With Christmas and New Years approaching, students are probably preparing for winter break, and in anticipation of this time off, it may be difficult to keep your yearbook staff on task in order to meet those December and January deadlines. On top of that, after the long break, it’s common for students to come back to school and need help refocusing. So what can you do? Don’t fight the holidays, embrace them!
To keep the yearbook class motivated through the holidays, yearbook advisers often try to mix in some fun with the work that still needs to get done. This can help keep the spirit alive in your classroom while meeting your yearbook deadlines. It can be as simple as throwing on some music while you do your “yearbook” work, adding some festive decor to the room, or celebrating your accomplishments with a staff party.
Here are a few tips and ideas on how to keep your yearbook class motivated through the holidays:
- Set reasonable expectations! Although work still needs to get done, remember that the holidays are a time for family and friends. Let everyone know ahead of time what is expected of them during the break and how you’ll “hit the ground running” upon return. It’s important for them to understand what the goals are, but don’t overburden them during the break.
- Share with other people what the yearbook class is up to. Use daily announcements, the school newspaper, social media, or emails to parents. This can be a great way to increase awareness as well as interest in the school yearbook. This is a great time to encourage yearbook and ad sales while people are in a “giving” mood.
- Host a “School Yearbook Photo Contest.” Announce it ahead of time and during the break to the school students and staff. You can set up a Dropbox, email, Facebook group, or Instagram where students / parents can submit their pictures from winter break. This will help with your yearbook coverage through the holidays and a nice “How I Spent my Winter Vacation” section for the yearbook!
- Throw a “Holiday” party. Bring treats for everyone to enjoy!
- Will some students be away during the break? Schedule a couple of Zoom chats, so everyone can check in and catch up. Or if they’re staying local, arrange a coffee meet-up!
- Have a gift or an ornament exchange. Maybe a Secret Santa exchange with a small dollar limit for those ‘always broke’ students.
- Play a game during your downtime (i.e. “Never have I Ever”, a trivia game, or a scavenger hunt).
- Take your yearbook class to an escape room or other group activity. Great for team building. And super fun!
- Then, get back to finishing an amazing school yearbook!
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At YearbookLife, we’re always looking for ways to enhance your yearbook creation experience. We’re also focused on improving our customer experience. That’s why YearbookLife offers online school storefronts.
What is an Online School Storefront?
YearbookLife’s online school storefronts are a convenient way to allow parents, students and staff to purchase their yearbooks online
Reasons to set up Your Online School Storefront
There are a number of reasons to set up an online school storefront. Here are just a few!
Maximize Yearbook Sales
An online storefront can give you a head start when it comes to selling your yearbook. Maximize your yearbook sales by starting earlier in the year.
Easier Tracking & Administration
With YearbookLife’s online storefront, you can track all the sales of your yearbook in one place. Sales are processed online, meaning you don’t need to worry about a yearbook advisor collecting money! It’s a more accurate, streamlined way to collect money and track sales.
How To Get Your Online School Storefront Set Up
It’s simple to get your online school storefront set up. We would just need a few details from you, including:
- What price do you want to charge for your yearbooks?
- What is your yearbook sales deadline date?
- A direct ship to home option may also be available.
Understanding your requirements will help us set up your storefront. If you’d like further details, please email us today at help@yearbooklife.com.
Not a Customer Yet? Contact Us Today for a FREE Quote!
At YearbookLife, we pride ourselves on our competitive pricing, customer and technical support, fast delivery, and our free, easy-to-use software. If you’d like to request a quote today, please click here.
Summer is just around the corner. Long, lazy summer days relaxing with friends and family. It’s definitely something to look forward to!
As the relaxed atmosphere of summer sets in, it can be easy to forget about planning ahead. School, homework, even yearbooks can all wait. Right? You may be tempted to think so. But let’s be realistic. Procrastinating now can make for a panicked and stressful rush when it comes to crunch time.
When it comes to planning ahead for your yearbook, a few simple steps is all it takes. Here are 3 yearbook planning steps yearbook advisors should take for next year.
3 Yearbook Planning Steps
At YearbookLife, we’ve been helping schools create unforgettable yearbooks for over 20 years. And we want to help yearbook advisors like you, create an unforgettable yearbook.
Our experience has taught us a few things. This includes things that yearbook advisors should be planning in advance. Here’s our top 3 recommended yearbook planning steps to take for next year.
Review Last Year’s Yearbook
You’ve finished the final proof of your yearbook. Captions have been written. Photos have been sourced. Content has been checked and rechecked. Finally, your yearbook is complete!
Rather than kicking your feet up and relaxing, this is actually a great time to plan ahead for next year’s yearbook. Why? The process is fresh in your mind! Ask yourself:
What processes worked?
Was there one particular process that really, really worked? Perhaps it was how you had organized your yearbook team. Perhaps it was crowdsourcing your school for yearbook ideas.
Whatever the successes, mark these down. You’ll want to replicate your success with the next year’s yearbook!
What didn’t work?
Equally, think about what didn’t work. Did you have enough time to thoroughly proofread your yearbook? Did you get enough content from students and staff?
Understanding what didn’t work will also help you in the coming year.
Start Planning Your Yearbook Committee
Although it’s still too early to actively recruit new students or volunteers, it’s not too early to start planning! You’ll want to have a clear idea of the roles you need covered in your yearbook committee. These will likely include:
- Editor in Chief
- Assistant Editor
- Photographer
- Journalist
- Sales People
- Yearbook Designers
- Copy Editor
- Yearbook Marketers
- Treasurer
By defining how you want your yearbook committee structured, it’s easier to assign your yearbook staff to appropriate roles. Remember to consider your yearbook committee from the current year. Did you feel that there were any areas that needed additional support?
Find a Yearbook Publisher
Your yearbook publisher is one of the most important decisions you can make when creating a yearbook. An experienced yearbook publisher can help you create an unforgettable yearbook. They can help advise you on the entire yearbook process, from design to sales.
Consider the relationship you had with your yearbook publisher this year. Did you feel that you were getting the support you needed? Did you feel that there was perhaps more support required?
Research various yearbook publishers, and you’ll find some offer far more services than others. You may need a yearbook publisher who can:
- Provide help with yearbook themes
- Give you access to free yearbook software to create your yearbook
- Provide yearbook marketing support
- Offer unlimited training and tech support
- Provide specialty cover options
- Use only one deadline
- Provide free shipping
The right yearbook publisher does so much more than print your yearbook. They can provide an immersive support structure to make your yearbook a success.
Not a Customer Yet? Contact Us Today for a FREE Quote!
At YearbookLife, we pride ourselves on our competitive pricing, customer and technical support, fast delivery, and our free, easy-to-use software. If you’d like to request a quote today, please click here.
Your yearbook index can be a useful resource for students and staff alike. This is especially true when years later, alumni pick up their yearbook and look for where they were featured! Talk about nostalgia!
A yearbook index can be much more than a list of where students or staff appear. In fact, it doesn’t have to be boring at all! The last few pages of your yearbook may seem like an afterthought, but it’s a great way to show off your creativity.
If you’ve reached this final yearbook milestone, your creative juices may be ebbing. Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered! These design tips and ideas for your yearbook index will make it really pop!
Design Tips & Ideas for Your Yearbook Index
Your yearbook index can be the perfect place to include leftover content. It’s also a great place to include candid shots. You can even use your index to highlight staff members. Here are 3 design tips and ideas you can use for your yearbook index.
Tie it to your Yearbook Theme
You’ve likely worked hard to get your yearbook theme just right. And why not? It is, after all, the essence of your yearbook! There’s no reason that your yearbook index cannot also tie in to your yearbook theme.
Stay consistent with your yearbook font. Make sure you’re using the same font and spacing in your yearbook index. It helps to keep your yearbook theme consistent!
You may wonder how you can get what is really a block of text to tie into your theme. It’s easier than you may think! Here are a few ways to tie your index to your theme:
- Use graphics
- Include textures
- Try a variety of colors
Even something as simple as a treatment can help tie your index to your overall yearbook theme. Have fun with it!
Use Mods
Mods are your yearbook’s equivalent to a sidebar or excerpt. In your yearbook index, mods can help provide a visual reference to a block of text.
Using mods in your yearbook index is also a great way to use any leftover content that you may have! Do you have visuals or photographs that just didn’t quite fit anywhere else? Why not try incorporating them into your yearbook index. It’s a great way to make it more visually pleasing..
Highlight Your Yearbook Staff
Let’s face it. If you’re on the yearbook staff, you probably spend most of your time prepping the content for your yearbook. Often, the yearbook staff members are the least featured individuals in the yearbook!
Your yearbook index can change all that. It’s the perfect place to highlight your yearbook staff. Some creative ways you can incorporate your yearbook staff include:
- Adding in quotes from staff members – their highlights when creating the yearbook!
- Get staff members together to make the letters themselves. (Bonus, this can be a barrel of laughs trying to coordinate!)
- Highlight accomplishments your team achieved during the year.
Your yearbook index is an important source of reference, and with these design tips and ideas for your yearbook index, it can be a fun and visually striking reference!
Not a Customer Yet? Contact Us Today for a FREE Quote!
Thinking ahead to next year’s yearbook already? At YearbookLife, we pride ourselves on our competitive pricing, customer and technical support, fast delivery, and our free, easy-to-use software. If you’d like to request a quote today, please click here.
It’s getting to that time of the year! After the many hours spent creating and designing your yearbook, it’s time to ramp up the marketing! Effective marketing will help boost sales of your yearbook.
The end of the school year can be a busy time. Sporting events, exams, competitions all compete for our time and attention. With so much going on already, it can be hard to generate yearbook sales. How can you generate the buzz needed to sell out your yearbook?
Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! This ultimate yearbook marketing guide will help make your yearbook a sell-out success.
The Ultimate Yearbook Marketing Guide
Make your yearbook a sell-out success with these easy steps.
Define Your Values
It’s true of any effective sales technique: if you want customers to purchase your product, you have to offer them value. This doesn’t just mean price! Value can come in many forms, from an authentic brand identity to meeting your customers’ needs.
When it comes to your yearbook, you want to define values that are relevant to your audience. Clear, defined values can be the framework for powerful messaging in your yearbook. Some values that you may want to consider include:
- Celebrating student achievements
- Demonstrating the sense of community in your school
- Keeping memories of friends and events
Once you have decided on your values, make sure you stick to them. Use the core messaging from your values to help your yearbook marketing efforts. Remember to keep your messaging and tone of voice consistent throughout!
Use Social Media
Social media is a powerful yearbook marketing tool. Think of how much time you spend on social media on a daily basis. It’s a great way to reach and engage with your audience.
If your school has an active social media presence, promote your yearbook through these profiles. If your school doesn’t yet have any profiles, make sure to set them up. Read more about using social media to increase yearbook engagement here.
Email Marketing
Emails are a great way of reaching a wider audience, particularly parents. We know you’re already busy promoting your yearbook on social media, but don’t overlook the importance of email.
Send out an email to parents, and make sure they know to pre-order the yearbook. Keep your email short and sweet, and include a link to your yearbook ordering page.
For more ideas on selling yearbooks to parents, click here.
Put Up Posters Around The School
Old fashioned print materials are still a great way to get your message across. Help drive yearbook sales with posters or flyers around your school.
Some places you may want to put up posters in your school include:
- The gym
- The library
- The cafeteria
- Common areas / lounges
You can even go one step further: hand out print marketing materials at the next school event or parent / teacher evening or the drop-off / pick up lane.
Use Your School’s Marketing Assets
It’s very likely that your school has marketing assets that you can use to your advantage. Some school marketing tools you could use include:
- Student Publication – Does your school have a weekly bulletin or news update? If so, this is a great way to reach an audience of students and parents alike. A well-place yearbook ad in your student publication can really help drive yearbook sales.
- School Website – Similarly, your school’s website is another great tool to reach a wide audience. A yearbook ad placed on your school’s website can help you take advantage of the site’s traffic.
- PA System – Make an announcement about your yearbook sales via your school’s PA system. This ensures that the entire student body will hear your message.
Take Advantage of YearbookLife’s Marketing Assistance Program
As we mentioned above, email marketing is a great way to reach a wider audience to drive yearbook sales. But if you’ve never designed a marketing email before, there’s no need to be intimidated!
YearbookLife’s Marketing Assistance Program is a free email marketing service that is available for YearbookLife customers. All you have to do is send us your parent email list. It’s really that easy! Did we mention it’s free? Get started with our Marketing Assistance Program today. Simply click here to submit the MAP information form.
Not a Customer Yet? Contact Us Today for a FREE Quote!
Choosing a yearbook publisher is an important decision in your yearbook creation process. At YearbookLife, we pride ourselves on our competitive pricing, customer and technical support, fast delivery, and our free, easy-to-use software. If you’d like to request a quote today, please click here.
Social media has undoubtedly changed our lives. Thanks to social media, we are able to connect with friends and family around the world easily. For most of us, social media is a part of our daily routine. 95% of teenagers have a smartphone, according to Pew Research Center. Close to 50% admit to being online almost constantly.
If you’re creating, publishing, promoting and marketing your yearbook, using social media can really elevate your efforts. Understanding how to make social media work can also boost your yearbook sales.
Increasing School Yearbook Engagement with Social Media
Social media engagement is a measurement of how people interact with your post, including likes, comments and shares. Engagement helps spread the word!
It’s clear that social media isn’t going anywhere any time soon, therefore, your yearbook sales strategy should also factor in social media as part of your overall approach. And it’s not just all about the followers (don’t get us wrong, more followers are great!). Engagement is what really makes social media tick. Here are a few ways of increasing school yearbook engagement with social media.
Develop a Community
Your community on social media is an integral part of building engagement. The first step is to determine which social media platforms you are going to create profiles on. To maximize your yearbook exposure, we recommend profiles on:
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Twitter
- Snapchat
Once you’ve set up your social media accounts, encourage your yearbook team members to like and follow the pages. Make sure your team is engaging with the posts on your page. Likes, comments and shares all help to increase exposure.
Visuals
We are visual creatures. And visuals are a great way to boost engagement across your social media platforms. In fact, it’s estimated that Tweets with an image are retweeted 150% more than tweets without an image. Similarly, posts on Facebook with an image drive 2.3 times more engagement than posts without an image.
Stuck on ideas for visuals? Why not try sneak peaks of images from your yearbook. Behind-the-scenes shots can be a fun way of engaging your audience. Plus, it’s a great way to share more of what’s involved in creating your yearbook.
Set Your Goals
It’s important that you have goals to work towards with your social media accounts. Develop the strategy with your yearbook team. Consider how you are planning on leveraging your social media. Are you:
- Using social media as your primary marketing strategy?
- Aiming to increase yearbook sales?
- Looking to grow student participation?
These are just a few goals you may decide to work towards.
Promote Engagement
Increasing engagement on your social media profiles will be an important part of your online yearbook strategy. There are a few things you can do to promote engagement.
- Engage with other pages – These could be schools or student body organizations at your own school. Respond to posts on the page. Remember, genuine responses are best. Avoid making every post a sales pitch.
- Publish posts that encourage responses – Looking for information from the student body? Post a question! Social media posts are also a great way to crowdsource your school for yearbook coverage ideas.
- Run competitions – Competitions are a great way to build excitement on social media. Get creative!
You may also want to consider creating a unique hashtag for your yearbook.
Drive Sales
Social media is a great way of driving yearbook sales and to keep your audience informed of important information, such as photo shoot dates, pre-ordering deadlines, etc.
Need Help? Contact YearbookLife Today!
Looking for more help marketing your yearbook? YearbookLife’s Marketing Assistance Program is a free email marketing service designed to help you market (and sell!) your yearbook. Interested in learning more? Contact us today by clicking here.
