You Asked For It - A Marketing Cheat Sheet For Distribution

+ where to get the best bang for your buck

Hello and welcome to another going-into-the-weekend read!

Once again, it was a blur of a week as I had to prioritize pre-production on two separate projects that will shoot in April and May so it’s all hands on deck right now.

Thank you for all the engagement on my Sundance Wrap Up post from last week. You guys are starting to comment a lot more on my posts which I sure do love so thank you! Sometimes I feel like I’m writing into a complete void but then every once in a while I strike a chord and y’all show me you’re still with me. 🙏

In closing out that Sundance post I teased a multi-prong distribution strategy and what a marketing commitment might look like.

I since heard from a few folks who emailed me asking if I provide consulting on marketing strategy…. I don’t formally as a stand-alone service though I do advise members of FS Pro on specific marketing tactics depending on what their distribution plans are.

I’ve had two successful film releases this year that benefited highly from strategic marketing plans, laser focused on audience and desired outcomes. So I speak from being in the trenches with this stuff.

To that end, let me give you a little cheat sheet right here in Friday’s edition!

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In interviewing several distributors on where to get the best bang for your buck in driving distribution revenue the overarching themes are:

• Social media engagement - including posting to relevant FB groups

• Press and PR - targeting niche media outlets

• Paid social media ads - FB/IG with strong trailers tend to perform well

• Cross promotion with influencers - engaging subject matter experts who resonate with the film’s themes

• Email marketing - tapping into existing audience lists

This is obviously over-simplified but it’s a good starting point for you to get the wheels turning. These five components can be mixed and matched depending on your budget and type of project you have. You can also DIY each and every one of these or hire help (again, depending on budget).

In a perfect world, your film’s Distributor would do all this for you. They would have entire teams and departments dedicated to it. But y’all know you can’t rely on that anymore. It’s squarely the Producer’s responsibility to market your release - and if you get any ‘juice’ from the Distributor, just consider it a bonus.

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Have you executed a successful marketing campaign for your release?

I’d love to hear what’s worked for you and was effective in driving revenue. Hit me up in the comments below or send me your thoughts to stacey@filmspecific.com.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend ahead and speak to you again soon!

Stacey

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