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How to Market Your Game on Reddit

tl;dr;

You don't market on Reddit. You have genuine interactions on Reddit. You give gold, and participate in the community/subreddit you're posting on. You have to be a good citizen. You cannot "growth hack" this.

What You Need to Do Before Posting

You have to be a good member of the Reddit community as a whole (this is applicable for any community or forum frankly).

  1. You have to have the karma and membership longevity. If you created your account just today. It's unlikely you'll get any forum post will gain attention. In fact, karma and membership longevity is a key component moderators use to determine if the should right out ban you from even posting to a subreddit. So, if you don't have that, then take some time to get familiar with the site, and participate.

  2. Read the forum rules. Many many subreddits frown upon marketing and self promotion. So you need to be respectful of these rules. Look at top posts for that community to get a feel of what they like upvoting.

  3. If a subreddit allows for some marketing/self promotion. Then get permission from the moderators first. Here is an example message I sent to a moderator before posting about A Dark Room's Android release:

Subject:

I'm the creator of A Dark Room. Wanted to get your permission before posting.

Body:

Wanted to get your permission to give away promotion codes for A Dark Room Android. Here is the way I was planning on giving them away (it's a combination of a discussion starter and an AMA of a successful indie game dev). What do you think? [Full Text of Post was included]

I was given permission to post, but another moderator felt otherwise and took the post down. I appealed and got this response:

Sorry I wasn't here, he messaged me earlier and I figured it was good. There is a fair bit of commenting on self-promotional posts in the last couple of weeks which I would expect when someone releases a game. But I went back a page or two and saw plenty of content and effort put into posts and comments. That and the Reddit gold/gilding and age of account so it tipped the scale in my opinion towards being allowed.

I wasn't around to follow up on it so I'm sorry about that. I didn't even realize it was a regular message until after I replied to him, but I should have forwarded it to modmail once I realized it.

  1. Don't be a sleazeball spammy marketer persona. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Don't do it. This stuff takes effort (it's also fun if you do it because you actually love your product, and love interacting with the community you're pitching too). After I did the post, here is the message I got from the moderator:

It really did turn out well. Probably some of the best comments ever on the subreddit. Glad you engaged the users instead of just giving everything away. Good stuff. Wish there were more game developers like you.

How To Post

The one subreddit you should always always post to if you're doing a promotion (specifically for premium games) is /r/AppHookup. Here is how NOT to post there (or anywhere for that matter):

I built a game! Here are 30 promocodes! Enjoy! [Some salespitchy description of game with links]. [Big list of promocodes].

Why not post like this? Well, it's simple. This kind of post doesn't elicit comments other than "thanks!". The promocodes will be redeemed quickly (either by a bot or lurkers), and then your post will be downvoted and eventually deleted. Plus, it's lazy.

Here is an example of a good post:

Subject:

[iPhone] Promo Code Give Away for A Dark Room RPG, Celebrating another release!

Body:

Updates to A Dark Room got released. And I received some media coverage!

To celebrate, I'm giving away 10 promo codes for A Dark Room RPG.

Rules to get a promo code:

  • Read the recent interview by Gamasutra about A Dark Room: A Dark Room's unique journey from the web to iOS
  • Add a comment to this post, commenting about something you read in the article (please be sure to do this)
  • Get a promo code via private message :-)

Here is an even better example:

This is the one that got me at the top spot in /r/AndroidGaming. The subreddit allows for small bits of self promotion. So to be on the safe side, I emailed the moderator first and got the thumbs up.

Subject:

Giving away Redemption Codes for my #1 iOS app's debut on Android - A Dark Room :-)

Body:

Hey everyone! I wanted to do a promo code giveaway for my game A Dark Room. Here is a list of things the game has accomplished (most of these accolades are from the iOS version since I deployed there first):

  • No Ads, no microstransactions, no elevated security privileges, no data usage.
  • 2.26 million downloads in under two years (free and paid combined).
  • Awarded Apple's Top 10 Paid Apps of 2014
  • #1 game in the US for 18 days straight on iOS (20 days overall).
  • 26,859 ratings of which 23,833 are 5-stars (4.73 average rating).
  • Publications in Huffington Post, Slate, and The New Yorker.
  • Richard Garriott (creator of Ultima Online) talks about A Dark Room on Axe of the Blood God
  • Reviewed on Touch Arcade (4 stars) and Cult of Mac (5 stars)

#How to get a redemption code (I'll be giving away codes till end of July 26th)

  1. Forgive me for deploying to Android after iOS.
  2. Remember that I love what I do, more than anything really.
  3. Read this short story I wrote called "I'd Give Anything"
  4. Post a comment here about the short story and tell me what you feel your "violin" is. What would you give all your time to if you didn't have to worry about money anymore?
  5. Ask me anything about being an indie game developer.
  6. I'll send you a promocode!

I replied to every single comment that was left. Interacted with the users. Thanked them for telling me what they were passionate about (even gave Reddit gold to one of them because their passion was taking care of orphans). The promotion lasted for two days (I ended up extending it because of its popularity). This took time, I spent hours replying to comments and sending out redemption codes via private message. Total comments for the post was 78, and I ended up giving away 25 codes. That's a lot of comments (and a lot of work).

Applying This Interaction Technique Outside of Reddit

You can use these same techniques outside of Reddit of course. I'm still perferially working on Beautiful Go (a digital Go Board for enthusiasts). I try to find active forums across the Internet (however large or small).

The text for those posts have minor differences, mostly because the app is still in active development. I give away redemption codes in exchange for feedback. I'll then update the app, and post again on those same forums. Showing that I'm invested in their community and building a good product.

The underlying concept is still the same.

  • I'm participating in the community.
  • I'm showing that I'm genuine (in the case of the Go community, I'm showing that I love the game, and listen to their feedback with every update).
  • I'm not a sleazeball, lazy, spammy marketer.
  • I'm not a sleazeball, lazy, spammy marketer.
  • I'm not a sleazeball, lazy, spammy marketer.
  • One more thing. I'm not a sleazeball, lazy, spammy marketer.