diff --git a/release.py b/release.py
index 7c9e6a9c28deb..c8608bd47bcb1 100755
--- a/release.py
+++ b/release.py
@@ -688,6 +688,8 @@ def select_gpg_key():
 print("Next, we need to get the Maven artifacts we published into the staging repository.")
 # TODO: Can we get this closed via a REST API since we already need to collect credentials for this repo?
 print("Go to https://repository.apache.org/#stagingRepositories and hit 'Close' for the new repository that was created by uploading artifacts.")
+print("If this is not the first RC, you need to 'Drop' the previous artifacts.")
+print("Confirm the correct artifacts are visible at https://repository.apache.org/content/groups/staging/org/apache/kafka/")
 if not user_ok("Have you successfully deployed the artifacts (y/n)?: "):
     fail("Ok, giving up")
 if not user_ok("Ok to push RC tag %s (y/n)?: " % rc_tag):