How to Use Reddit for Marketing Your Business
By Erin | Apr 4, 2019 (5 min read)
Even if you’re not familiar with Reddit, it’s worth considering as a way to tweak and improve your digital marketing strategy.
Throughout the past 14 years, the Reddit platform has grown into a massive avenue of online influence and engagement. To the outside world, the self-proclaimed ‘Front Page of the Internet’ probably seems like an alien land full of weird subcultures and angry forum dwellers. The reality is that in 2018 Reddit had 330 million-plus monthly active users and ranked as the 6th most visited site in the United States. Reddit users are engaged and active and enjoy in-depth information about their interests, but how do you use Reddit for marketing?
With a little time, effort and ingenuity, you can harness the power of Reddit as a valuable digital marketing resource for your business.
To help you, here are 5 ways to enhance your marketing using the Reddit platform.
1) Content Research
A subreddit is a place where users share specific information about a topic. There are now over 1-million unique subreddits, with topics ranging from a group that photoshops arms onto birds to connoisseurs of airport carpets.
Luckily, there’s more to subreddits than pointless entertainment. With a few searches, odds are you can find a group related to the marketing content you are looking to create.
The great thing about Reddit is that users ask questions and share first-hand experiences. These are the perfect opportunity to find new topics and keywords for SEO that are directly relevant to your target audience.
2) Collaborate with Industry Professionals
When working on your digital marketing, you need to be continuously learning new tactics and techniques. Reddit boasts a subreddit of 23,000 digital marketers who nerd out on everything related to the field.
Spending some time on the subreddit will keep you up to date on everything that’s going on in the wonderful world of marketing. You can stay ahead of marketing trends, and learn what is working for others on different platforms.
Useful marketing subreddits
r/SEO: 100,000+ members (text posts and links)
r/bigseo: 35,000+ members (text posts only)
r/linkbuilding: 4,000+ members (text posts and links)
r/seoinfographics: 7,000+ members (text posts and links)
r/growthhacking: 8,000+ members (text posts and links)
r/digital_marketing: 37,000+ members (text posts and links)
r/analytics: 37,000+ members (text posts and links)
r/PPC: 31,000+ members (text posts and links)
r/content_marketing: 30,000+ members (text posts and links)
r/webmarketing: 20,000+ members (text posts only)
r/digitalmarketing: 28,000+ members (text posts and links)
r/socialmedia: 100,000+ members (text posts only)
r/marketing: 193,000+ members (text posts only)
r/blogging: 38,000+ members (text posts only)
3) Share Content
Once you have a piece of quality content prepared, Reddit can be a great place to promote it and spark some traction.
However, your first order of business needs to be finding a relevant subreddit where users will genuinely take interest in what you have to offer.
Redditors are a group of seasoned internet veterans who detest spammy content. If something you post isn’t relevant, it will quickly be downvoted or flagged.
Rather than simply posting links, try building up a decent reputation first by engaging in other relevant posts and getting familiar with the community.
4) Sponsored Content
Most brands overlook Reddit as a platform to run ads or promoted posts. However, this hasn’t stopped massive brands like Toyota, Coca-Cola, and Duracell from partnering with the site for paid content.
Businesses can run sponsored posts on desktop and mobile for a minimum of $5 per day.
Reddit advertising allows businesses to pinpoint subreddit groups and guarantee that viewers have direct relevance to whatever is being promoted.
5) Stay up to date and receive feedback
Much like scouring the site for content research, you can stay up to date on industry trends by nosing around various threads.
If your target customers use Reddit, you can also get amazing feedback on not only your brand but also your competitors.
Try starting a new thread and inviting people to share the experiences they’ve had with your brand. Doing this shows consumers that you care about their input. You may even get feedback that helps you optimize your product or service.
If you’re feeling extra brave, a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) is one way to connect directly with consumers. The strategy even worked for the likes of Elon Musk and John Malkovich.
If your business and brand have enough name recognition, an AMA may provide you with additional media and free press.
As you know, the internet can be a ruthless place, so don’t be surprised if some of the questions you receive aren’t so pleasant. Take them with a grain of salt, and realize that overall you are growing engagement through the process.
Reddit may not be the first place a business owner thinks to go to grow their online reach. However, the platform is incredibly active and has a plethora of information about almost any content topic you’d like to explore. It’s worth learning a little about and seeing how it might help you grow your online influence and business.
