Five Marketing Tips for Independent Films

Marketing an independent film is an important factor in its success in today’s saturated market with countless options for consumer eyeballs.

In order to compete with major studio movies, television, podcasts and all other content people can devour, you will have to get creative and ask others for help. Here are five tips from us on how to make your film stand out:

 1. Look for influencers, keeping in mind your film’s audience. You could start by doing a simple keyword search of some of your film’s core themes. This will help you find influential organizations, magazines, celebrities, forums, Reddit, bloggers and more that can help get the word out about your film. These are natural places online where your audience congregates. Look on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for people that have large followings that would be interested in the messages you are sharing.

 2. Make use of digital tools online and utilize them to tell stories around your film. Think about your film’s themes and how you can use social media, videos, images, email newsletters, blog posts, your website and even podcasts to create shareable content. You can easily create a website for your film these days using sites such as WordPress and Squarespace. This should act as the main hub for information on your film. From here you can link to your social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter. During the filmmaking process, you can even take videos, stills or add commentary that can become a behind-the-scenes feature. These can later be shared on social media or on your website to create a buzz around you film. For more in-depth content, consider using Twitter, Instagram or Tumblr to create profiles around a character in your film, or Spotify to create character playlists.

   3. Develop a community around your film using the content. If you initially used a crowdfunding website such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo to raise money for your film, this is a great place to start your community. You can also use your content strategy from #2 to create ads on Facebook to find more fans and continue to build a community. E-mail marketing is another great way to maintain relationships with your audience. You can create e-blasts to send to your community and ask others to share them as relevant.

   4. Host a contest/sweepstakes around your film. The best contests engage the audience by asking for photos, videos or other content that can be shared. Incentivize your contest with prizes, and then collect entries via email or social media. Be sure to encourage your audience to share their content throughout the duration of the contest.

   5. Host an event at local venue like a movie theater. Once you have a community, content and possibly a contest in place, hosting an event is a great way to create a buzz around your upcoming film. You can hold a writer/director question and answer session, a live screening of clips, or an announcement of contest winners. Encourage those attending to use social media to talk about the event and your film.

There you have it, five great tips for marketing your independent film! If you are interested in looking into an independent film distributor, visit our website Quiver Digital to stream your film on iTunes, Hulu, Netflix and more video retailers across the web.