Indie Film Marketing Part 1: Organic Marketing

Here at Quiver Digital, we’ve decided to share some of the best ways to market your independent film in order to find its audience. The second week of every month, we will share strategies around a specific marketing arena that you can follow to build a community around your film.

Our first topic is organic marketing or search engine optimization. The tips below will help you make your film more visible on search networks such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. The basis of search engine optimization is based on other sites that link to your website. First of all, it is important to have a searchable/unique title for your film. That way when someone searches for it, you won’t have to compete with many other sites for searchers. Of course, this rule doesn’t always apply as there are many films that have common titles (and there are ways to work around this) but generally it is a good idea to choose a relevant and unique title.
1. Website: One of the best things you can do to market your film is to make a website for it. You don’t need to be an expert at coding – there are easy sites like Wix.com or Squarespace.com that are user-friendly. WordPress is also a great tool – you can start a blog with production diaries and other notes. Your film’s website is a great place to store posters, a trailer, press articles and pictures. Speaking of your trailer, make sure it’s on YouTube as well with the title and keyword “film” or “movie.” Ideally this should be first thing that shows up when searching your film title in Google, as the search engine owns YouTube. Be sure to choose a simple design and colors for your website that match the mood of your film. It is also important to have links to your film on social media, and a contact form. Stay tuned for another blog post in the future specifically on social media.
2. Rich Cards/Rich snippets: Rich cards are the mobile versions of the snippets you see on the right hand side when you search in Google. This pulls from a number of sources, so it is best to submit your film to all of these sites, and make sure your page is coded correctly to visually represent the correct information. Creating an AMP page is the first step. Click here for more information on this.
3. IMDB/Wikipedia: The Internet Movie Database is one of the most widely used sites in regards to finding information on movies; thus your film should be on there. There is a form to fill out and certain criteria your film needs to comply with to be considered. Luckily you do not have to pay for an account to add your film. Wikipedia is another great site you can list your film on for free. The rich snippets I mentioned above pulls from both IMDB and Wikipedia, so it is a good idea to create pages on both.
4. Submit movie to Netflix watch sites/movie review sites: If you do a quick Google search, you’ll see that there are many sites that list which movies are on Netflix, and many movie review sites. If your film is on Netflix, consider submitting your site to be listed on these websites. Many of these sites even specifically review genre films. If your film appeals to a certain genre, it may be a good idea to focus on these review sites to appeal to the community directly.
5. Blogs/on-line communities: Similar to the above, there are many film blogs, online communities and forums. Some allow you to submit your film with a description and links to your website. Submit your film to all the ones you can find. Again, pay attention to the niche genre sites, as your film may directly appeal to these audiences.

These 5 tips will help your film be more easily found on search engines such as Google. If you have further ideas for how to market an independent film online through organic marketing, feel free to share your ideas by emailing info@quiverdigital.com. Also if you have an independent film that needs online movie distribution, feel free to get in touch with Quiver Digital for access to platforms such as iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Netflix and more!