Once your team has been assigned a film and you open a line of communication with your filmmakers, the next step is to present them with a marketing plan. Presenting a draft marketing plan allows your filmmakers to review the marketing ideas your team has developed and then approve the parts of your plan that fit their own ideas and budget.

Marketing Plan Content

Your marketing plan should include:

• A short pitch for the film.

• A profile of your target audience(s). You may want to start with details such as: age, gender, marital status, location, income, etc. But expert film marketers, like Sheri Candler, will tell you that: “The demographic information of your target audience is worth less than the psychographic.  So rather than age and gender, think about the interest characteristics of your target audience. What motivates them, what do they care about, what interests them on a deep level? And then speak to that in the context of your film. So ages and sex and location matter less than the feeling they can connect to in the film.”

• A list of keywords that would be used to reach this audience via Social Networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter) or search engines.

• A list of online resources that are within your target audience: online groups, networks, media outlets, mailing lists, etc.
• A list of local establishments that are within your target audience: local organizations, businesses, media outlets, groups, etc.

• Perhaps most importantly, make a timeline of what you intend to do to market your film and the dates these tasks will be completed.

Your marketing plan must be organized on a timeline. Even if you only have a week before the festival, you need to plan your time carefully and set goals for specific days.  Marketing a film is a time-sensitive project. There’s no point in getting attention for a screening too soon or too late.