Your Episode Titles Mislead More Than Inform | The Downside of Podcast Clickbait

Gaining listeners’ attention and retaining their interest is a constant challenge for podcasters. You need engaging content, a solid strategy, and a strong presence on social media to gain their listenership. This job isn’t easy – it requires immense attention to detail and adaptability, and with the mountain of pressure that comes with being a podcast creator, it’s understandable why some turn to clickbait titles to attract listeners. Here’s how you can avoid this fatal podcasting mistake:

Stop leading your listeners on…they deserve better

While effective in the short term for increasing initial listens, clickbait can significantly undermine the long-term success of a podcast. These types of titles promise sensational, or better yet, controversial content to lure unsuspecting listeners in. However, when listeners inevitably discover that the actual episode content doesn’t match the hyped-up title, disappointment ensues and listener retention drops. 

Something not enough people talk about in the podcasting world is trust: the element crucial for building audience loyalty. Trust is built by being an authentic and reliable host listeners can depend on for consistent content and quality, and clickbait titles are a sure fire way to lose trust with your audience. Listeners who feel misled or disappointed by clickbait titles are less likely to engage with future episodes or recommend the podcast to others. Building a loyal audience requires authenticity and transparency, not hype and mediocrity. 

If you’re looking for long-term audience growth, clickbait content is not the answer. Sure, it might boost downloads at first, but that initial success isn’t sustainable and often fails to translate into continuous audience growth. Sustained growth happens when a podcast is consistent, reliably entertaining, and delivers on its value promise.

Since word-of-mouth marketing is one of the oldest, yet most reliable tools to gain listeners, it’s important that podcast creators don’t misuse listener loyalty when they have it. If your listeners feel cheated or misled by your content, it’s almost guaranteed they won’t stick around for the long haul. 

How to avoid being a clickbait podcaster

Using clickbait titles in podcasting is a fantastic way to communicate to potential listeners that you, as a host, have little creativity and rely on shock value rather than authenticity. Instead of relying on clickbait, hosts should focus on creating compelling, informative, and engaging content and titles that accurately represent the value offered by their podcast. Clear, descriptive titles not only set the tone for what listeners can expect when tuning in, but also help attract the right audience who are genuinely interested in your topics, rather than one-time listeners. 

As you spend more time in the podcast world, you start to pick up on the patterns of clickbait podcasts. At first they start off as authentic creators, but when they don’t garner thousands of listeners right away, they tend to fall for the clickbait trap. Here’s how you can avoid falling for it too:

Be honest and accurate:

Ensure your episode titles accurately sum up the content discussed in each episode. Avoid sensationalizing or exaggerating a topic just to attract listeners. Additionally, avoid overusing exclamation points in the title – this screams clickbait. 

Focus on your value add:

Listeners are tuning in because they crave genuinely entertaining and valuable information. Always choose episode topics and titles that are relevant to your podcast’s niche. While you’re at it, focus on delivering the best content possible, making it insightful and informative. 

Avoid disappointing your audience:

Steer clear of using overly dramatic or sensationalized language in your titles. Otherwise, your show will start to sound like the girl who cried wolf, especially if you repeatedly use clickbait. Instead:

Use descriptive titles:

Ensure your titles are written so they clearly describe the main topics or themes discussed in the episode. Your title doesn’t have to encapsulate every single topic discussed, but should give listeners a good idea of what they can expect to hear. Keep it short and concise. Also, make sure to include the names of your guests in the titles or episode descriptions. For example, imagine you have a podcast about scuba diving and for this particular episode, you interview expert scuba instructor, John Doe. You talk about various topics like the most dangerous diving spots, common rookie mistakes, and starter scuba gear. A good title for this episode would look something like this: “Intro to Scuba with John Doe | Gear, Mistakes to Avoid, and Best Dives.” 

Prioritize long-term audience engagement:

Focus on building a loyal audience through consistent, high-quality content rather than short-term spikes in downloads. Sustainable growth comes from delivering episodes that keep your listeners engaged and coming back for more.

Keep up with listener feedback and analytics:

Doing so will help you to understand what episode titles and descriptions resonate the most with your audience. Use this data to refine your title creation process and improve how you use episode-specific keywords.

Lastly, stay transparent:

How you promote your podcast speaks volumes to the kind of content you create. Clickbait titles often indicate cheap content value. Keep your podcast’s information value high by representing it accurately!

Happy podcasting!