One company issues it, the other approves
A B2B partnership press release is 1 company’s news with a second company named in it. You issue it. That’s 2 approvals to plan for, yours and theirs, since your partner reads the draft, edits the lines about itself and signs off.
Joint releases, with both companies as issuers, are the exception in the platform rules quoted here. If your partner is a platform, plan to issue alone. Google’s page for Drive app partners says “We cannot participate in joint releases”, and AWS tells its Marketplace sellers “we can’t support joint press releases”.
The release skeleton doesn’t change, and our product launch press release guide walks through it.
Decide what the news is before you call the partner
The news is what a customer can do from a given date that they couldn’t do before. A signed agreement isn’t news to a buyer until something ships. In B2B it takes 3 forms.
| Kind | The news | Who confirms it |
|---|---|---|
| Integration | what works together now, and what it changes for the customer | each company for its own product |
| Distribution | who sells it, in which region, from which date, how to order | the distributor for terms, you for the product |
| Joint product | what it is, whose part number, who supports it | both, from the written agreement |
The platforms point the same way and put availability first. Salesforce asks that your solution be generally available before you submit a release, and AWS suggests the headline “[Insert product name] Now Available on AWS Marketplace”.
A new partner badge alone is thin news. HubSpot’s startup partner agreement allows a release about that status only “upon our prior written consent”. Google asks partners not to seek approval of “more than one press release every three months”. At 4 a year, spend each one on a date a customer can act on.
Our press release page lists a partnership or an integration among the announcements we write. It’s also plain about price: one “requiring interviews or partner sign-off is higher”.
Ask for the partner’s word list first
Before you draft, get your partner’s press guidelines. The words for the relationship are theirs to choose, and several platforms have chosen already.
AWS says a release shouldn’t “Use the terms partners, partnership, or alliance to describe the relationship. We prefer agreement, teamed, or relationship”. The NVIDIA guidelines for third-party releases say “Lead with your company’s name in the headline and body”. They also tell you to avoid “partnership,” “strategic partnership,” “alliance,” “endorsement,” and “joint development”.
Salesforce gives the reason. Your use “should not look like co-branding with Salesforce or that Salesforce endorses, sponsors, or is affiliated with your offering”. Its examples describe function, such as “integrates with”, and add “be clear about who built your product”.
There’s a legal edge too. Under 15 U.S.C. 1125, wording likely to confuse “as to the affiliation, connection, or association” of one company with another can ground a federal claim in the US. Ask counsel to check your wording.
Neither company below exists. We made up the pair, a maker of industrial scales and an ERP vendor, to show the change.
TEMPLATE WORDING
[Scale maker] and [ERP vendor]
announce strategic partnership
CLOSER TO WHAT PLATFORMS ASK
[Scale maker] terminals now post
weights straight into
[ERP vendor] purchase ordersThe second version leads with the issuer. It says what works and drops the word partnership.
Whose date, and whose dateline
The release date is yours. It can’t fall before your partner’s review ends, so count back from it, starting with the slowest approver.
Google’s Drive partner page asks for any release that mentions Google “at least seven (7) business days before the announcement date” and won’t approve one on shorter notice. Other partners set their own window, so ask each for it in business days before you fix the date.
Expect a review of the whole text. NVIDIA “cannot provide approval of excerpts as our process requires review of full drafts”. After approval, changes to its content or material details go back “with tracked changes for review”. Finish your own legal edits first, since a late fix can restart their review.
Send the planned date and distribution with the draft. Google asks “when you intend to issue the release, how you will distribute it and who will receive it”.
The dateline is the city and date that open the release. It belongs to the issuer. We’d use 1 city, the issuer’s own, and name the partner’s location in the body. If both companies really issue in 2 markets, write 2 local versions with a dateline each.
Two quotes, each signed by its owner
One quote per company, each approved by the person it’s attributed to. Yours goes first. NVIDIA spells out the order: “The NVIDIA quote should come after the issuing company’s quote”.
Don’t build the release on the partner’s quote. NVIDIA “does not provide quotes for the majority of partner announcements”. AWS supports a quote from AWS “on a case-by-case basis” and rules out a quote from an AWS executive “unless previously agreed upon”. Write a release that stands without the second quote, then ask the partner for it.
If a partner agrees, expect it to choose its own speaker and approve the words. We’d match seniority, a vice president beside a vice president, so neither side reads as junior. A quote also expires. NVIDIA’s quotes “cannot be reused for any subsequent announcements or marketing materials without NVIDIA PR approval”, so last year’s line is a new request.
What you can’t promise for your partner
Anything about the partner’s product is theirs to state: roadmap, release dates, supported versions, prices, support terms, certifications. If your partner hasn’t confirmed a line about its product in writing, cut it.
Google is direct: “Do not communicate publicly about launch plans”, and “please do not speak on behalf of Google or speculate about any Google initiatives”. It also rules out implying “an exclusive or privileged arrangement”. AWS bars “any sales projections”. Shopify’s partner terms say a partner “must not make any false or misleading statements about Shopify”.
So “exclusive”, “preferred” and “the only” go, unless the partner wrote them. Your own claims stay yours to prove: your customers, your capacity, your price.
Who signs each line
Paste this list into the top of the first draft, so both teams see who approves what before anyone edits.
LINE WHO SIGNS IT
Headline issuer
Date issuer, after the
partner's window
Dateline issuer
Lead issuer, partner
checks its name
Issuer quote the person quoted
Partner quote partner's speaker
Partner facts partner, in writing
Availability whoever ships it
Boilerplates each company,
its own text
Media contact issuerA line with 2 owners gets 2 sign-offs. A line with no owner gets cut.
After it’s out, keep it dated
The published release is a page sales reps on both sides can forward. It ages like the integration it describes. In our sales collateral guide, integrations come second in the order things go stale, right after prices.
Treat it like any sales document. Note the date it was last checked and 2 names, 1 at each company, who’ll tell you when the integration changes. When a version or a region changes, update the page or take it down before reps forward it.
Sources
- Google for Developers, Market and publicize your App, Drive API, last updated 3 September 2026. Rules for Drive app partners only.
- AWS, AWS Marketplace Seller Guide, marketing your product, read 18 October 2026. AWS Marketplace sellers only.
- Salesforce, ISV Marketing Resource Hub, press release FAQ, undated page, read 18 October 2026, and Partner Branding Guidelines, PDF dated 21 April 2026.
- NVIDIA, Guidelines for Third-Party Press Releases and Blogs, undated page, read 18 October 2026.
- HubSpot, HubSpot for Startups Partner Agreement, section 5, last modified 3 September 2025. That program only.
- Shopify, Partner Program Agreement, last updated 27 February 2026.
- U.S. Government Publishing Office, 15 U.S.C. 1125, United States Code, 2024 edition. US law, cited to check wording, not as legal advice.
Send us the news, your partner’s name and their press guidelines if you have them. Within 1 working day you get a price, a delivery date and the sign-offs we see in it.