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While it is great to start selling all around the globe and travel to various conventions in Asia to promote your movie, the truth is that your local market is the one where you should be looking more closely. People in your community are more likely to buy your product if it was shot in their city, town or barn. Of course in a very small communities up in the cold North you may be forced to accept fish in exchange for the movie or you may be asked to perform your movie live. But still, never forget where you came from. People love local heroes, even if they are just a wooden puppets.
You should not be afraid to give away your film in local communities. A local rental store may not be willing to buy your DVD, but they may take it for free and then rent it to some other people. These are not your lost sales, but in fact a free advertisement. The best advertisement small filmmaker can get is word of mouth. Big companies have a fancy name for it: viral marketing. It is essentially the same, the goal is to make people talk about your product. It is also the most powerful advertisement in the world. People trust more the thing some drunk said to them in a pub than any smiling characters with big white teeth in a TV commercial. The TV ad works but only if it is repeated again and again until the people start singing sub-concisely the cheesy tune for the tire polisher from their sleep. But in a pub it is enough just to overhear a conversation from the next table.
Some companies badly exploit that. They employ young and friendly people to sit in a bar and order a special kind of new drink or ask bystanders to take a picture of them with their new cellphone. Sony publicly admitted doing the later, but many other companies do that secretly everyday. Our life become one big advertisement for the benefit of big corporations. Next time a nice old lady asks you for your help with garbage and give you a donut, remember, she may be a sneaky Crispy-Donut agent. This is what viral marketing is good for.
But really, the point is; do not be shy to give your film away to various public organizations. The copy you give away cost you just few bucks but it will create a hum between people. Of course, if your movie is really bad, then showing it before the sale to anybody will not be a good idea. Maybe you should really think about bundling it with donuts so it will have at least some value.
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