Marketing your yearbook in your school

Modified on Wed, 24 Jul 2019 at 11:06 AM

There are two main goals for in-school marketing efforts. First, people need to know when, where and how they can purchase a yearbook. Be clear on dates, times and the duration of incentives. Second, let them know how they can be involved in the book's content. The more people contribute to the yearbook, the more likely they are to buy it.

Before making plans, what does your budget allow you to do? Many ideas cost only time and effort, while others require printing & supply costs.

In Person Marketing

pre-announce yearbook sales at orientation, general assemblies or meet-the-teachers nights.
schedule in-class visits to hand out order forms or even take orders.
set up a table in a common area before school and at lunch to take orders (1-3 sales periods of 1-2 weeks each).
make announcements on the school public address system.

Printed Materials

place a banner in the main entrance.
place large posters in common areas to announce sale dates.
create flyers to hand out to all students. You may be able to integrate an order form in the flyer to save printing costs and distribution time.
place an announcement in your school newsletter.
leave out flyers in the school office.

Social Media

place an ad on your school's website. Be sure to include links to your web store (if applicable), in-person sales dates, or contact info.
post a general announcement on your school's Facebook page.
create an Instagram post for students to share - make sure your local "influencers" get a hold of it.
recruit the AV or Drama Club to make a short promo video for sharing.
general email before a sales period and a reminder follow-up.

Special Promotional Activities

create a cover design contest. Get the students to vote for their favourite.
run a feature photo contest on Instagram. Add a custom hashtag to flag photo entries such as #[yourschoolname]memories2020.
run an early bird incentive contest: "Order now and you could win your book!"
invite contributions to the book with surveys: In-and-Out lists, nominations for the superlatives section ("Most likely too"), Top 5 of the year (movies, singers, bands, tv shows, vloggers, memes, books), trends, "As Overheard in the Halls," favourite teacher quotes... be creative.