#inbound2019 5 Things You Need to Do to Create a Category.

Building a company is hard enough, but what if there's no clear market to launch into? That's the situation Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta found himself in when he joined the company that would become Gainsight in 2013.

There was no playbook for category creation, so they built their own—and catapulted Gainsight into one of the fastest growing private companies in the world.

This is a scenario that we’ve discussed with many construction marketing professionals.  Building awareness and traction for a novel solution where there is no competition to disrupt and no one searching for their product.  Creating a market from the ground up can be daunting, so how can it be done?

Learn what can innovative building products brands learn about creating new markets in this time of digital disruption.

What Is Category Creation?

More than just linking together a few buzzwords to make your new business sound cool.  It’s more about;

• Creating a new trend
• A new buyer type has evolved
• Combining two separate markets
• A market feels like it needs a reboot.

There are pros and cons to category creation too, such as;

Pros

• No competitors, you’re doing something different
• There’s not much noise, so you can dictate the conversation
• No pre-existing notions

Cons

• No customers

While creating a category can sound exciting, it is actually incredibly hard to succeed in.  This is what Nick learnt during his journey

Getting The Category Name Right

The name has to make sense.  Identify exactly what you do, maybe a ven diagram would help to illustrate your niche.

It can feel like buzzword bingo.  Segment your market clearly and then appeal to a group that feel underserved and ignored.  Create a value proposition that will meet their needs.  This way you will begin to build a loyal base of promoters

Find a name that makes sense to this group.

Focus On People To Create A Community

Get these people together with an event.  You don’t need many people, just enough to be able to learn more about what they need.

Create a community who will start to see your brand as more than just a product, but a part of their own success story and their IP.

If people see that your brand is a growing trend and building momentum, they will want to learn more – FOMO (Fear Of Missing out).

Evangelise

Get out there and talk to people about your creation.  You can’t build a brand from behind a desk, even in this digital age.

Look for ways to get your message out there – PR, articles, white papers or even write a book.

Once you’ve written a hundred blog posts, you can probably use these to write your book.

Social media, such as LinkedIn can also help to drive awareness.

Encourage your early adopters to evangelise for you – think about rewarding them for their support.  Think about guest blogs, testimonials and reviews.

Be Authentic

Communicate your culture a s a business, share your values at every opportunity and make sure all of your team are onboard.  Blur the lines between your culture and your community.

Interview your customers and get them to explain how you are helping them to succeed.

Be Long Term Greedy

Category creation takes a long time, so you need to be patient.

Focus on the little wins and small victories and learn about what is driving this growth. 

Belief is critical, because there will be times that you feel like this won’t work. 

Keep listening to your customers to help get the product right.  This will improve customer retention, upselling and customer acquisition.

Be prepared t oredefined your category as you inevitably attract competition and copycat brands.

Key Takeaways

Category creation is both incredibly rewarding and incredibly difficult when compared to disrupting an existing market

There are five key things you need to focus on to create a category

Just remember that wherever you are in the journey of category creation, you are not alone

More can be found in the book Category Creation

Conclusion

To discuss how you can create a new category in the UK Construction market, why not talk to Insynth to see if we can give you a few ideas to help you succeed.

About Insynth

At Insynth we deliver a predictable flow of leads, customers, and specifications for building product brands through our inbound marketing approach, proven to reach a technically demanding audience.

We use the latest marketing techniques such as construction inbound marketing, to equip building product companies to grow sustainability in this era of digital transformation.

As the only HubSpot certified agency to major in construction marketing. We have a proven formula of bringing a variety of functionalities together including CRM Implementation, Web Design, Sales Automation, SEO, and Email Marketing to achieve your ultimate aim: Growing your business and gaining new specifiers and customers.

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