By In today’s digital world, websites are a must-have, not a nice-to-have. And that’s good news if you’re considering becoming a website builder reseller.
Become a website builder reseller the easy way by downloading the “6-Step Guide to Selling Website Services to Local Businesses” now.
A website is the online store for local businesses. It helps shop owners gain brand awareness, establish credibility, provide more information about the products and services they offer, and boost sales. Websites are especially vital to businesses that don’t have an obvious Main Street brick-and-mortar physical presence.
Yet, the unfortunate reality is less than 64 percent of small businesses have a website.
Studies show that between 70 and 80% of consumers research a business online before visiting in person or making a purchase. Given this statistic, it’s likely that local businesses are being ignored by a large number of prospective customers who would be otherwise interested in them, but don’t have access to the information they need in order to make a purchasing decision. They might not be aware of their existence altogether.
What does all this mean for agencies?
Opportunity. And lots of it!
With so many small and medium businesses (SMB) needing a website—or a better website—digital and web agencies can play an important role in helping these companies establish their web presence.
In this blog, we explain the top reasons to become a website builder reseller:
- Build a recurring revenue stream
- Build another revenue stream
- Grow optionality
- Increase retention
- Help local businesses thrive online
We also discuss how you can offer this service in a way that’s simple and cost effective for you, your prospects, and current clients.
But first, the basics of becoming a website builder reseller
Without getting into the nitty-gritty, websites work sort of like a house in that two core elements are required to build them.
- There’s the website itself, which is the home with its basic or fancy finishes (think slick navigation, visual appeal, and so on)
- Then, there’s the web hosting part, which is essentially the plot of land that the website sits on
The construction outfits of websites, if you will, include the likes of WordPress, Squarespace, GoDaddy, and Wix, whereas the hosting is done by providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Vendasta Website Pro.
The problem is while there’s a large total addressable market of potential clients, website builder services are highly commoditized, and small and medium businesses (SMBs) don’t want to overpay for them.
That makes it tricky for agencies and other resellers, because to hire a wiz team of website developers and designers and get staff AWS certified is, as you can imagine, a very expensive and time-consuming undertaking.
Hence the easiest approach is to consider becoming a website builder reseller. As such, you can get the work fulfilled by a partner, while charging the margins you need to make a profit, and without taking on the major business risk of hiring an army of developers.
Let’s get to those reasons why this can be an effective strategy.
Reason 1: Build a recurring revenue stream with web building
Creating a digital home for SMBs can deliver both upfront and recurring revenue streams for a website builder reseller.
When you enter into an agreement with a local business to build a new or redesigned website, you stand to gain:
- An upfront payment or consulting fee that scales in accordance to the complexity of the design work. The more visually detailed a website is, the more pages it has, and so on, the more you can charge.
- A recurring monthly revenue stream to spread the cost of the fulfillment work and utilize your services including request website updates and maintenance on an ongoing basis.
As a website builder reseller, you can not only leverage a WordPress website builder platform but a team of white-label web design services to build websites all under your brand as well.
As the reseller, you would work with the client to provide a brief of what they want and the white-label team can do the rest. You set your margins between the price of your expertise in digital marketing and the white-label team’s cost to fulfill a beautiful online gateway for your clients.
Reason 2: Build another recurring revenue stream with web hosting
What’s better than one recurring revenue stream? Two or more of them! Web hosting offers another repeatable revenue opportunity as part of an agency’s website builder reseller portfolio.
Akin to buying a plot of land or carefully selecting a physical store location, where you host a client’s website matters.
With website hosting, your agency becomes the broker that provides the land and sets the margins you want between the cost of hosting and the value you’ve brought to the table in offering this service and educating customers.
Reliable and high-performing web hosting is a fundamental aspect of any successful website and has implications for factors such as:
- Website speed
- Uptime
- Search engine optimization
- Capacity to handle large amounts of traffic
- Security
For example, Website Pro hosts your clients' WordPress website on one of the most trusted hosting solutions on the web: the Google Cloud Platform. With its state-of-the-art infrastructure and relentless drive for continuous improvement, Google ensures your clients have a fast, reliable, smooth and secure website that can scale to fit growing web traffic.
The best part for resellers is that they don’t need to get involved in the complex hassle of obtaining web hosting and cloud certifications.
Reason 3: Growth optionality
In the agency world, website builder reseller services for clients is somewhat like a “Trojan Horse” in that it can lead to a much deeper relationship.
Once a local business has their website up and running, they can’t simply rest on their laurels and expect traffic to magically come in. This is when business owners start to really rely on your marketing expertise on how to grow traffic and boost conversion opportunities on their shiny new online gateway.
Consider the following upsell and cross-sell opportunities:
- Getting the client’s website and associated business information updated, hyperlinked and found on services such as Google Business Profile (Listings Builder)
- Generating reviews for the client and responding to customer feedback on review websites including Google, Yelp, TripAdvisor, and more (Reputation Management)
- Developing a social media marketing plan so that you or the local business can create and schedule posts that drive traffic back to their website (Social Marketing)
- Integrating ecommerce solutions onto their website so they can sell products online while expanding their geographic reach (Ecommerce)
These services can further strengthen your recurring revenue streams while helping you scale.
Reason 4: Increased retention
What happens when you have a checking account, savings account, a car loan, a mortgage, your stock portfolio, and a financial advisor all with the same bank? You become easier to retain (or it’s harder to leave) given you have so much invested with one institution.
The same concept applies to resellers. When a local business relies on you for building, updating, and hosting their website, as well as the other components of their online presence and digital advertising, they’re less inclined to jump ship.
A massive study of over 200,000 SMBs titled Why Your Clients Churn found retention rates increase dramatically when local businesses buy more digital services from their agencies and other trusted experts.
Specifically, selling an SMB one product has a retention rate of only 30 percent after two years. Selling that SMB just one more product showed an increased retention rate of nearly 20 percent, while selling an SMB four products improved the retention rate to 80 percent.
It also pointed out that identifying the needs of SMBs with needs-based selling and providing relevant solutions increases client retention by 30 percent.
Reason 5: Helping local businesses thrive
At the end of the day, resellers are there to help local businesses thrive and succeed in their local communities. Having a great website and strong online presence is fundamental to this objective.
Consider the following statistics:
- 91% of people have visited a store because of an online experience.
- 37% use the internet to find a store at least once a month.
- 68% of consumers who search locally on their smartphones visit a store within 24 hours, and almost 50% make a purchase within a day.
It’s clear that consumers want to do their research and be informed before walking into a shop’s physical location. This trend has only accelerated due to the pandemic.
Ready to resell websites?
Becoming a website builder reseller offers an attractive opportunity to create multiple revenue streams while providing growth optionality of tacking on other services to strengthen a local business’s online presence over time.
Best of all, this approach allows you to de-risk your business by preventing the complications of purchasing technology systems and labor required to build a client’s website, all while ensuring their online presence is in safe hands.
And last but not least, what could be a prouder moment for an agency owner when a mom-and-pop shop experiences a virtuous cycle of more inquiries, traffic, and sales as a result of having a website and stronger online presence?
