Marketing and Advocacy
Your IFLS staff person for marketing and communications is Rebecca Kilde (kilde@ifls.lib.wi.us).
Questions about advocacy can go to John Thompson (thompson@ifls.lib.wi.us).

New! Marketing Tea
virtual meetup to talk about marketing
Once a month Reb will host a short little virtual cup of marketing. You can expect two marketing tips in the first 20 minutes, and then we’ll throw it open for questions for another ten minutes. At that point Tea is officially over! Reb is delighted to stay as long as there are questions. The first half hour will be recorded and listed on this page. Watch the Weekly Digest and the IFLS calendar for details.
Marketing tools and templates
for IFLS libraries
MORE app marketing toolkit
MORE e-card Facebook post or blurb graphic Suggested text: If you don’t have a regular library card from a MORE-member library and you’re a Wisconsin resident, you can get an e-card to use MORE’s shared electronic resources. Find the e-card self-registration form here.
Library Love Story
Library Love Story toolkit, updated each year prior to Library Legislative Day. You can use this all year.
Annual Reports
- Anne Hamland’s adding Annual Report info to your website video
- The DPI has an infographic tool. Instructions are on their website.
- Templates: click the images for your 2022 canva templates. The Trustee version has a page about customizing graphs and charts in Canva. The February 2023 Marketing Monthly is about annual reports. Most IFLS libraries use Canva. If you don’t use it please contact me, Reb Kilde, at kilde@ifls.lib.wi.us or submit a HelpDesk ticket and let me know the specific resource that would be useful for you. The WPI also has some tools for visualization, available on their website.
Non-IFLS Marketing Resources
The best resources, curated by Reb
Marketing resources
- Angela Hursh’s Super Library Marketing blog. This is the best library marketing blog I’ve found: it’s timely and actionable. She does a great job of covering social media trends.
- From 2020, a Marketing Plan template developed specifically for libraries by marketing staff from several Wisconsin library systems. There’s also an introductory webinar available.
General design resources
Accessible Design Handbook I found this handbook from The Association of Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario. The first chapter is on print design and it’s a clear and concise explanation of what’s important, with examples.
This pdf is a handy chart that explains different file formats and color formats for different applications. PROPR-File-Color-Guide-v01-1
Cole Zrostlek’s Canva Resources (from Tech Days)
Communications
Press releases
Most news outlets are ridiculously understaffed. They aren’t likely to have enough journalists around to read a press release, figure out how it applies to their audience and then write a news story about it. I think it’s much more effective to tell a story: https://allgoodtales.com/press-release-tell-story/
Website and digital
Advocacy tools and resources
Understand advocacy
Don’t run away from this critical tool for your library’s current and future success! Start here:
The Reluctant Library Advocate webinar with Jill Markgraf
- Reluctant Library Advocate Recording
- Reluctant advocate slides
- The Reluctant Library Advocate Activity Report
Advocacy 101 with Jim Tripp and Rebecca Kilde
Advocacy Resources
Because local advocacy is so unique to a particular community and time, templates are difficult to find. Here are some more recent resources to help you frame your message.
Toolkit
This guide is from the Ontario Library Association, so it doesn’t directly apply in all the details. The basic information is very good, and more recent than most resources I’ve found.
Ontario Library Association 2019 Advocacy Toolkit
Web Junction Advocacy in Action
From OCLC, this informational page includes some local examples.
Library Legislative Day, 2023
Library Love Story handout created for 2023 Library Legislative Day
- Use this Print version IFLS 2022 Library Love Stories pdf to print on a copier
- Use this Digital 2022 IFLS Library Love Stories pdf to display digitally.
Marketing Tea and Marketing Monthly
Marketing Tea
Recordings of Marketing Tea live on Vimeo. Here’re the archives.
2023
October Marketing Tea: walk-through the Canva Brand Kit, tools to pick a color palette. recording
Color picker links:
Wix reviews of 7 color palette generators.
September Marketing Tea video: Design: balance, white space, resizing, 5 things to remember about images. Marketing: finding people where they are, QR codes. Comments: Bloomer is doing a community-wide scavenger hunt. Recommended QR code generator: Beaconstac.
5 things to remember about using images
1. Facebook penalizes images with a lot of text, so use very few words. All details and links should go in the body of the post.
2. Tockify images also need very little text. The date and title appear right below the image. All information, including any registration links, go in the body of the calendar post.
3. Alt-text really helps people who use screen readers.
4. Use PDFs for documents to download only! Text-heavy PDFs don’t work on phones, and that’s where most people look at this information.
5. Images are a wayfinder tool for your users. Use consistent color, font and image across platforms to help people navigate all the information you’re sharing.
August Marketing Tea video: MailChimp statistics; design concepts in Canva–alignment; Q&A, “Why won’t my MailChimp e-letter fit on a phone screen?”
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Here are the design and marketing support services that IFLS offers:
- Annual bulk library card order (November), library card design.
- Marketing Monthly, an e-letter about design and marketing; Marketing Tea, a monthly half-hour check-in of tips and answers to your questions..
- Logo design, as time allows: Reb has been designing logos for almost 30 years. If you don’t like her style, Reb can help you make sure that the logo you design comes in the formats you need to be used for small and large scale applications. Here are some examples of Reb’s work: Wilberg Memorial Public Library of Osceola, Glenwood City (from student-created sketch), Turtle Lake, Mosaic on a Stick, Spring Hill Community Farm
- Marketing and advocacy strategies.
- General design assistance: (Somerset info sheet, Lisa requested help with the Menomonie Public Library annual report brochure), accessibility, editing (I encourage Plain Language).
- And more. Just ask.