Small Biz Guide to Reddit Marketing

Where can you meet runners looking to trim their PR time, new graduates looking to up their resume game, and retired bus drivers looking for the quietest vacation spots on any given day?

Reddit — the front page of the internet (RIP, best slogan ever).

Many modern small business owners and marketers have heard of Reddit. Heck, you’ve probably even visited or have a personal account you use to peruse the latest sailboat news.

But for many, it’s hard to make that leap from “social media platform I’ve seen around” to “top-tier marketing opportunity for my brand.”

Especially if you’re familiar with how ruthless Reddit users can be if they get wind of anything that feels inauthentic.

That said, Reddit can be a powerful addition to your social media strategy and drive tons of engaged traffic —as long as you know how to approach the beast.

Which, lucky for you, the Reddit-savvy team at DreamHost knows just how to do it.

So, let’s dive in (which is almost Reddit’s new slogan).

Understanding Reddit in 90(ish) Seconds

If you aren’t too well versed with the platform, here’s our quick spiel on all the key points you should know about Reddit.

Reddit is a large social media platform (more than 50M U.S. users alone in 2024) split up into communities called subreddits. Think of subreddits as primarily text-based discussion boards organized around topics. Some are as general as music (r/music), others as niche as focusing on season 6, episode 18 of the hit sci-fi drama “Lost” (No link, to protect you from spoilers!)

Anyone can create a subreddit (subs). They are run by moderators (mods), and users are called Redditors. The currency of Reddit is upvotes and downvotes, which Redditors use to express their opinion on discussions — and which tell the algorithm what content is popular. And yes, troublemakers can be banned from subreddits!

One of the most unique features of Reddit, and perhaps frightening for marketers, is how thoughtful, opinionated, and skeptical much of its user base can be. In other words, shameless and lazy self-promotion is not the way to win with this crowd.

But, come along, and we’ll show you the right way.

8 Tips and Tricks for Organic Marketing on Reddit

You’ve probably gathered that Reddit can be an incredible platform for reaching a passionate, targeted audience — but only with the right approach.

Here is a mix of our top strategies and tactics for using Reddit to grow your brand.

1. Create a (Non-Cringey) Reddit Profile

To start, you must have an account to interact on Reddit. You could create a business profile to use the Reddit Ads program, but since we’re focusing on organic promotional methods, it’s not necessary.

For small business owner profiles, we recommend going the more personal route instead of using the name of your business. Reddit is anonymous, but we suggest you try to get a name that sounds like you while also representing your space — maybe that’s TinaInTech or philtiesflies. Then, use elements of your profile like your description, banner image, and social media links to share a little bit about your business.

To edit all of these, visit your avatar in the top right corner (desktop) > View Profile > Edit Profile (under Settings).

This username can’t be changed once you choose it, so take your time!

2. Find Your Tribe

Once logged into Reddit, you can immediately start searching for topics related to your business using the Search Reddit field at the top of the website. These results will show you posts, communities, and comments related to your search.

For example, a freelance digital designer would probably want to search terms like “web design,” “graphic design,” and “freelance.” You’re looking for active subs with decent traffic without so many posts and users that anything you share will be buried immediately.

Or, look at the left side of your screen (on desktop) to see filters like Popular, Explore, and All.

Look through these to start seeing what Reddit has to offer. Click the various subs to find what feels right for you. Use the Join button at the top of the page to subscribe to a sub so new posts pop up on your Reddit homepage.

You can always find subs you’re a part of in the Communities menu that should now be shaping up on the left side of your homepage.

3. Grow Your Karma

On many subreddits, there are limitations on actions you can take (like posting new discussions, including links in your posts, etc.) if you don’t have enough karma.

Karma is perfectly named — it represents your reputation on Reddit. You build karma as you get upvotes, which you can do by genuinely investing your time in interacting and sharing content across the platform.

As you start getting the hang of posting, remember that even though you’re acting as yourself, you’re also representing your brand. Anyone can simply click on your profile to see what you’ve posted and engaged with on Reddit.

Also, be careful to mind the rules of each sub to which you’re posting, which can usually be found in the right sidebar when viewing the website on a desktop, sometimes along with other helpful resources and links.

4. Remain Authentic

One of the most important strategies for finding success on Reddit is to be authentic.

A Redditor can be more sensitive than a bloodhound when sniffing out marketing. Typical promotional content doesn’t provide value and merely interrupts the community and culture Redditors and mods try to build in their favorite subs.

So, if you’re going to share something about your brand, be real and unscripted, be transparent about your relationship to it, and be damn sure it’s relevant to the discussion.

5. Offer Solutions, Not Products

The truth is, any good product or service should solve a problem. So when you get on Reddit, your goal should be engaging with people who have that problem —they’re your target audience, after all!

Only once you’ve become part of the community and conversation and taken the time to add value and solutions should you even consider mentioning your company. And even then, it’s best to wait until someone brings up something related, such as asking about your experience or credentials.

6. You Don’t Only Have to Give, Try Asking

You’re not just stuck answering questions, you can also ask questions on Reddit as a tactic for drumming up engagement.

For example, Tim Soulo, CMO of SEO super tool Ahrefs, took to an SEO subreddit just after joining the company (and a few times since) to ask one simple question: What do you think about Ahrefs?

By genuinely asking about his product and engaging with all the feedback, Soulo was able to generate not only product ideas and goodwill, but also probably turned a few new people on to using and paying for the tool.

7. Share Links Strategically

A user in the Entrepreneur sub shared how they finally found their footing with Reddit marketing after applying all the above tips around authenticity, value-adding, and question-asking,

It all started with them asking a genuine question in a large sub deeply relevant to their brand. The important thing to note is that they did not mention their business or drop a link to it.

After getting a good discussion going in the comments, a question naturally arose that enabled them to add more context: Where are you located? With that, the owner could share a little more about their business and a link. They avoided coming across as spammy while still garnering a reported 1,000+ clicks on that one link alone.

This exemplifies that folks on Reddit aren’t wholly against marketing, they just prefer that the businesses doing it respect the community and the people in it.

8. Consider Hosting an AMA

Focusing again on adding value, Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) posts are a popular way for subject matter experts to get in front of a crowd. What they give in expertise they gain back in exposure to new people who may become their biggest fans.

The interesting thing is that AMAs are one of the few times when Reddit users will gladly and knowingly engage with obvious marketing messaging, as many of the most popular AMAs are hosted by famous or successful people pushing their next big thing. For a great example, see this wildly popular AMA featuring Nicolas Cage promoting his movie “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.”

As a small business owner, we only recommend hosting an AMA if you have an especially interesting story to tell —such as how you broke into a really tough field, made your first million by 22 selling rugs online, and so on. Be sure you choose a relevant and active sub where you’re already a community member to host your Q&A sesh.

How to Measure Your Reddit Marketing Success

Tired of feeling like you’re just yelling into the void when it comes to marketing?

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Next up, our suggestions on the best tools to measure engagement levels, discover what resonates in each community, and improve your strategy for stronger Reddit results.

Use Reddit’s Metrics

Reddit makes it pretty simple to see how your posts and comments have performed, which can offer insights into what kinds of content each different sub responds to the best.

For comments, the metrics aren’t as rich — just the number of upvotes and downvotes. But for each post, you can see the total views (for posts younger than 45 days), upvote rate, comment count, and number of shares.

To find this information, view your profile and toggle from Overview to Posts or Comments.

Track Links Shared on Reddit

A common way to see how links shared on Reddit perform is to attach tracking codes to them.

One popular way to do this is by using the Campaign URL Builder in Google Analytics to add UTM parameters to links you want to track clicks on.

This is a somewhat drawn-out process, but not technically difficult. If you’ve never played around with this tool from Google before, this guide from HubSpot provides a detailed walkthrough.

Monitor Website Traffic

You can also see how much traffic your website receives from Reddit overall using Google Analytics. This helps measure the impact of Reddit marketing where you aren’t able to include a specific link.

To do this, you’ll use the Traffic Acquisition report, which we show you exactly how to do in our deep dive into GA4 Reports: A Comprehensive Guide to Acquisition, Conversions, and More.

Apply Social Listening

Social listening tools (Brand24, Hootsuite, etc.) provide a creative way to pick up on the sentiment around your brand, your competitors, and the industry as a whole on Reddit.

Set up your social listening platform to collect references to words and phrases related to your brand to better understand how people are talking about it across Reddit. This information should be helpful in understanding what the general public really thinks about your offerings, giving you ideas for brand improvement and more fresh, relevant Reddit marketing.

Why Bother With Reddit?

Got more than enough on your plate when it comes to tactics for driving traffic to your website and wondering where Reddit fits in?

Here are some reasons why we’d make room.

It’s a Highly Visible Platform

The same 2024 Google Core Update that rocked many websites caused a massive boost in Reddit’s search engine rankings. At least for the time being, Reddit is one of the most visible sites on Google, just behind Wikipedia and Amazon.

It would seem that Google is prioritizing engagement and content that feels “human” —both areas where Reddit excels.

In other words, having a presence on Reddit has become just as important in getting discovered as spinning up a blog became when SEO really hit the scene around the turn of the 21st century.

Related: Improve Your Rankings Using These 20 SEO Techniques

Consumers Crave Original Content

Evolving user behavior is also boosting Reddit’s presence in the marketing space.

AI-generated content is quickly saturating the internet, so much so that many Google users now even add the term “Reddit” to their searches to find actual human content.

This is perfectly in line with Google’s algorithm changes and further increases the relevance of Reddit for brand promotion.

Reach an Engaged, Ideal Audience

As we touched on a bit already, many subreddits are highly specialized communities.

This strong focus is actually a great thing for you. As long as you do your research and make a concerted effort to become one with the group, you can get right in front of real people who should be interested in what you have to offer — no expensive advertising, extensive research, or months of trial and error required like with so many other promotional strategies.

One Last Thing: Is Reddit Right for You?

Hopefully, you’re as excited about Reddit marketing now as we are!

But there’s one last thing to check before you run off and start posting —are you sure Reddit is right for your business?

Reddit users largely identify as male (around 62% of users) and the vast majority of U.S. adult users are 18 to 49 years old. The majority of its desktop traffic comes from the U.S. and is interested in topics like video gaming and news. Around half (46%) of Reddit users bring in a household income of $50,000 or more.

These demographics paired with the prevalence of niche communities and focus on discussion and authenticity make Reddit an ideal outlet for promoting specialty, mid- to high-priced B2C products and services that serve English-speaking professionals, possibly with young families.

If that sounds like your wheelhouse, roll on.

How Will Your Brand Use Reddit?

Reddit is unlike any other social platform. However, the things that make it special are the same things that can make it feel a little unapproachable from a marketing perspective.

That said, when done with conviction and care, Reddit can be a game-changer for small businesses and startups looking to build relationships with their audiences.

Remember, Reddit’s focus on genuine interactions is key — so find your people, stay authentic, add value, and stick with it.

With the above tools, strategies, and tips, we’re sure you can grow your brand’s presence on Reddit. But if you ever need advice or help, our team of Pro Service providers —especially in the marketing department — is standing by to help you connect with and convert your core audience.