Turning expertise into an always-on business-development channel
Commercial real estate has traditionally relied on relationships, referrals and outbound business development. At AQUILA Commercial, I saw an opportunity to complement that model by making the company’s expertise easier to discover—and more useful to prospective clients long before they were ready to hire a broker.
Following a company rebrand and website redesign, I developed and led a content-led growth strategy built around answering the real questions Austin companies and investors were asking about leasing, buying, selling and managing commercial real estate.
The result was the AQUILA Learning Center: an educational platform that transformed the company’s subject-matter expertise into a scalable source of visibility, trust and qualified opportunities.
The strategy was inspired by the They Ask, You Answer philosophy: openly address the questions customers are already asking—even the difficult ones competitors may avoid.
What We Built
Working closely with AQUILA’s brokers, leadership team and in-house marketers, I led the development of:
- More than 250 educational articles
- More than 230 videos
- A video presence for every salesperson
- Austin commercial real estate market reports and data
- Search-optimized resources addressing prospects’ most common questions
The strategy was inspired by the They Ask, You Answer philosophy: openly address the questions customers are already asking—even the difficult ones competitors may avoid.
The Results
Within three years, the program:
- Increased average monthly organic website sessions from approximately 1,700 to 26,000
- Increased total ranking keywords from 753 to 11,407
- Increased first-page keywords from 11 to 331
- Generated more than 100,000 YouTube views
- Produced more than 200 qualified inbound leads
- Grew to influence approximately 22% of the company’s new business
Watch the video to see Kendall and her company leaders talk about AQUILA’s inbound marketing success.
Total Keywords: April 2016 – April 2019, 753 → 11,407 (1,415% or 15.2X)
First Page Keywords: April 2016 – April 2019, 11 → 331 (2,909% or 30X)
Why It Mattered
The Learning Center did more than increase traffic.
It gave AQUILA’s brokers a library of useful resources to share with prospects, strengthened the company’s authority in the Austin market and created a measurable acquisition channel in an industry where marketing had traditionally been viewed primarily as a support function.
Most importantly, it demonstrated that education could be both a brand strategy and a revenue strategy—building trust at scale while helping prospective clients make better, more informed decisions.
My Role
Strategy, Executive Leadership, Brand Positioning, Content Strategy, SEO, Video Strategy, Team Development, Sales Enablement, Marketing Technology and Performance Measurement