The Pippin A-Z of Copywriting: Questions

Questions are a great tool for copywriters. Why? Because they make your reader interact with what you’ve written rather than passively absorbing it. In doing so, they become an active participant and more engaged. It means they’re more likely to read on and – ultimately – to buy from you.

Here are two types of question you can use in your copy.

Open questions that evoke curiosity

These are great for headlines because they’re encouraging your reader to read on.

How does your Christmas compare to everyone else’s?

What does your country eat on Christmas Day?

The only thing to bear in mind is that you must answer the question in your copy, otherwise you’re open to accusations of clickbait.

Closed questions you can only answer yes or no to

These are a great way to separate your readers into people who will be interested and will want to read on and people who won’t and therefore don’t need to.

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A word of warning: make sure the answer you want is obvious. You want there to be only two possible answers: yes or no. ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I’m not sure’ will lead your reader down a completely different train of thought where they’re more focused on thinking about their answer to your question than what you’re trying to say to them.

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