10K Collective e-Commerce Podcast

10K Collective e-Commerce Podcast


Reddit and Quora for Ecommerce Traffic with Davis Nguyen

February 04, 2020

Reddit and Quora for Ecommerce traffic are not yet widely used by marketers. You can have a great advantage once you know how to wield these platforms.

Reddit
Why Reddit is a great marketing platform in general

There are people looking up the stuff you’re trying to buy

There are self-forming communities 

If Davis was buying supplements, 2 years ago, he would type in “product name” plus Reddit

They can’t do affiliate links there
But you can put an ad in there. 
None of the big headphone companies was on the subreddit and there were 100K people there!

Reddit results in Google searches
Try typing in a product name on Google

You’ll get Reddit results

A lot of times to get reviews, Davis will search on Reddit

It’s moderated so if it seems like you’re an affiliate, you get unbiased reviews
Reddit ads costs

Costs depend on the Subreddit and competition level
Reddit can. be as low as $1-2 to get CPM (1000 views) of people who have
Compared to Facebook CPM $30-50

Trust is there - there are companies that have representatives on subreddits

(Eg Wendy’s the fast-food chain) 

More and more brands are going on this. The chief brand officer of Reddit is pushing hard for this too. 

This is similar to the trend with Facebook. It was also just users to start with - now it’s the bigger brands. 

That’s the trend with Reddit too. 
How does Reddit compare to Facebook?
Firstly, always put strategy before tactics

Think about where your audience is before you worry about shiny object
Facebook vs Reddit mindset
FaceBook is Baby boomer territory

People share photos etc.

Whereas on Reddit, people are in the highly specialist mode

Davis goes into wrestling subreddits for example. 

He gets hit with an ad for wrestling belts - ads have been there for 2 years. 
 Quora 
What is Quora?

It’s a Q & A platform 

Like Google but has the Q and A aspect of Reddit:

Like: “What’s the best noise-cancelling headphones?”

Also, “What’s the best workout bench for my studio?”

Eg: “What’s the best brand for vitamins?”
Why Quora is great for marketing
It’s very public-facing - people put their FaceBook profile is

Not for everyone - if your product solves as an issue

Some kind of differentiated products. 

“Everything I do that my competition chooses not to is a competitive advantage”

Quora is not yet widely used by marketers. 
3 ways to hit the audience on Quora 

Answer a question.
You can advertise.
Retarget them.

How to answer a question on Quora
First of all, be a user of the platform

See what irks people
How would a Quora user perceive it?
If you’re selling a closet-hanger, it’s not the platform for you

 Avoid being salesy!

Software companies do this well.

If anyone mentions your brand, you can click the ad and end up back at your site. 
How do software companies do this well?
Monday.com (task management software) is good on Quora

They have reps who answer Qs there.

Also, they never pitch.

They point out the pain points.

The basic structure is:

“This is how to solve it yourself”
“This is how Monday.com would solve it”

Davis has bought a lot of products based on Quora eg Headphones, Vitamins.