Trailers - the key marketing tool for your films online

Filmmakers often ask me what films do well on our site. Well, this really depends on two things - whether the subject matter of the film piques the interest of our viewers (this is different from whether the film is actually great) and whether there's a good trailer that conveys the film's story in an attention-grabbing way.

The film doesn't have to be a great film but if its story connects with the audience, the film is more likely to sell. To connect with an audience, though, you pretty much need a good trailer.

Some of our filmmakers send us great trailers, where the audience is immediately interested in the story but are left wanting to know more about the film. These are the films that generally sell well. Other times, some filmmakers don't send us a trailer and so  we're left to resorting to the dreaded practice of using a snippet of the film as the trailer.

In the online world, a trailer is essentially your elevator pitch. Instead of giving this pitch to funders, you're giving it to potential fans of your film.  From the audience's perspective, if they haven't heard about you or your film, the trailer is the first and sometimes only thing they will use to judge whether to spend their money and time to download and watch your film. 

So, if you want to help promote your film, spending the extra time on a trailer should be the first thing to do.