02: The strategy that drove over 2,000 patrons to 1 library event

Published: Feb. 12, 2019, 9 a.m.

Kimberly Crowder serves as the Marketing Director for the Indianapolis Public Library. She has more than 13 years of experience and has served in a variety of roles during that time — everything from public relations to journalism. Today, Kimberly and I sit down to talk about her marketing strategies and how she brought awareness (and attendance!) to the new center of Black Literature and Culture at the Indianapolis Public Library.

See the full episode with transcripts and visuals at: http://meetpiola.com/promoting-library-events/

Key Takeaways:

  • Who is Kimberly and what does she do for the Indianapolis Public Library?
  • Kimberly shares what projects she and her team have been working on.
  • The Indianapolis Public Library had a grand opening for their center of Black Literature and Culture. It was run as a campaign and they doubled their goal for attendees.
  • How did Kimberly determine the target audience for this event?
  • Are you struggling with your library’s current website? We have a webinar to help you through this process!
  • Kimberly shares how she brought attention to the event on Facebook and how she rewarded loyal followers.
  • Kimberly explains how she communicated unexpected problems with the event with the attendees before they arrived.
  • When dealing with a crisis, the best thing you can do is tackle it head on and apologize to your audience.
  • What would Kimberly do differently if she could go back?
  • Kimberly tried doing an email blast to generate awareness from a select few of ‘influencers’ but did not receive a good response from that.
  • Instead, she had to do a manual approach and reach out to these people via LinkedIn and social media.
  • What advice does Kimberly have for fellow library marketers?

 

Mentioned in This Episode:

MeetPiola.com/webinar

Indypl.org

Kimberly on LinkedIn

Email Kimberly: Kimberly.Crowder@live.com & KCrowder@indypl.org