-23 DIT Filmmaking Guide – Marketing Your Film – L5S2

Help Grow the Community!

MARKETING

Have you heard?

            The idea of marketing seems very simple. Getting people to know about what you have to offer. How hard could that be? I mean, we meet people everyday, or at least I do. But, here’s the thing, you need to meet hundreds of people a day, or they at least have to meet you and your film.   So, how do you get the word out?

            Check out: Lazy Ass Stoner for everything from website design to marketing!

Online Marketing

Your Website is the master of its own Domain!

This website should have been started about the same time you begin writing your script in order for you to blog your process and attract fans to follow you. Hopefully one of the producers is tech savvy and can build a decent website, that you can inundate with content. If not check out wordpress… and a full tutorial at WordPress Walkthrough Series 2015 – Bluehost.

Your web presence is going to be the key to any successful DIY marketing campaign you will launch. Create and utilize all social media sites but your web page should be the driving force behind all of those other secondary pages. It is a good idea to try and blog at least once a day, and more on relative websites if possible          

Content is king! The more you have the more likely someone is to stumble upon it! (All puns intended!)

Check out: Marketing Your Website csekcreative,

and Brand New 5 Step Strategy To Launch A Website And Profitable Marketing Campaign,

as well as 22 Internet Marketing Tips You Should Already know.

Then a longer documentary, INTERNET MARKETING. Jamie Lewis the Movie: How to get rich.

Film Festivals

Schmooze and Booze 

A major portion of gaining awareness about your film is running it through the film festival circuit. Consider this a form of direct marketing where you will be able to get actual audiences to experience your film the way it should be experienced. In a theatre!

You may not get into every festival you enter, but make sure to cast a wide net in order to leverage this cheap marketing ploy. As I said earlier it would behoove you to research specific festivals that are most appropriate to your specific film. This will increase your odds in gaining acceptance and an audience for your film. It is possible but statistically unlikely that your film will be “picked up” by a studios, but if it is, good for you! If not you have at least gained exposure and some valuable press material that will be exceptionally useful in all other areas of you marketing campaign.

Creating a without a box profile for your film will make multiple festival submissions a breeze.

            Check out Film Festival Deliverables 1- 4

and The Importance of Film Festivals ConorSchlosser92

As well as Very Few Films Generate Significant Revenue From Film Festivals TheStreet

Social Media Marketing

No more pictures of your breakfast please!

As anyone who knows how to use a computer and hasn’t been living under a rock for the last decade social Medea is now the number one means of expressing ideas and connecting with the people, consumers and like minded people that in the past would have required a large amount of phone calls, print advertising, and bulk mailings. Today it is literally possible to connect with millions of online users via your fingertips. If you are new to social media as a marketing tool it can be overwhelming. The number of social sites you can be a part of is constantly growing and expanding with many of them allowing you to link them together so a single post can span several of your social sites at once.

Currently the top sites you will need to make profiles for are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, tumbler, etc.

Check out: hootsuite for an easy way to post to many of you social sites as well as through the css of your website.   And manageflitter to manage your twitter account and followers.

Watch the playlist, Ted Talks: Social Media Marketing,

 

and 22 Brilliant Social Media Marketing Tips,

as well as 5 Tips to Make Social Media Marketing Less Overwhelming. Then look at a few long training videos, such as, Instagram Social Media Marketing Training, and 7 Steps to Facebook Success – Free Facebook Training with Mari Smith, as Project #LIVE – Twitter – Advertising & Marketing & Social Media Documentary – HD – 2014.

Cross Media Marketing

Peas and carrots!

If you have the time and the project lends itself to other forms of media, ie comics, books, web series, apps, etc. then it may be a good idea to have these things created in order to expand the world of the film as well as the fan base.

Check out Noir Business Plan Marketing

Press Releases

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

What is a press release? Basically a who, what, where, and when of your project that is set up to easily allow news sources to report on you! The more you give them the easier their job is, therefor making it more likely for them to report on you. The closer to home your film is the better. The idea is to start small and hope that other larger news forums will pick up on the story. Press releases can be a valuable tool throughout the entire process of the film. If you are an independent producer in a small town pulling this all together, it is more then likely that the community and local press will cover your ambition and drive to create. Any outside press will be very useful to your marketing campaign as well as your crowd funding campaign and website optimization. You will need to constantly update your press release based on the stage of accomplishment you have reached.

  1. Once you have your producers and your pitch together, this will aid in awareness for crewing and give you some legitimacy.
  2. once you have locked down preproduction and are preparing for principal photography.
  3. when you wrap the film.
  4. Upon completion and trailer release.
  5. Festival acceptance.
  6. Other updates.
  7. Where are they now!

            This keeps people and the press updated each step of the way. Think about as simply keeping people in the “know” about what you are doing.

            Check out: How To Write The Perfect Press Release – Condensed

and Press release tutorial WFDMacedonia

as well as Press Release Marketing Strategies Revealed Greg Writer

and How To Submit A Press Release TAWNSEZSTEPS

Comment on with Facebook

Help Grow the Community!