Looking for advertisers can definitely be a challenge at times for any yearbook committee. Who should you reach out too? How do you get in front of the decision makers? Will it be awkward? Remember, yearbook staff members aren’t professional salesmen and women. They are usually students.
While reaching out to local businesses via door-to-door, by phone and/or email are all good methods; you may want to consider this year thinking “outside-the-box.” One-way to do this is with social media, specifically Facebook.
Besides creating a Facebook page for your school yearbook and posting content on the progress of the book, you may want to put together a small budget for Facebook advertising.
With Facebook advertising you can do some serious “laser” targeting so you are marketing your book to the right audience and not people who have absolutely no interest.
One way to do this is to target locals in the area. You can do this by going into the Facebook ad manager.
Once you get there you will want to put in a radius of people within 10 miles of your school zip code. After that, there are a variety of options you do for your targeting.
One recommendation that should get your ad seen by the right people is to target by behavior. Facebook defines behavior as reaching people based on purchase behaviors or intents, device usage and more. Within that category are charitable donations and within that is a subcategory of children’s causes. Choosing that option will help tremendously. This way your ad, which you will be able to create later in the process, will target people that in the past have given donations to children’s causes. You can always adjust your targeting and see which performs better as you go.
Note: You have the option to use an external website as a landing page where people can go to get more information on the yearbook advertising, rather than using a yearbook Facebook page.
Facebook is the world’s biggest social network and has a slew of information on people. By targeting the audience you are looking for can find new sponsors and advertisers you may never have thought would have been interested!
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.
As mentioned previously, you’ll want to organize and develop multiple ad sales events, track and report financial progress of ad sales and establish a method of providing advertisement receipts to customers who purchase ads.
Here are some sales resources that should also be created and kept in special folders or a soft-sided briefcase for use when selling advertising space:
COVER LETTER—to be used when explaining to potential advertising purchasers what options are available. Remember that it should be personalized based on the audience you’re selling to. For instance, the letter that is sent home to parents making them aware of the opportunity to purchase a recognition ad for their son or daughter is obviously very different from the cover letter that accompanies advertising requests to local businesses, club sponsors, etc.
RATE CARD(S)—to be used to explain advertising rates and other critical information advertisers need to know such as deadlines, ad guidelines and digital guidelines.
LAST YEAR’S YEARBOOK—to help either remind advertisers what their ad looked like last year or prompt ideas from other businesses on how they’d like to represent their message in this year’s yearbook.
SAMPLE ADS—it’s always helpful to see other ideas as a start in creating your own. Use sample ads you’ve created over time to make it as easy as possible for purchasers to decide what they’d like their advertisement to include.
YEARBOOK SPECIFICATIONS—make sure potential advertisers understand the content of other parts of the yearbook and can visualize where their ad will be placed
SKETCH PAD—that can be used to brainstorm and illustrate some basic design concepts so the advertisement can be designed accordingly.
AGREEMENT FORMS (INCLUDING SALES RECEIPTS)—to formalize the sales transaction for both parties so you can plan on the purchaser’s advertisement as a part of the yearbook and the advertiser has a confirmation of their purchase for accounting purposes.
As you gain more hands-on experience in selling advertisements, you can modify your approach based on what works best for your situation.
Now that you’ve collected plenty of ideas on how to get organized, plan and conduct yearbook sales campaigns and advertising, you’re ready to prioritize your thoughts and put your own game plan to work. Remember to enlist the help of others and have fun with such an important and rewarding opportunity!
Ad sales suggestion:
Consider publishing your ad rates at a higher price and then offer all buyers a special discount or coupon of savings with an expiration date. Your goal to the public should be to sell as many small ads as possible along with a yearbook. The goal should be increased coverage. Buyers who want a full page ad will tell you, but many students and parents may not have the funds for a full page. If you take a business card size ad and a yearbook and package it together, you may create an attractive package for a parent for under $100.
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:
(1) identifying your potential audience for purchasing advertising space
(2) determining ad sizes, guidelines, and rates
(3) 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.
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.
