Beginning in 2008, Broward County Library experienced a series of severe budget cuts which reduced staffing, programs and library hours. To address this budget shortfall, Broward County Library opted to increase its online services and rebranded them in 2011 as BCL WoW (Broward County Library Without Walls). New print pieces were created to promote the BCL WoW branding. The challenge was to effectively market these services in a budget-conscious yet effective method that was also designed to position Broward County Library as modern, relevant and forward-thinking in today’s online world of eBooks, downloadable music, Google and social media. In October 2012, the WoW of the Month campaign was launched.

The strategic goal of this project was to increase awareness and use of Broward County Library’s online resources including the following:

• Broward.org/library (Broward County Library website)
• Freegal (Free Downloadable Music)
• Universal Class (Free Online Classes)
• Broward eTutor (Free Online tutoring)
• Zinio (Free Online Magazines)
• BCL WoW (Mobile App)
• Overdrive (eBooks) Without funds for print, radio, display or TV advertising, a cost-effective campaign was needed.

For just the cost of printing promotional postcards, it would be possible to introduce the Library’s great new services to our customers.

A key component of the Word of Mouth marketing strategy is empowering staff members on the front line to market online services. They play a vital role in communicating directly with customers who visit the library. A plan was developed wherein each month, one selected online resources was featured and promoted by staff to customers. Each month, a staff email was sent that outlined features of the services as well as key points about the service to share. The email included a “card” that could be cut out and used as reminder of the service’s key points. It was also determined that a simple “Did you know about…” from staff was a powerful way to market library resources to customers. For each WoW of the Month, postcards, palm cards or flyers were created and provided to staff to hand out after speaking about the WoW of the Month. The message of the campaign was simple: BCL WoW (Broward County Library Without Walls) has valuable online services available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

At the outset of the campaign, it was established that a 10% increase in the usage of the following electronic services would be the measurement of a successful campaign:

• Overdrive (eBooks)
• Freegal (Free Downloadable Music)
• Broward eTutor (Free Online tutoring)
• Zinio (Free Online Magazines) The baseline measurements were taken in November 2011.

At that time, three of the measurements were evaluated:

• Total Downloads Overdrive (eBooks) 128, 420 (November 2011) 673,238 (November 2013) Increase of 424 %
• Total Visits to Broward eTutor 25,532 (November 2011) 254, 538 (November 2013) Increase of 896%
• Total Freegal Downloads Freegal 234 (November 2011) 235,456 (November 2013) Increase of 1,005%
• Zinio Magazines 0 (Launched in December 2012 ) 68086 (November 2013) Clearly, the WoW of the Month campaign had been a success.

Staff members were eager to learn more about the Library’s online services and to pass that knowledge onto customers. Additionally, the Word of Mouth campaign was featured in the February 2014 issue of American Libraries magazine. With libraries traditionally being a place to share knowledge freely, the WoW of the Month campaign was one method to market library services in a low-key way that was fun for both staff and customers – and effective!