Christmas in July: How to Leverage Reddit for a Successful Holiday Marketing Campaign

It’s summertime, and customers are already making their holiday season plans. In recent years, potential customers have made the social platform Reddit a major part of their research strategy when planning events, travel, and gift ideas. Here are some tips and strategies that can turn Reddit into a source of unique insights and strategies for your holiday marketing campaigns.

What is Reddit and Why is it Valuable to Businesses?

Reddit is a website where registered members submit inquiries, personal stories, links, text posts, images, and other content. The site is divided into numerous forums called “subreddits,” and each subreddit is dedicated to a specific topic, interest, or theme.

These subreddits are valuable because people share their authentic experiences within the niche. This includes their experiences with products, destinations, and brands. This has led to Reddit becoming the top source for real reviews and authentic insights into each targeted niche topic. 

This perception is so powerful that it has started to influence buyer behaviors on a large scale. A Reddit report revealed that one in three people who discovered a product or service elsewhere would go to Reddit for more details. 85% of these people would ultimately make a purchase.

Use Reddit to Understand Your Audience

The Reddit platform is divided into thousands of subreddits, each dedicated to specific interests. Identifying the right subreddits where your target audience spends their time gives can give you valuable insights into things like:

  • Demographics to narrow down your target audience
  • Their values and pain points
  • Current trends and talking points
  • Their questions and experiences with certain brands and products
  • How they perceive your brand within the niche
  • Specific words and phrases they use that could improve email open rates and SEO
  • Information to create in-depth and authentic audience personas.

 

Use Reddit’s search and explore features to find relevant subreddits in your niche, and utilize it as a valuable glimpse at your target audience. When appropriate, take time to engage them as well to increase brand awareness and your presence as a friendly expert on the topic.

Use Reddit to Time Your Campaigns

Timing is everything, especially during the holidays. Reddit users discuss holiday planning all year round, with certain times of the year focusing on particular topics. For example, 35% of holiday discussions in April revolve around travel plans. This is a good time to get attention with early booking offers, a focus on products and services for holiday travelers, and destination themed web content.

Here are a few ways businesses can leverage these trends:

  • Plan your content calendar in advance. Start rolling out teaser posts and engaging content during the times they are considered a hot topic.
  • Build rapport and brand awareness with relevant behind-the-scenes stories and case studies.
  • When the topics are hot, utilize Reddit’s AMA (Ask Me Anything) tradition to start a topic related to the holidays and your industry. Invite people to ask you anything in the comments to generate conversations, find topic ideas, and engage the audience.

Use Reddit to Fine Tune Your Entire Sales Funnel

Reddit is not limited to generating new leads and traffic. The insights you gain from interacting with the platform can improve every aspect of your sales funnel. 

Discovery

Researching relevant subreddits helps you understand who your target audience is, their questions and interests regarding the holidays, and specific topics and phrases they use with one another. Use this information to improve your ad messaging, email headers, and content topics.

Validation

Study what ultimately helps Redditors make decisions about holiday products and services. Utilize these points in your copywriting and ad messaging to help cement their buying decisions.

Action

Use Reddit to predict the best times to offer special deals and CTA’s (Calls to Action).

Loyalty

You can use Reddit to engage your current customer base. For example, you can draw them to Reddit for Ask Me Anything (AMA) engagement. You can create a brand or product based subreddit where customers can build a community with one another. You can create exclusive content on your site based on what your target audience loves on Reddit. 

Whether you use Reddit strictly to observe industry trends or interact with Redditors directly, the platform is a critical tool to fine tune a successful marketing strategy for the holidays.

laneMKTG Experts Are Ready to Start Your Holiday Strategies Today

Our experts can help you leverage a successful holiday marketing strategy all year round. We keep our finger on the pulse of where customers go, industry trends, and the best current strategies to help you succeed. Contact us today to find your custom marketing solution.