Press Release Email Examples and Templates That You Can Use

What is a press release email and who do I send it to?

Press release emails are crafted for the attention of journalists/media outlets/social media influencers to inform a big audience of an important development that concerns your company. The essence of a press release email boils down to describing details of the news you want to share, and why you think more people should know about it.

A good rule of thumb would be sending it to your friendly journalists or influencers, who you’ve done previous business with and have a good relationship with. This way you know they’ll pay attention to your email, and you know they’ll be more inclined to share it.

However, if you don’t have any media contacts like that, don’t despair: all that means is that you’ll have to do some research, dig up relevant people in the field your press release is about and send them an email. It’s harder, but certainly not impossible. And when it works out, you WILL have friendly contacts for the future.

What should a press release email look like?

Assuming you are going down the road of cold outreach, writing to people you don’t know, putting together a well-designed email is paramount. It might make the difference between your press release getting published and getting archived. Or worse, landing in the spam folder.

Here are the most important things you should keep in mind.

Subject line

The essential part. Based on what you put into the subject line, a media contact will either open it or not.

In short, your subject line should contain the part which your media contact and outlet’s audience will find most useful. Why should they care about what you have to say? Does it solve some kind of problem? Does it come with an interesting experience? Is there a freebie or some kind of perk they might love?

Start by making your subject concise and interesting. Explain why something matters. Only then will your contact click to see what’s inside. And avoid going with the subject line “Press release about X company” at all costs. Journalists are busy folks with hundreds of emails per day: they won’t have the time to read your press release in the hope something useful resides inside.

Greeting

Using a person’s specific names plays a huge part: it increases open chances by 15%-35%. Starting with a name shows that you care, you’ve done your research, you know the person you are writing to. Not personally maybe, but by their work.

Introduction

A good way to introduce yourself is referencing the person you are writing to. If you’ve had precious contact, start by reminding them when and where it happened. If you didn’t meet/e-meet previously, then talk about their work, compliment it maybe.

“I’ve been reading your articles for a while now and just wanted to let you know how much I love them. In your recent piece you mentioned…”

Such an approach shows thought, research. You are not sending an email blast to anyone and everyone who might care: you’re approaching someone as a person, knowing exactly what they do, and explaining how your interests might align. More on that point, by the way…

Body

Here you progress from introduction (i.e. knowing why you contact someone) to how the topic is relevant to the recipient and their audience. A good idea is to include your press release here entirely, so that the media contact will be able to do a simple copy-and-paste. 

Remember to write it in an interesting — and concise — manner. So that you keep the journalist’s attention and give him only the info he and his audience will need and find interesting. In short, your body should answer the questions “Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?” That’s how journalists are taught to separate the newsworthy stuff from the white noise.

Closing part

This is where you add your contact details, for two reasons: 1) to show you are genuine, not a bot 2) to be on hand should the journalist or his editor have questions — or require additional info about your press release.

The press release itself

An optional part if you included it in your email body. However if you only presented the gist in 1-2 sentences — a perfectly valid approach to keep your email short — type up your press release in full below. Then your media contact will only have to copy and paste it.

Press release email templates (with examples)

Depending on what kind of news you want to get across, your press release emails will look different. The reason you are writing does not negate good rules of thumb discussed above: they are important and applicable for every email.

With that in mind, let’s get into it.

Product launch

• Subject line: it should attract your reader’s attention, possibly by stating why your product matters, how it helps others make life better.
• Embargo, if applicable: your news might not be for immediate distribution: if, for example, you are launching a new product and sending a press release about it with time to spare. If that’s the case, explain when the contents of your email can be published.
• Intro: how does your product help people? What features does it have? How is it better than what competitors offer?
• Body: that’s where you go into a little more detail about your product. Maybe describing some more features, pricing and any additional perks.
• Quotes: the kind of social proof to explain why your product is good for others. Quoting happy customers you tested your product/service on works like a charm here, but a couple of sentences from an industry expert or your CEO will do too.
• Sign-off: company’s contact details, with your own contact details too, in case questions arise.

Event

• Subject line: this is where you mention the event’s name and what makes it special.
• Important names: why should the audience care about this event? Who’s going to be there as a speaker/entertainer and why do they stand out?
• Details: the when, the where and the how of the event.
• Extra details: ticket and contact information.
• Quotes: some powerful one-liners from the entertainers/speakers/previous attendees.
• Company and your own information: essential info about the company hosting the event and the event’s history.

Research

• Subject line: most interesting stat from research.
• Information about study: who carried out the study and what were the parameters (e.g. sample size).
• Other key stats: add some other key numbers from your study, but keep the list civil in terms of length.
• Context: why was the study carried out? Why should the target audience care?
• Quotes: a place to share what researchers think about the study they conducted.
• Contact details: who the journalist should contact for a follow-up and general info on how to reach your company.

Collaboration

• Subject line: what makes the collab special and interesting.
• Main parties: which brands are involved.
• Lead: subject line re-write — why does this collab stand out?
• Body: extra details on parties involved: the value they bring and their philosophy.
• Quotes: good place to insert quotes from all parties about why they treasure this collab.
• Contact details: contact info for journalists to follow up.

Charity

• Subject line: what charitable cause do you pursue and why is it important?
• Lead: what makes the charitable cause special?
• Body: why does the company care about this cause? What made it go for it? What is their philosophy?
• Quotes: get quotes from someone from the company (preferably the CEO) and the charity itself.
• Contact details: how the journalist can follow up and add further value to the story.

Things to keep in mind when writing a press release email

Much like when designing your email sequence and creating an email marketing checklist to keep you on track, there are a few things you should pay attention to before sending a press release email to dozens, maybe hundreds, of contacts.

Don’t attach your press release as a separate file

There are 2 reasons why you shouldn’t: it will force your contact to take an extra step and it might mean your email ends up in spam.

An extra step is burdensome. Think of your contact as your customer: you want to make their experience as smooth as possible. One of the ways to do that is removing extra friction: and an email attachment represents that extra friction.

With spamming it’s even simpler. First, people are reluctant to open attachments — or click on links — sent to them by strangers. Such is the world we live in, it’s full of different kinds of fraud. 

Secondly, some inboxes are advanced enough to understand that attachments might represent danger to the recipient — especially if it’s a bulk email — and send such emails to spam automatically. The algorithm sometimes gets it wrong of course but do you want to take the risk with your email?

Make your email short

Well, that’s just simple email etiquette and respect for your contact. Journalists and influencers receive dozens of emails daily — and they still have a job to do outside answering emails. Getting to the point will show that you respect your reader’s valuable time.

You should answer three simple questions for them and cut the rest from your email:

1. Why you are emailing them.
2. How you offer benefits them and their audience.
3. How to contact you for clarification.

Time your email well

This means don’t send emails on the weekends — no surprises here — but also taking into account that open rates fluctuate during the week.

Research on the matter differs according to where you look, but most companies believe Tuesday and Thursday are the best days of the week, with the highest open rates. Research tells us the best time of the day to send your email: after lunch, between 12 noon and 9 p.m.

Avoid sending mass emails

We’ve touched on that before, actually: personalization matters. Why should your contact care about your news if they know this news is not exclusive to their publication?

It’s just bad manners, shows you haven’t done your research and underlines you don’t care if someone publishes it — as long as someone does. You can kiss a potential relationship with this publication goodbye.

Proofread your email for mistakes

Seems kinda obvious, so we are putting it last on our list. If your email is sloppy, full of errors, it will show lack of professionalism and cost you the reader’s interest. Mistakes divert people’s attention and stand out like a sore thumb. So make sure to carry out a simple spell check before hitting “send”.

Wrapping up

A press release is a way to share important info about your product with a wide target audience. Having your press release published in a major outlet will increase your visibility and get your point across.

However, first you’ll likely need to get the attention of the journalist/social media influencer you want to share your message with first. For that to happen, you’ll need to follow a certain email structure, keeping one thing in mind: your email should be interesting and concise.

Depending on the type of news you want to get out to the masses, the type of person you ask to do so will also vary. It can be an event you are promoting, a charitable cause, a collaboration, a launch of a new product or even a study.

Whichever type that is, think about your media contact and his/her audience, what’s interesting to them. And don’t forget to proofread your email before sending, drop any attachments, time it well and keep it personal — you should be well on your way then.