You’ve probably heard of Reddit. But have you ever thought about incorporating this platform into your marketing strategy? If not, you could be missing out on an innovative way to get more eyes on your brand. Want to know more? Join us as we delve into the world of Reddit marketing in 2021.
What is Reddit?
Reddit is a social sharing website built around users submitting text, images and video which others can vote on. While popular content rises to the top, less popular content becomes less noticeable. Reddit bills itself as ‘The front page of the internet.’ Bold claim, we know. But the platform features a massive collection of forums where people can share all kinds of content, so it’s not that far-fetched. There are literally a million+ communities known as ‘subreddits’ which cover different topics. This, in turn, gives Reddit a super wide appeal.
Reddit Users Vs. Wall Street Giants
Reddit has been in the news a lot lately. A group of amateur stock investors banded together on Reddit to take on a Wall Street giant in a fight for the value of the stock for GameStop. Video game retailer GameStop’s stock price has increased dramatically due to the actions of users on the WallStreetBets subreddit. The Reddit users pushed the stock up from $20 on 11 January to a staggering high of $146.97. Memes on Twitter went wild with most backing the little guys on Reddit. We love an underdog victory, don’t you? You can read our full coverage of what happened over on Medium.
On the subject of Reddit traders, did you know that 8 out of 10 of the fastest growing subreddits are trading related?
Reddit Stats – What You Need to Know
Sounds good so far, right? A place that has room for endless discussion about a whole range of diverse subjects has to be good news for marketers looking to tap into a particular niche. There’s even a spot for bird lovers. So no matter how unique your product or services are, there will be Reddit users that want to hear more. Trust us. And the rewards are plentiful. If you climb to the top of a large default subreddit, there’s a chance your post will rise to the front page of Reddit, which can drive more than 200K visitors in a short time. That leads to pickup from other websites, strong links and lots of social shares.
But what about usership? Is Reddit marketing worth your time? Here are the stats you should know before revamping your marketing strategy for 2021.
- There are 430 million monthly active Reddit users worldwide.
- Reddit is the sixth most popular social networking app in the US with 47.87 million mobile US users.
- Reddit users spend an average of 10 minutes 23 seconds per visit on the site.
- Reddit is most popular with users aged 25-29. Indeed, 1 in 4 US adult of this age range use Reddit.
- 74 percent of consumers in a joint Reddit and YPulse survey said in a whitepaper that Reddit is where they learn about the topics that they love the most.
Marketers, check out Reddit’s Role in the Path to Success which includes interesting stats such as:
Top 5 Brand on Reddit
There are already quite a few companies who have started using Reddit to drive marketing results, and the community has embraced them. Here are 5 of the most popular in terms of fan count and popularity.
- Audi
- Toyota
- Maker’s Mark
- Spotify
- Nordstrom
Predictions for Reddit Marketing in 2021
As a content marketing agency, we’ve seen how marketing has changed in the past year. Brands are looking to make their marketing budgets work harder and become more connected with consumers. They are also looking to be less showy and more authentic. Our belief is that brands will divert spend from large paid awareness campaigns to more targeted, authentic conversations found on platforms like Reddit. Watch this space…
So how can you make your mark on this platform and nail Reddit marketing in 2021? Let’s find out.
#1 Be Honest and Genuine
We’ve got to be clear. Reddit users hate marketing as a rule. They’ve come to the site to be informed, entertained and engaged. They don’t want to be bombarded with pushy messages. So it’s important to tread carefully in this sphere. If your target audience is on Reddit, test the waters with a few ad placements and promoted posts. Just keep it transparent, honest and genuine. There’s a whole subreddit devoted to mocking tone-deaf marketing so don’t try to play games with this community, they know all the tricks.
There are different types of ad placements you can play around with. These include:
Right-Hand Sidebar
Ads in the right-hand sidebar look and feel like advertisements. There’s no pretending to be something you’re not. These tend to feature large images or videos and typically include a link to a brand homepage. The below from Microsoft is labelled as an advertisement and links through to an Azure sign up page. Nice!
Ads in Feeds
Ads in feeds is another way to get your brand noticed. Again, users will know that you’re advertising as the word ‘promoted’ will show above your post. The benefit of this in-feed ad is that it looks similar to a normal post and isn’t overly in your face. Users will see it as they scroll and can either choose to click through to find out more or ignore it. It’s not offensive. You can feature images and videos here too. And users will be directed to a landing page rather than to a discussion page. Consider your target audience and whether your product and brand actually fits here. If it doesn’t then you’re likely to see little bang for your advertising buck.
#2 Make the Most of Subreddit Targeting
As a marketer, you should know your demographic. That almost goes without saying in today’s digital world as if you don’t know who you’re talking to, how can you target the right platforms? You should also market by location. The good news is Reddit offers both demographic and location-based targeting just like all your other popular social media marketing platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
What’s also really cool is that Reddit has its very own demographic marketing superpower. That’s right, you can choose to have your ads appear only to specific communities. For example, you can show an ad about a dog-related product in the Dog Owner subreddit as this will be one of your most interested audiences. You can also layer targeting by focussing on specific demographics within a certain subreddit.
There have been many great examples of targeted marketing on Reddit. Let’s check out Duracell as a case study.
Duracell
To keep Duracell front of mind for gamers and mums (primary present buyers) during the holiday season, Duracell targeted select communities serving them simple, yet highly effective banners driving to Duracell’s Star Wars broadcast spot. Through this strategic subreddit targeting, Duracell served creatives to the users who would appreciate it the most. The result? 250 million+ ad impressions after advertising on Reddit, along with a 16.3% increase in brand awareness and a 13.8% increase in online ad awareness.
#3 Take the Organic Content Route
As well as paying for ads on Reddit, you can also go the organic route. Again, it’s important to tread carefully as Reddit audiences are intelligent, engaged and will expect you to interact if you’re going to post on the platform. So, what can you do?
Create AMA Posts
Well, one idea is to host an ‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA) thread. With this, an influencer, executive or staff member from your company should create a post announcing who they are. They should then encourage Redditors to ask them questions. This tends to work best if you’ve an influencer collaboration in place that’ll pique the interest of Reddit users. Keep the introduction short and to the point using necessary keywords. Where possible, talk about influencer follower numbers as this will give your post more authority.
Start or Participate in a Discussion
Another organic form of Reddit marketing involves starting or participating in a subreddit discussion about your brand, product or industry. This can set you apart as a thought leader while organically drawing people towards your product and services. Creating a discussion gives prospective or current customers a place to talk about what they like about your product, or to give feedback. This can prove to be useful marketing research. But be careful with this. When starting or participating in a thread, you’ll need to keep a close eye on comments to monitor any negative feedback. If you get negative feedback that’s legitimate, you should engage with it and feed it back to your team. Never attempt to delete or cover up complaints. It’s a good idea to assign a team member to follow the thread and address any concerns.
Find the Right Subreddits
When it comes to organic marketing on Reddit, it’s important to think about your customer persona. Where are they likely to hang out and which subreddits will interest them the most? Finding the right subreddits for your brand is a bit like keyword research. While it might be tempting to target the most popular subreddits with millions of subscribers, it’s probably better to focus on a smaller niche that’s likely to take a genuine interest in your product. If your brand makes kitchen tools, for example, making an impact on /r/food might be difficult as this is a subreddit with 20 million subscribers.
Impacting a smaller but still active community like /r/bachelorchef could be a lot more feasible. That’s because there are around 10K subscribers. Opting for niche over generic will help you to stand out and make your mark.
Once you’ve interacted with people from niche communities and built some credibility, you can then start testing some of the larger subreddits as well as posting your own content. Maintain a good balance between posts and comments though so you don’t look spammy. You don’t want to be seen as wanting the clicks and traffic without being part of the community. If you look like you’re being overly promotional, the Reddit community can hold a grudge and you might even receive a subreddit ban.
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