Movie Marketing: How to Market Your Independent Film

Movie Marketing

Did you know that over 1.2 billion movie tickets were sold in 2019?

However, films like Avengers: Endgame aren’t the only movies that attract filmgoers each year. There are many film fanatics with a passion for indie films and small theaters.

If you’re hoping to grab the attention of indie film fans with your own independent flick, you might be wondering the best way to market your movie.

We’re here to fill you in. Keep reading below to learn the basics of movie marketing!

Evaluate Your Target Audience

Before you can start marketing your movie, you have to ascertain to whom you’re marketing it. Your target audience will determine which methods of marketing will be most effective.

Learn the specifics of your target audience, such as age, gender, location, etc. You can then research the types of marketing that are best suited for their demographic.

Develop a Movie Marketing Timeline

It’s possible to start marketing your film at any time, whether you’re still scoping out the best VFX companies London has to offer or you’ve already put the finishing touches on your film. However, before you can jump headfirst into promoting your indie film, you need to construct a concrete timeline.

Creating a movie marketing timeline will ensure you have enough content to cover your entire promotional period. If you release all your promotional material at the start, you’ll lose the potential to build up to the release. A timeline will make sure people are interested in your movie both three months and three weeks before release!

Use Available Resources

Many indie filmmakers are often strapped for cash, which makes film marketing difficult. However, there are plenty of free or inexpensive marketing tools available that novice marketers may be unaware of.

For those new to marketing, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube are great platforms to market on. Not only can you create free accounts, but you can advertise and promote your content for low rates.

Creating a website is another great way to market your movie. You don’t need coding experience to develop a website—platforms like WordPress and Squarespace make website development easy. You can also easily design graphics for your social media accounts with free websites like Canva.

Engage with Your Audience

The Hunger Games already had a massive following leading up to its film debut, but its movie marketing campaign was very strategically planned. Part of their campaign allowed fans to be sorted into one of the 12 districts in the story’s universe.

In order to build excitement for your movie, you have to engage with your target audience. The perfect marketing campaign offers an interactive gimmick like the one detailed above.

However, you can engage with your target audience with simple polls and questions accompanied with relevant hashtags. Fan culture is bigger than ever, so don’t be afraid to encourage your stars to interact with fans as well.

Build the Perfect Campaign

It can be intimidating to create a movie marketing campaign for your first indie film. However, the tips above will help you to create a captivating campaign for your latest passion project!

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