to buy its products. Products can also be damaged, stolen, or outdated. The market information function involves the collection, analysis, and distribution of all the information needed to plan, carry out, and control marketing activities.

5. Marketing Functions in Digital Library Context

With the rising use of internet and mobile in commerce and business the scope of marketing has become wider and new marketing avenues are tied up with the use of these technologies. In the recent past, most libraries have implemented some aspect of new technologies, e.g. online catalogues, online database searching, CD-ROMs, automated circulation system, etc. The technology gives us opportunities to have (1) new customers (2) new information products (3) new roles for professionals, and (4) new strategies. Presently, technology has changed the very concept of library; there are numerous interpretations to libraries: library without walls, automated library, electronic library, digital library, virtual library, hybrid library and so forth. All such concepts have come with the emergence and applicability of technology in libraries. Technologies are of use when it is beneficial to the users, institution and to the society. Such thinking is based on marketing propositions of a library. Let’s match marketing functions with the library functions:

Table-1: Marketing function vis-a-vis library function

Marketing Function	Library Function	Extension of the Library Marketing Functions	Digital Library Context
Buying	Acquisition	Selection, ordering, procurement, accessioning,	Digital-resources (born digital or otherwise): Digitizing, Buying access, Linking, Embedding, Digital publishing
Selling	Dissemination/Circulation	Issue return, reservations, services, compilation and production of information outputs	Push services, like alerts, RSS feed, Tagging etc
Transporting	Access	Providing access of the users to the collection by mobile vans, branch libraries, online, on mobile, or participation in the consortia, etc.	Browsing, Searching and Access (Digital Access) from anywhere
Storing	Archiving	Preservation and conservation, digitisation, etc.	Digital Archiving, Digital Curation
Standardisation and Grading	Organising	Classifying and Cataloguing, labelling, stacking, consolidation and repackaging, etc.	Digital Standards/ Protocols
Financing	Financing	Budgeting, accounting, controlling finances, etc.	Project Funding
Risk taking	Uncertainties	Concentrating future user needs, anticipating future demands..	Use/ unused, Sustainability
Market Information Function	Statistics, user studies	Collecting information regarding all activities mentioned above	Analytics

We see here each of the marketing function in relation with digital library functions and most of the marketing functions are performed by a digital library without noticing it. We will not go in the sequence of the marketing functions as mentioned above, but above table brings together the wholesome of marketing functions into digital library operations.

Our analysis of library’s function in relation with the functions of marketing will enhance our understanding of marketing and its scope. Libraries are charged with four basic functions, namely acquisition, organization, dissemination and use of information. Archival function has been important in the past for keeping library material preserved for the future generation of users. Digitization is considered as an important function for storage and transportation of information resources in the present times. Digitization must also be considered as part of marketing process in libraries, as storage and transportation are two important marketing functions and digitization offers ample storage opportunity with wider access with the communication connectivity. We have wikis, blogs, discussion list, RSR Feed; to market our technology supported services to the larger community are big marketing tools of modern times. As such some more recent functions of marketing and libraries, both may include: sharing and publishing

Let’s take up some definitions of digital libraries and observe marketing insights into these definitions based on the above analysis of marketing functions in digital libraries Terence R. Smith (1997), defined digital libraries as “controlled collections of information bearing objects (IBOs) that are in digital form and that may be organized, accessed, evaluated and used by means of heterogeneous and extensible set of distributed services that are supported by digital technology”.

Clifford Lynch (1995), a well-know expert on digital libraries and new technologies, defined digital library as “a system providing a community of users with coherent access to a large, organized repository of digital information and knowledge. The digital library is not just one entity, but multiple sources seamlessly integrated.”

Michael Lesk, who predicts that half of the materials accessed in major libraries will be digital by the early 21st century (Lesk, 1997), defines digital libraries as “organized collections of digital information that combine the structuring and gathering of information, which libraries and archives have always done, with the digital representation that computers have made possible. Digital information can be accessed rapidly around the world, copies for preservation without error, stored compactly, and searched very quickly. A true digital library also provides the principles governing what is included and how the collection is organized”

Arms (2000) defines digital libraries as “managed collection of information, with associated services, where the information is stored in digital formats and accessible over a network”.

The functions of digital libraries in the above definitions of digital libraries can be covered in marketing, namely: to select, organize, evaluate, interpret, access, preserve and use…. Let us understand why marketing becomes imperatives for digital libraries.

6. DL Marketing Imperatives

Management therefore needs to understand the alignment of technology and library work processes and see this from an IT strategic viewpoint as well. In essence, the careful integration of web technologies, library processes and current marketing tools and channels could lead to: satisfying patron needs, creating a strategic edge when delivering a piece of information or service, ensuring resources are utilised shrewdly to maximize library operations and services, identifying further favourable marketing opportunities, and, engaging the community to share in the knowledge repository flow.

The process is guided by the philosophy that how information technology can be leveraged to assist in increasing revenues and share in the market as well as lowering the costs. Need is to apply digital resources and information technologies both effectively and efficiently.

6.1 Marketing is intrinsic for DLs

Technology and marketing are inextricably intertwined. Marketing is the centre of every decision we take in building of digital libraries. The marketing decisions could be good or bad; thoughtful or unthoughtful. While developing/managing digital libraries many of the following decision are taken:

• For whom digital library is building up?

• Which are the key users groups?

• Whether / who are using any other digital library?

• How many users are going to be benefitted with the proposed digital library?

• What digital infrastructure will be required and how it will be upgraded?

• What type and how much material is readily available in digital media?

• Which of the material will be uploaded on the DL platform?

• What sort of material will be digitized?

• Will there be a cross search facility to the users?

• Will it be participating in any joint facilities?

• Will there be any kind of restrictions for access and use?

• What cost both fixed and recurring will be incurred?

• Whether any price tag will be put for users/ services/ resources?

• Is the project scalable?

• How should be information structured on the website?

• How can be the website optimized for the search engines?

• How can I use technology to manage my customers?

• What channels can you use to get your message out there and raise your profile online?

• Is the website easy to use?

• Are email or mobile campaigns well received?

• What is the number of visitors to our website per month?

• What is the average length of time visitors spend on our site?

• What are the most popular pages and products? What are the least popular?

6.2 Role of marketing expands with technologies

We know that the technology changes with the time and new technology replaces old one. The benefit of the newer technologies must reach the communities in the minimum possible time. Technology expands the role of marketing. Technology and marketing are inextricably intertwined. For service providers: marketing, not the technology is challenging. Technology comes first and marketing follows. Technology embodies adaptability, programmability, customization and marketing delivers on those qualities. DL technologies require marketing to expose its highest potentials.

Historically, libraries were early adaptors of technologies. But over the years technological advancement and ease of technological uses and for common man’s benefit there is a great competition on use of technologies. Banks, airlines, railways are now front runner in use of technologies for the ease of communities. Rightly points out that ‘New technology emerges and is initially the preserve of technologists and early adopters. The technology gains a firmer foothold in the market and starts to become more popular, putting it on the marketing radar. Innovative marketers jump in to explore ways they can harness the power of this emerging technology to connect with their target audience. The technology migrates to the mainstream and is adopted into standard marketing practice. The printing press, radio, television and now the internet are all examples of major breakthroughs in technology that ultimately altered the relationships between marketers and consumers for ever, and did so on a global scale. But, of course, marketing isn’t about technology; it’s about people: technology is only interesting, from a marketing perspective, when it connects people with other people more effectively’.

6.3 Marketing to become people centred

In developing digital libraries, most of the time, we discuss about DL technologies and less about people. It is also a common perception that marketing is about selling, promotion of goods and products. As a result, most of the digital libraries remain invisible and less used. It is time to consider libraries they need people rather than considering people need libraries. In such situation, is it really not necessary to employ marketing digital libraries? The digital marketing isn’t actually about technology at all; it’s all about people. In that sense it’s similar to traditional marketing: it’s about people (marketers) connecting with other people (consumers) to build relationships and ultimately drive use. Technology merely affords you, the marketer, new and exciting platforms that allow you to connect with people in increasingly diverse and relevant ways. Digital marketing is not about understanding the underlying technology, but rather about understanding people, how they’re using that technology, and how you can leverage that to engage with them more effectively. Yes, you have to learn to use the tools at your disposal – but understanding people is the real key to unlocking the potential of digital marketing.’

6.4 People behaviour is changing

User is the central to the entire system, he has wishes, desires to be met out with the choices, offers and values available to him. He expects responsiveness, individuality, and relationship. Every technology, process and support system must support this proposition. But, with the technological supports, user has much more options to fulfil wishes, choices, desires which remain constantly changing. Ryan and Johns mentioned that the analysts at Jupiter Research identified seven key ways in which the increasingly widespread adoption of technology is influencing consumer behaviour:

Interconnectivity: Networked digital technology is enabling consumers to connect with each other more readily, be it through e-mail, instant messaging (IM), mobile messaging, or web- based social networking platforms such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn – or more likely a combination of all of these platforms. Consumers are interacting with like-minded people around the world, paying scant regard to trifling concerns like time zones or geography. Peer- to-peer interaction is reinforcing social networks and building new virtual communities.

Technology is levelling the information playing field: With digital technology content can be created, published, accessed and consumed quickly and easily. As a result the scope of news, opinion and information available to consumers is broader and deeper than ever. Consumers can conduct their own unbiased research, comparing and contrasting products and services before they buy. Knowledge is power, and digital technology is shifting the balance of power in favour of the consumer.

Relevance filtering is increasing: With such a glut of information available to them, digital consumers are, through necessity, learning to filter out items relevant to them and to ignore anything they perceive as irrelevant. Increasingly digital consumers look to have their information aggregated, categorized and delivered (whether through e-mail or RSS feeds). They use personalization features to block out irrelevant content and increasingly employ software solutions to exclude unsolicited commercial messages.

Niche aggregation is growing: The abundance and diversity of online content allow consumers to participate in and indulge their specialist interests and hobbies. Aggregations of like-minded individuals congregate online; the homogeneous mass consumer population is fragmenting into ever-smaller niche groups, with increasingly individual requirements.

Micropublishing of personal content is blossoming: Digital media’s interactive and interconnected nature allows consumers to express themselves online. Publishing your own content costs little more than a bit of time and imagination, whether through discussion forums, message boards, feedback forms, voting platforms, personal photo galleries, or blogs. Users are posting their opinions online for all to see and are consulting the opinion of their online peers before making purchasing decisions. How often do you check an online review before booking a table at an unknown restaurant or a weekend break at a hotel, or even buying a new car?

Rise of the ‘prosumer’: Online consumers are getting increasingly involved in the creation of the products and services they purchase, shifting the balance of power from producer to consumer. They are letting producers know what they want in no uncertain terms: the level of interaction between producer and consumer is unprecedented. Individuals are more involved in specifying, creating and customizing products to suit their requirements, and are able to shape and mould the experiences and communications they receive from producers. Traditional mass- production and mass-marketing concepts are rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

On demand; any time, any place, anywhere: As digital technology becomes more ubiquitous in people’s lives, the corresponding acceleration of business processes means that consumers can satisfy their needs more quickly, more easily and with fewer barriers. In the digital economy, trifling concerns like time, geography, location and physical store space are becoming irrelevant. It’s a world of almost instant gratification, and the more consumers get of it the more they want it – now, now, now!

7. DLMarketing Strategy

Every library whether traditional or digital needs sound marketing strategy to maximise the benefits of the opportunities available, to make qualitative and to ensure that the efforts are focused and relevant to the library. It’s very important to understand the evolving market opportunities and match with the resources and services of the library with the customers and their requirements. It’s very important to employ web-based marketing strategies to understand, offer, and evaluate the services and products on offer. There is a need for sound strategy for engagement and retention of users through new media.

7.1 Situation Analysis

Ryan and Johns considers that these are the components that will form the foundation of your digital marketing strategy:

Know your business: Is your business ready to embrace digital marketing? Are your products or services suited to online promotion? Do you have the right technology, skills and infrastructure in place? How will digital marketing fit into your existing business processes, do those processes need to change, and are you and your staff ready to accommodate those changes?

Know the competition: Who are your main competitors in the digital marketplace? Are they the same as your offline competitors? What are they doing right (emulate them), what are they doing wrong (learn from them), what aren’t they doing at all (is there an opportunity there for you?) and how can you differentiate your online offering from theirs? Remember, competition in the digital world can come from just around the corner or from right around the globe. The same technologies that allow you to reach out to a broader geographical market also allow others to reach into your local market. When you venture online you’re entering a global game, so don’t limit your analysis to local competition.

Know your customers: Who are your customers and what do they want from you? Are you going to be servicing the same customer base online, or are you fishing for business from a completely new demographic? How do the customers you’re targeting use digital technology, and how can you harness that knowledge to engage in a productive and ongoing relationship with them?

Know what you want to achieve: If you don’t know where are you going, there’s a pretty fair chance you’ll never reach there. What do you want to get out of digital marketing? Setting clear, measurable and achievable goals is a key part of your digital marketing strategy. Are you looking to generate online sales, create a source of targeted sales leads, improve your brand awareness among online communities, all of the above or perhaps something completely different? Your goals are the yardsticks against which you can measure the progress of your digital marketing campaigns.

Know how you’re doing: The beauty of digital marketing is that, compared to many forms of advertising, results are so much more measurable. You can track everything that happens online and compare your progress against predefined goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). How is your digital campaign progressing? Are certain digital channels delivering more traffic than others? Why is that? What about conversion rates? How much of that increased traffic results in tangible value to your business? Measure, tweak, refine, re-measure. Digital marketing is an ongoing and iterative process.

7.2 Segment Analysis

Issue analysis/ web marketing strategic planning involve demand and supply analysis is conducted to identify various segments in online markets and evaluate the potential profitability and sustainability of various segments. Segment analysis would include variables like demographic characteristics, geographic location, and some selected psychographic characteristics like attitude toward technology & wireless device ownership and past behaviour toward the product such as purchasing patterns online and offline. Target can be serving current markets online or identifying new markets eg. How the needs of the library customers using internet/ website are different from other customers. Tasks involved are as follows: determine the fit between the organization and its changing market opportunities; perform marketing opportunity analysis, demand and supply analyses, and segment analyses; and Strategies at this stage include decisions regarding segmentation, targeting, differentiation and positioning.

7.3 Marketing Mix Strategy

The Digital libraries marketing mix are no different from any online company. But, online companies adopt aggressive marketing and most of the time digital libraries remain unconscious of the need for marketing. The digital library developers concentrate more on technological aspects leaving marketing aside. As a result digital libraries remain unknown or invisible to the users. If the existence of marketing is not understood, it may obstacle the consistency of the marketing efforts over a long run. Even the basic premises of marketing remain same and are applicable for developing an effective digital library marketing strategy. Let’s understand how marketing mix works in digital libraries.

Product: Libraries deal in offering products and services to the users. Technologies offer vide options to customise the products and services. For a digital library user a product can be anything that is offered to him- it is the unique value proposition to the customers. The product line could be as big as we think, from metadata to the document. A good product, of course, is the cornerstone of all successful marketing. Customers seek benefits in terms of effective web navigation, quick search download speed, clear site organization, attractive and useful site design, secure transactions, free information and services and user – friendly Web browsing.

Place: Now libraries are not only preserving print documents but efforts are made to digitize and archived old and new materials based on the assumption that future generations will make use of those resources whenever they are in need. Recent vast digitization efforts offer longer life to the information and wider access opportunities to the user community through the participation in consortia, network, and other such arrangements opens up doors for across the place marketing.

In today’s world libraries are not only seen as a physical place, but the services have expanded beyond the library walls and it has resulted into the creation of e-libraries or digital libraries with enhanced electronic collections, virtual reference and collaboration with services offered by other information providers. Libraries are now defined in terms of space and now the question is how to attract users to this form as designing an appropriate distribution strategy.

Pricing: Online pricing is critical. Pricing has to be competitive and transparent. Charge or not to charge; to offer discount or not; effect of pricing on sales; methods of pricing; differential pricing for different segments/ users; sustainability/ self-financing/ revenue generation; income generation with contributors. Pricing options: other sources of funds for libraries should also be taken into consideration. Pricing of services in library and information centers is a strategic decisions based on issues like – costs involved in generation of services and whether services should be provided free or charged and if services are to be charged then what should be the criteria: price vs cost; price vs customer benefits; price vs competitor’s price; foreign currency issues; foreign vs local currency pricing; devaluation problems, convertibility

Promotion: All methods of communicating with users one-way and two-ways, both are included in the promotion. For Libraries the aim of promotion is to build an awareness of what the library offers and to reduce the perceived and actual barriers to use the library. To achieve the objective combination of various communication channels can be used to reach the maximum number of target users. The web 2.0 technologies can be used to promote information, attract users towards services and maintain a close relationship with them.

7.4 Web Marketing Strategy

A digital library must have user-centered web site. But creating and maintaining the library web site is not enough. Efforts should be put on attracting more and more people towards it to use, access, and share for information. Ralph F. Wilson, an E-commerce Consultant has devised a checklist of 37 items one need to consider getting more visitors to a website for online business. These could be related to search engines, linking strategies, social media strategies, traditional media strategies, e-mail strategies, paid advertisement strategies and miscellaneous strategies.

(a) Search Engine Strategies

• Writing a Keyword-Rich Page Title

• Writing a Description META Tag

• Including Keywords in Headers (H1, H2, H3)

• Positioning Keywords in the First Paragraph of Your Body Text

• Including Descriptive Keywords in the ALT Attribute of Image Tags.

• Using Keywords in Hyperlinks

• Making Navigation System Search Engine Friendly

• Creating a Site Map

• Developing Webpages Focused on Each Your Target Keywords

• Fine-tuning with Careful Search Engine Optimization

• Promoting Local Business on the Internet

• Promoting Video, Images, and Audio Content

(b) Linking Strategies

• Submitting the Site to Key Directories

• Submitting the Site to Trade Organization Sites and Specialized Directories

• Requesting Reciprocal Links

• Writing Articles for Others to Use in Websites and Newsletters

• Issuing News Releases

• Beginning a Business Blog

• Becoming Part of a Social Media Community

• Promoting Your Site in Online Forums and Discussion Lists

• Asking Visitors to Bookmark Your Site

(d) Traditional Media Strategies

• Including Your URL on Stationery, Cards, and Literature

• Promoting using traditional media

• Developing a Free Service

(e) e-mail Strategies

• Installing a “Signature” in your E-Mail Program

• Publishing an E-Mail Newsletter

• Aggressively Asking for E-Mail Sign-ups

• Sending Transactional and Reminder E-Mails

• Sending Offers to Your Visitors and Customers

• Exchanging E-Mail Mentions with Complementary Businesses

(f) Paid Advertisement Strategies

• Adverting in an E-Mail Newsletter

• Beginning an Affiliate Program

• Purchasing Pay Per Click (PPC) ad

• Listing the Products with Shopping Comparison Bots and Auction Sites

• Renting targeted, commercial e-mail lists

(g) Miscellaneous Strategies

• Announcing a Contest

• Devising Viral Marketing Promotion Techniques

In present day time web analytics is considered as an important issue for getting useful information for the own website and also from the competitors which can be used as strategic information for the further positioning in the market.

7.5 Monitoring/ Control / Evaluation:

The focus here is on identifying and understanding the benefits being derived from information activities as perceived by different clients and other stakeholders and on exploiting this knowledge to maximum advantage. It is done by measuring the inputs and outputs of information activities. It is basically the feedback (how to get information, how to process the information received from various sources). The steps involved would be: determining the object of assessment, i.e. product or service; specific measures of inputs (resources utilized) outputs (in terms of products and services), usage (use or non- use), the outcome in terms of consequence of use or non-use and the environment within which product or service operates; measures or indicators: performance, cost effectiveness, cost- benefit and return – on – investment.

The analysis of qualitative and quantitative data from the web pages is necessary:

• To drive continual improvement of the online experience that your customers and potential customers have,

• Which translates into your desired outcomes (online and offline)

• Web and offline surveys

• Focus groups

• Email delivery metrics

• Social media interactions/fans (Facebook Insights, for example)

8. Summary

A relationship between marketing functions and library operations has been established. We find that the scope of marketing is greater than we envisage and most of the library functions can be covered in marketing gamut. Looking at library functions from marketing angle offers a clear picture of the scope of library/ digital library marketing. Librarians, like all other business people, are into marketing, consciously or not. When it is done- the focus of the work, the outlook, and service mindedness are derived to manage in an entrepreneurial way. The web- based marketing strategies offers ample opportunities to connect with the users and serve them in an effective way to build up long-term relationships.

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