Since its inception 28 years ago, The Digital WOW has been fortunate to have leaders who understand what makes communication work. This month, we are celebrating one such leader. Five years ago, Laurel Drazen joined as Editor and head of content, and in that time she has changed how our clients speak to their audiences — addressing their needs with the right messaging, voice and tone.

With a background in education, product management and content marketing, her passion is quality content development and elevation.  You see her editorial finesse in everything we publish for our clients at The Digital WOW.

When Laurel looks back at her career, she recalls what marketing content formats consisted of in the mid-90s. PCS had just entered the workplace. Content formats were simpler and focused on websites, emails and newsletter communications to internal and external customers, vendors, channel partners and distributors. She was there when the first corporate websites went live and has been managing web content ever since. Laurel points out that today there are more platforms, content formats and distribution channels than anyone could have imagined back then. Each platform has its own methods and opportunities for  connecting with audiences. In her view, the work now depends on utilizing the latest technologies, testing results constantly, measuring what works, and being able to flex when needed to find the most-effective ways to communicate on behalf of our clients. What matters most is producing content that is relevant to their audiences and gets results — content that engages their customers’ needs and conveys how they solve those needs. 

Laurel carries this thinking into every client engagement here. She works with clients across many industries, learning who they are, who they serve, and what their customers need. Through Customer ID interviews, she listens to how clients talk about their work, then lets  their unique voice shine through the content they publish. She describes the goal as creating content that translates what our clients do into the language of their customers’ needs.

 "Everything else may change. The platforms, the formats, the tools we use to measure success. What never changes is understanding who you're talking to and what they actually need. If you're not relevant to them, they're gone. One click and you've lost them. They won't think twice about it. That was true when I started in 1995. It's true today. It will remain true no matter what technology comes next." — Laurel Drazen, Editor, The Digital WOW, Powered by ConsultPR.net 

After years of working within single organizations, she finds working in our digital marketing agency environment more stimulating and rewarding. Laurel truly enjoys working with our remote team spread across three continents. Much of her time goes to mentoring the writers here. Through collaborative editing sessions, she trains writers to hear and feel what they are writing to sense how a single word can shift the energy of a sentence or how one misplaced line can pull a reader off track.

Five years in, Laurel enjoys the ever-changing nature and innovation of digital marketing, new ways to apply her experience, and the opportunity to work with talented colleagues in a wonderful team culture. We're grateful for every insight, every edit, and every conversation she has brought to The Digital WOW.