The ‘Yes Game’: Justin Oberman on Mastering Copywriting Through Persuasion

In a recent LinkedIn post, Justin Oberman explores a fundamental yet challenging copywriting technique: mastering the art of persuasion by leading the reader toward agreement. Oberman frames this skill as the “hardest copywriting skill to master,” likening it to a child’s strategy for securing a treat before dinner.

Oberman introduces the concept with a relatable analogy:

Imagine you are a child who really, really wants a cookie before dinner. If you just run up to your mom and yell, “Can I have a cookie right now?” she will probably say, “No.” But what if you play a game called the “Yes Game” instead?

The “Yes Game,” as described by Oberman, involves a series of easy, leading questions designed to elicit positive affirmations. These questions, such as “Mom, do you love me?” or “Is today a really sunny day?”, gently guide the listener into a receptive state, making them more amenable to the subsequent, more significant request. Oberman explains the psychological principle at play: by accumulating “Yes” responses, the individual’s mindset shifts, increasing the probability of a favorable outcome for the main ask.

The ‘Yes Game’ in Copywriting

Translating this principle to copywriting, Justin Oberman argues that the “Yes Game” involves “stacking easy wins before you ask for the real thing.” This strategy aims to build momentum and agreement from the reader before presenting the core offer or call to action. However, Oberman points out the inherent difficulty in crafting questions or statements where the only logical answer is affirmative.

Beyond Affirmation: Presupposition as a Copywriting Tactic

While the “Yes Game” focuses on explicit agreement, Oberman suggests an even more potent, albeit more advanced, technique: eliminating the reader’s ability to disagree entirely. He advocates for replacing “Asserted Sentences” with “Presupposed Sentences” that spark curiosity.

Oberman uses a classic headline example from Max Sackheim to illustrate this distinction:

Asserted content is what the sentence claims. “Do You Make Mistakes In English?” Presupposed content contains information a reader must assume in order to make that claim at all. Do You Make THESE Mistakes In English?

According to Justin Oberman, the subtle addition of the word “these” transforms the headline. With the asserted version, a reader can simply answer “no” to themselves. However, the presupposed version, “Do You Make THESE Mistakes In English?”, forces the reader to acknowledge the potential existence of such mistakes and engage further to discover what they are. This technique, Oberman notes, “makes the mistakes already real” in the reader’s mind, compelling them to read on.

Crafting Presupposed Sentences

Justin Oberman outlines a method for identifying and transforming assertive sentences into presupposed ones. The key lies in negating the sentence; if the negation reads naturally, the original sentence is likely an assertion. To convert it, he advises making the subject specific using demonstrative determiners like “these” before posing the question.

Oberman contrasts two approaches:

• Assertive: “Do you struggle with productivity?” (Reader can easily say “no.”)
• Presupposed: “Which of these productivity traps do you fall into?” (The traps are implicitly presented as existing realities.)

He emphasizes that this technique is particularly effective for questions. While the “Yes Game” requires a series of warm-up questions, Oberman concludes by highlighting a more direct application of presupposition: “The kid who walks in and says ‘Mom, which cookie am I getting?’ skipped the vote entirely.” This points to the power of assuming agreement or a particular outcome to bypass the need for explicit consent.