Whether it’s Key Art, Trailers, Film Websites, Sell Sheets, Producing, or Social Media Outreach, we have you covered for all your Film and Entertainment Marketing needs.

Key Art

Circle Marketing retains a few of the top Key Art producers in the major studio Film & Entertainment world. With decades of combined experience, we can take any budget film, or sales materials and give you an A+ top-tier quality piece of Key Art…with or without photographic and on-set assets. If you’re looking to secure distribution, funding, or sales, then you’ll need to show your scope and vision very clearly and on-budget.

Trailers

Having cut and directed major Theatrical Trailers, TV/Radio spots, and Internet Advertisements, Circle Marketing employs the best in the business when it comes to delivering that major studio quality on an small indie budget. The most important parts of marketing any film is the trailer and the key art. Here at Circle Marketing, we can easily handle both needs for you, and give your film that major studio quality.

Social Media Marketing

The third must-have these days for any Film or Entertainment release is a strategic, efficient, and potentially viral Social Media Campaign. Our staff has launched major releases in the past, and obviously stay up-to-speed on the latest and most efficient Social Media Marketing strategies, trends and tactics. When you want to build buzz, then call Circle Marketing to help you!

Online Monitization

We can also help you figure out how to monetize your film. You might be able to find a film sales partner and/or connection who might be interested in representing your film or entertainment product. However, should nothing come of their efforts, you might be left with a very expensive piece of expression which no one will see, or which your investors might not be able to make their money back.

Circle Marketing can help figure out ways to monetize your film or entertainment product, so that you can start recouping that money, and get more fans and eyeballs to see what you spent so much time and energy on. You made the film, now get it in front of people and start getting paid back for your hard work and efforts!

Independent Film Package:

This is where we pride ourselves in being able to effectively service the independent film market. With over five years in the major studio system, we will take that expertise and apply the big studio creative marketing expertise on the independent budget you can afford. This mix of studio experience and budgetary considerations simply is not seen anywhere at this level. Our exclusive Independent Film Package features:

• Key Art: Let our Key Art experts take a break from the blockbusters to give your film the polished look it needs to get sold and distributed.  Even if you only have a script, we’re experts at creating great sales materials with little to no assets.
• Sell Sheet: We’ll take the Key Art you’ll love, and we create professional industry-standard Sell Sheets for you to take around the festival circuit.
• Trailer: Here is where the rubber meets the road. You need to tell your story on the level that the buyers are expecting and used to working with. Here is where that major studio experience comes in to benefit you most where it counts. Creating a professional trailer on your budget with all the techniques, script-writing, and effects of the “big guys.”
• Website: Circle Marketing has custom-themed a special WordPress template especially for Independent Films and filmmakers. You cannot find a template like this anywhere, and it was designed with the on-a-budget independent film in mind.
• Social Media Marketing: As an optional add-on, you can also receive on-going Social Media Marketing services strategized and tooled to your specific needs and goals.

WHAT IS MARKETING FOR A SMALL BUSINESS?
Marketing is essentially anything you do to promote your business, or make money. Whether it’s just gathering awareness and interest via PR and Social Media, Getting more salespeople out there to acquire more clients directly, or using any of the standard online strategies such as search engine optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising, or growing and cultivating an E-Mail List, all of these are different forms of marketing. So, basically, marketing is anything you’re doing to get more awareness and attention for your business, get more clients and customers, and ultimately make more money.

HOW MUCH DOES MARKETING COST?
Knowing that, we have to establish what should be a good marketing budget. On average, you should expect to allocate anywhere from 1-5% of your total annual revenue to marketing efforts. When you’re first starting out, you’ll have to allocate obviously a lot more. If you’re largely successful, however, you can stick to this range and even the lower end of this range.

HOW DO YOU KNOW YOUR MARKETING IS WORKING?
How do you know sales aren’t just going up temporarily? You have to be able to track your efforts. Every single thing you do should have a way of tracking results, or don’t do it these days. For example, it’s better to do online advertising with Pay-Per-Click Ads than it is to do a magazine advertisement, because each view, click, and subsequent action can be tracked and analyzed.

Likewise, building an e-mail list through an e-mail marketing service like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or AWeber enables you to see who opened your e-mails, who clicked on the links, and which of your customers consume more of your information than others.

Putting Google Analytics on every page of your website will help you track your visitors, where they come from, how long they stay, what their actions are, and what page they leave from…just to name the basics of Google Analytics. Make sure you put the Google Analytics code on every single page of your website, including all pages throughout the entire shopping cart and check-out process if you sell products on your website, so you can see if there are any “drop off” points which need correcting.

Knowing what marketing is, and understanding how to track success, will help you fix what’s wrong in your marketing strategy and efforts, and help you become more efficient in your marketing expenditures. After all isn’t a dollar saved a dollar earned? Contact Us and we can help you create a specific strategy for your business, and get you going in the right direction of making more money and growing your small business.

1. Offer Something for Free
Use this as an incentive. Don’t give something away just to give something away. Whether it’s bobble-head night at the local stadium, or the eBook on the website, or T-shirt at the credit card booth, all these promo freebies are actually incentives to capture either additional sales, or at least additional qualified leads.

2. Frequent Buyer Gifts
Depending on your business this may or may not work, but many coffee houses, yogurt parlors and sandwich shops have loyalty cards. You’ve seen them. Show the card when you make a purchase and the cashier will either punch the card (or swipe it these days) to track how many times you have bought something. After X number of purchases (usually 10), you are entitled to a free item of usually equal value to the lowest qualifying purchase. If you have a business where the customer can come back again and again often, then start a loyalty program to keep the repeat visits up.

3. Partnership Offers
We mentioned parnerships as a business development strategy in one of our previous blog posts, but let’s talk about partnerships now as promotional marketing opportunities. Partner up with a company or service provider who is in your field, and sells to your target market, but who isn’t directly competitive with you. Example, a printer teaming up with a Web Designer, or an auto repair shop teaming up with an auto insurance salesperson or rental car location (or all three teaming up together!). You get the point. Not everyone pitching your customers and clients is a competitor. Team up and sweeten the deal. Not to mention getting exposure to each other’s list of clients which neither of you would have had access to previously. Make it a win-win for each of you and it’ll be a double-win for your mutual clients!

4. Team Up With A Non-Profit or Charity
Now, this one is tricky, because if you do this for the wrong reasons, then it’s unethical and definitely bad karma if you believe in that sorta thing. When you team up with a non-profit, or sponsor a charity event, become a local school booster, or even donate a portion of any particular sales to a charity, you gain a lot of good will and appreciation from your customers and clients. However, just make sure it’s a cause you can get behind and fully support, and make sure it’s a cause you believe in and would (or have) donate money to out of your own pocket. Another great incentive is matching any customer portions. For example, for every widget you buy, $1 will go to XYZ charity and (insert your company here) will match with an equal $1. So long as you believe in the cause and are doing it for the right reasons, charities and non-profits are great teammates for promotional marketing efforts.

5. Offer a discount to a targeted group of customers
This is basically an extension of the first idea, but a step further. You want to offer a discount or freebie to your best customers out of the blue. A huge “thank you for being a loyal customer.” This will show that you actually care about each individual customer, and also has the side benefit of staying in someone’s mind while not being spammy. You can also offer a special gift or discount on the person’s birthday. You can offer discounts to those who take a survey. Last but not least, you can offer discounts and deals to those who review your company on Yelp, Facebook, or Google Local, and also for those who Check In on Yelp, Facebook, or FourSquare. Make it fun. Maybe even offer a bigger discount or bigger freebie to those who do multiple efforts for you, like Review on Yelp and Check in on Facebook, for double discount (or whatever you’re comfortable giving away which the customer will find valuable in it’s own right).

With these promotional marketing ideas, you should have a few new ways to get more customers in the door, and also more customers back in the door after they leave. Keep these creative promotional juices flowing! COMMENT BELOW what promotional marketing efforts you have done in your own business which has met with great success so others can learn even more tips on how to keep awareness up and constant for small businesses.

WHY E-MAIL MARKETING?
These days, the correct (read: legally advised) way to build a list is through a double opt-in process. This mains that a person will sign up for an e-mail list via some kind of web form. Then, that person will receive an e-mail asking them to click on a link to confirm their desire to be added to that e-mail list. This is thanks to the CAN-SPAM Acts of 2004 and 2008, and they are the best thing to happen to small businesses. Why? Because now everyone who signs up for your list is double-sure they want to be communicated to from your company, and have confirmed the desire to receive your information. They literally asked for it. So, to not appreciate the importance of that kind of lead generation would be mind-boggling.

GET AN E-MAIL MARKETING ACCOUNT
The best way to do E-Mail Marketing blasts is through an E-Mail Marketing service. Try MailChimp, Constant Contact, AWeber, of whatever service you’re comfortable using. Once you get this account set up, you can create opt-in forms for your customers and visitor to fill out and sign up for your list!

GROW THE LIST
Place this form on your social media channels, especially using an App on Facebook. Place this form on any landing pages you direct traffic to. Last but not least, and actually most importantly, place this form on pretty much every page of your website and blog. I say “pretty much” because you wouldn’t want this on a shopping cart page because it might distract from the customer making a purchase. So, other than any page where a purchase can be made, place your e-mail form on there.

INCENTIVIZE THE SIGN-UP
Give people a reason to sign-up. Offer them a free e-book, or a massive discount, or special perks they can only receive by being a member of your e-mail list. Make it juicy and very valuable. The customer is allowing you to contact them, so give them something of equal or greater value. This is where you start to prove yourself and your company’s worth…so make it really really good!

FREQUENCY
Contact your list semi-monthly. Depending on your business, and how you set up your e-mail strategy will determine exacts, but generally speaking about twice a month is acceptable. Not enough contact and people will cool off and forget about you. Too much contact runs the risk of making people sick of you.

THE ACTUAL E-MAIL
Don’t clutter the e-mail with too much information. Just like any marketing you do, always have one major call-to-action and maybe about 2 or 3 minor ones just in case the main push doesn’t generate clicks. That is also the key here. Generate clicks. You want people to click on that e-mail and go where you direct them (most likely a particular page on your website). Your e-mail is for whetting the whistle and not giving the customer an entire novel to read. They’re not going to sit there and read a long e-mail anyway.

ANALYSIS
Of course, there are a few more topics to cover, and we will in later posts, but this should get you off to the races. Remember to analyze every single thing you do. Analyze open rates (they should be above 20%…don’t get upset if more people don’t open your e-mails than do open them…that’s pretty standard). Analyze click-through rates (these should be double-digits if you’re doing a great job, but again, don’t sweat it if you see “11%” because that is actually a good number). Analyze what links your recipients are clicking on. Are they clicking on the latest blog posts? Are they clicking on social media sharing icons? Are they clicking on your main offer all the time? Analyze every nook and cranny, so you know what your list wants, and give them more of that!

If you need some more advice for your particular business, then just contact us with any questions and we’d be more than happy to help you out! Happy list building!

Many people have paid hundreds of dollars for webinars like this, but Circle Marketing and Broadcast Louder figured putting together this free 2-hour class would help Small Business owners kick off the new year on the right foot!

Click here to watch the webinar, but get a notepad ready because there’s a TON of information to help your business grow!

For those who want to move at their own pace, and prefer to have PDF’s instead of watch videos, please feel free to download the supplemental ebook by joining our email list below:

Scam Artist 1: The Web Designer
Most of the time a small business looks to hire a single “web designer,” it’s because there’s a perceived lack of budget available to spend on a larger and more expensive company. Even the middle companies who might charge a few thousand dollars for a website, or some online graphic/development work, seems too much. So, the business owner, or manager, looks to hire off of an outsourcing website by placing an advertisement asking for samples and rates. Most of the time, the business owner will get to choose from awful to horrible. And when they do find an aesthetically-pleasing website, then it was usually designed with the web designer’s goals in mind, not the client’s.

A common problem is a general lack of marketing knowledge. A designer doesn’t understand ROI, Conversion rates, usability (for the most part), Search Engine Optimization, or content creation. The web designer may also not be adept at developing efficient code, and may even use a template or CMS Theme “out-of-the-box” and hackingly tweak only what the client needs for the site/project to look like the clients’.

SOLUTION:
You should look for a company which has a small staff of experts, and whose work is consistent. Also, ask for references and follow up on those references. Asking to see links only tells you a small part of the story. You’re most likely not a marketing expert, either, so knowing how to break-down the effectiveness of each site given to you as links usually isn’t a tool in your toolshed as a business owner. And if you do work in the marketing department of your company, are you informed on the latest and most effective strategies and techniques out there? If you are aware that Google just changed their algorithm almost a year back to counter act link farms and aggregate websites, then you’re more informed than most.

Scam Artist 2: The Social Media “Expert”
When you meed a “Social Media Expert” then you probably have met someone who spends a lot of their time on Facebook and Twitter, and they feel that the hours they’ve logged in gives them enough usage hours and peripheral knowledge of how things works for them to try to get paid for it. Worse yet, if you ever meet a self-professed “guru” then run, don’t walk…and…if you ever meet someone who specifically claims NOT to be a “guru” without you even bringing it up, then run away even FASTER!

A common problem with Social Media consultants is that they aren’t familiar with PR/Publicity, Marketing and Advertising. Having a knowledge in these areas will help your Social Media message be more effective. Social Media is marketing your product, but it walks the fine line between pure marketing and pure publicity/PR. You’re essentially going to be starting a conversation with potential customers, and cultivating a strong relationship with them. You have to strategize your message effectively for your target market and understand who your customers are…from the type of income they make right down to the types of shoes they are likely to wear. You have to know your customers’ mindsets if you’re going to communicate how your brand, company, and/or product is going to help improve their lives in some way.

SOLUTION:
A honest to goodness true expert (or guru) will have case studies, metrics, and examples of what they’ve done for others. You should also ask your expert how they envision your company or brand being able to harness the power of social media, and what ideas they have for you, and how they will strategize your social media road map. When you begin working with them, after you’ve agreed to work together, then ask for specifics and documentation on how they will work for you, what results to expect, and how you can check their work periodically to chart the progress.

One note, though, to be fair, Social Media is the quintessential real life example of the old saying, “Good, Fast, Cheap…Pick Any Two.” If you’re going to get some Good results Fast, then it’s going to cost you in media buys, hourly charges, and affiliate partnerships just to name a few. If you’re expecting something to work Fast and Cheap, then the results are not going to be very good. For example, if you want 5,000 fans in three months for your Facebook Page, then expect a lot of fillers and unqualified fans usually gotten through trading “Likes.” Depending on the kind of business you have, this might be a decent tactic depending on the overall strategy. Finally, if you’re looking for something Good and for Cheap, then the great results will not come quickly. It will take time to cultivate good relationships while being frugal. Why? Because you’re going to have to keep the hours spend on the social networks down, or you’re going to have to invest a lot of time yourself if you don’t wan to pay others to spend the time doing it, just to name a couple reasons.

Scam Artist 3: The “SEO” Promise
This could be the biggest scam out there. The promise of “I’ll get you on the first page of Google in two weeks!” Anyone who says that, just tell them to politely leave you alone, because you know their game. They know that NO ONE knows the algorithm Google uses, much less be able to guarantee positioning on an on-going basis. There are billions of “first pages of Google,” and you can reach quite a few just with a specific-enough search.

For example, if you search for your own name, or your business’ name then you better be the first entry on Google, or you’ve got some work to do. Being first for your exact name should be easily achievable. The trick, however, is being first for an actual KeyWord and search phrase your customers will be typing into the search engine box to find you.

SOLUTION:
When looking for better search engine rankings listen to the “experts'” pitch. If they promise first page and first spot rankings for any KeyWord you wish, then they are not being honest. If they want to work with you to find the perfect and achievable “long tail” KeyWords which will help your customers actually find you by what you do and where you are, then you’re on the right track.

Also, you shouldn’t have to pay one penny more for organic search engine optimization. That means developing your website so that it’s optimized for prime display in the search engines, and ready for great rankings. Many scam artist developers, and one-person-shops will grab a WordPress theme, install it for you, and tweak some logos, colors, and text and send you on your way. That’s not going to help you. There are a certain base number of customizations which will need to be done on every site, by an expert, to help you achieve those amazing search engine result rankings you’re looking for.

In Conclusion:
There has been a lot of information here. As a courtesy to you for reading all of this, please give us a call with any questions and we’d be happy to help walk you through a few things which would help you out, and NOT give you a used car salesman pitch for your troubles. It’s our mission to help out, and make businesses more successful however we can, so just Contact Us today! Talk to you soon!

Say you’re selling an eBook about Investing. One ad might read something like “Learn the Secrets of Investing” whereas another ad might read, “Retire Rich? We’ll Show You How!” You might want to tweak your messaging and reach of the ad to hit different demographics, highlight different products, or even two versions of the same exact thing. See which one performs better.

If you have three versions of your ad out for a couple days, and one converts into sales at a rate of 10%, but the other two are converting at 2% and .2%, then you know what to drop immediately before you waste money on an ineffective ad. It’ll probably surprise you which ads perform better. Usually it’s the ones you don’t expect, so try all a wide variety of approaches and see which ones best resonate with your customers.

Action Item: What kind of audience will benefit from what you are selling? What copy lines can you write which will appeal directly to their need? In what ways could you split test a few ads to track the results?

Facebook Timeline for Pages is coming to Facebook on March 30, 2012. Circle Marketing’s Louis Tanguay, teamed up with Broadcast Louder‘s Susan Newman to deliver the ultimate webinar on how to most effectively use Facebook’s new Timeline for Pages with the sole focus on maximizing your business and/or brand’s ROI and conversion cost efficiency.

You’re going to see strategies, ideas, and techniques in this Webinar which others simply aren’t doing yet. These fresh and new ideas, combined with the power of Facebook’s new Timeline for Pages’ abilities, makes this a must-see video for any and all small business owners and social media marketers of all sizes.

Circle Marketing can partner up with you and provide your business with the latest in Facebook marketing strategies, or if you have clients of your own we can do the work for you as a silent partner. This way, your clients can give you all the credit for their amazing success. Contact us now, and let’s start improving that Facebook Marketing ROI!

View Facebook Timeline Marketing Video – Part 1:

View Facebook Timeline Marketing Video – Part 2:

It’s a very exciting day for those who focus on the future of Facebook Brand Pages and what this means for doing business and acquiring fans on Facebook. Your Facebook Timeline Page is not a substitute for an actual website for many reasons, but it can be the most effective business tool you have other than your actual website.