Unique strategies to help you market the yearbook

Written by Evan Blackwell, CJE

Media constantly bombards students and parents these days. Communications come via TV, internet, viral videos, Facebook, instant messages and a dozen other mediums.

Meanwhile, the yearbook staff devotes hours and hours of hard work to creating a product that tells the story of the school year, and tells it better than anybody else.

So, how can a staff get the message about their compelling product through all the noise? The answer is not an easy one, but the good news is that it can be done.

Marketing tipsProviding yearbook staffs with a comprehensive set of online resources to build effective sales and marketing campaigns is important to Walsworth, which is why we created the Marketing Help page. Now, we want to put another tool at your disposal.

In our new series “Why didn’t I think of that?” we will spend the entire upcoming school year sharing real, practical tips and strategies on marketing and sales that we have compiled from you. We know that all the best yearbook expertise does not just reside with us – it is with all the yearbook staffs out there running their campaigns.

To get the ball rolling, here are a couple creative marketing ideas courtesy of adviser Carlos Briano and the yearbook staff from El Dorado High School in El Paso, Texas:

  • At El Dorado, of the 3,481 students and staff at the school, 3,109 were in the yearbook. So the staff created and hung a giant banner that listed the 3,109 students and the page numbers they were on. Large numbers turned out to see what page they were on. Little postcards on how to buy the yearbook were taped all along the bottom, and arrows and footsteps leading to the Business Office were put in place as well.
  • The El Dorado staff delivered personal congratulations cards to the 500 students who were featured three or more times in the yearbook, and sent emails, texts and direct mails to the parents. According to Briano, these efforts paid off. And each of the last four years, the school has been able to increase the number of books ordered – from 300 all the way up to 700 this year.

Now we want to hear from you. What successful marketing tactics and strategies have you used to market and sell your yearbook? Drop me an email at evan.blackwell@walsworth.com to let me know.

4 Responses to “Unique strategies to help you market the yearbook”

July 06, 2010 at 9:58 am, Send us your yearbook marketing ideas said:

[…] Last week in the Idea File area, we began a new feature called “Why didn’t I think of th… […]

September 07, 2010 at 9:36 am, Emily Allison said:

I think it is a good idea to contact people!!

December 16, 2011 at 8:31 am, Markus Henken said:

I’m extremely inspired with your writing skills and also with the structure in your weblog. Is that this a paid theme or did you customize it yourself? Anyway keep up the excellent high quality writing, it’s rare to look a nice blog like this one today Goldstar Locksmith 9620 w russell rd #2134 las vegas NV 89148 United States 702-475-6565.

March 16, 2012 at 1:51 am, Earlie Semien said:

I have recently started a website, the info you provide on this website has helped me tremendously. Thanks for all of your time & work.

Comments are closed.

Evan Blackwell, CJE

Evan Blackwell, CJE, is the Marketing Automation Supervisor for Walsworth. He's been a writer, editor and web content specialist for Walsworth for the past 15+ years, and is the author of the Yearbook Suite's "The Art of the Interview" unit. Prior to joining Walsworth, Blackwell spent five years as an award-winning newspaper and magazine journalist. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas.