Bruce
Bisbey…please follow us at: https://dumbdogproductionsllc.blogspot.com
PRODUCER OF MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION
Defining What A PMD Is. I think this is of critical
importance as this nascent crew position develops. A PMD is not just a social media
manager. To be a PMD a person must be involved
in all aspects of a film’s distribution and marketing, including audience
identification and engagement, creating a distribution and marketing plan,
budgeting that plan, creating marketing elements, creating and managing other
assets to help promote the film, etc. All of this in concert with the
filmmakers.
- Learning how to identify audience…
- Learning how to engage that audience…
- Develop marketing tools for the film (after understanding who the audience is)…
- Workshop those marketing tools…
- Writing a distribution and marketing plan for their films…
- Evaluating different distribution options…
- Learning how to budget that plan…
This movie
marketing plan provides grassroots strategies you can implement over a 12 week
period.
Movie
Marketing Plan Overview
The first
step in your movie marketing process involves setting realistic goals about
your project. Take a moment to answer the following questions:
How many
movie views / unit sales must you sell to break even?
Who is your
general target audience?
What do you
hope to accomplish over the next 12 weeks?
WEEK 1 – DEFINE
YOUR MOVIE’S TARGET AUDIENCE
There is a
saying in movie marketing that everybody is nobody and niches make you riches.
With the democratization of film distribution it is now essential to define
your target audience before you even put pen to paper. Is there an audience
that already exists for your movie? Where does your audience congregate online?
We will
provide you with some tips on how to define your market.
Make a list
of 5 ideal movie fan categories for your title.
Figure out
why these fans should watch your movie.
WEEK 2 – SET
UP YOUR MOVIE WEBSITE
A large part
of movie marketing involves internet marketing. The reason for this is simple:
We are quickly approaching a time where there will be no delineation between
your computer and your television. Everything will be on demand and accessible.
As a result of these changes, you will need to drive targeted Internet traffic
to your desired point of sale and convert these visitors into customers.
In your
second week, we are going to cover the following topics:
How to
create a promotional movie website (ad) fast.
The purpose
of an audience list (ad) and why you need it!
WEEK 3 –
KNOW YOUR PROSPECTIVE AUDIENCE
While there
are no hard and fast rules in the brave new world of indie filmmaking, without
retail DVD distribution, your most important goal (aside from making the movie)
is to seek out your audience for both your current project and your filmmaking
career. To many, this type of audience engagement represents a paradigm shift.
Your
audience is your movie business. Without an audience, you simply have no
business!
Here is what
we are going to investigate in week three:
Discover
where your fans congregate, both online and offline.
Create a
list of popular publications that cater to your fans.
WEEK 4 –
TRACK EVERYTHING
In movie
marketing, it is very common for everybody involved in a project to present a
gazillion ideas on best marketing practices. But the truth is, the only good
marketing idea is the one that works. And the only way you know if your
strategy is working is when you test it.
In your
fourth week, you will set up tools so you can understand user behavior:
Add tracking
tools to your website.
Modify your
website to influence user activity.
WEEK 5 –
REFINE YOUR MOVIE MARKETING
Have you
ever noticed when a big studio releases a movie, they sometimes first push it
as an action flick. Then later, the advertisements shift to a love story? Why
does this happen? These changes take place because movie marketers are
consistently testing the movie messaging in front of sample audiences.
And it is
usually the audience, not the filmmaker who reveals what aspects of the movie
are most interesting and memorable.
During week
5, you will focus on the following:
Refine movie
messaging based on audience feedback.
Create your
hook and refine it to emphasize your unique story.
Get your
movie in front of influencers in your target market.
WEEK 6 –
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION FOR YOUR MOVIE
Since you do
not have a multi-gazillion dollar movie marketing budget like the big Hollywood
studios, you will focus on the internet. Your goal is to implement inexpensive
marketing strategies so you can drive targeted traffic to your website (in the
hopes these visitors will buy your movie). There are quite a few ways to do
this, but one of the most effective ways of attracting traffic is by creating
useful content, aimed at your target audience.
In week 6,
you will complete the following tasks:
Conduct
keyword research relevant to your audience.
Implement your
movie website, with SEO friendly framework.
Define your
content strategy, based on keyword research.
WEEK 7 –
CREATE RELEVANT CONTENT
When it
comes to movie marketing, creating relevant content is essential for attracting
visitors to your movie website. It is at this point when most filmmakers start
to feel overwhelmed, thinking they need to focus on busting out a gazillion
blog articles.
While
writing keyword specific, relevant content is a useful way to attract visitors,
writing is not the only way to create content. Internet content can be created
and delivered as audio, video and text. Since each prospective viewer has
preferred modality, your goal is to create a content strategy that incorporates
all three.
In week 7,
we will focus on fulfilling the following objectives:
We will
create and outline a content strategy based on movie/story/genre specific
keywords.
Then we will
figure out timeline for how frequently we will deliver the content.
WEEK 8 –
SPREAD THE WORD AND BUILD BUZZ
Here is the
thing. Let’s say you are making a zombie movie and you decide to conduct an
internet search for zombies. You will very quickly find thousands of websites
devoted to zombie movies. Unless you have all the time in the world, contacting
the owner of each blog or website is going to be impossible.
During week
8, your goal is to sort through the noise and focus on activity that will
garner us the greatest potential for results.
Build a
database of the top 50 publications in your niche.
Test several
low cost ads to drive targeted traffic to your movie website.
Refine your
trailer and post it everywhere!
You might
also want to distribute a press release.
WEEK 9 –
LEVERAGE SOCIAL NETWORKS AND BLOGGING COMMUNITY
A lot of
filmmakers are stupid when it comes to social networking. They look at the tool
and say “I HAVE A MOVIE. PLEASE (potentially) WASTE 2 HOURS OF YOUR TIME AND
WATCH IT!” While you know that your movie is way better than most the other
crap out there, the rest of the social community does not. And if you utilize a
crappy social networking strategy, the best we can say is: Good luck!
In week 9
your goal is to implement a social media strategy that encourages word of
mouth.
Engage with
potential users via social networking channels.
Implement a guest
posting strategy on several blogs.
WEEK 10 –
HIT THE RED BUTTON (AND LAUNCH!)
If you spend
all sorts of time and effort and money making your movie, the last thing you
want to do is wait around. You want to get your movie seen, sold and if
possible – maybe you can find a 3 picture studio deal in the process. While
movie marketing is not totally a science, your results (both good and not so
good) will be easy to measure.
In week 10,
we will hit the red button and see what works.
Divide our
launch strategy into several tiers and milestones.
Send copies
of your movie to popular review websites and schmooze for good reviews.
WEEK 11 –
UTILIZE THE POWER OF EMAIL
If you
subscribe to the exclusive Filmmaking Stuff Newsletter, you know that I really
believe in email marketing. I think it is a great way to stay in touch and to
build a relationship with your audience.
In week 11,
we are going to focus on creating and executing an email marketing campaign
(ad).
Write a
half-dozen targeted emails and send at pre-determined intervals.
Reach out to
other filmmakers and see if they would send similar emails to their list.
WEEK 12 –
GROW YOUR COMMUNITY!
By now,
these words should echo in your filmmaking mind: “My audience is my business.
Without an audience, I have no business.” When it comes to modern film
distribution, you can no longer plan on simply selling 10,000 DVDs to the big
box video rental chain, because that doesn’t exist anymore. Instead your
audience is your business – not just for your current project, but for all
future titles as well.
In week 12,
we will focus on creating long term community engagement.
Establish a
community for your fans.
Get fans
into a database that you control.
Sources,
References & Credits: Google, Wikipedia, Wikihow, Pinterest, IMDB, Linked
In, Indie Wire, Jason Brubaker, Film Making Stuff, Jon Reiss, Film Maker
Magazine, Paula Bernstein, Film Daily, The Numbers, Mental Floss, Quora, Insider
Monkey, Fast Company, Investopedia, Variety, No Film School
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Once again an interesting article.
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