Ideas, information and industry news for collegiate retailers

Facebook is the largest social media website in the world.While reaching your intended audience has never been easier, it can still be difficult to engage them. We’ve put together a helpful guide on Facebook marketing for campus bookstores that will walk you through setting up an account, guide you on what kind of content to post and give you a rundown on how Facebook ads work. While many companies use Facebook to make announcements, there are a myriad of ways you can leverage it to drive students into your campus bookstore.

Social media is a wild beast that we are still learning how to tame. We’ve gained quite a lot of ground in the past few years with understanding how it can be used to reach audiences effectively, but still an important question arises, “How often should I post to social media?” Most professionals will tell you to post consistent, quality content as often as you can. That makes sense, but what does that mean, and how can a campus store prepare and organize a social media schedule? Use this blogpost to create a schedule that will set you on the right path for your digital marketing.

Students are using social media daily, so it’s important for your campus bookstore to be a part of how students communicate. Marketing through social media will not only make your store competitive, it will provide a trustworthy source for students to purchase their books from each session.

How can campus stores participate in the gaming market? There are many ways that you can dive into these markets, but we suggest beginning with carrying video games in the store. This gives the 70 percent of student gamers a quick and easy location for purchasing new titles. It also gives new and returning students the opportunity to grab games when they come in to purchase next term’s books. 

Gen Z is filling your campus bookstores and will account for 40 percent of all your customers by the year 2020. Although millennials and Gen Z have many similarities, they respond differently to marketing tactics. We put together a comprehensive guide for college stores on how to market to Gen Z students to help your campus bookstore reach them.

“You’re a wizard, Tim,” are the words I wish I heard when I was an eleven-year-old boy, hoping to leave the monotony of muggle life, by being whisked away to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen, instead a studious Ravenclaw like me ended up writing about it for Foreword Online. Our fellow wizards at BYU-Idaho reinvigorate the spirit of Harry Potter each year by throwing a Golden Snitch Scavenger Hunt. Witches and wizards across campus flock to get their hands on the golden snitch and join in the fun.

Your website is your online business card; If you want customers to choose you as their textbook provider, it must draw them every semester. Websites are an interactive point of entry for customers to your business, so yours should be intuitive and relatable.

Twenty years ago, if you called video gaming a sport, people would think… why? It would sound outlandish that video games would become so prominent in society that they’re considered a professional sport. Times have changed as esports are here and they aren’t going away anytime soon. Worldwide viewer counts exceed nearly all traditional sports. The purview of gaming used to be a group of nerdy kids hanging out together in their parent’s basement with snacks and sodas, playing the latest game in a LAN party. Now gaming tournaments take place on massive stages before a cheering audience.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is on the horizon. Students will flock to their pens and keyboards to work on their submission, however, one thing every NaNoWriMo participant needs is a quiet place to write. This is a great opportunity for campus bookstores to connect with students and offer helpful resources for NaNoWriMo prep.

Arc, or Advanced Retail Center, functions as a hub managing textbook and merchandise inventory, invoice and sales processing, monthly accounting and analyzing store data. Its interface allows you to find the information you need quickly. Below, find ways to speed up your workflow with Arc.