I was pretty close to buying AirPods.

Not because I specifically needed AirPods, but because everyone has them, I mean, that’s just what came to your mind when you need earbuds, right? Made sense at the time.

I watched YouTube reviews. A lot of them.

And they were fine, I guess, but most of it was just unboxing videos and spec comparisons, and none of it answered what I actually needed to know: how long do AirPods last?

Because where I am, spending that much on something that lasts two or three years makes no sense at all.

So I went back to Google. Typed something like “best budget earbuds ANC for work reddit” and found a thread about the Anker Soundcore R50i NC.

People in that thread kept saying the same thing. The noise cancellation is surprisingly solid for the price, especially sitting at a desk for 3-4 hours. That was it.

I bought them the next day and saved something close to $150, maybe more, compared to what I was about to spend.

And nobody from Anker was even in that thread. No ad, no brand account replying with a discount code, not a carefully produced piece of sponsored content with a UTM link somewhere.

Just someone who owned the earbuds, writing a few sentences about what the ANC was actually like day to day.

Turns out I’m not the only one doing this.

Reddit and WPP Media just released research on exactly this behavior.

1 in 3 Reddit users go there specifically to research something before they buy. And 77% of them check two or more communities to validate what they’re about to buy.

That is not lazy scrolling. That’s someone who already wants to buy and is looking for one real signal before they do.

And here’s another part that surprised me a bit when I read it: 58% of Redditors say that seeing a brand respond directly to a question in a thread increases their trust in that brand.

Not a campaign, just a reply to a real question someone already asked.

So if you’re just starting something and thinking your only options are Instagram posts or paid ads or trying to get a blog going, I get it. That’s what most advice points you toward first.

But the thing is, someone in your niche is probably on Reddit right now asking the exact question that what you sell actually answers.

And whoever shows up there with a useful, real reply is already building trust with that person, before they ever see your website, before they know your name, before you’ve even launched properly.

Find the subreddit where your future customers already hang out. You don’t have to post right away. Just read through the questions for a bit.

Cheers,

Minosh

P.S. Also, if you haven’t gotten your first customer yet, building trust on Reddit is actually step two. Step zero is here.