People Are Finding Websites Manipulative ft. David Mannheim

People are finding websites more and more manipulative. And we don't mean this word lightly.

Why is this the case? In large part, it's because of the shitty tactics people are using on sites. But really, it's because websites care far more about short term sales and metrics instead of focusing on LTV. And that leads to hacks, not long term gains.

Made With Intent released a REALLY great report which went into detail on this, and I had the man, myth, and legend David "Zedd" Mannheim on the pod to chop it up to discuss that report (among other things).

We got into:

- Why People Feel Like Websites are Manipulative

- How Popular 'Best Practice' Tactics Are Probably Hurting You Way More Than Helping

- Tips and Tricks on Maximizing Your Popups (WITH DATA)

Timestamps:

00:00 Episode Start

5:05  People Feel Websites Are Too Manipulative

11:12 Websites Seem to Prefer Sales Over CX

14:40 What Are Pop Ups Getting Wrong

19:02 Marketers Are More Focused On Numbers Than Humans

26:56 Does Social Proof Still Work In 2025

31:18 Scarcity Messaging

35:55 Discounting Isn’t A Strategy

42:02 Segmentation Is One Of The Most Important Things To Focus On

Go follow David Mannheim on LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidleemannheim/

Download the full report here (it's a REALLY good read):

https://www.madewithintent.ai/the-intent-gap-report

Also go follow Shiva Manjunath on LinkedIn: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/shiva-manjunath/⁠⁠

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