The marketing and selling of yearbooks is overlooked by many staffs, yet it is as important as the creation of the book itself, if not more important. If you hit your sales goal, you can pay for your yearbook. If you miss your sales goal, you will owe money or have to cut part of your program.
If you surpass your sales goal, you can use the additional revenue to add more pages to your yearbook or offer a summer supplement. Whatever the case, marketing and selling the yearbook is critical. Here are a few tips to consider as you begin to market the sale of your yearbook.
• Review last year’s sales processes and determine what worked and what did not work. 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?
• Review all materials available from your publisher pertaining to marketing and selling your yearbook. Do you have everything you need? Receipt books, posters, flyers, sales letters, sales coupons, etc? What do you need in order to be prepared for your campaign?
• If your school has a tradition of keeping the yearbook a secret, consider changing that tradition. Sales of yearbooks across the country are dropping while enrollments are increasing. Your biggest competitor is the snack bar, cell phone, gas station, clothing store, and any other place that students spend disposable income. The yearbook is one of the only items where you ask someone to pay in advance and you promise to deliver a product later. You are dealing with a society that expects immediate gratification—taking peeks into the yearbook and sharing cover ideas may be the one thing that can drive your student body to buy a book.
• Enlist the aid of key influential people on campus to help promote the yearbook. Have teachers bring their yearbook the week of sales so they can share their stories. Have coaches and sponsors promote the yearbook to their teams as ultimate sign of school spirit. Have local businesses display yearbooks to promote community awareness.
• Have yearbook photos from previous years scanned and posted on flyers asking the student body to “guess” whose elementary or faculty image is pictured. All correct answers will earn a $5.00 coupon toward the yearbook.
• At freshman orientation, have student body leaders discuss the yearbook and describe its
importance to incoming students.
• Post announcements and images on the school website announcing yearbook sales to the
general public.
• If your school subscribes to a calling service for announcements to parents or a web page
service for student grades, consider using it to announce yearbook sales.
The goal is to get everyone excited about the yearbook to a point that they are willing to purchase immediately. Brainstorm with your staff to see what other ideas you can generate.
Survival Tip:
Your yearbook has already developed a reputation before your arrival on the scene. What that reputation is may be hard to discover unless you survey your audience.
Consider developing polls and buyer surveys through English classes at all grade levels. Have these surveys ask questions pertaining to value vs. cost. Also consider asking for ways the yearbook can be improved. You will be surprised how many people may
appreciate your effort.
More marketing ideas to come next week.