If you’re a web designer who designs or sends email (either for yourself or for your clients), then you’ve probably at least heard of Campaign Monitor, the popular email marketing software application.
You’ve probably also heard that the team recently redesigned their application, combining what was previously two separate products (one for designers, one for the clients of those designers) into one comprehensive über-email testing and delivery suite. I’ve used it a few times since the new design was launched and have been seriously impressed at how intuitive it is to use (full disclosure: Campaign Monitor is an advertising partner at sitepoint.com).
Be Your Own Email Marketing Service
The feature that stands out for me about the new Campaign Monitor is the fact that you can now rebrand parts of the application to make it available to your clients. This includes not only changing the logo and colour scheme, but also hosting it at your own domain and billing clients in their own currency.
To top it off, you can set the rates that you decide your clients should pay for the campaigns they send. If you have a number of clients who prefer to send campaigns themselves (rather than entrusting you to do it, you can set them up with a limited set of templates, and away they go!) The premium that you decide to charge on top of the base fee goes in your pocket. If your clients like emailing their customers, there’s a really exciting opportunity right here…
A New Revenue Stream?
Reseller web hosting has long been an easy option for web designers and developers to offer their clients. The ease that you can rebrand Campaign Monitor means that a whole new revenue stream that you may not have considered—reseller email marketing—is suddenly a viable option.
We’ve written before on the difference between offering services and products, and the need to look beyond a business model that is tied to your hourly rate. Expanding the services you offer your clients will always make you more valuable to them.
But when the service is one that scales easily without much involvement on your part, suddenly you’re evolving from a straight service provider to one who offers a product as well—reseller email marketing that the client performs by themselves. Voila—you’ve added a new passive income stream.
What’s Next?
In addition to design and development services, many web professionals offer domain registration, web hosting and helpdesk support as part of their service offering, although the opportunity for adding a mark up to the cost of these services is limited. Reseller email marketing is another service that you could add to your arsenal to make your clients happy and make you look good, but because your clients are charged by the number of emails they send, it’s not tied to your time.
Are there any other service offerings that you provide your clients—especially ones that scale? Let us know in the comments!
Matthew MagainMatthew Magain is a UX designer with over 15 years of experience creating exceptional digital experiences for companies such as IBM, Australia Post, and sitepoint.com. He is currently the Chief Doodler at Sketch Group, Co-founder of UX Mastery, and recently co-authored Everyday UX, an inspiring collection of interviews with some of the best UX Designers in the world. Matthew is also the creator of Charlie Weatherburn and the Flying Machine.
