Movie Marketing and Selling Checklist Marketing Budget First things first, you must have a marketing budget for your film. When you spend all that money shooting a great film, the best thing you can do for yourself is to carve out a decent budget to market the film. No matter how great your film is, no one will know about it if you don’t market it properly. The budget should cover film festival marketing and promotions, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter advertising, banner promotions, street team promotions, PR and media marketing. If your movie is going through the festival route, before the theatrical and VOD releases, you should add the cost to your budget. Marketing Plan Create a detailed marketing plan that will act as your blueprint to success. Your plan should take into account the distribution route that your film takes. You marketing plan for attending a major film festival like TIFF will be different from a theatrical or VOD release marketing plan. You have to give yourself enough time for promotion in order to create traction. You should factor in online marketing from the moment you start planning your film project in order to create an initial buzz for the film. Your marketing plan is the most important item you need to successfully sell your film. It should factor in most of the checklist items I’ve listed here. Don’t worry, I’ll go more in-depth on the marketing plan topic later on in this report. Design Your Film Website You need a dynamic looking website that people can go to get more information about your movie. Your domain name is normally the title of your film with “themovie” or “movie” at the end of it. I prefer to use Wix or Wordpress to build my websites because of their MARKET AND SELL YOUR FILM SUCCESSFULLY  5 Create a detailed marketing plan for your film that will act as your blueprint to success. flexibility. For hosting, I have used Startlogic for a while now with no complaints. If you can’t build your website on your own, hire a professional to create one for you. Film Festival Screenings One of the main reasons to attend a film festival with your film is to create awareness that will hopefully lead to a sale. Screening at major festivals like Sundance, TIFF or Cannes increases the profile of your film which can lead to a sale. While you are at a film festival, make sure that you market and promote your film properly to avoid having your film get lost in the sea of films at the festival. Network with other filmmakers and see what tips you can pick up from them. Theatrical Release Most filmmakers finish their film and run out of money. If you have a desire to release your film theatrically, it is important to earmark some money toward the theatrical marketing budget. To have a chance of a successful theatrical release, you have to be entrepreneurial-minded. If you are not, find a consultant or someone who can engage people and make them part of your team. Since every film wants to reach as broad an audience as possible, it’s very important to begin by engaging your core audience to build your initial momentum. Once you’ve built that success, then you can expand on it. Casting the right actors is very important to your film’s success, regardless of the territory where you intend to release the film. Most filmmakers find it hard to attach A-list actors to their films due to budgetary constraints. The problem is that those filmmakers make the mistake of focusing only on Hollywood to cast actors in their films. Nollywood Theatrical Release Since film is a universal language, there are other vibrant film industries around the world where you can easily find great actors to cast in your movie. This will potentially grant MARKET AND SELL YOUR FILM SUCCESSFULLY  6 Screening at major festivals like Sundance, TIFF or Cannes increases the profile of your film which can lead to a sale. you access to theatrical, broadcast and VOD releases in those countries. One of these countries is Nigeria whose film industry, popularly known as Nollywood, is the second largest film producing country in the world after India. Casting a well-known A-list Nollywood actor in a good movie would likely guarantee you a theatrical release in multiple cinemas in Nigeria and other parts of the African diaspora. Nigeria has a population of over 180 million people with a booming cinema industry. I know this from experience because I have seen a lot of movies including mine that did well in cinemas there. I also have good relationships with other successful filmmakers and actors who currently work in that industry. Video-On-Demand (VOD) Release. It’s important to understand how VOD distribution works. There are three main VOD distribution models: Transactional VOD, Subscription VOD and AD Supported VOD. Transactional VOD (TVOD)

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