As of October 2019, there are 430 million Reddit users. Redditors have joined and created over 853,824 subreddits on specific topics. As an online retailer, you can join subreddits or create your own for your niche.
While Redditors don’t like being marketed to, you can succeed on the platform by providing value. Notably, the average Reddit shopper spent $52.96 from brands they found on the platform making it a great platform to make money.
If you spam product links in every subreddit, you’ll likely find Reddit marketing doesn’t work for you. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a great avenue for building your brand. You can build a brand presence by engaging in the community. It could be as simple as making your username your brand name. It’s not a direct sell but it keeps the brand name at top of mind. If you’re looking to find people who share a passion for your niche, you’re likely to find a vocal community on Reddit. However, brands like ThinkPup, successfully gained sales by posting a link on a subreddit.
Example: Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, held a Reddit AMA about ‘becoming a spacefaring civ.’ He conversation on Reddit was meant as complementary content for his Mars presentation at SpaceX. While he has a link to his SpaceX brand, the content he provides throughout the AMA is more value based than a sales pitch. He mentioned talk of SpaceX rockets like Falcon 9 while still engaging with the question. He was also able to answer technical questions because of his vast experience within the space industry. Elon Musk’s AMA shows that Reddit is a great platform for public relations. While SpaceX has an online store that can help make the brand money, he instead focused on a topic that would be of interest to users.
Reddit Digital Marketing Tips:
Reddit is unlike other platforms. It’s not a place to spam your links. Its members love certain types of content like funny content such as memes, Ask Me Anything sessions (AMAs), inspirational content, and questions. When approaching the platform, especially as a new user, adding a link to your blog post, even if answering a question isn’t going to work. You’re likely to get shadow-banned. Meaning you’ll be banned and won’t even know it. Focus on providing value. Engage with the audience. Get to know members of the subreddit. Become an active member first. Avoid ‘marketing’ on Reddit focus on a public relations approach instead.
Be active in a relevant subreddit. If you run a yoga store, the yoga subreddit is your best bet. You can post pictures of yourself doing complex yoga poses. Or host an AMA where you answer any yoga related question from personal experience. Answering questions people post can also be helpful. You’ll want to be active at least once a day, every day so that Redditors become familiar with you. The more you engage on the platform the more post and comment karma you can build up.
Pay attention to what type of content gets engagement in your subreddits. You’ll want to model your posts after these. If funny content gets the most upvotes in the subreddit, you’ll want to share funny content. If AMAs get the most upvotes, then you’ll want to do one of those. Before you even start engaging on the platform, look at the patterns in the type of content people like. Does one post get noticeably more comments than another? What is it about that post that drives the engagement?
If you use your brand name as your username be mindful of what you post. If you post something negative or critical of another user, you can get downvoted. You might not even realize what you’ve posted is spammy, negative or inappropriate until it’s too late. If you’d rather not take the risk, you could come up with a generic name instead. When posting on Reddit ask yourself, ‘is this comment a positive representation of the brand?’
Add your store link organically. When a redditor asked a question about why beef jerky is so expensive, the founder of Bridgford Jerky explained why it costs more. Someone asked if that person can offer a Reddit discount which led to the special discount for Reddit users. It also helped Bridgford Jerky generate some serious cash.
By the time you start selling on Reddit, you should have an active Reddit account. Hundreds of post and comment karma. Active on the platform for at least six months. Engaging daily on it. Providing value in every post. And when you do start selling on it, you’ll need to make sure you still continue that value based approach.
Avoid solely advertising on Reddit. If you feel like your product might do well on the platform, you can try it out to test it out for yourself. However, on average, most advertisers find Facebook or Google ads to offer a much better return for their business. Ads on Reddit can get downvotes as well and that’s something to watch out for. On the plus side, you can get upvotes on your ads but this can be rare.
Reddit Marketing Tools:
Reddit Enhancement Suite is a chrome extension that Redditors use. It offers features like a never ending Reddit feed so you don’t need to click on the next page. You can view images without leaving the page you’re on. You can even view the total votes a Reddit post has received.
Reddit Marketing Resources:
Shopify’s How to Make Your First $1000 with Reddit Ads explains how someone spent $400 to make over $2200. About 15% of their customer base comes directly from Reddit showcasing Reddit’s mega potential for store owners. The exact strategy of how sell on Reddit is explained in easy to follow steps.
Shopify’s How I Built an Online T-Shirt Business and Made $1248.90 in 3 Weeks shares how Tucker Schreiber made 18 sales through Reddit marketing. You can read through his post to find other great information on how he launched his first store and made his first few sales.