Should you “create your own category”?
…such a polarizing topic.
Pros:
– feels good, motivates the team, gets people fired up
– if you 100% nail it, you win BIG by removing your competition
Cons:
– can confuse your audience if you’re not good at leveraging THEIR language
– less predictable / more risky
– way more effort than anyone anticipates
If you are to go for it… why not do some combination of “both”?
For example:
– have your category creation pages & offers, leverage your homepage, etc.
– AND build-out product & feature pages that align with established categories (+ supporting content, etc.)
Like a good investment strategy – why not diversify your marketing bets a bit to give yourself the best chance of hitting your numbers?
If I HAD to pick a side – I like Dave Gerhardt’s perspective here.
I think it is healthy to know the risks of going ALL IN on category creation.
