Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
Social media site Reddit is an incredibly rich resource for both organic and paid advertising, and many real estate professionals use the platform to expand their reach and drive new prospects through their marketing funnels. Reddit knows this intimately, and, in honor of National Small Business Month, it has recently offered new tips for small businesses in crafting ad campaigns that will be effective on its platform.
It’s true that Reddit might not be something that many real estate professionals consider a marketing channel. Most social media marketing efforts are reserved for platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, simply because they’re the most well-known and populous. Yet neglecting Reddit means you’re leaving a vast resource completely untouched.
This comes even clearer when a quick look at Reddit’s own statistics reveals that there are more than 57 million daily active users spread across more than 100,000 separate active communities with more than 13 billion posts and comments. Choose the right communities, and the social media content you publish on Reddit has the potential to be highly effective indeed!
Reddit knows that many people don’t think about the platform from a marketing standpoint and that it’s fundamentally different from other social media outlets. That’s why the six tips it’s provided for marketers are so helpful. They include the following:
Reddit shared that, first and foremost, the effective content on the platform shared by brands needs to be clear about the value of the products and services that are being offered. For smaller businesses, this includes not just what’s being sold, but why, and how to access it. This is just as important as keeping the entertainment value of your content high. Enhancing value propositions and highlighting special offers through sharp, short-form copy, is ideal for this.
Reddit is often seen as a bit of the “Wild West” of the internet. Communication between Redditors is honest, frank, and direct; there’s little need or want for formality. The tone and style of each community on the platform can also differ as well, which means you need to learn the language each subreddit speaks and then modify your marketing copy to better align your messaging. Speaking authentically and in a conversational tone is going to get you the most positive attention, as there’s nothing that will bother the average Redditor than a typical “businesslike” corporate approach.
Starting a conversation or attracting attention on Reddit is all about creating relatable content. Nowhere is this more prevalent when your posts incorporate humor and popular culture. Self-deprecating humor is often the most popular - if you can make a clever joke that also pokes fun at your own brand, you’ll be off to a great start - and your audience will be more willing to engage with you. It’s a great way to show commitment to a community by not taking yourself too seriously.
Reddit urges companies looking to market on the platform to not just jump in. Do your research first. Redditors are most appreciative of brands that demonstrate they’ve paid attention to the platform and, more specifically, the community they’re posting in. Read through the subreddits you’re targeting and get a feel for the unique personality before you begin sharing any content of your own to get the right look and feel for your own content. Nothing sticks out worse than a sore thumb on Reddit.
As mentioned above, Reddit skews towards informality. This extends to its post headlines as well - the platform says that short, succinct copy - 150 characters or less - is ideal for getting attention. Reddit also says that using shorter headlines and then pairing them with creative assets work well, as do strategies like using your brand name in the headline and using sentence case, not title case when designing them. Finally, don’t go in too hard on emoji use, either. This keeps things informal and easier to read.
Lastly, Reddit urges that you should strike a balance between marketing copy and visual assets. If you’re looking to reinforce your message, combine copy with images or video that’s going to underline your call to action and complement your brand. It’s especially beneficial if you can find creative assets that are humorous and light-hearted while also representing your message as well. “Everything in moderation” is the key to success here.
As a social media platform, Reddit is unique among its peers. It might not be as large and influential as Facebook or Twitter, but the massive number of individual communities on the platform means that these communities can contain some very smart and engaged users that could very well be a vast, untapped resource for lead generation and building your brand.
The caveat, of course, is that Reddit’s communities are just that - communities. You’ll need to become accepted by that community if you want your marketing efforts to bear fruit. This means you can’t approach Reddit ad campaigns the same way you would on Facebook or another social media app. Instead, keep the above tips in mind and you’ll be much more likely to hit pay dirt with your marketing efforts on the platform.
