MARKETING A WEB SERIES…

When it comes to marketing “Dating In The Middle Ages”  the possibilities are endless. I’m very lucky to have many venues for my show, but as I stated in an earlier post  (scroll way down to find it) 🙂  do not make a web series without knowing who your target demo/market is.  You might have a great idea, but if no one wants to view it why bother…

 

Besides, marketing your show is where the real work begins.  Building an audience takes time, months, even years to do.  It’s a marathon not a sprint, but the personal rewards can be worth it. (And I’m not talking monetary although in some rare cases that has happened for a handful of content creators.)

 

So, let’s say you make your show and there’s an audience for it.

 

How do they find you?

 

1.  AT THE VERY LEAST Get your show up on your website and on YouTube.com.  If you don’t have a website, build it, period.  And YouTube is a given.  There are other more traditional avenues too, depending on your demographic:  Blip.TV, Daily Motion, Koldcast.TV, etc., and these can have monetary benefits, but again realize this it takes time.  (I’ll talk more about this in a future post)

 

2.  MAKE SURE YOUR “TAGS” ARE PROPERLY FILLED OUT on your website, YouTube, and where ever else you list your show.  A small detail but so important!  List all words that describe your show in the “Tags” area.  I can’t tell you how many people (including myself) have forgotten this step.  And without doing it your audience won’t find you.

 

3.  SEND OUT PRESS RELEASES, ART WORK, PHOTOS (hopefully you had someone shooting stills on set during production) to people, websites that can help you promote your series BEFORE THE FIRST EPISODE LAUNCHES. Example, the Soap Opera Venues are a great place to market my comedy soap opera so I reached out to them.  Here’s just a few that helped me out:

SheKnowsSoaps.com, SoapOperaNetwork.com, WeLoveSoaps.com

And don’t forget to keep sending them Press Releases for each episode after the show is out.

Errol Lewis from SoapOperaNetwork.com gave me some great advice.  He said to keep sending the press releases before each new episode, but make sure they have new photos and information in them.  And, he said to send other pages on your site as well as the main one. Especially if you’re offering stuff to viewers.

Just remember these people are very busy and can forget about you.  (Don’t take it personally) 🙂 But if you keep sending Fresh and New Information, you’ll stay on their radar.

 

4.  DON’T FORGET YOUR SUB-MARKETS. Boy can these be gold mines!  Some of mine are Baby Boomer Women, Dating after 40/50, and Romance Readers and Writers. These places/sites are usually aching for more good content.  I was recently listed on this wonderful site:  BetterAfter50.com.  They have a huge online following and have been a big support.

Which brings me to:

 

5.  LEARN TO SPIN YOUR INFO TO MATCH GROUPS AND OTHER FORUMS you belong to as well.  Get onto LinkedIn, Facebook and once there, join groups that pertain to your show and interests.  This is where you can really get creative.  For instance, since my web series started out as a romance novel I wrote about that here: LinkedIn: Romantic Fiction – For Readers and Writers of Romance

and these people are big “Days of our Lives” Fans on Facebook (Deidre Hall and Matthew Ashford are in my web series) so I posted there.

 

I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO TELL YOU but this is a great start.  Your questions and/or comments are appreciated in the box here.

Once you start the marketing process I hope, like me, the possibilities for your show are endless.  But be patient!   Oh, and keep a pen and paper on you at all times because you’ll never know when a great marketing idea will hit you. (especially next to your bed for those 3 a.m. revelations) 🙂

Hope this helps.  Happy Marketing!

 

Devin Mills is available for groups/panels appearances and discussions.  Contact Info.