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

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How To Find A Niche Audience For Your Film

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Attend any film festival and you’ll probably hear a bunch of filmmakers rattling on about how you need to build an audience for your films. And while this sort of talk is trendy, I think it’s a crock of crap. You don’t need to build your own audience. But you do have to identify a niche audience for your film, figure out where these people congregate both online and offline and then get your film in front of them.

In other words, filmmaking is a lot more fun when people actually watch your movies. And it is even more fun when you’re able to make money from your work. Being able to understand, find and target a niche audience for your film lets you do just that.

Niche Audience For Your Film

How To Find A Niche Audience For Your Film

Major studios have the resources and funds to churn out a bunch of movies, each one targeting a different segment of the population. And even though most indie filmmakers don’t have millions to spend on marketing, learning how to target a niche audience is still essential. So how do you inexpensively find and engage a niche audience for your film? To begin with, you’ll want to take a few minutes to figure out one simple marketing element: Your Unique Selling Proposition, or USP.

Here are three simple questions to ask yourself to help with this:

  • What’s your movie about? 
  • In a sea of similar movies, what makes your film “unique?”
  • Does your movie already have an audience? 

At first glance, it is easy to answer “yes” to those two questions. Most filmmakers will say: “my movie appeals to everyone!” But that’s not an useful answer. Not everyone on earth has an interest in every film. And the reality is that certain people simply prefer one genre over another.

Here are a two ideas to help you see if your film has a niche audience. 

  • Is there a  print magazine devoted to the subject-matter featured in your film? 
  • Will a google search turn up large amounts of media on the subject-matter? 

If you have difficulty finding built-in audiences for your subject, you may have to broaden your search. For example, instead of focusing on “purple pinecones” you may need to focus on “pinecones.” Make sense?

Assuming you find websites, forums and publications, you’re in good shape. Make a list of these publications. Then reach out to the editors and community managers and build a relationship. When your film is ready, these people will help you spread word of mouth.

Knowing your niche audience lets you craft a targeted marketing message. And depending on your stage of production, this will help you generate crowdfunding income, test your concept, and eventually use targeted promotions to reach your ideal viewers. In short, being able to find the niche audience for your film can lead to much better results for your film and your filmmaking future. Don’t ignore it. And if you like this sort of filmmaking stuff, make sure you check out the filmmaker action pack.

The Shocking Truth About Your Movie Idea

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As a filmmaker your success depends on your ability to stand up and proclaim “I have a movie idea!” But the shocking (or not-so-shocking) truth is, everybody has a movie idea.Very few of these ideas will ever get made into a movie.

The trick is figuring out which movie idea actually has a chance of flickering across the big screen. And beyond imagination, which of your many movie ideas has the best chance for success? You may have heard a lot of different advice when it comes to making movies. In fact most filmmakers will tell you it’s better to take action and do something rather than doing nothing.

movie idea

I Have A Movie Idea

While I agree that doing something is better than nothing, we are in a world flooded with cheaply produced backyard indies. As a result, I urge you take a few moments to consider your chances for making money.

1. Choose Your Movie Idea Based on Demand

Before you turn your movie idea into a movie, I recommend that you consider your niche audience and create a marketing plan for reaching them.

Niche movie marketing is simply taking the time to evaluate how your movie idea will relate to a very targeted audience. For example, the horror genre is very broad. It includes slasher flicks, stalker flicks, gore flicks, zombies, vampires, psychos and killer aliens. And using this example, if your movie idea is based in horror – Your next goal is to find niche within the genre.

Killer Clowns would be an even tighter niche. And Killer Clowns From Outer Space would be even tighter.

In the same regard, finding your movie marketing niche is not solely defined by the genre. For example, you movie idea may lead you to a particular demographic, such as college students. In doing this, you may opt to focus all efforts on college publications and hosting screenings on campus.

You might even break your movie idea down further.

Maybe you will choose to create an Amish Teen Horror movie and focus your marketing towards the Amish communities of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Idaho. In this context, your movie marketing niche would revolve around geography.

By the way, I do not recommend creating an Amish Teen Horror, as the Amish are not a culture who watch movies.

So what is the major benefit for finding your movie marketing niche for your movie idea?

2. Movie Niche Internet Traffic

Many movie marketers have found out that trying to market to everybody is cost prohibitive. It is far easier to find your niche and concentrate all efforts to spreading word of mouth and encouraging audience engagement. In the years to come independent filmmakers will become increasingly dependent on internet traffic to drive movie sales.

If your movie website does not “speak” your visitor, then they will bounce off your movie website and never come back. It is significantly easier to sell your movie to someone who already loves the types of movies you’re selling. For example, a teen love story is not going to appeal to the same audience as the Killer Clown movie.

When you choose a movie idea that already has an established niche audience, it is much easier to optimize your movie website to not only attract your intended visitor, but convert these folks into paying movie watchers.

These people come to your website because they are searching for your type of movie. And the cool part? Utilizing several internet traffic estimators, modern moviemakers can find out how many people are searching for movies within a particular genre.

3. Building Community Around Your Filmmaking

With the emergence of non-discriminatory movie distribution, you must remember that YOU are responsible for building your audience. The amount of people who know you and like you and buy your movies will determine your success. This means your movie idea has to be refined…

If you don’t mind the idea of becoming “that guy,” creating several movies marketed to a well defined target audience makes it much easier to develop a following of people who enthusiastically devour your movies. And once established, having a following provides you with the opportunity to really get to know your audience. Which makes it much easier to say: “I have a movie idea.”

And if you want more info, download my filmmaker action pack.

How To Uncover The Proper Target Audience For Your Film

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The other day I posted this question to our Facebook Filmmaking Stuff community, who is your target audience? The responses were varied. Filmmakers chimed in with everything from “tweens” to “adults over 30.” Many filmmakers responded with the word: “Everybody!”

While I love the enthusiasm, without much exception, defining your audience by age or gender is extremely broad. And unlike the major movie studios, you do not have the marketing budget to support this.

Who_Is_Your_Target_Audience

Who Is Your Target Audience?

Every week at least one filmmaker emails me with something like this:

“I made a movie and we just won best picture at a regional festival you never heard of! Since my movie appeals to every man, woman and child on the planet, I want to sell it for a million dollars? How do I make this happen?”

Can you understand why this sentiment is seriously flawed?

If your movie does not have enough juice to get a an awesome distribution deal, your returns will be limited by your own marketing and distribution efforts.

Let me be very clear.

I have been working in distribution for a half-decade and I can tell you that even great movies end up with crappy distribution deals. The truth is, most film distribution deals suck. And without a marketing budget to reach a global audience, you must focus on finding your niche audience.

One of the first places to find your audience is the local newsstand. If there are print magazines devoted to your movie subject, then those subscribers are part of your target audience. In addition to print, you will want to explore the Internet for online publications.

Open up a spreadsheet and add these publications to your list. Your goal is to create a database of the top fifty publications geared towards your niche audience.

Make a list of 5 ideal movie fan categories for your title

Once you create your list of print publications catering to your niche, your next step is to understand your audience. To do this, reach out to the top ten publications on your list and ask them to forward information about their subscriber demographics. Since magazine revenue is based on understanding their subscribers, most established publications will have this info readily available.

From there, you will want to study this info and get to know your audience.

Who are these people? Are they primarily men? Women? Teenagers? Do they have jobs? Are they business owners or unemployed? What is the average income? Are they college educated? Do they live in the city or on the farm?

From this information, you can create audience profiles for five ideal types of movie fans that you want to target within your niche.

Figure out why these fans should watch your movie.

In addition to getting inside the head of your audience, your next task is to figure out why these people enjoy your genre. Why would they want to watch your movie? What makes your movie unique from the other, competing movies in existence? How will your movie to appeal to viewing needs of your audience?

Who Is Your Target Audience: Action Steps

1. Who is your primary target audience?
Ex: Mid-west, male college kids who love zombie movies. 

2. What makes your movie different from competing movies?
Ex: Our movie is about zombies that attack ninjas.

3. Why should your audience spend two hours watching your movie?
Ex: Fangoria says: Funniest zombie movie since Shaun of the Dead!

Taking time to understand your audience will enable you to create an image of your ideal audience member. This information will then be utilized when you create and refine your marketing message.

If you have a movie you’re looking to sell, you may also want to check out How To Sell Your Movie.