How to Find & Market to Your Audience on reddit

Your audience should always be at the core of your Inbound efforts, and it’s no different if you’re finding your audience on reddit. Where do they go for information? How do they find it? That’s where you want to be, and reddit can help you get there.

As the front page of the internet, reddit’s users organically rank content on the site on a real-time basis. That means the most popular content tends to make it to the top. It might not necessarily be the best content, but it’s most certainly getting the most attention.

The reddit community digests content differently from any other group on the web. Because of this, content should be crafted specifically for it, but before you can do this, you need to understand where and how to find the right audience.  

Note: Reddit is currently redoing their front page algorithm. (It’s been noticeably broken for a while.) We don’t know what it will look like just yet, but keep it in mind as you’re going through this article!

Finding Your Subreddit

Reddit is made up of communities, or subreddits, that each focus on a topic. Do you like BMW’s? What about new technology? Or for you photoshop wizards, r/photoshopbattles?

There are communities dedicated to ideas, religions, regions of the world, television shows, movies, finding new subreddits, fictional worlds, and methodologies. There’s even a subreddit for the Super Bowl Sharks. 

With so many different communities, you can find almost anything on reddit in one place or another.

A good example of the diversity and specificity of reddit can be found by exploring design subreddits:

• r/design wants you to show off your work and generate a discussion around it
• r/designcritiques lets you post your work for constructive criticism (harassment gets you banned forever)
• r/web_design covers web design from start to finish and has dedicated Feedback Fridays

Following the Rules

Once you’ve found the right subreddit(s) for you, you can start posting, but keep in mind that every branch has its own style of communication and rules.

You can learn your community by being in it and engaging with others in it, but always make sure to read the guidelines of each one before submitting. If you don’t follow the rules, you may get banned for something you wouldn’t expect, your post may be removed or downvoted, and you’ll have to start from scratch.

Here are few things you can try doing before posting:

Check to see what sort of posts are hot and how they got there. Do they have a lot of comments? Is it a controversial post (lots of upvotes and downvotes) or is it just upvotes?

If your content is similar, you may face the same type of reaction.

Aside from each individual community’s guidelines, reddit has reddiquette, a site wide set of guidelines for posting and being a good member of the community. These rules apply to every subreddit. Think of it like Federal Law and subreddit guidelines as State Laws.

Commenting on Reddit

The comments section of a subreddit is where the magic happens. While it’s the perfect place for an industry leader to field questions, it’s also to foster engagement from your audience and get a peek inside their heads.

Depending on the subreddit (take r/IAMA as an example) you may find the best answers and the most insightful information in the comments section. Comments are also a way for redditors to debrief after digesting content - sometimes, you’ll find the most honesty there.

Registering on Reddit

You can view reddit publicly, but registering is important. Registering on reddit lets you post, vote, and keep a record of everything you’ve done on the site.

Once you register, you can also subscribe to communities. When you do, you’ll see their content populate your personalized homepage, and you’ll see it every time you go to the homepage so you won’t be waste time hunting for relevant conversations.

“Flair”

Some subreddits also have “flair”, which are small badge next to your name or post itself. It’s only available to registered users and it’s also community-specific, with some subreddits making you earn it and others letting you choose it when you’re posting. In those that make you earn it, flair is a sign of expertise on the topic; a very good thing to have as a Marketer.

Read the guidelines in the sidebar of your chosen subreddit to learn how you can earn (or customize) your own.

How Do I Know if Reddit's Right for Me?

The reddit community is already established; you just need to find the right type of content that will excel in it.

It may not be that blog article you just wrote, but maybe elements of the blog presented differently. Research and explore your subreddit audience thoroughly to know what medium will get the best response. Keep in mind that your brand should align with the content you post to reddit, and the subreddit to which you post it.

The Goal of Marketing on reddit

The end goal of Marketing on reddit should not be to generate more traffic to your website or to generate more leads. Your goal should be to engage with your audience on their own turf.

Redditors are smart and tech-savvy on average and, 9/10 times, will notice when you’re trying to game them or the system. 

It’s not easy to suppress your urge to generate traffic, I know, but think of it more as an opportunity to walk a mile in your persona’s shoes. You will definitely learn something new through the experience.

Reddit is a platform like any other. If you use it incorrectly, you can damage your reputation and alienate your audience very quickly, but if you use it correctly, you will learn, grow, and benefit from it.

So, What are you waiting for? Jump right in! Upvote content you like, downvote content you don’t, and stay engaged!