Email List
I think that most filmmakers are pretty aware by now that building an email list is not just for businesses or brands. And that, in fact, we documentary filmmakers should be and need to be doing it too.
So let's get started now!
Why You Need An Email List
Stay in touch with your community
Most obviously you want to build an email list so you can stay in touch with those interested in your film. You will be building a strong community around your film and one of the very best ways to stay in touch, keep up-to-date and communicate with that community is through email.
By contacting your potential audience directly by this means, you are potentially opening up a whole array of different conversations in a whole array of different ways. Also, you will be able to relay information in a more direct and personal manner. As well as, providing them with a direct way to communicate with you.
Targeted audience & consumer
And if you build your email list the right way (not just with the intention of indiscriminately generating as many names and addresses as you can), then you will find yourself in contact with an eager and engaged potential audience who value your film and are genuinely interested.
In other words, you will have built a target audience who, upon completion of your film, will be the first to purchase their ticket to the theatrical screening, buy, wear and use your merchandise and take a copy home of your film to share with others.
Beat the algorithms
You will know that I'm a proponent of building your social media platform, where appropriate (as discussed in the next tutorial), but there are some drawbacks and limitations with it that email overrides.
With social media just because someone is following your platforms does not mean that they are seeing your content. You are posting to a platform and hoping it will reach the desired feed and be seen, but that certainly is not always the case.
Perhaps really engaged followers will have notifications which alert them that you have posted something new and that’s awesome, or they may visit your social media pages to find out the latest, but in reality many of those who ‘follow’ or ‘like’ may not ever see what you’re putting out.
However, when you send content directly to your email list you have a much greater opportunity to get in front of your audience. With email, you don’t have to worry about algorithms affecting your ability to communicate with your audience, you're content will be going straight into their inbox.
Now, whether they open and engage with your email will be another thing, and one we’ll look at in a moment, but for now the point is the percentage of people who will open your email will most likely far exceed the percentage of your social media followers who will see your social media postings.
Crowdfunding
An email list to a crowdfunding campaign, is like fresh air to humans, crucial for survival. In fact we’d go so far as to say, don’t even attempt a crowdfunding campaign until you have built a respectable email list. An email list of people who have already specifically indicated their interest in your film is a crowdfunding dream come true.
Your email list will be important throughout all stages of your crowdfunding campaign, but not least in the early stages where you want to start with a bang (improving your chances of a favorable ranking on whichever crowdfunding platform you’ll use) and in the latter stages, where you may be making the final push to success. We have more information on this in the Crowdfunding tutorial in module 5.
Fund, market & distribute your film
Once we start talking about self-distribution and promotion of your film then the email list really comes into its own. Without having to pay a dime, your email list gives you a direct link to your potential audience, where you can sell and market your film. You won’t need a big promotional campaign to get through to this targeted audience, you already have their ear.
In addition, a strong email list is also appealing to financiers, and distributors, who want to ensure there is an audience for your film. So either way - whether you are self-distributing or have distributors working for you - building a healthy, vibrant email list can only be a win-win.
You own your list
Don’t forget that you own your list and can take it with you to projects you’ll develop in the future, especially if your recipients have developed a relationship with you, as well as your film. This is so incredibly valuable.
If you intend to become a career filmmaker, then having a loyal list of followers who you can directly connect with at various stages of your films will make the development, funding and distribution of those projects an easier and more financially viable experience.
What You'll Need
An email address/account
Firstly, you’ll need to open an email account to get your email address, and for this you have a few options. You can sign up for a film specific email address through a free account such as gmail, so your email address would be yourfilmname@gmail.com
Or you can set up a custom email address, such as your name at your films name, so John@yourfilmname.com or simply info@yourfilmname.com
Or alternatively, if you have a production company email address you can use that (which is what we do). Then instead of creating an email address for each film you make, you can simply use your production company email address for all correspondence.
A quick note here: You may be tempted to use your personal email address for all correspondence related to your film, but we would recommend against that. It is important to be able to keep your film related contacts separate from your personal contacts and to identify film correspondence when you receive it. Having a film or production company specific email address also looks more professional and more easily identifiable than a personal address when you are contacting people or organizations.
Email service provider
It isn’t essential, but it is recommended that you sign up for an email service provider. You can then create content in a much more formatted and stimulating way using pre-designed templates or you can build your own.
Sharing media is extremely easy as you can place video links and images in body of the email and add assorted text or captioning around it.
You can schedule and automate your emails so you can stay on top of, and regular, with your correspondence.
And another beneficial and exciting reason to elicit the use of a email service provider is the analytics that will be generated. With every email you send, every email that’s opened and every link that the recipient clicks on you will be given valuable insight into your content and the needs and likes of the subscriber. We will discuss this is in more detail shortly.
Popular email service providers include Mailchimp, AWeber, ConvertKit (our provider) and, for more advanced requirements, Infusionsoft. We recommend Mailchimp if you are looking for a free and reliable provider. Although you will want a paid account if you wish to remove their branding and replace it with your own. If you are looking for something a little more advanced and user friendly, for tagging and automation especially, then we recommend Convertkit. Prices start at $29 per month and for ease of use and functionality they get our vote.
Current contacts
Although I don’t suggest you use your personal email address, I do suggest you consider taking some of your present contacts with you. Note the word some. It’s probably best not to do a blanket sweep of your email address, but select the people that you feel would be genuinely interested in your project or at the very least in supporting you. Having a few friendly faces to begin to start sending newsletters or other email correspondence will feel much better than launching to crickets.
A word of caution: Do not add people to your email list who haven’t given you permission to do so. You never want to spam people or add them without consent. And with recent legislation from Europe making it illegal to contact citizens without consent, you could now also receive a fine. We recommend making your email subscription a double opt-in, whereby a confirmation email is sent to the recipient, which they must click, to confirm they wish to hear from you.
Website & social media
It’s not essential that you have a website or social media platforms to build an email list, but it almost is and will help a whole hell of a lot if you do.
As we discussed in the film website tutorial, your website will be one of the main tools you’ll utilize in capturing email addresses for your list. Your website is the online hub of your film where your potential audience, press, funders, etc can visit to obtain further information and connect with you. It’s the perfect place to show your wares and entice interested parties to sign up for further content and conversation.
And in turn, social media platforms are beneficial not only to building relationships and community, but because by posting content which links to your website you are funnelling people to sign up for newsletters and other correspondence. Something they are more likely to do if they have been viewing interesting content on your social media platforms that has piqued their interest.
On some social media platforms, such as Facebook, you can add a sign up form in the menu bar on your film page and on Instagram you can add a link in your bio which connects users to multiple URL's. For this we use, and like, Linktree.
How Can I Grow My Email List?
In this video we take a look at some ways you can be garnering email addresses from those who are interested in your film.
Your Email Content and Engagement
In this video we take a look at the kinds of content and engagement with your subscribers that you may wish to employ.
Takeaways
An email list is not just for conventional businesses and brands, it is for films and filmmakers too.
An email list allows you to stay in touch with your community and allows for communication in a more direct and personal manner than social media or generic content.
You will be creating a curated list of your target audience and potential consumers of your product(s).
You will avoid the potentially unfavourable algorithms of social media and arrive directly in a place that they can easily find your correspondence and message to them.
By having an email list of interested parties you have built a foundation on which to fund your film project in a successful crowdfunding campaign.
Your email list will ultimately help you to fund, market and distribute your film and will appeal to financiers and distributors alike.
You own your list and can take those contacts with you to future projects.
What you'll need: An email address/account, an email service provider, your current contacts that would be interested in hearing from you (so you don't start out at zero), a film website and social media.
How to grow your email list: Create interesting and valuable content, have an incentive to sign up to your newsletter, consider a blog on your website (where you're promoting your newsletter and giving an opportunity to sign up), have a button or link to your website from social media, write guest posts for other websites or blogs and provide a strong CTA (call to action) within all the content you create which leads to an email capture, have an email sign up sheet at every fundraiser you hold and run a crowdfunding campaign where you will garner the email addresses of everyone who supports you.
Social Media
Social media platforms are another way for you to connect with your fans, supporters and audience. They can be beneficial in building relationships and keeping your followers updated if the correct platforms are chosen and they are managed in the right way. We'll take a look at why you should consider social media as part of your film outreach and which could be best for your film.
Why You Should Consider Social Media
Lets start with why it could be worth your time to consider utilizing social media platforms as a part of your film’s funding, marketing and distribution strategies.
Audience for your film
First and foremost, of course, is that having numerous, engaged followers on your social media platforms helps build a potential audience for your film. The people that like, follow or sign up on your social media platforms are showing an interest in your project. Once your film is complete you can then utilize these platforms as a resource to share any screening or sales information.
By giving your potential audience an opportunity to opt in to your newsletter via a link or button from your social media platform, you will help continue your relationship with them and contribute to building a strong email list. Which as we've discussed is an invaluable resource.
Funding and other resources
From very early on in the inception of your film you are creating a pool of people who will go with you on your journey through your social media platforms. Untold wealth can come from this type of engagement. People may come forward with suggestions for interviewees, archival footage or other video footage, individuals, events, books or other resources that may be beneficial to you.
In building your social media platforms you may also receive financial contributions for your film. Whether that’s as part of your crowdfunding campaign, because you are regularly providing links to your campaign page, or because of your general social media postings, which link to your website where you have an donate button prominently placed.
Having these platforms where you can begin to funnel people and give them direct CTA’s requesting support can help you with your fundraising goals.
Speaks to donors, sponsors and distributors
If you keep your followers in the loop and prove your commitment to the project with consistent and valuable content and updates (more on which we’ll discuss in a moment) you will begin to build your social media numbers, which could help to encourage potential financial or in-kind donors or sponsors to become involved. This is because having a good number of engaged social media followers, shows you have a community around your film and looks good to businesses, corporations and organizations looking to donate to, or sponsor, your film.
Anyone who sponsors you or partners with your film will want to know that there is an audience for it. If you can show there’s an interest in your film, before it’s even been made, then that can help provide proof of concept and a viability in your project. Your social media followers and engagement can play a significant part in that.
You can utilize insights or analytics of certain social media platforms to provide valuable information to yourself and your potential sponsors or distributors regarding the demographics of your community base.
Tip: When you write your documentary film proposal you may wish to review the analytics and engagement you have generated through your social media platforms and see what insights they can offer.
Boosts you, the Filmmaker
And finally, developing your social media platforms helps to boost you, the filmmaker. As we know making a documentary can be a long process whereby you’re not sharing very much with very many.
For a time your film will be hidden behind the walls of your imagination, then the eyes of you, your team and a chosen few others. Having a group of people to connect with that are not only eager to see your film but can potentially add to the conversation can be a valuable tool for boosting morale and helping drive your project through to fruition.
Which Platform Should You Choose?
Okay so now we know why we’re doing it, lets think about which social media platforms to utilize. As we know there are many platforms available now and each has its different quirks and advantages, but which ones should you use for your film? You need to consider which one will be the best advantage to your film.
Some possibilities include:
Facebook: has over 1 billion active users, allows you to run very targeted Facebook ads, permits you to connect with your audience through Facebook Lives, allows you to easily upload videos and you can set up event pages for occasions, such as, holding a fundraiser.
Twitter: allows you to tweet companies or individuals directly, sharing links to articles or other external links is straightforward, you can keep up-to-date on the latest topics and trends related to your film and reply to those who reach out to you very easily. Overall twitter is an easy to use platform, good if you’re not that computer savvy.
Instagram: could be a great choice because it is a more visual platform, great for sharing production stills and connecting with other filmmakers or those interested in your film topic, searchable via the hashtag. Instagram differentiates between personal profiles and business profiles, so if you opt to utilize a business profile you will unleash some additional features such as CTA capabilities and insights. Also you can now speak directly to your followers through live video and share content on Instagram stories - even more ways to provide content for your community.
Snapchat | Pinterest | LinkedIn:
There are also many other options open to you, such as LinkedIn, Snapchat, Youtube and Pinterest to name a few.
A word of caution: It can become very easy to overextend yourself if you take on too many social media platforms. It is much better to have one or perhaps two platforms, which you do well, than three or four that you’re not really consistently involved with.
Our Experience I think it used to be expected for businesses or brands (or films) to have a presence on EVERY social media platform. Almost as if it were a sign of credibility to be connecting everywhere with everyone. For example, it seemed you were no one if you didn't have a Facebook page!! But times have changed and now it is perfectly acceptable to have a much more streamlined presence, as long as you are active on the platforms you do have. We have, ourselves, reduced our social media platforms by closing down accounts for both TDL and our film Elvis of Cambodia. And you know what? It felt awesome when we did. It was hard to say goodbye to the followers (numbers) we had taken time to build, but we appreciated the reduced time and resource commitment. Lesson learned: Never have a presence on a social media platform just because you feel you should. Have a definite reason or don't go there. Go somewhere else. Save your time and energy for more important things - like making your film! ~ Stephanie |
Where are your audience?
A big part of your decision on which platforms to choose will be where your audience are spending their time. If your potential audience are seniors then you probably won’t want to be using Snapchat, however, if you’re looking for younger users then Instagram or Snapchat may be a great choice. The majority of users on Pinterest are women so that may be an option for connecting with a predominantly female audience. Once you know who your target audience are take some time to find out where they’re connecting on social media.
Which platform speaks to you?
Another key component in your decision-making is which social media platform speaks to you. It’s no good having a presence on a platform that you yourself will never want to use (unless you have someone running it for you). For example, you won’t be using Instagram if you don’t have a smart phone so you could rule that out, you’d probably choose Facebook over Twitter if you’d prefer to write lengthy posts and consider if you’re already proficient on a certain platform as it may well be the best place to start.
Social Media Content and Consistency
If you're wondering what content you can be providing to your followers then watch this video for some suggestions.
You can really leverage the relationship you’re developing if you engage consistently with your fans and followers. By engaging regularly and directly on your social media platforms you can:
• Build relationships
• Give strong calls-to-action (CTA’s)
• Educate them in the realm of the topic of your film
• Guide them to further resources
• Guide them to your website where they can receive more information and context about you and your project
We recommend that you utilize the live streaming video options on your social media, where available, so your followers can have direct access to you and you can engage directly with them. You really want to encourage the conversation and connection and bring your potential supporters and audience in on what you’re doing.
If you wish you can use a social media management tool, such as, Buffer.
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Social Media Tips and Considerations
In this video we offer some additional tips and considerations for utilizing your social media platforms.
Takeaways
Social media platforms are a way to connect with fans, supporters and audience.
You can build beneficial relationships and keep followers updated as your film progresses.
Through social media posting and engagement you can share the most relevant information on your film at the time - whether that be a fundraising campaign you are running, a contact or resource you are trying to find, screening or touring information or any other CTA (call to action).
You may be able to garner funding and other resources from those you engage with on social media. Things, people and contacts you may never have received could present themselves to you through your connections and communications on social media.
It speaks to donors, sponsors and distributors if you are able to cultivate an active and engaged social media following. And it's not ALL about the numbers!
Engagement on social media can help you discover and communicate with your niche audience and provide proof of concept and viability in your project.
Having constructive conversation and feedback can also have a beneficial effect on your own motivations and energies towards your film. When you're having a tough time you may find the encouragement and conversation you have on social media helpful in moving forward.
There are several platforms you could choose from, which each have their quirks and advantages. A good idea is to choose a platform where your niche audience are frequent users and possibly one that you are also comfortable in using (or willing to learn).
When deciding on content carefully consider your audiences interests and consider the topic and theme of your film.
Consider creating a content schedule, batch creating content and using a social management tool to manage your social media postings/content.
You can also recycle content on your various social media platforms, blog and newsletter.
Ensure you are consistent with your content and actively engage with people on your platforms. And, of course, ensure you respond to the people who reach out to you - either directly or through comments on your posts.
Use the @ and # opportunities to be found, connect with others and reach out to businesses and organizations.
Start early!