How to Market a Movie and Build an Audience for Your Films

Article and Video by Colette Nichol, Solo Filmmaker and Story Strategist

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes

If you’re going to make a movie or are just finishing post, you need to know about marketing a movie. Marketing anything for the first time (let alone a movie) can be overwhelming. So just take it one step at a time. Come up with a logical plan. Then follow the plan and assess your results.

Whether marketing a documentary or a narrative film, the goal is to get views and build your audience. This post won’t be focused on how to make money from your marketing. I assume that if this is your first film, you’re not attempting to recoup a $1,000,000 budget. Instead, you want to ensure that more people than just your close family and friends watch your movie.

While you’re at it, it’s smart to build an audience you own if you’re planning on making more movies.

Marketing one movie is hard enough. You don’t want to start from scratch every time you release a new film.

When trying to get the word out about your first film, the goal should be to get influential people to see it rather than try to sell it. If you’re already done with the festival circuit, I don’t recommend putting up a paywall on your film. In other words, give your movie away if you don’t have a name yet. Just be aware that most festivals won’t show a film that has been available anywhere online.

So wait to start your core online marketing efforts until after you’re done with the festival circuit. Everything in this article is just my opinion. At the end of the day, you have to do what makes sense for your movie. But from working in marketing for years and seeing how most first features get seen by almost NOBODY, I truly don’t think that trying to sell your first narrative film is the best option for most filmmakers in most cases.

But if your first feature is a high-quality documentary that appeals to a wide audience, then you need a different strategy.

You should try to recoup your budget and then some.

But let’s say that this is your first film. It’s of medium quality. You didn’t spend much to make the movie. And more than anything, you want to build a name for yourself, get lots of views, and start building an audience. Perhaps, you’d like this film to give you the attention you can turn into your next film.

Cool, let’s discuss.

Marketing Your Film in the Attention Economy

Let’s talk about eyes.

And attention.

You might have heard someone say we live in an attention economy. Everyone is fighting for our attention; if they win, they make money.

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Technically we’ve always been in an attention economy.

I mean, if I was trying to barter my cow for your 10 lb bag of grain, I still needed you to pay attention to me. But the difference is that today people are buying and selling attention.

On social media, your attention IS the product. Facebook only makes money by selling your attention to businesses that need eyeballs on their marketing materials.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. The Attention Economy

2. Being Strategic when Marketing Your Film

3. Niche Audience Outreach

4. Video SEO Techniques

5. Building an Audience You Own

6. 15 Ways to Market a Movie

7. Common Questions about Marketing a Movie

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Be Strategic When Marketing Your Film

So how do filmmakers compete in a land that is saturated with marketers trying to gobble up everyone’s attention?

You’ve got to be strategic!

Just entering your magnum opus (i.e. treasured film) into a few festivals isn’t going to cut it.

Why not?

Because film festivals are dying, and even in their prime, they had small audiences.

Even if you get your film into some of the top film festivals worldwide, you’ll still only have access to a few thousand people. And, if your film isn’t one of the tippity-top most-anticipated films in the festival, you might only have 100 people watch it. Even with festivals doing online streaming, if your film gets crowded out by the latest Kristen Stewart indie darling, you’re not getting the views.

The established players will be gobbling up the attention.

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So what do we do?

I know this sounds a little doom and gloom, and I’m sorry about that. Luckily there are three strategic solutions that I’ve got for you today.

1) Do niche audience outreach.

2) Use video SEO techniques.

3) Build an audience that you own.

These solutions are for filmmakers putting up their films online without any payment gates.

Your goal is simply to get as many people to watch your films or videos as possible. You’re not trying to sell tickets or make money from rentals or anything else. In other words, this is a strategy for new filmmakers who need to build an audience and get their films seen by more than just a few hundred people at a film festival.

PART 1: DO NICHE AUDIENCE OUTREACH

MARKET YOUR MOVIE TO INFLUENCERS AND POOLS OF VIEWERS

If you’ve made a film that will appeal to a niche audience, getting eyes on your film is WAY easier.

For example, if you make a film about a man who has dedicated one month of his life every year to planting 10,000 trees, there’s a niche audience for that film. This would be considered an environmental film with a focus on trees, and you automatically know your audience.

What next?

You create a master plan spreadsheet with all the people/organizations interested in your topic and how to contact them.

How do you do this?

1) First, list of all the main places where your niche audience hangs out online. From Facebook groups to Reddit forums to the channels they watch on YouTube.

2) Next, you create a list of all the big organizations that care about this topic.

From Sierra Club to David Suzuki Foundation and any other big organizations you can think of.

3) Next, list all the local organizations that care about this topic. Y

our local tree huggers club and environmental activist groups.

​FYI, this works just as well for hunters, race car enthusiasts, and tar sands lovers as it does for tree savers. So apply this to your niche topic, and get to work!

4) Now that you have your main lists of groups and places, you need to create your contact plan. 

You can contact big organizations directly through their marketing or PR department. And you can also just DM the social team. You decide how you’re going to reach out. And add that to your spreadsheet.

5) Finally, when you’ve decided on the release date for your film, reach out to all the groups and people on your list.

Tell them you have a film about a topic they might find interesting. Share a link with them so they can watch it. Don’t ask anyone for anything. Just share your film and tell them about it and why they might enjoy it. Let them know they’re welcome to share the film with their audience if they think it might fit.

That’s it!

This alone will get you 10x the views you would have gotten from a film festival and the chance to go “viral” within your niche.

PART 2: USE VIDEO SEO TECHNIQUES

MARKET YOUR DOCUMENTARY FILMS TO ONLINE AUDIENCES USING VIDEO SEO

Now that we’ve covered the outreach strategy, you might consider doing video SEO for your films and videos.

This is something that typically starts before you’ve even hit record. If you’ve made something that fits into either an existing genre that people are searching for online or a niche interest, then video SEO could work for you.

I’ve written a blog post all about the topic of video SEO i.e. how to get your videos found by your audience online.

VIDEO SEO

If you’re a niche filmmaker or video creator, I recommend you check out the article I wrote all about video SEO. This will cover the basics of getting your films and videos found on Google and YouTube. It will also cover the basics of why you might need to optimize your website for search even more than your movie.

If your main interest is making big genre films like horror movies or rom-coms, then video SEO won’t likely apply to you.

But for everybody else, doing video SEO right can mean getting thousands of views per month with little effort.

PART 3: BUILD AN AUDIENCE YOU OWN

YOU DON’T OWN YOUR SOCIAL AUDIENCE, SO WHAT DO YOU OWN?

Now, if your goal is to make more movies, then it’s smart to start building an audience.

But doing this on the socials alone is a bad idea.

Wait, what?

Why’s that!?

Because social platforms have been known to delete accounts accidentally or simply cancel the accounts of people whose political views (or social, religious, ecological, or big-issue-of-the-moment views ) differ from those supported by the current regime in your country.

You might think this doesn’t apply to you.

But ANYONE can be accidentally deleted or frozen out of their social accounts. And it happens to innocent social users every single day.

I’ve been in the entrepreneurial space for a while now. So I’ve met many people who are very active on social media. And I’ve heard way too many horror stories from people who have built large social followings only to have their accounts frozen or destroyed.

A good friend of mine had her Instagram and Facebook accounts completely disappear overnight without getting it back.

And unless you’re famous already, the social platforms don’t care about you. There is no customer support, and you’ve just lost seven years of work building an online audience.

That’s why ANYONE serious about making films long-term will need to build an audience they own. This means you either need to become so famous that you have “brand” recognition and your audience flocks to you, or you build an email list.

Maybe you’ll do both!

But it’s easier to build an email list than to get famous.

The key takeaway here is that when you build an email list, you own those emails.

Until, of course, someone unsubscribes from your mailings. Same as with social. But the difference is that nobody can cancel or delete your email list. The same cannot be said for your social accounts.

We don’t have time to learn how to build that email list. But I’ll be sharing more about that and how to build an audience in my Zero Budget Solo Filmmaking Workshop!

Ideas for Marketing a Movie

15 Ways to Market a Movie

1. Use TikTok to seed interest in your film. Post every day to build an audience.
2. Write at least 50 loglines to find the snappiest way to describe your film in your marketing materials.
3. Use the best logline as the basis for a trailer that’ll capture attention.
4. When you create your trailer, include the movie’s hook and some surprising or eye-catching footage that seeds curiosity.
5. Create a website or landing page for your film. Put your film on the website for free or with a payment gate.
6. Make sure you capture emails on your movie website so that you can market to that audience in the future. Entice people to join your email list with a free gift.
7. Run targeted Facebook ads with your movie trailer. Focus on the demographic that’s most likely to watch the film.
8. Contact influencers who have a connection to your movie’s topic.
9. Think of film festivals as a marketing strategy rather than a means of distribution or a way to make money.
10. Do a screening in your local city, and invite influencers.
11. Run a competition related to the topic of your film.
12. Create an event related to your film’s theme, genre, or message.
13. Use video SEO to get organic views for your film.
14. Set up interviews about your film with local radio stations, TV stations, and newspapers.
15. Remember that marketing starts before you hit record. Make something within a genre that’s easier to market and sell, like horror or niche documentaries.

Common Questions about Marketing a Movie

How do you promote and market a movie?

There are as many ways to promote and market a movie as there are movies. But the most obvious way is to lean on legacy media and influencers to get the word out about your movie. If you have a strong making-of-the-movie story, it can be easier to get PR opportunities. In addition, if you make a documentary that has wide appeal, it can be easier to get onto TV shows and radio stations. All media platforms need content, so if you’re telling a story that’s captivating, it should be able to get free publicity.

How much does it cost to promote a movie?

Promoting a movie costs as much money as you have to spend. If you made a low-budget movie for $10,000, you’re probably not going to spend a million to promote it. But it’s worth allocating at least 30% of your total budget to marketing your movie. So if you have a $50,000 budget, then you spend $35k on making the film and $15k on marketing the film.

When should I start marketing for a movie?

You should start marketing your movie the second you get the movie idea.

In other words, before you write a screenplay and roll into pre-production, you need to know if the film has the potential to gather an audience. Have a rough idea of what audience size you can expect. From there, you can create a budget that makes sense. Once you’re heading into pre-production, it wouldn’t hurt to start your social media marketing campaign. You can use TikTok to start building an audience with behind-the-scenes content.

How can video marketing help promote a movie?

Video marketing can help promote a movie.

You can create engaging trailers, share behind-the-scenes footage, and make teasers and sneak peeks. You can also conduct interviews with the cast, encourage user-generated content, collaborate with influencers, and use social media advertising to generate excitement and reach a wider audience for your movie.

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Read On! More Filmmaking Articles You’ll Love:

Filmmaking Basics Every Beginner Needs to Know

Cinematic Lighting: Epic Film Lighting Guide for Beginners

iPhone Filmmaking Tips for Beginners

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Learn Filmmaking and Get the Gear Guide

If you’re interested in learning filmmaking, check out the Solo Filmmaking Mentorship Program I created for aspiring filmmakers and video creators. It usually goes live once per year. So I recommend getting the Story Envelope Filmmaking letter which comes out a couple of times per month. That way, you can get filmmaking tips for free and find out when the filmmaking course is going live again.

Also, before you go, grab the Solo Filmmaking Gear Guide and Checklist for Beginners.

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