Digital marketers consume copious amounts of information every day. From pay-per-click strategies to native advertising, we constantly absorb ideas, test them and put in to practice the most effective tactics.

While marketers have written a plethora of guides and case studies about Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, the social media marketing world yields a scarce supply on reddit. It seems many marketers are simply afraid, unsure or unaware of this social news platform. There is an unforgiving learning curve we must carefully navigate, yet those who invest time assimilating into the platform get strong returns. Currently, reddit claims the 56th spot for the most popular site in the world, pulling more than 113 million unique visitors just last month.

As a social news platform, many use the site as a source for content, ranging from pictures and videos to active and genuine discussions. The site consists of thousands of communities – known as subreddits – each with their own theme, rules, moderators, and social norms. Subreddits can be dedicated to shows, games, trades, humour, science, and even bringing happiness to strangers through random acts of pizza.

Regardless of how "boring" or socially bland your brand may seem, the sheer variety of subreddits is enough to offer any savvy digital marketer value as a B2C (business to consumer) gateway. We primarily extract value in these core areas: research, creativity, promotion and lead generation.

Research and creativity

The first part of this phase is to equip ourselves properly with a working understanding of reddit's nature. Failure to do so often results in unsuccessful campaigns. I recommend all marketers bookmark the official self-promotion guidelines and get up to speed with reddit etiquette: reddiquette.

Next, we run searches for subreddits and discussions by using keywords related to our business. If we sell furniture or clothes, we'll likely find our way into the DIY and design subreddits. Make a list of every subreddit that has relevant ties to your business and record them as a community profile.

Subreddits consist of links that either direct readers to an external website or an onsite page with text, and every link has a comment section. Links and discussions offer insight to demographics and interests. We can sort links by popularity in subreddits by clicking on the "top" button and sorting them in a date range, such as "this week" or "all time".

Sorting links in subreddits grants us primary research that constantly updates. We can gauge what type of content performs best and determine if we can create anything of similar nature. On platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, content preferences can only be leveraged through respective profiles, as opposed to a community of profiles. Record the most popular content your team is capable of expanding on for each relevant subreddit.

Essentially, your goal is to contribute to these communities which have pre-existing interest in the products or services you offer. Your contributions can even be as simple as offering input or demonstrating expertise on a topical discussion. This helps build the foundation for brand presence and promotion.

Promotion and lead generation

The accepted way to promote businesses and generate leads on reddit requires a basic understanding of the self-serve platform. This allows us to target individual subreddits with creative ads – which automatically get placed at the top of the page – or target the general front page. We also have the option of targeting users by location.

An effective path to seeing positive reception and lead generation rests solely on the diligence of your research. If you understand the social norms of the subreddits you're targeting, you can play on those expectations, increasing potential traction.

For example, a family-run custom wood shop targeted subreddits such as the baseball, NFL, wedding, and sports communities with subreddit-specific headlines. This resulted in a 15% increase in their shop traffic, netting them new domestic and international customers. According to the case study, this was 22 times more cost-effective than other ad platforms.

Reddit remains an untapped goldmine of opportunities for many digital marketers. Those who invest the time to assimilate will be able to offer versatile and creative marketing campaigns for their clients.

Jesse Aaron is a community manager at WebpageFX, where he helps businesses increase online visibility and social engagement.

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