Learn how to market your film or YouTube video using your networks! (PART 2) Ep89

The part 2 you've been waiting for all week!! Ok, so you may have just landed here and this episode is the second part of how to get views for your film.  

We all know that feeling of putting our heart and soul into creating a film or video, only to be disappointed when the views don't roll in automatically. But fear not, because in this episode, I'm sharing valuable insights and strategies on how to improve the discoverability of your content and find your target audience.

Part 1 was all about the optimising the description and this week is focused on networking, marketing and building your audience.

Let me know what you think?

📩 Want to stay up to date with the latest? Head to www.thedocumentaryfilmmaker.com to join our weekly newsletter and get all resources to make you the best impact filmmaker in the business. 

Find & Follow The Documentary Filmmaker on social:
Website: www.thedocumentaryfilmmaker.com
Facebook:
Instagram: @TheDocumentaryFilmmakerPodcast
LinkedIn: Sue Collins [Host] || The Documentary Filmmaker [ Company Page]

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome, fellow creatives. Today's episode is a great one, and it's all about how to use your networks to market your film or your YouTube video. Last week it was all about how to use your video description to make sure your video is more discoverable on platforms like YouTube, and this is part two. So I promised in part one that I would tell you how to market your film and utilize your networks. So I'm going to walk you through how to do that, how to create new networks and how to leverage them to market your video or your film, which will help you find people that are going to want to watch it. So why is this so important? Well, let's face it, if you've made a video or a film and you put it on YouTube, well, you kind of expect the views to just start rolling in. And it's pretty disheartening to find that that doesn't actually happen and the views don't just automatically clock up. There is so many things you can do though to improve the chance of your video being found and watched. And that's what today is all about. Welcome to the Moonshine Moonshot Podcast. I'm your host, Sue Collins, and if you've landed here, it means you're wanting to find out more about how to make filmmaking a sustainable career. And you're also curious about how to make meaningful work that fills your cup. You're ready to learn how to make movies that matter, build a sustainable career, and have a positive impact on your audiences. So you are in the right place. Filmmaking has so many parts, and I'm sharing what I've learned over the past 15 years producing impact films that reach their intended audience and support real-world change. So let's get started. Wow, it has been such a busy lead up to the end of this year. There is lots going on, and it's that usual feeling like you have to try and get everything done before the end of the year. And it's it's a weird deadline and it's really self-imposed, but here we are again at the end of 2023, and I am so looking forward to clocking off at the end of this week. It has been an amazing year. We released a really beautiful film called Live the Life You Please in Cinemas, and that was during Palative Care Week, way back in May, and it was a great experience. We had our whole team in on generating publicity and fanning the flames to draw audiences to the cinema to see the film on the big screen. And it went out in, I think it was over 60 cinemas with well over a hundred sessions that included QA panel discussions, there was event screenings. And the reason that I'm bringing this to your attention, not just to reminisce, but also because it was the power of networking and the promotion that we did on this film that extended the huge success to the companion YouTube channel. And it received something like a thousand subscribers within a week of launching the channel, and we clocked up well over 4,000 hours of watch time. In you know, what was a record for us, it happened in the matter of a week or two weeks. So the feature film and the YouTube channel did incredibly well, and I'm using those to highlight because that's a lot of what I'm going to be talking to you about today. This was a huge outcome for that project, and it was definitely in no small part due to the huge amount of networking we did to let people know not just about the feature film, but that the short films were available to view. So networking, marketing, and PR, they are so important for you the discoverability of your content. So I'm not just talking about YouTube videos here, and I'm not just talking about feature film or documentary film releases theatrically. I'm talking about how these elements come together to fan the flames for all of your work. So if you're only producing content for YouTube, don't worry, all of this is still extremely relevant. But if you're releasing feature content as well, it is doubly so as important for the networking. So you're probably wondering what I actually mean by networking. And I don't mean standing around awkwardly at some constructed event where you're meant to pitch your wares in under 60 seconds to anyone who makes eye contact with you, think, you know, documentary conferences, etc. You don't have to slink around and stalk commissioning editors to pitch your film and drop hints that you also have a thriving YouTube channel. You're not running around going, notice me, notice me. That's not the type of networking I am talking about, because that just to be honest, I did a lot of that in my early career and I it just makes me shudder. I I like being social and talking with my peers, but I do not like chasing people to try and sell them my products in person at conferences. So that is not what I'm talking about. So I also don't want you to feel like what I'm talking about is to go out and shamelessly promote yourself in that way. What I do mean is that there are things you can do to build up a motivated and interested network around your film or your content. Then when you release the content, you can share links with those people and they will on share with their own networks, and that will slowly grow a very interested and motivated audience for your film or films as they release. So if you listen to part one from last week, then you'll recall I mentioned one of our very, very early films called Life Before Death. And it had a really active and well-watched YouTube channel that is still gaining thousands of views each month, 12 years on. That's right, 12 years on and thousands of views, it's clocking up each month. And one of the very early things we did on that channel was to create a list of everybody that we filmed with during the making of the film. And then we had that email list, and it had, I reckon it was only about 50 people on it, but that slowly grew over a year to about 100 people. And now this is before CRMs and mailing systems that are very efficient and in place now. We didn't have sign-up forms on our website. So this was a very direct manual process with a very personal audience, not a very big, broad kind of everyone sign up to my platform type deal. This was very bespoke, specific to the people that we've been working with on that film. We then produced 55 short films in the lead up to the release of the feature film, and we put out one a week. So our strategy was one film a week across a period of a year, and we emailed the list of 50 people which grew every single week. And they were an individual email to each person on that list. There was a lot of cut and paste, but it was still one email to each person addressed, you know, dear so-and-so, personalized. So it took a couple of hours each week when we put the film up, but the results spec for themselves. And I said in the last ep, we never did any paid promotion on the YouTube channel. It was all about the description, making the videos discoverable, and by sharing the links with our small but very interested network of people. Because when we sent them the link, they sent it on to all of their networks and so on and so on, and it grew the channel very efficiently. With Live the Life You Please that we released back in May, we had a very similar strategy, only it was a bit more sophisticated with technology using things like Convert Kit as our mail provider. And we didn't have to create an email for every individual, but rather we sent an email through Convert Kit to everybody on the list when each of the films were released. And in saying that, you can't just hit people up with an email every single week with a simple link to a film that you've produced, especially not these days. People are way, way less interested in getting email than they used to be. And so if you're emailing a newsletter in this way, it's got to contain a lot of value for the people who open it. So keep that in mind. Don't just be spamming them every week with info about a new film. Make sure that there's other content in your email that's really relevant to them and is interesting. And you need to segment your list so that you're sending an email with all your new content once per month, say, to the whole list, but only send the really motivated and engaged folks on the list an update each week. And that that could be just, you know, 30 or 40 people who've been very directly involved with the making of your film. So you can have two different lists and segment it in that way. And I recommend that for getting better pickup and interest, really. So there are loads of ways you can do this, but the key is to have people on your list that really want the content that you're making. How do you do that? Well, I created a whole course on this called How to Define Your Ideal Audience, and I go into a huge amount of detail on it, but in a nutshell, you need to research who your core audience is, and then you need to figure out how best to connect with them. And as I said, I've done a course on this, so if you want way more detail than what I'm giving you here, just head over to Moonshine Communications Academy and check out the courses, and you'll find define your ideal audience there. But some ways to do this that you could do quite simply are I would do some research on Facebook groups because Facebook groups could have people who are interested in your topic. So you could join the group and get to know them and learn more about what sort of questions they're asking, what are their interest areas. Can you answer any of those questions and gradually get to know the group a bit better? Now you probably can't just spam them with links in a Facebook group to your own work because most groups they have a lot of rules around that. But it's around networking, it's around getting to know people who might be interested in your work. And sometimes different groups that I've been involved with, they might have a day and a time where they'll allow members to promote whatever it is that they're working on. So they might say, you know, Tuesday afternoons you can post about your own work for other members to discover it. But the key is to remember that you're networking, getting to know people and sharing things that they would be interested in, solving their problems or helping them. You're not spamming them with links to your own work. If this is a networking process that's going to help you build your audience in a more organic, it does take longer. Oh, I was just looking for a place where I could learn everything I need to know to make an amazing film that changes the world. It's such a shame that that place doesn't exist. Oh what? Hang on, it does. Oh, if you're looking for inspiration, ideas, tools, and ways to learn how to make movies that matter, head to Moonshine Communications Academy over at Instagram and all your problems will be solved.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Warning results may vary depending on the questions, and success is not guaranteed. Always read the label Magic is Anecdotal and the Genie is not included.

SPEAKER_01 11:48

So Instagram's another option. Instagram, there are hashtags that relate to your topic, and you can post some content related to your topics and use those hashtags. And people can use them to discover content relevant to them within the Instagram app. So you can put a link to your video or your YouTube channel in your bio on Instagram so that people can click through to it. But Instagram's another way, it's a little bit less networking, more promotion, but you know, again, you can't just throw your work at people constantly and expect them to be interested. You need to sort of build up your audience and use hashtags so that people can help discover your work. You can utilize all different social media platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook to share your content and build up your audience. So these are really simple ways you can do some networking online. And one of the ways we've been able to find great collaborators and network our projects in is by researching online through social media but also just Googling. And we found aligned organizations and then we followed them through social media for a while and then perhaps reached out directly via email or direct message them, let them know what we're doing and what our project's about. And this is one of the best ways to introduce interested parties to your work. So then once you've made some sort of communication with them, you might set up a Zoom call with them and share details on what you're doing and see if there's a mutual ground and if what you're doing supports their mission, they're very likely to want to know more and they could become a great on-sharer, collaborator, or all kinds of different things can happen through networking that way with aligned people. With Live the Life You Please, we had quite a few organizations interested in the work, and they shared links to our short films in their own newsletters to promote them to their own networks. This is a really powerful way to leverage other people's networks and to build your own audience. So you're speaking all the same language, and it just makes sense when it's a win-win for both parties. Some other things you can do that are more promotion-based than networking are to be a guest on somebody's podcast. Now, this is a fantastic way to introduce people to you and your work. And I don't mean just any podcast, but podcasts that talk about topics that are similar to the content you are producing or with an audience that's similar to the audience you're trying to attract to your project. So you need to research those podcasts and then you need to reach out to the hosts and let them know what you're doing, what your content's about, and see if you have, you know, um an opportunity to be a guest on their show. And then you'll have an opportunity to mention your YouTube channel or film or whatever it is, and their audience may be interested, and then they'll jump over and watch your content. So that's a great way to get a bit of free PR, I guess, is the best way to look at that. And an example for as I keep mentioning, Live the Life You Please. Well, that film is about palliative care in Australia. So any podcasts that are about aged care, aging, nursing, medicine, targeting older Australians, retirement, seniors, all of these types of areas would be suitable programs that you might pitch yourself as a filmmaker who's making films that suit their audience and why you would do this work, and maybe that's something you could talk about on their podcast. Or you might go for something more topical to suit the style of their show. Whatever angle you pitch, just make sure that it would be relevant to their audience and or share something unique that's going to be surprising for their audience. Because remember, it's not a chance to simply plug your own work, but rather a chance to talk about your work and get people interested in potentially getting involved and watching something on your channel. And I guess this leads to marketing more broadly. What I've talked about so far is really just about organic marketing and networking. And this is obviously great because you don't have a dollar cost to it. The cost is in your time. And you can certainly do paid promotion on your films. We have definitely done this with our YouTube content on some of the platforms, not all of them, some of them we have. And it has mixed results because people don't really expect to see a video being posted as an ad. So that means you need to create additional pro uh additional things like actual ads that you will use to run to push people back to your channel. And paid ads is a whole podcast in and of itself, but there's definitely ways that you can promote your YouTube channel through paid advertising. Today I am focused on networking and leveraging networks to market your film because this is absolutely the way we have promoted so many of our films with a lot of success over the past decade. So I would recommend it wholeheartedly as part of your strategy. You can also ask people to share links to your films. This sounds obvious, but don't underestimate the power of asking your friends, your family, your co-workers, and interested contacts to share your films or links to your films. If you don't ask, people just don't think to do it. So highly recommend just simply asking people. And if you have lots of contacts on LinkedIn or Facebook, then you could message them and share links to them and they might on share them. But with this, I've got to I've got to say with this approach, you're gonna do a lot better if you're generally already active on the platform. Because if it's the first time people hear from you when you're asking them to watch and share something, I think we all get really tired of people connecting with us. Particularly I find people connect with me on LinkedIn and then five minutes later they're pitching something to me. It's salesy, and I don't think it works very well. Networking is about developing relationships, not about selling people stuff. So there are loads of other ways you can market your YouTube videos other than what I have mentioned. But the key thing is it's about understanding that it's a combination of making the time to do a whole range of activities from the metadata or description that I talked about in the last episode to researching your audience, your ideal audience and networking and promotion. If you put your film up and just expect views to roll in, then you're probably going to be disappointed. But as I mentioned earlier about being a guest on other people's podcasts, you could also use that same strategy for YouTube. I haven't done this, but I'm sure there are lots of ways for you to collaborate with other YouTube creators. And I don't really have advice or strategies on how to go about it because I haven't done it and I don't like recommending things that I haven't done myself. But this is one that I have heard many thought leaders say is a really effective way to reach new and similar audiences on YouTube is to collaborate with other YouTubers. So that may be an option for you to do some research on. Look, the long and the short of it is if you do all of the things I've talked about, then you will be increasing your chances of success dramatically. But it will all eventually lead back in the same reality, which is how good is the content you're creating? Is it a strong story? Is it well put together? Is it engaging? Is it entertaining? Have you put the time into making a great video to start with? And if the answer is yes, then do the work to promote it, get it in front of people, and you will be on your way to making a splash with your work. But if what you're churning out is kind of mediocre, maybe put a little bit more time into getting it right before you start promoting it to the world. Look, I hope this really helps you. Um definitely reach out if you've got questions on anything I've shared with you today. As I said, it's the end of a really busy year, and I am going to take a couple of weeks before I do the next podcast because I'm taking a bit of a break over the Christmas period. So please don't worry if the next app doesn't drop for a few weeks. I will be back in 2024. But I need a recharge, and I bet you do as well. And with almost 90 episodes in the can, so to speak, there is loads for you to go back and dip into and learn about independent filmmaking and everything to do with documentary. And I would love to hear what you think. And if any episodes stood out for you, please DM me on Instagram at Moonshine Communications Academy or send me an email, however you want to go about it. All the contacts and links, etc., you can find on the website or on the Insta profile. So I'll be back next year. Have a really safe, healthy, fun break, everybody, and I look forward to speaking to you soon. Thank you for joining me today and every week here on the Moonshine Moonshot Podcast. If you're wanting a deeper dive into the topics being discussed on the show, then I would encourage you to head over to Moonshine CommunicationsAcademy.com and sign up for the weekly drop of moonshine via your email. Being on our newsletter community means we can support your filmmaking journey in a more tailored way as well as keeping you up to date with the resources we share on how to make movies that matter and so much more that we deliver inside your inbox every single week. So head over to Moonshine CommunicationsAcademy.com and at the bottom of the homepage you'll see a little box to add your email address, and as a thank you for signing up, we'll also send you a bonus ebook to support your messaging. So voila, you'll be on the way to receive all the best content weekly.