Can I use customer testimonials in a press release?

Yes, but the customer must consent in writing and the testimonial must be truthful + representative (FTC Endorsement Guides 16 CFR Part 255). If the customer received compensation or a discount in exchange for the quote, that "material connection" must be disclosed. For B2B testimonials, written consent on the customer's corporate email is the minimum standard.

How long should a press release be?

400-600 words for most product/business announcements. Public-company SEC filings or scientific announcements may run longer (800-1,000) to cover disclosure requirements. Anything beyond that usually loses the journalist by paragraph 3.

Can I use customer testimonials in a press release?

Yes, but the customer must consent in writing and the testimonial must be truthful + representative (FTC Endorsement Guides 16 CFR Part 255). If the customer received compensation or a discount in exchange for the quote, that "material connection" must be disclosed. For B2B testimonials, written consent on the customer's corporate email is the minimum standard.

How long should a press release be?

400-600 words for most product/business announcements. Public-company SEC filings or scientific announcements may run longer (800-1,000) to cover disclosure requirements. Anything beyond that usually loses the journalist by paragraph 3.

Press Release Template (Product Launch)

Standard product-launch press release — headline, dateline, lead, body, boilerplate, contact.

Customise

Release date

Embargo (or "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE")

Headline

Sub-headline

Dateline (City, ST)

Lead paragraph (who, what, when, where, why)

Body (2-4 paragraphs — supporting detail, quote, customer proof)

About [Company] (boilerplate)

Press contact name

Press contact role

Press contact email

Press contact phone

Live preview

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

EXAMPLE CO. LAUNCHES ATLAS, A NEW PLAIN-TEXT DOCUMENTATION PLATFORM FOR ENGINEERING TEAMS

Atlas turns scattered runbooks into a single searchable source of truth — open beta starts today.

PORTLAND, OR — May 23, 2026 — Example Co., a 32-person developer-tools company, today announced Atlas, a documentation platform purpose-built for engineering teams that hate writing wikis. Atlas indexes runbooks, RFCs, and code-comment annotations into a single searchable surface, available in open beta starting May 20, 2026.

Atlas addresses a problem familiar to most engineering organisations: documentation is everywhere and findable nowhere. Atlas's differentiator is a parser that reads markdown, code comments, ADRs, and runbook YAML as a unified graph — a developer searching for "deploy rollback" gets the runbook, the incident retros that referenced it, and the actual config commit, all in one result.

"We spent two years watching our own engineers re-derive the same answers because the existing tools made finding documentation harder than rewriting it," said Sam Rivera, CEO of Example Co. "Atlas exists because we built the tool we needed."

Atlas integrates with GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket; native Slack and Linear pickups roll out in Q3 2026. Open beta is free for teams under 25 engineers; paid tiers start at $12 per engineer per month at general availability.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

About Example Co.
Example Co. builds developer tools that help engineering teams move faster without losing the institutional memory that makes good engineering possible. Founded in 2022 and based in Portland, OR, the company is backed by leading seed investors and serves customers across North America and Europe. Learn more at example.com.

PRESS CONTACT
Alex Johnson, Head of Communications
press@example.com
(555) 010-2030

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About this template

A press release is the wire-service-formatted announcement that journalists scan to decide whether to cover a story. The conventions are old but unchanged: ALL-CAPS headline, sub-headline beneath it, dateline opener (CITY, ST — DATE —), the "5 W's" in the first paragraph (who, what, when, where, why), 2-3 body paragraphs with a quote and customer proof, a company boilerplate, a press-contact block, and "###" or "—30—" to mark the end. Length: 400-600 words. Avoid superlatives ("revolutionary", "groundbreaking") — they get the release deleted; let the facts and numbers speak. Public companies must comply with SEC Regulation FD (no selective disclosure) and PSLRA safe-harbor language for forward-looking statements.

When to use it

Product launch or new-feature announcement
Funding round / acquisition / leadership change
Partnership announcement
Industry award or recognition

What to include

Embargo line ("FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE" or "EMBARGOED UNTIL ...")
Headline (≤ 15 words) + sub-headline (≤ 30 words)
Dateline + ISO release date
Lead paragraph: 5 W's in one or two sentences
Body: 2-3 paragraphs supporting the news, at least one quote, ideally a customer / metric / proof point
Boilerplate "About [Company]" paragraph (re-usable across releases)
Press contact block (name, role, email, phone)
"###" or "—30—" end marker

Frequently asked

Wire services give you searchable indexing on Google News and press-aggregator pickups, but the cost ($500-$2,500 per release depending on geography) often outweighs the benefit for small B2B announcements. Direct pitches to 20-30 relevant journalists usually outperforms wire-only distribution for B2B. For consumer brands or public-company filings, wire services are still the default.

⚠ Legal disclaimer. This template is provided for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for legal advice from a qualified attorney. Always consult a licensed professional before using this document for any binding agreement.

Jurisdiction: United States — FTC Act §5 (15 USC §45) prohibits unfair or deceptive acts in commerce (substantiation requirement for product claims); FTC Endorsement Guides 16 CFR Part 255 (disclosure of material connections); SEC Regulation FD 17 CFR §243.100 (for public-company material announcements — selective disclosure prohibited); SEC Rule 10b-5 (anti-fraud, applies to public-company forward-looking statements with safe-harbor under PSLRA 15 USC §78u-5).

Last reviewed: 2026-05

Reviewed by ScoutMyTool — consult a licensed attorney for binding use.