Clickbait.

(After this email on Monday):

As mentioned, I’m listening to a bunch of podcasts to see if I might reach out to be a guest.

One that I listened to was an episode titled “Marketing with no money: Smart strategies for small business growth” – the guest was the expert talking about those strategies… or at least that’s what the title would have you believe.

I don’t love slinging crap at people who are putting in the hours and doing what they believe is good work.

But stuff like this just annoys me.

The guest – I’m sure she’s very knowledgable – was due to appear on stage the hosts’ conference in a few weeks, so the interview was a teaser.

But they spent 30 minutes talking about how excited she was to bring those ideas to the conference, and didn’t hint at a single one during the interview.

I don’t have an issue with that in principle – it’s up to her what she shares or doesn’t even though it meant the interview was pretty flat… the issue I have is with the promise-mismatch in the title.

It mentioned “Smart Strategies”, yet the interview didn’t offer a hint of literally anything.

Had the title been this person came here for a chat rather than listen in for some smart strategies, at least it would have matched.

I’m sure this comes across as nitpicking… but picture the person with zero marketing dollars, who’s just landed on an episode that promises to give them something to work with, only to hear “Hey guess what – those marketing dollars you don’t have? You better find some, fly to Melbourne, buy a ticket and jump into this conference, because I’m really excited to tell you about some zero-cost strategies there”.

It’s bait and switch. For a listen.

There were other interviews like this inside the same podcast – the content was one thing, but the title promised something bigger. Not all of them – some were great – but lots pulled the switch-up.

My point is: Use your title to tell people what they’ll actually hear, not what you want them to think they’ll hear.

Trust is hard to earn; it takes months or years. A move like that destroys it instantly.