To be honest, we all want our press releases to have an impact, right?. However, establishing accurate timing is an art, not a science. I recall the first time I sent out a news release for my own company. I pushed the “send” button on a Friday afternoon because I was eager to share the news. Ultimately, it was an unseasoned mistake! It vanished into the tin air and was no longer useful by Monday. That’s when I discovered the importance of time.
That is to say that press releases are a useful tactic for businesses looking to gain media attention, launch new products, or share important company news. However, much as with comedy, timing is everything. This is because the best press release in the world can fall flat if it appears in your inbox at the wrong time. As a result, relax and sit tight because in this article I will dig deeper into how to master the perfect timing for your press releases.
Key Takeaways
- The success of a press release heavily depends on when it’s sent. Press releases sent at suboptimal times risk being overlooked or ignored.
- Press releases sent at 9 a.m. Eastern Time often have the highest open rates, but this timing might not work for audiences in other regions. Adjust according to your target audience’s location.
- Major holidays and certain seasons can negatively impact press release effectiveness. Avoid sending press releases during holidays or weekends when people are less likely to be checking emails.
- While timing is crucial, successful press releases also require compelling content, strong headlines, and personal connections with journalists. Relationships with media contacts can boost the chances of your press release being noticed.
Understanding the Concept Of Timing
Timing is crucial. Just like you can’t sign up for an awards show after the ceremony and hope to have a shot, right? In essence, you must strike while the iron is hot and determine the optimal time. In the same way, this principle applies to almost every aspect of life, including press releases.
Think about this while you’re writing a press release. Your press release is intended for journalists, reporters, editors, and other industry experts who are likely to feature your announcement on their blogs, news sites, and journals.
This is to say that sending your press release too early means that most of these journalists will have forgotten about it by the time they need to cover it. Unless, of course, you have an embargo that prevents early release or you have a large enough reputation that everything you do is worth mentioning regardless of timing.
Now think about the other side of the coin. On the day your announced feature becomes available, you send out a press release. What do journalists intend to do? Their content calendars are most likely already full for the day. At best, you’ll get coverage tomorrow, losing the ideal opportunity. At worst, your email gets buried in an already overburdened inbox, and you are completely forgotten. In the end, everything comes down to timing. That poses the question of when is the right time.
The Best Time to Send a Press Release: Effective Tips
Here are my key considerations and tips for finalizing your press release distribution plan.
#1. Analyze Media Cycles
I realized that different industries have distinct rhythms. For example, timing is critical in the IT industry. During major technology events such as CES or Apple product debuts, everyone is talking about the latest gadgets. Sending a press release at these times is like shouting in a windstorm—you won’t be heard. Instead, I discovered that releasing news releases during quieter periods, such as a few weeks before a large event, often generates more attention.
Likewise the fashion industry, timing is also essential. If you’re launching a new collection, you wouldn’t want to compete with the excitement of Fashion Week. However, in off-peak seasons, a press release highlighting a one-of-a-kind fashion piece can attract journalist’s interest. I once advised a client to send out a press release about a new fashion line just after Fashion Week, when journalists were looking for fresh stories. It worked like a charm.
Therefore, understanding news cycles is the first step in identifying the optimum day to submit press releases. Daily newspapers publish information 24 hours a day, while digital media and television stations do the same. Nowadays, most news breaks on social media, particularly Twitter. And the word will propagate on other sites within the next hour.
So, depending on what your press release is announcing, examining these complex cycles can help you choose the optimum day to send it out. Also, think of how relevant your news is to the current cycle. Here are some essential questions to answer:
- What publications would be most likely to cover my release?
- What is the news cycle they follow?
- What is their target audience?
- What is the “newsworthiness” of my release?
#2. Tailoring Press Releases to Target Audiences
Another essential step to figuring out when to send a press release is understanding your target audience. This involves two questions:
- What are your audience’s main topics of interest?
- What are their media consumption patterns?
Take this example. Assume you’re sending out a press release to announce the introduction of a new app for tracking weather patterns in the Atlantic Ocean.
You could wish to target technology enthusiasts. Your release should concentrate on the mechanics of how your software operates. Meanwhile, climate activists would be more interested in what your weather data will show. In other words, analyzing your target audience will reveal their news consumption habits and, as a result, which publications to target.
#3. Time Zones and Geographical Considerations
I once put out a press release at 9 a.m. Pacific Time, believing it would be ideal for the West Coast. Unfortunately, my East Coast audience had moved on by then. So, when addressing national or international audiences, you must also consider time zone differences. This is why experts advise against releasing a press release in the afternoon—between 2 and 6 PM—because journalists will be winding up their workdays. Similarly, sending a press release after midnight or too early in the morning is not advisable.
Geographical considerations and time zones also play a role in determining the optimum day to send a press release. Imagine, the Breakfast time in Montreal is still near the middle of the night in Edmonton. Similarly, cultural and religious holidays should be considered depending on the country. For example, most Muslim countries observe their weekends on Thursdays and Fridays, so your release is less likely to be read on those days.
Also, detailed research into the demographics and preferences of journalists, bloggers, and influencers in your industry could help in this regard. For example, it wouldn’t make sense for a breaking news website to publish your press release about your weather app. However, a niche interest online magazine would be more likely to give you coverage. These factors can help you zero in on when to send a press release.
#4. Avoiding Busy News Periods
Ask any journalist, and they will agree that some days are busier than others. Major holidays, industry events, or competing high-profile news will most likely overshadow your press release, depending on its significance.
While it is impossible to forecast when breaking news will take center stage, there are several strategies for focusing on quieter moments when your release can benefit from increased awareness. You can use the following tools:
- Google Trends: Look up keyword phrases and identify their popularity. Access demographic data, related topics, and the volume of searches to identify low periods for certain subjects.
- Social media monitoring tools: Software like Hootsuite or Nexalogy can help you track social media trends, which, in turn, influence the news cycle.
- Trendhunter: Explore trends and categorize them based on popularity, freshness, and click-through rates.
#5. Morning vs. Afternoon Sends
It’s time to end the argument. Should you send out your press release in the morning or afternoon? Here is the answer, most experts believe that mornings are preferable. According to PR agency Prowly’s analysis of over 55,000 releases, the optimal time to send press release notifications was between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.
Furthermore, some statistics indicate that over 60% of journalists prefer to get pitches in the morning, 30% prefer afternoons, and the remainder prefer evenings.
Finally, late morning and early afternoon are statistically more beneficial than post-lunch or early morning. Of course, considerations such as the relationship with the editor and time zones must be considered when determining the optimum press release timetable.
#6. Days of the Week
When it comes to days of the week, most experts exclude the weekend. The analysis becomes more difficult when it comes to deciding which weekday to use. But, depending on who you ask, the optimum day of the week to send a press release is either Monday or sometime in the middle, such as Wednesday.
Also, it has been observed that the maximum number of views produced by a news release occurred between Tuesday and Thursday. This data shows that editors were most likely catching up on the previous week’s work on Mondays, and by Friday, their focus had switched to the weekend.
Other research evaluated emails and concluded that Monday was the greatest day to open cold emails, However, the highest reply rates were found to be on Wednesdays. Some important factors to consider when analyzing this data also include:
- The industry workload
- The availability of journalists
- Reader engagement patterns
#7. Seasonal Trends
Seasonal factors might also influence press release scheduling. Major holidays like as Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve are often inappropriate periods to send press releases since individuals are preoccupied with personal and family matters. I once made the mistake of sending a press release in the week between Christmas and New Year’s. It was a flop because most individuals were on vacation or were not in the mood for work. Instead, I discovered that issuing press releases right before or after a vacation can produce higher results because people are more inclined to check their emails and hunt for news.
#8. Leveraging Email Analytics
When creating your press release timeline, don’t overlook the significance of data. Email monitoring solutions, such as EmailAnalytics, or addons like Right Inbox, can help you collect information about when emails are opened, as well as engagement and reply rates.
In addition, analytics tools, such as the all-time favorite among data analysts, and an Excel spreadsheet, could be useful in making sense of all this information. Making data-driven observations makes it much easier to decide when to send out your press release.
You can always make reference to the checklist below,
The Best Time of Month to Send a Press Release
For the most part, week to week, factors are the same. It doesn’t matter all that much if you send your press release on Tuesday the 2nd or Tuesday the 27th.
There are a couple of reasons why you might want to pick a specific time in the month, though, and they largely revolve around other timing factors like,
- If your announcement is about something that will launch on the 1st of the month, sending your press release near the end of the previous month might be ideal.
- If you want to get coverage in a print journal that gets published on the first week of the month, you need to make sure your coverage is in by their deadline for story submissions, usually halfway through the previous month.
- If there are particular monthly happenings, like holidays or events taking place, you may want to schedule around them.
Generally, though, the time of the month isn’t nearly as important as the time of the week or the time of the day, which is why many studies don’t even consider it.
The Best Time of Year to Send a Press Release
The time of year is only important because of cultural happenings. They may or may not be important, depending on the nature of your press release. Of course, if you have months of lead time, you can pick the ideal timing for your announcement with quite a high degree of precision.
Consider:
- The end of the year is awash with holiday coverage from October on, with Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, New Year’s, and all of the other holidays celebrated around the world. It can be very packed.
- Seasonal changes, particularly dates like Memorial Day and Labor Day, can be crammed with seasonal announcements and might not be the ideal time for yours.
- Industry conferences, whether or not you attend them, impact the press of content on journalists. Best to avoid them if you can.
- Quarterly financial statements and other reports from businesses often get a lot of coverage, so those deadlines can be packed as well.
- Sending on a holiday, of course, is like delivering mail to a vacant address; your journalists are home with their families and won’t see your release for a day or more.
Generally, it’s best to pick a time that has as little going on as possible, simply to minimize how much competition your press release will have.
How Far in Advance to Send a Press Release
In general, the more lead time you can give to a story, the better a journalist can work it into their content schedule and give it the coverage it deserves. Two to three weeks is usually the sweet spot; it’s enough time for the future content calendar should be clear, but not so much time that it feels like “old news” and isn’t exciting.
This is partly determined by the scope of your coverage. The more reporters you send your press release to, the more time you need to ensure that all of those emails are delivered and all communications are in order. Embargos and timed drops must be synchronized as well. Remember that a shorter deadline can cause FOMO; no journalist wants to miss out on the chance to be the first to arrive at the party.
There is considerable variance here, of course. Print magazines may require far longer lead time, particularly if they are published quarterly. In contrast, if you’re trying to capitalize on a trending topic, you may not have much lead time; you need to get your release out as soon as possible before the trend fades.
When Should You Submit a Press Release?
Before anything else, you should decide how far in advance you’ll send your media release. It’s recommended to send the email a few days to a week before the event or announcement.
When not to Write a Press Release?
Something that is generating excitement internally may not do the same externally.
How Should Press Releases be Sent?
Conclusion
Finding the best timing for your press release involves meticulous planning and a thorough grasp of your business, target audience, and geographic location. By testing and using analytics to drive your plan, you can improve the chances of your press release being seen and having a long-lasting impact.
So, when you’re ready to make your next big news, remember that time is your best friend and can be your worst adversary. But, with the correct strategy, mentioned above I can assure you that your press release will reach the right people at the right time, resulting in increased media attention and economic success.
References
- newswire.ca
- newswirejet.com
- prfire.com
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