Press release for entering a new market: what to localise, what local readers can verify and when to publish

Why a new market needs its own release

A company that is new to a country is unknown there. The guides the US International Trade Administration writes for exporters say the same thing in different words: in Indonesia, the most effective way to enter is with a local partner, and Bahasa Indonesia is advised in marketing; in Saudi Arabia, advertising is highly regulated and a local agency is advised; in Vietnam, in principle only companies licensed there may place advertisements. They are written for US exporters and none of them is about press releases. They show where a local partner, a local language and local licensing matter, so a release should state them.

A release gives them a dated public page that states the entry: the country, the start date and who you work with there. Send it alongside your registration documents when a distributor, bank or marketplace asks about your presence in the country; it does not replace them.

What to localise

Language comes first. For the UAE, the ITA guide says English-only promotional literature is acceptable but material in both English and Arabic has “a decided edge”, and that Arabic in packaging and advertising is sometimes mandatory for consumer goods. For Indonesia it recommends Bahasa Indonesia in marketing. Vokolla releases are written in English and run on English-language news sites; publish the local-language version on your own local page, and have a native speaker read any translation.

Search is not a reason to change the plan. In Statcounter’s tracked traffic for October 2026, Google’s share was 92% in Singapore, 91% in Indonesia, 93% in Vietnam (where Coc Coc has 5.6%), 95% in the UAE, 96% in Saudi Arabia, 88% in Germany and 85% in the United States, where Bing has 9.8%. AI assistants are newer and uneven: in the Reuters Institute’s 2026 report, 10% of people across its markets use AI chatbots for news weekly, with 11% in Singapore and 4% in the UK; our view is that assistants are a secondary reader for now, and the search engine is where most people will find your release first; in the US, Pew found 44% of adults use ChatGPT, with a change in question wording that year.

Our releases run in English on English-language news sites, not on local media, so the ITA’s advertising rules matter mainly if you also buy local advertising: in Vietnam the guide says foreign advertising firms generally cannot sign directly with local media, and in Saudi Arabia that campaigns must be culturally sensitive. If the release says a regulated product, such as food, health products, finance or vehicles, is on sale in a country, confirm with local counsel that the registrations that market requires are in place first.

What local readers can verify: three real examples

We read three Chinese-company releases on PR Newswire from 2026. XCMG’s 29 July release on its first overseas new-energy factory named the site (Indonesia Weda Bay Industrial Park, North Maluku), its strategic partner and first customer Tsingshan, and said XCMG has been in Indonesia for over 30 years. Yingfa’s 2 November release, read as a copy, reported a launch event in Jakarta with about 80 attendees, named the Indonesian government-related institutions and associations present, and referred to the local-content rule (TKDN). FREELANDER’s 2 November release named its UAE dealer partners and new agreements for Bahrain and Oman, and said the UAE launch of the FREELANDER 8 is expected in the first quarter of 2027, with specifications, pricing and sales arrangements to be announced through official channels. None gave a street address or a licence number. That is our reading of three releases, not a statistic. It shows where a release can be more checkable: add the registered local entity, the address and a named local contact.

The fictional examples below use an invented company, Cedarline Bikes, and an invented partner. They show the shape.

When to publish: time zones and the 2027 holidays

Publish in the target market’s working morning, on a weekday that is not a holiday. Standard offsets are Singapore and Beijing UTC+8, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City UTC+7, Dubai UTC+4, Riyadh UTC+3, Berlin UTC+1 (UTC+2 in summer) and New York UTC−5 (UTC−4 in summer). We computed these from the time-zone database. So 09:00 in Dubai is 13:00 in Singapore and Beijing, and 00:00 in New York in winter.

Early 2027 is crowded. China’s State Council set the Spring Festival break from 5 to 13 February 2027, so your own team and approvals are away. Singapore’s Chinese New Year holidays are 6 and 7 February, with Monday 8 February also a public holiday. Vietnam’s Tet break for public employees runs from 4 to 10 February (private employers choose their own days). Ramadan 2027 is expected to begin around 7 to 9 February and to run for about a month, with Eid al-Fitr around 9 March, depending on the calendar or moon sighting your market uses; check the official dates and your market’s working week near the time, and plan the release outside these weeks.

If you need a fixed local time, schedule the release at least 48 hours ahead: our release form lets you pick the time, and editors review first and then schedule it. Without a set time the release goes out after editor review (one of ours took 39 minutes). Muck Rack’s 2026 report, which draws on eight years of its journalist surveys (mostly US, UK, Canadian and Indian journalists), says 78% want pitches before noon and 69% prefer under 200 words; check each reporter’s own time zone (Muck Rack sells PR software).

Which package to choose, and why

Choose by who needs to see it. For a first release in a new market, Brand Starter at US$69 distributes the release to 300+ outlets, including openPR and 25 city news sites. Global Reach at US$129 adds newspaper and TV-station finance pages. When distributors and journalists in the US will search for the news, Premium Media at US$379 adds AP News, USA Today, Barchart and StreetInsider; for an entry across several countries, Global Impact at US$659 reaches 20+ high-traffic outlets. Our releases are in English.

Every price is on the pricing page, the media list names the outlets in each package, and our comparison reads other services’ own published prices and dates.

How to use the release afterwards

Send people to one page that states the entry.

• A local page on your site for the new market (language, address, contact, partner), with the release linked from a Press page.
• The local partner’s website and sales emails: the link and one line on the start date.
• LinkedIn from the company page, the local lead and the partner’s executive who is quoted.
• When a distributor, bank or marketplace in the new market asks about your presence: send it alongside your registration documents; it does not replace them.
• A check a month later: search your brand name and your local entity’s name in the market’s main search engine and save the results with the dates.
• Link text: your brand name or web address, not a keyword phrase.

The checklist

Before you submit, check these seven points. How to write a press release covers the structure.

• Does the first sentence name the country, the start date and the local partner or entity?
• Is the registered local entity, its address and a local contact in the release?
• Is the language right for the market, read by a native speaker?
• Is there a quote from the local partner?
• Is the release scheduled for the market’s working morning, outside the holiday weeks?
• Does one link point to the local page, with your brand name or web address as the link text?
• Have you checked local advertising rules before paying for placement?

What our own releases show

Here is what our own October 2026 releases did. Our release was live on USA Today 39 minutes after submission on 23 October (unscheduled), and 98% of the pages we could check from nine paid English releases were still online 9 to 27 days after publication. These are our October 2026 results. See how long distribution takes.

Publish with Vokolla

Vokolla shows one public price per release, from US$69, with no quote, sales call or subscription. You write the release or draft it with the Vokolla AI assistant, choose the package, pay online and get a report with every live link, and an editor reviews each release before it goes out. You can try it first with one free release every 30 days; every package is on the pricing page.