Newsworthy Reasons to Write a Press Release: Part 8: Financials
The opportunities to promote your organization and get your brand in front of a new audience of potential customers can be found by discovering newsworthy reasons to send a press release.
While there are many reasons organizations may (wisely) choose to send a press release – to share exciting company growth, shine a spotlight on employees, generate interest in an event – sometimes organizations need to send a press release out of obligation to a particular stakeholder. This is often the case when it comes to disclosing financial information.
Publicly held companies are required by the SEC to release their financial numbers every quarter – and issuing a press release is a fast, effective channel for such communication. But for privately held companies hoping to attract investors or file an Initial Public Offering (IPO), sending a press release with updates on your financial news can drive interest in the company.
6 Approaches to Sharing Financial News Via Press Release
1. Sharing impressive sales reports. While this isn’t a required disclosure, sharing a monthly sales result that was better than forecasted can generate interest and investment in your company.
Need an example? Look to these releases for guidance:
2. Announcing financial earnings results or forecasts. Public companies know this is an SEC-mandated disclosure. If your business is growing and considering filing an IPO, a positive forecast can drive up the IPO price.
Need an example? Look to these releases for guidance:
- Workday Announces Fiscal 2023 Third Quarter Financial Results
- DICK'S Sporting Goods Reports Record Third Quarter Sales; Delivers 6.5% Increase in Comparable Store Sales and Raises Full Year Guidance
3. Announcing an earnings call. In addition to putting it into writing, your company may consider inviting audiences to their earnings call, for an added layer of context and commentary. A press release is a great way to spread the word.
Need an example? Look to these releases for guidance:
- The Home Depot to Host Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call on November 15
- Dell Technologies Announces Third Quarter Fiscal 2023 Financial Results
4. Announcing a new investor. Hearing a trusted investor has bet on your company might attract other investors to do the same.
Need an example? Look to these releases for guidance:
- Daily Harvest Announces A-List Investors Dedicated to The Brands' Mission to Bring Healthy Food Directly to Consumers' Freezers
- Cboe Global Markets Finalizes Investor Partners for Cboe Digital Business
5. Issuing a letter to shareholders. Some companies’ annual shareholder letters are widely anticipated. Give yours a boost by sharing that it’s ready for primetime via a press release.
Need an example? Look to these releases for guidance:
6. Restructuring your business. Restructuring is a way to help your company clear the decks and find a path to a better future. Current and prospective investors want to hear this news.
Need an example? Look to these releases for guidance:
- CITING STRENGTH, PARTNERS CRACKERS RESTRUCTURES DEBT FOR SUSTAINED FUTURE SUCCESS
- Quility Names Steve Fletcher President, Announces Organizational Changes to Executive Team
3 Best Practices for Finance-Related Press Releases: Lessons from Top Companies
What do the above examples have in common? With the exception of the shareholder letters (which follow a more conversational format), they follow many of the following best practices for crafting releases around their earnings that make it easy for stakeholders and shareholders to understand.
1. Pay attention to formatting: Good formatting can help ensure your audiences actually read and absorb information that can sometimes be complex and often dry. Use strategic formatting to keep audiences from skimming over information and possibly missing key details in the process. Consider the following:
- Break up long blocks of text into shorter (2- to 3-sentence) paragraphs
- Divide your release into key themes and topics and use bolded headers to ‘announce’ each topic
- Use bullets to outline key takeaways
- Include graphs to help visualize trends or growth areas
2. Include executive quotes: Executive quotes are a way to provide context around the numbers and create a story around them. (Not to mention that reporters often lift executive quotes directly from press releases for their coverage.) Consider, for example, this excerpt from a recent InsurePro release: "Surpassing $3M in premiums sold to date is an indicator that our highly configurable, transparent, and customer-centric offering has been validated by the market," said Prakash Mohandas, co-founder and CEO of InsurePro. "To achieve this milestone in such a short time is really a testament to the engineering, product, design, and insurtech acumen of our team. This is only the beginning," said Mohandas.
3. Don’t shy away from visuals. For all the visual learners out there, including multimedia elements in your financial release provide another way to communicate – and help audiences understand – important financial information. Think outside of financial charts, too: Consider how DICK’S Sporting Goods and Mazda included product photos to break up formatting (see above) and increase audience engagement.
Photo courtesy of DICK'S Sporting Goods, Inc.
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About the Author
Erin Payton is the Integrated Customer Marketing Manager for PR Newswire. In her role, she develops multichannel marketing campaigns, drives demand generation, fosters brand awareness and creates thought leadership. Away from the keyboard, she is an unabashedly enthusiastic cat mom to Mia.