Photo by: Kirsten Frans

October 11, 2019 / Marketing / National Yearbook Week

Level Up your yearbook marketing

Written by Kris Mateski, CJE

Marketing and selling your yearbook are as important as the right theme, outstanding design and amazing photography. A great yearbook, with each student in the yearbook multiple times, will make students feel included and help with your yearbook sales. If every student in your school doesn’t already buy a yearbook, then it’s time to level up your marketing.

Luckily, there are a wide variety of free and low-cost marketing tactics you can use to promote your yearbook, and we have many resources to help you brainstorm and plan.

First, consider assigning the role of marketing manager to a student on staff. This person oversees all marketing and yearbook/ad sales, using everything from posters to social media posts. While everyone else is focusing on creating the yearbook, they will focus solely on getting the word out to your school community.

See our training tools for your marketing manager and all the marketing items available to you on our Marketing page at walsworthyearbooks.com/marketing. We’ve made it easy by categorizing our resources into Marketing to Students, Marketing to Parents, Marketing to Businesses and more. You’ll find helpful resources like business call scripts, student surveys, information on our Parent Email Program (PEP) and guerilla marketing tactics, just to name a few.

Wondering where to start? Learn the basics of marketing and start creating your sales plans with ourEngage Your Audience and Sell More Yearbooks with Strategic Marketing” unit from our Yearbook Suite curriculum.

Check out how other schools engage students through social media, advertise all over the school and more in our Creative Ideas for Selling Your Yearbook eBook and Creative Ideas webinar.

Some people just get marketing. Kathy Beers, the yearbook adviser at Timber Creek High School in Fort Worth, Texas, is one of those people. Hear about some of Kathy’s favorite ways to sell yearbooks and ads on the How Do I Market My Yearbook? podcast from the Ask Mike podcast.

Want a quick read? Our Back-to-Back In the Black Marketing blog post gives you a brief list of marketing items to consider right away.

We can’t wait to hear how your staff is leveling up your marketing! Share your ideas in the comments below or send an email to marketingyearbooks@walsworth.com. We would love to feature your school’s successes in another post.

Comments are closed.

Kris Mateski, CJE

Kristin Mateski, CJE, is the Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Walsworth. Her love for marketing and degree from Southern Methodist University led to work at national advertising agencies in Dallas and Kansas City. Her father worked as a pressman, so it was just a matter of time before she returned to the world of print, joining Walsworth in 2009. With her team, Kris helps provide yearbook advisers and their staffs with the tools they need to brainstorm, build, promote and sell their yearbook.