Vince Nero, Director of Content Marketing at BuzzStream, shares a clear (and slightly uncomfortable) truth: sending more pitches isn’t what’s driving results in digital PR anymore. In this episode of Digital PR Explained, he walks through the data behind BuzzStream’s “Spray and Pray” study and what millions of outreach emails reveal about what’s actually working today.
This conversation breaks down why smaller, more targeted media lists consistently outperform large-scale outreach and why “relevance” needs to go far beyond a journalist’s beat.
From understanding how specificity impacts performance to redefining what relationship-building actually looks like in practice, Vince offers a grounded, tactical look at how outreach needs to evolve.
In this episode, we discuss:
- What BuzzStream’s “Spray and Pray” study analyzed and why it matters
- Why campaigns sending 1–50 emails often outperform those sending 1,000+
- The difference between topical relevance and true hyper-relevance
- How to think about targeting across topic, geography, timing, and format
- What “relationship-building” actually looks like in pitching today
- Why broad, database-driven outreach is becoming less effective
- How expectations for coverage have shifted in recent years
About Vince Nero
Vince Nero is the Director of Content Marketing at BuzzStream, where he leads research and content focused on digital PR and outreach strategy. He also hosts the BuzzStream podcast, where he interviews PR professionals, SEOs, and journalists about what’s working in media relations today.
Links mentioned:
ListIQ
BuzzStream “Spray and Pray” study
BuzzStream Digital PR & Linkbuilding Podcast