After scheduling the best times to promote and sell the yearbook, you’ll need to come up with promotional pieces and/or a theme that attracts attention to the upcoming sale dates, times and locations. YearbookLife provides items to help you. Of course, you can always create your own promotional pieces to supplement what you’ve been given. Be creative and come up with clever slogans and messages if you really want to personalize the sales campaign to your school. Naturally, the use of simple statements like “yearbooks on sale!” or “don’t miss the opportunity!” or “last chance!” are always effective and a fast and easy way to draw attention to the yearbook sale.
Other ideas for making the sales campaign fun and effective include:
1. Tap into the principal, teachers, coaches or others heavily involved in planning school events to find out what activities are already planned that you could work
around and use as a forum to promote the sale of the year book and possibly even start taking advance orders. (i.e. are there some Open Houses, pep rallies, sports events, activity nights or other events that draw kids and their parents to the school and are a natural venue for promoting and selling a school yearbook?)
2. Identify the heavy traffic areas in your school where posters and banners could be hung to capture student’s attention about the yearbook. The school cafeteria, library, entrances (and even restrooms!) are used by everyone…don’t miss the chance to catch their eye as they’re going about their day.
3. Don’t forget about school announcements, student and parent news letters and web sites! Work with your school administration and newsletter staff to determine
how to take advantage of these opportunities to get the word out about when and where to buy a yearbook.
Gather input and buy-in from Students and Staff
There’s no better way to entice students and staff to buy a yearbook than making sure they’re included in the content and the development process. After all, making sure that the yearbook is representative of the people, events and happenings at your school is the whole value of the yearbook.
1. Develop polls and buyer surveys through English classes at all grade levels. Have these surveys ask for ways the yearbook can be improved and help you better understand their perception of value versus cost. You will be surprised how many people appreciate your effort and how much stronger your yearbook program and sales will be as a result.
2. Conduct a cover design contest and use the winner’s design for the cover or the title page if your school has already chosen a cover style. Miniaturize some of the finalists’ designs and use them as custom clip art throughout your book. This way, more students will receive recognition.
3. Include quotes from student interviews about selected topics. Include as many student quotes as possible.
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!
Everyone needs a little creative jump-start now and then when designing yearbook pages—that’s exactly why the Ideagardenblog was planted! Check out this fun, idea-packed site that contains design tips, layout suggestions, yearbook dos and don’ts, tech talk and much, MUCH more. The ideagardenblog design team is here to help you start growing an exciting, one-of-a-kind yearbook today! Check back often, as content is being continually updated!
RECIPES FOR LAYOUT DESIGN
Creative layout recipes, easy to recreate in any program, will be posted on a regular basis. Watch for suggestions that range from whimsical to mod. You can duplicate the
designs exactly or modify them and make them your own!
YEARBOOK TIPS
Check out posts that are filled with tips on photography, journalism, organization and design. By following these pointers, you are sure to create exciting, interesting pages
that your yearbook readers will love!
INSPIRATIONAL YEARBOOK PAGES
Refreshing design ideas are everywhere. The Idea Garden Blog design team shares real yearbook layouts that we love!
Sell more yearbooks with professionally designed posters and money collection envelopes!
WALL-SIZE (23″x35″) SALES ANNOUNCEMENT POSTERS
• Full-color
• 2-sided (especially designed to sell yearbooks in elementary, middle and high schools)
• Same designs as door posters
DOOR-SIZE (11″x17″) SALES ANNOUNCEMENT POSTERS
• Same designs as wall poster
• Perfect for door displays
SALES FLYERS
• Effective, colorful yearbook sales envelope with attached (perforated and gummed) money collection envelope
• Print your own message on the blank side
• Compatible with copiers and duplicators
• Imprinting service available (10-day production time)
SALES BANNERS
• 6×3-foot vinyl banner with grommets
• Durable enough for outdoor use
• Display in high traffic areas (e.g. school fences, student drop off area, etc.)
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