What does it take to write in the health and wellness niche? I asked copywriter Kristen Driscoll about that on this 457th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast. The wellness niche is booming and now is the time for good copywriters to jump in. Want to know why? Click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript.

Stuff to check out:

Kristen’s LinkedIn

The Copywriter Club Facebook Group

The Copywriter Underground

Full Transcript:

Rob Marsh: Writing for the health and wellness industry takes a special set of skills. And that’s what we talking about today on The Copywriter Club Podcast.

One of the questions I get asked the most as a copywriting coach is which niche pays the most. I’m on the record as a big proponent of niching… our own research which you’ll find published on our blog shows that copywriters who write in a single niche make almost two times more than copywriters without a niche. And copywriters who are focused on 2-3 niches make 30% more than writers without a niche.

But not all niches are equal. Some niches pay more than others… the financial niche is one of those and we’ve published several episodes in the past talking about that niche… look for our interviews with Clayton Makepeace, Kyle Milligan, Jake Hoffberg and Ridge Abraham. Most of those episode are a few years old. Partly because of its reputation as a profitable niche, it’s hard to break into work with the high-paying financial publishers.

Another niche that is generally thought of as high-paying is the health and wellness niche, especially writers who work with supplement makers, fat loss products and medtech. So what do you need to know to break into this lucrative niche? I asked Kristen Driscoll, a health copywriter, to talk a bit about how she broke in and the work that she does. It’s a roadmap for your own path to success with wellness clients if you choose to follow it.

We talked about how Kristen found her first client in the niche, why she chose health as the industry she wanted to work in, and why wellness is a such a massive opportunity for writers today.

I think you’ll like this discussion that Kristen and I had so stick around.

Before we get to my interview with Kristen, this episode is brought to you by The Copywriter Underground. The Underground includes monthly coaching and expert workshops, an accountability group to keep you moving toward your goals, and more than 70 different workshops  to help you gain the skills and strategies you need to build your business. Recently I asked a new member why she joined the Underground and she said she did it for the copy reviews. She wanted feedback on her work to help her improve her writing. And where many writing coaches charge as much as $1500 to look at a single sales page, you can get unlimited reviews in The Underground for less than $90 a month. Honestly this just might be the best value in the copywriting world. You can learn more by visiting thecopywriterclub.com/tcu-2.

And now, my interview with Kristen Driscoll…

Hey, Kristen, welcome to the podcast. I am really excited to talk to you about how you became marketing strategist and a direct response copywriter for health and wellness brands and all of the things. So tell us your story.

Kristen Driscoll:  Well, thank you so much for having me on. I think, like many direct cop direct response copywriters and marketing folks… so that was my first career, and then I was a full time yoga teacher for 14 years, and still teach yoga. And also a lot of kind of some similarities there that I could draw upon with copywriting and getting started. So from moving on from copywriting or moving on from full time yoga teaching, is when I discovered copywriting and went full off the deep end and kind of immersed myself in in learning the craft, because it really is a craft, you know, some getting those principles down, I think, is key for a longevity of a career.

Rob Marsh: Let’s talk a little bit about what you did in the music industry. I know you got a couple of good stories, but, yeah, what were some of the bands that you helped promote? What were some of the things that you were doing to bring people in, you know, to the audiences, to the venues for all of these bands?

Kristen Driscoll:  Well, the very first, my very first job in the music industry was for an entertainment law firm, and that’s where I think I shared with you on one post. You know, there’s that question that goes around like, name one thing you’ve done that you’re sure that none of no other friends of yours has done. And one of the ones I example, I use in that a lot is that I am the witness on Deedee Ramone’s prenup.

Rob Marsh: This is awesome. This is such like if, if I, if that was me, that would be like the headline on my website. I would just that would be, probably has nothing to do with anything that I do, but I just think that’s such a cool thing about you. I love that.

Kristen Driscoll: Yeah, thanks. And it’s another example of you can really use a whole lot of fodder to get people’s attention, and sometimes the actual story behind it isn’t quite as glamorous as as as it can sound. But…

Rob Marsh: Well, let me stop you there, because tell the because I think this is actually a really good copywriting lesson. Tell the story like because you’re right, it’s just something that kind of happened, but then the headline is amazing, right?

Kristen Driscoll: So really it was nothing much more than I was in the right place at the right time, my assistant, the assistant to the lawyer, who was Dee. Dee’s lawyer, was out to lunch, and they needed somebody to pull into the conference room and be the signatory. So it really was kind of that, that simple. But then, when you know, know how to take just your, your own individual rich history, and pull out the little nuggets that are true, but will also, you know, get people’s attention and get get, uh, get the get the party started.

Rob Marsh: We’ll definitely dive into this a lot more when we’re talking about writing for health and wellness brands. Wellness brands. But to me, this is like one of the things that I really love about writing supplement copy, because you’re always looking for that one detail that you can pull out and build a story around, or that one little thing about it that nobody else is talking about, that you can you know, have be the mechanism, or have be that interest thing that pulls people in, and then it’s not, you know, usually the story is much bigger than that one small detail, but you’re looking like that’s, to me, that’s one of the main skill sets of writing supplement copy. So anyway, that’s, I kind of wanted to draw a line into that. Because I just think this is a key skill, and that story illustrates as well as anything else.

Kristen Driscoll: I think that’s a really great point, a really, really great example. And also, on the other end, knowing just how to tell a story that nobody else is telling, you know, you can go back to the Schlitz beer. You know, everybody was making the beer the same exact way, but just taking the time to stop and tell the story and romanticize it and use every possible thing that you have at your disposal.

Rob Marsh: So while we’re still talking about music, tell me a couple of your favorite bands that I should probably add to my listening list as I’m sitting down writing copy, what were some of the bands that you really loved promoting or loved listening to?

Kristen Driscoll: Sure, well, the one I’ll say, and I’ve never worked with him personally, but I get to see him often here in Austin, and more and more, he’s getting rightful attention as just one of the major lyricists. You know, people like to talk about Stephen King’s book on writing. Well, Stephen King just named James McMurtry as the number one lyricist like ever. So I think it’s like a master class in storytelling in like five minutes or less. And so many different examples you could pull from, you know, starting in the middle of the story, coming on with a lyric that just grabs you right from the beginning. There’s so many different examples of how to do it well, using picture words, you know, just one sentence that just sets this incredibly vivid scene. So I think we could go on for an hour on all the different ways that you could look at really great songwriters as master storytellers and paying attention to how they’re doing it.

Rob Marsh: Yeah, there are definitely copywriters who have, you know, come from the music industry or play around in the music industry. And that’s, I think, one of the things that sometimes makes them a little bit different. They’re really good at tempo, at, like you said, picture, words, or, you know, telling a story in a very simple way. So I’m adding James McMurtry to my Spotify list. And we’re done recording here. I’m gonna, I’ll be relaxing, you know, with the Coke Zero.

Kristen Driscoll: I think you can’t, you can’t go wrong. There’s just so many great examples there that you can pull from.

Rob Marsh: And then, after being in the music industry for a whil