It’s the ultimate goal and highest compliment – a yearbook ‘sell out.’ A Yearbook Sales Manager and simple marketing plan can make all the difference. Balfour is here to help with the promotion and sale of your yearbook, leaving you time to focus on designing a great book.
Balfour’s Yearbook Sales Manager Guide allows you to personalize a strategy that works for YOUR school. The Guide walks you through an entire year of promoting the book.
To get your sell-out started, refer to your Yearbook Sales Manager (YSM) Guide. Junior high and high schools receive the YSM Guide in the yearbook production kit at back-to-school time. Elementary schools may order a copy from Balfour. The Guide comes with a credit card-size flash drive and includes all your marketing resources.
The Guide will walk you through assigning a Yearbook Sales Manager and creating a marketing plan. You’ll even find a planning poster that you can hang to help the entire yearbook staff stay informed on the marketing of the book.
The Yearbook Sales Manager Guide separates the marketing of the yearbook into three parts: Pre-Sale, Promotion & Wrap-Up. Whether your book delivers in the spring, fall or summer, the marketing should follow this schedule.
Pre-Sale (August – September)
Once you’ve assigned a Yearbook Sales Manager — a designated person in charge of marketing the book — it’s time to kick-off the sales year. Pre-Sale promotions run August through September and include activities such as setting up an online store, creating and posting signage on-campus, promoting to parents and tracking sales.
Promotion (October – December)
Marketing the book continues with aggressive promotions to parents, influencers and advertising at the school and in the community. National Buy Your Yearbook Day is Wednesday, October 21. Plan to hold your biggest yearbook sale around this date. Balfour will help motivate your yearbook staff by holding contests and giving away prizes all day on October 21.
Wrap-Up (January – Distribution Day)
Learning ways to reach non-buyers is an important part of the Wrap-Up promotion. You’ll also want to plan a big event for yearbook distribution. After all, it’s the culmination of an entire year of producing and promoting the yearbook. Make it a celebration!
The Balfour Marketing Team will be emailing ongoing communications, marketing advice and sales resources throughout the year to keep you up-to-date on the latest promotions and what other schools are doing to help increase sales.
Contact your Balfour representative for more information about Balfour’s Yearbook Sales Manager and the YSM Guide.