If you have recently started a new business, you must have been working on your social media strategy.
Most likely, Reddit is going to be on your list of ‘marketing platforms’. Well done! But, be careful; because marketing on Reddit is not as easy as marketing on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Take one wrong approach and you will end up having an enormous number of haters. They will roast you so bad that you will probably never be able to gather enough courage to make a fresh start.
Well, we don’t want to scare you but that’s how it is.
Redditors hate self promotion
It is a well-known fact that Redditors hate marketers and why wouldn’t they? If Redditors become lenient like Facebook and Youtube users, we marketers will fill every subreddit with spammed, crappy content. We will destroy its essence.
For years, Reddit has struggled to keep marketers away and remain as pure as possible in terms of providing value to the users. Its journey hasn’t been easy. We marketers have tried almost all possible strategies to promote ourselves and pollute it. Many of us have succeeded and many of us have gotten roasted severely.
Redditors actually hate blatant self promotion
While Reddit promotion is challenging, with the right approach, you should be able to gently and genuinely introduce your startup to your target Redditors.
In this blog, we will share with you a list of best places (i.e. best subreddits) where you can share your startup.
Plus, we will also share some helpful tips and tricks so you market yourself the right way instead of being chased away by the ‘marketing-haters’.
Let’s first understand why Reddit is worth taking the risk.
Why promote your startup on Reddit
The below stats and facts will explain it all:
Reddit is the sixth most popular website in the United States.
According to eMarketer, 26.4 million Americans use Reddit at least once a month.
Now, these 26.4 million people are the ones who already have a Reddit account and use it by logging in. However, you don’t necessarily have to create an account and log in in order to use Reddit.
You can read the forums, watch videos, and discover news and other interesting information even when you don’t have an account on this social media site.
So, Reddit’s reach could be much beyond the numbers stated by eMarketer.
Users spend a lot of time on Reddit
Users spend approximately 16 minutes on Reddit, 3.39 minutes on Twitter, and 38 minutes on Facebook.
Well, the 38 minutes of Facebook are utilized for checking out what’s going on in your social circle but the 16 minutes of Reddit is exclusively utilized for learning what interests you the most.
There is a lot of content on Reddit
Reddit isn’t a search engine and yet, it gets 46.7 million daily searches!
Users search and participate in the topics of their interest, which could be anything and everything you could imagine, including bathroom cleaning hacks to the discovery of the latest planet in our solar system.
So many Subreddits (Communities)
There are 2.2 billion subreddits (probably more by the time you read this article), so, obviously, you will definitely have many subreddits of your interest.
Reddit gets 21 billion screen views a month!
Reddit is Trusted
82% of Gen-Z reddit users say that they trust this social site over others.
This is obvious because most subreddits have a very strict ‘no spamming, no self-promotion’ policy. The content shared here is more authentic than what you can find on Facebook, Twitter, or Youtube.
Now that you know why it is important to promote your startup on Reddit, let’s understand how you can get started.
How to promote your startup on Reddit – don’t be spammy and direct
Reddit marketing requires a lot of brainstorming and creativity.
It requires you to add value to the subreddit and provide something worthy to the redditors. And then, you may subtly mention your startup idea.
For example; start your post by mentioning an eye-opening stat or challenge that your target audience often faces.
Then, you can introduce your startup and explain how it helps solve the problem. Here is an example:
Posts that ask questions get more engagement
Posts that ask questions generate more engagements (i.e. comments, upvotes, downvotes, etc.) than posts that are just statements.
Such posts encourage people to participate and voice out their opinion, advice, or ideas.
Instead of directly talking about your startup, you can frame your post in a way that it asks questions.
For example; if you have created a new multi-currency payment gateway, you may post a question such as ‘How many of you have tried multi-currency payment gateway? Which one have you used and how was your experience? Have you tried ABC Gateway?’ (your own startup)
Well, this may sound quite lame but spend some time on any of the subreddits listed below or otherwise and you will realize that to be successful on Reddit, you need to engage users in a topic of their interest, not yours.
Here is an idea of how you can frame your question and yet market your startup:
Share struggle stories and keep them genuine.
Emotional content often helps attract people. Look by at this post below to get an idea of how it should sound.
Ask for ideas and feedback. Redditors love to engage in meaningful conversation.
Remember that you may receive a lot of negative feedback but that will help you identify the improvement areas that you might have missed.
For more helpful Reddit marketing tips and tricks, please read our blog on ‘How to use Reddit for marketing’.
Let’s look at some of the key subreddits where you should share your startup.
Best Subreddits to promote your startup
r/startups
This is a huge community with around 690k members. The main concept of this subreddit is to introduce your startup to the members. No matter what your business is about, r/startups is open for all.
The Share your startup monthly thread
It has a ‘Share your startup’ monthly thread where you can provide thorough detail about your business.
You can see an example of someone sharing here:
As mentioned, it is a monthly forum but it remains active only for a few days of a month. You need to track it every day, so you don’t miss out on that phase when they take entries.
You can use our Notifier tool to set up an alert for it.
r/alphaandbetausers
As obvious, this subreddit is exclusively for startups who are looking for beta testers who can thoroughly evaluate their Saas product and help improve it.
It’s a very niche community unlike the above one but the members are quite active here and they do participate promptly. Worth sharing your startup in 2021.
r/SaaS
This too is a niche space to market your saas product or ask for opinions, guidance, help, feedback, etc.
With 16.8k members, r/SaaS too has some strict rules, which include ‘no self-promotion’.
To introduce your SaaS startup here, you will have to post to their ‘Weekly Feedback Post’, which, as obvious, is a new post every week with a new URL.
They don’t have any specific schedule, so the posting duration can start and end on any day. The best way to monitor this phase is to set up an alert for it using our Notifier tool.
Here is a great example of Missive promoting their product with a helpful post:
r/design_critiques
This subreddit caters to a broader audience. Whether you have designed a new logo or created a new website or have done a new photoshoot for your product, you can ask the redditors to share their feedback and suggestions.
Here is an example of how you can frame your post to not make it sound promotional and yet generate a decent amount of engagement and traffic:
r/Entrepreneur
With almost a 1million members, r/Entrepreneur is a huge platform to promote your startup indirectly. No matter what your startup is about, you will definitely find your target audience here. The best way to promote your business here would be to share some knowledge/information, ask for help, or share your journey. Do not brief a lot about your startup because most people here are looking for knowledge or help, not business. Like other subreddits, it too has some tags that you can use to understand how you can frame your content but don’t restrict yourself to them. Here is an example:
r/EntrepreneurRideAlong
This subreddit is pretty much similar to r/entrepreneur. While the moderators allow you to post details about your startup but you have to make sure the tone is neutral. See the below post as an example of how this redditor said everything about his new business in the form of a case study without sounding promotional.
r/IMadeThis
This is a small but entertaining group of people who love sharing their ideas and creations, no matter what they are. The members are proactive and take interest in reviewing others’ creations. Look at the below image. The redditor has promoted his product while subtly mentioning that it is better than WordPress.
r/indiebiz
This subreddit is all about independent businesses. You can gently market your services, products, offering, and even post details about your staff requirements, etc. While it allows you to gently promote yourself, you must not sound too promotional and make tall claims.
r/ladybusiness
If you are a woman entrepreneur, this subreddit is a great place to share your new venture. It allows a bit of self-promotion but remember not to spam anyone. If you stick to the rules we listed above, you should be able to get a decent engagement.
r/roastmystartup
This is one of our favorites. Honestly, this subreddit isn’t for everyone. The redditors here love finding faults and pointing out loopholes. They can be extremely critical, so if you can’t take negative feedback, don’t try anything here. But, if you are looking for constructive criticism, it can be an excellent platform to get honest user opinions.
r/shamelessplug
This is another platform where you should share your startup in 2021. With more than 40k members, it is a big community of like-minded people who love to share their latest products or services. It can help you drive traffic to your website. Don’t expect too much interaction here though.
r/SideProject
This is a super-active subreddit where people engage in constructive criticism about each other’s side projects or new startups. Redditors here are prompt and social. See, the below image to get an idea of how people engage with each other. They do not just promote their business but also help others in their venture. Great place to build your brand reputation.
r/smallbusiness
This is basically a question-and-answer subreddit. If you have started a new business and need help, feedback, guidance, support, etc. you can ask the members here. You can answer their queries and help them with information or advice, and while doing so, you may indirectly mention your startup. They have very strict rules and posts that do not meet their criteria get flagged immediately. Here is an example of how people can brutally roast you if you just go ahead and start promoting yourself.
r/advancedentrepreneur
The description of this subreddit clearly mentions that this place is only for advanced entrepreneurs who have already created a stable base for their business. You can share your struggle story, host an AMA (ask me anything), or maybe share some valuable insights but make sure the content is informative enough to attract elite business persons. Here is an example of the type of content redditors expect from you on r/advancedentrepreneur.
r/DotCom
This isn’t a huge community but it very specifically targets people who want to or have already started an online business. It can help divert a decent amount of traffic to your website or blog. Don’t restrict yourself to just posting details of your startup. If you can, do answer the queries of other users or jump into conversations related to your business. Our Notifier tool can alert you when such discussions happen so you don’t have to monitor the subreddit frequently.
r/Entrepreneurship
Like many other subreddits, self-promotional content is not allowed here. But, the vast community of this subreddit is very much interested in being a part of an interesting discussion. You can either start such a discussion or participate in one of them such as this one:
r/growmybusiness
This place is all about ideas that can help you grow your business. You can ask for help or offer help to others. Feedbacks and questions are the most common way redditors interact here.
r/hwstartups
If you have a hardware-related startup, this subreddit should be your top choice for promoting your business. You obviously cannot market it directly but this group isn’t very strict about what you should or shouldn’t post. Nevertheless, you should stick to a neutral tone and post something interesting like this:
r/startup
This is all about web startup businesses. You can post relevant content but it shouldn’t be self-promotional, as expected. However, the moderators do not mind giving you some space for self-promotion, if you provide value to the readers. This is how one of them has marketed himself along with explaining the KPIs of SaaS. It is definitely an interesting post for people who are into the same business.
r/coupons
Well, this is not exactly a place to share your startup but you can direct a lot of traffic to your website. r/coupons subreddit is all about discounts and coupons. If you are offering some discounts on your product or services, you can post here and interested buyers may contact you. It is a huge community, so it is definitely worth trying.
r/Roastmylandingpage
The idea here is that you post your landing page and people give it feedback.
It’s a small community but they give great feedback.
Wrap up
We have picked up some of the top subreddits that we believe can help you grow your business but do not restrict yourself to these ones. There are more than 2.2 million subreddits to explore and experiment with. Our Notifier app can make it much easier to identify those subreddits that could be relevant for your startup. You can set up alerts for relevant keywords and it will notify you when and where they are used. You can then evaluate those subreddits to see if they are of any value to your business.
Also, do read our blog on ‘How to use Reddit for Marketing’, so you don’t make the obvious mistakes.