After years in PR, one thing has become increasingly clear to me. Your message can be a strong one, but if it falls in the wrong outlet and isn’t tailored to targets reflective of a client’s core buyer persona, it will fall on deaf ears.
Too often, brands say we want to reach our buyer personas then follow it up with and we think we can achieve that with a feature in the Wall Street Journal. While the WSJ is a legacy name with gravitas, the truth is… your buyers are probably not reading it.
At the end of the day, buyer personas aren’t static profiles or neat demographic boxes. They’re people. Real ones. And people don’t live their lives inside media lists.
PR and marketing have evolved, and so have the audiences we’re trying to reach. Titles and age ranges are no longer enough. If you want to influence the right decision-makers, you have to understand how they move through the world, not just how they show up on a spreadsheet.
Take business executives between the ages of 35 and 50. On paper, that sounds straightforward. In reality, it’s anything but. These are people juggling demanding careers, families, and limited time. They’re consuming content on the go. In the car. At the gym. On early morning walks or late-night scrolls. Some are loyal listeners of golf or automotive podcasts. Others are deeply engaged in niche newsletters or long-form thought leadership that speaks to how they actually think, not just how they do business.
If your strategy assumes they’re all sitting down to read the same business publication every morning, you’re already missing them.
This is where PR and Marketing 2.0 really begins. Not with bigger reach, but with smarter reach.
The most effective strategies today are built on curiosity and backed by data. They ask different questions. Where does our audience spend their time when they’re not working? What topics do they choose when they’re in control of the content? Who do they trust enough to keep listening week after week?
When you start answering those questions, the channels often aren’t the obvious ones. A podcast appearance can outperform a major media hit. A niche community can drive more influence than a national headline. A well-placed story in an unexpected environment can spark conversations that traditional PR never touches.
This doesn’t mean abandoning credibility or scale. It means redefining them.
Data plays a critical role here, not as a constraint but as a guide. Audience insights, engagement patterns, and performance metrics allow us to move past assumptions and make smarter creative choices. When you understand what actually resonates, creativity becomes more intentional and far more effective.
Tailored strategy is no longer optional. Broad, catch-all messaging doesn’t work in a world where attention is earned, not assumed. The brands that cut through are the ones willing to meet their audiences where they already are, with messages that feel considered, relevant, and human.
At its core, PR has always been about connection. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is how much effort it takes to truly earn it.
Reaching your buyer personas today requires more than visibility. It requires empathy, strategy, and the willingness to look beyond the obvious. The brands that get this right aren’t chasing attention. They’re building trust.
And in this era, trust is the most powerful form of influence there is.
