Audience Building Plan Tips
Tips & Considerations When Creating Your Audience Building Plan Now is a very exciting time to be creating! The climate of independent film and media has changed and is continuing to change. As the financial cost of creating great work has subsided, creators have more control over the process. In this ever-evolving industry, as filmmakers we need to consistently build audiences for our projects cheaply and effectively, in order to take control of the distribution process, whether we are looking to leverage a traditional distribution deal or carry out the release on our own. You must focus on building your audience - not only for each project, but an audience that will follow you from project to project throughout your career. So when should you think about building your audience? In pre-production, if you’re smart. An audience building plan makes up a large section of your business plan and should contain elements including strategic partnerships, brand partnerships, live events, crowdfunding, interactive incentives, additional content, multi-platform rollout, social media, and press.
Helpful Tips: Think Freemium. Freemium is a pricing strategy by which a product or service is provided free of charge, but leads to a purchase of additional premium products or services. What can you give away? Localize and Eventize. In the social media age, we often don’t take the time to connect in person, but activating local communities can help you stretch your budget (if it’s the community you are creating in) and can help evangelize your film to your target audience.
10 Questions to ask yourself before expanding on your audience building plan: 1. Who is my ideal audience member? - Be as specific as possible. Many artists want their audience to be as broad as possible, but it helps to be specific to create a loyal following that will join you on your journey. - If I had to go on only one talk show to promote my project, what show would give me the best results? What is that show’s demographic? - What are some secondary audiences that might be interested in my project? - Once you identify your audience, ask yourself, where are they and how can I reach them? 2. What are the strategic partnerships (companies, non-profits, supporters, evangelizers) and brand sponsorships that I can pursue to reach my target audience? - How can I reach strategic partners and how can they be involved? - What brand sponsorships that make sense for my project? What brands support the message I’m spreading with my project? - Can I integrate brands into my work without compromising integrity and authenticity? - How can I make my project attractive to brands? - How will I connect with them? - How can these brands help fund my project or stretch my budget while also helping me leverage press and build my audience? 3. How can I incorporate live events - from pre-production through distribution? - Where is my audience geographically? - How can I activate them in-person? 4. When should I crowdfund for this project? - Do I need to crowdfund at the start or should I wait until post-production? - What platform is right for me to reach my target audience? - What’s more important for my project - reaching the most people or raising the most money? For advanced information about crowdfunding, visit our Tools and Templates section to read our guide Crowdfund Like a Badass and use our templates to save time and energy. 5. What interactive incentives can I create to get my target audience involved in my project? - Can an online competition activate my fans? - How can I utilize my fans to promote my project, while collecting data? 6. What additional content (behind the scenes footage, still photography, an accompanying web series, cast and crew interviews, blog) can I capture/create/ release during production to build a loyal and engaged audience?
7. What are all of the different platforms I can use to release this content? - What platforms do my target audience members use and trust? - What platforms will allow me to collect email addresses, rather than just accumulate views? - How can I employ the Freemium model? 8. What social media platforms will I use and how will I use them? - What are the incentives I can offer to get more followers? - How can I automate or delegate social media during production to save time? - What is the voice of my project and how can I stay true to that voice through social media? 9. How will I use my audience building plan to leverage press? - What press outlets do my ideal audience members read apart from film industry trades? - When in the process would my project most benefit from receiving press attention? - Is a publicist or publicity firm necessary to reach my audience? 10. Most importantly: How will I collect the information of the audience members that I reach and how will I put a system in place to keep these audience members informed and engaged so they follow me to my next project? When the time comes to release your project or negotiate a distribution deal, there will be nothing more valuable than your email list. Take every opportunity to collect emails! How will you keep in touch? How often? How will you reward your followers? An additional factor to consider before fleshing out your plan: Could a social action campaign be paired with my project? There might not be a logical way to use your project to influence social good - and that’s ok. But if there is a way to mobilize a community around your project and influence them to make a difference in the world, you should find ways to incorporate a social action campaign into your business plan. Not only will you feel good about making a difference, but you might also have an easier time approaching brand sponsors, strategic partners, and supporters. Additional Resources: Audience Building - The Key to Success Building by Steven C. Beer BVEW Audience Building Panel at Sundance Big Vision Wallet Hunt - how we spent less than $200 to increase our audience at Sundance
Helpful Tips: Think Freemium. Freemium is a pricing strategy by which a product or service is provided free of charge, but leads to a purchase of additional premium products or services. What can you give away? Localize and Eventize. In the social media age, we often don’t take the time to connect in person, but activating local communities can help you stretch your budget (if it’s the community you are creating in) and can help evangelize your film to your target audience.
10 Questions to ask yourself before expanding on your audience building plan: 1. Who is my ideal audience member? - Be as specific as possible. Many artists want their audience to be as broad as possible, but it helps to be specific to create a loyal following that will join you on your journey. - If I had to go on only one talk show to promote my project, what show would give me the best results? What is that show’s demographic? - What are some secondary audiences that might be interested in my project? - Once you identify your audience, ask yourself, where are they and how can I reach them? 2. What are the strategic partnerships (companies, non-profits, supporters, evangelizers) and brand sponsorships that I can pursue to reach my target audience? - How can I reach strategic partners and how can they be involved? - What brand sponsorships that make sense for my project? What brands support the message I’m spreading with my project? - Can I integrate brands into my work without compromising integrity and authenticity? - How can I make my project attractive to brands? - How will I connect with them? - How can these brands help fund my project or stretch my budget while also helping me leverage press and build my audience? 3. How can I incorporate live events - from pre-production through distribution? - Where is my audience geographically? - How can I activate them in-person? 4. When should I crowdfund for this project? - Do I need to crowdfund at the start or should I wait until post-production? - What platform is right for me to reach my target audience? - What’s more important for my project - reaching the most people or raising the most money? For advanced information about crowdfunding, visit our Tools and Templates section to read our guide Crowdfund Like a Badass and use our templates to save time and energy. 5. What interactive incentives can I create to get my target audience involved in my project? - Can an online competition activate my fans? - How can I utilize my fans to promote my project, while collecting data? 6. What additional content (behind the scenes footage, still photography, an accompanying web series, cast and crew interviews, blog) can I capture/create/ release during production to build a loyal and engaged audience?
7. What are all of the different platforms I can use to release this content? - What platforms do my target audience members use and trust? - What platforms will allow me to collect email addresses, rather than just accumulate views? - How can I employ the Freemium model? 8. What social media platforms will I use and how will I use them? - What are the incentives I can offer to get more followers? - How can I automate or delegate social media during production to save time? - What is the voice of my project and how can I stay true to that voice through social media? 9. How will I use my audience building plan to leverage press? - What press outlets do my ideal audience members read apart from film industry trades? - When in the process would my project most benefit from receiving press attention? - Is a publicist or publicity firm necessary to reach my audience? 10. Most importantly: How will I collect the information of the audience members that I reach and how will I put a system in place to keep these audience members informed and engaged so they follow me to my next project? When the time comes to release your project or negotiate a distribution deal, there will be nothing more valuable than your email list. Take every opportunity to collect emails! How will you keep in touch? How often? How will you reward your followers? An additional factor to consider before fleshing out your plan: Could a social action campaign be paired with my project? There might not be a logical way to use your project to influence social good - and that’s ok. But if there is a way to mobilize a community around your project and influence them to make a difference in the world, you should find ways to incorporate a social action campaign into your business plan. Not only will you feel good about making a difference, but you might also have an easier time approaching brand sponsors, strategic partners, and supporters. Additional Resources: Audience Building - The Key to Success Building by Steven C. Beer BVEW Audience Building Panel at Sundance Big Vision Wallet Hunt - how we spent less than $200 to increase our audience at Sundance
