Idyoma is a language learning mobile application which connects learners to practice languages, share cultures, and have fun. 

As a consumer oriented mobile application, the primary route to downloads will be organic App Store traffic topped up with traffic driven through either advertising or marketing campaigns. 

So how can content marketing aid a company like this? 

We sat down with the team at Idyoma to uncover how WordSmiths, Inc. could help. 

What were the goals of the campaign?

Idyoma had three key goals which would be important for moving the business forward. As a startup, Idyoma faced a few factors which would shape its goals:

• The company had a level of product maturity where customers were happy using the app but monetization of the platform was in its very early stages. 
• This means a low immediate average value of users, making pay per click advertising prohibitive as income is outstripped by the cost per click or per install.
• Further efforts to increase and optimize monetization will increase average lifetime value meaning investing in stable long-term installation-driving mechanisms now will offer greater future rewards.
• As a consumer oriented tech startup, Idyoma would benefit from gaining visibility, authority, and reputability to attract investment and/or partnerships. 

This leaves us three primary goals:

1. Increase downloads. Idyoma needs a stable source of traffic to its app store listings which will keep a consistent flow of new users while also benefiting its organic in-store rankings. The highest value users would be English speakers looking to learn another language – with English+Spanish pairings representing the most value.
2. Increase visibility. A consumer app like Idyoma needs to reach a level of virality to drive large volumes of downloads. Gaining mentions and coverage in other outlets can help that exposure, along with appearances in Google’s knowledge graphs.
3. Increase authority. In both senses of the term. Idyoma required a stronger domain to make future ranking easier and to build the foundations for future content successes. Idyoma would also benefit from being incorporated in industry reports and other investor-friendly materials. 

“It’s one thing to spend a lot of money on Facebook adverts but we need something more consistent right now to build our brand as well as getting short term downloads. As a new business we have to create the structures which can keep our company moving forward, and content is a big part of that” – John Lloyd, CEO, Idyoma

How did we achieve the goals?

We approached this in three stages:

1. Build the structures
2. Create the associations
3. Craft the conversion content

Build the structures

Idyoma’s website before creating content was very new and had only a small footprint. Our first task was to create an article which could drive a significant amount of traffic, earn backlinks, and gather significant presence across social media. 

The most valuable potential user group was identified as English speakers hoping to learn Spanish, so our task was to find a potential topic to gain virality related to this audience in terms of their interests and seen as related by Google. 

We settled on the keyword “Spanish movies” where we created a shareable listicle-structured piece which was progressive, culturally-sensitive, and filled with interesting trivia. The goal for this article was to find significant success on social bookmarking sites like Reddit in order to drive the page up the Google rankings. 

The article was posted to Reddit across multiple communities using different quotes and trivia as the shareable information. The article reached the front page of Reddit and drove over 60k hits to the article over 48 hours. This spawned many copycat articles, quotes in other media outlets, and shares on Twitter – all of which were sources of backlinks and recognition by Google. 

In day 3, the article had already reached the top spots on Google for its chosen keyword along with ranking for a range of longtail keywords. 

Create the associations

The first item of content had been effective at launching Idyoma’s content marketing and had already created a connection with items related to the topic of ‘Spanish’ broadly. 

The next goal was to determine what Google believes the site is relevant for. The intention was to target one of the largest language learning keywords and to reach the top of the first page. This keyword would have a very targeted audience but it was also recorded as one of the main category keywords for that topic area by Ahrefs. 

By ranking for this keyword, Google would start to associate Idyoma’s domain with language learning. It would also continue to drive large volumes of traffic to the website, helping build the domain in Google’s eyes. 

The keyword chosen was ‘Best Way to Learn Spanish’. The article was crafted to provide the best advice while also incorporating related non-competitors, mentioning micro-influencers from this niche, and dedicating a section to Idyoma as part of the storytelling. 

After three weeks the article started to be registered as ranking for a range of related smaller keywords and after week 5 it appeared on the front page. Idyoma out-ranked venture-backed language learning companies like Duolingo and Babbel, plus legacy companies like Rosetta Stone, along with established media outlets like Huffington Post. 

Idyoma’s article on the topic has since retained an average position in the top 10, with the majority of that time in the top 5, plus significant periods in the number 1 spot or the knowledge graph.  

Craft the conversion content

When starting with a blank slate, like a new website presents, it’s important to go for the achievable wins first to build a foundation from which you can tackle larger challenges. 

High-converting keywords tend to have a balance of high volume of search traffic and a high level of buying intent in the term itself. This means they’re unlikely to be a secret. As a result, the most valuable keywords are probably difficult to achieve number 1 rankings for. 

However, with the successes of the previous content and the utilization of valuable backlinks from high authority related websites, valuable keywords started to become viable.

The first keyword to target was ‘Best language learning software’ which was followed by ‘Best language learning apps’. These two terms have both high volume and buying intent, while also within reach for Idyoma. The two terms have some crossover in results but tend to display separate content. This presents a strong opportunity for the articles to support each other and build relevancy for language learning in Google. 

Idyoma was placed 2nd in the lists behind Duolingo so as to appear more natural and trustworthy. The lists were created to be optimized for a knowledge graph format, and extensive description and analysis was included for each product featured. 

Both articles have been highly successful, with “Best language learning software” being consistently Idyoma’s largest source of traffic. This article has been at the top of the search engine results page for most of its time, including consistent appearances in the knowledge graph with Idyoma’s name and value statement clearly visible. 

The end results: Increased downloads and greater brand authority

Content marketing is all about results. 

So how did we do?

1. Increase downloads. Idyoma had a stable rate of 20 downloads a day across both platforms prior to the content production – rising to an average of 60 a day once the ‘Best language learning apps’ had been published. Each money-keyword article was averaging a 1.5% clickthrough rate to the app stores, which increased to ~2% once further click rate optimization techniques were applied. 
2. Increase visibility. After ranking top for the software comparison keywords and reaching the knowledge graphs, Idyoma began to be a regular presence in discussions of language learning tools. Particularly prominent outlets include The Latin American Post, Consumers Advocate, Slant, and UpJourney.
3. Increase authority. Idyoma’s domain rating according to Ahrefs was 7 on a scale of 1-100 before the content was produced. It has since reached a high of 32, and under the new methodology holds a rating of 23. Beyond this, Idyoma is consistently mentioned in industry reports of the state of digital language learning, seen as part of the growing trend of increased social interaction in the language learning sector. 

Ultimately, each goal was met and the use of content for Idyoma has cemented them as a strong presence in the digital language learning industry. 

“We’ve been really happy with the outcomes from our content. Guaranteeing us a consistent baseline of downloads week in week out has really helped our ranking in the app stores, and by retargeting our adverts to visitors to our site we’ve driven down our CPC significantly – so we keep seeing benefits!”  –

John Lloyd, CEO, Idyoma