Reddit marketing for Marketing agencies: where to start

Agencies sell trust, and Reddit is a place where trust is earned in public. Business owners ask how to find a good marketer, what a fair price is and how to spot a bad one.

If you answer those honestly, even when it means telling them to do something themselves, people remember. The agencies that get ignored are the ones that show up only to say hire us.

What your buyers are asking

These are the kinds of questions that come up again and again. Each one is a chance to be the helpful answer.

How much should I pay for SEO?
How do I know if my agency is any good?
Is it worth hiring a freelancer or an agency?
Why is my ad spend not working?
What should a monthly report include?
Can I do my own marketing, or do I need help?

Where to look

r/marketing. Marketers talking shop. Good for learning, hard for finding clients.
r/SEO. Strong community with a lot of experts. Expect pushback on weak claims.
r/PPC. Paid media people. Very practical, little patience for fluff.
r/smallbusiness. Owners who are your real buyers. Often asking for help directly.
r/Entrepreneur. Founders who need marketing and do not know where to start.

Rules change and every community is different, so read the sidebar and pinned posts before you write anything. Our guide on how to read subreddit rules shows what to check.

What tends to work

Explaining how you would diagnose a problem before saying what you charge.
Telling a business owner honestly when they do not need an agency yet.
Giving fair price ranges and what drives them.

What to avoid

Guarantees about rankings or results.
Jargon the owner cannot follow.
Direct messages to people who did not ask for them.

An example of a good answer

Here is the kind of reply that helps. The product and company in it are made up, and the point is the shape: answer first, reasons next, a short honest note about the connection last.

Question: My agency sent a report full of charts and I do not know if anything is working. What should I look for?

Ask for three things: how many leads came in, how many turned into customers, and what it cost per customer. Charts about impressions and clicks are fine as context, but they are not the result. If the report cannot answer those three, ask them to show you how they would. I run a small agency, so I am biased, but any good one should be happy to be asked this. If they are not, that tells you something.

Post ideas you can use

A plain English guide to reading a marketing report.
How to brief an agency so you get what you want.
A teardown of a real campaign that did not work, with permission.
What a fair retainer covers and what it does not.
Questions to ask before you hire anyone.

How to tell if it is working

Track enquiries by source and ask every new lead how they heard about you. Agency leads often come from a name they remembered, not a link they clicked. Our guide to measuring Reddit marketing results has the full setup.

Common questions

Is it okay to offer free audits?

Only where the rules allow it, and never by messaging people who did not ask. Offering help in a comment is different from pushing it.

Will clients find me through comments?

Some will, usually weeks later by searching your name. Good answers get remembered.

How do I stand out from other agencies?

Be the one who explains things simply and says what you would not do.