Reddit Marketing 101: How To Use It For Your Business

Reddit is a place where you can chat, find out recent news, or just laugh at some funny jokes. But you shouldn’t forget that Reddit also is priceless in terms of useful information as users share their experience and they are always ready to give you a bit of advice (even if you don’t ask). And, of course, Reddit marketing can be extremely effective. 

This article is based on my personal experience. I’m going to share those tips which worked for us. I’ve been promoting X-Cart shamelessly — and almost never got banned. So check out what we’ve got for you.

What is Reddit?

Reddit, also known as the front page of the internet, is a social media with an enormous user base. Not to sound unfounded, according to Alexa Reddit ranks 26th globally, and 11th in the US. I guess it is persuasive, isn’t it? It’s also a place where all the memes and jokes are born and buried. Marketing memes on Reddit gain popularity, by the way. Think about it.  

So, Reddit is the perfect place for your social media marketing campaign as the demographics of its users is vast and you’ve got all the chances to reach your target audience no matter who they are. They are definitely there.

Reddit statistics

Before we dive into all that Reddit marketing topic, let’s find out some curious facts and statistics.

• 26.4 million Americans use Reddit every month;
• There are 330 million active users every month;
• 14 billion is the average number for screen views per month;
• Posts under 120 characters get the most upvotes;
• Posts with a question in the title generate 2X comments than regular posts;
• External links are the most popular type of content;
• Over 50% of the content in top subreddits are links;
• 43% increase for health & fitness content was noticed;
• 38% of Reddit users are interested in technologies.

How do you use Reddit?

This part will be dedicated to the structure of Reddit. Without understanding how it is all working it’ll be hard to talk about Reddit social media marketing.

Subreddits

Reddit is divided into communities called subreddits (subs). Users join the communities according to their interests. They can create their own posts or comment on others. Every subreddit has its own rules set by the moderators. The owners of a community can ban you if you break these rules. It’s a common thing that subreddits are protected from promotional content. Be prepared. 

So basically all communication happens there. For example, the most popular subreddits look like this right now:

If you are just starting, find your Reddit community and see how people communicate there. It’s a whole new world with its own traditions and language. 

Default subreddit

The most popular subreddits are displayed there for those who don’t have an account on the website.

Sidebar

A menu that each subreddit has. The information differs from group to group. Usually, there are rules, FAQs, moderators contacts, etc.

Karma points

Karma is the sum of upvotes your posts get which is displayed on your Reddit account. It also changes according to how people downvote your content (we’ll talk about it in the next paragraph). 

Its amount shows how active you are on Reddit. Some users base their trust on your karma score — if it’s too low it means you’re new out there. This leads us to another thought: if a person with low karma gives you a tip mentioning some company — s/he came there to promote something.

Upvotes & Downvotes

Let’s talk about Reddit upvotes and downvotes. They look this way:

This way people express their attitude towards this or that post or comment. If they like it — they tap “upvote”, if they don’t like the post or find it promotional (yep!) — it’s “downvote”. This is how it works. 

These points influence your karma. So it’s a good idea to create as many posts and questions as possible in the beginning to grow your karma fast. And it’s a bad idea to buy Reddit upvotes. As soon as it’s noticed, you’ll get banned or just put into the shadowban. 

By the way, what is Reddit shadowban? Well, it’s pretty much the same as on Instagram or anywhere else. Your account is working but you stay unnoticed. You post something — people don’t see it. On Reddit, shadowban can work for a certain sub or for the whole website.
In case you want to make sure that you do everything right and you won’t end up in the shadowban, please, read an unofficial guide on how to avoid being shadowbanned.

Reddit marketing strategy in 2020

So here we come. In this part, we’ll talk about how to promote your business on Reddit in 2020.

How to grow your karma on Reddit?

To JUST post on Reddit, you need to create an account, find your subreddits, read the rules and start creating your own posts or questions there. That’s it.

But here we are talking about posting promotional content on Reddit. So the first thing you should do is reaching a certain karma score and only after that can you try to post links and mention brand names. 

People say it should be over 500. Honestly, I’m not a very patient person so I didn’t wait for 500 and it was okay for us. 

Think of something that a lot of people like, or hate, or whatever they do together. Find subreddits with an active base of subscribers and become active yourself. 

Below I’ll show you what I did to grow my karma. I can describe it this way: I mention the pain points of a big amount of people. And they upvote my posts because they feel the same way. 

Example #1

Example #2

How to post on Reddit?

Posting content on Reddit is not rocket science, so you can learn how to do it pretty quickly. I think I’m not really going into “how-to” and “step-by-step” details as it’s all intuitive. I want to talk about the main principles of it.

As for me, there are not so many rules, but they are all important. 

• Follow the rules of the community not to get banned there. Once you are banned, you are not able to post there anymore. If it’s your target subreddit, then you’ll have to create another profile. It’ll take some time to grow your karma and gain trust. To avoid it, don’t break the rules.
• Be active. It means upvote others’ posts and comments, add non-promotional comments, too. Also, check the feedback people leave for you. You never know where your clients or potential clients can reach you.
• Remember statistics and try to create text posts not longer than 120 characters. Create a short attractive heading, you can always add details in the body.

How to promote products on Reddit?

Here you’ll find some Reddit marketing tips on how to create the best content marketing strategy and what steps to make.

Find those subreddits where your target audience is

For me, these subs are: 

• r/business
• r/content_marketing
• r/ecommerce
• r/Enterpreneur
• r/smallbusiness, etc

If you are looking for Reddit local marketing opportunities — great. Find communities dedicated to your location. 

After you find the subreddits, check out their rules and follow the rules from the part above. Also, try to notice what topics work well or, on the contrary, badly in this or that group. For example, I know that Reddit startup stories are extremely popular. Of course, if you share them in the right place with the right people. 

Post promotional content

There are two ways how you do you it: shamelessly or legally.

Usually, the shameless plug is the reason why you get banned. So what do I do when the rules restrict us from posting promotional content? I find a way to a) bring value b) to post a link to our website or at least to mention it. For me, this strategy works perfectly. Moreover, people say “thank you” for the links that I provide as they are relevant. 

Example #1: I only mention X-Cart without giving the actual link to our website.

Example #2: I give relevant links to our blog posts.

Example #3: Here I don’t mention X-Cart, I’m just trying to be helpful and to earn some trust.

Create your own subreddit

I know that it sounds easy but in fact, it’s not. There are various options: you can create a general subreddit based on sone common interest or you can create a subreddit dedicated to your business. 

If you create a branded community but your brand doesn’t have several million fans, be prepared to have few people there.

Some subreddits are used as forums or people find tech support there. You are the one to decide what it’ll be like. 

Use paid ads

Like Facebook provides Facebook Ads, Reddit has an opportunity of paid ads as well. If you’re ready to invest, you can try this strategy, too. 

Unfortunately, I’ve got some bad news for you. Promoted posts on Reddit have a tag and people usually downvote these posts. This way users show that they don’t want to see any advertisement. 

I think the best option here is to give it a try and make your own conclusion.

Related content:

• Selling on Quora: How to Use It for eCommerce Marketing in 2020
• How to Find a Profitable Product to Sell Online

How to cross-post on Reddit?

The best step-by-step instruction is on wikiHow. Or, I’ve got a better idea — let’s find the answer on Reddit itself. 

How else to use Reddit as a marketing tool?

There are a lot of tips & tricks on how to improve your marketing strategy on Reddit. Let’s see what we haven’t discussed yet. 

• Promote your online business on Reddit by posting shameless plug to the following subs: r/shamelessplug or r/promote.
• To increase traffic, you can go to r/design_critiques or use one of this awesome Reddit thread like “Feedback Friday” on r/web_design.
• Try to befriend mods to get yourself published. I can’t guarantee you that this strategy will work but you still can give it a shot. 
• As Reddit is a link sharing site, use this opportunity as much as you can. Monitor the subreddits and post relevant links there. 
• Delete your old posts that didn’t get upvotes and comments.
• Remember that all the social media trends are on Reddit. Check them and make sure you are aware of what’s happening. 

Bottomline

Using Reddit for business is a perfect option for those who don’t want to spend many resources and who want to get positive results.

If you are looking for a more robust platform to sell online, go for Amazon. Selling on this marketplace may seem complicated, but with the right experts, you can build your online store into a profitable revenue machine.

Please, feel free to share your experience on the best place to sell online. I’d love to read your stories.