Reddit: An Untapped Wedding Marketing Goldmine w/ Emily Rochotte

Reddit: An Untapped Wedding Marketing Goldmine With Emily Rochotte

Heidi Thompson:
Buckle up, cuz in this episode you are going to learn about a completely overlooked platform where you can find out exactly what couples are thinking so you can speak to that in your marketing and you can get discovered yourself.

Hey there, welcome to the podcast. I’m your host, Heidi Thompson, and I help wedding pros make their marketing easier so they can book more weddings with clients they love. And have more freedom and flexibility. And today I have an interview for you that I really loved doing, and I was really excited about this topic. And we dig into all things using Reddit for your wedding business. Almost nobody is doing this, and it’s kind of crazy because it is truly a goldmine of information, of ideas. You can even get discovered and recommended on this platform, and almost nobody is using it in this way, even though Reddit is very popular. It’s always in like the top 10 websites that are used and has been that way for ages. I think, I think I’ve been on Reddit for like 13 years or something like that. So there is a ton of content.

There are so many people and it is a really powerful tool that functions very differently than anything else. So I hope you’re excited to learn how you can use Reddit in your wedding business. Let’s get into the interview with Emily.

Today I’m joined by Emily Rochotte, a social media strategist, SEO blog writer, and marketing educator that you may know from her previous appearances on Book More Wedding Summit, Wedding Business CEO Summit, and today she is here to talk to us about Reddit, and I was so excited when she brought up this topic because this is an absolute gold mine that is completely overlooked by like 90% of the industry. So Emily, welcome! I’m excited to have you.

Emily Rochotte:
Thanks for having me, Heidi. I’m excited to talk about this.

Heidi Thompson:
Okay, so a lot of people might know Reddit as like, you know, a place you go to find a random community on something, but they’re probably not thinking about it in terms of the wedding industry. So tell me a little bit about what you have found there.

Emily Rochotte:
I have found that Reddit is, is telling you everything that you have been asking about your business. If you— anything that you find yourself wondering, like, what are couples asking, what are couples spending, what are couples wishing we were telling them, like, what are they searching for, Reddit is telling you everything. The good, the bad, all of it. Like, couples are on there and they are sharing all of their feelings. So basically it’s like your own personal insight hub for free that is being completely overlooked.

Heidi Thompson:
That’s huge, right? Because we’re all like, if I could only get into this person’s head, and they’re over here on Reddit, like, fully airing stuff out, whether it’s complaints about how a vendor has behaved or their budget and how they’re allocating it, like, they’re talking about this stuff, right?

Emily Rochotte:
And they’re talking about real things. I think when it comes to Reddit, if people haven’t already used it, sometimes you see like people on other platforms reading Reddit posts about like, you know, wedding drama or like guest things like that, and it becomes like viral posts. But if you actually use the platform, there’s a completely different side where people are talking about their weddings from a planning perspective. And it’s not like, oh, what am I really gonna get out of it? Like, Couples of all kinds are using it no matter what kind of wedding they’re planning, no matter what the budget is. Like, your couple is on there.

Heidi Thompson:
That’s really interesting because I think a lot of people might assume this is more of a DIY crowd, but what have you seen?

Emily Rochotte:
I’ve really seen it all over the board. The thing with Reddit is that there are subreddits for all kinds of topics, and when it comes to weddings, there are subreddits for everything. Like, there are subreddits for people who want to have weddings under 10k.

There are also subreddits for big budget weddings where people are spending, you know, half a million dollars or more, and they’re talking about things like that.

I feel like everybody if you take one thing away, it’s that your couples are using Reddit because think, Splendid Insights for this year came out, and 1 in 3 couples are using Reddit to plan their wedding, and 1 in 4 ultra luxury couples. Like couples with over half a million dollar budgets, are on Reddit doing some kind of research, getting information on how to plan their wedding. They’re asking for vendor recommendations.

I see so many requests for vendor recommendations at all price points on there all the time.

Heidi Thompson:
Wow, 1 in 3. I mean, I figured it was high, but I didn’t realize it was that high.

Emily Rochotte:
I think people also like with every social platform, people overlook the lurkers. So not only are people posting on there like crazy, but people are also search for something both on Reddit and on Google, like they’re finding their answers on Reddit.

Heidi Thompson:
Yeah. And I’m sure you do this. I know I do. When I want to find the answer to something from an actual human being, not from an AI summary on Google, not from, you know, a, an article where someone has a bunch of affiliate thinks about like the best whatever, like I want an actual human being, I add Reddit to my search and I find— seriously, I, I don’t think there’s a problem I’ve had that I haven’t been able to fix from some person like 9 years ago that posted something about this.

Emily Rochotte:
It’s incredible. Yes. And, and Reddit especially is a place where you don’t need to be stressed about like, I have to, you know, be up on the latest everything. Cuz you’re right, people are finding valuable answers from things several years ago.

Heidi Thompson:
So tell me a bit about how you are using this in the different capacities, cuz there’s obviously the research side, you could be interacting with people, you could be creating content. So take me through how you’re using it.

Emily Rochotte:
Yeah, it, there, it’s like, like you said, it’s not just the research, but also when it comes to marketing on Reddit, marketing is a, is a process that needs to be done a certain way. Reddit is not the place to like come and be like, I’m a photographer, book me for your weddings, here’s my link. It’s definitely about building community. And I— if, if people are listening to this and being like, okay, I don’t need another social media platform, like I don’t need more work, let me tune out. I really feel like Reddit kind of checks all your marketing boxes because not only are you getting insights and doing that research and finding what couples are asking, you’re also able to join in the conversation. And it’s not to say that you can’t self-promote, but it is to say you need to provide some kind of value.

And while you’re doing all this and you’re talking you are adding to your own SEO.

Because if somebody’s searching on Google, Reddit comes up pretty, pretty high actually on most Google searches. And so you’re kind of— you’re checking all those boxes at once. You’re doing research, you’re getting your name out there, or you’re, you know, recommending other, other vendors, and you’re helping yourself with your own, your own SEO. So I think I encourage everybody to— I encourage you to search your own name on Reddit because people are referring you. People are talking about you. Oftentimes I see a lot of, um, I see a lot of couples, you know, posting on there like, I want a photographer, like, does anybody know how much so-and-so costs? Or people are sharing pricing.

Heidi Thompson:
And that could be its whole own podcast on like why we need to talk about our pricing online.

Emily Rochotte:
But Reddit is a place where people are going to find your pricing so you want it to be accurate, but I find that it’s a really great place to add value to conversations.

Heidi Thompson:
I wanna give some maybe examples here so people can envision how they might use this. So let’s start with research. Can you give me an example of a way that you have used Reddit for research to figure out either like, you know, what to create in your marketing or, you know, what kind of messaging you really needed to be using?

Emily Rochotte:
Yeah, absolutely. So I think the first thing is that you search, wedding planner in Colorado and see what kind of questions people are asking. Like beyond the referrals, like what are people asking about, you know, getting married in Colorado? And then taking that and being like, well, here are my next pieces of content. I see that people are asking you what vendor, venues people recommend.

Well, I’m going to do some posts on social media and on my blog about, you know, the best wedding venues in Colorado, and I’m going to, you know, share the photos that I’ve taken there, the weddings that I’ve planned there, um, you know, and then sharing that resource in the comments, or, you know, using that to create Reddit-specific content and replying and saying, you know, as a, as a wedding planner, this venue is really great because X, Y, and Z, and if you’re looking to have this kind of wedding, I really recommend this venue because it gives you more dance floor space and you said you really wanna have a large party, like adding value on the platform and then using that content and the questions people are asking to create valuable content off the platform.

Heidi Thompson:
I love that so much.

Emily Rochotte:
It is really like this all-in-one thing that we don’t see very often where you have the SEO. The only other thing I can think of that like has SEO value really that has like long-term life is like Pinterest, but Pinterest doesn’t have the conversational side of things and the ability to like communicate directly with people. So I think Reddit is a really unique platform for people to explore. And you know, as you’re saying, it doesn’t have to be like another hamster wheel you get on that like now

Heidi Thompson:
What kind of regular systems or behavior are you building in, or do you recommend people building in, to stay relevant, to find ideas, but to not feel like they’re on, like, yet another content treadmill?

Emily Rochotte:
Yeah, at a minimum, using it for research. So setting— like, setting up an account, and the— if you start— just search the word wedding., and they’re going to show you so many different subreddits that you can subscribe to. And what that means is like, it’s a, it’s a conversation about something specific. So those, you know, weddings by a certain budget, or, you know, weddings in, in your area, or searching, um, you know, your local, your local city and subscribe to those subreddits. And then your feed will just be people posting under those topics. And so hopping into there and scrolling through, I think a great way to work it into your content creation. Batching would be, you know, skip ChatGPT and asking it like, what should I post about this week?

And let your your ideal clients and your couples tell you what they want you to be posting about. Go through that week, search the top, the top conversations that are happening, and answer those questions. And don’t, don’t be put off when you see a question is from several years ago, because if it’s up on top, it means people are still replying. The longevity of Reddit posts is unlike anything you see anywhere else. Because if somebody asked that several years ago and people haven’t asked it again since, instead of starting a new post, they’re going to go reignite those comments and, and continue that conversation. So I really recommend that even if you’re not going to post on Reddit and you’re not going to use it as an additional marketing platform, starting to check it regularly for your research to inspire your other content. Because if people are asking it on there, they’re asking in other places. They’re going to be searching it on TikTok, they’re going to be Google searching it. Like, they’re— it’s, it’s not like these people have specific questions that they only bring to Reddit and aren’t looking anywhere else.

Heidi Thompson:
Yeah, that’s a really good point. It’s such a good way to like just get a snapshot into your ideal client and like what they’re thinking and what they’re doing and what’s bothering them about other vendors, because people are, you know, of course happy to complain. Right?

Emily Rochotte:
And I think it’s such a good window into what is actually happening and what actually matters. So when you go to subreddits like Big Budget Brides, just looking at the kinds of conversations that people are having and like how they’re talking about things, how they’re talking about what matters to them, I think is so important. Because what I see in my business a lot is people are— and I get why we do this, we’re playing it safe, but we are using the same language that everybody else is using. So every planner, their website is like, it’s we make your wedding stress-free. And maybe it might help save them money. Like the typical things— there are typical things that every single vendor talks about, and those are the things that almost almost never are at the top of the minds of the people that you’re selling to.

And, you know, I take my clients through a process of going and asking your clients questions so you can make sure your marketing is aligned. But this is a great additional platform to see, like, okay, what, what do they actually care about? How are they describing this? Because I think we fall into that trap of being experts and we use this language that literally nobody else uses.

Heidi Thompson:
Absolutely. And you’re up like, and you’re absolutely right because if I’m searching, you know, stress, like people aren’t searching, you know, stress-free wedding planning. And if they are, like everybody’s coming up ’cause everybody’s saying they’re creating that. So what kind of other keywords can you find on Reddit? Like take some time to scroll through those boards for your— that your ideal clients are on and see like what other what kind of verbiage they’re using because it, it really varies obviously based on the type of ideal client you have, but you can really, um, you can really learn a lot. Like I’ll give you an example. I just pulled up Reddit right now and like if you are planning destination weddings, a lot of times like people are, you know, I plan full weekend weddings or we’re talking about weekend weddings, but this person here is talking about how they’re looking for a vacation-esque event. So like talk about how you can help them turn their weekend wedding into a vacation for their guests.

Emily Rochotte:
Really taking what people are saying and, and trying to use that verbiage to speak directly to them, not just on Reddit, but in your, in your, in your social posts, in your emails, in your blog posts.

It’s really easy to get stuck in the industry language and how we talk about things, but if you’re seeing stuff like that and you’re seeing conversations about that, especially on a platform like Reddit where you can remain anonymous, so So I mean, people are much more willing to go deep and talk about things like their budget, like their frustrations, like the things they really care about.

It’s like being a spy. It really is. And it’s a great place to spy on your competitors.

Heidi Thompson:
Ooh, tell me about that.

Emily Rochotte:
People— when people are searching, people are asking for recommendations all the time and you can see what people are recommending. People, you know, will share in those comments. I had a really great experience with this person. Here’s why. So you’re like, okay, I understand better that people are hiring my competitor because they give them X, Y, and Z. Maybe I need to talk more about how I also provide, provide that. Or, you know, maybe I need to focus on what makes me different from that if that’s not what people are looking for. People are searching for, for pricing all of the time. People are throwing their name— I see people throw names out all the time. I was looking at so-and-so and so-and-so and I don’t see pricing on their website. Do you know how much cost.

It’s going to give you pricing insight into what your competitors are charging and also is going to be a reminder that like you need to make sure your information is up to date because a lot of times when information of any kind is not up to date and readily available, people are going to turn to Reddit and then the information that people share about you might not be accurate because maybe that person worked with you a couple years ago and they’re like, oh, I really recommend Heidi the photographer, and she cost me this much money, but that was 4 years ago, and now you cost this. But that’s not anywhere to be found on the internet. So people are gonna be like, oh, Heidi only costs $2,000. Well, Heidi hasn’t cost $2,000 in years.

Heidi Thompson
That’s a really good point, and it’s something that, uh, Adrianna McDermott had brought up on a previous episode where we talked about trust and the importance of pricing transparency. I’ll I’ll be sure to link to it in the show notes. But yeah, you need to have at least some sort of guidelines around your price, whether it is, um, you know, whether it’s a set price, whether it’s a range, whether it’s a starting at, whether it’s an average spend. There’s lots of ways to do this, but if you don’t control that narrative, you know, Reddit is going to take off with something, right?

Emily Rochotte:
Somebody’s gonna control it for you. I’m looking at a post right now where people were asking about pricing and people are getting like so specific. This rental, my photographer fee was this many thousand dollars per hour, and if you have this kind of reception, it costs this many thousands of dollars to rent out the space for 6 hours. Like, people are giving the information, they’re spilling the tea on Reddit. Like, it’s, it’s, it is your place for all kinds of information. And so I do really encourage everybody to go on Reddit and search their own name just to see if people are talking about them, and if so, if the information being accurate is— it being shared is accurate.

I completely get why that’s happening. It is like this, like, brain trust of everybody that has had this experience that is sharing this in one place. But again, like, you need to be in control of that narrative. If people don’t have that information, they can’t share the correct information and they’re just gonna go and spread incorrect information. Then you have people coming to you that are like, well, so-and-so said you cost this much, or that this rental was this much, and Yeah, like you said, it hasn’t been that in ages, right?

And also, to the side of if you’re going to start posting on Reddit, like we talked about what an amazing resource— or like platform is for resources and research and all that. But if you are going to start posting, it’s not about just showing up to those conversations where people talked about

Emily Rochotte:
It’s about putting in time to add to the community, because Reddit, I feel like, is the best place for community on the internet. It’s kind of like what Facebook groups used to be a long time ago. Like, there is still community there, but I find that in wedding Facebook groups, a lot of time the ones where people are looking for, for vendors, it’s always pros being like, hey, let’s chat, here’s my link.

You are looking for this, I offer this, but here’s how you can— you know, let’s say you’re looking for a documentary style videographer. Like, on Reddit, you would say, I offer this and this is why. This is what you want to look for when you’re hiring one. You want to provide value. I feel like Reddit is one of the only places where like it is still social media, like people are still just having conversations. And I think there is a reason why like you get karma points on Reddit, like that’s what it’s called when you’re like, like responding and inter— excuse me, interacting on the platform because you want to put good karma out on there, not just promote yourself, but be of value.

Heidi Thompson:
Yeah, and I’m just looking at now at like— I just came across a post that is asking about like, oh, I’m thinking about getting a content creator, you know, what— these are my assumptions about this, how does it actually work? And someone who actually responded, I can see their business name is their username, and it says they’re like tagged— I forget what it’s called— the tag on, um, the subreddit, like, that you set for yourself. The flair, that’s what it is. This is vendor photos. This person’s a photographer, and they are explaining how content creators work and what to expect. And it’s like a paragraph and then like 3 additional short sentences, and then, happy to share how it looks on delivery since we sometimes work with creators for our own events. So this person doesn’t even offer this particular service, but they would be able to be helpful and refer someone. And they’re getting people talking to them about this, and they’re like, oh yeah, you can DM me and I’ll send you, you know, the specific ones that we’ve done so you can see what it looks like. And I think that is very different about Reddit, like the culture if you’re not used to using Reddit, is like the, the level of like bullshit detector and the level of like promo detector is so high that you have to make sure you’re not just like rocking up and being like, hey, everyone should book me, here’s my link. You actually need to have human communications.

Emily Rochotte:
Absolutely. And I find that some people, because your username can make like make those anonymous, and oftentimes they are used promote yourself as if you are somebody. Like if you are a venue, don’t say, oh, this venue was great.

Heidi Thompson:
Like people, you’re absolutely right, the bullshit detector is high. People will see right through it. And also if people click on, on your username, like they can see other things that you have posted so they can see, you know, if you are just like rolling up to things, always talking about the same, the same planner or the same venue.

And that’s not to say— that you can’t self-promote, but like you said, you have to provide some kind of educational value. Like, what can people take away from your post in addition to what it is that you do? Yeah, it’s like, you know, you’re coming at it as, oh, I actually help people with this, let me answer part of your question, and then, you know, you can DM me, or here’s my link if you want to learn more. That is the vibe, and I think that’s really important to know going into Reddit because I feel like Redditors will pounce on you more than anywhere else if you step outside of the culture of actual community and conversation.

Emily Rochotte
Absolutely. Absolutely. And not, not that that’s a scary thing. I don’t want people to hear this and be like, this is a whole new platform I need to learn. I’m not doing it. It really is just like, can you be a good person? Can you provide value? Great. Reddit’s a great place for you to be.

Heidi Thompson
It’s just a different attitude. Like you’re just coming into it looking to join in or start a conversation. That’s really all it is.

Emily Rochotte
Absolutely.

Heidi Thompson
And I think, you know, there are a lot of opportunities to jump in, make recommendations. Like, I’m scrolling through right now and there are several that are like, here’s my dress, I don’t really know what veil is going to work with this. So let’s say you ran a dress shop, or I know like custom veil makers, you can come in and add your expertise and be like, oh, I actually create veils custom to the dresses that my couples have. This is what I would suggest for this particular dress. I think that is such a great in.

Emily Rochotte
I completely agree. It’s literally begging you to comment. So many of these posts, like, they’re literally asking you, and it’s a great place to do to do your own market research too for your own business. Like, I’m looking at one, um, on wedding photography, and like, yes, people are in there like looking for photographers, but also somebody is working on their own website and they’re like, I’m about to raise my prices, so like, I know that I need to change my website. Like, what are you looking for when you’re booking a wedding of this price value? Like, what— how many photos are you looking for on my website? Like, are you searching galleries? Like, what are people looking for? People really wanna help people, cuz at the end of the day, when couples are giving insights to, to vendors, that’s going to help them have better experiences booking vendors. And when vendors give insights to couples, it’s gonna help couples have smoother experiences booking their vendors and planning their wedding. And so if we could just, we could just all get along and help each other on the internet, like it’d be a much better place. And Reddit really is, Reddit really is that.

Heidi Thompson
And I think it can be a great source of ideas to improve things in your business. So if you’re looking at like your inquiry workflow, you know, going over and like you said, creating a post, it’s something like, um, you know, I’m working on this. I’m curious, what drives you nuts when you inquire? With a wedding vendor? What has like really pissed you off? And people will— people love to share things that bother them.

Emily Rochotte
People do, and they will also do it unprompted too. Like, yes, absolutely ask those questions, but I’ve also seen, I’ve also seen Reddit posts of people voluntarily talking about that. Like, why are you asking me 30,000 questions on your inquiry form? Like, you— to you it’s valuable information, and, and we as pros, we get why you’re doing it, But we have to think about it from the couples, and the couples are telling you what they do and do not like, because to you, you want to know their engagement story, but they’ve just written that 10 times and nobody needs to know that before they— before they have their first inquiry call.

Heidi Thompson
That has directly influenced my advice about contact forms in the past year, just seeing how many people felt that way. And I’ve seen a lot of people say they feel like they’re like applying or like auditioning for a vendor. And I don’t think anyone wants to make people feel that way, but that’s how they’re feeling when they’re having to, like, as I’ve seen many people describe, like basically sell themselves. Mm-hmm. It’s like, here’s my story, here’s why you should let me pay you to, for my wedding.

Emily Rochotte
It’s like, am I good enough to work? Like, Am I gonna have to work with you? Do you want— is my wedding worthy of your social media? Like, it, it, it’s a scary thing. And the way that we can listen to couples and make it less scary for them is really going to impact your business.

Heidi Thompson
And just seeing people talk about like the sheer overwhelm of like, I filled out this basically the same form like 60 times. If we can make it a little bit easier and if we can make it a little bit shorter. Just based on that, that like small insight, that’s going to improve your conversions.

Emily Rochotte
Yeah, maybe the million-dollar idea is here is that we need to create some kind of like— when you apply to college and there’s the Common App that you can submit to like multiple colleges, maybe we need one for weddings. Someone create that and then every, every pro can use it as their intake form.

Heidi Thompson
It’s so helpful because it can be this like insight loop and whether you can find something You know, if you can find something that’s already out there, great. If people are having conversations about something and people are having conversations about the most obscure shit on Reddit, it’s great. You can find like the most like random circumstance. Uh, there have been so many times where I found like, okay, this and this and this. And then like a great result from Reddit pops up. Someone had the exact same problem and now I have a solution, but like

Heidi Thompson
if it’s not there, you can ask those questions. You can create that conversation and like kind of facilitate that conversation so that you’re not operating in the dark. That’s the thing I really hate to see wedding pros do is like just completely throw spaghetti at the wall because your business and your marketing should get easier over time as you learn things and you have data to review and be like, okay, this— this didn’t work. And Reddit is a great source for that. So if you’re looking at, is my contact form too long? What can I do to improve it? Or if, you know, you’re looking at, um, maybe you’re putting blog posts together and I’m telling you, you need to cut down on images and you’re like, I think Heidi’s full of shit and I need to have all these images. You can ask the internet, like, how many is overwhelming? What do you like to see when you read blog posts about a venue or about a wedding? And people will give you answers directly from their experience.

Emily Rochotte
Truly, truly. It’s, it’s the place. It’s the place to find those specific answers. And it doesn’t mean that, you know, everything that people say is like hard and fast. Like this says you need 16 photos, so I have to have 16 photos.

Heidi Thompson
Sure.

Emily Rochotte
Yeah. But. It’s also— it’s great for people who want answers like that. Like, I’m looking to that exact question about how many photos should you have on your website? And some people are like, my professor used to say 16. This person says, if I were a client, I’d wanna see at least 20 and then a full gallery with a few hundred. I would say about 30. So like taking the information and then making it what feels right to you. Somewhere between like 16 and 30, it sounds like, maybe might be a good starting spot, and then testing from there. It’s all about continuing to, to test what people are telling you, but you can feel better having a starting point with what people are telling you as opposed to kind of just guessing on everything.

Heidi Thompson
Yeah, and you can do it in this like black box kind of way, which is pretty cool. Like, people can You know, I see so many times in Facebook groups, people set that thing to anonymous and it’s like people are afraid to ask certain questions or answer certain questions and Reddit provides that shield a little bit so you can be honest.

Emily Rochotte
Right. It’s, it’s a good place to be open. Like you can be safe with what you’re sharing. You can be vulnerable and if you have, you know, an anonymous, you user flair. Like, people aren’t gonna know. It’s kind of like when people post anonymously on Facebook and, you know, sometimes people get annoyed, but like Reddit’s a good— a good place for that because you can ask your vulnerable questions without everybody on the internet attacking you because they’re also asking their vulnerable questions on, on Reddit.

Heidi Thompson
Yeah, I feel like even, you know, I use Reddit every day just for random stuff, and I definitely go into it— in kind of— I mean, it was partially entertainment, it’s partially learning, it’s partially getting into conversations with people, but it is like— it feels much more open than a lot of other platforms.

Emily Rochotte
It feels like a safe space for sure, and it’s not like everybody’s perfect on there and people aren’t, you know, gonna say things back like any other social platform, but it just feels more open and natural and communicative, I think, than other platforms. Like, I do really think it’s putting the, the social in social media.

Heidi Thompson
Are you personally, and are you advising your clients to, you know, are you doing more on the research side? Are you doing more on the, like, building community and conversation and sharing educational resources side? Where do you fall in your current habits?

Emily Rochotte
I fall more on the research side because it gives me insights into what people are asking, which helps me create social media and blog content for my clients and, and helps generate ideas for what I can recommend that they be posting. Um, that’s not to say that I don’t occasionally hop in to conversations if they’re relevant. And I will say I just got an inquiry last week and the person said they found me on Reddit. So that— oh wow. That made, that made me so excited. Um, but it, uh, I use it mainly for research and I think that I, in an ideal world, we’re all using it and you’re, you’re promoting your business on there. But I also know that adding new platforms is, is hard and scary for people and just seems like an overwhelming amount of time. And the easiest way to ease into Reddit is to use it for research. Cause if you’re in there and you’re doing the research and you’re just sitting there reading, if you’re logged in, you’re like, oh, I’m reading this, but I actually have something to say. And then you just post your first comment. And then, you know, the next day you’re scrolling through and you’re reading and you’re like, you know what, I have something to add to this. It’s as simple as just kind of, you know, easing your way in there. It’s not like

Emily Rochotte
‘Oh, I need to post to Reddit this week because I need to also post to Instagram and TikTok and make that Facebook post and update my blog.’ Like, Reddit’s not that. It’s not ‘I have to hit a certain marker,’ or ‘I have to show up consistently.’ Like, you know, please do if you’re using it, but it’s not— it’s not like other social platforms where you have to be putting in a certain amount of time.

Heidi Thompson
I think that’s very refreshing for everybody. Like, it’s not this big commitment that, ‘Oh well, if you’re not consistent and you’re not doing this this many times a week, then, you know, you may as well not be doing it at all.

Emily Rochotte
Right? It’s, it’s not that. And it’s really where else can you be sure that the content that you’re posting is going directly to who you want it to be? Like, obviously we can tailor our algorithms and we can use keywords and we can do all those things everywhere else so that we’ve done everything we can to target the right people. But if I go in and I am posting on the Weddings Under $10K Reddit because I like specifically do micro weddings and elopements for, you know, 10 or less people. Like, I’m only talking to my people there.

Heidi Thompson
That’s a really good point. Yeah. And there are so many different subreddits, whether it’s for like different types of weddings, like micro weddings, like big budget weddings, or it’s something more local, it is all really accessible. And even as I’m just searching— so I live in San Diego, I’m just searching super broad San Diego wedding. I’m getting posts from wedding planning, weddings under $10K, Asian weddings, uh, the San Diego subreddit, the San Diegan subreddit,

Emily Rochotte
um,

Heidi Thompson
on and on and on. Like there are like wedding photography, there are so many that show up for this. So if we can— I think, like, you know what you said, going in and searching for something first is the best way to approach it because people are having these conversations in so many different places, but it is very easy to find them, right?

Emily Rochotte
Exactly. Searching is the first place because same thing, I’m in New Jersey, I search New Jersey weddings, and so many of the results are also in New Jersey-specific subreddits. But also if I were to focus all my search on New Jersey subreddits, I would be filtering through a million other things about New Jersey. So searching is a great place to start in addition to wedding-specific subreddits. But also I would recommend doing that search on Google too, because which subreddit specifically and which posts specifically are coming up when searching what it is that you do and where you’re located, because those would be really good subreddits to make sure that you are commenting on and adding your voice to in addition to all the others that are relevant to what you offer.

Heidi Thompson
Yeah, so we definitely want people to be doing these searches. Do a search for your own business name and your name. Are there any other, like, initial things you want people to do to kind of, like, dip their toe in and see what’s happening?

Emily Rochotte
Yeah, those are the two big ones. And I would say starting your own account, just so that when you are searching through and, and lurking and doing your research, if you want to put your first post up or you wanna respond to something, you can do it right away cuz you’re already, you’re already in there and having an account allows you to follow these subreddits and curate like a feed so that every time you’re not going in there and like having to start your, your search from scratch. But I do really recommend searching yourself and searching the keywords for your area. Um, because truly every area is on there. This is not like a, oh, only people in big cities use this, or only people looking for certain types of weddings. Like, I have done all kinds of research in all kinds of like rural areas, cities, small budgets, big budgets, medium-sized budgets, you know, barely any budgets, DIY, I don’t want to do anything. Like, it, it truly is all there, and you can get pretty specific with your, with your keyword searches.

Heidi Thompson
Yeah, I think just because like Reddit has been around for so long and has such a huge percent —of internet users in general. Like, everybody. It feels like a, like, you know, oh, Reddit, who’s on Reddit? Like, everybody is.

Emily Rochotte
Right, and even people are gonna be like, no, I’m not on Reddit. Well, you might not have an account on Reddit, but I can almost guarantee that at some point you searched something on Google and you did click on that Reddit thread. And I’m not saying just weddings, it’s everything. Every— I think the answer to everything is on, on Reddit. Truly, at some point you search something and you probably clicked on a Reddit link cuz that was where you found the answer as opposed to, you know, any kind of other help forum or Facebook group post or anywhere else you looked.

Heidi Thompson
I’m curious from like your marketing strategy brain as you’re going through, where are you finding ideas? Are you finding ideas in, you know, is it the questions people are asking? Is it in

Heidi Thompson
in the pains that people are experiencing? Is it like the complaints people have? Where do you tend to find your content ideas for social media?

Emily Rochotte
A combination of the three, really. It depends on what kind of wedding pro you are. So, you know, if, if you’re someone who, uh, it typically depends where you are in, in the booking process. Like, are you a, a, like a photographer or someone you’re booking early? Because then you can take the questions that people are asking, not just about, about like booking a photographer, but what they’re asking about booking, you know, other, other vendors that they would typically book after you and finding that information and talking about that. Because if somebody, you know, is starting to look for, look for you and you’re providing value, then you can kind of also start, you know, recommending your, your preferred list or, you know, also sharing information on, on the boards that that people book before you. So if we’re using the photographer example, if people are going to book your— their venue first in the conversations where people are searching about venues, which I see a lot, what is, you know, what’s the cost for this? What’s a reasonable price for this? And people are talking about venues all the time, talking about why they’re great from a photography perspective. And then using that to make other content, you know, for, for SEO, if we’re talking about blogging. There is so much power, and Sarah Dunn talks about all the time, there’s so much power in creating venue-specific content because when people are searching venues now they can find you too. And so I would say to get, to get back to your question, I use all the information in different ways. I use it like I use the, the specific questions like when people are asking for recommendations to see what’s coming up the most. It also helps me look at what what those venues or photographers or whatever people are asking for, what they’re doing, because it’s like, why are— why is everybody recommending them? And like, what do they like about their experience? So that people who offer similar, similar services can share what they offer that, that they could get there instead. And I think it’s also important to look at what people are complaining about as a, as a self-audit because You know, we talked about the pricing one a lot, but obviously there are so many other complaints. But if people are like, I didn’t inquire cuz I didn’t see a price, once you start reading that several times, it’s kind of like, okay, maybe I really, really do need to put my starting price on my website and then explain like the range, like it starts at this, but typically couples spend this cuz couples are saying that on Reddit all the time. But that’s just one example. So complaints are very helpful if you’re looking to create specific, like, SEO blog content, then, then the referral questions are very helpful. And if you’re looking to create more educational content for social media, then I would focus on just general, general questions that people are asking, because if they’re asking it, other people are wondering too.

Heidi Thompson
That makes a lot of sense. And if it’s coming up, it’s usually something that, you know, it’s serving you things that are active. It’s not going to serve you, like, I— you might get one occasionally that has like zero comments, but I’m just looking through my search results right now and they’re all different time frames. So like 18 days ago, 6 years ago, a month ago, 8 years ago, and most of them have a fair amount of comments. So like there is activity on the ones you’re coming across. So yeah, I think This is such a brilliant idea to really tap into this massively underutilized resource. Um, when people are setting up their profile, is there anything they should know? Like, do you recommend people use their business name? Um, is there anything that they should or shouldn’t be adding?

Emily Rochotte
That’s a great question. Everybody feels differently about it. If you— people do use their business name, and I see a lot of people who don’t. So is there a right or wrong answer to that? I don’t think so. If you are using your business name, there’s obviously value in brand recognition, but please especially do not be the person that just shows up to share your link. Like, get known as the business that is providing value. So if you are choosing to put your, um, your business name on your profile, make sure that you are providing value. Like, I’m scrolling through right now and I’m seeing people with, random, you know, random usernames, but also sharing their, their website link for their business in their profile. When it comes to Reddit, a lot of times people just expect that kind of an— like anonymous handle. They’re not really expecting to always see your business name, but you can do what feels right for you. Here’s somebody and his, his username is his business name, but it also has him labeled as the top 1% of commenters. So he’s using his business name, but he’s providing value and his profile photo is not like a business logo or his photo or anything. It’s just one of the, the Reddit icons. So you really can honestly do whatever you want and do what feels right to you.

Emily Rochotte
So, um, I would not get hung up on that. I’m sure other people would have very specific, you should do this, you should do that. But really the value comes in to what are you taking away from this when you do research and what value are you giving other people? And in your post you can say, you know, I’m a planner, I’m a live wedding painter. So your profile name doesn’t need to be, you know, Emily the live wedding painter, right? So it, it really is— don’t let that be what hangs you up. But also, you know, if you are going to be sharing business information, like, put your, put your website in there, because then if somebody’s like, hey, I actually really liked the information this person shared, and I, I haven’t booked my caterer yet, like, let me click on their link. Maybe they could be my caterer.

Heidi Thompson
Well, I am a lurker and a researcher, but you’ve definitely encouraged me to contribute more and to get into conversation more. So I’m really excited to do that. But man, I have found so much gold in just the research side and just seeing what people are talking about because it is such an unfiltered, uncensored look into what they’re saying either about you or about your vendor type or about what they’re experiencing. And it’s so incredibly helpful from a marketing perspective.

Emily Rochotte
It really is. It makes me sad when people tell me that they haven’t used it for, for research because I don’t think we could say goldmine enough. Like, it truly, truly, truly is. And even just, you know, 10 minutes on there once a week, like, you’re going to be getting valuable insight that you can use over and over and over again.

Heidi Thompson
There aren’t many things you can do for 10 minutes once a week that you actually get a benefit from, so I like that.

Emily Rochotte
It’s true. It’s true. And it’s, uh, it can, you know, it could suck you in like every other platform, but you can get value out of it and it’s all value as opposed to, you know, if you’re scrolling through social media and, you know, some Instagram posts or TikTok videos are valuable and then some are entertaining. Like you can, you can do all value on Reddit in 10 minutes and walk away with content ideas that speak to your, your right people as opposed to, you know, just kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.

Heidi Thompson
I love that so much. Emily, is there anything else you want people to know as they venture into dipping their toes into Reddit for research, for adding to conversation? I know we’ve covered a lot.

Emily Rochotte
Yeah, I want people to know that it’s, it’s not that serious. Like, I think when we talk about other types of social media platforms and posting, people are like, this post has to be perfect, or this has to reflect my aesthetic or my brand. And, and yeah, sometimes people will share a photo or something on Reddit, but really it’s just nobody’s looking for any kind of aesthetic. They’re not looking for any kind of, you know, specific photos or, or posts. Like, it really is just people want information. And so it really is the lowest stakes place to, to show up and spend time because there’s no— I don’t feel like there’s barriers to entry, or we’re not making barriers that don’t exist. Like, when it comes to social media, a lot of times we’re like, oh, you know, I need to look a certain way before I record that TikTok video, which isn’t true, but a lot of us tell ourselves that with Reddit, like, nobody can see you, so you can Reddit whenever you want. You have, you know, 10 minutes while you’re sitting in the doctor’s office waiting for your appointment. Reddit’s a great place to add value and get takeaways. Like, like you said, there’s really nowhere else on the internet that you can use 10 minutes and have the most impactful takeaways.

Heidi Thompson
I love that. I love the low bar and the low barrier to entry. Like, yay, let’s have something that’s easy.

Emily Rochotte
Right. It’s pressure-free, and we need that.

Heidi Thompson
We do. Emily, thank you so much for suggesting this topic, for bringing your knowledge on it. Where can people go if they want to connect with you?

Emily Rochotte
Absolutely. Um, I have Reddit-specific resources on my website, so you could go to emilyrochotte.com/reddit, or redditforweddingpros.com will bring you there. And of course, you can follow me on social media @EmilyRochotte.

Heidi Thompson
Thank you so much for being here. This has been an incredible conversation. I will link to everything in the show notes. And again, thank you so much.

Emily Rochotte
Thank you so much, Heidi. Have a great day.

Heidi Thompson
I will have links to everything we talked about over in the show notes at evolveyourweddingbusiness.com/349. I’m so curious, what are you thinking? Now that you’ve heard this conversation, how are you thinking that you can use Reddit? And once you start digging in, I would love to hear what you have uncovered. Send me a DM. I am @evolveyourweddingbusiness over on Instagram, and I can’t wait to hear from you. Thank you so much for taking the time to join me, and I will speak to you again very soon.