How to Boost Sales and Brand Value Sky-High With Quora and Reddit

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You want more sales, right?

Don’t we all?

Countless articles have been written about the topic, and even more, tactics are implemented on a daily basis in order to improve sales for online stores. From Instagram to Amazon and email marketing to the holiday push, boosting your sales comes in many different forms. But have you ever tried more alternative routes like Quora or Reddit?

These might sound intimidating at first, but many online stores are putting their expertise to work, writing Quora and Reddit answers that help out communities and drive customers to their websites.

You might initially think that spamming people on these forums is frowned upon, and you’re correct. The trick is to provide value with your responses instead of posting spammy links that are bound to get ridiculed or pulled down from Reddit and Quora.

So, if you’re interested in learning some interesting new ways to improve profits, here are some tried and tested tips for boosting sales with Quora and Reddit.

But Wait…What’s Quora? And What’s Reddit?

If you haven’t had a chance to browse through either of these sites, let’s start by saying that both are different variations of forums. They’re open communities where users ask questions and share thoughts about a wide range of topics. Both have thousands of topics you can contribute to, from ecommerce to web design and politics to sports. The topics get more and more specific as you continue searching, so you can find a wealth of information on whatever you want.

Some people like to contribute their own answers while others are simply there to ask questions or browse around to find fun or educational things to read.

As for the site formats, here’s how each of them is laid out:

  • Reddit is much closer to that of a regular forum, where users start a thread, and then everyone else can chime in and respond to it. The responses are organized based on the time submitted, and threads become more visible as users give thumbs up votes. Reddit has so many topics on it that it’s impossible to keep up. You might land on one that’s simply a funny video with a lot of comments and upvotes, but many others are great for those trying to learn about a subject. The community is very opposed to spamming and regularly call out people who are on it with the sole purpose of promoting their business.
  • Quora threads are formatted as question and answer columns, where one person asks a question about a topic, and then everyone else in the community can respond with their best answers. Voting is incorporated into Quora as well, so the most popular responses generally rise to the top. Quora is strictly moderated to ensure that no one is trying to spam or write anything irrelevant. Therefore, you must tread lightly in order to not break any rules.

In fact, you must be careful with both Reddit and Quora, but for entirely different reasons. Quora, as mentioned, has its own guidelines which require you to stick to the topic and not sound like you’re trying to sell something. Reddit, on the other hand, has ruthless users who are more than happy to call you out and potentially trash talk you. It’s one of the reasons doing a Reddit AMA is so intimidating.

Why Reddit and Quora are Amazing for Sales

That prior section might have scared you a bit, but there’s really no need to worry. As long as you follow the rules and treat other users with respect you should be fine.

And taking the time to understand the basics can pay off big time. Here’s why:

  • Reddit and Quora users are extremely passionate about the topics they’re talking about. They expect the answers to be laser-focused on the topic and in-depth so that they can either learn something or know that other users are learning something. This means that picking the right topic already targets potential buyers for your business.
  • Both sites have millions of users and page views. Reddit has over 250 million active monthly users, and Quora brings in over 200 million monthly visitors.
  • You can’t jump into a thread and start pitching your product. But that’s a good thing since you get to create a relationship with people and potentially turn them into VIP customers.

Now that we’ve covered the ins and outs of Quora and Reddit, let’s explore how to improve your sales with these interesting online threads.

Boosting Sales with Quora

The whole point of working on Quora is to establish a reputation, find the right topics, write high-quality answers and direct people to your relevant sales pages or blog posts.

Step 1: Create a Useful Quora Profile

When starting your profile, connect your Facebook or Google account. Use your business account to make it look professional.

Ater that, select the topics that interest you. It’s a good idea to go with topics related to your industry. That way you’ll see more relevant topics and questions show up as suggestions. It’s also extremely important to specify the topics that you know about. In fact, this step is crucial, because you may enjoy baseball, but you’re probably not an expert. But ecommerce or retail? That’s right up your alley.

Keep in mind that you should be as specific as possible when it comes to the topics you know about.

It’s also essential to fill in your profile to show that you’re an expert in certain areas. Make it sound natural and professional. Don’t lie. Simply talk about your business and what makes you credible.

Step 2: Find the Right Topics and Questions

Some questions and topics are suggested to you, while others you need to go searching for. This part is pretty self-explanatory since you can use the search bar or go through the categories.

Since you’re going to be writing responses to these questions, follow these rules to locate the questions that have sales potential:

  • Find questions that have at least around 10 followers.
  • Find questions that were asked recently.
  • Find questions that have fewer answers.
  • Or find questions that could use better answers.

Step 3: Write Up High-Value Answers

Great Quora answers often have similar traits, and you can add these traits to your own answers to make them sound credible, useful and like they’re coming from an honest member of the community:

  1. Great answers are extremely detailed.
  2. Great answers are nicely formatted and organized well.
  3. Great answers have a personal tone to them. They’re not rigid legal documents but conversations with other people. That said, the answers should still sound somewhat professional.
  4. Great answers have links to several resources.

That last rule includes a link to your website as well. Obviously, you can’t link directly to your homepage or a product page, so it’s essential to find a blog post or maybe some sort of resource or product page that’s highly relevant to the question.

Boosting Sales with Reddit

Reddit is a completely different animal, but it’s fairly simple when it comes to interacting with other users. Start by creating an account. Then you can move onto the main steps.

Step 1: Find the Perfect Subreddits

Go to the search bar and start typing in keywords that apply to your niche. This might be fitness, retail, fashion, computer hardware or cord cutting. Reddit has tons and tons of subreddits. It seems like every possible topic is covered, so you should be able to find a handful that apply. Join these subreddits to start seeing what’s being talked about.

Step 2: Get Active in the Community

Redditors are notorious for looking up other users’ history to see what else they have posted. If you’re a newbie who only shares information about your company, they’re going to call you out and probably shame you in front of everyone.

The good news is that it’s not that hard to get “in” with the community. Answer questions that you’re knowledgeable on. Pose questions that others might find interesting.

A Reddit thread is the most informal conversation on the internet so there’s no pressure to be as detailed and eloquent as you would be on Quora.

The key here is to chime in as frequently as possible and answer all of the questions you can with valuable insights. It’s not a bad idea to back up your thoughts with links.

Step 3: Share your Own Stuff

Once the community can search through your past posts without thinking you’re a newbie, you have a chance to share your own content.

Since Redditors hate being sold (and since they’re great at identifying sales pitches,) your job is to only share your own content about 10% of the time. Continue answering questions and sharing things from other people.

When the time comes to post something of your own, make sure it’s amazing. I mean a blog post or new product that will absolutely blow people away.

Super in-depth blog posts typically work well, and brand new products that people haven’t seen before should get the job done.

The good news is that if a Reddit post doesn’t stick, you don’t lose anything.

Over to You

Are you ready to start boosting sales with Quora and Reddit? If you have any experience with either of these platforms, let us know in the comments section below. If not, share your questions and concerns!

Image by Poltio

Joe Warnimont

Joe Warnimont is a Chicago-based writer who focuses on eCommerce tools, WordPress, and social media. When not fishing or practicing yoga, he's collecting stamps at national parks (even though that's mainly for children). Check out Joe's portfolio to contact him and view past work.

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