Marketing Indie Produced Movies Online

Continuing to slowly learn about marketing indie produced movies online. I’ve been blown away how outstanding some indie producers are at promoting their movies online.

There are some serious entertainment business go-getters that are doing an amazing job marketing indie produced movies online through securing film financing all the way to self-distribution.

It is awesome to see that! I’ve started following many of those indie movie producers on Twitter and visiting their sites to learn what they are doing.

A majority of indie produced projects would go unmade and unseen by movie viewers if not for the exhaustive online marketing efforts of very dedicated indie movie producers and their teams.

I admit to being a slow learner on marketing indie produced movies online despite having a great resource in The SEO Bully aka Tim “Timbo” Beachum who has been preaching online marketing to me for nearly 8 years now.

When the indie produced “Consignment” was done The SEO Bully suggested to me Slice of Americana Films stream the first 11 minutes online for free.

This before “Consignment” secured a distribution deal. I didn’t see the upside to streaming the first 11 minutes of the movie online.

We were selling DVDs from a website directly to people using PayPal. What I noticed after streaming the opening 11 minutes of “Consignment” was that an increase on DVD sales did happen.

After signing a movie distribution agreement we halted our marketing efforts and were no longer allowed to sell the DVD.

The movie distribution company took over the design of the artwork etc. We were basically out of any input calls on marketing.

But it was a learning experience for me as an indie movie producer on the power of online marketing to get some attention for an indie produced movie.

Two distribution companies that contacted me interested in the movie mentioned they became aware of the movie because of the streaming online. They would have never heard of the movie without it.

That should have been my final nudge, but it wasn’t. I personally get more caught up in screenwriting, production financing, physical production and post production of entertainment.

I woefully end up neglecting marketing indie produced movies online with the energy and constant effort I’m seeing it really takes to invest from following indie producers on Twitter.

They are out there really kicking ass on creating a buzz for their projects using online marketing to raise money to make a movie to getting people to buy it when it’s done.

The easy answer would be to hire a firm or person that understands marketing indie produced movies online. The realistic answer is many indie produced entertainment budgets just can’t afford to absorb the extra cost.

I’m not really sure how my own learning more about marketing indie produced movies online will turn out.

I’m just going to keep picking the brain of The SEO Bully and continue to learn from some very savvy and sharp indie movie producers I follow on Twitter. This is indie filmmaker Sid Kali typing FADE OUT