How Small Businesses Win on Reddit in 2025

0:08Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct tape marketing podcast. This is Jon Chance. My guest today is Jim Squires. He's a Reddit's EVP of business marketing and growth. He oversees the strategy and expansion behind Reddit's marketing efforts as they relate to our growing advertiser base. So they're growing advertiser base is probably what I should have said. Jim, welcome to the show. Hi, Jon. It's great to be here. So I told you off air that I had Alexis on the show about five or six years ago. He's no longer involved at all, right? Correct. Yep. Steve Hoffman is our CEO and founder, actually, from the very beginning.

0:46Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, I think Reddit has started to get lumped into social platforms. I'm not sure that's where they started. It certainly has its own personality, I guess, if you will. So talk a little bit about how the unique culture at Reddit on the platform kind of is different from say LinkedIn and Facebook and some other social platforms. It is unique. It's a very different platform. It is, I describe it as a community of communities. And so you've got a hundred thousand plus active communities, everything from gaming to gardening, tech to travel, investing to interior design, really anything that you can think of is on there.

1:32And so people organize around their interests and their passions. And it's very different from other platforms in the sense that even the dynamics, there's not likes on the platform. There's upvotes and downvotes, which means that only the really universally valuable, interesting things float up and get distribution. The stuff that's really divisive or controversial gets a lot of upvotes and downvotes and then never gets anywhere. So it feels very different. It's anonymous. So people use pseudonyms on the platforms. And so there's a lot of different dimensions, but the biggest thing to think about is those communities and the passion and how people organize around that.

2:09And really niche-y, right? I mean, like subreddit, subreddit, subreddit of, you know, a very small community, right? But the people that are in that community are not just casual passerbys. I mean, they are like totally into it, right? Yeah. I mean, you have massive communities. There's communities like Be Amazed or Which Car Should I Buy that have millions of people in them. And then to your point, you can go super niche and super deep into specific categories as well. So it really runs across the board. So in terms of communication, engagement, participation, how would you say, you know, in the early days, particularly, there was kind of this vibe of like, behave here and be a good citizen or, you know, you'll get kicked out kind of thing as opposed to say, I don't know, all comers on Twitter or something, you know, might've been.

2:59So I'm sure as Reddit has grown, you know, some of that's probably gone away, but would you say that that sort of DNA still exists? It definitely does. Yes, it is. I mean, part of what I was describing before with this upvote-downvote dynamic that keeps bad behavior from bubbling over because it just you're just not rewarded for uh doing anything in that in that area um you've got moderators for each of the communities they have their their own rules and they govern how that community is going to to engage and so between the rules of engagement and knowing that if you're going to step out of line or or behave poorly one no one's going to probably see it and two the moderator might might ban you or take you out of that community so it really keeps keeps things positive and helpful for people.

3:48And poorly is not just calling people names. I mean, it's self-promotion too, right? That's exactly right. Yeah. People, and this is great advice for small businesses as well as people don't, which is not unlike anywhere, even in our personal lives, they like to be marketed to. They want to be spoken to. They know there's humans behind these businesses. And the more you can show that humanity of the business and engage with people in a way that doesn't feel like you're just being salesy or too overly polished, that resonates really well, especially on Reddit. So one of the things that it's probably been going on longer, but certainly has been very noticeable maybe for the last three years is that, you know, Reddit used, it feels like Reddit used to exist in its own universe.

4:32And now you can't do a Google search that doesn't usually turn up some Reddit conversations. So how has that changed the dynamic of the platform? It has. I mean, it's interesting because Reddit's been around for 20 years doing its thing. And there actually is just this rich repository of all these conversations that have happened over 20 years. But it really has become even more important. I mean, it's having a cultural moment right now because my view on this is because there's so much AI-generated content and AI-generated search results pages. And people have grown tired of paid influencers.

5:13They see through that and they're much more savvy on being sold to. And so there really is this desire to have a more authentic connection, really hear from people, hear their real opinions about things. And so as for many people, to your point, they come in through a search. So they're looking for, you know, they're going camping and they're getting into camping. Gear is a really big part of any hobby and passion that you have. And so they're looking for something in particular. Reddit pops up in the search results and then they find themselves now in these conversations. So a lot of people discover Reddit through search and then they stay for the community because they realize, oh, wow, this is there's so much more here beyond just that camping gear I was just looking for.

5:54Yeah. So, however, commerce is happening, right? On Reddit. So let's talk a little bit about if I'm in this small business and I thought, oh, I'm playing on all these other platforms. how can I get into Reddit? Or if I'm an agency and I'm thinking, how do I bring my clients and get value out of Reddit? I'm sure it depends on the business and the niche and what your goals are. But in general, is there kind of a best practice approach to get yourself up and going on Reddit? Yeah. I mean, we keep it really simple and it's relevant for really whatever category you're in or whatever business that you're running.

6:31There is a really easy to We use ads interface. Ads is the easiest way to, I mean, small businesses don't typically have a lot of time. They want to get to results and find new customers quickly. And so we make it easy to, through ads, just quickly get distribution. And so you can take, you know, if you're running advertising on another platform, make it really easy to import that campaign over. You can use the AI tools to automate things and just get it going really quickly. And really just with a few hundred dollars, you can start seeing progress and seeing and getting new customers. In fact, we should throw it in the notes, but we have for Ductate marketing listeners, we've got a promo code, Ductate 500, that they can use to get started on ads if they want to.

7:13But I recommend that's just the easiest way to dip your toe in is just get ads going. And I can talk more about tactically how that works. And then the other thing I want to call out is we have a free set of tools to also get going. And so we call it Redipro. And through Redipro, So you can get your official presence on Reddit, so your official profile, and you can start actually seeing trends. So what are people saying about your business, your competitors? What are people talking about in your category? What's trending? What's interesting? And then actually shows you which of those communities you can go into and learn more.

7:48And you can even start engaging as the official business. People love to hear from businesses when they're authentic and they're talking as humans and getting some inside tracks. That's the other thing you can do. serving and solving problems, right? I like that. Yes. So let's, I want to get back to organic in a minute, but let's touch on the advertising again. You said it's a duct tape 500. So that's D-U-C-T-T-A-P-E 500. And if you spend 500, you're going to get 500. So that's kind of the way that deal works. How does advertising, I know some platforms that were traditionally very organic and then figured out, oh, we got to make money.

8:25We're going to sell ads. You know, the ads, you know, they struggle with how do we get those in? How are people going to view those? So how, you know, and obviously an ad is a call to action quite often by now, that kind of thing. So how does that fit in culturally? Well, it's interesting. We took the reverse approach. So we started with ads before the organic. And so people got used to it pretty quickly as far as how it fits in. I mean, a big part of it is kind of thinking about what communities are going to be most relevant to you. And we made that really easy as well. So, for example, health and well-being, there's lots of communities in that realm.

9:07So everything from the communities are always structured, r slash. So r slash get motivated, r slash weight loss, r slash fitness. These are all in that health and wellness category. worry. But as a small business, you don't have time to go through and try to figure out which of these communities is going to be relevant to you. So you can just tag health as an interest category that you think is relevant for your products. And then the ad system will go out and pull all the relevant communities that might be of interest and the people that are in those communities. It's anonymous so that you can then get your ad in front of them either in those communities or when they're in their feed or they're in some other community on the site.

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11:07Yeah. Yeah. Well, I would, you would want to set up your official profile. So you get that, this is now my business on Reddit. So people know that you're the official voice of that business. And you really want to start, we just released a new product called Trends that's free as part of Reddit Pro. And I always suggest just quickly jumping in, you can actually specify keywords that you think are interesting or related to your business. And you can start seeing through your category, what might be trending? What are people talking about? Are people talking about my business? Are they talking about my competitors' businesses?

11:43What are they saying? And that gives you an entree into, okay, do I want to engage yet or I just want to kind of check things out and see what the tone is and see what's happening there. Now, the businesses that really elevate and do really well are actually, they start engaging and they start interacting with the community and people really appreciate and we talked earlier about showing the humanity of the business. They appreciate transparency. So having the good and the bad talking about things that maybe not aren't perfect gives you a lot of credibility in a community and across Reddit. There is a business that's on Reddit that sells diaper bags, like travel diaper bags.

12:25It's called the No reception club. And they jumped on there and they're running ads. They also have an organic presence. And people were commenting that the bags were too expensive. They had really high price point. And so instead of just kind of withering away or not addressing that, they hit it head on and started talking about why it's a high price point because of all these features, the quality, they've got a lifetime warranty. And that built so much credibility with people in those communities and went over a lot of people that were saying, ah, I see, they actually engaged in me and explained what is going on.

13:03And that just gives you a lot of points. So what are some of the challenges you've seen, or maybe we could even say mistakes, you've seen small businesses make, you know, really trying to engage on Reddit. The mistakes that get made relate to what we were just talking about. So you come in, we can imagine like, as humans, we don't walk into a meeting or walk into a party and just start shouting about ourself. You ease your way in, you start talking, you get a feel for the vibe and what's happening and then you can talk about yourself and what you're doing. And so the brands that would show up or businesses that show up and we coach on this so it doesn't happen very often, but if you show up and you are just shouting with salesy messaging and not being authentic and engaging that way, you're not gonna get shouted away.

13:52I mean, you can show up with ads, people are used to ads, and they're not going to, you know, you can turn off comments and not really worry about it that much. But again, as we were saying before, if you really want to elevate, you really want to have success in the platform, being aware of that, even turning comments on, because you want to hear from people and you want to understand your customers. That's kind of where you elevate to the next level. Ken, is there a type of content that performs questions, behind the scenes insights, educational posts, AMAs? Is there a certain type that you think performs better?

14:24I love that. It's not one specific type, but I like where you're going. The angle on this is, you know, within the different formats, what type of content might resonate. And I would say that in general, that transparency and being willing to engage always does well. So like the AMA is a perfect example of that. There was actually Oatly, the oat milk brand. I love, they did an AMA and they invited Big Dairy, you know, Big Dairy businesses to come co-host with them and talk about climate footprints labeling. No one from Big Dairy showed up on that and took them up on it, but Small Dairy showed up and there was a Scottish dairy farmer that showed up and actually engaged and talked through and they had a really good dialogue.

15:09So that type of content does well. Behind the scenes content is really, really good. I mean, you can imagine, a microbrewery take you behind the scenes on how they brew their IPAs. And people really want to geek out on that. They want to see the technical aspects of it, understand what's behind the scenes. And what it does is it shows when you show, because we all with each of our businesses, we have a passion for what we're doing. That's why we started that business. And so when you show that enthusiasm, that passion and that craft, these people in the communities, they have the same passion.

15:43And so it really resonates with them. And then they want to, they want to lean in and they want to learn more about it. So imagine the CEO sitting around saying, okay, my agency says I need to be on Reddit. You know, how do I know if I'm getting any return, you know, on being, what type of reporting, what type of measurement is available for somebody to know, am I having success? Yep. Yep. I mean, that's, that is the key. What, what am I, what have I accomplished here? So Reddit is a, it is, it's multi-objective. So it really, it really goes from, you know, top of the funnel reach all the way down to driving sales with what you're trying to do.

16:19And so it depends on where you're at and your life cycle and kind of what you're trying to achieve. But I think about on the, the discovery side. So people are showing up and they're really open-minded. They want to discover new products and services. I do look at the overall reach that you're getting inside of these different communities and trying to understand that. I think for most small businesses, they want to move faster and they want to just get new customers. And so then I suggest looking at the traffic that is coming off of your advertising and your organic presence. You can measure that directly and see what traffic you're getting.

16:52And then ultimately, I look at the conversions and the new customers that you've converted and the purchases that you can drive. So as part of the reporting, you have access to all that to be able to instrument it. And then based on your campaign, what you're trying to achieve, that's actually the key thing is a lot of times businesses show up and they haven't crystallized. What am I actually trying to do with this campaign and making sure the creative ties to that? But having that really clear and then looking at the appropriate stats for that is really what I recommend. So you mentioned the word creative.

17:24Is there a form of creative, you know, maybe that's a little more tongue in cheek, a little more or a little more cynical or, you know, just rather than just the traditional, we're the best, buy from us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, there's lots of, lots of memes on Reddit, definitely. You can, you can play into that. And some, some brands really do that. My advice on the creative is, you know, not unlike advice you'd give a friend is, is be yourself on this. And so if you are a really, you know, tongue in cheek, kind of clever brand, then that should, that should come out in you're creative. If you're not and you're, you know, you're doing, you know, B2B is huge on the platform.

17:59And so if you're doing something that's B2B, that's more serious and that you feel like that's actually not your thing, you don't want to show up on Reddit and then start doing that because that stands out as well. So I always like to have the, what are you as a brand? What do you stand for? What are you trying to communicate? And then have that tie in versus trying to change yourself to try to fit in or feel like it's Reddity or something that's that's going to fit in there. Probably no faster way to fail than to try to be something you're not. That's right. As people in life or on platforms.

18:33Yes, exactly. So one of the things that we've seen over the last couple of years, ties into AI, ties into zero click searches. And now is that advice we're giving people is like it or not, you've probably got to be a few more places where people are choosing to get their information and hang out. Yeah. and it's not always search engines. How have you seen that impact on Reddit? Yeah, I mean - Or have you, I guess I should ask first. Absolutely, it's a great point. I mean, there is one thing that is interesting about Reddit is that it has a lot of unduplicated reach. So people that are on Reddit, they aren't on Facebook or Instagram or other places.

19:11And so that's counterintuitive because these other platforms are so big, but there actually are a lot of people that are on those other platforms. I suspect trust has a lot to do with it. yes and and what what the lack thereof that's a great point yeah i mean people it's it's anonymous as we talked about before people are sharing their unvarnished real opinions and so people trust that because they're enthusiastic yeah so i think like that ability to to get to customers that you can't get to for on other platforms is something really to to kind of consider and think about when you're looking at it and so so yeah so i think it does that's that's one of the things on why you would want to branch out.

19:50The other reason is that you have, on all the different platforms, people are in different mindsets and they're doing different things, which really affects what they may want to be purchasing or the decisions they may want to be making. So for example, on most platforms, targeting based on demo is really the standard. So if you were targeting me on another platform, you're going to know that I live in San Francisco. I'm in my 40s. You may know where I work. You know, there's like certain things that you know about me. What you wouldn't know that you know on Reddit is that I'm really into mountain biking and that I'm in the market right now to get a heavy duty bike rack for my car that can hold four bikes because I want to have my kids and my wife be able to go with me and that I can go long distances up into the mountains.

20:36You wouldn't know that on another platform. And so that's the different dimension. And so as a business, you want to be where your customers are and you want to be where they are making purchase decisions. We always say that conversations drive decisions. And so people are making those decisions through the process. That's what I encourage. Yeah. And I certainly noticed a lot of, hey, anybody got advice on, you know, kind of posts, which is pretty high buyer intent, right? Yeah. So by the way, the Thule Hitchrack, I swear by it. Is that the way to go? That's the way I would go. That's the way I have gone.

21:08Okay. I'm down to three right now. So now we need to talk about your setup on your bike. I'm a Santa Cruz guy myself. I'm a Santa Cruz guy also. Okay. Awesome. Yes. Awesome. There's probably a Santa Cruz subreddit or at least a mountain bike subreddit. They're 100%. I was going to ask you, do you spend time on Reddit? Yeah, we do a lot of training of fractional CMOs and marketing consultants and agencies. So we participate in a few of those conversations for sure. Okay. Yeah. There's a lot of great small business communities, small business marketers. And so you can kind of, as a business, use it in multiple ways.

21:47You're using it to get to your customers and potential customers. and they're also using it for your own benefit for advice and understanding how to run your business along with other small business owners. Yeah, and I imagine that's actually a pretty good way to start getting engaged is going there and just start asking questions, right? I mean, of stuff you truly want to know, that probably is going to create some engagement all on its own because people love to give answers. Yeah, that's exactly right. There's nothing when you, and I also encourage people just as people to when they start using it, when you do that first post and people start upvoting it and you get literally karma points.

22:23That's what we call it. So it shows you feel like, oh, wow, I just added something of value to the universe. I'm getting these karma points. And it feels really good. It's like you're contributing to this community. It's a nice feeling. Well, Jim, I want to thank you for stopping by the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. Is there someplace you'd invite people to connect with you? Obviously, we've been talking about Reddit, reddit.com. We got a special for you listeners, Duct Tape 500 to get some ad spend. Is there anywhere else you'd want people to connect with you? We have on Reddit, of course. I'm Jim at Reddit.com.

22:56I'm happy to connect with people. And yeah, it's great being here. I'm a fan of the podcast and love what you do with small businesses. So thank you for having me. Thanks so much again. Hopefully we'll run into you. I've got a daughter that lives out in the Bay Area. So maybe we'll run into you one of these days. I would love that. I would love that. Take care. Thanks. Thanks, John. Take care. Bye-bye.

23:22We'll see you next time.