If you’re a business owner, you know that it’s important to constantly innovate and expand your product offering. But what if you come up with an idea for a new product or service category, and there’s no existing category to compare it to? How do you go about creating a new category? Here are some tips on how to get started.
How Do You Create a New Category?
One hundred times more time and effort are required to build a category for an open-source community than it takes to promote your product. FlipMyFunnel, for example, is a good example. This is a group created by and for ABM fans. In less than two years, this community has grown from a handful of members to tens of thousands.
Discuss the issue at hand.
Isn’t it more important to focus on the suffering of others than your thoughts? Your startup is of no interest to anyone. How well you grasp their situation and desire to fix it is what they want to hear from you.
Tell a narrative
If you don’t tell stories, you won’t succeed. Storytelling helps you connect with your prospective consumers, advocates, thought leaders, and anybody in the industry touched by the problem you’re trying to address. You’re pouring gasoline on the fire by encouraging others to question the current quo and energizing them.
Bring together the best minds in the field.
Do not be afraid to ask for help. You are not on your own. Thought leaders and advocates in your industry care about the problem, even if you’re starting a new product category. As a result, your message will reach a wider audience and be heard more clearly throughout the industry.
Organize a meeting of practitioners
Thought leaders have a lot to offer. The stories of those who are really on the front lines of these conflicts are often more compelling. Practitioners have a true emotional connection when they are brought together, rather than a “pie in the sky” concept. Your audience will be able to empathize with practitioners who have had similar issues and learn how they overcame them.
Convene rivals to work together
Recall the adage, “a rising tide raises all ships”? Identify competitors who can assist you grow your market. Many businesses don’t have a lot of money to invest in this kind of marketing for the formation of categories.
See if you can find any other early-stage startups in the same industry. Work together to create the greatest goods and services in your business before your competitors do.
Create a thought leadership blog
Your blog is the lifeblood of your business. The more you write, the more readers you’ll get, the more readers you have, and the more influence you’ll have. Your blog can be the place where it all comes together.
If you’re blogging, use your posts to talk about your industry, your ideas and where you see things going in the future. If you’re not blogging, start today!
Meet with thought leaders
Many people don’t know what to do, and it’s incumbent upon you to show them how to get started. Get out there and meet with thought leaders. The more people are aware of your product or service. Also, the more people will buy it.
The more people who buy it, the higher you’ll go!
ABM is a dynamic and fast-growing digital marketing group that specializes in ABM software and services for enterprise businesses.