When Madisen Petrosky joined Dittoe Public Relations in 2017, she shared she would be happy to review any content anyone wrote if they needed a second set of eyes on it. She jokingly called herself Dittoe PR’s editor so often that others picked it up, too. As she wrote more and more content over the years, she jokingly referred to herself as Dittoe PR’s resident writer. Then everyone else did, too. And then it became her official job.
As Senior Content Specialist, Madisen writes creative, focused content that supports all of the agency’s clients, supports Dittoe PR’s digital marketing efforts, and generally keeps everyone updated on the latest AP Style changes. When she’s not writing for Dittoe PR, she’s writing short stories, four of which have been published.
With AI (trying to) give writers a run for their money and the ever-changing nature of client content needs, we asked Madisen about her role, her writing process, and the trends she sees shaping PR writing.
Q: Can you share a bit about your background and how you got into content writing?
A: I’ve always been a writer in some capacity, though it took me until my 30s to call myself one. I majored in English Literature in college before beginning my career in nonprofit marketing. After four years of manning social media, websites, email marketing and a whole slew of donor communications, I made the move to PR where I could flex different writing skills. This includes (but certainly isn’t limited to) succinct but catchy email pitches, complicated and technical bylines, comprehensive website copy, and award nominations highlighting clients’ work to earn them the recognition they deserve.
The constant throughline these past 10+ years of my career has been writing content. Without it, none of the above is possible. With it, you can inspire people to support causes they care about, grow a loyal following, and share your unique story with the world.
Q: How do you approach creating content for different types of clients and industries?
A: I work backward:
1. What’s the end goal of this piece of content? Is it to receive an award? Be regarded as an industry thought leader? Respond to my email?
2. Then, I identify what information I need to be able to write toward that goal and support it (statistics, quotes, etc.).
3. Finally, I outline, usually by hand. I begin nearly every piece of content I write for a client with an outline. It helps me identify the key points in the piece to ensure I reach the intended conclusion.
Q: How do you collaborate with clients to ensure their voice and tone are reflected in the content?
A: It’s really important to hear how clients talk about themselves. It’s helpful to have examples of their existing content that represent their voice, such as style guides, websites, articles, etc. What I really love, though, is having a conversation with the client to hear how they interpret their brand. Sometimes, how a client talks about their brand differs from the brand’s official voice, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just means we need to find the right bridge between the two to be authentic and on-brand.
Q: What is your favorite type of content to write and why?
A: Award nominations, 100%. A lot of longer-form content we draft for clients has to be vendor-neutral and non-promotional, i.e., it can’t look like we’re pushing a product or service when we’re supposed to be conveying industry expertise. Awards are where you can throw all that neutrality out the window and really brag about your clients and the cool things they do. Clients can be humble and don’t want to appear like they’re bragging, so I’m more than happy to do it for them.
I also like writing creative, outside-the-box content and longer-form narratives like annual reports.
Q: Can you tell us about a project or a piece of content you are particularly proud of and why?
A: Any award nomination that results in a client winning that award will see me beaming with pride. You don’t always have a lot of room in an award nomination, so I love the challenge of conveying the client’s award-worthy accomplishments in 250 words or less.
I’ve also been able to write some really punny and irreverent content for client press releases this year that have been a blast. It’s not every day that watching “Super Troopers” for inspiration counts as work!
Q: What are your top tips for creating compelling and effective content?
A: Lately, my favorite piece of writing advice to give out is: “If it’s boring to write, it’s boring to read.” Business writing and press releases can be formulaic, but that doesn’t mean they have to be dull. Humanize them.
Also important: “You can’t edit a blank page.” You don’t know if the content is compelling or effective if it doesn’t exist. Getting the process started can be difficult when that blank page is staring you down, but until you start drafting the copy, you have nothing to work with.
Q: What tools or resources do you find indispensable in your writing process?
A: Editors! I may be writing in first-person in this Q&A, but I don’t create any content alone. Before I ever send a piece of content to a client for review, it’s been through at least one round of internal edits to ensure it makes sense, reads well and is free of errors. There will be more rounds of edits if the topic is complicated or we need to nail down the goal or voice, but anything a client sees will have had internal sign-off.
Q: How do you handle writer’s block or periods of low creativity?
A: I go for a walk. Sitting at a desk for eight hours aids productivity, but not creativity. If I’m stuck staring at that blank page at a loss for how to start or what to say, I get up and go for a walk around my neighborhood. It takes about 35-40 minutes depending on how fast I walk, and by the time I’m home, the writer’s block clouds have parted and I can get to work.
I also like writing in a notebook by hand. Starting outlines on physical paper helps me see what I’m going for at a high level, and I can get the initial jumble of thoughts out into some kind of an order.
Q: What trends do you see shaping the future of content writing and digital marketing?
A: Artificial intelligence, of course. AI is the next big thing in the future of most industries. I think it’s hitting copy- and word-based industries and tasks hardest first because of natural language processing (NLP) and large language models (LLM). The ability for computers to read and understand human language rather than 1s and 0s and be able to comprehensively say it back to us has really accelerated everyday AI usage.
These tools can be incredibly helpful for parsing, measuring and summarizing large amounts of data or generating straightforward, understandable responses to questions. But here’s the thing: they can’t do it alone. Without the data AI is pulling from, it doesn’t know what words to put next in a row to make a comprehensive answer. It can’t generate something from nothing. Humans can.
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