marketing
yearbook business ad sales
Each year on staff, everyone is required to sell $375 in business advertisements for the yearbook. In past years, I made goody bags with candy and a letter promoting our advertisement space to hand out to businesses. However, this year, due to the pandemic, I sent e-mails to businesses that have previously purchased an ad from me. I attached the ad contract to the e-mail and answered any questions the business had regarding placing an ad. To keep track of my ad sales, I used Google Sheets. We used the money raised by ad sales to help pay for the cost of printing the yearbook. The money raised from book sales also contributes to the printing cost, but we try to keep our book affordable (starting at $65) and selling ads helped us do that.
senior ads
In addition to business ads, our publication also sells senior ads. With so many commemorative events cancelled, parents purchased more senior ads than years prior because they wanted to honor their senior in every way possible. With 80 more senior ads than usual, I stepped in and helped design ads for our Ad Editors. To the left is an example of two half-page senior ads. Our senior ads this year utilize the theme fonts and have a transparent letter behind the name and message. This style is the same for every single ad to maintain cohesiveness.
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fundraising
To fundraise for Boone Publications, we held spirit nights at local restaurants regularly. We also held our annual Rummage Sale in September. To advertise our fundraisers, our social media editor, Olivia, creates Instagram story posts so everyone on staff can share them on their own personal accounts. In addition, I frequently posted about the staff on my personal instagram account, which helped draw attention to important yearbook deadlines and events.
photos.boonepubs.com
Often, the Boone Publication Instagram account or my personal Instagram account received direct messages from students asking for photos. When this happens, I make sure to send them the link to our SmugMug website where they can purchase the photos. The money goes directly back into our program. Even if the students do not purchase the photos and post ones they took screen shots of, it still advertises our publication because there are watermarks on all of the photos.
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audience engagement
As the staff continued to post more frequently on our Instagram account, I kept an eye on the Post Insights and saw they went up when we posted certain photos. Our most liked photos are football and basketball. When I went to take photos of those sports, in the back of my head, I reminded myself to get something emotional and with strong action so Olivia could post them on our feed later.
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In our Instagram bio, there is a link to our Linktree. Whenever anyone uploads a new story, poll, important document, or photo gallery, students and parents can click the link and have access to everything in one place. It also allows us to have multiple links to things instead of just one. When I make a new photo gallery, poll, or post on our website, I always send it to Olivia so she can add it to the Linktree and promote it on Instagram.
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