An old journalist friend of mine forwarded on an email she had received from another PR – the subject heading read "How to annoy a journalist on a hot day". She then described how the PR had sent her a press release full of information which had no relevance to her expertise or her editorial remit; things were not helped by the fact that the PR had adopted a slightly truculent tone in his email, asking if she could indicate exactly when the coverage would be appearing.
Her response was just a terse reply, along with a mental note to give a wide berth to any future communication from him. This is hardly the result that the PR had set out to achieve.
This scenario is sadly still all too common in PR – the importance of sending out relevant media messages to journalists that will engage with them will never go away. Relevance will always be fundamental to the success of any of these "sell in" dialogues. But it is as much about getting the right media exposure as it is about building relationships with the most important audience for PRs, apart from their clients of course – the media!
But PR is not the only area of marketing communications where the importance of conveying the right message to the right people is paramount. Whether you are carrying out digital marketing campaigns or generating content across a wide range of social media platforms, relevance is still a marketing fundamental for any success. There is simply no point investing the time and money in any marketing communications if you are not engaging with the right target audience with high quality content. Whether this is making sure that a press release about a new engineering product does not go to the email address of a lifestyle journalist or creating a website that will surpass the expectations of your customers to help you smash your sales targets, relevance plus quality content are the two key ingredients to ensuring that marketing messages hit the target and deliver the desired commercial results.