Imagine a website that tells you what a customer wants out of a mattress, explains the bad experiences they’ve had and shows you common—or sometimes uncommon—questions consumers have about the products you sell.
Sounds pretty nice, right?
It’s called Reddit, “the front page of the internet.”
Reddit is an online forum where people have conversations (AKA threads) about a variety of topics, from adorable animals to shower thoughts (which you’ll find at the end of this article). Reddit threads are categorized based on what subject they focus on, and the title of the threads is r/subject. These are called subreddits.
So for the mattress industry, you could look on subreddits r/mattress or r/sleep to find mattress- and sleep-related threads.
Reddit wasn’t made with mattress retailers in mind (in fact, it was created by two college kids in 2005 who wanted to build an app to order sandwiches online.) But today, over 52 million people use the platform daily, and it can be a great tool to gain insight into and prepare for consumer questions—or even position yourself as an influential expert.
Today’s consumers research and shop online before they head into your store, so it’s important to know not only what people will come in asking, but what types of answers they’re getting from people online.
The sinister side of the internet is filled with trolls and misinformation. But if you do your research, you can clear up any misconceptions and be ahead of the game.
So how should a mattress retailer use Reddit?
First, head to reddit.com and search for r/mattress or r/sleep in the search bar at the top of the page. This will give you a list of threads, with several other options in addition to the one you typed in.
So click into one, let’s say r/mattress, and take a look around. See what people are asking. Anything catch your eye?
At first, it may seem like a lot of noise. But if you look carefully and keep your eye out for trends, you could find that many people ask about the same issues.
From here, you can think about how you would talk to a customer in your store about this issue, and that will help you be prepared the next time it happens. You could even write blog posts about commonly asked questions on Reddit. If one person has the question, you can bet at least 100 other people do as well.
You can also take it a step further and interact with the people on Reddit.
Let’s start with an easy one—one user asked what it means when a mattress is intended to be used without a foundation. You could easily answer their question in the thread and even give more background information about the importance of a foundation for beds that do need them, the options available today, etc.
Plus, when you post, most of the time you will get a response, which helps you prepare for the follow-up questions real customers might ask in the store.
And Reddit is a rabbit hole; the questions just keep coming. So if you don’t see one worth answering, keep checking back.
We’re not saying you need to spend hours on Reddit every day. But if you—or someone on your staff—spend a few hours a week looking through, focusing on trends and questions that need to be answered in-depth, and apply that to your store, the possibilities are endless.
Now, we’ll leave you with some shower thoughts about mattresses sourced from Reddit. If you mention any of these to a customer and get a laugh, be sure to let us know:
- The bigger your bed, the less bedroom you have.
- No one wants a used mattress for free, but we pay hundreds of dollars to sleep on one at hotels.
- You never notice how much your head weighs until you’re resting it on your sleeping dog.
- For most of human history, vehicles had automatic collision avoidance and could even take you home when you were sleeping or drunk. Then we got rid of the horse.
- In order to fall asleep, you have to pretend to be asleep.
- My 15-year-old self would be appalled to hear how many times I’ve chosen sleep over sex.
