You know those dreams where you suddenly are standing in front of a large crowd and you realize you’re fully naked?
That’s what posting on Reddit can feel like. Except here, you might also get hit with a few (digital) tomatoes.
Reddit has this reputation as a tough place for promotion. Just getting through without being banned or roasted feels like a victory. I must confess I haven’t had the courage to post with my real name yet. I’ve been sticking to an anonymous account, asking harmless questions and sharing a few memes. But I want to change that soon.
Because here’s the thing. Reddit is still an overlooked marketing channel. Founded one year after Facebook, Reddit is the fifth most visited social media site. And it’s crowded with thousands of niche communities (subreddits) and over 500 million users, and a lot of them could be your next customers.
So, how do you promote your business on Reddit without getting ripped apart?
5 Reddit Posts Tactics That Actually Work
If you want to grow organically on Reddit, you’ve got to get in there and start posting.
Here’s what successful entrepreneurs are doing.
1. Find the right subreddit and post the right content
Reddit has been the main source to grow Eric Lam’s newsletter, Exploding Ideas. He reported getting 6,500 subscribers only from Reddit one year ago, and must have increased since then. Eric’s experience shows how important is to share the right content in the right subreddit.
For example, he posted an analysis he did of a big AI achievement in the Artificial Intelligence subreddit. He received 146 upvotes and 89 comments for this post.
But not every post was a hit. When he shared his newsletter success story in the Product Management subreddit, it was a total flop. He got exactly 0 upvotes and disapproving comments like “cringe” or “this isn’t r/entrepreneur.”
2. Don’t be spammy
Marc Lou managed to get 2.4k upvotes and over 2,000 visitors to his site from just one post in 12 hours. How? He shared a story about selling his boilerplate, ShipFast, without any promotional links in the post itself. Instead, he added links in the comments or his profile when it made sense.
Compare that to another post he made titled “I made a starter to ship startups in days, not weeks,” where he included a product link at the end. That post got removed by moderators and received “thoughtful” comments such as “Imagine buying for code lol” and “Shilling 👎.”
3. Be helpful
Joseph Lee, who founded the demo-making SaaS Supademo, saw his ARR users double in just 30 days by consistently posting on Reddit and IndieHackers.
He targeted the SaaS subreddit, where he knew his audience will hang out. He offered something something his potential customers really valued: free interactive product demos.
His post got over 11,000 views in 24 hours, which got him several new users and paying customers.
4. Repost your best content
You don’t have to create brand-new content for Reddit. Pat Walls built up 35k karma and millions of views by reposting content from his business media site, Starter Story. He automated the process, posting over 120 posts each month, with some tweaks to fit the Reddit format.
But be careful because this strategy can backfire. Pat almost got permanently banned when people started a petition to kick him off the Entrepreneur subreddit after his posts flooded the community.
5. Adapt your content format
Robin Saulet from Kaptr.me managed to get over 100,000 views on a single post and 90 sign-ups in just one day.
One of the tactics he used was to post in different formats depending on the subreddit:
- He used text posts in RoastMyStartup, EntrepreneursRideAlong, AlphandBetaUsers, and MicroSaaS subreddits
- He used video posts in Sideproject, IMadethis, and Internetisbeautiful.
Experimenting with formats helped him figure out that video posts performed better than text ones.
I hope that with these tips, you can post on Reddit like a professional speaker, giving a compelling speech to an big audience, and fully clothed!
