Offering white label design and web development services presents a major growth opportunity for today’s digital agencies and creative firms.
This guide will explain how agencies can use white label services to grow their abilities and client list.
Defining White Label Design
First, what exactly are white label design services?
White labeling refers to a vendor creating customized products and services that a client can brand and resell as their own. The client’s branding goes on the work, removing traces of the original producer.
Some common examples of white label design services include:
- White Label Web Design – Fully customized website design and development that clients can brand as their own work.
- White Label Graphic Design – Logo design, branding materials, marketing assets, videos, and more. It can be that clients can provide to end customers as if they created it.
- White Label Web Development – Building fully custom web platforms, apps, and integrations. The agency will create these.
- Designing user-friendly interfaces for an agency to offer to their clients, including navigation, prototyping, and wireframing.
- White Label SEO Content – Articles, blogs, and other content produced on an agency’s behalf for them to publish.
Digital agencies and marketing firms can grow without big teams by providing white label services to increase their abilities and capacity.
The agency gives instructions and manages clients, while the white label partner does the practical work.
Benefits of Offering White Label Design
There are a number of compelling benefits for digital agencies that leverage white label design partners:
- Increased revenue – White label represents an entirely new income stream and contributes significantly to top and bottom line revenue growth.
- Agencies make more money with white label because they resell instead of doing everything themselves.
- Agencies can quickly offer new services such as web and graphic design. They can do this by using an external white label partner instead of hiring additional staff.
- Offering white label design allows the agency to pursue new clients they couldn’t before because of their limitations.
- Agencies that offer white label development and design, along with their other services, become a one-stop provider. This makes customers more loyal.
- Scalability on demand – White label provides elastic capacity, allowing agencies to scale up or down to meet fluctuating market demand.
- Reduced risk – Relying on seasoned white label partners reduces the risks and overhead costs of building large internal creative teams.
Sourcing the Ideal White Label Design Partner
Identifying the right white label provider is critical for success. Agencies should look for partners that meet the following criteria:
- Specialized focus on the agency industry – Seek firms with extensive experience serving agency/marketing consulting clients specifically. They will understand your business model and needs best.
- High quality and reliability – Thoroughly vet design partners based on portfolio samples, client testimonials, credentials of team members, and their capacity to deliver excellent work consistently and on deadline.
- Customization skills – The partner should be able to customize deliverables to match each agency’s individual needs, voice, and branding guidelines.
- Scalability – Look for a partner able to smoothly scale production capacity up and down in sync with your agency’s changing requirements. Avoid providers that outstretch their capabilities.
- Good account management is important. Choose white label vendors with excellent account management practices to effectively communicate and meet expectations.
- Tight workflow integration – Select providers that can integrate seamlessly into your existing agency workflows to minimize friction and manual overhead.
- Competitive and flexible pricing – Partners should understand typical agency margins and provide pricing models that allow sufficient markup. Look for opportunities to share volume discounts.
Some white label design firms for digital agencies are Duda, Webwave, Kimp, Design Pickle, Penji, and Design Crowd. Marketplaces like Fiverr and UpWork also offer ways to source one-off freelancers.
Structuring Packages and Pricing
To maximize profitability, agencies must structure attractive white label packages and pricing:
- Bundle relevant services – Compile packages like “Branding Bundle” that include logo design, visual identity, marketing materials for more perceived value.
- Provide tiered options – Develop clear tiers like “Bronze, Silver, Gold” with increasing levels of complexity and components. This caters to different budgets.
- Sharpen pricing strategies – Consider minimum order sizes, volume discounts, monthly retainers, and multi-year contract discounts. Mark up provider costs at least 2-3X.
- Highlight agency value-add – Position packages around the agency’s strategic contribution on top of the tactical white label execution. Clients pay for your expertise.
- Surface cost savings – Showcases how white label improves outcomes faster and more affordably compared to traditional agency models.
- Offer free trial samples – Providing free trial samples to prospective buyers can overcome hesitancy.
- Structure setup fees – Consider charging one-time setup fees when onboarding new white label clients to offset initial integration costs.
Promoting White Label Capabilities
Once you define white label offerings, it’s time to effectively promote them.
- You should create pages on your website to explain your white label abilities. Additionally, these pages should highlight the added value you offer on top of being a production partner.
- Advertise as new capability – Update all agency promotional materials, case studies, and social media to highlight newly expanded white label services.
- Sales collateral – Equip sales teams with tailored collateral to explain white label during prospect meetings.
- Public relations – Draft press releases and secure coverage in agency and design publications.
- Industry events – Send speakers to digital agency and marketing conferences to spread awareness of your white label services.
- LinkedIn outreach – Conduct targeted outreach campaigns via LinkedIn to cross-sell existing agency clients. Participate actively in LinkedIn Groups for digital agencies.
- Facebook communities – Join communities like the Facebook Group “White Label Community” to connect with agency owners worldwide.
- Client reviews – Proactively gather white label client reviews and case studies to build credibility. Feature these assets prominently.
- Retargeting ads – Serve ads to your agency website visitors explaining white label offerings.
- SEO keywords – Optimize pages and content for relevant white label keywords to improve discovery.
- Affiliate partnerships – Explore partnerships with companies that serve similar clients and can refer business.
Managing White Label Projects
Here are best practices for orchestrating white label engagements smoothly once sales kickoff:
- Give clear instructions – Provide clear creative direction and requirements in a brief at the start of the project for success.
- Choose point people – Designate clear main contacts from both the agency and white label partner and share contact info both ways. Define the decision making hierarchy.
- Communicate expectations – Get all stakeholders aligned around objectives, timelines, budget, and measures of success upfront.
- Facilitate collaboration – Introduce all participants through kickoff calls. Determine meeting cadences and clarify the protocols for ongoing communication and feedback loops.
- Check brand rules – Give white label partner everything they need to do the project, like guidelines, images, and access.
- Outline workflows – Map out review, feedback, and approval cycles, specifying projected timeframes for each step. Automate handoffs where possible.
- Check progress frequently – Keep a pulse on white label project status through regular updates. Proactively flag any emerging risks, blockers, or resourcing gaps.
- Solicit ongoing client feedback – Keep agency clients engaged throughout via periodic reviews and iterative feedback cycles. Collect feedback formally and informally.
- Check all work from white label partner before giving to client to make sure it follows brand, quality, and scope.
- Pay bills on time – Match invoices, handle client billing, and make payments to the partner as agreed in the contract.
White label design partners assist digital agencies in their growth, efficiency, and ability to handle more projects. They also provide access to highly skilled professionals whenever required by clients.
Outsource your graphic design services if you are thinking about scaling fast and without fixed costs. There are many white label agencies that are ready to take on your projects.
Agencies can grow by adding white label services to their main services. They should choose good partners, create attractive packages, advertise well, and manage the projects carefully.
The NetMen Corp offers white label web design services, as well as white label graphic design services. Our design team has over 20 years of experience in design work for private label. We also have excellent project management skills and web design development.
