RSO Consulting

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of marketing and partnerships of a peer-to-peer platform for motorhome and RV rentals operating in New Zealand. We provide a platform where owners can list their motorhomes to the public.

What challenge were you trying to address with RSO Consulting?

Our company needed to improve our performance on SERPs for our targeted keywords, as well as the overall domain authority of our site.

What was the scope of their involvement?

RSO Consulting essentially set up all of our SEO efforts from scratch. That includes reporting, strategy, and action plans, while the actual content was produced in-house. Rob (Owner) helped us by advising, guiding, and analyzing our strategy while continuing to drive it forward.

What was the team composition?

We collaborate directly with Rob for all of the work.

How did you come to work with RSO Consulting?

He was already consulting with the company when I came into the role, so I wasn’t involved in the initial hiring process, but I know that it had to do with our SEO and domain authority. Our parent company is based in the states and connected us with RSO to accomplish that task.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $2,000–$3,500 a month with him and have for most of our engagement.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in October of last year and is still ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Rob has been instrumental in helping us improve our SEO capacity from the ground up. There was a lot of work that went into the backend of the site from restructuring to content strategy, and his passion and enthusiasm were critical to getting us on the path to improving our rankings overall.

Everyone really enjoyed working with Rob, and beyond the overall SEO improvements we also gained a lot of knowledge and insight from him about the website as a whole. He really went above and beyond in everything he did.

How did RSO Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

Consulting remotely from New Zealand to the United States can be pretty difficult, but the energy and attitude that RSO brought to the engagement more than made up for the challenge we were facing. Their determination to deliver results was incredible.

Since we were executing the recommendations that he gave us, the management of the project was relatively smooth, but his communication with us was a significant part of maintaining that. He told us what needed to be done, in what order, and continued to check the quality of the work and the results in order to deliver better recommendations. Communication and follow-through were excellent, and attention to detail was even better.

What did you find most impressive about them?

SEO is as much an art as it is a science, and his knowledge is easily up there with the best in the industry. What makes RSO really stand out is their undying passion to see their clients succeed.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I’m not sure if there’s anything he could have done to improve the results we saw on the project.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Listen to him and put the appropriate resources in place to make what he recommends happen. There can be times where he is able to drive your strategy forward and you may not be able to deliver fast enough, so if you want to get the most out of the work, be ready to keep up with the pace.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a nonprofit school in San Francisco.

What challenge were you trying to address with RSO Consulting?

Our organization didn’t have any in-house people working on digital marketing, so we brought them on board to pretty much run that in collaboration with our marketing and communications department.

What was the scope of their involvement?

They helped us to strengthen our online presence so that it was easier for communities in the wider US and internationally to find out about us. We focused on organic search methods but have also used Google and Facebook ads. They’ve performed a wide variety of SEO support, PPC on multiple platforms, and A/B testing on our website.

What was the team composition?

We actually worked with several members of their team throughout the project, and they’ve all been great so far.

How did you come to work with RSO Consulting?

There was someone at the school who had worked with him in another business, and they recommended them to us. They have been very accommodating of our status as a nonprofit as well, which helped us to be able to work with them.

How much have you invested with them?

We have a relatively low monthly fee but have spent somewhere between $10,000–$25,000 in total over the years.

What is the status of this engagement?

The collaboration started in May 2017 and is still ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Applications for the school are definitely up over the time we’ve been working with them, which is exactly what we were hoping for. There has also been positive improvement in a lot of different numbers, from time on site to click-through-rates and everything.

How did RSO Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

We have monthly meetings to update our goals and set new targets, and then we use email in between to ask questions, provide updates, and clarify anything that needs to be decided for an ongoing campaign. All of our communication with them has been very personal, organized and effective.

What did you find most impressive about them?

It’s clear from the attitude they bring to their work that they care and are interested in understanding our business. We’re not a business, we’re a school, so they have put a lot of effort into understanding what our families looking for and how to present a school in the best light. It’s been really nice to have that kind of curiosity and investment in what we’re trying to do.

Are there any areas they could improve?

This is obviously not relevant during social distancing, but it would be nice to implement quarterly meetings where we actually get together in person just to really make sure that everyone is on the same page.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would really recommend it, especially for nonprofits that might not budget for it even though the world is moving increasingly online. Even for people who might think it is not absolutely necessary, I think t’s actually very helpful and can be included as a line item in the budget.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m a digital marketing manager at a wine retailer. I manage paid and organic search for the company.

What challenge were you trying to address with RSO Consulting?

I needed help with SEO and maintaining it during a site migration. I was going to be out of the office for a month and needed someone reliable to assist with our SEO during this large project.

What was the scope of their involvement?

RSO Consulting assisted in a huge migration from an HTTP to an HTTPS protocol. We had a roadmap and requirements for running the project smoothly. They monitored and managed our site to minimize downtime. He supported our IT and SEO processes while making sure everything was up and running.

What is the team composition?

I primarily worked with Robert (President), but there was another teammate on the project as well.

How did you come to work with RSO Consulting?

Robert was my teacher when I lived in San Francisco.

How much have you invested with them?

That particular project cost between $10,000–$25,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The engagement started in July 2018 and it’s an ongoing partnership. He consults with me on best practices and makes sure I’m up to date on all industry trends.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The outcome was amazing. We were expecting our traffic to decline after our site migration to a more secure protocol, but it immediately skyrocketed instead. We credit Robert’s efforts for that. His work had a huge impact on our business.

How did RSO Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

We had weekly touch-bases with him to go over our roadmaps. Communication was seamless, even though the project was entirely remote. We didn’t have any problems.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Part of the reason I decided to pursue SEO was that Rob was such a great instructor. He’s an excellent teacher who explains complex processes in a simple way. He has the ability to make difficult topics seem unintimidating. He’s also solution-oriented; you can brainstorm with him, and he’ll work with you towards something both of you can agree on.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, not really. Our relationship has been excellent, and it wouldn’t have lasted so long if I had any complaints at all.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Internally align your resources so that you can quickly implement his suggestions. Otherwise, you have to grant him access to your website so that he can implement them for you. That’s a general protocol for working with any SEO specialist.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the director of  advancement at Escuela Bilingüe Internacional. We’re a pre-K–8th independent school.

What challenge were you trying to address with RSO Consulting?

Our website wasn’t performing well in terms of attracting and converting potential customers. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

Their team has done a lot of SEO work on our site. On social media, they run campaigns and track those results. For the advertising campaigns we run with different agencies, RSO Consulting creates landing pages and shows us the metrics so we can evaluate our ROI.

They also work with our website hosting platform to create new features and functionalities by testing changes and making recommendations. He also helped us manage the transition to our newly designed website. They monitor our site daily and fix any glitches or errors.

What is the team composition?

I work with their whole team, including a project manager that pulls together different resources. 

How did you come to work with RSO Consulting?

We’d heard positive feedback from another school that had worked with RSO Consulting. Rob (Founder) brought his team on site, gave us an overview and some relevant ideas. It felt like he knew us already which was incredibly helpful and persuasive. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spend around $1,750 per month, so we’re in the range of $20,000–$50,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We began working together in March 2018 and our engagement is ongoing. 

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

They’ve done a phenomenal job optimizing our pages. Their SEO efforts have yielded very positive results. Their work on our website has led to increased conversion rates. Even during COVID-19, we’re still seeing growth in the things that are most important to our business, like the area of admissions. 

How did RSO Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

They do a great job. They give us monthly reports and explain what’s working and what isn’t. They’ve got a solid, knowledgeable, multi-functional team that comes up with impressive insights. The information inside their reports shows they understand our needs and they come up with strategies to act on. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They’ve really been a behind-the-scenes partner that has evolved more than I originally thought. All of their recommendations and choices are strategic. There are lots of great minds working to help our business and come up with solutions. They’re very action-oriented. They’re very in touch with who we are as a school and where we want to go, always willing to roll up their sleeves and get the job done. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

Just continuing to break down things into layman’s terms like they’re doing and giving the “so what” of a situation. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be really clear about what you want and what your problem is. Allow them to customize a solution. Don’t be afraid to give them feedback and guidance, since they do a great job of tailoring to fit your needs. Trust them and be open as a partner.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of online growth and e-commerce for BlueJeans Network, and we are a video conferencing company. I oversee strategic planning and forecasting for the business, including sales, marketing, and operations.

What challenge were you trying to address with RSO Consulting?

When I joined the company, we didn’t have Google analytics or any kind of insight into our online presence and performance, so my goal was to develop those capabilities. I decided to bring RSO Consulting on to help establish the basics for all of those processes.

What was the scope of their involvement?

We started by sitting down and working through the business questions that immediately needed to be answered. Once we had a handle on what was needed to properly run a global e-commerce business with a SaaS model, we matched that up with elements of the customer journey and tools that would help us address those.

From there, they got to work setting up everything from Google Task Manager and UTM codes to full-stack tracking capabilities and a dashboard that would allow me to see everything from top of the funnel results all the way through to confirmation and purchases of products on our site.

Once we had everything in place and working properly within our tech environment, our company made a transition to another third-party e-commerce provider. Their team helped us work on a transition plan and build out that integration, as well as creating a new dashboard that would keep all of the information that I was receiving from those vendors was consistent with the numbers they were seeing on our internal website side as well.

What is the team composition?

I worked with a few members of their team, always including the owner himself and usually one or two of his key people.

How did you come to work with RSO Consulting?

I wasn’t involved with the decision-making process in selecting them, but one of my counterparts selected them based on a good experience with them at a previous company.

What is the status of this engagement?

The project started in September 2018, and we are continuing to work together.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

They have been my eyes and ears in terms of our online performance, which has been incredibly valuable to the success of our operations. In one particular case, they helped me quantify and pinpoint some specific pain points in our account creation process that I could tell were there but didn’t have the resources to find.

We have since been able to go in with our UX team and completely redesign that experience so that it is a lot less abrupt and helps users make that decision much more intuitively and easily. The data they helped me visualize was crucial to being able to go back to my design and product team and give them specific tasks to work towards improving that process.

How did RSO Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

Their team has done a fantastic job of managing all of their work. They get what I need intuitively because of the level of experience that they have in this type of work. The whole team is incredibly responsive and helpful in getting us answers as quickly as possible.

Especially considering the current pandemic everyone is experiencing, the consistency of their service is wildly impressive. Since we are a video conferencing solution, we’ve had an over 10 times increase in order volume over the past few weeks, and they have been able to jump in and help me fill in gaps in our data that are critical to maintaining the operation of the business.

What did you find most impressive about them?

RSO Consulting has a truly unique blend of being able to get things done quickly and being able to navigate the tech environment that they operate in with ease, as well as coming up with creative insights and solutions whenever we get stuck on any given problem.

Are there any areas they could improve?

I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. They’ve risen to every challenge that I have thrown at them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

It’s really important for any executive that’s working with them to be really clear about what questions they need answers to. The scattershot strategy of just collecting data on everything is not nearly effective as identifying what numbers are really driving your business and then letting them handle the “how” of analyzing and interpreting that information.

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing and sales at Valley Fig Growers, a grower-owned fig cooperative.

What challenge were you trying to address with RSO Consulting?

We were actively trying to get customers to visit our website and then translate that into getting them to go to our grower store, with the eventual goal of having them order from us. Our organization had been trying to do this but we weren’t able to achieve what we wanted to, that’s why we hired RSO Consulting. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

RSO Consulting implemented keyword searches and made sure that we were tagged correctly and that our visibility was aligned to the words that customers were searching for. They also helped us to bid on keywords on Google. Additionally, the team redid the style and navigation of our website.

What is the team composition?

Rob (Founder & Web Analytics Consultant) was our main point of contact and he has a team working with him.

How did you come to work with RSO Consulting?

They were referred to us by someone who had worked with him before. Having somebody whose opinion I value speak very highly of him helped me make my decision to work with RSO Consulting. 

How much have you invested with them?

We started working with them in August 2018 and our engagement is ongoing.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve spent under $50,000 in total so far.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

Rob has been very successful in achieving everything we've asked him to do. Prior to engaging RSO Consulting, when I would type in “California dried figs,” our organization would show up on page four or five in the Google search engine. Now, we typically show up on the first page and we’re usually the second or third item listed on the page. 

So, our exposure to people who were searching for dried figs or fig ingredient items completely escalated. That was a home-run for us. It also translated into more people visiting our site and staying on it longer, which, in turn, led to incremental sales off of our grower store. 

We’ve also seen an escalation in inquiries for our industrial products. In addition, the analytics have also influenced some of our business decisions. We were able to see what words our site visitors were searching and this helped us finetune some of our strategies and ideas. 

How did RSO Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

They perform very well, always delivering a superior product on time. They needed very little guidance for the website project. Every other week, we have an hour-long conference call and we also communicate via email. If something does come up, we’re still able to schedule other calls. Although he’s overseas, Rob is very easy to work with and accessible. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Rob is reliable, consistent, and delivers results. I looked at other companies to work on this project, but I just don’t see them measuring up to Rob’s performance.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, I can’t think of anything. They’ve been very proactive in bringing suggestions to us on how we can improve. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Communication is key. The conference calls have helped us focus on key topics and next steps. Before, we were meeting ad hoc, but being able to have a timeframe and project list to look at has made a big difference. 

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the head of social for a digital agency.

What challenge were you trying to address with RSO Consulting?

One of our clients asked for help with SEO and PPC campaigns, which are services a little bit outside of our current skill set. 

What was the scope of their involvement?

RSO Consulting came in and performed audits for our client. They participated in our weekly meetings with clients. They now build PPC campaigns, write copy, lightly edit photos, perform AB testing, and create Google Data Studio reports that are updated each week and that we review with our clients. When it comes to website edits, one particular client handles all changes internally. It’s a matter of providing recommendations that the client then implements. RSO Consulting has become a natural extension of our team.

What is the team composition?

We work with a team of three people, each with a different specialty. 

How did you come to work with RSO Consulting?

A friend recommended them to me. She’s worked with them for a long time. Combined with that personal recommendation, I was also impressed with and how fast Rob (Founder, Web Analytics Consultant) and his team could come on board. He was very available, and we were able to quickly bring them into the fold and have them help our client.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend just under $5,000 a month, but that changes depending on the project we have underway.

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership started in May 2019 and is ongoing

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Our client never had any type of data to support what they’re doing. Having all this reporting now provided by Rob and his team has helped our client change their entire marketing scheme. They can now know what’s not working and pivot accordingly to find their target market. In addition, the campaigns we’re running show significant traffic to their website. Now they can retool their website to better capture their audience.

How did RSO Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

The team is really attentive. They make all the changes that our client requests. I trust them implicitly. Slack is our primary tool for communication. We use also G Suite for campaigns and document sharing

What did you find most impressive about them?

I haven’t worked with anyone else, so I don’t have much to compare to. However, I enjoy working with RSO Consulting. They’re easy to communicate with and implement changes quickly. Most importantly, our client feels comfortable with their team. They’re just a great partner for us.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’ve handled everything we’ve requested of them. I have no constructive feedback at this time.

Any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront about your expectations and how you or your client works.  

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the property manager for an apartment community.

What challenge were you trying to address with RSO Consulting?

We hired RSO Consulting to provide full-service digital marketing for our company.

What was the scope of their involvement?

RSO Consulting handles our social media presence. They provide suggestions for posts, create monthly plans, and publish content online for us. Their team manages our Google Ads and PPC campaigns. Their team runs our efforts on LinkedIn and Facebook, as well, to grow our site’s following.

What is the team composition?

Rob (Founder, RSO Consulting) was our main point of contact.

How did you come to work with RSO Consulting?

I wasn’t involved in the search process, but a member of our marketing department brought RSO Consulting on board.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working with RSO Consulting since January 2016.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Working with RSO Consulting has helped grow online engagement with our business. We’re pleased with the results and will likely continue with these efforts because of the impact.

How did RSO Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

They excel in managing the work and communicating with our team, mainly through email. It’s great having a primary point of contact because Rob is always available for us and follows up personally. If I need anything, regardless of the time difference, I hear back from their team quickly. We have an ongoing to-do list that is used by both sides and keeps everyone up-to-date.

What did you find most impressive about them?

RSO Consulting knows how to enhance campaigns and provide useful insight. It’s wonderful that their team is available around the clock and communicative. They’re always ready when we need support.

Are there any areas they could improve?

There’s nothing I suggest they improve.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Let them know what you need and what your goals are. Take advantage of their advice and ability to improve your efforts.

Introduce your business and what you do there. 

I’m the business director of a small company that runs an e-commerce training website. We provide public training tools and educational materials to promote emotional awareness. Our goal is to enhance people’s ability to accurately interpret facial expressions.

What challenge were you trying to address with RSO Consulting? 

Prior to working with RSO Consulting, our website didn’t have any SEO strategies in place, and we hadn’t set up our Google Analytics. As a result, we didn’t have a lot of visibility and lacked insights about our audience. Rob (Founder, RSO Consulting) and his team partnered with us to set up our digital marketing efforts and continue to support us.

What was the scope of their involvement? 

In general, Rob manages all of our SEO and paid advertising campaigns. Anytime we have a project, whether it’s a MailChimp blast, newsletter, or A/B testing for our site, he tracks all of our metrics and presents them to us in comprehensible ways. We then use his data points to further improve our business strategies.

His team also helps us with our digital marketing needs. This has ranged from updating our site to be more SEO-compliant to optimizing our blog content. Recently, they’ve supported us through a rebrand, and we now continue to use them for ongoing digital marketing services.

What is the team composition?  

Rob is our go-to contact for most projects. He leads a team of specialists, bringing in different resources depending on the task. We’ve worked with one individual who helps us optimize our blogs, and there are others who handle site modifications. For A/B testing, they provide a dedicated team. 

How did you come to work with RSO Consulting? 

We wanted to become more informed about digital marketing practices so that we could make smarter business decisions regarding our website. After taking an SEO 101 course that Rob happened to teach, we ended up bringing him on as a consultant. Since then, he’s done far more than we’ve originally asked, but Rob ultimately makes sure that we have an SEO strategy in place and are monitoring it.

What is the status of this engagement? 

We’ve worked with them since May 2016, and the engagement is ongoing.

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

RSO Consulting’s data has played a crucial role in our rebrand this past year. As part of the initiative, we decided to launch a new version of our website, changing the content and streamlining certain processes. Rob’s work drove many of our decisions. He broke down all of the digital marketing data that he’s collected from our campaigns to help us revamp our site. A great part of our current success can be directly attributed to his efforts. At the moment, we’re looking to set up additional A/B testing to push our numbers even higher.

How did RSO Consulting perform from a project management standpoint?

It's incredibly easy to work with them. There have been cases when we’ve given them hard deadlines with almost no time to think about the project, and they’ve still met our schedules. To coordinate our projects, we use a combination of Slack for instant communication, email for sharing large files, and Notion as our project management hub.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Rob brings such a personal touch to the partnership. Not only is he invested in our company’s success, but he’s also a great teacher who cares about our professional growth. He’s more than happy to do what he can to educate us, even if that means we won’t necessarily need his help as much for certain projects. The whole team is dedicated to making everyone involved better by the end of each project.

Are there any areas they could improve? 

No, there’s not much that I would change. Maybe it would be nice if we could communicate more with the other team members, but that might be too many cooks in the kitchen. In the end, I trust the processes that they have in place.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?
 
Be open-minded and flexible with your end goals because Rob and his team can probably magnify the results if given the chance.

Please describe your company.

We are a very large provider of outdoor and camping gear.

What is your role and responsibilities?

My role is in [global direct innovation insights], and I also manage the Web business.

What was your goal for working with RSO Consulting?

The goal was using SEO [search engine optimization] to increase our online sales, as well as the PPC [pay-per-click] campaign. The overall goal was to drive revenue and build our SEO strategy.

Please describe the scope of their work.

RSO supported us with SEO. They provided management and an advisory role in the campaigns. We had some social media marketing as well, but it was mainly the execution.

What was your process for selecting RSO Consulting with which to work?

We used RSO as a vendor before this project.

Can you provide a ballpark dollar figure for the size of the work that they’ve done for you?

That is confidential.

Do you have any statistics or metrics to track improvement from the project?

They helped us in driving traffic to the website. Traffic has increased, and they contributed to conversions as well.

Is there anything unique about them that really makes them stand out, compared to other companies?

I don’t consider them to be like the big-box agencies. They are very nimble, and we work with them very efficiently. That is one of the things I like about them.

Looking back on the work so far, is there any area that you think they could improve upon or that you might do differently?

They bring us new ideas and new ways to do things. I think that improving that process and being able to implement them quickly is something that I’m working through. This is mostly on our end and a little bit on their end.