My co-producer of a web series I am a part of asked me a couple of months ago, “How do we get more subscribers and how do we get more views?”. I come from a marketing background but with this show in particular that has some very specific nerdy themes I wanted to try some inexpensive ways of marketing it to our target audience.
First I looked at some of the themes and who they would appeal to, to help us find who our audience would be. Our show has themes that include Star Trek (so, space exploration), Reading Rainbow (so, books, literacy, and children’s books), Nerdy/Quirky Girls (that appeals to nerdy guys & nerdy girls), the production company is all female (so, girl power – we can do it types).
Then I brainstormed…
Conventions (comic book conventions)
Giving out promotional materials
We should only target and distribute flyers and materials to attendees and booths with Star Trek themed Cosplay Costumes and materials (the problem with giving marketing materials out at a convention is that everyone gets a ton of crap they don’t need so you really want to zero in on your audience so you don’t waste time & money on the people who just throw away what you give them).
Signings
At conventions find booths with a similar theme or even just a friend’s booth & collaborate with them and ask if you can do a signing of promotional stills or marketing materials and have your actors or creators sign them – you get new fans that stop to see what’s going on and who you are & the booth gets more people stopping to check out their product.
Panels
To target our female audience we brainstormed a few panel ideas and decided a female creators panel needed to be submitted for many reasons. We wanted to get the name of our series and production company out there but we also wanted to help others like us start creating their own projects. We submitted and got accepted to San Diego Comic Con and asked female creators that we knew and respected to come join us and promote their projects as well as inspire and tell their stories.
T-Shirts
We ordered T-shirts to give away at our panel & sell to raise funds for our second season. We worked together trying to find a design that was cute, wearable, and that others would love. With a simple logo on the front & simple text that marketed our series and production company on the back. I think it’s working well, we have seen a lot of girls on social media wearing our shirts with pride and spreading our name. www.ooshirts.com
Wrap Party / Screening / Premiere Party
So, we took a year to release our entire first season – as we got down to the final episode I suggested we throw a wrap party / screening to not only celebrate our hard work but also to promote the series and possibly raise funds for season 2. We found a venue easily (we shot 2 episodes at the pub we chose to do our party at and they let us film for free, thus they let us use the space for free for our party). We sent out press releases to all our friends, cast, and crew. We made a list of industry contacts we sent the release to them too. We asked our friends and partners to spread the word.
We designed and had a step & repeat (photo opportunity) for the event and wrangled a friend to take pictures. We got our friend’s new app called Weev involved too. All of these small things add to the marketing aspect because everyone that takes a picture in front of our logos gets their picture out into the social media world and spreads the show around to their circles like a happy little virus. Same with Weev. We created a question on Weev that people all over the world can answer and it all ties back into the show. We also made our own photo booth props for people to play with by printing pictures around the theme of our show and attaching foam and a wooden dowel to the back of the picture. These again were popular for social media.
We ordered our “step & repeat” from Event Step & Repeat and they run around $80-$100 (without the stand) it was the only thing we really purchased or spent money on for our event. We borrowed a stand (if you do multiple events you probably can buy 1 stand and just buy the new banner each time). We rented sand bags for $15 from Wooden Nickel Lighting since our step & repeat was outside we deemed it necessary for safety to use weights on the stands. The company is located in Paramount, CA (about 30 min from Los Angeles). We saved money by picking it up and not having it shipped.
Magazines, podcasts & blogs
Contact friends that have publications or send out press releases to media you like and read or listen to. We have done a ton of publicity on radio, in magazines, podcasts, and blogs for the show, the panel, and the party.
Vlogs & Similar Shows
Reach out from your shows channel on YouTube to other channels and shows – don’t spam them or troll them but comment, like, and subscribe. If you get no extra views or subscribers at least you are helping out someone else that is going through the same situation you are.
How have you gotten the most bang for your buck when marketing your series? Was there anything I missed that we should have done differently? I hope this helps you think outside the box for marketing.
Feel free to check out our show at
www.youtube.com/dweebdarlings or www.dweebdarlings.com
We are also looking for female fronted, directed, and or created content. So, if you have ideas send them our way and let’s collaborate!