Are you relevant?

When it comes to ranting about poorly targeted PR I've said it all before. But you know what, I don't care; I'm going to say it again because it's important - BE RELEVANT TO YOUR AUDIENCE!

Over the past few weeks I've taken several calls from PR people pitching me stories which are in no way relevant to what I write about; small businesses. Among the subjects have been an invite to the launch of a new CSR strategy by sports brand Puma, an article on large corporate M&As and an acquisition story involving 'Europe's largest virtualisation firm'. See why I'm ranting?!

I'm not along in my frustration. For one group, irrelevant PR spam has got so bad that they've compared it to the impact on the planet of global warming:

And earlier this week at an event I spoke at, former Dragons' Den panellist Doug Richard said:

So what has all this got to do with you, the entrepreneur, running a small company?

Lots!

If you're not relevant with your marketing, your sales call or in any other way you communicate to your existing and potential customers, you risk damaging your brand.

Vital to the success of any company - no matter what the size - is understanding exactly the wants and needs of your audience. You need to get under their skin, live in their community and grasp what it is that makes them tick. Spamming an email list with the same message in the vain hope that one or two might bite just doesn't work. It leaves people - in my case an annoyed small business journalist - angry and frustrated and prone to writing angry blog posts!

So before you hit that send button or pick up that phone, think about who will be reading your email or answering your call. Do you know that they will be interested in what you have to offer? Is it relevant to their life in any way? If you don't know the answer, stop typing or put down the phone and jolly well work it out!