Low-key PR is a subtle, long-game approach to building credibility and trust in communities without overtly promoting yourself or your brand.
Jeffrey Zhou, CEO and Founder of Fig Loans, puts it this way: “To most people, the concept of PR often conjures images of press releases, LinkedIn posts, and media fluff designed to capture attention. Low-key PR takes a different approach, cutting out the noise and delivering clear, direct results instead.”
Currently, Reddit and Discord are two of the best platforms for low-key PR, and it’s easy to see why this is true. Reddit revealed in its 2019 Year in Review report that it had over 430 million active monthly users. If you’re looking to leverage social media for PR, you certainly need to pay attention to Reddit.
Discord, meanwhile, boasts over 200 million monthly active users, many of whom prefer intimate, niche-based discussions where advice holds more weight than advertising.
In this article, we’ll explain how this works and show you how to get in on the action. If you’re an expert in areas like Amazon advertising, niche SaaS, or digital marketing, these tips will be quite helpful. Let’s dive in!
What is Low-Key PR?
Lacey Jarvis, COO at AAA State of Play, explains, “Low-key PR isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room. It’s about showing up in the right communities and helping people without putting your marketing agenda first. Instead of using flashy announcements or aggressive outreach, low-key PR focuses on a bottom-up approach to creating value and building relationships.”
People are growing increasingly tired of marketing noise and are becoming more responsive to honest and transparent engagement.
According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust peer recommendations over traditional advertising. This shows how building an authentic presence in real online communities can be so powerful.
Low-key PR meets them where they are, with a focus on meeting needs and leaving positive memories without trying to sell anything upfront.
Instead of cold-pitching services, experts in Amazon advertising, niche SaaS, or digital marketing can organically build recognition on these platforms by being generous with their knowledge.
The Essential Steps to Using Low-Key PR Effectively
Here’s how you can use low-key PR to build real connections around a loyal community:
1. Know the Culture of Your Chosen Community
You’ll need to tailor your approach to fit the unique nature and features of the online community you choose to focus on.
Reddit, for example, is built around topics. Every subreddit has its own tone, rules, and expectations. Discord, on the other hand, is built around relationships and typically features smaller, more intimate, ongoing conversations.
They both have something in common, however, which is an exceptional ability to sniff out marketing disguised as conversation. If you show up selling, you’ll likely get called out rapidly.
2. Pick the Right Communities
To do low-key PR right, you need to be in the right rooms.
For Reddit:
- Start with subreddits like r/FulfillmentByAmazon, r/AmazonSeller, r/Entrepreneur, or r/PPC.
- Use search terms like “low ACoS,” “manual vs. auto campaigns,” or “sponsored brands” to find threads where your expertise or tools, such as Amazon PPC services, are especially relevant.
For Discord:
- Look for invite-only communities focused on FBA, e-commerce strategy, or niche SaaS.
- Check platforms like Disboard or Discord List for reputable servers.
- Vet communities by reviewing their engagement levels, self-promo rules, and tone.
Not all groups are worth your time. Look for signs of life like active threads, real questions, and honest replies.
3. Lurk First. Talk Later.
According to Nicolas Breedlove, CEO at PlaygroundEquipment.com, the key to success on platforms like Discord and Reddit is patient observation. “Don’t jump in with advice on day one.” He says, “Just watch and see what keeps coming up. Pay attention to the language people use and the pain points they mention. When you do respond, keep it clean. Don’t slide into DMs. Don’t tease a blog post. Just help.”
In other words, don’t start by offering a service. Start by sharing a useful idea, a relevant experience, or a solution.
4. Show Up Consistently
Showing up consistently isn’t about going viral, although this does sometimes help. The real goal lies in proving that you’re reliable.
On Reddit, 2–3 helpful comments per week would be the ideal frequency. On Discord, join regular discussions, and jump in whenever you can actually help.
Over time, you’ll get DMs and invites, and people may start quoting you whenever relevant topics crop up.
How to Measure Success
As Adam Young, CEO and Founder at Event Tickets Center, shares, “In traditional marketing, success is measured by click-through rates (CTR), cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM), and conversions. But with low-key PR, the indicators of impact are far more nuanced and often more meaningful over the long run.”
Here’s how to recognize when your quiet presence is starting to pay off:
- Branded Search & Direct Traffic:
If people start Googling your name or visiting your site without ads, it’s a sign your reputation is growing organically through trust-based interactions. - Referral Traffic from Reddit & Discord:
If analytics show traffic from these platforms, it likely means someone found your comment valuable enough to share. - Private Messages & DMs:
Great PR and excellent customer support often overlap. When people message you for professional help or advice, it’s a clear sign you’re seen as credible and worth listening to. This reflects a broader truth: - Invites to Speak or Collaborate:
Being asked to join podcasts, AMAs, or webinars shows you’ve become a trusted voice in the community. - Mentions in Guides or Threads:
If others quote or reference you in roundups or discussions, you’ve moved from participant to go-to expert.
Essentially, if people are talking about you in a good way without you having to ask for it, that’s low-key PR working exactly as it should.
Bottom Line:
Chris Aubeeluck, Head of Sales and Marketing at Osbornes Law, offers this insight: “If you’re in PPC, SaaS, or digital marketing, you’ve got two options: yell like everyone else, or build quietly and become the one they trust. The professionals who truly stand out over time are those who consistently show up to help, rather than sell. When you quietly share insights, solve real problems, and become part of the community, people remember that.”
The bottom line is, low-key PR isn’t passive. It’s strategic. It’s winning trust at scale by staying useful without necessarily being loud.
For more tips on winning with PR, we invite you to read our guide on the power of PR in building strong community connections.
