How I Started A Consulting Service For B2B Marketers And SaaS Businesses
I’m Caleb Rule, and I started Rule Marketing Group, LLC to provide marketing consulting to B2B marketers, SaaS, and small businesses looking to get more from what they already do.
The main product/service is consulting, which includes a recorded video assessment highlighting strengths/weaknesses of a company’s digital experiences but can also spread out into building strategy, digging into SEO data, and actually “doing” the work of making changes to improve marketing performance.
Currently, we make $750/mo but this has been an on-again, off-again endeavor - at times we’ve averaged $1,500/mo when investing in this.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
The beginning was born more out of desperation, to be perfectly honest. I’d been fired from my job and my wife’s salary wasn’t enough to pay all the bills. We knew we had a countdown for when we might lose the house, and so in tandem with growing some additional skills, I began reaching out to small businesses where I had connections (and who could use some marketing help).
Later, this came in handy because I worked in a solid job, but it wasn’t pushing me to be a better marketer - in fact, I was getting worn out trying to encourage others to grow. This is when Rule Marketing Group (RMG) took off - as a way not only to put me (and my wife, who has different marketing skills than I do) out there but also to simply get better.
It was a natural extension of something I love and already have demonstrated expertise at … it’s my entire career! I had nearly a decade in the space when this was first launched and of course that number’s only grown 🙂
As long as you have something unique to offer, you have an angle to approach potential buyers for a slice of their time.
This has been a side hustle at times and came in handy when COVID hit and our second child was being born. Hospital bills are expensive, after all!
In terms of the initial pricing structure, it boiled down to “how much is an hour of my time worth?” Since it was started in addition to my day job, it consumes precious time I could spend elsewhere!
So, I took my annual pay, divided it by 50 weeks (assuming 2 weeks vacation), then again by 40 (hours/week), and then rounded it up. That was the initial hourly rate I’d charge, but I also hate ongoing … so, I made sure in a statement of work to provide a maximum number of hours I could charge on a given line item.
This gave me one competitive advantage: Budget caps for clients. They knew I couldn’t charge more than the specified amount because it was in writing (and since I was charging for marketing I’d already done, I had a pretty good idea of what it would take to get things done).
Take us through the process of building the first version of your product.
Getting started was far more challenging than I expected because the question I struggled to ask was “What do I actually do?” Because “marketing” isn’t a good answer!
And of course, the real question is what challenges can I/we solve?
To be honest, we did this backward. Our first client didn’t have a website-savvy marketing person on their team. So I jumped in and started figuring out “Okay, what exactly do they need here?” and built a plan from there.
Thankfully, with marketing the startup costs are pretty minimal - just incorporate and build a website (and a logo) to use as part of your cold outreach. Update the LinkedIn profile in case somebody comes to find out more about your personality, and you’re on your way!
In terms of initial marketing, sometimes you gotta get a bit spicy … we created this in a blog targeting real estate agents and their cookie-cutter marketing tactics (especially billboards):
Describe the process of launching the business.
The launch technically happened with my first client. Before, it was a “should I or shouldn’t I?” scenario until it did happen. Sometimes you need that push!
My wife worked for this client, but it was a nonprofit with a website that was beyond the scope of the internal comms team. They could manage it without issue, but driving significant change was too much of a resource constraint.
So my wife facilitated an introduction - it helped the head of communications also attend our church, as well - and the needs made perfect sense. I went in person to meet in their office and we talked through the current status, resources, and gaps.
For example: They had web analytics but nobody to dig into the insights and then act upon them, and very quickly I saw a huge need for SEO to help Google understand what each page was truly about!
RMG’s basic website was … not great. Courtesy of the Internet WayBack Machine:
Can you say boring? But hey, it was better than nothing (even if everything wasn’t customer-centric at all!).
A major lesson: Build a piece of content on your site that your target audience can’t get anywhere else. It could simply be a story from you that details some lessons learned within a given industry/job.
But as long as you have something unique to offer, you have an angle to approach potential buyers for a slice of their time.
Block time on your calendar to get stuff done. Otherwise, you’ll get pulled into so many different directions that you can easily forget important items!
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
There are two ways I’ve found work very well with retaining clients:
- Do something they otherwise wouldn’t do (such as replying to Google reviews or looking at SEO data every quarter).
- Communicate semi-regularly on a few items you’re keeping tabs on and highlight any wins or concerns you see
Even when I don’t have an active project for the client, this lets me add a bit of value and also reminds them “Hey, RMG did this for you before so when you’re ready to invest further, we’re an email away!” But it’s not a sales pitch - its relationship building.
In terms of attracting, LinkedIn can be a great place to network, build a following, or find people with need your services (depending on what you offer).
For example, on a Neil Patel LinkedIn post years ago about SEO, I found two small business owners needing help - after commenting back-and-forth with them (adding value to the discussion, not selling) I ended up reaching out to both and winning business from one.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
Right now we’re still in the building phase with a change of direction. Initially, we catered only to small businesses, but want to work more with SaaS companies because there’s a real opportunity to make a major impact there.
Growth is slow, but with any pivot that’s to be expected! And we’ve eschewed paid channels for the moment while we make some changes and focus on feedback on new services.
Technically, we’re profitable since expenses are low, but TBD in the coming months!
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
Know what you want to do and what you really should outsource.
I once had a client in a competitive niche (home building) halfway across the country that wanted to expand through Google Ads. This was the mid-2010s, so advertisers had a lot more control within the platform at that time.
The mistake I made was thinking I’d be able to do an awesome job in something I wasn’t truly passionate about. I did some SEO work and helped revitalize portions of their website (which helped the Google Ads performance, as well) and restructured their account to get rid of a lot of wasted spend.
But if I’d been honest, I should’ve known I didn’t have the deep-level expertise nor the passion to build it to get them where they needed to go. And it’s still one of those lessons that I go “Dang, I wish I could’ve served that client better.”
One other item I’d mention? Block time on your calendar to get stuff done. Otherwise, you’ll get pulled into so many different directions that you can easily forget important items!
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
Google Workspace is underrated. I know everyone’s familiar with Gmail and likely Google Sheets, but Docs and Slides are fantastic tools that are seamless to use and make it so you can avoid needing to pay Microsoft insane sums of money for basic functionality.
One area we’ve been invested in more? Youtube and video content. Since one of our core offerings is to record gaps in the customer’s experience, it lends itself to showing some of that expertise. We even have a playlist of short clips that people have enjoyed when we’ve shared on LinkedIn, as well.
Some free tools you should bookmark (and why):
- Tinyjpg and TinyPNG (image compression for websites)
- SparkToro (Audience research)
- Canva (design) and BeFunky (simpler design/image cropping)
- AlsoAsked (Discover questions people ask related to topics - great for content development)
One additional must-have I use all the time: In Google Sheets, use the “Search Analytics for Sheets” add-on. It allows you to pull Google Search Console data into Sheets on an automated monthly basis.
Great for identifying SEO performance and discovering what content you have is doing well or not so well.
And as a bonus, if you’re looking to develop something to “wow” your customers, look into interactive content like an assessment or pricing calculator. Outgrow has a free trial worth exploring!
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
A well-curated LinkedIn news feed can be an AWESOME resource. There are so many great people to learn from on a variety of topics.
For instance, I learned how to do an in-depth SEO content audit from Daniel Foley Carter, to “Show me you know me” in sales from Samantha McKenna, and to question many things I otherwise wouldn’t in the marketing space from Tom Goodwin.
As for books, I’m a fan of the classic: How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie. It's always about influence (no matter what role you’re in).
I’ve also enjoyed Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Travis Bradberry and Jean Greaves to help me grow personally with emotional quotient. Plenty of research from places like Harvard Business Review shows leaders with higher EQ perform better, and that impacts us all!
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
When starting out, make a list of things you’re willing to do and things you aren’t. Stick to it as much as you can - sometimes circumstances may dictate otherwise, but if you’re primarily working on the stuff you like, you’ll find it much more enjoyable!
In terms of your initial marketing, do three things:
- Tell your target audience what problem you solve and what they get right up front on the homepage headline.
- Use a tool like SparkToro (they have a basic free plan) to learn where your audience spends time online, and be willing to spend an hour a week in those places learning and interacting
- Have a trusted friend look over what you’ve set up and give you honest feedback. Ideally, that friend would have experience in your space. Feedback matters!
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
We do work with partners and individual consultants who can provide the expertise we otherwise can’t. The best way to network and get in touch would be on LinkedIn with Caleb!
Where can we go to learn more?
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
