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Filmmaking resources for indie filmmakers, including, screenwriting, financing, producing and film distribution

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5 Simple Steps To Help You Sell Your Movie On The Internet

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For years, filmmakers have faced uphill battles when it comes to making films and getting them out there for the world to see. Just finding funding for production on its own was (and still is) an amazing achievement. But once that a film is finished there’s still the matter of distribution. In this post, you’re going to learn how to sell your movie on the internet.

Distribution is simply the process of releasing your film for public consumption. In the past, the entire distribution process was safeguarded by a bunch of powerful conglomerates. And after a tiring tour on festival circuit, many filmmakers went into deals with these companies, lucky to sign even a crappy distribution deal. Thankfully, those days are done.

The internet has quite literally changed the game. As an indie filmmaker, you now have the ability to sell your film in popular marketplaces like iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, VUDU (and more) without a distribution deal.

sell your movie on the internet

5 Simple Steps To Help You Sell Your Movie On The Internet

While access to the marketplaces is exciting, you are now responsible for managing your own promotion. So taking time to focus on the following fundamentals is a good start. With that in mind, here are 5 key steps that you’ll want to remember.

  • Know Your Market – You’re never going to appeal to everyone. Just because streaming video puts your film in front of potentially millions of people, that doesn’t mean they’ll all watch it. Instead, know your niche market and then promote your film to your focused fan base.
  • Trolls Talk – Like it or not, some people are just going to troll you and your work. Even the most popular filmmakers have haters. The key is knowing that even those who troll your stuff may end up seeing it just to see how much more they can hate it. The bottom line? Don’t be afraid of people hating you and your work.
  • Stand Out – What’s the hook of your movie? What really helps it stand out from all the other films people can watch? The ease with which you can sell your movie on the internet has given rise to a flood of movies. It’s vital that your film has a marketing hook that stands out and gets you and your work noticed.
  • Build A Following – It’s hard for me not to bring up music bands when it comes to modern moviemaking… Because a lot of things are similar. Just as bands often build up a following in their early days, modern filmmakers do the same. Use a mailing list, online streaming releases, and even production blogs to help get your film in front of potential fans.
  • Use Your Website – Your website is your hub for building that fan base, for finding an audience, for marketing, for networking, and even for selling your film. Simply put, you need a solid, well-made website.

All in all, it still takes a lot of work to sell your movie on the internet. But if you put forth the effort, you’ll find that today’s distribution options make it easier than ever to get your work noticed so you can further build your career. And if you want to learn more, check out this film distribution training system.

How To Optimize Your Movie Website For Sales

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Your movie website is one of the most important components of your movie marketing. This is because film distribution is shifting away from theatrical and DVD into video on demand. Your audience will most likely find out about your movie through the Internet. And it is important that you optimize your movie website for sales.

Before we get started, one of the most important components of a good movie website is hosting. Over the years, I have utilized Bluehost for most of my websites and I happily promote the company. (Bluehost pays me as an affiliate.) That said, any time I have a customer service challenge, the kind folks at Bluehost were quick to answer my calls.

Working with a great hosting company is essential. Doing so can help you avoid movie website madness. Especially when your movie business depends on someone clicking your BUY NOW button.

movie-website

How To Optimize Your Movie Website For Sales

If you have a movie website promoting your project, odds are good your site is NOT optimized for sales. If you’re like most filmmakers, you are trying to jam too much info into the site. So the first thing you need to do is remove all distractions.

Whenever I mention this in my film distribution coaching, invariably a client asks how to determine which aspects of the movie website are most distracting.

Optimizing your movie website is all about knowing which stage your project is in and creating appropriate goals. Most filmmakers have two objectives:

  1. Stage 1 – Build buzz for your film.
  2. Stage 2 – Sell your film.

If you’re still in building buzz, chances are good you have press kits, actor bios, reviews of your movie and anecdotes from the production. You probably also have about a gazillion other pages, including a behind the scenes photo gallery.

These sorts of website extras are fine for promotion. But once you finish the festival circuit, you need to optimize your movie website for sales. This means you will want to start funneling web traffic towards your BUY NOW button.

To understand this process, I suggest you install Google analytics on your movie website and monitor your traffic. Here is an example from a feature I worked on:

If you look closely, you’ll notice that many visitors ended up visiting pages that did not lead to a sale. This is like keeping money on the table. So to counter the confusion, I suggest simply removing distracting pages altogether.

When promoting your movie, the goal is to remove extra crap and keep what matters.

In this example, the end result is a very simple page that “funnels” people to our desired destination. When visitors click on “Buy NOW” they are redirected to our film on Amazon.

If you have a movie website, here are 5 movie website thoughts to help you avoid common movie website blunders:

1. Nobody cares about cast and crew bios – unless you are trying to get people to BUY NOW. If that’s the case, you can rest assured people won’t BUY NOW. They will spend all their time reading about your cast and crew… And after they read about your actors, they will exit your site.

Action Step: Cut the cast and crew bios. (Or at least make sure there is a BUY NOW button on the page.)

2. You have a bunch of reviews on your site with links to the review sites. You can now send your prospective paying audience to another website… Where they can not only read your reviews, but they can also read the reviews of other, competing movies and BUY THERE. Awesome!

Action Step: Cut the reviews. (Or make sure there is a BUY NOW button on the page.)

3. You decided that paying for a 3rd party email service is not worth the cost. So you decide to forgo all list building efforts. Because, after all – your list is your business. And without a list, you have no business. But somehow the $19 dollars a month for your Audience List is still too expensive (Aweber pays me to promote. But there are others, like Mail Chimp and Constant Contact and Vertical Response.)

Action Step: Make sure visitors have a chance to subscribe to your newsletter.

4. Google Analytics is too complicated. So you decided not to include it or track visitor data. As a result, you think people are coming to your site. But you aren’t sure where they come from, what pages they visit and most importantly – you have no clue which pages your visitors exit from.

Action Step: Please put Google Analytics on your site so you know your stats.

5. Instead of paying to have your site optimized for SEO, you decided instead to have your kid cousin create the site. It looks awesome, by the way. Full of all sorts of stuff that increases load time and confuses search engines. Nice work!

Action Step: Make sure your site is lightweight, fast loading and easy to navigate.

Obviously, I am taking on a satirical tone. But if you take time to optimize your movie website for sales, I think you will see a smoother visitor experience. And if you would like, I can personally review your movie website. Sign up for my film distribution coaching,

How To Promote Your Movie Fan Page On Facebook

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As a filmmaker, you need to be promote movie on Facebook.

I am assuming that you already have a personal profile. And if so, you know the platform allows you to stay in touch with friends, have conversations with co-workers and find pictures of your ex-girlfriend. (Not that I ever do those searches.)

But from a promotional perspective, Facebook is a powerful tool for filmmakers. With nearly a billion monthly users, Facebook is one of the most awesome ways to reach your movie target audience.

If you are part of the Filmmaking Stuff community, you probably noticed how nearly 37,000 filmmakers participate and share ideas about filmmaking from all over the world.

How To Promote Your Movie Fan Page On Facebook

If you are wondering how to promote your movie on Facebook, the first thing you need to do is create a page. To get started, open a new tab and log into Facebook. Once you are logged into Facebook, follow this link create a Movie Fan Page.

Step 1 – Set Up Your Movie Fan Page

When you click the link above, you will be redirected to a web page that asks you to pick your page type. If you’re promoting a movie, choose “entertainment” and then pick “movie.” Facebook will then ask you for the name of your movie.

Promote Your Movie On Facebook

From there, Facebook will ask you to log into your account. If you do not have an account, (and you should), you’ll have to create one. Once complete, your Movie Fan Page will be set. All you gotta do is fill in pertinent information about your movie, including a description, photos, links to your movie website and possibly, your movie trailer.

how to promote your movie on facebook

Step 2 – Invite Your Friends to “Like” Your Page

Your next step is to reach out to your Facebook friends and invite them to “Like” your Movie Fan Page. Depending on your genre and storyline, not all of your friends will respond to your request.

Don’t take it personally. Many of my movie projects have been ignored by friends, probably because they are over-inundated with various requests from Angry Birds, Farmville and other distractions.

Assuming you can break through the noise, the advantage to utilizing Facebook to promote your Movie Fan Page is your ability to connect with your audience. Unlike BIG Hollywood power-players, your fans have access to you. This allows you to add value to their experience, beyond simply watching your movie.

By cultivating these relationships, your audience is more likely to promote your movie to their friends, which helps you build your fan-base and make more sales, without spending much money.

Step 3 – Link Your Movie Fan Page to Your Movie Website

When you’re looking to promote your Movie Fan Page, it is important to understand Facebook works best when you supply your followers with relevant info and updates. Where does this info come from? Your movie blog! (Affiliate link.) I’m assuming you have a blog, right?

If you study how successful filmmakers utilize Facebook, you’ll often notice they write content or create videos for their blog. Then they share the info on their Movie Fan Page. The content is usually a behind the scenes production diary. Or in the case of documentaries, it is usually info related the subject matter of the movie.

Step 4 – Promote Your Movie Fan Page

In the event you would like to promote your Movie Fan Page further, Facebook  provides you with some very targeted advertising opportunities to reach your target audience. For example, if you are promoting a zombie movie, you will actually have the ability to reach out to zombie enthusiasts and get them to “Like” your Movie Fan Page.

One of the coolest aspects of building a Movie Fan Page is the ease at which you can build buzz and community around your title.

Step 5 – Update Your Movie Fan Page Frequently!

Marketing is a conversation. Goofy sales pitches and silly “Hey… Look at me…” stuff never works. You need to always think in terms of value. Will your next update add value to your audience? Again, the content needs to be relevant. It should spark a discussion and allow you to meet the people in your audience.

In turn,  your fans will respond favorably. This will be able to monitor word of mouth and find out what people are saying about your movie. And in the event you get a few spammers, you can moderate comments to ensure that the content doesn’t become stupid. (Nobody benefits from stupid content.)

In addition, some filmmakers allow fans to post photos to the fan pages. This sort of activity reinforces community and encourages word of mouth. For example, if your movie is in the festival circuit, you might ask your fans to post pictures of the screening. Then once the photo is posted, friends of these fans may see the picture – which may cause them to “Like” your Movie Fan Page too. But the hidden benefit of user generated content is – you don’t have to worry about generating additional content!

If you’d like to market your movie on Facebook, take a look at my Movie Fan Page system.