How to Send A Press Release in Media Relations

Create and send email press releases via Outreach

Whitney W. avatar
Written by Whitney W.
Updated this week

Welcome to your go-to guide to sending a Press Release within Media Relations. This article will walk you through the following:

If you'd like to learn more about all the features within Media Relations, check out our article on getting started performing media research in Meltwater’s Media Relations. We also have articles that touch on features such as searching for journalists, managing your media lists and newswires.


Send a Press Release

Before sending a release, make sure you have saved the journalists you'd like to reach out to within a media list.

Follow the steps outlined below on how to send a press release:

  • Go to Media Relations from the left-hand side navigation bar

  • Select Outreach

  • Start a new release via the purple Action button (if you do not see this, check your user settings to make sure you're set up as with an administrator role)

  • Select Create outreach

If you are presented with a pop-up to 'Set Up Email', you will first need to add your email address as an approved sender before composing your release. Learn more in this article here.

1. Select your Template. The dropdown list will include templates your team has previously saved, learn more about saving outreach templates below.

2. Select your email sender. If your desired sending address isn't on the list please refer to the 'Set Up Email' details above.

3. Add your media lists. This can be done via the dropdown list on the side or by typing in the name. You can also add email addresses directly.

4. Format your release. We recommend writing this in a Word document first and then copy/paste into this window. You can even duplicate this release later to use the same formatting again for future releases.

If you'd like assistance in formatting your press release template or design, please reach out to our team via Live Chat.

5. Send yourself a preview

6. Once you've completed editing the release, follow the distribution buttons in the bottom right to either Send later by selecting a schedule date and time or Send now

Check out this short video overview of how to use Media Relations Outreach:


Save your Outreach Template

Make the layout of your release stand out and match your company's branding by saving templates.

  1. Go to Media Relations from the lefthand side navigation bar

  2. Select Outreach

  3. Start a new release via the purple Action button (if you do not see this, check your user settings to make sure you're set up as an administrator)

  4. Select Create outreach template

  5. Add a template name

To format the template content, utilize the toolbar at the top of the editing field to adjust your formatting features.

Note: If you have an existing release template in an editable format such as a Word doc, you can copy and paste all the images and formatting features in Meltwater.

  • If you'd like to further customize the design layout you can use our HTML editor. Learn more about the HTML editor in this guide here

  • Use the Send Preview button to test the layout in your email inbox

  • Select Save Changes

  • Select Done to close the editing window


Send a Release to One Journalist

When reviewing a journalist's profile or profile preview, simply click their email address or send email buttons to begin drafting an email. If you have email integration set up through Shared Inbox, the integrated email composer will open in lieu of the Outreach tool.


Formatting Tools

We offer the rich text editor to format text to better get the message to contacts. Add images/logos, bold, italicize, underline, hyperlink and list to your heart's content. Use the HTML button on the far right of the editor to take customization to the next level.

draft.png

To ensure that your email is ready-to-go, you will have the ability to send a test email to yourself before sending it to the journalist.

When using the Mail Merge

mceclip2.png

function to address a journalist by name, please note that the first name does not appear in the preview of outreach emails. The recipient portion of the preview will show [FIRST NAME APPEARS HERE], and once you send the final version to the journalist or media list, it will appear with their name first.


Scheduling, Drafts and Deleting Releases

These features are available on the Outreach tab within Media Relations, direct link here (link will only work if you have access).

Once you've started formatting your release, if you're not ready to send it the Send Later button in the bottom right corner allows you to save it as a draft or schedule for a later release.

Draft distributions can be opened by any of your colleagues who are also Meltwater users and used as a template design to be duplicated in the future. Within the list of all releases on the Outreach page, Drafts can be identified via the Status column or using the filter dropdown menu above the tick all checkbox.

Within Send Later, Schedule your release based on your timezone by selecting a send date on the calendar and the time.

Drafts and sent releases can be deleted from the list of all releases. When hovering over the distribution, select the drop-down menu icon and select Delete. This action will remove the record of the release from your view, please note that there isn't an option to revoke sent distributions from journalist's email inbox.


Email Limits

To prevent spam and increase your email open rate, we've set up some outbound requirements that will increase your overall outreach effectiveness. We have included in-app messaging on your Outreach page to let you know how many recipients you can send distributions to in a day.

  • A company cannot send to more than 1,000 recipients in a single distribution

  • A company cannot send to more than 1,000 recipients within a 24 hour period

    • This limit can be lifted with a relevant email upgrade. Reach out to your account representative for more information about outreach email upgrades.


💡 Tip

Need more help? Feel free to reach out to us via Live Chat or check out our Customer Community.

Find answers and get help from Meltwater Support and Community Experts.


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