• Only a few per year. You can run a new marketing from Guy and Sangram, but he also learned from Dan Part III: campaign every month, but not a lightning strike. Steinman and Dave Isbitski, evangelists at Gainsight A 30,000 Expect to pull off two to four in a year. and Amazon, respectively. If you’re considering this play Foot View Of • F ocused on your category first. Lightning strikes yourself, check out these 10 tips on tech evangelism. are designed to help the world see the need for a Category design is a constant battle The Category new category. If all you’re doing is promoting your own brand, you’re missing the big picture. Category design is something you have to push forward Design Process every day – and for a long period of time. There will Bonus tactic: hire a chief evangelist always be distractions and “shiny new objects” that “When you are trying to create a category, having no tempt your team to go off track. It’s your job to ground voice behind the rallying cry makes it very difficult,” says your team back to reality and keep the company focused Derrick Thomas, a marketing manager at SaaSOptics. on your category story. “That’s why you need to have an executive or a point “Category design isn’t something you have to start on day person to rally around – someone to become your one and finish 20 days later,” says Mike Damphousse, a The essence of evangelist and protagonist. This is someone who is active partner at Category Design Advisors. “Category designs evangelism is basically, on social media and shouting your new category from an ongoing discipline of how to do business. It takes years “’Good news! There’s a the mountaintops. People follow people, not companies”. to build a category. In fact, the average is six to 10 years One of the most effective ways to do this is by hiring a to get a fully established category.” better way!’ You have dedicated Chief Evangelist. The most famous example Yes, you’re going to sound like a broken record, but a powerful, positive may be Guy Kawasaki, who evangelized Apple through that’s just part of the process. Your audience will need story to tell and one that the ‘90s and now does the same at Canva. More recent much more time to internalize the problem then your examples include Sangram Vajre (co-founder and Chief own team will, so stay persistent! You’ll be glad you did people really like to hear. Evangelist at Terminus) and my colleague Ethan Beute in the long run. (Chief Evangelist at BombBomb). It’s a new conversation There you have it. The process for building a category that people suffering According to Ethan, “The essence of evangelism is isn’t that complicated. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. basically, ’Good news! There’s a better way!’ You have Nor is it something that a single person can do – in the problem tend to a powerful, positive story to tell and one that people order to get category design to work as a company enjoy having. really like to hear. It’s a new conversation that people strategy, you have to get your entire team on board with ” suffering the problem tend to enjoy having.” Prior to the process first. To find out how to do that successfully, becoming an evangelist, Ethan connected not only read Part IV: How To Get Buy-In From Your Team. — Ethan Beute Recap: You can think of the category design process as involving four phases: understand your audience and their problem; create a category name and category story; bring your category to life; evangelize your category. Category designers often hire chief evangelists to help with this phase. If you decide to pursue category design, prepare for the hard work it will take to keep your team focused over the long haul. The Newcomer’s Guide to Category Design 27