People Are Finding Websites Manipulative ft. David Mannheim
From From A to B by Shiva Manjunath
August 27, 2025 · 54 min · Season 3 · Episode 15
About this episode
The episode discusses the manipulative tactics used on websites and their impact on customer experience, featuring insights from 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…
People in this episode
Host: Shiva Manjunath
Guest: David Mannheim
Topics covered
- website manipulation
- marketing tactics
- customer experience
- popups
- long-term value
- sales metrics
Keywords
- manipulative websites
- marketing strategies
- customer experience
- popups
- long-term gains
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Made With Intent, LinkedIn
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