July 2008 Marketing Activity

Send a Blast Email to Your Patrons

Libraries have found that sending a blast email to all patrons who have provided the library with an email address is a wonderful way to tell people about the NextReads service and to increase subscriber numbers. Try this during the month of July and email your results to NextReads@ebscohost.com at the end of the month. Send us a copy of your email and tell us how many new NextReads subscribers registered at your library as a result of the email.

The winning entry will receive a prize, and we will share your results on our website and in NextReads Notes.

Here are examples of libraries that have had success with this marketing strategy:

  • When Jacksonville Public Library in Jacksonville, Florida launched NextReads, they emailed 66,000 active patrons an invitation with a link to the NextReads sign-up page. This resulted in over 1,000 NextReads newsletter subscriptions! Barbara Gubbin, Library Director, commented that after this email went out, the staff noticed patrons coming into the library and asking for books on NextReads newsletters.

  • Lexington Public Library in Lexington, Kentucky sent a blast email to 37,000 patron email addresses. Doug Tattershall, Media Relations Coordinator, reported that over 70% of their 1,000 NextReads subscribers signed up as a result of that email!

  • Dutchess County Libraries in Dutchess County, New York, sent an email to 19,000 patrons from fourteen of their libraries. People began subscribing to NextReads as soon as they received the email and subscriptions continued to climb. At the end of their first month of offering the service, Dutchess County Libraries had over 600 NextReads subscribers! Check out the email that the Dutchess County Libraries sent:

Dutchess County’s public libraries are pleased to offer a new readers’ service: Dutchess County Reads. With this service, you can subscribe to e-mail newsletters featuring all types of books: historical fiction, fantasy, travel, Christian fiction, romance, and more. Each list is linked to the library’s online catalog.

In order to start receiving this exciting new service, you have to opt-in. Click here to opt in.

Open yourself to a world of reading with Dutchess County Reads.