Tips on Contacting Schools for Rental Setups
Getting in with a school is a goal that many yard card rental companies have. I’m going to share with you some tips to help you open the door with a local school and how you can take full advantage of that opportunity.
The main reason I’ve decided to focus on this is because teacher appreciation week is right around the corner as well as graduation and both of those are huge opportunities to make a connection with a school.
Once you get in with one school, it really opens up the possibilities of others. For this set of tips, I’m going to focus on Teacher Appreciation Week.
Tip 1) Who to contact
The best place to start is if you already have an “in” with a particular school. For example: maybe your child or a family goes there. Or perhaps, you know someone on the PTO or a staff member. Use that “in” to help open the door.
I personally have found that using a connection with a PTO member has been the most beneficial because sometimes they are the ones that pay for the setup, especially if it is for teacher appreciation. Plus many schools are always looking for NEW, different ideas to show their teachers and staff that they are grateful for their hard work so what better way than an unique yard card setup!
And you can contact them via email or phone. I prefer email because I find it less invasive and it allows the person to gather all of the information about what you are offering before making a decision. More times than not, the person you contacted must get other people’s approval before they can commit to anything so by sending an email with all of the details, your contact can easily share this information with the other decision makers.
Tip 2) Buy versatile items for your setups
When buying the yard card pieces you plan to use for your teacher appreciation setup, be sure to find versatile items that can be interchangeable and reused for other school type setups.
Some popular setups are:
- Welcome back to school
- 100th day of school
- Teacher of the year
- Prom
- Homecoming
- Sporting events/championships
- Graduation
*Extra tip: Some vendors have mockups of their setups in front of schools. These are fantastic tools that you can send to your contacts to give them a visual of what the setup could look like.
Note: Be careful of using mockups from vendors that you do not buy from. This can mislead your customers because the mockup you showed them may look nothing like your setup.
Tip 3) Create a photo opt for social media sharing
One of the biggest reactions people have when they see a yard card setup [aside from smiling] is they want to take pictures of it. Be sure to include a photo frame section in your setup. Adding a frame makes it interactive plus it shows people the best place to stand for the photo opportunity. It also helps to make sure people aren’t tripping over pieces of your setup in order to get behind it for pictures.
Extra tips: If possible, when you are prearranging the details of the setup with your contact, discuss with them about doing a shout out on social media and tagging your business. You can also include an exclusive coupon code for anyone that books a rental afterwards.
BONUS TIP* If this is your first time working with a local school, I highly recommend you donate the setup or give a hefty discount. I say this because once you get 1 school set up under your belt, it really opens the door to other setup opportunities, within that school, other schools in the area and even subsequent rentals to the parents and individuals that saw your setup and decided to book a rental. If nothing else, it can be used as a tax right off.
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