Stop wasting school funds on costly yearbook companies.
Use Memes
Internet memes are extremely popular among young millenials and can be used to communicate all sorts of ideas in a lighthearted way. Using them properly can give your yearbook campaign serious “cred” with your students!
Make sure you use them correctly, though– an improperly-used meme can do more harm than good by making you look out-of-touch. Do some quick research to determine what meme would be most appropriate for the age-group you’re trying to reach.
(Quick Tip: Spongebob memes are usually safe and easily recognizable across all age-groups.)
Put Posters By The Clock
Students look at the clock. A LOT. (Especially on a Friday.) Why not use that focus of attention to catch their eye with a poster or sign?
Posters in a hallway tend to blend into the visual landscape very quickly, but by putting a sign in a place where students regularly look, they’re way more likely to notice it– and remember what it says.
Get People Excited With A Contest
Get students excited for yearbooks by holding a raffle for something like a free full-page yearbook ad. This lets you advertise yearbooks and full-page ads all at once while simultaneously keeping the yearbook on everyone’s radar.
The reward could also be as simple as getting a free yearbook, in which case you could safely have several winning tickets.
(Having more possible winners makes people more likely to participate, too.)
Announce the raffle for a couple of weeks and use things like good behavior, attendance or grades to award tickets.
Have Students Design Posters
For an art project, have students in every class design posters advertising the yearbook and put the posters around the school. Students will feel engaged and experience a sense of ownership over the yearbook, as well as feel pride in their creative skills.
Print Yearbook “Business Cards”
Instead of just handing out flyers, make “business cards”! The unusual form factor will be attention-grabbing for both students and parents, are inexpensive to produce and easy to pass out in large numbers.
Change Desktop Backgrounds
Change all of the desktop backgrounds in your library or computer lab to be a reminder about the yearbook sale. A change in a familiar place is attention-grabbing, plus it will be the first thing students see when they sit down to work, and the last thing they see when the log off, effectively being a double-reminder.
Don’t Run Out!
It’s hard to sell more yearbooks when you run out of them! Unfortunately, buying a surplus of books is expensive for the school and can be a risky gamble. It can also be frustrating to parents and families if the school runs out of yearbooks and they don’t get a chance to buy one.
The good news is, there are other options.
Having parents order directly from your publisher means the school isn’t paying shipping costs and doesn’t have to order in bulk– plus, families get their yearbooks delivered straight home!
Stop. Signing. Contracts.
There is absolutely no reason your school should have to sign a yearbook contract.
Your yearbook company probably requires you to sign a contract for X number of yearbooks, right? And the school has to pay that cost up front. Obviously this is not in the school’s best interest.
Imagine if you didn’t have to buy any of those yearbooks– imagine if parents could pay for them, and your school just got the fundraising profit. How about making 20% on every single yearbook without spend a cent of school money?