Eric Siu and Neil Patel explain why clickbait fails in modern content marketing, especially for B2B. They stress viewer retention over flashy hooks, show how recurring sub-hooks keep people watching, and cite Eric's personal brand generating $10M annually as proof that substance beats hype.
Those people are looking for shortcuts in life and there aren't shortcuts. 2 things when it comes to content. The first one being clickbait. And if you look at most of the content that does well on the social web in today's world, it's people who aren't leveraging clickbait. But yet when marketers tend to create content, They all want to talk about like instant gratification headlines and ones that just are so bombtastic as I like calling them. And I'll give you an example of this. So I use some people that help me script out some of my social content and they create hooks for me. And I'm going to have a conversation with them today. And I just filmed 8 videos yesterday and I was recording some of this content and let's say one of the, videos was on LinkedIn, they would have sub-hooks. And the reason we do sub-hooks is, is if you look at most of the social platforms, the number one factor on how well your content does is the retention. So the more people that watch the whole video, the more likely they are to show everyone your content. The problem that you end up finding is, is if you do a hook at the beginning, you can draw people in, but after a minute or so, people lose attention and they start leaving. Which is why you want to continually have sub-hooks. So if you have a hook every minute, just general rule of thumb, it doesn't have to be, what you'll find is people will continually stick around with your video much longer and you'll do better. But the problem that a lot of marketers like doing with their sub-hooks is they use bombtastic language. So going back to the LinkedIn video I recorded, they kept using sub-hooks like, Now this next LinkedIn strategy is the real key to going viral. And then after you do that, and then the next hook will be, this is the number one mistake marketers make on LinkedIn. You have to avoid it at all costs. And they keep using these quote unquote bombtastic, as I like calling them, hooks. And I just hate it. And I think it's played out. Even if that tactic is the real tactic to go viral, or even if that tactic is the number one mistake that people make, Using hooks like that are just played out, and it may work well in the consumer world. It does terrible in the B2B world.
What we're doing now with our long-form YouTube videos— so we recorded in the same studio now, but I recorded for the first time last Saturday. It felt so good because it's just the old, old-school marketing headlines we have. Like, it could just be like the 10 Commandments of marketing or 7 new marketing tools that we have, right? And these videos start to do well, or we— I might have one on Oh, AI Agents, the Ultimate Beginner's Guide, which is like not bombastic. It's like stuff you would've seen 7 years ago or so. But these videos now, what I want to say, so clickbait doesn't work anymore, at least not for us. But what I will say, cuz people are tired of clickbait, right? But what's working is ultra high quality content. So we remember we talked about Chloe Shi, so she has a million followers now on Instagram and it's because everything's so highly edited, right? When I think about now, the videos you and I make, the concepts will come to us and you and I, I got this from you actually, we'll make a, I'll make like a 20 to 30 minute Loom talking about what I want to talk about and it'll be a screencast, right? And then now, then I use a teleprompter and then boom, what used to be a 5 minute video is now a 30 minute video.
Whoa.
I was like, I didn't even know I talked for 30 minutes, right? And then what used to be like 7 minutes is now like 45 minutes.
I was like, how?
Because we spend more time on it. It's everything now. The way to explode your social growth this year isn't to do the stupid hack or whatever. It's just to level up the quality to such an insane level because that's what everyone's doing. All right, so I wanted to take a moment to tell you about my podcast co-host Neil's agency called NP Digital, and they work with a whole host of global companies or global organization. Also, Neil has SEO tools such as Ubersuggest and AnswerThePublic. All you have to do is go to npdigital.com to learn more. And we'll see you on the other side.
Yeah, and dude, like I released a video the other day and it was on personal branding. And in the video I talk about how my personal brand generates $10 million a year and that's roughly what we generate each year from it. So then they ended up using the title in the video, how it generates $100 million a year, no joke. And I was like, where'd you guys get the $100 million a year? It was $10. So then I told them right away and then I like, screw this, I just changed it to $10 myself. The headline didn't perform as well. So then they changed it to like, the secret to building a $10 million personal brand. And I changed it. They wanted to use a number and I just put something that was more realistic. And my version was, because I break down how I did it. And I said, this is the blueprint I use to build a personal brand that generates $10 million a year. I'm not telling people they're going to generate $10 million a year. I'm not saying they're going to generate $100 or even $1. I'm just telling people this is the blueprint I use to grow my brand and this is how much I make and this is how it works. And even in that video I talk about, you know, or I've talked about in many videos, I don't know if I actually do it in that video, on how personal branding is not where it's at. I think you need to have a personal brand these days to separate yourself, but a corporate brand's more valuable. But I don't feel that was bombtastic. I just felt I was just telling the truth on here's just the blueprint I use, take it for what it is. And I don't care if I get half the amount of views. I don't want the views who are clicking on it because they want to make a $100 million personal brand. I don't want those people watching my content.
You know what's interesting? Finish your thought first.
Yeah, the reason I don't want them to watch my content is those people are looking for shortcuts in life and there aren't shortcuts.
But anyway, guys, hope you guys enjoyed that session. That is it for today. We're going to be recording in Miami using my DJI Osmo next week. Neil and I will be, and we'll see you in Miami.
