Take a deep breath 

Slow down.

Breathe in and out.

Releasing every tension: Breathe in. 

Focusing on your breath: Breathe out.

Now, have you ever wondered how Calm revolutionized how we meditate in a multi-million-dollar market? How did it create a billion-dollar business from mindfulness? 

Well, what began as an idea between two friends as a way to help people wind down after a chaotic day has become a mental well-being powerhouse that changed the way we think of mindfulness apps. And this type of great story is worth shining the spotlight on. Calm went from almost having no cash to a billion-dollar valuation in less than five years. Pretty mind blowing right? 

Of course, it is. 

But, what’s more fascinating about Calm’s success story is how the company leapfrogged its competitors and grew so quickly to become the leading meditation app. They won Apple’s App of the Year award in 2017. And in the year 2019, Calm was named number #1 meditation app, outshining Headspace, a competitor that was founded two years before Calm.  Even though Headspace already dominated the market, Calm overtook Headspace in revenue five years after launch, despite having a small team.  

Believe me, this is not sheer luck, there is a process to this success. 

In today’s episode of “Create Like the Greats,” I’d like do a deep dive into the coordinated marketing strategy expertly executed by Calm to drive brand, marketing, and SEO growth in the highly competitive meditation industry. We would break down:

If you have ever started a company or a brand, you would agree with me when I say it takes more than just having an idea of what you want to do to succeed. It takes effort, strategies, and, most importantly, financial backup. 

For Calm, it wasn’t a walk in the park. Acton Smith and cofounder Alex Tew were two friends who grew bored of their "sensible jobs" and decided to try something different in the meditation space. But then, “why the meditation industry?” 

Well, I think these two had foresight. They foresaw that meditation has a lot of potential in a world that is steadily becoming chaotic. Now, to test the water, they started Calm as a website called donothingfor2minutes.com.

And just like the name suggests, the idea behind this website was to get people to pause, stare at the screen, listen to the sound of the waves, and relax for two minutes. All without touching their mouse. At the end of the two minutes, a prompt asked users to like the Facebook page and sign up. And in just two weeks, the Facebook page had over 300,000 likes, and the site had 100,000 sign-ups.  

Now, leveraging the website’s success, Alex Tew and Michael Acton Smit

co-founded Calm. But the start wasn't easy. Money was hard to come by, and competition was tough. So, basically, Calm was underfunded and understaffed. Imagine a company in that state. 

At this point, most small business owners and startup founders would have called it a day and moved on to another idea– but not Acton and Tew. As entrepreneurs at heart, they went all in. They needed to prove to investors that

Calm was profitable. They needed to dominate the market and beat their competitors. So, let’s see how they did that. 

Their major competitor at that time was Headspace, a company that was founded two years before Calm. Meanwhile, Headspace was already making waves in the UK and Silicon Valley. But, instead of seeing their competitor as a threat, it fueled Calm to make big decisions. And these decisions were what brought them success. 

The first decision the cofounders took was to reduce costs. They looked at all expenses with a magnifying glass. The aim was to increase the funds available in the company, so they focused on implementing cost-saving initiatives. How did Calm do this? The founders kept the team size under 10, worked long hours in a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco and sharply questioned every outgoing dollar. Acton Smith even paid for many of Calm's expenses on his personal credit card. 

But then, cutting down costs wasn't the most crucial move for Calm. 

Now, with a flailing idea, they raised the subscription prices. From a surface-level perspective, this might seem like a crazy move for a company that needs to win over users and investors,  But guess what? It worked.  Cofounder Michael Acton Smith said by increasing premium content prices, their revenue increased, and this attracted potential investors. 

Let’s look at the numbers: Calm revenue in 2016 was $7 million. But, once Calm increased the subscription fees, it went to a whopping $37 million in 2017. In three years, Calm overtook Headspace in Revenue by a large margin. In 2020, Calm's revenue was $200milllion, while Headspace revenue stalled to $150milion. So, you can see the big difference. 

I know I mentioned this earlier, but this is worth repeating: Calm skyrocketed its revenue by raising the price of premium content. But before you jump into execution, I'd like you to ask yourself these questions: 

Well, if your answer to these questions is no, you will need to return to your drawing board. It would help if you studied your ideal client and their pain. And after you have already understood this, build your premium content as a solution. No half-baked BS. That premium content should be everything they need, including the things they didn't know they needed. Make it irresistible, or else you won't get their money

But then, does it just end with creating content that people pay premium prices for? Of course, it doesn't.  While the “premium price strategy” means Calm is making more revenue, this doesn’t explain how they are dominating SERP. 

So, this takes us to the first marketing strategy on Calm’s playbook: Content. 

In a moment, we would see how Calm uses informative Content to drive traffic and backlinks. 

A quick look at Calm search data reveals that they have over 40K referring domains, generate over 200K traffic, and has a domain rating score of 86. Calm’s meditation tool and rich content have attracted over 8 million backlinks. Now, as mind-boggling as this is, the idea behind it is simple: Creating assets that attract backlinks from high-authority websites is the SEO tactic that drives their visibility and organic traffic.  

Calm’s free tools were the most highly linkable assets, followed by definitions, statistics, and research. These assets win prospects over and boost organic ranking on search engines.  

For example, Calm dominates the SERP for the keyword "feelings wheel," which has over 52,000 monthly searches. This high search volume attracts over 21,000 monthly visitors to Calm’s blog post. 

The blog post has also generated over 400 backlinks from high-authority websites like Indeed and MSN. Meanwhile, Calm’s blog post isn’t only informative, it also targets Calm’s audience—people who are stressed out and looking for ways to relax.  

Aside from the quality of these blog posts, headlines are another way Calm captures prospects’ attention in the SERPs. A typical example is this blog post on 9 ways to help a friend with anxiety. Calm captures attention by using the number “9” to tell readers there are different ways to solve the problem and including the keyword “help a friend with anxiety,” which has 600 monthly searches. As a result, the headline attracts over 1,000 visits each month. 

Before we hop into the second pillar of Calm’s marketing success, here is a summary of Calm’s content strategy and what we can all take away from it.

Know your audience: For you to succeed in creating content that turns readers into customers, you need to have a clear picture of your audience avatar.

Leverage the power of emotion: I have lived long enough to know that emotions sell better. One brand I know that executes this effortlessly is Masterclass. Masterclass paints pictures in people’s minds with words. But that’s not the best part. One thing that Masterclass does better is leverage the power of reactive storytelling to give people what they think they want. If you are hearing the concept of "reactive storytelling" for the first time, you should definitely check out the MasterClass episode to understand the ins and outs of this strategy and how you can use it to grow your brand. I will attach the link in the show notes. Now, if you still doubt the power of storytelling, remember this: An industry is valued at $137B… and all it does is simply tell really good stories. Yes, I'm talking about Hollywood. So, as a marketer or business owner, you shouldn’t be sleeping on this top secret. In case you don't know where to start, I’d advise you target these four major emotions: Pain, anger, awe, and novelty. People make decisions when they are in pain or angry. Also, have you observed that most of the content that fascinates you…you share? Exactly. Awe triggers sharing. The last emotion is novelty. When something is new, it gets our attention. The AI trend is a typical example. So, keep emotion and storytelling in mind when creating content and headlines.

3. Use short paragraphs: Instead of large chunks of text, use a font style and size that the average person can read clearly. Also, include visuals to break up the text and explain your points.

4. Add value before selling: Don’t just jump in and start selling your course or your webinar. If you want your audience to pay attention to your offer, you’ll have to give them something first. Want your audience to buy your course? Offer a free ebook first. They will long for your paid content when they see the value packed in your freebies. That’s how it works.

5. Include testimonials and case studies: Believe me, what others say about you …is 10X more powerful than what you say about yourself or  your product. So, you should be curating testimonials from your present users and customers. 

6. Choose a strong call to action, it really makes a big difference.