How I Learned to Write for My Niche

For the 59th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, in-house copywriter and creator of The Headline Project, Justin Blackman, is in the house to share how writing 100 headlines a day for 100 days changed his writing and his business. (We recorded this one a couple of months ago and are just getting around to publishing it now—apologies Justin.) In this episode Justin shares: •  his path from sports and field marketer to copywriter •  what his job as an in-house copywriter involves from one day to the next •  why he started a side gig as an outlet for his creativity •  how Shel Silverstein helped launch his first side gig—try, fly or walk away •  why more copywriters should consider in-house gigs instead of freelancing •  what in-house copywriters can expect to make (yep, we asked this question) •  what made Justin decide to write 100 headlines in 100 days •  some of the “tricks” he used for brainstorming to stay prolific •  how his “creativity muscle” grew as he did the work every day •  how he found motivation from the people he said he couldn’t do it •  how the Headline Project has helped him grow his business and list Plus we asked Justin how in the world he balances his work along with his side projects with his family duties, and we asked his advice on what copywriters should do to move their own businesses forward. To hear his answers, click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript.   The people and stuff we mentioned on the show: The Copywriter Accelerator PT Barnum Bill Veeck Lianna Patch Copyhackers Shel Silverstein Hippo’s Hope The Headline Project Laura Belgray Tackle Your Tagline cheatsheet Joel Klettke PrettyFlyCopy.com Justin’s Twitter Kira’s website Rob’s website The Copywriter Club Facebook Group Intro: Content (for now) Outro: Gravity   Full Transcript: Rob: What if you could hang out with seriously talented copywriters and other experts, ask them about their successes and failures, their work processes, and their habits, then steal an idea or two to inspire your own work? That’s what Kira and I do every week at The Copywriter Club Podcast. Kira: You’re invited to join the Club for episode 59, as we talk with copywriter Justin Blackman about his journey from marketing manager for companies like Red Bull and Five Hour Energy to copywriter and content manager, what it’s like as an in-house copywriter, balancing in-house work with freelance work and a family, and what he’s learned from his 100 day headline project. Kira: Justin, welcome! Justin: Hi! Kira: Thanks for being here. We’ve had a chance to get to know you better in The Copywriter Club and The Copywriter Accelerator and I think it’d be really fun to just start with your story and maybe parts of your story that we don’t know, specifically how you went from sports marketing to content creator to copywriter. So, can you share that path with us? Justin: Yeah! It’s kinda one of these paths that seemed obvious to everyone but me. I went to U Mass for sports marketing, mostly because I wanted to work for the New York Rangers, which was pretty “high school” of me but I had a good time there and learned a lot. The biggest change was that I had one professor there that talked about P.T. Barnum and Bill Veeck, who was a baseball promoter—he owned the Chicago White Sox and the Cleveland Indians—and really, focused more on big-time promotion and making the game fun. And these guys didn’t sit in the skybox, they were down in the cheap seats with the bleacher creatures and just having fun and talking to the people. So, I realized pretty quickly that as much as I love sports marketing, it was more the marketing side that I liked, and that branched me into field marketing. And field marketing is essentially a fancy way of saying “consumer sampling”. So, anytime you go somewhere and they’re handing out different promotional items—could be drinks, or Chapstick, or anything if you’re going to a concert or even just walking through the street and they’re handing out different items, that’s field marketing. I was super fortunate to land jobs with companies that understood field marketing for the right reasons. It wasn’t just about getting people to try out your product, it was really more about getting the chance to explain your product to people. So, I worked for Plymouth for a bit and that was geared toward running shoes. We went to long distance runners and marathons and really got a chance to spend a lot of time talking about the products with people. And I just knew that that’s what I really wanted to do. I love talking to people, I love getting the feedback, I love just finding ways and hooks to talk to people. That would end up leading to Red Bull, which is pretty much the ultimate field marketer in the entire world. Absolutely amazing brand, fantastic product, and they didn’t just hire college kids to go out and hand out cans and I know that that’s what it can look like from the outside, and they actually do a little bit more of that now, but when I was there, it was all about the right message, the right person, the right time, and really building their brand through one-on-one communication. And they didn’t care if one single interaction took 45 minutes—if that’s what it took to get a customer, that’s what you did! I had a fantastic time doing that, which is where i learned a little bit about improv training, which I know you’ve had other writers talk about that. Lianna Patch, specifically, just being able to think on your feet, and as I was managing that team, I was in Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina, and I was running the Red Bull team there, I was noticing that essentially what a lot of the team would be doing is they would be talking about what’s written on the can. And it would have things on the back and it would say like, “It stimulates your metabolism.” So, after lunch, we’d be going around and saying, “You’re going to want to drink this now because it’ll stimulate your metabolism!” The average consumer had absolutely no idea what that meant, so we kind of followed it out by saying, it basically means you’re not going to get a food coma after you eat. And they’re like, OH! Great! Fantastic! I always get that. Yeah, I’ll try it. So I created a training program that took a few months to develop—we called it Cause and Effect, where we’d always say this will cause your metabolism to stimulate so you won’t get a food coma after lunch. Looking at it now, I can clearly see that that’s benefits over features, but I didn’t know that because I wasn’t studying copywriting at the time. It was just something that I kind of developed and ended up creating a national program out of it, so I did really well there. 5 Hour Energy was pretty much the next step for people that got too old to work for Red Bull. It’s essentially the same product, but without the branding. And a lot smaller. But, it was kind of like home, though. Everyone at 5 Hour were former Red Bull people, so it was a natural fit. Continued on with that, and after 5 Hour, I was kinda out of work for a little bit and I said you know, I understand field marketing and I get this and this is probably what I should do—I’m gonna give it a go! So I created my own business and I must’ve spent 3 months figuring out how to build a website, and discovered Copyhackers, and just fell down the rabbit hole. I was like, this is what I want to do! But, the problem was, I spent so much time reading and learning and building out my website that I never actually marketed myself, and ran out of money real fast. So, wound up looking around and landed with IHG, and they were looking for someone in content. I went in for a few interviews and really connected with the boss, because we were just talking about writing in general and she was a former newspaper editor and magazine editor and just were talking about content and really it it off and I’ve been there ever since! Rob: So Justin, I gotta know—did you get to drive the car with the big can of Red Bull on top of it? Justin: Yeah, I did! It was fun, man! Mini Coopers are small, and when they have a big can on the back, they’re not very aerodynamic. Rob: Everybody’s seen the car, that’s for sure. Kira: I actually tried out—or auditioned? I feel like you have to audition to work with Red Bull—in college, and I got rejected! So I don’t drink Red Bull because of that. (laughs) Justin: (laughs) I understand! That’s the kind of lasting impression we want to have! Kira: Okay, so now that you are in your current job, what are you focused on there? What’s your day to day like now? Justin: Well, I’m a content manager for loyalty and partnership. So, IHG Rewards Club, just the general loyalty club, the points running program about reward nights, and all the things that you can earn. I create a lot of the content for that. And that could be anything from blog posts to email to the merchandising and banners that you see on the web. We have a lot of industry jargon for it and a lot of acronyms. Essentially, I talk about points a lot. Yeah, I put out a lot of emails. We’ve got a list of over 7 millions people that we can reach with a single email and that’s kind of intimidating but I do get to write out to them. Kira: Wow, no pressure. Justin: Yeah, no pressure. I’m very happy that the first time I wrote an email that went out to the full list, I didn’t know. Kira: (laughs) So, I want to back up a bit. You mentioned that you know, after your field marketing jobs, you were out of work for a little bit and created your own business, ran out of money... What did that time really look like? Why didn’t it work? Was it just in retrospect you realized, Oh, I should’ve been marketing and when I was in it, I didn’t realize it was important?