How do you find customers on Reddit?

The short answer

Reddit is a place where people ask strangers for recommendations before they spend money. Someone types "does anyone know a good roofer in Raleigh?" or "what do you all use for invoicing?" and a dozen people answer. If one of those answers is yours, and it is honest and specific, that person may contact you. That is the whole method.

It works slowly and it does not scale like email. What it gives you is a warm start: the person asked for what you sell, in public, this week. The risk is just as real. Reddit communities remove promotion quickly and new accounts that only talk about their own business get banned, so most of this page is about doing it in a way that holds up.

The example throughout is fictional. Ben owns Raleigh Gutter Works, a two-truck gutter cleaning and repair company. He wants more jobs without paying for leads, and he has about 20 minutes a day.

Find the subreddits where your buyers ask questions

Start with where your buyers already talk. For a local service business that usually means the subreddit for your city or county, plus a home-owner or renter subreddit. For a business that sells to other businesses it means the communities for that trade: restaurant owners, property managers, freelancers, founders.

Ben looks for three things: his city's subreddit, the ones for nearby suburbs, and a general homeowner community. Then he opens each one and reads the rules in the sidebar before he does anything else. Some ban all business posts. Some allow them one day a week. Many allow helpful comments but not links. The rules decide what you can do there, and breaking them is the fastest way to lose the account.

There is a longer walk-through in the guide to finding the right subreddits for your business.

Search for buying questions

People ask for what you sell in predictable phrases. Search each subreddit for the words that go with a purchase: "recommend", "looking for", "anyone know", "who do you use", "alternative to", "how much should I pay", "need someone to". Add your category and, for local work, your town.

Ben's searches are things like: gutter cleaning recommend, anyone know a gutter guy, gutters overflowing who to call. Sort by new to find fresh questions, and use Google as well, with the site: operator, for example: site:reddit.com "gutter" "recommend" Raleigh. Threads that rank in Google keep sending readers for months, so an answer there can be read long after the question was asked.

There is one practical limit to know about. Reddit archives threads after about six months, and an archived thread cannot take new comments. If a thread is older than that, you can still learn from it (what did people ask for, what did the winning answer say?) but you cannot reply.

Pick threads worth answering

Not every question is worth your time. A thread is worth answering when the person has a real, specific need, the thread is recent enough to take comments, and you can actually help. Skip threads where the question is a joke, where five people have already given the same answer, or where the person wants something you do not do.

Ben uses a quick filter. Is it in his service area? Did the person describe a real problem (water coming over the gutter into a basement window, say)? Is the post under a week old? If all three are yes, it goes on his list for the day. On a typical day in a city this size, he finds two or three that qualify, and answers them.

Be honest about what is a lead and what is not. A person asking "how do I clean my own gutters?" is not a buyer, and a helpful, free answer is still fine if you want the goodwill. But do not spend your limited minutes there.

Write a reply that helps first and says who you are

The reply is where this either works or does not. Answer the question the person asked. Give them something they can use even if they never hire you. Then say, plainly, that you do this for a living. Disclosing is the rule in most communities and it is also what readers trust.

Here is the shape of one of Ben's replies, to a post from a homeowner whose gutters overflow in heavy rain:

Overflow in heavy rain with clean gutters usually means one of three things: the downspout is too small for that roof section, the gutter pitch has sagged, or a joint is leaking. If you see water pouring over the front lip in the middle, it is probably pitch. If it only spills at a corner, check the downspout outlet for a clog. A quick test: run a garden hose on that section for two minutes and watch where it goes. Disclosure, I clean and repair gutters in the Raleigh area, so happy to look at photos if you want to post them here or send them over. No pressure either way.

Notice what that reply does not have. There is no link, no phone number, no "DM me for a quote", no discount. It answers the question, says who wrote it and offers one low-pressure next step. If the person wants more, they will message you. Include a link or a number only when the subreddit's rules allow it and the person asked for one.

For more on tone, see how to write a Reddit reply that does not read like an ad.

When a direct message is okay

A direct message is fine in a few cases: the person replied to your comment and asked for details, they asked in the thread for people to message them, or the subreddit's rules explicitly allow it. A message to a stranger who never asked is spam, and Reddit users report it quickly.

When you do message, keep it to the thread. Reference what they asked, say what you can do, and give them an easy way out. Something like: "Hi, I replied on your gutter post. If you would like a quote, send me your address and I will give you a price range. If you have already sorted it, no worries." One message, then wait. Do not follow up if you hear nothing.

The longer version is in how to DM someone on Reddit without being spammy.

What gets accounts banned

The pattern behind most bans is the same: an account that exists to promote one business. A few specifics are worth knowing.

• Posting your link or your offer in a subreddit that does not allow it. Read the rules first, every time.
• Using more than one account, or an account that only ever mentions your business. Reddit's own rules treat undisclosed promotion and fake accounts as spam.
• Asking friends or paying for upvotes. Vote manipulation is against Reddit's rules and mods can spot it.
• Copying the same comment into many threads. Write each one for the person who asked.
• Hiding that you own the business. Say so in the reply. People forgive a seller who is honest and punish one who is not.

How to track whether it works

Keep a simple sheet with one row per thread: the link, the date, the subreddit, what the person asked, what you answered, whether they replied, and whether it became a lead or a job. That is all you need. After a month the sheet tells you which communities respond and which waste your time.

Also ask. When a new customer calls, ask how they found you. "Reddit" will rarely show up in analytics because many people look you up on Google after reading your comment, so the only way to know is to ask. Ben adds a line to his job form: "How did you hear about us?" and records the answer.

Set a target before you start. Work out what one customer is worth to you and how many a month would make 20 minutes a day worth it. For Ben, one extra gutter job a week would do it. The value of Reddit is that these are people who asked for what you sell. The cost is that it is slow, and you have to do it yourself.

Do it faster with Conversations

Searching, filtering and writing is where the 20 minutes goes. Conversations is the part of Rocketship that does that work for you. It finds the Reddit threads where people ask for what you sell, scores how well each one fits, and drafts a helpful reply and a short DM in your voice, with the disclosure included. You read it, change what you like, and post it yourself from your own Reddit account with one tap. Conversations never posts, votes or messages for you, and it does not use fake accounts.

It runs on plans that get you customers: Launch includes 30 conversations a month, Frontier 100 and Mission Control 500. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and every monthly plan starts with a 7-day free trial, card required.

The details are on the Conversations page, and the plans are on the pricing page.