Consider the following tips to help sell more yearbooks:
• Gradually increase the cost of the yearbook for each sales campaign.
• Create special packages for buyers that include options like name stamping or an ad space along with the price of a yearbook.
• Consider adding options to all your offerings – this can increase sales!!!
• Develop a system to track and report sales as well as balances due by buyers.
• Consider offering a payment plan for students who cannot afford to pay for a yearbook at one time. Make sure you stress a non-refundable deposit.
• Consider offering families with multiple children at your school a discount for a second or third yearbook.
• Tie in gift certificates/gift cards during the holidays. Offer people the option to “sponsor” or donate funds so a book can be purchased for a student that cannot afford one…
perhaps have a drawing for a lucky winner or winners?
• Consider using sales letters in both English and other languages to ensure that everyone knows and understands that a yearbook will be on sale.
• Make sure to offer Parent or Senior Ads during some of the sale campaigns.
• Use your school website as a sales tool by posting prices and deadlines for sales.
If you’re new to the yearbook sales process, it’s helpful to think about it in 4 key stages:
(1) scheduling the timing of sales campaigns
(2) creating several sales activities that generate awareness and excitement about the yearbook being on sale
(3) collecting orders and payment
(4) distributing the books when they arrive.
Scheduling the timing of Your Yearbook Sales Campaigns During this stage, the goal is to identify ideal sales times that attract attention about the yearbook being on sale.
Take some time to enlist students, staff and others interested in the yearbook to brainstorm ideas on what will work best for your school. Use a school calendar to compare your thoughts against school activities to determine the best times to have sales campaigns. Typically, you’ll want to allow a total of 3-4 weeks to conduct a sales campaign by the time you promote, sell and wrap up the campaign activities. Many staffs conduct 3 campaigns a year to ensure everyone knows they have the opportunity to purchase a yearbook. Of course, you’ll want to also have all the material needed in advance. Here is a game-plan many schools use. Feel free to expand, refine and adjust it based on your needs—it’s just intended to get you started.
Three Weeks Before yearbook sale date(s) — create and organize the announcements, posters and other materials needed to promote yearbook sales. Make sure you take
advantage of any promotional materials provided by your yearbook publisher.
Two Weeks Before yearbook sale date(s) — hang up posters and begin, “Creating Excitement and Awareness” about the yearbook
One Weeks Before yearbook sale — continue promoting yearbook sales happening the next week – send letters home and post info on school marquee. Have announcements begin!!!
Sales Week – Have fun executing the sales activities you had planned and taking orders!!!
One Week After Sales – Ensure all funds have been collected and accounted for. Enter buyer’s names and payment amounts into a tracking system or spreadsheet software so you know who has purchased the book and can use that list later on when distributing books when they arrive. Also, make a deposit with a bookkeeper or bank (if you
haven’t done so already) to ensure that the yearbook funds are secured.
The importance of marketing and selling yearbooks is often overlooked and yet it is just as significant as creating the yearbook itself—if not more so. If you hit your sales goal, you can pay for your yearbook. If you surpass your sales goal, you can use the additional revenue to add more pages to your yearbook or add features like a supplement, current events and/or autograph pages. On the flip side, if you miss your sales goal, you will owe money or have to cut part of your program. Whatever the case, marketing and selling your yearbook is critical and this guide is intended to help you simplify the process and make it enjoyable!
STEP ONE – GETTING ORGANIZED GETTING ORGANIZED GETTING ORGANIZED GETTING ORGANIZED GETTING ORGANIZED
As with any project, proper planning and organization will go a long way in helping you accomplish your goals. In this case, the first step is to assess your school’s past yearbook sales success and build on it. This means taking some time to ask and record answers to the following questions:
1. What worked well in last year’s sales process? Why?
2. What didn’t work so well in last year’s sales process and why?
3. If you are new to your school, ask the school secretary and the teachers how well the marketing and sales process worked. Great questions to ask could be: What did you like the most about the process? What one thing would you improve about the process?
4. Review all materials that are available from your publisher pertaining to marketing and selling your yearbook. Do you have everything you need? Posters, flyers, money collection envelopes, etc.? What else do you need in order to be prepared for your campaign?
5. If your school has a tradition of keeping the yearbook a secret, consider changing that tradition. The yearbook is one of a few items where a person is asked to pay in advance with the promise of receiving a high quality product later—simple things like including the student body in the design of the book or taking peeks into the yearbook by sharing cover ideas are ways that can increase awareness and connection to the book which, in turn, drives a student or others to purchase one.
Learning from last year’s experience is an important first step in building a successful sales and marketing plan for this year’s book.
Now it’s time to brainstorm and plan your sales activities!
We can’t say enough how important it is to proof your yearbook from beginning to end. After all the hours and dedication you have shown this project, the proof is in the PROOFING!
Whether it’s the heading that reads “First Day of School” or a name spelled incorrectly, the effect is the same. Sorrow and disappointment for everyone. Noticing a mistake in the yearbook is devastating. Nothing could take the wind out of your sails more.
So, How Do You Avoid Mistakes In The Yearbook?
Looking at the pages a million times, your eyes may not see something that someone else’s eyes would. Having someone else look over all your pages is a must. It’s time to call in the volunteers! Some parents would love to help with something like this. What about the school secretary? She can help with the student names and classes and even staff pages. A lunch at local restaurant may be all it takes to get her help. Bottom line: GET MORE EYES ON THE PROOF.
Spell check will work when you’ve typed ‘yarebook’ instead of ‘yearbook’ but it’s useless on teacher’s names and instances of “their”, “they’re” and “there”. Reading the entire book, word for word, is a must!
Yes, we are trying to scare you! No offense but we want the hours you spent on the yearbook to be obvious to anyone that picks up a yearbook! Proofing is not fun but it will be a step that you’ll be glad you took.
Happy Proofing! (Jon, Jahnn and John will thank you)
Have you taken the time to think about how much happens throughout the school year? Maybe a student made a new group of friends or maybe they tried a new sport and found out they excelled at it. So much can happen during the course of a year. Not only do events in school happen but outside of school too, the news and media are constantly updating viewers with current events.
These current events make a great addition to any yearbook- elementary, middle or high school. Not only do students get the chance to view their personal events during their school experience, but they also have the ability to see what major events happened in the world during their school year. This Year in Review supplement is a great option to keep everyone up to date on the happenings locally and globally. Yearbook supplement pages help you remember the year’s best events! A Year in Review supplement comes in either 4 or 8 pages, all full of bright and colorful images of the current year’s events. Things like sports, politics, entertainment, and so on are some of the included topics. Year in Review supplement pages make your yearbook more than ordinary, they make your yearbook unique every single year.
When you order your yearbook from YearbookLife, don’t forget to ask about our Year in Review pages. Add that extra kick to your yearbook to make it the best and most desired yearbook your school has ever seen! Contact us today for more information on Year in Review Supplement Pages.
