What do GTM strategies look like when you work on a whole category creation?

For category creation, your GTM plan - in my experience - needs to be a multi-year affair. You may need to start with market education, analysts influence, etc even before you launch a product. Also, after launching the product you will need to keep ongoing market education to help get the new category in the minds of your customers. Some key elements to help your GTM in this case are: Customer proof: the more customer testimonials, case studies, quotes, and videos you can create and disseminate ...Read More

I’ll come at this question a few ways.  First is to lay out the components of a solid GTM strategy so we’re on the same page about that.  My GTM strategies have the following: Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) Problem statement Solution description Why the problem is worth solving, and why now Competitive landscape Messaging and Positioning Success Criteria Launch plan with marketing channels If you are in the business of category creation, then the part you need to spend the most time on is the comp ...Read More

Creating a new category presents unique challenges and is not an easy task, especially since you likely won't have any benchmarks to compare or learn from. In addition to the typical GTM strategy components, I believe there are three main areas that deserve special attention: Category Education: Educate potential customers and the broader market about the problem your category solves and the benefits it offers. Highlight the pain points your category addresses and why existing solutions are inad ...Read More

In my previous role at a real-estate investing marketplace we were doing just that as we were working with private money loans and lenders, an investment vehicle unknown to many. The biggest element to a GTM strategy when you're defining a category is extensive market education on the problem space and need for a new solution. This could be done through customer testimonials, press and media, thought leadership and content based on research. It will be super critical that you understand your ide ...Read More

While all marketing aims to solve a customer problem. When it comes to category creation, you are going to focus a significant portion of your time convincing Analysts and Press that your articulation of the problem is unique and hasn't been done before. You then use your product-adoption/sales momentum to convey how the customer is voting with their money to convince the analysts that this is indeed a new category and not a substitute product for an existing category. Category creation is a lon ...Read More

That's a great question! This reminds me of my time as a PMM lead for a 360-degree camera company almost a decade ago. Not only were we launching a new brand of consumer electronic cameras, but we were also creating a new product category that was unfamiliar to most people. Here’s how we approached our GTM strategy: Education-Focused Marketing: A significant part of our strategy was educating potential customers about what 360-degree cameras were and how they could benefit from them. We ensured ...Read More