When developing your school yearbook, your yearbook sales and marketing strategy is an important consideration. Timing is key. Understanding when to start your yearbook sales or yearbook marketing campaign can help drive interest in your yearbook.

Although the end of the school year may seem like a long time away, it really isn’t. The winter months roughly represent your halfway mark on the production of your yearbook. This makes winter a great time to build up interest in your yearbook. Here are 5 reasons why you should think about starting your yearbook sales now:

  1. Time to Plan

First of all, let’s get the sensible reason out of the way: starting your yearbook sales early gives you time to build pre-sales.

By getting some pre-sales under your belt you can predict end-of-year sales and budgets. 

  1. Get Your Sale On

Give your sales a boost by launching your sales campaign with an early-bird sale. Yes, early-bird sales might mean that you miss out on some revenue but they have a bunch of other benefits that make them worthwhile. 

For instance, they can boost your cash flow and allow you to gauge demand. They also allow you to create a buzz and motivate buyers who don’t want to miss out on a deal. Let’s face it, everyone loves a bargain!

  1. Build a Sense of Urgency

Starting your yearbook sales early also allows time to implement a ‘tiered pricing’ system where the price increases at certain times. Early-bird sales and tiered pricing develop a sense of urgency and encourage students and parents to buy the yearbook as early as possible to snap it up at the best price. 

This also means that those who may be put off from buying a yearbook at full price have the opportunity to buy it at a reduced price, increasing sales overall. It’s a win-win. 

  1. Create your Marketing Campaign

More time means more advertising opportunities. By starting your yearbook sales early you have more time to promote your yearbook through a range of different platforms: from traditional posters and flyers to social media posts and email campaigns. 

There are many great ways to build yearbook sales and by starting now, you have more time to get creative with your advertising techniques! 

  1. Old School Rules

Sometimes the best way to build sales is the old school way, face-to-face! The earlier you start your yearbook sales the more chances you will have to promote the sale at school events, such as sporting events or parent-teacher evenings. 

The Time is Now!

Starting your sales now gives you more time to reach out to the biggest buyers of yearbooks, those in their first and final years. Yearbooks capture the most important and joyous memories of the school year. In an age when everything is posted online, yearbooks offer something tangible to look back on when school years feel like a distant memory. 

By building excitement now, not only can you get your yearbook sales off to a great start, but you can also encourage more people to get involved with the creative process so that this yearbook will be bigger and better than ever before. 

Interested in learning how YearbookLife can help support your yearbook marketing efforts? Ask about our Free Marketing Assistance Program and check out our YearbookLife Shop, available online here, for all the yearbook marketing collateral needed to make your sales a success.