How do you reach out potential customers at Reddit?

Never lead with your product, spend the first two weeks just answering questions genuinely with zero mention of what you built. Once you have 5-10 helpful comments in that subreddit, people start checking your profile themselves and that's when your bio does the selling for you.

Social media content creation is an underrated answer here. What's worked for me: build a reputation in these communities by being consistently helpful, then let your product do the talking on Twitter/LinkedIn where self-promotion is expected. I built an AI tool called Buzzly that generates platform-ready posts in seconds — so I can stay consistent without spending hours. Being visible on social gives Reddit lurkers somewhere to 'find' you organically, vs. feeling sold to in threads.

The safest approach I’ve found is to avoid “audience targeting” and focus on “pain targeting”.

For example, I’m building a tool for WordPress/Elementor users. Posting in big SaaS or WordPress communities is hit or miss. But replying to someone who says “I need to rebuild this page in Elementor” or “my AI-generated site is hard to edit” works much better.

The product mention only feels natural when the pain is already there.

Same boat here, just started this week trying to promote a SaaS I'm building and ran into the same wall. Comments removed, and some subs won't even let you post until the account is older with enough karma.

For those of you who've actually managed to get customers from forums, how did you do it? Did you go through Reddit, or did other places work better for you (Indie Hackers, Discord, Facebook groups, etc.)? And roughly how long did it take before it actually brought in users?

Trying to learn what's worked for people rather than just guessing.

The safest Reddit outreach I’ve found is to ignore subreddit size and only answer exact-pain threads. If the post is “how do I market?” you’re one of many founders. If the post is a specific problem your product solves, you can be useful without sounding like a pitch.

For Kinetic Override, I’m avoiding broad Android/gaming promo and looking for very specific “no-root auto clicker / macro recorder / repeated taps” discussions. Then the comment is mostly an answer, with one disclosed product mention only if it actually fits. Lower volume, but much less spammy and the signal is cleaner.

Reddit punishes shortcuts pretty fast.

I’d stop thinking of it as reach-out and treat it like field notes. Answer the exact question in the thread, include the product only if it is impossible to answer well without it, and let the profile carry the link.

A good test: if the comment still helps after removing your URL, it probably belongs there.

I build a personal finance app and recruit Android testers on Reddit, so I've hit the same wall. What changed things for me was picking two or three subs where my actual users hang out and reading each one's self-promo rules before posting anything. Some allow a dedicated thread type for tools, some only tolerate a mention in comments when someone asks, and a few will approve a post if you message the mods first. The mod message route works more often than people expect.

The other half is account history. If your profile is 90 percent product mentions you get filtered even in subs that allow promotion. I spend most of my Reddit time answering questions with no app mention at all, and the occasional post that does mention it survives because of that ratio.

For income investor tools specifically, I'd answer the recurring tracking questions. A good chunk of the dividend subs is people asking how to track yield on cost or monthly payout consistency. A detailed answer showing your method with no link gets people checking your profile on their own, and that's where the product can live.

We solved this by building Rixly — it finds people already asking for your solution so you don't have to guess where to show up.

reddit works best when you show up with a real answer before you ask for attention. if you only post to promote, most subs tune you out fast. for appkit specifically, i would only mention it after giving a useful screenshot or launch critique.

reddit works best when you show up with a real answer before you ask for attention. if you only post to promote, most subs tune you out fast.

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do not pitch first. answer a few questions genuinely, then let your profile do the selling.

The mistake is trying to use Reddit like a traffic channel too early.

For income investors, you probably should not mention the product or drop links in the first reply at all. Reddit works better when the comment looks like a useful investor-specific answer, not a founder trying to redirect people.

I’d use a simple flow:

Find posts where people are already asking about dividend income, ETF comparisons, monthly cash flow, or portfolio yield.

Reply with a specific breakdown first.

Only mention the tool if they ask how you calculated it, or move to DM after they engage.

The angle should probably be less “try my tool” and more “here’s how I’d compare income ETFs for yield, risk, and payout consistency.”

That earns trust before the product enters the conversation.

Happy to put a tighter version in writing if useful. I’d map the subreddit targets, comment style, DM angle, and a 7-day Reddit acquisition test without getting you banned.