How I got my first 100 users via Reddit
Getting your first 100 users isn’t easy. Here’s how I do it with Reddit, where most people don’t care about your products and hate advertising
Sitting in our office (a fancy word for our favorite coffee shop), I mumble, “I thought I would do A/B testing and analysis!?” Man, was I naive! Where do you find the data to do that when the only people who know about your app are four dudes you hung out with since high school?
After devouring almost everything I can about growth for early startups I realized the solution: Do things that don’t scale.
And the first channel: Reddit!
Reddit — the love-hate relationship
I thought, ‘It’s going to be easy, because I built my TikTok channel from 0 to 2x thousands of followers. I will have hundreds of sign up in just three days.” Right?
Then, I immersed in Reddit, exploring every possible subreddit related to my industry (notetaking) and planned to do 2 things:
- Write heartfelt posts about why I built my product, its features, and how it will help users.
- Reply to comments as quickly as possible to build momentum and generate buzz.
It seemed easy, as I sat sipping my coffee and typing away. I had dozens of subreddits to explore and hours to post. Plus, my product vision is superb — who wouldn’t want to try it? It was no-brainer. Within a few hours, I had already posted dozens of posts.
Then I noticed that my Reddit notifications were blowing up — I must be doing a good job. Ha ha ha.
As I opened those notifications, I prepared to respond to the enthusiastic comments from my beloved early adopters. But, surprise surprise, by being a dedicating “advertiser” I found myself banned from some of the biggest relevant subreddits. Not only that, but I received a barrage of downvotes for those posts!
“No worries,” I thought again, “ just some outliers”. However, as days passed, it dawned on me: the outlier was me. With early responses saying me as a scam, I couldn’t help but smile wryly and wonder, “Why do I have to go through this? Is it even worth it when you receive so much criticism?” When hundreds of people are downvoting your every move, such thoughts inevitably arise.
I considered shifting focus to another channel, convincing myself that Reddit simply didn’t align with my product — “Focus on the Channel that fits you Product man” I said
The change
But, I didn’t take that route. Instead, I resolved to make it work. I dived deeper into what resonated with Reddit and what didn’t.
I realized that to succeed in this channel, don’t be an advertiser.
I then opted for a more subtle approach:
- Write value added post
- Instead of writing post, find posts where people looking for solution that’s relevant to your product
- DM people looking for those solutions
And I was relentless. Every post, every person — I reached out to them all. Yes, I mean every single one. I still had the hundreds of post links and the people I DM’d back then. It wasn’t a scalable approach, but it was what I needed to do to get the word out when we was just starting out.
How to be good at this? I’m still learning, but the key is:
- Don’t explicitly advertise unless permitted.
- When DM, instead of directly selling, ask about their problems to determine if your products are relevant.
- Relevancy is crucial; seek out relevant individuals, subreddits, and posts.
- How to find them? I typed every relevant keyword in the chat and joined any relevant subs from those search
After putting in a lot of effort, I finally managed to make some headway for my product on Reddit. I accumulated hundreds of thousands of views, attracted initial users, and continue to receive a decent number of referrals from Reddit every day.
So, there you have it — my love-hate relationship with Reddit!
Next up, "LinkedIn — Hm, wait a second, was I just scolded?"
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I am going to put that all into work just now and will let you know about how it turns out. :)
This was exactly what I needed to start using reddit in a useful way!
Yes, would love to hear your story Shokufe!
This is invaluable advice. But perhaps more importantly, this is a beautifully written piece!
Happy that you like the post Ohans :) Means a lot to me
Ohh, I had the same situation on reddit with posting info about my product... Love-hate relationship is the perfect sum-up!
Haha yes, the perfect sum-up
Thanks for sharing your experience with Reddit! It's definitely a challenging platform to navigate, but your persistence paid off. Your insights on providing value-added content and engaging directly with users are valuable lessons for anyone looking to grow their user base.
Good share :P
You'll get customers even if you don't know what channel to focus to. How do you do that?
With volume. Do a lot of volume on multiple distribution channels. Then you'll be okay.
--This really helped us at mixsave
Can' wait for the LInkedin post
Haha happy to hear that mate :) Will write it soon, LinkedIn is truly a rollercoaster
A friend of mine had sent me this link as well. Might be helpful to all!
https://dmndmarketing.notion.site/Reddit-Marketing-for-B2B-SaaS-Founders-Step-By-Step-Guide-1ee8f1cea09a4174aaa835223a76d8f1
This was really helpful. Thank you for the link.
wow, this article is very good. thanks for sharing
Let me have a look :) Thanks
There are also tools like f5bot to get alerts when certain keywords are mentioned.
Interesting
I just found out that my post on reddit was deleted. I was sad for a while.Thank you for your words.
Yes, keep trying bro :) good things will come
Thanks for the advice
Great that it's helpful for you
Thanks for your advice
You are welcome :)
Helpful! Thanks for sharing your journey, make me feel better that I'm not the only one who has this relationship with Reddit haha
Thanks, happy to hear that Liam :)
Great article, and thanks for sharing.
Instead of creating a new post to share a product link, which can be risky, we use ReplyCat.com (our own tool) to monitor other people's posts and join the discussion when our product naturally fits.
Thanks for sharing your experience with reddit. Had a quick question were you adding your product's link too while creating the post on subreddits? Because they mark you spam or delete your post only when you insert a link, correct me if I am wrong.
Hi, it depends on the subreddits, some allow it and some don't. You should read their rules before putting the link in your posts
Thanks for sharing! A sincere DM better than a mere advertise.
Great that it helps :)
Thanks for a useful post! Question: when using this approach how do you know that this particular user came from Reddit? Is it your only marketing channel for now? Do you feel comfortable sharing how many of 100 users you mention in the title converted to paying customers?
Hey awitam, here are my answers:
Okay, makes sense. Thank you!
Your journey on Reddit highlights the importance of adaptability and genuine engagement in digital marketing. Your story inspires others to navigate challenges with creativity and determination.
Thanks Gray!
Absolutely loved every word of it! Waiting for your next post Austin @anh690136
Thank you! I will release the next post about LinkedIn roller-coaster soon :)
This is useful – I also got banned from reddit for posting links to my product. Are you allowed to share links in the DMs without getting banned?
I got banned as well :) hard lessons
I've just rejoined and am being more careful about promoting my product! Thanks for the advice :)
Yes :) Wish you all the best
It seems like being an advertiser on the group we've joined is seen as a scam by some people. This is not just a concern on Reddit but also on other platforms such as Facebook groups and Telegram groups.
People want to talk and chat without interruptions, similar to how we skip ads on YouTube videos as soon as possible.
It's not enough to advertise; we must also show our ability to solve their problems, right?
Correct, a value-added member is more welcomed than a mere advertiser
I have neglected reddit as an approach. I am going to try it for my SAAS gradusAI, and see how it goes.
Best of luck Braden :)
Another side of shooting a cold DM is the person who receives tens of such "spammy" messages from people self-promoting their products :/
When I launched https://startuputils.com/ I got 10+ LinkedIn paid promo offers, then posted on Reddit and got 5+ low level, shady offers.
I prefer providing value in posts, then if someone like it, maybe send a DM and network together.
Great story, I appreciate your honesty about the initial challenges and how you adapted your strategy. It's inspiring to see your persistence pay off on Reddit. Looking forward to your next update!
Thanks Jessy :) will write about my roller-coaster ride with LinkedIn & share soon
That's the post I was looking for, when I'm struggling to do marketing on Reddit🌝
Good to know it's not a hopeless idea)))
Glad that it's helpful for you Dana :) All the best to you
Kudos, Austin! Leveraging Reddit to gain your first 100 users is a testament to your strategic thinking and resourcefulness.
Thanks buddy :)
Great story! love the honesty about the initial challenges.
Glad you like it!
thanks for the advice, I think every newbie should read about it. especially, do not just add ad post to reddit but to find those places where your product maybe needed
Yes ;) the key is to find the place where people are finding a solution like yours
I've attracted 500+ users from Reddit for my projects. It is not the most solvent audience, but it is sincere
Nice :)
Very helpful post, thank you, man!
You are welcome :)
Thanks for sharing Austin, this was helpful advice and strategy. As someone who's trying to get the first few customers myself, it makes sense to me that I should focus my targeted attention on people who I'd know have those pain points.
Yes, focusing on them first, lots of people trying will go to Reddit and ask for a solution for their problems