Good movies are works of art. However, a movie is also a good or service. You could have the best movie in the world, but if nobody is aware of it, then nobody will see it.
How To Market A Movie: Steps To Reach An Audience To Your Movie
The traditional movie goer has found movies on billboards, magazine ads, TV ads, radio, and street posters over the years. Now, the new tools they use to find movies are social media, search engines, YouTube, online entertainment pages, and online groups. A good marketing campaign can generate excitement for months or even years before the film is released. How To Build An Audience To Your Movie Marketing a movie is actually about making a plan to generate awareness about the release of the film over a long period of time.
A good marketing campaign should create a buzz 6 months prior to the movie’s release.
steps and considerations you need to take in order to build an audience to your movie and draw the passion to your movie:
1. Know Your Audience The first thing you need to do when marketing a movie is to get to know your audience.
For example: Is it a rom-com aimed at young lovers?
Is it about the environment?
Is it a super hero movie?
Is it a drama ?
2. target the movie accurately – create the right content for marketing – use the right channel to reach the right people For example, if your movie is targeted at the youth, it is meaningless to promote the same marketing campaign for a 70+ drama. If your movie is about kids, your marketing content should be targeted at the parents and not necessarily at the children.
Generate Awareness Long before Release
The goal of any marketing campaign should be to build awareness about the movie.
You can do this by:
Announcing the movie – revealing the name of the movie – releasing the first trailer – announcing the cast – providing teasers – providing behind the scene images and videos and more. If you can create anticipation even before the movie is complete, you will have a good word of mouth. It is better to hold back a few plot revelations as your marketing campaign since disclosing everything too early could spoil the fun.
Instead, ask your audience “what is it about” and keep the suspense going. 3. Use Social Media To Reach Your Audience All your social media channels like facebook, instagram, X and YouTube are the most suitable channels to promote your movie. You need not wait for the movie to release before you begin your promotion.
You can share trailers, snippets, and BTS materials and generate an audience.
3. Share things like: – introduce the characters – share funny moments – share BTS scenes – share shoot dates – cast interviews – character posters – countdown to release – making of videos – surprise reveal and more. Enable your audience to walk along with you during your shoot.
4. The Trailor – Your Movie’s Best Friend The trailer is considered as one of the most popular tools for movie marketing. A good trailer is always a part of the entire marketing campaign of a movie but it can also be used as a standalone short video on social media channels.
Post different versions of your trailer for different social media channels.
Share highlights and short clips to tease the audience about your movie without really giving the plot away. Remember the first 3 seconds are the most important to retain a viewer’s attention from stopping and getting on to the next video. You could try: – providing a dialogue snippet – focusing on an interesting part of the plot or – leaving things to the audience’s imagination – what’s this about and then turn into the next video.
- Make Your Movie Shareable What good is a good movie if people don’t share it? If the audience has loved a funny dialogue, a plot twist, or an emotional scene, they would want to share it. Create short videos of – popular quotes – interesting scenes – small challenges and questions to your audience – fan theories – BTS videos – funny memes – viral posters and slogans – anything that will make your movie shareworthy Share any or all of these so that your audience is your promoter.
- Enable Findability Your movie promotion should promote your movie in a manner that your target audience can find your movie easily by searching for things like – the name of your movie – your release date – cast – director – reviews – showtimes – soundtrack You should promote your content in such a way that Google should prioritize your content higher for those keywords.
7. Use Search Engine Optimization and digital marketing for films techniques such as content marketing, video marketing, search engine marketing, social media promotion, and online advertising to make your movie easier to discover.
8. Collaborate With The Creators And The Talent You actors, crew, director, and music director have their own set of followers. Get them to do a little bit of marketing on your behalf. Create content that tells your actors about their character in the story and interview your cast members.
This way you will do two jobs at once, marketing your film and promoting the people who are part of your film.
- Share BTS When it comes to sharing a behind-the-scenes shoot is the most popular and most effective form of promoting any video. Share videos and images from – the sets – the rehearsals – locations – costumes – makeup and many more. When your audience sees the work that goes into the film, it might intrigue them into wanting to be part of it.
- Generate Buzz as The Film’s Release Is Closer As the filmgets nearer to its release date, you need to build your momentum with your audience. Keep engaging with your audience by – sharing the first look of your posters – release of your trailer – sharing behind-the-scenes – announcing your cast – sharing your release date – character reveal – counting down to release – cast interviews – more behind-the-scenes etc. 10. Keep Your Buzz Even After Release You can continue to keep your buzz alive even after you release your movie by: – sharing reviews and reactions – sharing awards and nominations – announcing your franchise – announcing any new projects -sharing of any new production work – sharing of your box office numbers – sharing of more behind the scenes – announce the sequels 11.
Use Multiple Channels You may not be able to use all channels for your promotion at one time but you should have a plan for multi-channel promotion through different online channels.
Use – Facebook video, stories, and live – Instagram reels, stories, and tv – YouTube – TIk Tok – Google my business Do tailor your content accordingly to use the best of each of these channels. Final words on film promotion Following the above steps will generate a buzz about your film. Remember timing is everything, and keeping your audience excited for your content will have them coming back for more. Keep a track of your engagement and strategy accordingly.
If you want a complete movie marketing plan, you might need a marketing associate.