Ok, so while we’re on the subject of launching your DVD online, there’s something else you should be concerned with other than what type of campaign you are going to run, and that is whether your film’s website is actually optimized for eCommerce.

What that means in plain talk is this: after you drive all that traffic to your website either via partners or screenings or whatever, is your website set up to actually take orders for your DVD?

For example…..

1. Can the buyer actually EASILY find where to buy the DVD (you’d be surprised….many people don’t make the BUY NOW button front and center)
2. Is buying a one or two click process? (ie: you don’t want to make it too complicated to complete a transaction)
3. Is your site secure giving buyers confidence that their credit card details are safe?
4. Do you accept credit cards either through Pay Pal or a Merchant Account system? (sending in checks is no longer very efficient)
5. How are you going to fulfill your orders? Do you have inventory on hand ready to ship? Or are you using a manufacture on demand service like Create Space?

These are just a few of the very BASIC things you need to have in place to make sure your site is optimized for eCommerce. You also want to make sure you have a place where potential customers can sign-in to get on your email list, so that if they don’t buy on the first visit to your site (most won’t), that you are able to convert them to buyers down the line by forming a ‘relationship’ with them through regular communications, offers, and free content that makes them happy

One of the best film sites I’ve seen out there for optimizing eCommerce (and I use this example all the time) is Hunter Weeks’ www.10mph.com. Clearly shows you how and where to buy, guides you through the process absolutely clear and pain-free. Every filmmaker is marketing their film online should build a site like Hunter’s!

Incidentally, I go into further dissecting of the 10 MPH website and other optimized film websites in my SELLING MORE ONLINE course which is free this week for Film Specific Members. You can read more about it here:

http://www.filmspecific.com/public/776.cfm
(past participants to this live course paid $300, but I’m making the on-demand course free for FS members)

And as always, I’d love to hear from you — show me your website and how you’ve optimized it for sales? What has worked best for you? What tweaks have you made along the way to improve sales?

I’ve been following several self-distribution DVD launches over the last year or so and I can tell you this – the best ways to make a splash with your DVD and to sell a REAL amount of units (1000 or more), is done one of two ways:

1. Either by doing a heavy amount of internet marketing including using some of those partner relationships you developed early on, or

2. By taking your film on the road for an extensive screening tour

If you’re going the internet route, prepare to spend 3-4 months in prep before you pull the trigger with the launch. And if you prepare to go the screening route, it can take anywhere from 4-12 months on the road to gain enough traction to sell enough DVD’s to make a real difference to your bottom line. Then you need to have the back-end infrastructure online to actually sell the DVD’s, so you’ll need prep time for that. But from what I’m hearing so far, the results using this higher cost approach can be well worth the effort….

And what about money? I recommend having some kind of budget in place to launch your DVD online. Some people include enough in the budget to hire help both with coordinating the launch and executing it. If you are doing screenings, you might want to consider hiring a company to book the theaters for you….and then there is the marketing. So your budget can be anywhere from nothing to a couple hundred thousand dollars depending on what you intend to hire out, and what you can do yourself.

I have a couple of resources on Film Specific that talk about budgeting for Self-Distribution. You can find them here:

http://www.filmspecific.com/members/925.cfm

http://www.filmspecific.com/members/808.cfm

I’m in the process of putting together extensive case studies on filmmakers using both of these approaches so stay tuned for those. But in the mean time, I’d love to hear from you – anyone out there have experience successfully launching their DVD and selling units directly to consumers from their website? Which approach worked best – internet only, or screenings, or both?

Somehow though actually ‘engaging’ marketing partners is easier said than done….

For example, once you make a list of potential partners, how and when do you contact them? And what do you offer them in exchange for promoting your film?

The answer to the first question is that you should be getting in touch them as early in the filmmaking process as possible. Ideally during pre-production.

As to what you can offer them to entice them to help you? The most obvious thing you can offer them is money – for example an affiliate commission on every DVD they sell to their audience. But what if the film isn’t made yet and you don’t have DVD’s to offer? How do you really get them excited at this stage in the game?

This is one question that several of my clients are grappling with right now. And we’re working together on ways to approach marketing partners and what we entice them with – what we can say or do to get them to join our ’cause’ right now and help us start spreading the word on the film, get a buzz going, get some fans and followers, and in general start engaging the target audience for the film early on.

I’d love to hear from you any ideas you have….anything you’ve done that’s worked, or not worked, or anything you’re in the process of doing with regards to engaging your marketing partners in the early stages….