A film, as I usually say, it’s a product. And as such, it needs to be properly advertised. A website for a film or show seems the logical first step to generate awareness and engage your audience. However, it’s not just about doing it, but being smart about it.
A STRATEGIC PATH TO WEB PRESENCE
What you really need is web presence, making information about your film available online. When you’re a big film studio with large advertising budgets, websites and social pages play a big role. But for indie filmmakers, the approach needs to be slightly different.
No doubt you still require a website and social media for your indie film, but we also need to make sure we maximize our budget and build an infrastructure that will last, bringing value for our next projects.
LANDING PAGES TO GROW YOUR AUDIENCE
Whether you’re a director or a production company, you need your own website to build your brand as a filmmaker. The moment you’re working on a new film or show, all your efforts will move towards promoting it anywhere and everywhere.
For this particular reason, it’s in your best interest to create a landing page that lives inside your main director or production company’s site. A landing page is a simpler version of a website, featuring key information about your film, but still as part of your main site.
There are two key reasons for this: 1) as you work hard to drive traffic to these pages, search engines will index them in better positions, making it easier for other people to find them at no extra cost for you, and 2) project over project, your audience will always have a place to find your latest work, also helping you build a strong brand as a director or producer.
BUT STILL… BUY YOUR MOVIE’S DOMAIN NAME
This is a very simple trick to ensure your indie film or show has a professional appearance wherever you advertise it – buy your movie’s domain name and then redirect it to the landing page.
How does this work? Your movie landing page will most likely be at www.mycompanyname.com/mymovietitle. It’s a very long URL for promotional purposes, isn’t it? For a few extra dollars a year you can simply buy the domain name www.mymovietitle.com and redirect it to www.mycompanyname.com/mymovietitle. That’s called “domain forward” and all major domain registrars offer this service for free once you’ve purchased the domain.
For the users is practically a seamless experience, and you’ll get the benefits of a unique URL but consolidating all your projects in one solid website.
