Marketing & Sales

It's no secret to seasoned advisers that yearbook class is one of the most accurate career-preparation courses available to students. The yearbook-building process meets all of the national Career-Ready Practices. We’ll go through each below with practical application ideas for yearbook classes.

1. Act as a responsible and contributing citizen and employee.

How to do it: teach project management skills by having students pre-plan their weeks. 

Weekly goal-setting and check-ins maintain a culture of accountability while building executive functioning skills. First, project your ladder and page assignments. Then, reverse engineer some major milestones. From there, students can set a goal, calendar important dates, and pre-plan how they will meet their deadlines. Do this corporately so each student can see his/her contribution.

2. Apply appropriate academic and technical skills.

How to do it: equip your students with tools and training for their age, ability, and your yearbook mission. 

Keep in mind, a first-year yearbie/yerd/yearbook student should have a different skill set than a third-year one! Returning staffers are excellent resources to teach skills, especially those on your editorial board.

3. Attend to personal health and financial well-being.

How to do it: schedule in the fun!

Because you corporately planned the year, you already know when the pinch points are going to be. Plan a few fun days before and after to help students relieve stress, and show them the importance of balance.

Also, be transparent about finances. Your yearbook students should know how much it costs to produce their yearbook. Likewise, they should know financial goals (book and ad sales) and celebrate their achievement.

4. Communicate clearly, effectively, and with reason.

How to do it: begin the year with a plan.

All the work you do from a syllabus to the page ladder and assignment provides the overarching structure. Bi-weekly editorial meetings and all staff meetings should include check-ins, deadline assessment, and teaching moments to provide accountability and hone these skills:

• Model how to email teachers and coaches by providing templates or examples of wording.
• Practice interviewing.
• Show, rather than tell, how to enter a class to pull a student for a quote or photo opportunity.
• Set expectations and boundaries for yourself and your team.

5. Consider the environmental, social, and economic impacts of decisions.

How to do it: create worthwhile partnerships.

These are Treering’s core values. From sustainably sourced printing materials to partnering with charities, the environmental and socio-economic impact of a yearbook transforms lives. Additionally, ethical reporting and creating an inclusive yearbook are hallmarks of positive social impact.

6. Demonstrate creativity and innovation.

How to do it: make a yearbook.

(We’re just going to leave this one here.)

7. Employ valid and reliable research strategies.

How to do it: make before, during, and after your journalistic mantra.

What we see in many yearbooks are photographs of the actual events, and we miss ASB creating poster after poster for spirit week, Mr. Watts cleaning up until 2 AM, the baseball team volunteering to haul hay bales, etc.

Ask your team:

• What preparation goes into [the event]?
• Who is involved?
• What is the impact of [the event]?
• How can we capture this?

At the interview, ask:

• What don’t people know about [the event]?
• How do you prepare for [the event]?
• How much time do you invest?
• What happened after [the event]?

Also, coverage doesn’t have to follow the traditional photo/caption format. Create infographics and polls, show game statistics and team scoreboards, and use quotes from differing perspectives to tell the story of your year.

8. Model integrity, ethical leadership and effective management.

How to do it: the old adage It starts at the top applies here. 

Module 2 of Treering’s free curriculum will help you unify your team and build trust.

9. Plan education and career path aligned to personal goals.

How to do it: toot your team’s proverbial horn.

Using the yearbook job descriptions in Treering’s curriculum guide, work with your team to create resumes, detailing their job experience in yearbook class. While many think, “I put pictures on paper,” they don’t see things like: 

• Scheduled photographers for event coverage
• Experienced in copy editing, reporting, and layout design
• Promoted publication on social media, in print advertising, and at community events
• Worked within deadlines to maintain $20,000 budget

It’s our job, advisers, to show them their impact! Then show their parents. Then show your administration.

10. Use technology to enhance productivity.

How to do it: post and track your goals.

Your yearbook software plus a digital planning tool such as a Gantt Chart in Google Sheets or a Trello board will keep you on track. 

11. Utilize critical thinking to make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.

How to do it: make a yearbook, part 2.

What do you do when a photographer does not show up for a game? How do you handle an event being canceled or rescheduled? What do you do when someone accidentally reformats a card prior to photos being uploaded? The yearbook creation process is all about pivoting. Build in contingencies by creating evergreen content or interactive pages that compliment your theme. (Here is a list to get you started!)

12. Work productively in teams while using cultural/global competence.

How to do it: facilitate a collaborative working environment.  

In-class collaboration:

• Peer review (here are some editing tools)
• Students teach other students a skill
• Plan your distribution event

Out-of-class collaboration:

• Connect with your school photographer to receive portraits on time
• Schedule club and team photos with leaders
• Crowdsource event photos from classmates
• Interview students
• Schedule in-class photo ops of academic coverage

We also have an alignment matrix, outlining how the Treering curriculum meets both CTE standards for eight pathways and these Career Readiness Practices and makes your yearbook class the ultimate career preparation course.

One of the easiest ways to sell more yearbook ads is to get people who are good at sales to help you. And you know who is good at sales? Booster clubs.

Though they sometimes go by other names, booster clubs are those organizations formed by school parents to raise money for sports teams, bands, and clubs. Some schools have one booster club to support the entire student body, while others have a bunch of smaller clubs to support specific teams or organizations within the school. Regardless of the organization, these clubs exist solely for the purpose of enhancing student life. And they’re mostly able to do that by raising money in a variety of ways, like creating an ad-supported program or calendar.

Sound familiar? You bet. And that’s exactly what makes a booster club a perfect partner for … err … boosting your yearbook’s ad sales.

Partnering with your booster club to up yearbook ad sales.

If you’ve got a booster club that’s out in the community—right now—selling ads for a program or calendar or other printed piece, don’t even finish this blog post (seriously). Call the head of the booster club immediately and ask that person if their sales team will double as your sales team. It’s a big favor to ask, we know, but the benefits are enormous for everybody.

Here’s how to approach it: Since you’re lacking a sales team (or are really struggling to get your sales moving), you’ll need to outline to your booster club contact why you need the help (and the ad revenue) so badly: Are you losing money on your yearbook? Are you trying to raise enough to buy a new camera?

Whatever it is, spell it out. You don’t, obviously, have much to offer in return for help. But you do have one thing: Fundraising dollars. If the money raised for you by a booster club is money you wouldn’t have otherwise gotten, it’d be totally fair to give the booster club a percentage of that money. Figure out what works for you and for the booster club, but we’d recommend something in the 10-20% range.

This type of setup means businesses are only contacted once, the booster club is making a couple extra bucks for every yearbook ad sale they make, and you’re selling ads you wouldn’t have sold otherwise.

Getting other help from your booster club

Your booster club isn’t always going to be able to double as your sales team. And that’s okay. They can still help you. Here are a few more ways:

• Provide introductions. A quick way to get potential advertisers is for a booster club president to introduce you to local business contacts who have been supportive towards your school’s extracurriculars in the past. Having that information will get you to the most receptive audience first—always a good way to start your sales season.

• Package ad sales. While both of your teams are out selling, propose asking a local business to support both programs at a discounted rate. Like having the booster club do your selling for you, this method reduces the amount of pavement-pounding you have to do and increases the reach of your sales efforts.

• Trade ad space. You know who would probably love an ad in your yearbook? The booster club. Give them one for free, if they’ll let you toss an ad in their program or calendar. It won’t boost your ad sales, but it might boost your yearbook sales.

Tracking down your school's booster club

Of course, if you’re going to work with your school’s booster club volunteers, you need to know who they are. You probably already do (these folks don’t typically hide in the woodwork), but if you don’t, you can usually find them by asking your normal list of contacts. Your principal, student government adviser, athletic director, PTA president… all of these individuals are a good bet for information. If asking around doesn’t turn up any success, do a quick Google search. Using “your school name + booster club” in the search box should do the trick.

Lasting benefits of booster club partnerships

You can gain a lot more than a one-time boost in yearbook ad sales by working with your school’s booster club. They key, though, is really becoming a team. A lot of booster clubs have a strong history of raising money and drumming up interest in your school. They know what works (and, maybe more importantly, what doesn’t). If they’re not ready to get their hands dirty with you, you can start by learning from their experiences. And that’s never a bad place to start.

If you’re considering whether selling yearbook ads is right for your staff, you’re probably looking to take your team to the next level. Of course, it might also mean you’re hoping to satisfy a financial obligation to your yearbook publisher.  

Yearbook ad sales can represent a fantastic learning opportunity. This process can empower your students with real-world skills, from pitching to potential clients to designing captivating advertisements. And the proceeds that come from selling ads to parents and local businesses can help offset or even eliminate the cost of many wish-list items.  

However, if ad sales are necessary to offset yearbook debt instead of a way to benefit your program, Treering can help.

Define your goal

Before you think about ad sales, ask yourself: what’s our objective? Generally speaking, schools sell yearbook ads for one of four reasons:

• To teach business skills (sales, advertising, negotiation, and more)
• To purchase new equipment
• To help students pursue related learning opportunities
• To pay back existing yearbook debt

If your aim aligns with the first three, congratulations! Purchasing hardware and software that, in your staff's well-trained hands, will enhance your program for years to come is a fantastic achievement. And being able to do so self-sufficiently is even better! If you find yourself here due to the last reason, however, read on.

Cultivate favorable terms

There are many reasons your yearbook organization could be in debt. Perhaps you bought too many books last year (tip: not every company requires a minimum order quantity). Maybe unexpected charges surfaced on your final invoice or your per-book price seems high. Regardless, if ad revenue is solely meant to cover existing debt, it's a signal to reassess terms with your publisher.

The solution? Negotiate more advantageous terms. Open communication with your publisher can often lead to mutually beneficial solutions. Many publishers are willing to collaborate to foster goodwill and ensure continued revenue.

If renegotiation proves challenging, consider evaluating other publishers. Look for a partner that offers flexible terms, never requires contracts or minimum purchase requirements, provides inclusive per-book pricing without hidden fees, and offers school-friendly ways to raise funds.

Selling yearbook ads: the potential of your program

Your yearbook has the potential to not only capture memories but also generate revenue for your program. If you find it becoming a financial burden instead, it's a cue to reassess your strategy. Selling yearbook ads should be a positive venture, enhancing your students' skills and contributing to the success of your yearbook program. As you embark on this journey, keep the focus on empowerment, learning, and the enduring impact your yearbook can have on your school community.

Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks. 

Five years ago, Yearbook Hero Arielle Shansky took over the yearbook production for her Classical Conversations Community. Leading a team of three in Central Florida, she also manages an online community for over 650 others via the CC Yearbook Support Facebook Group. As the default tech person in her social circles, she enjoys helping other homeschool yearbook coordinators plan and organize their yearbooks. 

What’s unique about a homeschool yearbook?

Everything is a volunteer job. There’s no budget and possibly no team to help. Most of us do not have a yearbook background and we have to create our systems from scratch.

That said, there are many opportunities to showcase families. Under each portrait, we do a mini interview so students’ thoughts flow throughout the book. We also do a “Family Spotlight” in our yearbook. Homeschool parents take tons of photos at home because that’s where the bulk of our education occurs. Normally, those never get printed, but with a yearbook, we are able to put those moments in there.

You said you love organization. What are some tips to share?

I track everything on my phone: running notes of things to do and hex codes I’m using. I can also monitor core book page progress and check book sales using the Treering app.

How else does Treering help?

The biggest thing is allowing families to upload directly to shared folders. I send out weekly reminders to our community so we get photos throughout the year. During National Yearbook Week, we are doing our big kickoff. We have a lot of new families this year, so our goals are to get everyone to log in and upload one photo. Whoever does that will get an entry into a drawing for a coffee gift card or something. Then whoever orders by the end of the month for the discount will get another entry. We are going with a Happy Yearbook Day theme for the kick-off (to the tune of happy birthday). One of the ladies is wearing a birthday hat and making a sign that she will wear around campus with a QR code to take people to the upload page and a box to drop their name in for the drawing.

The personalized pages are also great. I scan my kids’ art and the notes they write me to add to their books. I laugh because we only have one family photobook—the yearbook replaced that.

Starting and finishing strong isn't just for marathons (although advising yearbook sure feels like one at times). The fall months are ideal for beginning the momentum for your yearbook program. From building your team to selecting a yearbook theme, the fall is an ideal time to begin working alongside your school community. Fall in love with these tips to crowdsource more yearbook photos during September, October, and November.

Fall celebration photos to crowdsource

Use the fun “National Holidays” to create dress up days, activities, or even sidebar coverage for your yearbook. Libraries and DEAR Time can be the focus on September 6, Read a Book Day. Photographs of students with their stuffed friends on September 9’s National Teddy Bear Day make for a cuddly sidebar that pairs well within a classroom PJ Day. And let’s face it, nothing says volunteer and teacher appreciation like National Coffee Day on September 19!

Some other fall holidays to use when sourcing photos include:

• World Smile Day on the first Friday in October
• National Coaches’ Day on October 6
• National Reptile Awareness Day on October 21
• National Sandwich Day on November 3
• National STEAM Day on November 8
• National Education Week during the week before Thanksgiving

STEAM Day on November 8 is an opportunity to show students collaborating and also gather the whole picture (pun intended) of a project from ideation to completion!

Source POV photos

Social media continues to be a steady stream of photographs and posts from the perspectives of parents, staff, and students on your campus. Commenting, “May we use this in the yearbook?” is a way to build excitement for the book and encourage a student whose photo is truly worth sharing beyond their social feed. Some Treering schools promote a hashtag that equates reprinting permission and also makes it easy to search for images.

Using photographs sourced from parents, staff, and students adds a layer of authenticity to your yearbook because it involves new perspectives. Consider crowdsourcing photos from

• Fans at athletic events
• The cast and crew of the musical
• Art students and their in-progress works
• Two students snapping the same event, from different angles
• A period of time, such as the prep hours before the Homecoming dance

As always, a call to contribute to the yearbook is also a call to purchase a yearbook. Use these fall events as opportunities to sell yearbooks as well.

Partner with classroom teachers to source yearbook photos

There are those record-keeping, awareness-raising, champions of academia on campus who photograph student activities. Those are the teachers with whom to connect. (For every teacher-storyteller on your campus, there will be one overwhelmed with the idea of one more thing to do. Know your audience.)

Classroom photos don't always have to be posed group shots of students. Classroom photographs can also include workspace photographs. Flat lays of student and teacher desks or open backpacks offer insight into personality, workstyle patterns, and any quirks. This is also a way to feature those camera-shy campus personalities.

Some teachers choose to incorporate photography in their lessons. You may use the results as a way to showcase student art and cover classroom happenings.

Double, double, toil and trouble, are your fall yearbook sales in the rubble? Well, you’ve come to the right yearbook promotion page. Say it with us: pumpkin spice and everything nice, pumpkin spice and everything nice. Just kidding. A fun fall chant isn’t going to help, but we have a few easy yearbook promotion ideas highlighted below to increase your yearbook sales during the fall holidays

The fall holidays, in particular, are a great time frame to sell your yearbooks because parents and students have that feel-good feeling about yearbooks, especially since portrait day takes place around this time. (Or retake day—who can be perfect on the first try, right?)

Promotional idea 1: early-ghoul special

One way to market your yearbook and increase sales can be to offer a special discount. Those of us who are moms, know we love when good products go for great deals! Before Halloween, offer a fun-themed discount to the parents who buy the yearbook before Halloween before the prices get spooky. Or even after Halloween, once the costumes have been worn and the candy passed out, yearbook sales could become your next favorite holiday—like the day after Valentine’s Day. You know what we’re talking about: discounted chocolate!  

If you’re down for a special, but don’t have the time to create your own yearbook flyers, don’t witch out! We want to help by giving you a professionally designed flyer template and even sales flyers, all customizable. 

Promotional idea 2: Halloween party promotion 

Most classrooms, even virtual ones, will celebrate the spooky, fun holiday of Halloween. Classrooms will have candy and lots of chatter and you can sell a scary amount of yearbooks. During the party is a great time to take pictures of everyone dressed up and promote that those pictures will be in the yearbook. Parents want to buy yearbooks if they know their kid is in the yearbook. Have your yearbook moms take photos at each holiday party and talk up the book!

Promotional idea 3: turkey bowl giveaway 

Everyone loves free stuff! Moms, kids—we mean everyone. A fun way you can sell more yearbooks is throwing a fall holiday raffle or a giveaway. First, you can offer a giveaway for everyone that has bought a yearbook before a certain day leading up to Thanksgiving. Everyone entered can win a gift or treat, like a gift card or a recognition ad.

Second, you could have a giveaway going on at the school that doesn’t require any parents to buy yearbooks, but to promote! For this giveaway, mouth-to-mouth marketing is going to sell your yearbooks because everyone is getting excited. Offer a free yearbook for the most photo submissions, or to a random follower of your school’s page who “likes” a social media post promoting the giveaway. You can turn the Turkey Bowl giveaway into a month-long social media contest to increase your school’s social channels engagement and build momentum with each post. Check out this social media calendar with ideas on how to run your contest!

Whatever direction you choose for marketing your yearbook this fall, Treering is here to help! While reaching sales goals immediately can be witch-ful thinking, it can definitely happen over time with some creative guidance.

Back to school means back in business. Selling your yearbooks should start as soon as you do! Here are five easy ideas to immediately implement to gain sales momentum at the start of the school year. Plus, we're giving you a social calendar and slew of sales flyers you can customize, then share.

1. Stick it to them

K-12 yearbook adviser Erika from California goes sticker crazy: “Our class meets 7th period, and with end times being staggered, my students run to the lobby and place a sticker on each [elementary] student as they head to the pick up lines.” The stickers have purchasing info on them.

In Georgia, adviser Dara does the same, then takes it one step further by sending a humorous follow up email:

We didn’t want you to get stuck without a yearbook, but if you accidentally ran the reminder sticker through the wash, here’re some handy tips to take care of it.

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Consider designing your stickers to match the yearbook theme for a branding tie-in.

2. Plan posts

We all know the cliché: failure to plan is a plan to fail. Use a promotions calendar to diversify your posts and make sure your yearbook sales and marketing strategy match your audience.

We’ve created a free social media calendar to promote your yearbook and your program.

Bottom line: parents buy the books. They’re mostly on Facebook and Twitter, so angle your yearbook sales posts to them. Unless you’re a huge *NSYNC fan, reading buy, buy, buy is not going to get the job done alone:

• Use #throwbackThursday as a feature for campus leaders and parent volunteers to pose with an old yearbook
• Ask parents to share their advice to seniors
• Do a guess the teacher feature with senior photos

Social proof is one way you can positively encourage others to support your program by buying a yearbook.

We trust our mom friends, so let’s give them a social badge to share.

We want students to want the book. Mix in student-centered messaging on Facebook and Twitter, such as reasons to buy a yearbook or highlight yearbook photos from a recent event that showcase non-buyers. Also, focus social media efforts on TikTok and Instagram to:

• Play up a trending sound or duet with a popular video
• Post a variety of messages to increase engagement
• Partner with campus influencers (ASB, PTA/PTO accounts, athletics) to hype your yearbook or upcoming event

3. Sell your program

One step beyond using social media to post links of how parents can buy yearbooks or recognition ads, is to show people the value of your yearbook program. The people who help make the book are just as important as your product.

• Show behind the scenes work: time lapse Photoshop work, someone hand drawing a layout, the yearbook committee meeting up for lattes and layouts
• Have the student body vote on a dominant image for a spread
• Reveal sneak peeks of the book
• Share your goals (e.g. 200 new followers, 60 books sold by December, 10 photos submitted) and, more importantly, how you celebrate
• Thank the yearbook heroes publicly on a #thankfulnessThursday

4. Simplify your yearbook sales processes

When someone says, “I need to buy a yearbook,” then you should be ready to sell it, not hand them a flyer. Repeat after me, “Sell the book.”

Evaluate your yearbook sales platform

Your yearbook program is a business whether you have a multi-year contract with book minimum orders or not. Therefore, one way you can serve your customers aka mom and dad is to make it easy for them to buy your product!

1. How many clicks does it take to go from home to checkout?
2. Do you have to scroll for days?
3. When you share an ordering link, it is two miles long?
4. Can you link directly to your school’s store or do families have to search?
5. Are the sales reports easy to find and read?

Crowdsource efficiently

Parents want to buy your yearbook because they know their child will be in it. Make it easy to contribute:

• Add a specific, bi-weekly call-to-upload to your social calendar
• Pass out cards at games and events with your yearbook email to that mom with the camera
• Give shout outs to people who send you photos
• Use QR codes

Use QR codes on all. the. things.

5. ReMEMEber the posters

Texas PTA mom Rachael said she drives past her children’s school every week. When there’s a big announcement, such as yearbook sales, her school puts a banner on the fence or a series of yard signs. Because it happens intermittently, she knows it’s valuable.

Old school paper posters can be effective (just don't be wasteful!) if the messaging is correct and the location is on point. While we love a good yearbook meme, keep it clean, positive, and fun—just like your yearbook!

QR Code is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

Avoid the pitfall of waiting until the yearbook is complete to begin selling. Keep reading for reasons you should begin marketing the yearbook now.

Financial incentives to sell yearbooks early

Back-to-school time is when everyone is excited about the new year. Parents know there are a lot of expenses for clothes, school supplies, and yearbooks.

• Early bird discounts: Better than a worm, Treering families save 10% on the cost of their yearbooks from August to October. Schools that purchase in bulk also enjoy the extra savings.
• Start accumulating your fundraiser: Schools using the yearbook as a fundraiser will have extra time to meet their monetary goal.
• Earn four free yearbooks: Treering customers who sell five books by September 15, earn a free yearbook. They earn a second if they sell 25 books by December 15, and two more if they sell 50 books by January 31.

Build hype

Create excitement about the yearbook on day one. When families see the yearbook team out and about, it tells them two things:

1. I need to buy a yearbook.
2. The yearbook team is committed to covering the whole year.

Early sales encourage students to participate in yearbook-related activities. It also offers the yearbook team extra time for teasers and keeps them accountable for progress. That said, take advantage of this added engagement for crowdsourcing opportunities. If students know they are in the yearbook, they will buy the yearbook.

Help parents

Let's face it, we need reminders too.

• Customization: Families can purchase their yearbook early and have until the purchase deadline to work on and finish their custom pages.
• Reduce stress: Let's face it, Maycember is real. And who doesn't love adding a fat checkmark to the to-do list?

How do you begin early yearbook sales?

Begin sales—like all things yearbook—with a plan. An easy win is to include a yearbook flyer in the registration packet that goes home with every child. Level up your approach with a school calendar and your team and create a yearbook presence at:

• Back-to-school events
• Parent group meetings
• A staff meeting (or three)
• Picture day
• Homecoming
• Fall festival

Sell early, sell often. Treering's order processing and tracking make for one less paper trail for advisers to chase. You won't regret the momentum.

On the way home in the carpool, yearbook mom Kristie overheard her daughter and three friends talking about their yearbooks staying overnight at school so their teacher could look them over and cover up things like “stinky skunk” and “Chungus.” There were hurt feelings and students who felt uncomfortable through the yearbook signing process.

Kristie said, "The kids are constantly being talked to about kindness and all that jazz, and I think much of what happened today was one kid thinking they’re hilarious and the other thinking they smell like a skunk."

Bottom line: we haven't taught our kids how to sign a yearbook.

[Old lady voice] When I was in high school, I had already combed my parents' yearbooks and learned their deep secrets. I knew the art of reserving a page in my BFF's yearbook so I could fill it with Spice Girls' lyrics, inside jokes, and the obligatory, "Thanks for always being there for me." I wasn't commenting on her posts daily and DM'ing her. Her yearbook was the one-stop shop to confess my deep admiration and devotion.

For those who weren't in my circle in the quad, a shorter message strategically squeezed between longer passages made it look as though I ran out of room. (The winning formula is below.)

How do you sign a yearbook for someone you don't really know?

1. Spell names correctly
2. Choose something specific to call out
3. Say thank you for being you: Gen, I love your smile. Thanks for sharing it with the world.
4. Sign your first and last name

How do you sign a yearbook for someone who's not your bff?

1. Spell names correctly
2. Find something positive to say
3. Say thank you for being you: Paulo, You are confident in your abilities. Thanks for sharing your interest in horses with us.
4. Sign your first and last name

Yearbook signing for the besties

Add yearbook lingo

Some things never change; we bet every 90s mom has two or three of these acronyms in her yearbook.

• BF Boyfriend
• BFF Best friend forever
• GF Girlfriend
• HAGS Have a Great Summer
• KIT Keep in Touch
• LYLAS Love you like a sister
• TTFN Ta-ta for now

Add variety

Creative yearbook signing ideas, such as adding in song lyrics or writing messages in a more artistic form, break up the passages from others.

Remember, your signature will last as long as that book. Make it count.

School finances are tough. Compound that with murky yearbook invoices, and you’re left repeating, “I don’t know,” when meeting with the school finance clerk. Between boxes of “extra” yearbooks that will sit in a storage closet instead of a student’s shelf and a final invoice amount that differs from the initial bid, it’s a pain.
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Why are yearbooks so expensive?

Yearbooks can be a costly investment for schools.

Many yearbook creators tolerate vague yearbook pricing because the thought of going publisher shopping is a worse evil. It’s not until we hit our breaking point with one of these:

Yes, it’s a memory book, and it gives all the feels. One of those feels shouldn’t be a burden.

Understanding itemized bids

Shipping, art fees, camp costs, and proof charges may appear as line items on a final invoice. They don’t always appear on yearbook pricing proposals. That’s why you must be proactive when soliciting different yearbook publishers for a bid. 

Pro tip: include your current publisher in the bidding process.

The timeline: when to look for a new yearbook publisher

It will take about a month or two to complete the bidding process. Beginning is simple: define your needs and non-negotiables to share with each publisher:

Allow two to three weeks to evaluate the bids, ask clarifying questions, and get everything in writing. Align this with your school’s budget process for best results.

The bid: what to expect when you’re expecting

The scope of your bidding process differs if you are shopping for a single school vs. a district. (More on district bids below.)

Schools should consider specs, staff needs, and budget when soliciting bids. Your bid should include

Add it all up and divide by your contracted minimum for the per-book price. Oftentimes, these costs of doing business increase your core book price by $2-12 each. And if yearbook math wasn’t your college minor, there is another way.

The Treering difference

When yearbook creators receive a bid from Treering Yearbooks, it includes a per-book price with no minimum order. The core book price is based on cover finish and page count. It includes:

That’s it. 

How to evaluate yearbook bids

It’s safe to say most yearbook companies will look fab on paper (or spreadsheet). Resist the temptation to choose on price alone. By personalizing the process, you position your yearbook team as the leader. Your publisher should work for your program. 

1. Talk to other users. Each company should provide you with three users from a similar situation. Consider size, quantity of yearbooks ordered, and staff structure. Not only will you hear individual experiences, but the synergy of the reference will show whether or not the publisher understands your situation.

2. Do a trial of the software. Spend an hour playing with any proprietary software tools. Are you able to create a sample page? Do you know how to find self-service help?

3. Define your publisher support team: who helps with technical questions, how you find design inspiration, and who is training your team. If you have an individual servicing your account, define the role your rep will play and how you expect the rep to support your yearbook creation process, including expected response time.

Finding the right fit for your campus will take time. Trust us: it will be worth it when you have your Cinderella moment.
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Navigating an RFP

Those who represent a larger group have purchasing and negotiating power. Learn the requirements in your district or state before you solicit bids. You may not even need to bid because your school may have more flexibility than you thought. Or, if there is a purchasing cooperative in your region, your school may be able to piggyback on a neighboring contract.

If you are managing a bid for multiple schools, create an itemized list for each site's individual needs. For example, a high school may want a hardcover 9x12 book, and an elementary school may want to offer hardcover and softcover 8x10s. 

Treering works with each district’s process, whether it’s co-ops, POs, invoicing, or vendor approvals. Each RFP is customized to the needs of the schools within the district. (We’ll leave the templates for easy yearbooking design.)

As the end of the school year approaches and yearbooks get delivered, it’s the perfect time to throw a yearbook party. What better way to remember the year than to go through your yearbook and host a signing party?! We know when it comes to throwing a school party that everyone just thinks of one thing – pizza – but yours can be so much more. A class party should be about celebrating and making memories, not just eating food (to be honest food is always the first thing that pops into my mind, but I digress).

As this year has been so different, we wanted to make sure you had some ideas on how to celebrate the memories made in the yearbook, whether you were in school or virtual, and for students who bought a yearbook or not. If this year taught us anything, it's that you have to find the time to be present and live for the moment - celebrate with one another. Social distancing can, in fact, be social!

Here are a few in-school party ideas: 

Throw a blast from the past party

As a parent volunteer or teacher, there are a lot of ways you can take your students back in time. So when you’re ready to throw your yearbook party, set the scene by printing out some fun pictures you’ve taken throughout the year and hang them around the room. Or, if you’ve kept any previous party decor from other celebrations like Halloween or pie day, you can create themes throughout the room to reflect the year that has passed. Decorating the room with old photos and decorations is a great way to remind your students of all the good times and bonus, you get to recycle old projects, while keeping party expenses down!

To liven up the party and get the students excited, have them bring in their favorite projects of the year to reminisce on all the great things they’ve learned. This party will encompass all the memories from the yearbook, the decorations, and even their learning experiences. While all the fun is happening, students can sign yearbooks and share something nice about each project they brought in. 

If you can, really blast to the past by bringing each student in fake feather quill pens for them to sign each other’s yearbook. 

Host pop-con with popcorn

A fun way to throw a party in the classroom is to get students involved in a craft and whether they bought a yearbook or not, throwing a yearbook party is about celebrating memories and making more. A similar craft to a yearbook that elementary students can make is a comic strip! Give each student some time to go through the yearbook and then celebrate by letting them create their own mini-book or comic strip of their favorite school-year memory. Letting them create this craft on their own will help them develop mentally, socially, and emotionally.

And everyone loves a good play on words, so add some popcorn for everyone to enjoy while they make their Pop-Con comics! Even if you still have to be socially distant, separate the popcorn in individual cups or baggies. After everyone has enjoyed their popcorn and drawn their comic, have them go around the party and sign their yearbooks (or comic strips) as they chat about all the good times. This party gives all the students an additional souvenir of the year and more fond memories of their classmates. 

Make a magnet memory 

If you work in the classroom, you know students love to bring something home to show off. This yearbook party, which involves making a mini book magnet, creates another memento for students to bring home celebrating their year – just like the yearbook. You’ll need some more supplies for this craft including a hot glue gun and magnets. Similar to the last craft, start your party off by letting the students explore the yearbook to find what memory they want to recreate. Provide 3x4” cardstock paper for students to fold and draw pictures of recess, lunch time, masks or anything else that sparks excitement. 

After the students get their time to cut out and color a little mini book, let them sign their mini yearbook and send them around with their own pens to sign everyone else's real-sized yearbook. Make sure everyone turns in their drawing, so you can glue the magnets on and return their crafts before summer break.

This party ensures all students have a memento for the year!

For those celebrating the end of the year virtually, here are a few remote party ideas: 

Throw a yearbook reveal party 

When you’re celebrating school milestones virtually, it can be tricky. But a fun way to experience the yearbook is to reveal it! Using Zoom or another platform, take your students through each page of the yearbook, almost as if you are reading a story aloud. Another way to liven a yearbook reveal party is to have a surprise guest come in to share a few pages. You could use someone like the principal or another teacher as long as your school’s guidelines permit. 

Give the students time to see each page, comment on its contents and share excitement about the inclusivity of themselves and their classmates, which will likely be the pages they love most. If you throw any kind of contest for your students’ drawing to be on, give them a shoutout. Some yearbook companies even have features that allow you to sign yearbooks digitally, which is definitely a perk with schools having to do many things virtually this past year.  

This year was a challenging one that resulted in many unique moments for students. Because of this,  the yearbook will be looked at for many years to come. Take time to celebrate the fact you and your students have made it! Congrats Students, teachers, and parents... you did it!

We all know it: yearbook flyers are one of the best ways to market your yearbook. They’re cheap, they’re fast, they’re easy to make (in fact, really awesome yearbook companies will give you templates to use). And they’re really effective.

That one sheet of paper can tell each member of your school community everything they need to know about the yearbook: when it goes on sale, how much it costs, how they can order it, when they need to order it by.

But, as much as they work, yearbook flyers do fall short in one key way; they don’t do a great job of convincing people why they should buy the yearbook.

See, the traditional yearbook flyer is designed to be an announcement. It’s not designed to be persuasive. If you really want to give your yearbook sales a boost, you need to change that.

The great thing is, it’s very easy to do. In order to persuade people to buy your yearbook, you need to do three things:

1. Answer their question of “What’s in it for me?”
2. Only give them enough of the answer that they’re oozing with curiosity.
3. Make buying the yearbook the only way to get the rest of the answer.

When you do all that, you have a yearbook flyer that looks like this:

Maybe you’ve seen this type of flyer on Pinterest or heard about other schools using something like this. We certainly had. But what we hadn’t seen (or heard) was how well they worked.

So, we reached out to Angie Allen, the yearbook adviser at Elizabeth Lenz Elementary School in Nevada, to talk to her about this type of flyer. She’s used it for two years and, this year, this approached to her flyers boosted her sales by 50%.

What we’re going to do in the rest of the post is to tell you why these flyers work and, with the help of Angie, share the steps you can take to create them yourself.

The science behind why these yearbook flyers work

Before we go any further, here’s Angie on why she created the flyers:

“I thought, if we told the students and their parents what pages they were on, it would feel more concrete than a ‘You’re probably in the yearbook.’ message... It works. We sold 227 yearbooks prior to the flyers going out and we ended up selling 370.”

Angie’s instinct was dead on. Interestingly, though, there’s a scientific reason behind it.

Think about all those headlines you see on Facebook and Twitter: “...You Won’t Believe What Happened Next” and “How I {insert amazing feat} In Just {insert ridiculously short time frame}” It’s nearly impossible not to click on those headlines, right?

If they almost feel like an itch that needs to be scratched, that’s because there’s a scientific reason for that: Those headlines are creating a
(or, if you’re being scholarly, an information gap).

Here’s the curiosity gap, as illustrated by a nine-year-old on a playground:

The theory behind the curiosity gap is based in psychology and goes like this: when we’re confronted with a gap in our knowledge, we feel a primal urge to close that gap—and we’re willing to take any action to do so.

"Such information gaps produce the feeling of deprivation labeled curiosity," wrote George Lowenstein, the psychologist who developed the theory in the early 1990s. "The curious individual is motivated to obtain the missing information to reduce or eliminate the feeling of deprivation."

More recently, a curiosity gap study has shown that we’re most curious when we know a little about a subject, but not too much. In other words, something’s been done to raise our level of curiosity.

So, how does all this science relate to your yearbook flyers?

You can use your flyers to create that curiosity gap.

How to make yearbook flyers that create a curiosity gap

• Tag your photos- This is prep work, and it might sound like a lot of work, but it’s not too bad if you stay on top of it. The trick is finding someone who knows all the students at your school. (Angie was able to work with her school’s librarian to identify all the students she didn’t know.) Also, tagging photos makes life a lot easier in the end. You can automatically create index pages off that data and make sure you’re including every student a minimum number of times.
• Create Lists- To start work on the actual flyers, Angie created a list of students who hadn’t purchased a book. She then used that list to check against her index and make sure she had candid photos of those students in the yearbook. (Angie also did the same for students who already purchased a yearbook.)
• Take Extra Photos- By cross-checking a student’s name against the number of times he or she appeared in the book, Angie discovered that some students were underrepresented in the first draft. So, she went to school and specifically sought out pictures of those students to include in the yearbook.
• Fill out & Distribute Flyers- After she added her extra photos to the yearbook, Angie sat down with her flyer template (which is really similar to this free one you can grab from us!) and filled out the information found on her index. Each flyer had a student’s name, the pages on which he or she appeared, and instructions on how to buy the yearbook.  Then, she distributed the flyers to each student who hadn’t bought a yearbook.
  

Angie’s flyers did just that.

They answered the “What’s in it for me?” question by telling the student how many times he or she was in the yearbook and where he or she appeared. The trick is the second part of the flyer (where the photos are in the book), because, at that point, you’ve given the person everything but the photo.

This is where the curiosity kicks in.

(Real world example for you: Have you ever had a friend say, “Oh, my gosh! You have to see this photo I have of you. It’s so funny!” Piques your interest, right? This is the equivalent of that.)

So, how did Angie do it?

We asked her about that, and she shared her tips.

Angie said she’s found waiting to send the yearbook flyers until shortly before the order deadline is the best way to provoke someone to take action.

“We’ve had a hard time with sales at beginning of the year. People aren’t as interested then,” she said. “We’ve flooded them with flyers in the backpack and that sort of thing, but, at that time of the year, they can say, ‘Oh, I can wait.’”

By waiting until the end of the ordering window to distribute the flyers, Angie is able to create a curiosity gap and a sense of urgency. In other words, Angie is warning everyone: if you don’t act right away to find out what photos of you are in the yearbook, you might not have the chance to find out.

That’s a pretty tough warning to ignore.