Timing Works in PR Announcements, And Here's How

My clients often ask: “when is the right time to announce my news?”?

There are a few general principles we are taught in PR 101:

1. Avoid Mondays and Fridays (more challenging days to get attention).
2. Don’t publish news on a weekend.
3. Avoid public holidays.
4. Preferably in the morning before reporters get knee-deep in covering stories of the day.
5. Avoid announcing the news on the same day as a breaking story.

So what’s left? After months of hard work leading up to the fundraising milestone, product, or corporate development, when can you make the actual announcement? While nothing is black and white, I would say that these principles have some merit and have been well applied throughout my work in Asia. Having worked on many press campaigns, timing and the actual meat of the content play a role in getting your story in the news.?

The sweet spot is to find a day and time when the news can get the most eyes without causing internal delays. For example, will the current timing cause a massive delay in releasing our next product? In Asia, I find that getting the news first thing out in the morning works well, as this is when people usually scan the news. This also provides enough time for reporters to cover the story throughout the day.

I’ve spoken to founders who believe there is no point in timing or delaying press releases; if it’s ready, let’s get it out, and we can move on. Playing devil’s advocate, when you spend months working on a product launch, will you push the product out to market if you’re ready, but the market is not??

There are a few exceptions to mention:

• Jeff Bezos / Jack Ma/ Bill Gates (or other high-profile investors) have invested in your company?
• You are Jeff Bezos / Jack Ma / Bill Gates (or of similar track record or level of reputation) starting a new venture?
• The news has been leaked to the press (at times, we do need to push out the news earlier than expected after weighing the pros and cons of what will happen if we do not)?

If there’s no pressing reason for getting it out on a Monday at 10pm while people are already offline, why don’t you wait until Tuesday morning when you will get the most eyes on the news and have higher chances of it getting picked up?

In 2022, we wrapped up a media campaign for a client's Series D announcement. The announcement was months in the making, from working closely with the co-founder and CEO on positioning and messaging for investors, employers, and talent, to developing local PR strategy across multiple markets to the actual execution. The timing was also critical to our success - the news was announced on Tuesday, August 30, at 9 am SGT.?

Our PR results included the following:

• 100+ articles published globally
• Article published in Bloomberg News terminal, live interview on Bloomberg? (despite not being a billion dollar valuation or deal)
• Feature interviews in TechCrunch, Nikkei, 36KR
• In one market alone, we picked up 10 investor leads from the news announcement

It’s worth noting that timing is not the only factor in ensuring your press release gets seen and picked up. Instead, it’s a confluence of factors, i.e., how well you know the reporter and what they cover, is the news even newsworthy, offering exclusives, previews, first interviews, etc. – which I’ll take a deeper dive into subsequent articles.

A press release can usually marinate for an extra day or two to achieve better coverage. Therefore, a discussion on the timing is worth considering even if the end decision is that we do not want to delay the news any further due to XYZ.

Are there other rules of thumb when it comes to PR announcements? Drop them in the comments below. If you want to discuss strategy for all things PR-related (press release and public relations), feel free to DM me.

Thanks Sainul Abudheen K for your editorial eye on this article. #publicrelations #technology #contentwriting #startups