How to Run Successful Marketing Campaigns on Reddit | HubSpot
– What if I told you Reddit could give you just as much return on
your marketing investment than any other social platform? There's incredible marketing
opportunity with the Reddit, yet it's not often in the conversation, and I'm betting it's 'cause frankly, a lot of marketers simply
don't understand it. So in this video, I'm
gonna cover what Reddit is, and just as importantly, what it is isn't.
I'll also walk you through step by step how to create a Reddit marketing campaign and share easy mistakes to avoid. And believe me, it is
easy to make mistakes here because a lot of what Reddit offers goes against our nature as marketers. Let's start with an obvious,
but important question: How is Reddit different
from other social media? First of all, it has got over 430 million
active users per month, clocking in as the fifth most
visited website in the US. The demographics skews male
with over a quarter of users between the ages of 18 and 29. A quarter of the user base is Gen Z who use Reddit as a
source of product research more than most other
social media platforms. Crucially, algorithms are
less complicated on Reddit and based entirely on what
users find engaging or not, which they can upvote or downvote. This means traditional ads
are not gonna work on Reddit because users will
downvote or market as spam. Reddit is essentially anti-marketing, which means the usual
tricks won't work here. But isn't that kind of exciting? That means it's an
opportunity to get creative and innovative with your campaigns.
And to make it even easier, I'm sharing this free
template from HubSpot that'll help you craft the
perfect marketing campaign whether on Reddit or anywhere else. We made it just for you and you can grab it at the
link in the description below. Now, back to the big
question for the newcomers: What is Reddit and what is it not? Reddit is a site built on
communities called subreddits. These are essentially channels about a particular topic
users subscribe to. It can be broad like gardening or hyper-specific like
cats and business attire. Seriously, you can find anything on here.
But the challenge for
marketers is that these forums are based around genuine
discussion and engagement. Meaning a brand popping up in a community that's never engaged with
before is a clear indicator that they're simply selling
something or trying to. So how do you engage? One method is simply
participating in a discussion about your brand, specific product, or industry in a meaningful way. This could take the form of
an AMA or ask me anything, a popular form of discussion across Reddit where users ask questions on a thread devoted to a particular person or topic. The other option is to simply participate in the organic discussions happening around your product or industry, or start a subreddit for it
if it doesn't already exist.
The downside, of course, is
you can't control the response. So it's recommended to have
a community manager on hand to make sure your brand's
responses are handled correctly. Reddit does also offer paid promotion for your posts at a minimum spend of $5 to keep your post rank higher
and target specific users. But like other social media platforms, they will be labeled as promoted posts. So they still need to be
relevant and engaging, or users will skip right over it. Small businesses likely
don't have the resources for a full-time community manager. So how about I dig deeper on how to set up a
business account in Reddit and start your first campaign? First and foremost, you'll need to set up
your company's profile. To do that, you can this link
and simply fill out the info. Remember that this should
be a company profile and not a personal one. Redditors can see everything
you viewed and upvoted, so you want to make sure that those things align with your brand. Next, you'll go to this link to set up an advertising account. This will include your billing information and permission level if there will be multiple team
members using the account.
The next step is crucial and definitely the most time-consuming: Find your audience. Explore the subreddits
related to your business and investigate their popularity. Use a tool like Reddit List to explore the popularity, growth, and subscriber numbers
of different subreddits. You'll need roughly 6,700 page views to achieve the minimum $5 spend, so it's important to choose a subreddit that has enough activity. Just look on the sidebar of a subreddit to see how many users
are currently active. Before you get to setting up a campaign, begin engaging with the
communities you identify.
Upvote things that are interesting and are relevant to your brand, and share relevant and valuable content. But critically, it should not be your own. (tape scratching) I can't stress how important
it is to be genuine here, guys. Reddit communities can sniff out accounts who have simply joined to self-promote. So if you think you can
game the system here, I promise you, you won't be able to. This is the community engagement tool as much as it is a promotional one. Okay? Back to it. Once you're an active and contributing member of the community, then it's time to experiment
with your own content whether it's paid or not, but it needs to add
value in some capacity, not just an ad for product or a service. For example, the self-care
company Every Mind Matters delivered self-care
tips to their community and it resulted in a huge boost in engagement metrics and visibility.
But clearly there are
a lot of opportunities for missteps here, like a recent trend of posting and engaging upvote-worthy posts and then changing them
to branded posts later. Yeah, shake my head. Although this has worked, this is frowned upon and one to avoid. What about other common mistakes you should steer clear from? I touched on the biggest one
already: being disingenuous. Reddit is about building community. Remember how I said it's a trusted source of product reviews? There's a reason for that. Because redditors are brutally honest and will call a spade a spade. Another one is sounding like PR. Admittedly, this can be a
challenge in online of work because things are typically
done with a certain cadence, with a certain goal in mind. Reddit is a bit more open-ended than that, so you can't approach it with a clinical public relations brain. A third mistake is not being unique. In a place with so much content to ingest, you've simply gotta stand out.
One thing that will happen on Reddit, if you post a question or comment that's been covered
at length in the community, a redditor will point you
to a previous instance of the topic being discussed. So you better believe it
will happen with content too. Be sure to do your research
before you commit to any ideas. And finally, the most common mistake that I can't stress enough
is not offering value. Redditors want something additive to fuel their interest in a topic or solid tips they
haven't considered before. You have a business because you have something
to offer customers, so it's key to find a
way to distill your value into informative content
for community members. So what have we learned? Being genuine and engaging with the
desired community is key. Don't forget it. But the ultimate question remains: Is it all worth it? The answer is it can be. Reddit is a great tool for
expanding your brand awareness for targeted community engagement. Think of it like a long-term investment. You're building trust
with a community visited by your most likely customer base. Establishing yourself
as not only an expert, but a part of that community will also go a long way
with future customers.
And since building out
successful marketing campaigns can be tricky, remember to grab your free
marketing campaign template from HubSpot, designed specifically to
walk you through step by step in creating killer campaigns
on Reddit or any place else. Just click on the link
in the description below and it's yours. Thanks for checking out this video, and I do hope your Reddit
efforts yield results. If you have used Reddit
for your business before, please let us all know in the comments what has worked for you. And don't forget to like and subscribe for more great marketing
tips and tricks from HubSpot.
See you on the next one. (upbeat music).
