The yearbook is completed, and it is your shining trophy! Now, it needs to be distributed to the students and parents. Planning a successful year-end distribution event and a yearbook signing party together, hand-in-hand, is a comprehensive, smart marketing strategy. It is a win for boosting sales and a win for school community spirit. Let's do this!
Planning & Executing
Timing is essential! Staff must select dates that do not conflict with other school end-of-the-year events. Lock a date and the location with the administration as soon as possible. You are competing against other clubs, teams, and academics for the same dates, times, and locations. Make yours count first!
Part of the selection process is a location that accommodates food and activities, like music, photo booths, art projects, etc. Verify with the administration the patron capacity for the site, and confirm the chaperones and security for the event.
Establish a student team to organize, promote, and host the event. A senior would make a great project manager! To ensure success, design monthly tasks and post the Countdown Calendar in the classroom to keep everyone up-to-date. Checklists and punch lists will help meet deadlines.
1. Make it an Exclusive Event
Turn a typical yearbook distribution event into an exclusive signing party. If possible, schedule it for one period before lunch. If you make this event as exclusive as possible, students who don’t have a yearbook yet will have a desire to purchase one to join in the fun! 1 Have your staff go around the school and pass out VIP tickets to the event for only students who have purchased the book. 2. Stamp the hand of students to enter the event. 3. Provide them with an "Enter to win" ticket at the door for a raffle prize (gift card) In May 2019, UYB hosted a yearbook signing party in Baldwin Park High School’s gym—the yearbooks were sold out for the first time in the school's history because the students wanted to attend the exclusive signing party.
2. School Spirit - the true meaning of the yearbook
Make the yearbook distribution a memorable and exciting event that leaves a lasting impression on students. Besides serving food and snacks, invite a few students to share their yearbook stories! Ask them what their yearbook means to them, what they hope it will represent in the future, and to describe the impact it will have on them later in life. The yearbook is more than just a school publication, it documents a period of these students' lives and encapsulates it forever.
3. Signing Party Section
Think through the following questions to make the party a success!
What theme will you select and what decorations are approved for that location?
Will there be food and drink? What vendors will be used? When do those have to be scheduled? This doesn’t have to be expensive–food and drink could be donated. Just make sure the tables have signage acknowledging the donor. Will there be entertainment (music, games, party favors, raffles, photo booth)? If yes, do any of these need equipment set-up? Think about managing a group of people–what will be the schedule of events? If not, how will students move from the distribution area to the signing area? Who will be the Emcee?
Consider creating “how our yearbook was made” reels that run back to back, or on loops, with interviews of the staff. Or make video clips of the photos that aren’t in the yearbook and play those throughout the signing party. Who doesn't love to take pictures with friends, especially if the students are graduating? Set up a fun photo booth for students to take photos with friends and peers. Create a backdrop that goes with the theme of the yearbook cover. A blow-up poster of the yearbook with the school year included makes a great backdrop. If a photo booth is too costly, create a temporary, interactive mural for selfies and social media posts. Props are an exciting and fun addition.ASK for donations! Target parents, office supply stores, Target, Walmart, for colored markers, stickers, post-it notes, stamps, and all things bright and colorful to add fun to the signing activities. Provide the ESSENTIALS: multiple types or varieties of pens for signing activities.
4. Marketing
Make the yearbook a BIG DEAL! Build energy around this event to make it enticing and unforgettable. This event has the potential to be the most important marketing and advertising strategy of the year.
Special Ideas to Include:
a. place details in an email blast, hit the social sites with a blast of information, text, text, text, and include purchase links or QR codes in all the methods.
b. Send VIP digital invitations to those who have already purchased the yearbooks and follow up with reminders.
c. Advertise, advertise, advertise on social media, and by posting posters around campus!
d.Prepare physical VIP cards and deliver them to students who have already ordered them during class periods (gain attention).
e. the more "secretive" you make the event, the more enticing it becomes.
f. provide info about payment plans and yearbook "angels" so more can be included.
g. Create a special hashtag for the event.
5. Distribution and Signing Day
Set up tables near the entrance so students can check in quickly and grab their yearbooks before entering the venue. The number of tables will depend on the number of attendees ( 1 table per every 80-100 purchasers).
Have at least two or more yearbook staff members meet and greet attendees by the door, and check their VIP status before they enter.
Prepare the sign-up sheet or a digital sign-up device for the students to sign after they receive their yearbook copy.
Have the MC direct the agenda of the entire event.
It’s not uncommon for some students to not pick up their yearbooks on the distribution day. The yearbooks could be temporarily stored in the yearbook adviser’s classroom for students to pick up later.
6. Cleanup
Every good host and hostess understands that clean-up is the cost of providing an enjoyable time! Even though this is the last item on the list, it is perhaps the most important. Part of the Distribution & Signing Party Team’s job is to determine what needs to be done, and who needs to do it, to return the location to pristine condition. When the event goes smoothly, the students enjoy themselves, and the event space is left in spotless clean condition, the Administration is excited and willing to partner with the yearbook staff for the following year's plans.
United Yearbook Printing is excited about your end-of-the-year plans. Distribution and a signing party can be a meaningful and fun way to finish the yearbook experience for your staff. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are pleased to assist in any way we can. Contact us at info@UnitedYearbookPrinting.com or visit our website at www.unitedyearbook.net For more resources, check out our podcast episode on Sales and Marketing!
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Contributor: Lucy McHugh comes to United Yearbook Printing from a 39-year career in public and private school education. She was a former visual art teacher and yearbook adviser. She received a Bachelors of Science in Art from Columbia College in Columbia, SC, a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Nebraska in 2000, and in 2014 earned a Certificate in Catholic School Leadership from Loyola Marymount University. Lucy enjoys her family, making art and gardening.
Editor: Donna Ladner obtained a B.A. in Education and a minor in English from California Baptist University, and a M.S. in ESL from USC, Los Angeles. After she married Daniel, their family moved to Indonesia with a non-profit organization and lived cross-culturally for 15 years before returning to the U.S in 2012. Donna has been working as an editor and proofreader for TSE Worldwide Press and its subsidiary, United Yearbook since 2015.