The Importance of Targeted Media Lists

By: Cole Purvis, PR Account Coordinator

Pitching media without a targeted approach dilutes the impact of messaging, which is why a well-constructed media list is invaluable for the everyday work of a PR professional. Targeted media lists help us identify the best outlets and contacts to share an organization’s messages, allowing us to speak directly to the people who need to hear them the most to increase awareness and understanding with the ultimate goal of ambassadorship.

When developing media lists, we use the following approach which helps ensure media relations efforts are efficient and effective.

1. Source the right media

We research and identify the media outlets your audience reads, watches, and listens to, from traditional media outlets, including print and broadcast, to nontraditional, including blogs and podcasts.

2. Identify best contacts

Next, we identify the people who write about the topics and trends your organization and SMEs can speak to, as they will have an affinity for the information we have to share.

3. Read what they write

We always stay up to date with what our contacts are covering. Knowing their interests, writing style and other nuances helps curate pitches, media alerts, and press releases to emulate their unique style and pique their interest to cover your brand. Additionally, staying current with coverage helps identify relevant and timely interview opportunities with SMEs, encouraging our contacts to keep in touch as they have a need for a resource.

4. Develop relationships

Last but certainly not least, the most important part of targeted media lists is creating and nurturing one-on-one relationships. Staying close to our connections lets us know of new roles, changes in the topics they cover, pitching preferences and other ever-evolving nuances of media relations. This ultimately helps us keep media lists current and accurate.

There are media databases to help with building and maintaining lists and media monitoring and clipping services, but these shouldn’t be put on autopilot. At &Barr, we customize our Media Relations Management (MRM) tool by adding media contact information and pitching notes that we use to maximize our media relations efforts. We invite you to contact us and explore how &Barr’s PR team can do the same for your organization.