With the demise of traditional DVD distribution, you as a filmmaker are responsible for your audience. Why? Because your audience is your business – and without an audience you will have no movie business.
Having an audience database for your movie is essential.
Whenever I give talks, I make people repeat this aloud. This gets a few chuckles, but kidding aside – this is important stuff for any filmmaker.
Building Your Audience Database
As a professional filmmaker, you need to build a database of people who know you and know your work. But don’t let the word “database” throw you off. A database doesn’t have to be complex. At the miminum, it is simply a list of the names and emails of your subscribers.
Once you have this info, you can easily generate personalized email, letters and phone calls to your audience. And having a list allows you to directly promote your current movie project or an upcoming movie project.
Tools For Building Your List
Most of your list building efforts will happen online. So you need hosting for your website. And I suggest you go with a company that allows you to easily set up a WordPress powered website. That way, you’ll be able to grab a copy of the fully optimized WordPress Template for Filmmakers.
But let’s face it… Even with the greatest movie website on earth – The truth is, most of your movie website visitors will NOT buy your movie on the first visit to your site. Think about it. Most people are busy.
So in addition to marketing your current movie (and all of your future movies), you will need an easy way to capture and collect visitor email addresses. I recommend Aweber as an easy way to build your audience list. And after you grab Aweber, I suggest utilizing this tool to increase subscriber opt-ins.
About Jason Brubaker
Jason Brubaker is a Hollywood based Independent Motion Picture Producer and an expert in Video On Demand distribution. He is focused on helping YOU make, market and sell movies more easily by growing your fan base, building buzz and creating community around your title. He is also available for speaking engagements.