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Promoting Yourself: Creating a Marketing Plan as a Professional Development Tool
by Ophelia Morey
Last fall, I completed a marketing course in which one of the assignments was to create a plan to market yourself. The instructor's simplified, or "real world," definition of marketing was: "Everything you do to help sell a product or service." We had to think of ourselves as a product to market to potential employers, present employers, or in other life situations, such as running for office or attracting a potential spouse. The plan needed to include the following:
Goal/Objective. State a single goal that you want to accomplish. To measure the progress of your marketing efforts, the goal must be quantifiable. Example: To receive a MBA in three years.
Target Market. Who will you aim your message towards? Defining a target market allows you to concentrate your efforts on a group with common characteristics.
Competition. Recognize who your competitors are and their impact.
Benefits. How your product/service will benefit the target market.
Position. What differentiates your product/service in the minds of the target market that you are trying to reach? What makes the product/service unique?
Marketing Tools. What will you use to get the message of your product/service to the target market?
Budget. What you can realistically afford, or what are you willing to spend?
As a recently hired tenure-track librarian, I saw this assignment as an opportunity to use my marketing plan as a professional development tool. Completing the assignment was an excellent opportunity to outline on paper what I needed to accomplish to become a tenured librarian at the University at Buffalo. I reviewed the University Libraries Criteria for Library Faculty Personnel Actions for assistance in creating the plan. The following marketing plan is similar to my completed assignment, and can be used as a guide for other academic librarians who are seeking tenure and/or promotion.
A Sample Marketing Plan
Product:
Jane D. Librarian, tenure-track medical librarian.
Goal:
To become a tenured librarian at the University at Buffalo (UB) in six years.
Competition:
1. Other librarians
2. UB tenured faculty
Target Market:
1. UB tenured library faculty
2. Other librarians
3. Other UB tenured faculty
4. University Libraries administration
Benefits:
1. Contributions to the UB libraries and their services, such as creating library collections that are relevant to academic programs and providing effective instruction, reference and information delivery services.
2. Professional contributions, demonstrated by activities such as visible and effective participation in professional academic associations, writing newsletter articles and book reviews, editing a newsletter, lecturing or participation on panels, obtaining grants (either to support activities of the University Libraries or to support the library's intellectual interests).
3. Scholarly accomplishments. These contributions include, but are not limited to, books, chapters in books, articles, papers presented at conferences, audiovisual productions, computer software or databases, research aids, the editing of journals, and the production of administrative documents.
4. University and community service, including effective participation in faculty governance of the University libraries and the University, committee work, involvement with campus groups, and work with students or with community groups beyond customary library service.
5. Return on investment: the University Libraries provides financial support for conference/workshop registration and travel, and in return, the University may gain a more knowledgeable librarian.
Position:
The only tenure-track University at Buffalo health sciences librarian with prior experience as a physician assistant.
Marketing Tools:
1. Curriculum Vitae. Have mentors evaluate before submitted yearly, and at various stages of the reappointment, promotion and tenure decisions.
2. Research and Service Statements. Have mentors evaluate before submitted at various stages of the reappointment, promotion and tenure decisions.
3. Dossier. Worked on continuously and submitted during tenure decision year.
4. Word-of-mouth. Tell others about completed projects, goals and ideas.
5. Association memberships. Maintain yearly memberships in library and other professional organizations.
6. Conferences/workshops/continuing education courses. Attend regularly. Present poster and paper at a library conference.
7. Committees. Participate on University, University Libraries, local, regional or national committees.
8. Mentors. Meet regularly for advice and evaluation.
9. Publications. Write book/audiovisual reviews, newsletter and journal articles.
10. Meetings. Attend University and University Libraries meetings.
11. E-mail discussion lists. Participate in discussions, answer and ask questions. Use to forward relevant information to colleagues.
12. Newspapers/Newsletters. Submit information on publications, awards received, conferences attended, etc. to campus and association newspapers or newsletters.
Yearly Budget:
$2000.00 (Conference/workshop registration, travel, etc.)
$500.00 (Professional wardrobe)
$600.00 (Professional organization memberships)
Total: $3100.00
Execution and Review
After the plan is written, it must be executed and periodically reviewed in order to be effective. Execution involves thoroughly understanding and committing to your plan. To help you commit and stay on track, it may be helpful to develop a calendar or timetable of specific activities that you need and/or want to accomplish. At the same time, you should remember that your plan is a working document and that periodic reviews are very important. During the review stages you can ask yourself the following questions: Am I actually doing the work that needs to be done in order to accomplish my goal, and, what have I done so far? At this point it may be necessary to revise or refocus your plan as needed.
Conclusion
Attention is being focused on the importance of marketing library services, but more work needs to be done to help librarians to become comfortable with marketing themselves. It may be helpful for librarians to view marketing in terms of what is gained by the organizations and communities they serve, and promoting their own skills and services. They should also realize that marketing is not an exact science, but more a game of strategy. There are no guarantees, and many variables can come into play.
Ophelia Morey is an Assistant Librarian at the University at Buffalo Health Sciences Library.