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It’s the final countdown ‘til launch.
Your brand-new product is ready to enter the market.
We just hope you didn’t forget to get your product launch press release ready.
Did you?
No worries, we’ve got you covered.
This article will help you understand:
Shall we get into it?
A product launch press release is a document published by the organization upon a new product launch. Its goal is to promote the launch as a newsworthy event and ensure optimal media coverage.
It’s super important to have one as part of your go-to-market strategy, and it should be on your product launch checklist.
You’ll see why in a bit.
Until then…
What better way to understand what a product launch press release is than by looking at an example?
Let's have a look at Adobe's Creative Cloud Express product launch press release, below.
Image Source: Adobe News
It starts with a short, fluff-free heading that contains the name of the product being launched.
Image Source: Adobe News
Next, highlighted in bold and italics, there's the USP (unique selling point) of the product and how it aligns with the brand identity and mission.
After that, the press release details the product features and the benefits that it offers consumers.
But why did Adobe write a press release?
How important is it to write one to announce a new product?
Read the following section to find out.
Creating and distributing a press release for your upcoming launch is essential because it can help you:
Let’s look at these benefits in detail and discover more reasons why you should get a well-structured pitch in place.
So, here’s how a product launch press release can help your business:
A press release is an easy way to communicate effectively with the business environment you operate in.
Pitching to publishers focused on your niche will facilitate an easy way to convey essential product information to customers, industry experts, and stakeholders.
Author’s Tip: Choose your publisher, blogger, or influencer wisely!
According to Fractl, 80% of publishers say that relevancy in their beat is an important criterion for accepting or declining a pitch.
If you don’t know how to pick the right publisher for your company’s news release, you can always search for a press release distribution service provider.
If done right, a product press release is more likely to get shares on social media, thus placing your new product in front of the eyes of a wide audience.
Thriveagency reveals three factors that impact the social media shareability of a press release, which include:
Moreover, social media shares will surely create a buzz around your brand, helping you increase awareness and get more followers on your social media channels, which brings us to the next point:
Those new followers can be your future customers, since 90% of consumers purchase products from the brands they’re following on social media.
Now that you know why you need to include this into your public relations (PR) strategy, take a look at what an effective press release should include.
Travel the world and the seven seas (or just surf the web a bit!) and you’ll see that great product press releases are made of these:
Here’s why every element outlined above is essential for an impactful press release.
Your brand's logo is the most recognizable brand identifier.
Did you know that 75% of consumers are able to identify a brand by its logo?
Placing the company logo in your press release will help make sure your product attracts the attention of the right audience.
Plus, utilizing your brand’s visual identifiers consistently can help you increase revenue by 23%.
Including your company's contact information in the press release will make it easy for interested people to reach out to you and ask questions about the new product.
Make sure to include relevant points of contact rather than your company’s general contact information.
In the Adobe example, we can see that the brand provides the contact information of PR staff.
As you know, timing is essential in PR.
Fractl says that morning to noon is the best time of the day to send your pitch, preferably at the beginning of the week — from Monday through Wednesday.
After your email is opened, the publisher needs to know what your intended publication date is.
By including a dateline in your press release, you’ll be able to ensure that everything goes as scheduled.
Adobe’s document, for example, has a “for immediate release” line in the PDF version of the press release that was probably sent to Adobe’s press contacts before being published on the company website.
Now let’s see what you need to include in terms of content.
First, you have to create an engaging, short headline that grabs the reader’s attention.
Your headline should let the audience know what they’re about to read.
Let’s take a look at Adobe’s example.
They chose a concise and straightforward heading that informs the reader about the content of the press release from the get-go.
After the headline, consider adding a sub-headline that gives more detail about the product to be announced.
Write about your product’s unique selling point and the benefits it can bring to your customers, like Adobe did here:
The first paragraph should contain all the key details about your product laid out in an engaging way.
The goal here is to make the reader interested to read your text.
In order to do so, you should include the most exciting features and benefits of your product right in the introduction.
After an eye-catching introduction, you need to maintain the reader’s interest throughout the press release body.
To do so, consider using bullet points to structure your important information in a scannable way.
Also, you would want to minimize technical details and focus more on how your product will help the customer.
Talk about benefits and advantages, and reiterate your USP.
Before closing, don’t forget to let the publishers know who you are and what you do.
To do so, you’ll need to include a boilerplate text towards the end of the press release.
Think of the boilerplate section as the “About Us” section on your website.
Only in this case, you’re telling the press about your company and what your brand stands for in a few sentences.
Finally, your work is pretty much done.
You only need to write a closing paragraph and you will have finished your press release.
Looking at the Adobe example again, we can see that their boilerplate also contains a call to action.
You can follow their example and include a CTA in your closing paragraph. This will help you prompt readers to take further action.
Do you want them to visit a landing page? Call you? Go to your website?
Whatever it is, you should mention it and make it easy for the reader to follow through with the CTA. Include the necessary links, phone numbers, and so on.
Now you know what to include in your product launch or event press release.
But before jumping into the press release writing process, you can draw inspiration from 8 of the best press release examples we have included below.
In this section, you can identify different structures and types of press releases published on a company’s website upon a new product launch.
You’ll get to see how other businesses announce a new service or product and build relationships with media outlets as a result.
Let’s see how the world’s most popular brands have announced their new product launches to the world through flawless press releases.
First, the king of press releases and product launches: Apple.
Image Source: Apple Newsroom
Take a look at the heading, first.
It conveys the main point of the press release and key features of the product that makes the reader want to dive in and learn more.
This example is filled with powerful words like "breakthrough", "innovation", "impressive", and so on, that make the consumer excited and curious.
What’s more, the sub-heading highlights the reasons why customers need this product. It portrays the USP.
Another important element in this example is the image.
In fact, images and videos are core elements of the most published press releases today.
In the following examples, you’ll see that not all brands use photos in their press releases. However, keep in mind that these are globally-established brands.
So, for a small business, a good-quality image placed in the right place within the press release can make a big difference.
Let’s see a similar pitch but without an image.
Just like Apple, Drift opens with a strong and attention-grabbing title.
Image Source: Drift Newsroom
A new era of sales? That sounds amazing!
Here we also have the benefits of the product right in the heading and further elaborated in the sub-heading.
After the strong introduction, Drift keeps readers on the page by using a scannable content structure with an ordered list, which is similar to using bullet points.
Image Source: Drift Newsroom
Next, we’ll dive into a more visual product launch press release by Nike.
This one kicks things up a notch.
Image Source: Nike
Unlike the other two examples, Nike prefers to keep text to a minimum and skips the sub-heading.
Instead, the brand goes straight into a product presentation video with bold colors and eye-catching effects.
This, plus the title that announces a data-driven shoe will surely make you wonder what this product is all about.
We’d say Nike did an amazing job at making sports footwear exciting.
But what about tech companies?
How do they manage to make technical products look fun?
Have a look at how Sony gears up their audience for the release of their newest product.
By now, we can see a trend where each brand begins the heading with its company name. Sony is no exception. Take a look.
Image Source: Sony
In this example, Sony also builds excitement around the product with words such as "world's first".
The introduction further sustains the claims made in the heading and subheading with more details about the product.
And since this is a very technical product, in the body we find tables with features and technical specifications, such as this one.
Image Source: Sony
Next, we’ll have a look at a good press release example published by Logitech.
This is how Logitech releases a new ergonomic computer mouse.
Image Source: Logitech
Here, right after the company name, Logitech states what’s in it for the customer: comfort with the new space-saving design.
The name of the product is written in the sub-heading, where another product benefit is listed.
Right after a compelling introduction, Logitech quotes some of its executives on why the product was designed and how it can make the life of the user easier.
So, a good placement for quotes in a press release is in the body, after the introduction. Every piece of important information should be as close to the beginning as possible.
Here’s another great press release example.
HP answers all the questions right in the header of the press release.
Image Source: HP
There are all the questions you should also aim to answer as close to the start as possible.
Now, let’s move on to the next example.
Tesla chooses a more simple and more straight-forward press release format.
Image Source: Tesla
Tesla doesn’t use big words and cuts right to the chase in the heading, nor does it use a subheading.
The introduction to the reader is short but doesn't fail to outline the essentials.
The body is where all the fun begins and the spotlight is shone on the features and benefits of the product.
Next, have a look at how Samsung spreads the word among news outlets about its new product release.
Unlike the previous examples, this press release headline doesn’t mention the brand’s name at all.
Image Source: Samsung
Instead, Samsung chose to place the name of the product in the heading together with the USP.
The name of the company appears in the sub-heading.
After that, we see a high-quality image of the product, followed by the introductory paragraph.
The introduction is centered around the user experience and product functionality.
With all these inspiring examples, you should be ready to start transforming your product launch into a news story with an awesome press release.
We totally understand that writing press releases for your upcoming launch might be quite challenging.
That’s why we’ve created a free product launch press release template to save you time and make your PR efforts a bit easier.
Our template contains all the essential press release elements you need to include in your document, such as:
Moreover, each press release component section is featured with adjustable fields so you can fill in your information.
For example, you have straightforward formulas for the heading and introduction.
Then, you have a body outline that serves as a roadmap for writing about your product in an easy-to-read manner.
In other words, you have a blueprint for an amazing press release.
It’s almost time to get to work.
Let’s wrap up.
We hope you’re feeling confident in your ability to create a perfect pitch that will get your product the attention it deserves.
With your launch approaching its deadline, we firmly believe that Viral Loops can help take the pressure off.
Don’t take our word for it!
We offer you a free demo to see for yourself.
Book a demo today and see how Viral Loops can help your business elevate its pre-launch and launch campaigns to the next level.
Written by:
Nik has launched products in many industries for himself and clients. He's responsible for growth at Viral Loops, and he has worked in marketing since he was 17. Passionate about applying psychology to marketing. Favorite number: 42. Let's connect on LinkedIn
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