Promotion Strategies

Launching your ePlatform is an exciting milestone, and while visibility and usage are directly correlated, promoting your collection doesn't have to be a burden. We provide a variety of ready-made resources and proven strategies from other schools to help you build momentum with minimal effort.

Video Tutorial

We have created comprehensive video playlists to guide you through every feature. Whether you need a quick "how to" on a specific topic or a full walkthrough, these are great resources to have on hand:

Ready-to-Use Promotional Materials

To save you time, we provide a full range of professional resources that you can download and use instantly. You can access these from the Admin sidebar under Library > Promotional Materials. View Promotional Materials.

Posters, Bookmarks & Banners: Physical and digital signage for hallways and desks.
Social Media Images: Pre-sized for Facebook and Instagram.
Letter Templates: Word docs for parents, staff, and holidays.
Awards: Printable certificates for Top Borrowers.
High-Res Logos: For use in your own Canva or school designs.
Video Tutorials: Dedicated guides for Students and Staff.

Have an idea for a new Promotional Resource?

We are always looking for ways we can better support the vital work school librarians do. Let us know your ideas and our team will work to create something new for the community!

Engaging Students

The goal is to move ePlatform from being a "digital tool" to a daily reading habit. To achieve this, students need to know how to access it, feel a sense of ownership, and find titles that mirror their interests. Use these school-tested strategies to build student engagement:

Master the "Low Hanging Fruit" (Logins)

Ensure every student knows exactly where to access ePlatform and how to sign in by distributing printable Sign-in Cards with their credentials or QR codes, or clearly marking where they can log in from the school website. Run short, dedicated login sessions in the library or computer labs to verify that every student has the app downloaded and functional on their personal or school-provided devices.

The Student Quick Start Guide:

Open ePlatform on the Web: Provide students with a direct link to your schools ePlatform URL. Save this to your Bookmarks bar for easy access.
Download the ePlatform App: Search for the free "ePlatform" app in your App Store (Apple or Google Play). Open the app and search for your school name.
Login: Sign in using Single Sign-On or the username and password provided.
Browse & Borrow: Browse the collection and find a title you like, tap "Borrow," and start reading or listening!

Run Creative Competitions

Beyond standard "Most Books Read" contests, encourage participation by letting students get creative with the platform's visual identity. Host a competition where students design an ePlatform promotional poster or create a custom homepage banner image; the winning designs can then be displayed around the school or uploaded directly to the ePlatform portal as the featured image.

Student-Led Promotion

Recruit a team of "Digital Champions" or student library ambassadors to act as peer mentors. They can create their own "Top 5" curated lists for the homepage, record short video reviews (BookTok style) to share during daily school notices, or run student-led library sessions during recess or lunch breaks.

Other ways to engage students

Maximise Digital Visibility: Place clear, clickable links to your school's digital library on the school website navigation toolbar, the student portal, and within Library Management Systems. Regularly update your school's social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, BlueSky, etc.) with "What to Read Next" posts featuring trending titles or new additions to the collection.
The "DVD Cover" Shelf Strategy: To bridge the gap between physical and digital, place empty DVD cases on your library shelves containing the cover art of popular eBooks or Audiobooks. When a student brings the case to the desk, use it as a "teachable moment" to show them how to borrow the title instantly on their laptop or personal device.
Interactive Audiovisual Demos: Use a large display screen in the library or during assemblies to play high-quality audiobook snippets. Letting students hear the professional narration, accents, and soundscapes often attracts "reluctant readers" who may find traditional print books intimidating.
Visible Physical Signage: Use the ready-made posters, bookmarks, and shelf wobblers available in the Admin area to saturate the school environment with your digital library. Placing posters in high-traffic areas like the canteen, gym, or hallways ensures the platform remains top-of-mind even when students aren't in the library.
Recognition & Awards: Use your analytics and reports to identify the Top 3 Borrowers. Publicly recognise these students in assemblies, classes or newsletters and reward them with the printable Awards and Certificates from the Admin area.

Getting Staff On Board

To ensure ePlatform becomes a school-wide success, it must move beyond the library and into the classroom. Different departments have unique needs, and framing ePlatform as a solution to their specific challenges is the most effective way to gain their support.

Get other departments on board

Having other teachers aware of the resources available to them will help champion the usage of ePlatform at your school. The platform has many great and wonderful features and tools that are of benefit to many departments, inlcuding:

English Department: Focus on Class Novels and the vast array of free classic titles (such as Shakespeare) available via Project Gutenberg, ensuring every student has an instant copy for novel studies.
Learning Support & SENCO: Demonstrate how Audiobooks and eBook display settings (Dyslexia-friendly fonts, background colors, and line focus) support students with Dyslexia, ADHD, Autism, or visual impairments.
EAL/D, ESOL & MFL: Highlight how Audiobooks help non-native speakers hear correct pronunciation and accents, while Decodable Readers provide the foundational support needed for emerging readers.
Primary School Staff: Showcase the SuperLit Decodable program and the full suite of integrated teaching resources, including worksheets, flashcards, and phonetic assessments.
Secondary School Staff: Highlight how students can use the Notes and Highlights features to tag key evidence and quotes directly within the text, creating a personalised study guide that is invaluable for exam revision and essay planning.

The "All-Staff" Email Template

Use the pre-written email templates in the Admin > Promotional Material area to send a professional introduction to the entire faculty. These templates can be customized to include your school's specific login instructions and a link to the digital library.

Staff Induction & Hands-On Training

At the start of the school year, conduct brief induction sessions for new and existing staff. Give teachers time to log in and sample a book themselves—when they feel confident using the platform, they are far more likely to recommend it to their students or use it in a lesson.

Other ways to engage staff

Classroom Integration (Silent Reading): Encourage teachers to offer ePlatform as a choice for daily "silent reading" or "DEAR" (Drop Everything And Read) time. This normalizes digital reading as a valid and encouraged form of literacy within the school.
Homework & Assignment Setting: Teachers can set specific reading tasks for homework by using the Book Assignment feature to push a title directly to a student's shelf. This removes the "I couldn't find the book" excuse and ensures all students are ready for the next day's discussion.
Subject-Specific Compilations: Work with teachers to create "Curated Compilations" on the library homepage for specific units of work—such as "Historical Fiction for Year 8" or "Science Week Reads"—making it easy for students to find relevant curriculum-aligned content.
Sharing Analytics for Intervention: Show teachers how to access Student Reading Statistics for their classes. Being able to see who is reading, how much time they are spending, and what they are struggling with allows teachers to provide targeted support and reward high achievers.

Engaging Parents

Parents are essential partners in building a sustainable reading culture at your school. By highlighting the convenience, safety, and academic benefits of ePlatform, you can encourage them to make digital reading a part of their home routine.

Promote 24/7 Home Access

Emphasise to parents that their children have a library in their pocket that never closes, providing instant access to thousands of books during weekends, school holidays, and travel.

Share Reading Progress

Use the Student Reading Statistics to provide parents with concrete data on their child's reading habits, which can be shared during parent-teacher interviews to celebrate successes or identify areas for support.

Seasonal Outreach

Send home the Parent Letter or Summer Reading templates (available in the Admin area) before long breaks to remind families that the digital library is the perfect resource to prevent "summer slide" while physical libraries are closed.

Other ways to engage parents

Encourage Family Listening: Suggest that families listen to Audiobooks together during car trips, commutes, or as part of a shared bedtime routine to build vocabulary and a love for storytelling.
Focus on Literacy Support: Educate parents on how the platform supports diverse learners, specifically mentioning that the display settings (background colors and Dyslexia-friendly fonts) can reduce visual stress and make reading more accessible for their children.
Utilise Parent Communication Apps: Share the "tips and tricks" emails and video tutorials through school-wide apps to ensure the information reaches parents directly on their devices.
Parent Information Sessions: Host a short demonstration during "Back to School" nights or literacy evenings, showing parents how they can log in via their child's account to help select books or monitor progress.

Tips From Other ePlatform Schools

The key to a successful launch of ePlatform at Landsdale Primary School was in the preparation and planning phase. Once the Library and Administration staff had familiarised themselves with ePlatform, we set about spreading the word to staff, students and parents. We followed the suggestions given to us by ePlatform to promote the new initiative to our school community. These included:

Adding a link to the Landsdale Digital Library in our website navigation toolbar.
Promoting ePlatform in our school newsletter and Facebook page.
Displaying various promotional posters in the library and around the school.
Handing out ePlatform promotional bookmarks to library users.
Organising a “I Borrowed My First eBook/Audiobook” competition.

Staff and student training and immersion is also critical to the ongoing success of our ePlatform. At the start of each new school year, we conduct staff induction sessions for new and existing staff. This ensures positive take-up for the coming year in their classroom reading program. New staff are often unfamiliar with eBooks and Audiobooks, so this gives them an opportunity to sample ePlatform and gain confidence in using it with their students before school starts. They can also work collaboratively with teachers in their cohort who are more familiar with the program. Some Year 5 and 6 teachers choose their novel study books early in the year and use the ePlatform to ensure that every student has digital access to the selected novel. Those who experience reading challenges are also offered a copy of the novel in Audiobook format.

Some of the best promotional material we used to increase engagement with our students were posters, bookmarks, and shelf wobblers. However, it’s very important to demonstrate the use of the ePlatform on a regular basis and promote its attractions to students and parents.

— Landsdale Primary School (Australia)

We launched our ePlatform two weeks before the country went into its first lockdown. A lot of communication was done by email notices and flyers to let parents at home know how to access the eBooks. Our students totally engaged with it – and our loans went through the ceiling.

Once or twice a year I promote the platform to classes visiting the library. I remind them how to access the platform and show them some of the latest appealing titles. I do this on a large display screen and play snippets of Audiobooks so that they can hear the quality and the effects (music and accents etc). I present this demonstration to all our English classes years 7-11 and our primary school classes.

— Pinehurst School (New Zealand)

In addition to information assemblies and promotion through the school’s social media accounts we also used the IT department to help promote the platform and teach our students how to use and navigate the extensive library.

To gain further traction, we put together a series of themed promotional adverts across the school year to keep ePlatform in the minds of our students. As the school leader with overall responsibility to promote reading, I worked with popular teachers to create ePlatform adverts based on the seasonal themes of Summer holidays, Halloween, Christmas, New Year, World Book Day (Wizard of Oz) and Star Wars Day. We recently produced an advert based on the UK rock band Oasis’ return.

— The Hayfield School (United Kingdom)

We have provided how to guides so they can access their ePlatform with ease.

Some classroom teachers have made time in the class for the students to read from ePlatform which is great to connect the Library to the classes and emphasises the message that the ePlatform can be used anywhere, anytime.

Other ways we engage the students:

We have links to books discussed in lessons that are available via ePlatform.
We send reminders to Google Classroom from the Library to access ePlatform.
We update every month our most popular loans and reserves and students see these updates on their Library lesson slides.
We take photos monthly of our top 3 borrowers and include these in our Library lesson slides so the students can be celebrated.
We use ePlatform in our Library lessons where possible. Often our print and digital copy of any books mentioned in Library are hot property for the students!
We also look at what the Librarian has borrowed recently (me) and preview when we can!

The Librarian (me) also makes booklists for the students, and they try and find the print or digital copies when something interests them.

— Croydon Public School (Australia)

The teachers here really enjoy using ePlatform, especially the decodable books feature. It’s very helpful for early readers, and the layout makes it easy for teachers to guide students through the materials. The interface is simple and clear, so even those not very tech-savvy can manage without much trouble.

One of the best parts is how teachers can assign books directly to the class. This makes it easier to plan reading sessions and ensure everyone is on the same page. Students also seem more motivated when they know the book is chosen specially for them.

— Sunway International School (Malaysia)

I have done a lot of promotion with the students regarding ePlatform and have had amazing results. The amount of loans on the eBooks and Audiobooks for last month was amazing. Thank you so much for providing such an amazing service.

I promoted through emails to students and staff and also by just having power points running in the library showcasing how to use the platform and what they can use it for. In the run up to the holidays I have been putting information on our daily notices also. Anytime a student asks for a book and we do not have it, ePlatform is the first place I look to see if it is available through it.

The teachers are also promoting it in class, with students having the option of using ePlatform for silent reading (10 to 15 minutes a day).

Another way of promoting the eBooks is on our library shelves I have DVD covers with a picture of the books, (saying if you want to read me, come and see the library staff) students bring it to me and then I show them we do not have this book in the library but it is on ePlatform and show them how to use it. (That was someone else’s idea from a conference I went to that I have run with).

— Beenleigh State High School (Australia)

Frequently Asked Questions

Do we have to pay extra for the posters and promotional materials?

No. All digital promotional resources—including posters, social media graphics, bookmarks, and certificates—are included for free as part of your ePlatform membership. You can download and print as many copies as you need directly from the Promotional Materials area in your Admin dashboard.

I’m not a "techy" person. How hard is it to use the social media graphics?

We’ve made it as simple as possible. All our social media images are pre-sized for platforms like Facebook and Instagram. You simply download the image to your computer or phone and upload it to your school's account just like a standard photo. No graphic design skills are required!

Where can I find the Student Video Tutorials to show in class?

You can find these in the Help Hub, directly in the Promotional Materials area, or on ePlatform's YouTube Channel. These are designed to be short and engaging, making them perfect for playing during a library orientation or a morning assembly.

Can I customise the parent letters and email templates?

Yes. The templates are provided in a Word document (.docx) format, allowing you to easily copy and paste the text into your own school's letterhead, email system, or newsletter app. We encourage you to add your school’s specific login instructions to make it as easy as possible for parents.

What is the most effective way to start promoting ePlatform?

Based on feedback from our top-performing schools, the best "first step" is a combination of Physical Visibility (putting up posters and handing out bookmarks) and Digital Integration (placing a clear link to the library on your school's homepage). Once students see the platform in both their physical and digital worlds, usage typically increases rapidly.

Can I get high-resolution logos to make my own posters in Canva?

Yes! High-resolution logos are available in the Promotional Materials area. These are perfect for schools that want to create their own custom brand in Canva (which is free for Education) while maintaining the official ePlatform look and feel.