I made a subreddit to further expose and grow Budget Meal Planner; here's a follow-up about my experience

In June, I created a subreddit to help form a community around Budget Meal Planner. Since then, it has grown to 1.9k members.

Why did I decide to create a subreddit?
When I initially began BMP as a newsletter, I took to Reddit to validate the idea. It immediately passed the test and I had my first couple hundred subscribers within a week. I knew Reddit was full of potential for growth as there's millions of people on there already organized into niches. So, the idea of creating a subreddit only made sense. Not to grow my newsletter subscriber list larger, but to garner brand awareness and expand my reach of exposure.

How do you manage a subreddit?
A subreddit isn’t an automated process. You need to spark conversation, provide useful information, and eliminate all content that’s unrelated (read as moderate).

But before any of that, if you’re creating a subreddit as an extension of your brand, you should take the time to show that. Options exist to customize your subreddit, such as adding a description, a header graphic, and a logo. You can even add useful links, to which I added a link to BMP itself. I also made it clear that the subreddit is an extension of the brand; this is to ensure that no one found the content to be considered spam.

After I configured those options, I began to provide useful information by posting a few threads. The information I shared was mostly repurposed from BMP’s website/past newsletters or I asked questions in hopes that others would jump into the conversation.

No one will find your subreddit if it’s empty.

How did I find my first community members?
Within Reddit, of course! There is actually a subreddit itself called /NewReddits where you can post an introduction about it. I also shared it within related subreddits that focus on eating healthier, saving money, and eating cheaply. Then, I shared it to my existing email subscribers: when appropriate. Meaning that I didn’t create an immediate email to inform them. Instead, I waited to include it within the expected weekly email.

After doing all those steps, my first few hundred members appeared.

How did I keep current members engaged and the overall community growing?
I found that posting new useful threads within the subreddit consistently helped it grow, while also sparking conversation for those already in it. Reddit is full of people who want to help each other, and while they may not be the ones posting threads, they certainly will comment, reply, and hopefully upvote!

How much time did I spend growing and maintaining the subreddit?
Not a lot at all. The initial set-up took some time, but I already had content created that I repurposed to create new threads. Some threads were also just questions to spark conversation, so those are really simple to write up in just a few minutes.

On average, I’d say about 15-20 minutes each day was spent on the subreddit. Eventually, it maintains itself to provide new content as people will begin posting threads of their own.

Do you sell or market your product/offer directly within your subreddit? What’s the conversion rate?
I do! Like I said before, I made it clear that the subreddit is a community extension of BMP. So, everything I share links directly back to BMP.

I don’t necessarily know the conversion rate, as I don’t sell anything at the moment. However, I do notice the days when I’m more active on it, the visits and subscriber rates are much higher.

Any AHA learnings or do’s/dont’s one should know before creating their own subreddit?
Well, I would make sure you really figure out how it can be beneficial to you. For me, BMP spotlights how to eat cheaper without sacrificing taste or quality. This is a really personal topic to people, many of which don’t even chat about financials with their friends.

I took that and created a safe-space for people to talk about their struggles and give a way to communicate suggestions. By doing so, I also reiterate info from BMP, which works as a funnel system. As it directs people to BMP and then they keep returning for more content.

I’d like to think anyone can benefit from creating a subreddit, but you definitely need to understand your target audience. It’s easy for me because I have a personal brand, I’m the face of BMP and I can just spark conversation by asking simple questions or providing personal experiences.

If you’re representing a business, then perhaps sharing related articles and current news is more likely to drive exposure to what you’re doing.

I'm happy to answer any other questions about Reddit!

(Thanks @patrics for sparking this follow-up)