Why it Pays to Have a Press Release Before You Launch Your Product.

According to Bloomberg, the premier business and finance market news site, 80% of people who start businesses fail within the first 18 months. That’s a big percentage. The number-one reason is because you have built a product or business that nobody wants or nobody needs. So how do you create a kick-ass product for the millions of people around the world, even though failure rate is so high?

This article explains Amazon’s approach to this big problem, which is to create a press release outlining the value of the product to its potential customers, in effect working backwards from the customer. This is important for your business if you are bootstrapping business on a tight budget and you don’t want to put up any money upfront.

Work backwards from the customer

For each new product, whether it’s physical or software, start by crafting a hypothetical press release as though the product has been built. Outline what problem you are solving, the existing solution, and then your amazing solution that will hopefully persuade your potential customers to buy your hypothetical product. It shouldn’t be geeky or technical but simple and straightforward. If you do find it difficult to explain, then perhaps you shouldn’t build this product. Amazon management believes any product should be jargon-free and be able to the pass the Oprah test.

The Oprah Test

Imagine yourself sitting next to Oprah on her sofa, prime time TV with an excited audience and the worldwide millions. When Oprah reads the press release, will this be something that is going to excite the audience or sound boring? If it sounds boring then don’t expect anyone to buy it. You just need to work on your press release until it sounds interesting. You may think it’s the best thing since sliced bread, but you are not selling it to yourself but to complete strangers.

How To Create a Press Release

Here’s a quick guide to create a press release. Remember this can be an internal press release for you and your company and can be changed over and over again. I suggest four to five sentences for most of the paragraphs. If you need to create more information, then I suggest creating an FAQ (frequently asked questions) to go along with the press release.

A) Attention-grabbing headline — Intrigue the reader into reading the next line.

B) Who is it for and what problem does your product solve? — Also you can add the 5 Why’s — who, what, when, where, why.

C) What is your amazing solution to the problem? — Add your new idea of a product and also add the key solution features and why it’s different than the competing product. Make sure your solution is desirable by creating a case study.

D) A quote from you and a hypothetical customer — What benefit did the customer get from this? Did it save them time, money, make them more popular, etc.?

E) Have a call to action — What should the reader do next?

Example Press Release Template

(A) Attention-grabbing headline

(B) At the Annual Conference (who) Company X (when) today announced (what) their new product to ‘looking after people’ to change the way vulnerable people are viewed (why).

(C) Additional or in-depth information that adds to the story. You can also add a case study — someone you has helped with the product and the impact it had on them. Human-interest angle for journalists.

(D) (Quote) xxxx from Company X said key benefits to the customer are (enter benefits)

(E) (Call to action) for more information or to sign up today, go to www.mycompany.com

My Press Release

A couple of years ago I produced an iPhone app, so this is the press release I created.

Namaste, Guys!

The future of Indian weddings has arrived.

My Indian Wedding App is THE WORLD’S FIRST EVER Indian Wedding Planner App and is for Busy Rajahs and Ranis, planning their Big Fat Indian Wedding. It will automate many of the tasks involved in the biggest day of their lives.

• Need to Plan Your Big Fat Indian Wedding? —This App Will Help
• Does your planning suck? — This App Will help
• Need to impress your future mother-in-law? — The App Will Help :0)
• Want to know all the rituals and ceremonies? — This App Will Help

As soon as an Indian girl is born, the parents are planning their wedding – FACT: It is the most important event in Indian culture.

Planning your wedding is one of the most stressful things you can do – it’s a real problem and we have a genuine solution.

So if you are getting married, know someone who is getting married…. Or want to become an Indian wedding PRO

Sign up today and get started in less than 60 seconds!

Conclusion

Over the last 20 years, Amazon has become the world’s biggest online retailer, selling everything from books to sunglasses. It offers a limitless selection at low prices. They have done this by working backwards from the customer.

If you have an idea for the next Facebook or Twitter or a business, don’t build anything yet. Work backwards from the customer and create a press release like Amazon. Then imagine you are sitting on Oprah Winfrey’s sofa in front of the audience and the watching millions around the world while she announces it to the world! Will it generate excitement or will people switch off?