Never Miss an Opportunity to Make Your Readers Feel Smart
I was on the Reader’s Digest site the other day, killing time, when I ran across an article titled:
12 Detective Riddles Only the Smartest People Can Solve
I’m always up for a challenge, so I read the 12 puzzles and solved them to the best of my ability.
But do you know what? They weren’t hard at all. Not even close. If the reader pays close attention, the answer is almost always right there in the riddle itself.
When I finished, I felt pretty darn smart. Then, because I live and breathe marketing, I realized what really happened:
They set me up to feel smart.
Imagine if the puzzles had been super difficult and I couldn’t have solved a single one. I might have gotten frustrated and closed the page.
But making them fun, interesting and only moderately difficult at most, I enjoyed the experience. I wanted to read something else on the site, to continue the good feeling.
And I wanted to share the fun on social media, too, to see how well my friends would do.
Whenever you get the chance, be sure to let your readers and customers know just how smart they really are. We all love a chance to shine and feel proud of ourselves, no matter how seemingly small the accomplishment might be.
Want to see the riddles for yourself? Here they are: