BUSINESS TIPS

Amazon Press Release

How to smartly create a different kind of business plan and increase your chances of success for your product idea

Dear reader,

With this article about how to write a press release the same way Amazonians do, I am sharing some techniques and personal recommendations that could help you build a better business plan. I hope you enjoy it.

Note. The ideal complement to this article is: how to write a professional business document called white paper (the Amazon way).

INTRO

I am very much familiar with the concept of the press release and the way Amazon does it internally. It’s a rigorous process to stimulate good thoughts with a structured approach. I created a couple of them in the past and it took me a lot of time; several weeks or even months actually, as the amount of time you need to dedicate to research is high, and trying to explain your idea like you would to real customers requires a lot of effort and dedication.

But it pays off. Big time.

With a press release — the Amazon way — you get extreme clarity on what you are doing, why you are doing it, and more importantly, why your idea is supposed to be so good for the customer. Enjoy this reading and experiment yourself to see how powerful this tool can be.

“We work backwards from the customer,

rather than starting with an idea for a product

and trying to bolt customers onto it”

WHY?

Amazon puts the customer at the center of everything. Amazon works backward from the customer, rather than starting with an idea for a product. The press release is a good way to force employees to explain to the organization what their ideas are about and how their solutions are going to solve a customer problem. By writing a press release, we put ourselves in the customer’s shoes so that even the most complex concepts can be explained and understood by the simplest customer.

“If you can’t come up with a compelling press release,

the product you want to launch probably isn’t worth making”

WHAT?

For new initiatives, a product manager or any other brilliant employee with an idea in mind writes an internal press release announcing the finished product (or service). It is “centered around the customer problem, how current solutions (internal or external) fail, and how the new product will blow away existing solutions”[1]. The writer keeps iterating on the press release until they’ve come up with something really good, because “iterating on a press release is a lot quicker and less expensive than iterating on the product itself”.

HOW?

1. Start with a headline that clearly names your product (or service) and states what it is going to do
2. Write an opening paragraph that gives the most important details about your product (or service), how consumers will benefit from it, and the problem that it’s going to solve. You should write this as if it’s the only part anyone’s going to read
3. Include quotes from your company spokesperson and from a hypothetical satisfied customer
4. Conclude by briefly explaining how the customer can learn more or begin using your product (or service)
5. Also, keep your Amazon press release simple! 3–4 sentences for most paragraphs. Don’t use technical terms, which are difficult to understand. Finally, no more than one page and integrate with a F.A.Q. section, which I personally find very important, as it is useful to anticipate challenging questions

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

• Rule 1: must be stated at a future point in time where success has been achieved and realized. Press releases at “launch” are good, but a better one is sometime after launch, where true success can be discussed
• Rule 2: discuss why it was important, often time to customers (or other key stakeholders). Discuss the accomplishments first in terms of why it is important to customers. How did the customer experience improve? Why do customers care? Then discuss other reasons why it was important and key goals
• Rule 3: set an audacious and clear goal: Articulate clear measurable results including financial, operating, market share
• Rule 4: outline the principles used that led to success. This is the trickiest, and more important. Outline the hard things accomplished, the important decisions, the design principles that led to success. Discuss the issues that had to be addressed to have success
• Rule 5: be passionate and have fun while doing it. To me, the most important rule of all.

“If the press release is hard to write,

then the product is probably going to suck.

Keep working at it until the outline for each paragraph flows”

(NEW!) AMAZON PRESS RELEASE GENERATOR

Last update: April 26th, 2023

I am excited to introduce the Amazon Press Release Generator , under the label BlackCube. This is a cutting-edge AI language model explicitly designed to assist you with creating professional-looking press releases and white papers in the style of Amazon. Based on ChatGPT 4, this bot has a deep understanding of various techniques, styles, and characteristics needed to generate the best possible press releases and white papers.

Test out the free version while still in alpha, and share your feedback.

(MANUAL) TEMPLATE

If you prefer to use 100% of your brain, find below a manual template with the description of each section, You can also download the .docx version by following this link:

For inspiration, see also the official Amazon Press Releases repository here: https://press.aboutamazon.com/press-releases

Heading — Name the product (or service) in a way the reader (i.e. your target customers) will understand.

Sub-Heading — Describe wh http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-news&nyo=0 o the market for the product (or service) is and what benefit they get. One sentence only underneath the title.

Summary — Give a summary of the product (or service) and the benefit. Assume the reader will not read anything else so make this paragraph good.

Problem — Describe the problem your product (or service) solves.

Solution — Describe how your product (or service) elegantly solves the problem.

Quote from You — A quote from a spokesperson in your company.

How to Get Started — Describe how easy it is to get started.

Customer Quote — Provide a quote from a hypothetical customer that describes how they experienced the benefit.

Closing and Call to Action — Wrap it up and give pointers where the reader should go next.

In case you want to know more about Amazon, check out as well The Amazon Go Store Experience Review and The similarities between Amazon and Alibaba? Part One and Two.

That’s all! What do you think about these tips and recommendations? I am looking forward to hearing your opinions in the comment section. If you enjoy reading stories like these and want to support me as a writer, consider signing up to become a Medium member. It’s $5 a month, giving you unlimited access to stories on Medium. If you sign up using my link, I’ll earn a small commission.

Disclaimer: Please note this article is a collection of personal thoughts and a few quotes from experts. All info is publicly available. The content hereby written does not reflect in any way the position of the company I work for.

Sources of inspiration:

• https://readmedium.com/try-an-internal-press-release-before-starting-new-products-867703682934
• https://www.quora.com/What-is-Amazons-approach-to-product-development-and-product-management
• http://the-amazon-way.com/blog/amazon-future-press-release/

References:

[1] Source: Ian McAllister on Medium