Every business that deals with clients or customers will share a similar goal: to make a tower of cash so high that you can’t see the top of it without booking some telescope time* at Jodrell Bank. And how do you do that? By maximising customer lifetime value. Customer lifetime value, or CLV, is how much revenue you can expect to earn per customer throughout their relationship with you. And there’s only one way to make it happen:
Get your customers spending more!
Easier said than done, right? Well, there are two possible ways for web designers to make this happen. The first, and most obvious, is to charge more for your services. It’s a method that’s definitely going to improve the size of each transaction, so this is your reminder to think hard about your pricing – are you charging what you’re worth? Have you productised your services, or are you still charging an hourly rate? However, this isn’t the only way to increase the lifetime value of your customers.
The second (and perhaps less obvious) way is to offer something more, beyond the scope of web design. Something that will create a regular, ongoing stream of income from your existing customers. It costs a lot less to retain a customer than it does to acquire a new one – so that’s what we’re going to talk about.
Shifting from ‘per project’ payments to monthly packages
Let’s be honest here. Customer retention really isn’t something that many web designers are all that bothered about. At least, not as much as those working in a lot of other industries. And, of course, it makes sense for that to be the case. You’re employed on a ‘per project’ basis. You design the site. You get the job done. You wave your customers on their merry way. But it doesn’t always have to be like that.
To be fair, however, monthly recurring revenue is a little more challenging in web design than it is in, say, grocery retail. OK, there may be a need for customers to come back in the future to request the addition of new pages. Or maybe a rebranding. But it’s not like a supermarket where, as long as you’ve got affordable prices and staff with a smile (or at least, not actively horrible staff), you’ve got repeat customers week after week.
And that’s key. It means that rather than trying to encourage repeat sales, you need to be encouraging higher value, recurring ones; ones that keep the money rolling in on a regular, ongoing basis.
Some web designers do this already. If you’ve been keeping up with the competition, you’re probably noticing that more and more are offering ‘maintenance packages’ covering services such as regular backups, plugin updates, or WordPress updates. And these are all really good starting points.
However, they’re all very close to the core service. Even more opportunity exists for web designers if they’re willing to branch out from what they know, and start exploring more potential services.
If you think about it, there are quite a few possibilities here, such as…
- Analytics integration
- Monitoring
- Hosting
- Uptime guarantees
But there’s another one that we’ve found is a natural route to take: content management.
Generating revenue from content management
So, just why is content – as in the written word – something we’re so keen to talk about here? Well, yes, we’re content people. But biases aside, content just makes sense. It’s something your customers can’t manage without.
Things like backups, WordPress updates, plugin updates… you know they’re essential. We know they’re essential. Your customers? They don’t always see it. These are services that they may only understand the true importance of after the disaster has struck.
Content is different.
The reality is that even the most fantastically designed website is essentially a beautiful book cover on top of a load of blank pages if it doesn’t have any content. At the end of the day, your customers don’t want a website. They want a website that ranks highly, draws people in, and encourages conversion.
How often does a customer come to you for a redesign and think that they’ll just shove their old words back in? Or tell you that they’ll get you new content, then don’t, for months? Or expect that you’ll just “fix the wording” while you’re there?
Adding content to your list of services doesn’t just solve those issues. It also gives you something concrete to offer on an ongoing monthly basis, alongside all the behind-the-scenes magic, which will in turn increase your CLV.
Do customers want content from web designers?
If you want a website, you’d go to a web designer, right? So wouldn’t someone who needs content go directly to someone who specialises in content for their industry?
Well, maybe.
If you’re a fan of a cheeky Saturday night takeaway, you’ll know the golden rule of ordering food: don’t order a burger from a pizza place. And don’t order pizza from a burger place. We’re always told to purchase goods or services from dedicated experts in those goods and services. So why would your customers – who’ve come to you for web design – want to keep paying, month after month, for content? After all, you’re not a writer. You don’t do this sort of thing for a living. Why the demand?
Firstly: because it’s convenient.
Think about the biggest online retailer in the world: Amazon. What does Amazon specialise in? Well, nothing. In a single click, you can buy a box of chocolates, an above-ground swimming pool, and an inflatable moose (to use in the pool, obviously.) And customers want that. They want the convenience of getting everything they need from one place.
It’s exactly the same when it comes to websites. Customers don’t want to be shopping around for all the different, individual services that they need to piece together to get the overall result they want. They just want it sorted. So why not give them what they want, and maximise CLV at the same time?
Secondly, when you partner with WordHound as your white label content provider you won’t just have a specialised content department in your metaphorical back pocket – we’ll help you tell the world about it too. As part of our amazing £0.00 deal, you get free content for your own website that shows you’re not selling microwavable pizza. You’re offering the wood-fired artisan pizza that turns heads and sets stomachs a-rumbling.
White label content from WordHound
At WordHound, we specialise in regular white label web content, developed specifically for your clients. If you’re looking to increase the average order value from your clients, extend the length of the average client relationship, and switch from ‘per project’ payments to recurring monthly revenue, we can help. Contact us to find out more about how we can help you retain your clients for longer.
*NB: This may not be exactly how Jodrell Bank works
