GOOD NEWS: Your official movie website doesn’t have to make grown men (or robots) cry.
Unfortunately, your terrible movie website design isn’t just a crime against humanity… it’s going to cost you butts in seats at the theater (and that means money). Here are 9 reasons your official movie website sucks… and how to make it better.
#1 - You Think It’s 1992
(A.K.A. You Don’t Have An Official Movie Website)
There’s no excuse not to have an official movie website. Period.
And no, a Facebook page does not count.
Why? You don’t own your Facebook page (Mark Zuckerberg does). You need a platform that you control, where you can drive the narrative, collect visitor information, and if done right, push ticket sales.
That platform is a website.
According to the https://www.post-gazette.com/business/pittsburgh-company-news/2015/01/06/Lack-of-websites-common-pitfall-for-small-businesses/stories/201501060018 U.S. Small Business Administration, 97% of consumers search for products or services online. That means a website is no longer optional.
Oh, and before you start whining about a lack of funds, consider this: An official movie website is the cornerstone of any social or paid media campaign. You need someplace to drive traffic to. - a place where fans can learn about the movie, find viewing options, and (preferably) buy tickets. Without thata website, what is your call-to-action going to beyou’re just throwing money around (or more specifically throwing it into the garbage can). , “Like and share this post!?” Ugh. Wouldn’t you rather give yourself an opportunity to collect visitor information so you could market to them later, like, “Sign up for our official newsletter!” or “Demand the film to your town!?”
There are plenty of affordable platforms that’ll allow you to build a website on the cheap such as WordPress, Strikingly, and SquareSpace. However, before you decide to entrust your official movie website to your 13-year-old neighbor or your underpaid-overworked secretary who’s a wiz on Instagram, keep in mind that a terrible movie website design (see the next 8 bullet points) is almost as bad as no website.
#2 - New Phone, Who Dis?
(A.K.A. Your Official Movie Website Isn’t Mobile Friendly)
Your grandpa may still be using a flip phone, but that isn’t the norm. In fact, the https://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/ Pew Research Center reports that 77% of Americans now own smartphones, and between all the talking, texting, and candy-crushing, smartphone users are surfing the web. Approxmiately https://searchengineland.com/report-57-percent-traffic-now-smartphones-tablets-281150 57% of site traffic can be attributed to smartphones or tablets.
If your official movie website doesn’t play well with mobile devices, you’re leaving a lot of your fans out in the cold. Roll out the welcome mat by making your website mobile friendly, a feature that comes standard with most websites these days.
Mobile friendly just means that your site works well on devices with small screens that might be using cell towers to surf instead of a high-speed Internet connection.
Not sure where to start? https://developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/get-started Google has some tips to help make your website and mobile devices BFFs.
#3 - When SSlow and Steady Doesn’t Win the Race
(A.K.A. Your Official Movie Website Is Slow)
What can you do in the time it takes your official movie website to load? If you answered “bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies,” you’ve got a problem. (Although, we wouldn’t mind getting our hands on one of those cookies!)
https://neilpatel.com/blog/loading-time/ 47% of people expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less, and 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
In other words, your website should be fast. In fact, it should be fast enough that it needs a “may cause whiplash” warning.
Site speed is also a factor in Google’s search engine algorithm—meaning, all things being equal, a slow site will rank lower than a fast site.
You can test your site’s desktop and mobile speed with https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.
If your site performance is more tortoise than hare, the tool will also offer tips to speed things up.
#4 - We’re Experiencing Technical Difficulties
(A.K.A. Your Official Movie Website Is Broken)
Whether you’re serving up 404 “page not found” errors or have a contact form that never submits, websites that don’t function as expected are frustrating. Read that again: “Websites that don’t function as expected.”
While having a website that is broken is definitely bad, having a movie website design that doesn’t conform to accepted norms is also a bad user experience. If you take a look at other official movie websites (or websites in general), you’ll notice similarities. For example, contact information is usually under “contact,” “contact us,” or “get in touch” in the navigation. Contact information is not under “cute puppies.” (If we click a link with the word puppy in it there darn well better be an awww inspiring dog on the page!)
Use artwork and excellent copy to make your official movie website stand out from the pack. Don’t try to re-invent website structure.
Here’s why it matters: https://neilpatel.com/blog/loading-time/ 44% of online shoppers take the time to tell their friends about their bad online experience.
Notice, that factoid doesn’t say “about a broken website experience.” It says “about a bad online experience,” and bad is in the eye of the beholder. Make it easy for fans to access what they’re looking for and interact with your official movie website.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot that can go wrong on a website. Be sure to check your film’s website on a regular basis (at least weekly) to ensure everything is functioning properly. Your quality check should include:
Viewing the website on a variety of devices
Viewing the website on a variety of browsers
Checking internal links to make sure all pages load properly (try https://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/ Screaming Frog SEO spider)
Checking external links to make sure they still point to accurate info
Testing any forms
Testing any media (ex. do videos on the site work?)
#5 - So… Now What?
(A.K.A. Your Film’s Website Has No Call to Action)
The reason you built an official movie website is to get people to do something. That something will change over time, but there should always be a primary purpose. For example, over time, your official movie website’s purpose might be to:
Raise awareness for the film by getting people to watch (and share) the trailer
Sell tickets
Push VoD, DVD, and Blu-ray orders
If your movie website design doesn’t direct people to take action, you’re missing out. Fans can’t read your mind, so get bossy and tell them what to do! This “telling” is done through a CTA (call to action), which can be in the form of a button, link, or form. For example, your movie website design might include a button that says “Find a theater and buy tickets now!”
Having a CTA on a webpage isn’t enough. Your fans have to clearly recognize it. In other words, hiding your CTA in the footer in microscopic print isn’t going to get fans to buy tickets.
https://sumo.com/stories/call-to-action-mistakes One company found that adding a prominent CTA button increased conversions by 62%.
If you don’t have a product such as tickets or DVDs to sell just yet, your movie website design should still include a CTA. That CTA might be “watch the official trailer,” “demand the movie be shown at a theater near you,” or “share this trailer on Facebook.”
Start by asking yourself what the purpose of your official movie website is right now. Then ask yourself how you can accurately and concisely convey that purpose to your audience and get the most return on investment. For instance, is a share of the trailer on Facebook worth more or less than a form fill where you capture the fan’s email address?
#6 - Coming to Theaters December 4, 2014
(A.K.A. Your Official Movie Website Is Not Regularly Updated)
https://www.ukwebhostreview.com/website-and-ux-statistics/ 94% of people don’t trust an outdated website.
As the purpose of your official movie website changes (see #5), you’ll want your movie website design and content to change as well. This will let people know that your website is being actively managed and is a trustworthy source of information. If fans trust your site, they’re more likely to engage with it.
#7 - Looks Matter
(A.K.A. Your Movie Website Design Is Ugly)
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/compelling-stats-website-design-optimization-list#sm.001d2jhq81duqebuvmb1noco6ltde 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content and/or layout is unattractive.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot that can go wrong with movie website design. From a bad choice of colors to an abnormal layout, the ways in which your official movie website can cause fans to wrinkle their noses are practically endless. In fact, point #7 could be an article all by itself.
If you aren’t an experienced web, graphic, or user experience designer, the safest route for your movie website design is to hire a professional or use a very well reviewed template.
#8 - The Grammar Police Have a Warrant for Your Arrest
(A.K.A. Your Official Movie Website is an English Teacher’s Worst Nightmare)
The most beautiful movie website design in the world won’t make up for a plethora of typos, grammatical errors, and nonsensical verbiage. Your fans need to trust your site, especially if one of your CTAs entails them giving you money (such as purchasing a DVD or Blu-ray).
An official movie website should be authoritative and inspire confidence in fans. They should know they’re in the right place. One way to do that is with well written original content. Proofread content more than once. Have other people read it. Call up your eighth grade English teacher and ask her to hunt down and exterminate those dangling prepositions. Do whatever it takes to make your copy typo-free.
Notice that we said well written original content. Don’t steal copy from another website, even if you wrote that copy. Not only can repurposed content cause fans to disengage, it can hurt you with search engines like Google. Make your official movie website the go-to source for updates about the film, behind-the-scenes info, etc.
#9 - Your Film’s Website Is Annoying
(A.K.A. Your Film’s Website Makes Us Want To Punch It)
There are many ways in which your official movie website may be annoying fans. Some common characteristics of obnoxious websites are:
Too many ads - especially pop ups
People are on your official movie website to learn more about your film, not to be bombarded with advertisements. Keep ads off of your movie website. Your website IS the ad.
https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics 73% of people dislike pop-up ads.
Sound or video that autoplays
It never fails. At the most inopportune time (like when you're web surfing during a meeting), you load a webpage that starts blaring sound at top volume. Ugh! This is one of the quickest ways to annoy visitors and get them to (frantically) click the back button.
https://www.hubspot.com/marketing-statistics 82% of consumers have closed a browser or exited a webpage because of an auto playing online video ad.
Mis-matched landing pages
Don’t you love it when you click a link, ad, etc. only to be taken to a page that is 100% different than what you were expecting? Ensure the pages you're linking to match what is "promised" in the ad or on the previous page.
Requiring plugins
If you’re official movie website requires fans to have updated plugins (ex. Flash), you’re doing it wrong and you're definitely going to see a dip in traffic. Your official movie website is not vital to a fan’s overall wellbeing, meaning it isn’t critical for them to spend time and effort downloading and installing plugins. If it isn’t critical, they aren’t going to do it. Ask fans to update a plugin, and they're going to hightail it over to IMDB or RottenTomatoes.
Conclusion
Use the tips in this article to make your official movie website less sucky and terrifying. (Unless it’s a horror movie with vampires; in that case, there probably should be elements of terror and sucky-ness.)
CinemaCloudWorks’ movie website design platform can assist with all of the issues mentioned in this article and more. To learn more, https://cinemacloudworks.com/movie-website-design/ check out some of the websites we’ve built and contact us today.
