diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 671d29d72e..d25875c284 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1
 STAGING_REGISTRY := gcr.io/k8s-staging-capi-openstack
 STAGING_BUCKET ?= artifacts.k8s-staging-capi-openstack.appspot.com
 BUCKET ?= $(STAGING_BUCKET)
-PROD_REGISTRY := us.gcr.io/k8s-artifacts-prod/capi-openstack
+PROD_REGISTRY ?= k8s.gcr.io/capi-openstack
 REGISTRY ?= $(STAGING_REGISTRY)
 RELEASE_TAG ?= $(shell git describe --abbrev=0 2>/dev/null)
 PULL_BASE_REF ?= $(RELEASE_TAG) # PULL_BASE_REF will be provided by Prow
@@ -262,20 +262,33 @@ list-staging-releases: ## List staging images for image promotion
 list-image:
 	gcloud container images list-tags $(STAGING_REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE) --filter="tags=('$(RELEASE_TAG)')" --format=json
 
-.PHONY: check-release-tag
-check-release-tag:
-	@if [ -z "${RELEASE_TAG}" ]; then echo "RELEASE_TAG is not set"; exit 1; fi
-	@if ! [ -z "$$(git status --porcelain)" ]; then echo "Your local git repository contains uncommitted changes, use git clean before proceeding."; exit 1; fi
-
 .PHONY: release
-release: $(RELEASE_NOTES) clean-release check-release-tag $(RELEASE_DIR)  ## Builds and push container images using the latest git tag for the commit.
+release: $(RELEASE_NOTES) clean-release $(RELEASE_DIR)  ## Builds and push container images using the latest git tag for the commit.
+	@if [ -z "${RELEASE_TAG}" ]; then echo "RELEASE_TAG is not set"; exit 1; fi
+	@if ! [ -z "$$(git status --porcelain)" ]; then echo "Your local git repository contains uncommitted changes, use git clean before proceeding."; fi
 	git checkout "${RELEASE_TAG}"
-	@if [ -z "${PREVIOUS_VERSION}" ]; then echo "PREVIOUS_VERSION is not set"; exit 1; fi
-	$(RELEASE_NOTES) --from $(PREVIOUS_VERSION) > $(RELEASE_DIR)/CHANGELOG.md
-	$(MAKE) release-notes
+	# Set the manifest image to the production bucket.
+	$(MAKE) manifest-modification REGISTRY=$(PROD_REGISTRY)
 	$(MAKE) release-manifests
 	$(MAKE) release-templates
 
+.PHONY: manifest-modification
+manifest-modification: # Set the manifest images to the staging/production bucket.
+	$(MAKE) set-manifest-image \
+		MANIFEST_IMG=$(REGISTRY)/$(IMAGE_NAME) MANIFEST_TAG=$(RELEASE_TAG) \
+		TARGET_RESOURCE="./config/default/manager_image_patch.yaml"
+	$(MAKE) set-manifest-pull-policy PULL_POLICY=IfNotPresent TARGET_RESOURCE="./config/default/manager_pull_policy.yaml"
+
+.PHONY: set-manifest-image
+set-manifest-image:
+	$(info Updating kustomize image patch file for manager resource)
+	sed -i'' -e 's@image: .*@image: '"${MANIFEST_IMG}:$(MANIFEST_TAG)"'@' $(TARGET_RESOURCE)
+
+.PHONY: set-manifest-pull-policy
+set-manifest-pull-policy:
+	$(info Updating kustomize pull policy file for manager resources)
+	sed -i'' -e 's@imagePullPolicy: .*@imagePullPolicy: '"$(PULL_POLICY)"'@' $(TARGET_RESOURCE)
+
 .PHONY: release-manifests
 release-manifests:
 	$(MAKE) $(RELEASE_DIR)/$(MANIFEST_FILE).yaml TAG=$(RELEASE_TAG) PULL_POLICY=IfNotPresent
@@ -316,7 +329,7 @@ release-alias-tag: # Adds the tag to the last build tag.
 
 .PHONY: release-notes
 release-notes: $(RELEASE_NOTES) ## Generate release notes
-	$(RELEASE_NOTES) $(ARGS)
+	$(RELEASE_NOTES) $(RELEASE_NOTES_ARGS)
 
 .PHONY: release-templates
 release-templates: $(RELEASE_DIR) ## Generate release templates
diff --git a/RELEASE.md b/RELEASE.md
index ec5feee074..14d7d4ccbc 100644
--- a/RELEASE.md
+++ b/RELEASE.md
@@ -18,29 +18,31 @@
 ## Process
 
 
-1. Make sure your repo is clean by git's standards
-2. If this is a new minor release, create a new release branch and push to github, otherwise switch to it, for example `release-0.2`
-3. Run `make release-notes` to gather changes since the last revision. If you need to specify a specific tag to look for changes
-   since, use `make release-notes ARGS="--from <tag>"` Pay close attention to the `## :question: Sort these by hand` section, as it contains items that need to be manually sorted.
-4. Tag the repository and push the tag `git tag -s -m $VERSION $VERSION; git push upstream $VERSION`
-5. Create a draft release in github and associate it with the tag that was just created, copying the generated release notes into
-   the draft.
-6. Checkout the tag you've just created and make sure git is in a clean state
-7. Run `make release`
-8. Attach the files to the drafted release:
-    1. `./out/infrastructure-components.yaml`
-    2. `./templates/cluster-template.yaml`
-    3. `./templates/cluster-template-without-lb.yaml`
-    4. `./templates/cluster-template-external-cloud-provider.yaml`
-    5. `./metadata.yaml` (clusterctl >0.3.1 will include hardcoded metadata for CAPO. But let's keep the `metadata.yaml` file for our v0.3.* releases to be compatible with clusterctl <=0.3.1)
-9.  Perform the [image promotion process](https://github.com/kubernetes/k8s.io/tree/main/k8s.gcr.io#image-promoter).
-    The staging repository is at https://console.cloud.google.com/gcr/images/k8s-staging-capi-openstack/GLOBAL. Be
-    sure to choose the top level `capi-openstack-controller`, which will provide the multi-arch manifest, rather than one for a specific architecture.
-    The image build logs are available in [Cloud Build](https://console.cloud.google.com/cloud-build/builds?project=k8s-staging-capi-openstack).
-    Add the new sha=>tag mapping to the [images.yaml](https://github.com/kubernetes/k8s.io/edit/main/k8s.gcr.io/images/k8s-staging-capi-openstack/images.yaml) (use the sha of the image with the corresponding tag)
-10.  Finalise the release notes
-11.  Publish release. Use the pre-release option for release
-    candidate versions of Cluster API Provider OpenStack.
+1. Make sure your repo is clean by git's standards.
+1. Make sure you are on the correct branch (`master` for the current release and `release-0.x` for older releases).
+1. Create an annotated tag
+    - `git tag -s -a $VERSION -m $VERSION`.
+1. Push the tag to the GitHub repository:
+   > NOTE: `upstream` should be the name of the remote pointing to `github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cluster-api-provider-openstack`
+    - `git push upstream $VERSION`
+1. Run `make release` to build artifacts (the image is automatically built by CI)
+1. Follow the [image promotion process](https://github.com/kubernetes/k8s.io/tree/main/k8s.gcr.io#image-promoter) to promote the image from the staging repo to `k8s.gcr.io/capi-openstack`.
+   The staging repository can be inspected at https://console.cloud.google.com/gcr/images/k8s-staging-capi-openstack/GLOBAL. Be
+   sure to choose the top level `capi-openstack-controller`, which will provide the multi-arch manifest, rather than one for a specific architecture.
+   The image build logs are available at [Cloud Build](https://console.cloud.google.com/cloud-build/builds?project=k8s-staging-capi-openstack).
+   Add the new sha=>tag mapping to the [images.yaml](https://github.com/kubernetes/k8s.io/edit/main/k8s.gcr.io/images/k8s-staging-capi-openstack/images.yaml) (use the sha of the image with the corresponding tag)
+1. Create a draft release in GitHub based on the tag created above
+1. Generate and finalize the release notes and add them to the draft release:
+    - Run `make release-notes` to gather changes since the last revision. If you need to specify a specific tag to look for changes
+      since, use `make release-notes RELEASE_NOTES_ARGS="--from <tag>"`.
+    - Pay close attention to the `## :question: Sort these by hand` section, as it contains items that need to be manually sorted.
+1. Attach the following files to the draft release:
+    - `./out/infrastructure-components.yaml`
+    - `./out/cluster-template.yaml`
+    - `./out/cluster-template-external-cloud-provider.yaml`
+    - `./out/cluster-template-without-lb.yaml`
+    - `./out/metadata.yaml`
+1.  Publish release. Use the pre-release option for release candidate or beta versions.
 
 ### Permissions