Quantum² Resources : Marketing & Management Tools : 10-Step Guide To Promoting the Information Center

10-Step Guide To Promoting the Information Center

Tips for raising awareness and advertising services

Promoting the Information Center to an internal audience is often left by the wayside. The pressures of daily work may mean there is little time to plan a campaign for advertising its services. As the Information Center continues to play an increasingly strategic role in the organisation's activities, helping users understand what the Information Center can do for them is crucial.

Ten simple steps for success:

1. Where are you now?

Before any campaign can be developed, you need to look at the current situation. What perceptions exist? Are they fair? Are there misconceptions which need to be overcome?

Measuring the perceived value of the Information Center will help you plan your strategy. You will know what you want to achieve through the promotional activities, and how to measure their success.

There are three main ways you can obtain this information:

• Interviews with staff who deal with the Information Center
• Company-wide questionnaire
• General background research

2. Identify audiences

It is likely that the Information Center will have different target audiences, with different expectations, information needs and perceptions. These should be segmented into identifiable groups so you can communicate more effectively with them. These groups may be split by function, e.g. marketing, sales, finance, human resources etc., according to those who are familiar with the Information Centre, and use its services a great deal, through to late adopters, who are not yet aware of what it can do for them.

3. Set objectives

Once you have identified the current perceptions, you will know what you want to achieve. Setting objectives will lay down clear goals which can be used in the future to assess the success of your campaign. Objectives might include:

• Raise general awareness of activities
• Communicate the availability of resources
• Communicate personalities and contact points
• Promote successes and new information available
• Generate new business for the Information Centre

4. Set tactics

Consideration needs to be given as to how you will actually achieve these objectives. There are a number of tactics which can be used, and which may vary depending on the audiences you have identified. These could include:

• Advertising — this may be most effective for new recruits, or those who rarely use the Information Center. Induction visits, electronic bulletin boards, email, brochures and flyers could all be used to advertise the Information Center's services.
• Demonstrations — seminars, quarterly briefings, and workshops are alleasy, interactive promotional tools. These offer good opportunities todeepen the knowledge users have about the Information Center. Guest speakers in particular topic areas will enable you to showcase an exampleof how you have assisted them with a particular business project.
• Newsletters — newsletters featuring information updates, new researchfindings and case studies can all be used to push out positive messages
• Alerting — alerts on users' systems could be set up to bring newinformation to their attention in real time. This could be done by functionor department, so that numerous alerts don't have to be set up all aroundthe organisation.

5. Set timescales

Consider over what timescales you will run your first campaign. It is important not to expect results overnight. Set a period of time for each stage of the plan, and then the time over which you will begin and spread your activity.

6. Evaluate criteria and gain feedback

Decide how you will measure the success of your campaign. A follow-up survey after the first quarter, and then every six months will help you know if you are nearing your goal. As well as the surveys, be sure to include opportunity for brainstorming, round table discussions and debate in your workshops and seminars. This will throw up new ideas about how the Information Center and users can work better together, what new information needs users may have, and how they can help you. If the internal events programme is a great success, it may be worth setting up a user committee which meets on a regular basis.

7. Communicate success

Be positive. If the Information Cener has completed any successful projects, gained some new and exclusive information, or taken on a new recruit, this should be communicated. Your aim should be to keep what you do, who does it and with what results at the forefront of users' minds. Take advantage of monthly newsletters, a bulletin board on an intranet site, or speaker opportunities at company events.

8. Develop new tools

Look at new ways of researching and delivering information to help you develop a better service and become known as a centre of excellence. Keep investigating new technologies or emerging approaches to research and present your findings and innovations at workshops or briefings, to help raise support for your work and create organisational buy-in to the importance of inward investment.

9. See the other side

Time spent shadowing key personnel in other departments will help you build contacts and relationships. It will also enable you to better understand the business priorities of your users and their information needs. In order that this does not prove a costly drain on resources in the information team, one person could be assigned to shadow another in a particular function, with shadowing done in rotation.

10. Keep doing it!

The key to effective promotion is persistence. A successful campaign is one that develops over time. It is not a one-off exercise. As the relationship between the Information Center and users matures, the promotion will become easier and users will approach you with ideas, questions and feedback.