It’s never too early to start thinking about next year’s yearbook. That’s because events you may want to include happen all year long. When you start planning in advance you have a greater chance of creating a book that everyone is a part of. So take advantage of the great resources we offer as you design, create, manage and sell your yearbook—starting with this planning guide!
In here you’ll find tips, suggestions, examples and snapshots that will help you start brainstorming, organizing and designing the ultimate yearbook for your school!
Every school is different…some schools have a yearbook class that includes the creation and sale of the yearbook, while others have a group of students that meet outside of class or before and after school. Some even have just one faculty or parent volunteer handling it all. Whatever the case may be, our guide will help you organize your team so you know exactly what (and who) you’ll need to create a great yearbook – even if that team is just you!
Roles Defined
As the yearbook adviser, you have been chosen to be the project manager of the publication. As project manager, your primary responsibilities lie in two areas:
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT (the creation of the yearbook) and
FINANCE MANAGEMENT (the sales and finances of the yearbook).
Production managers (sometimes called “Editor in Chiefs”) usually have
to do or assign someone to the following tasks, along with a completion
deadline for each item:
• Decide what will go onto each page
• Photograph key school events
• Write headlines, stories, and captions
• Choose a cover design
• Choose page designs
• Choose type/text/font specifications
• Troubleshoot production issues
• Establish design custom page design
• Review/proofread page designs and stories
• Complete pages in a timely manner (if applicable)
• Complete advertisement pages
• Work with your yearbook representative
• Work with your school photographer
• Work with club sponsors and coaches for photos and more!
YEARBOOK PLANNING TIP:
Student Editor in Chiefs are often your natural leaders who motivate and empower their peers. A student editor who has the most design experience might not necessarily be the best fit for “Editor in Chief”, but would be a great “Creative Team” leader. This would allow him or her to focus his or her strength in design vs. project management.
YEARBOOK PLANNING TIP:
Don’t overlook possible professional assistance from your portrait photography studio and the customer service and technical support teams of your yearbook publisher. They
can be great resources to share examples of what has worked for other schools.
Develop a small focus group of students that represents everyone on campus. Pass
ideas by them if you do not have a student staff to rely on for input. What adults find
appealing versus what students
find appealing can be different.
If you wish to raise additional revenue for your yearbook, you may wish to consider offering advertisement space to businesses and recognition space to students, clubs and families. It is amazing the amount of revenue you can raise from one page in your yearbook. Many schools offer space to families, club sponsors, businesses, homeroom teachers, students, etc.
Developing an advertising program for your yearbook can be easy if you have a plan that includes:
- Identifying your potential audience for purchasing advertising space
- Determining ad sizes, guidelines, and rates,
- Creating effective ad sales campaigns, including collection methods.
Identifying Your Potential Audience
Before getting started, identify your potential audience for purchasing advertisement space. You have several distinct buyers: local businesses, school vendors, families, students, club sponsors, teachers, and coaches to name a few. How you pursue each audience may be different.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
Local Businesses: These businesses are typically located near the school or in the district. They usually include insurance companies, banks or financial institutions, restaurants, real estate agents, mechanic shops, car dealers, and fast food establishments. Remind these potential advertisers that an ad in a yearbook will be seen for years because yearbooks are saved for a long time.
School Vendors: These businesses are on the school vendor list and do some sort of business with the school/district. Your purchasing office should have a list of contacts and their addresses.
Families: These buyers want to recognize their children for their accomplishments throughout their school years. Many photos will probably accompany their ad as well as words of praise.
Students: These buyers want to recognize their friendships on campus. Many photos will probably accompany their ad as well as words of celebration.
Club Sponsors: These buyers want to recognize their club officers or overall organization. Some photos will probably accompany the ad as well as words of appreciation.
Teachers: These buyers want to recognize a fellow colleague’s retirement or accomplishments. Some photos will probably accompany the ad as well as words of congratulations.
Coaches: These buyers want to recognize their teams or team captains for their accomplishments. Some photos will probably accompany the ad as well as words of encouragement.
As you can see, you have quite a few audiences of buyers. As you develop a plan of communication, make sure to clearly state your offer to each buyer and include a rate card for the cost of an advertisement and a yearbook as well. Consider developing a rate card/brochure for all prices as well as three to five basic layout designs for all ads. This will help your buyers make a better decision. Also consider offering discount coupons with expiration dates to all buyers during your sales campaign. This may be the driving force to help some people purchase ad space. Remember, everyone loves a deal.
At long last, after months of anticipation and hard work leading up to yearbook delivery, the day comes when you can distribute the school’s yearbook with pride!!! Here are more idea to consider when planning for this special day:
1. How will you distribute the book and how will students be notified of its availability?
• Will books be delivered to each homeroom in a way that ensures that each student that ordered a book gets one?
• Will there be designated pick-up times that students are asked to pick up their yearbooks in a central or convenient area of the school?
• If you decided to create and publicize a signing party to coincide with the yearbook delivery day, are you prepared for it? After many months of curiosity, kids are especially anxious to see the book and, of course, never want to miss an opportunity to socialize with their friends!
2. Depending on the book distribution method you choose, how will you keep track of
who has received their book and who hasn’t to ensure everyone has received what they paid for?
• This is where it’s critical to have a detailed tracking mechanism (either manually
or computerized) that allows you to quickly find and record each student who is given their yearbook. It’s helpful to have the yearbook distribution list sorted and available in a multitude of ways so you can easily find the purchaser’s name and check them off the list.Common sorting methods include alphabetical by last name, grade or homeroom.
3. You’ll also want to make sure that you have a method of tracking any additional sales that are made once the yearbook is delivered (versus the advance sales) since many others will want to order a yearbook after seeing it!
4. Regardless of whether you’re distributing a book that was ordered in advance or ordered on the spot, it’s critical that you collect the money prior to handing over the yearbook to the purchaser. Otherwise, it’s too hard to collect the money afterwards.
5. Once the mad rush of book distribution is over, it’s crucial that you reconcile your
records to ensure that every person who ordered a yearbook received what they paid
for. If for some reason, someone paid and didn’t get their yearbook as a part of your
normal distribution process, you’ll want to make alternate arrangements right away to
get it to them. Hopefully, it’ll be easy enough to track them down in school without
having to locate them over the summer or fall. It’s also important that all money
collected be kept in a safe place.
Not surprisingly, the process of collecting orders and payments is all dependent on organization and detailed tracking. Take time to think through all the people and supplies you’ll need to make this process run smoothly. Some items will be obvious, like creating a sign-up list of people to collect orders at different venues and an order form that collects the student’s name, grade, homeroom and address as well as the yearbook quantity and total payment due. Most yearbook publishers provide you with money collection envelopes and sales flyers to greatly simplify this process.
Other items you’ll need may be less apparent. For instance, potential items to have at a yearbook sales table include:
- Table and chair(s)—for order takers to sit and work efficiently.
- Posters or banners—so it’s obvious that yearbooks are being sold.
- Student and staff list—to quickly locate and record who has submitted an order for a yearbook and how much has been paid. This information can be tracked manually or electronically depending on the sophistication of your money collection system.
- Money collection envelopes and/or cash box—to keep orders organized, together and secure.
- Sales receipt pads—to act as proof that a sales transaction has been enacted. If possible, use a sales receipt pad that enables duplicate carbon copies. That way, each party has a record of the purchase—this is especially important for cash purchases should there be a record-keeping discrepancy later on.
- Lots of pens—to record order information quickly and enable purchasers to borrow them if writing a check without a pen at their fingertips.
- Other office supplies—such as a stapler, extra staples, note pads, scissors, etc. since you never know what items will need to be followed-up on and you’d rather be over-prepared than under-prepared when you’re working with a crowd of purchasers.
- Copies of previous yearbooks—for people to peruse along with anything else that will engage curiosity and excitement about the upcoming yearbook!
Enlisting others to help you think through the entire order and payment collection process will really help you build a game plan with confidence. Perhaps you can start by talking with seasoned staffers about what methods worked well (or not-so-well) during last year’s process and build on their experience.
Great tips for the school yearbook club! Learn more about making the process of collecting orders and payments for school yearbook sales easier from the yearbook experts at YearbookLife. Contact us for more information at 888-680-0143.
Get Parents and Other Community Members Involved
1. Send postcards to parents letting them know that yearbooks are available to purchase for themselves or their child. Suggest purchasing two books, one for the student and one for parents to keep.
2. Ask local businesses to display yearbooks to promote community awareness.
3. Work with your local community newspaper and/or radio station to write up
announcements that let your community know this is a special time for your school.
Invite a reporter to visit your yearbook class or club and see how the yearbook
project is created.
Keep the Momentum Building!
1. Offer an incentive for early ordering of a yearbook—it could be a discounted price off the yearbook (which is always enticing) or a special gift such as a pen, magnet, button or pencil. A simple message stating “I ordered a yearbook” will let others know that they’re available.
2. Use brief morning announcements to promote yearbook sales, organize groups for
photos or give progress updates.
3. Create a monitoring device to show sales progress (i.e. a chart or graph) or have a countdown using signs or announcements to remind students of the last day to order a yearbook.
4. Send a “Last Chance Memo” to those who haven’t yet purchased a book.
5. Create and publicize a signing party for the last day of school.
Make the distribution of books very important. Gain permission to allow students who have ordered yearbooks to leave classes early. Serve refreshments, make it fun!
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.
More tips on marketing and selling yearbooks:
1. Send “See You in the Book” notes to students whose pictures were taken (include page number and coverage subject) as a reminder that this is their book with their picture in it. It will let students know they will be in the yearbook and increase their interest in buying one.
2. Choose a marketing theme that conveys the essence of community and belonging that yearbooks represent. It can be used in all promotional materials and announcements such as “Making Our Mark”, “Together We Are One” or “On Our Way.” Your staff is sure to come up with other unique ideas!
3. Give invitations to students to buy their yearbook. Make them special and individualized.
4. Create and decorate a “Thank You” bulletin board for purchasers to autograph when they turn in their order.
5. Scan and post yearbook photos from previous years and include them on flyers asking the student body to guess who’s elementary or faculty image is pictured. All correct answers will earn a $5.00 coupon off the yearbook.
Promote the Sale of Yearbooks in Every Reasonable Venue
1. Post announcements and images on the school website announcing yearbook sales to the general public. Also consider announcing yearbook sales through a calling service if your school subscribes to this kind of service.
2. Develop a sales brochure and order form you can leave in the front office for campus visitors to review. Many times parents come on campus to visit the nurse’s office, the attendance office, or the front office. These three places are great locations for brochures so parents can learn about your yearbook sales campaign. (You may also want to contact the feeder middle schools and elementary schools to see if you can leave brochures on their campuses as well. Many times classmates may have a younger sibling attending one of those schools and the more exposure to parents, the better.)
3. At freshman orientation, have student body leaders discuss the yearbook and describe its importance to incoming students.
4. Create a skit during an assembly or audio commercial during morning announcements about yearbook sales to get the student body excited about upcoming sales. Pass out forms at the end of the presentation.
5. 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 inform their teams of the value of purchasing a yearbook and demonstrating the ultimate sign of school spirit.
