Building a Growth Engine for EdTech

In today’s dynamic market, sustained growth demands more than campaigns; it requires systems, leadership, and relentless focus on outcomes. My most recent role as the Head of Marketing for Colibri’s Real Estate education division presented a unique challenge: leading end-to-end marketing for a dozen distinct brands, with direct accountability for e-commerce revenue, all while the real estate sector faced significant headwinds. The number of active real estate agents in the U.S. has seen a notable decline, dropping to 440,000 in 2024 from 549,000 in 2019, reflecting a cooling market and increased pressure on profitability. What followed was a comprehensive marketing transformation rooted in systemic change, yielding significant, measurable results against this challenging backdrop.

The Mandate: Re-engineer for Hyper-Growth

My primary objective was clear: to architect and execute a full-scale marketing transformation that would not only align a team of 35+ professionals but also deliver aggressive growth and exceed ambitious financial targets. This involved overhauling existing structures, strategically investing in talent, and optimizing resource allocation across all marketing functions—from strategy and demand generation to acquisition, retention, and brand building.

The core of this transformation was the establishment of repeatable, scalable systems that addressed every stage of the customer journey:

1. Architected a robust top-of-funnel pipeline and launched an advanced lead scoring system, directly doubling the number of qualified leads:
2. Implemented a data-driven operational framework for performance marketing and SEO, increasing ROAS by 20% and adapting to the evolving search landscape
3. Drove efficiency through strategic systems, including leading an AI-driven marketing transformation, reducing campaign creation steps by 40% while enhancing effectiveness:

Building the Pipeline

Changes in search behavior as a result of AIO combined with the real estate agent pool contracting made relying on traditional search alone risky. The first step in building the funnel was to move beyond promotional vertical campaigns by architecting top-and-middle-of-the-funnel activities. Relying on a shrinking search pool wasn’t sustainable, especially with AI. To counteract, a two-part discoverability strategy was put in place. First, refocusing the conventional SEO strategy and secondly, expanding to incorporate best practices for LLMs.

• Doubled the number of qualified leads through reimagined top-of-the-funnel optimizations and around audiences and personas.
• Relying on a shrinking search pool wasn’t sustainable in light of AI. SEO strategies required a rethink given the changes in search behavior. One of the primary strategies was adding Wikipedia pages and put more muscle against Bing to ensure discoverability across LLMs, especially ChatGPT that tends to use Bing, Wikipedia, Blogs and LinkedIn as primary sources.
• True growth meant speaking directly to the aspirations of aspiring agents. So we built AI Voice-of-the-Customer and directly translated insights into content and messaging. Refined creative and messaging around a more authentic voice, translating sentiment into action and content at scale, which consistently outperformed traditional formats.

Optimized Channels for Performance

Through targeted funnel optimizations, innovative channel strategies, and operational efficiencies, performance improvements occurred for affiliate marketing, paid media, and website conversion.

Driving Integrated Performance Across Channels

To complement the foundational work in building the pipeline and optimizing operations, a holistic approach was taken to integrate and elevate the performance of key marketing channels. Systematic funnel optimizations, innovative channel strategies, and ongoing operational improvements worked together to drive measurable performance gains. These coordinated efforts maximized the efficiency of affiliate programs, refined media investments, and boosted website conversion rates—laying the groundwork for sustainable, results-driven marketing.

• Recruited high-value alumni to bolster the affiliate network, leveraging existing brand loyalty to overcome headwinds SEO Affiliates are encountering with the changing search landscape. Achieved a 30% expansion in affiliates through an aggressive prospecting and enablement strategy.
• Increased ROAS by 20% through balancing spend across evergreen vs vertical campaign, refining branded vs non-branded search spend allocations, geographical targeting and aggressive A/B testing.
• Oversaw more than 20 targeted website and e-commerce optimizations. Executed extensive A/B testing on critical landing pages to identify optimal layouts and messaging to increase conversion rates.
• Targeted key behaviors, e.g. abandoned cart and re-engagement to convert leads still on the fence and also expanded SMS efforts which showed strong promise.

Designed a Scalable Growth System

Beyond direct demand generation, a critical pillar of the marketing transformation was the implementation of strategic systems designed to maximize operational efficiency, scalability, and the intelligent use of resources. These initiatives ensured that every marketing dollar and effort delivered amplified returns.

• Developed overarching marketing strategies that provided a consistent framework across diverse brands. Moved to a macro marketing approach that enabled tailoring and personalization while maintaining efficiencies by having a common strategy and system:
• Led an AI-driven marketing transformation, reducing campaign creation steps by 40% while enhancing effectiveness: spearheaded an AI-driven transformation, integrating cutting-edge tools to optimize resource allocation and campaign performance.
• Fostered a culture of innovation, directly contributing to accelerated growth. A critical part of the transformation was instilling a data-driven culture. We launched a cadence of weekly business performance reviews and systemized the process for data-driven insights and continuous improvement. This discipline helped us better understand the channel dynamics and bring the different pieces of the puzzle together.

The Outcome: A Resilient Growth Engine

The result was building a system designed for long-term resilience. Qualified leads doubled, ROAS rose by 20%, and conversion rates lifted across key touchpoints. Efficiencies were achieved enabling the team to increase throughput. Growth in a contracting market isn’t about working harder—it’s about redesigning the systems. When people, process, platforms, and customer insight align, growth becomes inevitable.

Sheera Eby championed this transformation as Head of Marketing, Colibri Group Real Estate Division.