Getting your first press release out takes 7 steps: confirm you have news, write the headline, draft the release, choose where it runs, request access, get approved and collect your live links. Most of the work is in steps 2 and 3. The rest takes little effort on your side.
1. Confirm you have news
A press release announces something that happened or is about to happen: a launch, a new location, a partnership, a key hire, a funding round, new research or an event. Small news counts if it's real and dated. A description of your services with nothing new in it doesn't.
Quick test. Finish this sentence with facts: “On [date], [company] [did something], so [a specific group] can now [do something new].” If every blank holds a fact, you have news. If the last blank says “learn more about us,” you have an ad.
For a made-up bike shop: “On October 6, Acme opens a second Denver shop, so riders on the south side can now get same-day repairs.” If you can't fill the blanks yet, wait until you can.
2. Write a headline that says what happened
A good headline names who did what, plus the detail that makes it matter. Lead with the company name and a plain verb such as opens, launches, hires or raises. Compare 2 versions:
- Vague: “Acme takes an exciting step forward”
- Specific: “Acme opens a second Denver shop with same-day bike repairs”
The second works for readers who have never heard of Acme, because it says what changed. Cut words like “innovative” and “leading” unless you can prove them.
If you get stuck, a free press release headline generator can give you a few angles to react to. It asks for the announcement in a sentence or two, with the hook and any numbers, so you can paste in the sentence from your news test. Keep the version closest to your facts and drop any word you can't back up.
3. Write the release in the standard order
Releases follow a fixed order, so editors know where to look:
| Part | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Headline | Who did what, in a single line, plus an optional subheadline with a second fact. |
| Dateline | The city and date that open the first paragraph, for example DENVER, Colorado, October 6, 2026. |
| Lead | The whole announcement in a sentence or two: who, what, when, where and why. |
| Body | Short paragraphs on how it works, who it's for, price and availability. |
| Quote | A named person with their real job title, explaining why the news matters. |
| Boilerplate | A short “About” paragraph: what the company does, where it's based and its website. |
| Media contact | A name and an email address someone actually checks. |
Spend most of your effort on the lead. Purdue OWL's guide to writing news leads puts a typical lead at 25 to 30 words and says it should rarely be more than 40. Hold your release to the same limit.
For the bike shop: “Acme, an independent Denver bike shop, opens its second location on October 6 and adds same-day repairs for commuters and weekend riders.” That's 22 words, and a reader who stops there still knows the news.
Give the quote a job. “We're thrilled to announce” tells nobody anything. An owner explaining why they chose the new neighborhood, or what customers kept asking for, is worth keeping.
Add a sharp photo you have the rights to, and link to the page a reader would visit next, such as the booking page. Then run the draft through the pre-send press release checklist to catch wrong dates and broken links before they're copied to 100+ sites.
4. Choose where it goes
Pick the reach after the release is written, since the story tells you who needs to see it. Prices are one-time, per release, with no subscription:
- Quick Start, $15. 100+ outlets, images and links included, and a live-link delivery report. Enough for a first release or routine company news.
- Wider Reach, $29. 300+ outlets, 1 premium outlet included, a same-day processing target and a full publication report. For news that matters beyond a single city or industry.
- Full Zen, $149. All 7 premium outlets on top of the 300+ network, an audio distribution option and a white-label report. For major launches, or agencies reporting to a client.
- A single premium outlet, $20 to $80. For a story aimed at a specific audience, such as TheStreet ($30) for markets and personal finance or Nikkei ($80) for business news with an Asia angle. Spotify ($20) turns the release into audio for podcast listeners, with no written article.
If you're torn between 2 of them, read how to choose the right press release package. When in doubt, start with Quick Start and go bigger once you've seen a report.
5. Request access
Sign-ups are invite-only or by approval, so your next step is a short request on the get started page. The form asks for:
- your name, email and company
- the packages or single premium outlets you're interested in (optional, with an “I'll decide later” choice)
- a short message on what you want to announce and when
The team reviews every request and replies by email, usually within a few hours. If you want Wider Reach, say which premium outlet you'd like; availability is confirmed before you pay. Existing clients log in on the same page.
Tip. In your message, be specific about what you want to announce. “A launch release for our invoicing app, aimed at US freelancers, going out next Tuesday on Wider Reach” tells the team far more than “press release.” If you're an agency planning regular volume, say so here too.
6. Get approved
With access approved, you send in the release and it goes through editorial review. The guidelines for distributing a press release with PR Zen are more flexible than those of most services, so most releases are approved as submitted, typically within a few hours.
If something truly needs a fix, you get one clear note that says exactly what to change. Most fixes are small, like a link to back up a claim or the job title of the person quoted. Skim the editorial guidelines before you submit and you'll know what the review looks for.
Review applies to every package, and each publisher keeps its own rules on top of ours. You can usually edit a release until distribution starts, but not always after.
7. Get your report and live links
After approval, the release goes out to your package's network and any premium outlet you chose. When distribution is done, your report lists every live placement. On Full Zen it's white-label, so an agency can forward it to a client as it is.
Open a few links to check the photo and formatting came through, then add the best placements to your website's news page and share them where your customers follow you.
The report shows where your release went live, not what happens next. Nobody can guarantee traffic, rankings, pickup by journalists or mentions in AI answers. If search results are part of your plan, read what press releases do for your domain authority first.
First-timer mistakes to avoid
- Burying the news. If the announcement first appears in paragraph 3, after the company history, move it up to the lead.
- Writing link text for search engines. Use your company or product name as the link text and skip anchors like “best bike repair Denver.” Publishers can mark the links in a release as sponsored or nofollow, which is how Google's guidance on qualifying outbound links asks sites to flag paid placements. Google generally doesn't follow links marked that way.
- Linking to a page that isn't live yet. If the release points to a new product page, publish that page first and click every link before you submit.
- Skipping sign-off on quotes. Check names, titles and the exact wording with the people quoted. Once a release is live on many sites, a correction may not reach every copy.
- Using a photo you found online. Easy to download doesn't mean free to use, and material you have no rights to is one of the few things that stops a release.
