4 days ago
How to Use Reddit's Secret Insights to Elevate Your Digital Marketing Strategy
As a business owner, the easiest path to success is to know who your ideal target audience is.
Unfortunately, however, this is something that many businesses - perhaps even yours included - struggles with.
At the end of the day, unless you know who you are trying to sell to, it'll be damn near impossible to reach them, let alone try to get them to buy something.
And no, we can assure you, not everyone is your target audience.
Nice try though!
According to Craig Rosenberg, "Content marketing is a discipline where organizations provide their target buyers the content they want when they want it to help them advance through the buying process."
That's the reason most marketers pick marketing intelligence or audience research as the first step of their strategic plans. And you should do it too!
Reddit is a treasure trove for market research due to the sheer size of the user base, as well as the diversity encompassed there. From caring for betta fish to dating over the age of 40, there is literally something there for everyone.
So, how can you tap into all of this information to help amplify your marketing efforts?
Read on to find out.
Why Use Reddit for Audience Research?
Reddit may not be on top of mind in terms of popularity since it's only the 8th most popular social media website.
But don't let that fool you: Reddit has 52 million daily users, with 48% of them being based in the US alone.
Outside of active forums related to an almost endless number of topics, the platform is also great for conducting audience research. With more than 140,000 subreddits across various niches, it is a true melting pot for learning more about people, as well as what they care about.
So, what makes Reddit great for research?
Let's break it down:
Niche-specific communities, which give you the ability to learn more about a specific target group. Popular examples include things like r/LateStageCapitalism, r/Futurology, r/disneyvacation, and r/UnresolvedMysteries.
High engagement through interactions. Redditors can post text, links, images, and videos, as well as comment on posts and responses of others. This provides a wealth of information about the things people are interested in, care about, and feel are important.
Now that you know the value of Reddit as an audience research platform, you need to understand how to use it for this goal. Here are some tips to leverage it for actionable insights about your target buyers.
How to Use Reddit for Audience Research
Now that you know the WHY of using Reddit to know your audience better, it's time to delve into the HOW part.
Step 1: Find Relevant Subreddits
With millions of monthly active users and countless communities in diverse niches, Reddit is undoubtedly a rich data source for business owners and marketing professionals alike.
But being spoiled for choice may be overwhelming. unless you know how to pick wisely.
Maximize the opportunity by finding relevant subreddits where your ideal customers are likely to be.
For example, a fashion magazine running a campaign directed at female empowerment is a large subreddit. Fashion brands will likely follow it, which means popular discussions will happen around the topic there. This subreddit would be ideal for retail businesses that cater to women to network and follow.
Planning to launch a tech startup? Subreddits like r/startups, r/Entrepreneur, and tech-industry-specific subreddits are fantastic options to gauge whether your idea is even viable.
So, now that you better understand the value of subreddits, here's how to find the best ones to suit your needs:
Identify communities centered around your audience's interests, demographics, and professions
Look for the most popular subreddits by tracking their engagement metrics and date of most recent activity
Read through posts and comments to gauge whether people are even talking about things in your business's niche
Step 2: Perform Keyword Research
Social media users tend to stick with a pretty relaxed and in...