How to Evangelize Your Category

Our Category Design Process follows five key steps. This post will explore Step 5: How to Evangelize Your Category. Click the links to catch up on the previous steps. Step 1, Step 2, Step 3 and Step 4.

Now it’s time to evangelize your category and the best way to do that is with high-quality content. Here you must remember that your job is to market the problem your category solves, not to market your product (yet).

Remember, too, that if you are truly building a new category, you aren’t capturing existing market demand. Your early efforts are all about creating new market demand.

The more you market your category and advocate for the benefits it can bring, the more you make your company name synonymous with the category name and the problem the category solves.

As demand is created and customers begin looking for a solution to the problem your category solves, you’ve locked in your position as the category leader who can help them succeed.

6 Ways to Evangelize a New Category

The best way to evangelize your new category is with content that adds massive value. Instead of thinking about these as content, think about them as assets that can add value over the long term.

Now let’s explore three examples of how great founders have evangelized their category.

Evangelize Like Hubspot and Be the Ultimate Resource For Customers

HubsSpot didn’t just create a platform for inbound marketing. They created the entire concept of inbound marketing and took on the responsibility of being the ultimate resource for marketers looking to understand how to win with inbound marketing. If you Google for practically anything related to marketing today, you find HubSpot’s valuable, actionable, and, most importantly, free resources. From their annual conference to their training programs and certifications, HubSpot evangelized the benefits of inbound marketing and rode that wave to be the go-to inbound marketing platform.

Evangelize Like Gainsight and Be the Voice of an Underserved Market Segment

Gainsight identified that Customer Success professionals were growing rapidly. More companies were making customer success a priority and more and more people had Customer Success in their title. But no one was really focusing on this fast-growing community. Gainsight called this group out, told them they cared, and evangelized and advocated the idea of Customer Success on their behalf. From creating hip hop songs to literally writing the book on Customer Success, Gainsight made their customers first and leveraged that position to be their go-to platform.

Evangelize Like Salesforce and Declare War on An Enemy

When Marc Benioff launched Salesforce, he declared war on the idea of on-premise software. He led the charge in questioning why companies purchased software that required expensive on-site installations, long-term contracts, and an overall lack of flexibility. He evangelized the idea of cloud computing software, which paved the way for Salesforce to lead the category as it grew. This is the exact mindset you should have as you go to work evangelizing your new market category. Declare war on the problem holding your customers back.

Reminder: Category Design is a Journey

Creating a category is a process. The five key steps of Category Design Strategy are how you kick-start your efforts, but it’s up to you to continue your efforts to get your category adopted by the market.

Don’t expect this to just happen overnight. This is why most founders fail at category design. They don’t have the patience to see the process through. They begin full of excitement, then give up because they are too focused on short-term outcomes.

But the ones who are able to see it through are the companies who truly transform their industry. They are the ones who are remembered as game changers, revolutionaries, and visionaries who were bold enough to challenge the status quo and resilient enough to see it through to the end.

The world today doesn’t need more “better mouse-trap” startups. It doesn’t just need products that are faster, better, and cheaper than what already exists on the market.

The world needs more products that create new realities that were never before possible and create true lasting change. All founders have the choice to choose which path they go down. We believe the more founders focused on creating new categories, the better.

Now is the time to define and dominate new market categories.

Ready to dive deep into category design??Click below to read our 60+ page step by step guide.?B2B Founders Guide to Creating and Dominating a New Market Category