Hey you! Have you heard about relevancy in marketing before? Yes? Of course you have. We all have. Over and over and over and over again.

It really is on every other marketing blog we read. Including this one, kind of.

For those of you who missed the memo, let’s sum up what we know about content marketing and relevancy.

In general, we know that our content needs to be of a high quality. But what constitutes “high quality”? Some would argue that it means informative, others that it means humorous. Whether it’s informative, humorous, or anything in between, high quality content always engaging.

But that’s not it. We also know that content doesn’t qualify as “quality content” at all if it isn’t relevant to your audience.

This means that engaging content + relevant content = quality content.

Got it?





If Content Is King, Then Relevancy Is The King’s Most Trusted Adviser

Photo courtesy of laughlin(CC Attribution) It’s hard to place relevancy on the regal scale that content marketers use to address key ideas because it’s so ingrained in content creation already. But just like a King’s advisers support a King, as does relevancy support content. And just as the King is likely to fail without his advisers, so will content without relevancy.

A lot of business haven’t quite got to grips with relevancy yet, and it’s a shame because while their content is great, it’s just not what their audience needs right now.

For too long just the simple matter of creating content was good enough, and while we knew that generally we had to create content that would cater to our audience, we never really focused on how to get this down to a fine art like we have content.

And that’s when I realized: There is a place where relevancy’s key role in relation to content is displayed loud and clear: Reddit.

What is Reddit?

At first look, the website doesn’t seem like much. Visually, it resembles a Harry Potter forum that we may – or may not have – hung out in for the duration of the noughties. But underneath it all, Reddit is a masterclass in quality and relevant content. Currently, Reddit claims the 40th spot for the most popular site in the world, is the second fastest growing social media site, and pulled in more than 140 million unique page views last month! Reddit is based in San Francisco, California after being created by two University of Virginia roommates, Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, in 2005. In 2006, Reddit was bought by Condé Nast Publications and was a direct subsidiary of Condé Nast’s parent company, Advance Publications. Since 2012, Reddit has operated as an independent entity, although Advance remains its largest shareholder.

Logistically, Reddit is an entertainment/news/social networking platform where registered members can submit content. The content can be text posts, direct links, images, videos etc.

Content is organized by areas of interest called “subreddits” and are voted on by registered users. Voting pushes content “up” or “down” the stream and helps to organize the content’s position on the site’s pages. The higher the votes, the more popular the content is, the more visible it is to users.

An example of some of the more popular subreddits can be seen in the table below:

Marketing and Reddit

(Or Marketing versus Reddit)

Marketing and Reddit have a strenuous relationship at best, and are at each other’s throats at worst.

You’ll find very few success stories on the internet of marketers using Reddit successfully.

There’s always a few, such as Viral Blog Content’s Reddit Marketing which makes marketing on Reddit seem straight forward and plausible, while also admitting that it’s more about contributing than it is about marketing. Adage’s “Reddit Hates Marketing. How to Market on it Anyways” similarly tackles the impenetrable entity that is Reddit, while covering itself in warnings as it does so.

Here’s my advice: Take those stories with the exact pinch of salt that they offer you because the chances are, it won’t work for you.

You can’t, and shouldn’t, pay to be on Reddit.

You can’t, and shouldn’t, market on Reddit.

The premise of Reddit is that it’s content that’s ranked organically by other users’ votes. The reason Reddit exists at all is to counter-balance the spammy nature of the internet, and the reason it’s so popular is because it has put i’s anti-spam, anti-advertisement, anti-establishment ethos into practice.

It’s a safe haven.

Reddit represents the people’s voice, and it won’t be tampered with and loyal Redditers will chew you up and spit you out before they let you invade their sanctuary.

Photo courtesy of Greencolander(CC Attribution) Unless you’re posting pictures of a cat. Then you’re practically a Reddit Gold member already. In all honesty, the only way to successfully market on Reddit is if it isn’t traditional marketing. Mainstream blogs, infographics, webinars etc. are for the rest of the internet. Reddit wants thoroughly interesting, insightful, mind blowing, engaging, sitting on the edge of your seat stuff that you can’t find anywhere else on the internet… yet. If you’re adding something that truly does contribute to the forum, chances are it will be voted up. If not, well, then… Sayonara!





What Reddit Can Teach Marketers About Relevancy

Not all is lost.

I think it’s clear that I don’t know any tips and tricks to marketing on Reddit, and that even if I did, I wouldn’t share them.

But in saying that, Reddit isn’t completely useless to marketers.

In fact, it’s a wealth of information!

By participating in Reddit discussions, reading relevant subreddits, submitting content that you think is interesting (go on, you can at least try!), you can learn a lot about content marketing and relevancy.

In particular: You learn what content makes sense, and what doesn’t; What people want to hear, and what they don’t; How to create interesting clickbait titles that highlight the relevant information just enough to encourage people to read on without failing to deliver; How to categorize and organize your content so that people who are looking for that content will find it in the relevant areas.





What Reddit Can Teach Marketers About Relevancy

Lesson #1 – Using Basic Logic

The absolute first thing to creating relevant content is all about logic. In particular: Common sense and making sense.

We all have some amount of common sense (given that some of us more than others) but marketers can get so wrapped up in their data, statistics, whitepapers, influencers etc. that sometimes I think we’ve lost all perspective.

Use your common sense when creating content. As my dad (and by “my dad” I do mean “my brain”) always says: Don’t write about chickens if you own a pig farm.

Making sense should come hand in hand with common sense. It’s the verbalisation of the ingrained logic that comes with common sense.

When you devise a topic that is relevant to your audience, ensure that you communicate the connection in your title and introduction. Just because your common sense has told you it’s connected, doesn’t mean that everyone else has made the same connection.

For example, if I realized that my audience has been asking a lot of questions regarding hygiene in pig farms, common sense would dictate that I create some content that will help my audience answer any questions they may have regarding this topic.

But I’m not just going to title it “hygiene in a pig sty”. Sure, if I asked you about that exact issue, I would understand. But for every one person who has asked you about hygiene in a pig farm, 100 people haven’t.

To get those 99 people to realize that your content is relevant to them, you have to highlight what about it is relevant.

“How To Keep Your Pig Sty Hygienic to Reduce Disease in Your Stock”.

Now that makes sense, right?

I’m not sure where all these pig references have come from… Sorry.





What Reddit Can Teach Marketers About Relevancy

Lesson #2 – People Love Novelty

Reddit teaches marketers that we might not be as interesting as we thought we were, meaning that we’re not as relevant as we thought we were.

Wrote the best post on effective CTAs that you’ve ever seen?

Yeah, that’s what they all say. I’m bored alrea – …Oh, funny a cat picture!

Now if you told me that you’ve changed your Call-to-action to a Cat-to-action, then I’d probably calmly say OMGIWANNAKNOWWHATTHATIS.

See the difference? The second idea is novel. It’s different. And even if it didn’t work out, it’s hilarious and I want to know more about what possessed you to do such an odd thing.

Except I secretly know… *whispers* It’s because cats are slowly taking over the world, right!?

What Reddit Can Teach Marketers About Relevancy

Lesson #3 – Creating Clickbait Titles That Actually Deliver

Reddit is all about clickbaity titles, which is interesting since it’s a marketing tactic and Reddit usually hates marketing tactics.

But the reason it’s so successful isn’t because it’s a marketing tactic. It’s because the clickbaity titles actually deliver on what they promised.

This means that the titles are full of information, but they’re highlighting just enough to make you curious.

Here’s an example of clickbait that’s so ambiguous, and so clearly trying to get us to click, that we’ll probably just ignore it:

I changed my CTA, and wait until you see what happened!

And here’s a Clickbait title That Is Informative, Interesting And Honest… but still not telling us the whole story.

I changed my Call-To-Action to Cat-To-Action and Failed Miserably.

They could be the exact same posts, and the first will be ignored (if not flagged) and the second will likely be upvoted through the Reddit ranks, and not only because of the cats involved (but maybe largely due to cats involved).





What Reddit Can Teach Marketers About Relevancy

Lesson #4 – Niches Are Where You’ll Find Your People

Photo courtesy of maessive(CC No Derivatives) Oh you’ve a brilliant article you want to share about singing goats? Yes, definitely share it with all the pet organizations you can find. Especially Animal Rescue. I’m sure they’d find it hilarious. In case you missed it: That was sarcasm. Here’s the thing: Just because something is relevant to your industry in some way, doesn’t mean that they have the same ethos and ideas that you do about a specific piece of content. Sure, some pet organizations might share funny content on animals. But not all of them will find it so interesting. You need to find the niche of funny-animal websites. Even more ideal, if you find a funny-animals-and-goats-singing website.

Reddits blossoming community of subreddits is a testament to how necessary it is to share your content in their relevant contexts. The more specific the context, the more likely the people in that context will enjoy your content.

With Reddit, it’s all about understanding niches and tuning into them.

And with over 6000 active subreddits, there’s something for everyone.

Want to share content about your pig sty hygiene? There’s a /r/pigs for that. Oh, and /r/babypigs too. But there’s also a /r/hygiene.

Look into the subreddits and get to know the niche in question, and then share your content based on the rules and mannerisms that seem to pervade that subreddit.

As Viral Blog Content states:

“it’s best to just observe for a few days — without posting — to understand the “personality” of each subreddit. You’ll notice they are all vastly different beasts”.

Of course, the advice is sound in relation to Reddit, but we can’t ignore it that it equally applies to marketing relevant content to our audience in general too.

Get to know your audience’s personality. Know where they hangout. Know what their rules are. Then market to them subtly, without being pushy.