Announcing Your Yearbook Project

Congratulations! You’ve taken the plunge, and decided to start a yearbook project. You won’t regret it! (If you haven’t yet made up your mind, read this first.)

All that’s left to do now is to announce your shiny, brand-spanking new project to the rest of your year, class, house, or club.

While screaming “we’re making a yearbook!” in a crowded room might get the message out there quickest, it’s probably not going to get people involved in the project and excited for the big reveal. Also, you would look like a lunatic. Luckily, there are better, quieter ways to advertise.

To that end, here’s our top tips and tricks for announcing your yearbook project.

You already knew this one, but it’s worth a mention.

Everyone’s on social these days, and we’ve gotten used to tuning out the trash from the treasure. Depending on how you pitch it, social media could become your greatest tool to success, or it could flop. You want to get this part right.

For example, take a bog-standard Facebook page. Instead of mass-sending a share to everyone in your contacts, you should first create a fun and colourful banner image, a call to action, and a hashtag. Here’s how.

Banner image

This is way easier than you might think – I made this image in about 20 seconds using Canva, a free online tool. You could also use editing software like Photoshop, or even draw something by hand and take a photo.

Call to action

This one is easy too. Any good marketing endeavour has a call to action. It’s what inspires your target audience (in this case, your classmates) to do the task you want them to do (in this case, to get excited, get involved, or tell their friends). Otherwise, people will see your announcement page, shrug, and go on with their day.

At the end of every YouTube video, people always say “please remember to like and share”. They want you to like and share the video; that’s their call to action. It’s that simple.

While it depends on your social media platform, you can’t go wrong with “Like and share to get the message out there”. However, you might also be looking for contributors or for people to pre-purchase the yearbook. Decide what action you want people to take when you announce the project, and put that into writing.

Hashtag

Rustle up an easy-to-remember hashtag so people can easily discuss the yearbook project, ask questions, or find their way to your social posts. Remember to use it on anything yearbook-related you post on your social media accounts.

Ensure people know the hashtag exists by pinning it to message boards, announcing it in assemblies, or shouting it out at lunchtime (Warning: this will still cause you to look like a lunatic).

Now you have a killer social platform from which to launch your message, it’s time to craft a strategy around it to get people invested in contributing to the yearbook project and buying the end product.

The Early Bird Catches the Yearbook

Early bird discounts might sound like something your nan would get at the local cafe, but trust us: so long as your early bird discount doesn’t involve waking up at 5am, people are always excited to save money.

Consider advertising your yearbook at a discount for early adopters, and increase the price later down the road. Once you hike up the price, you can even invest the extra income into your school prom or club events.

This graphic took even less time to make than the last one (cough Canva cough). Once you have a graphic like this, print off copies and pin them around school or clubs, and make sure you post it on social!

Seeing Is Believing

It’s easy for people to understand your vision if they have a copy in front of them. Plus, people love to feel included in the creation of something, even if they’re not directly involved.

Once you’ve gotten your initial yearbook design pinned down on Yearbook Hub, get a printed copy of your yearbook design into people’s hands. Even if it’s missing photos, quotes, and messages, leave a copy hanging around where people will see it, and they might be inspired to help out or buy a copy.

Go to the Advisor Review screen, select PDF Proof, and add all sections to the PDF. Now all you have to do is print it. (P.S. It might take a while to load if you’re adding several sections to your PDF.)