How to Start a Website Builder Reselling Business: A Comprehensive Guide
on 2 Sep 2024, by Dimi, in Blog, WordPress, Cloud, Guides
by Dimi
Want to learn how to start a website builder reselling business this year as your new revenue stream and boost your profitability? This guide is here to help.
Starting a website builder reselling business lets you expand the digital services you offer with higher profit margins. The startup cost is affordable. It’s flexible, scalable, and there’s proven market demand for website-building services around the world.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through all the steps for becoming a white-label web builder reseller business. It’s as easy as partnering with a page builder and we’ve got one mind for you.
We’ll cover the following:
- What a website builder reselling business is and how it can benefit you
- Step-by-step process to build web builder reselling business
Let’s begin.
What is a website builder reselling business (and how can it benefit you)?
A website builder reselling business model involves an agency buying website builder services or licenses from a developer. Then, start selling them to their customers under their own brand to generate more sales.
This business model is popular among entrepreneurs, SaaS and small business owners, web designers, and digital marketers who want to expand their digital services and revenue streams by reselling website builder solutions.
Here is how it works:
Generally, the reseller partners with a website builder platform often receiving access to a white-label service version.
The reseller then customizes the platform with their branding, pricing, and packages and starts selling it to their customers (who want to create websites).
Everything, including providing support and managing customer relationships is on the web reseller, while product updates and maintenance fall under the responsibility of the white label provider.
Benefits of reselling website builders to your customers
This reselling business model has several benefits including the following:
- Higher profits: Resellers can earn revenue from resales by charging their customers more than the price they pay to the original website builder provider.
- Low startup cost: Getting into this business is as easy as partnering with the platform developer for a small upfront fee. There's no need to develop the software or maintain servers.
- Recurring revenue: You can earn steady, recurring income through a subscription-based sales model. Plus, bundling website-building services with other digital products like hosting, domain registration, or marketing services can put more money in your pocket.
- More branding opportunities: Reselling this platform under your own brand, logos, etc., can enhance your brand's identity and boost customer loyalty.
- It increases customer retention: Providing an essential service like website building can lead to long-term customer relationships.
In short, the reselling business model works for everyone. And now that we know what it is, it’s time to start building one. You’ll even discover more benefits as we walk you through each step.
How to start a website builder reselling business
In this section, we’ll walk you through the step-by-step of building a website builder reselling business.
The first step is usually to conduct market research.
Step 1: Conduct market research
The whole point of conducting market research is to understand your target audience, their behavior, pain points, competition, and potential demand for your website-building services.
For instance, we can borrow a leaf from the success story of Company #3. They had over 10 million domains available to sell. Despite this, their churn rate was at its all-time high and few customers activated their WordPress hosting services because they needed a drag-and-drop builder to offer. Customers saw no need to activate their WordPress hosting if they couldn't create websites.
To address this pain point, they implemented Brizy WordPress. Immediately, they saw as many as 850 weekly activations of Brizy and reduced churn for WordPress hosting.
In simpler terms, doing market research lets you determine if integrating website building might fit into your current business. It helps you find out if providing this service will solve a problem your customers face (or you face).
Questions to ask yourself
During the research, ask yourself the following questions:
- Is there a demand for website builder services in your target market?
- How many clients make up your target audience? What is the market size? Who are your potential customers?
- How many competitors share a similar concept to your business idea? Can you replicate their sales process or do it better?
- What is the price customers are willing to pay for the website-building services in your market?
- What are the current market trends, and how can I leverage them?
One of the best ways to gain genuine insights is to speak with your customers directly. Go through customer reviews (if any). Do online surveys, hand them questionnaires, or do one-on-one interviews. Using Google can also help.
Step 2: Register your business
If you’re starting from the ground up, ensure all legal aspects of your business are properly handled. Firstly, choose your business structure. Whether it's a sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, corporation, or another business structure having an LLC Operating Agreement Template in place can help clearly define ownership roles and operational guidelines. This dictates the legal and tax requirements you will have to meet plus the licenses.
Then, register your business name. Particularly, find out whether your chosen business name is available for registration in your location and within the digital space. You want availability as a:
- Business name in your state
- Domain name
- Social media platform usernames
Note: Always ensure your business/domain name doesn't call into question any registered trademarks.
Other things you can quickly check include:
- Protect your brand, logo, and any proprietary technology or content.
- Permit and licenses needed
- Ensure your business complies with industry-specific regulations and laws, such as data protection and privacy policies.
Tip: Consult a lawyer to help you cover all the legal stuff required for your business to operate fully.
Step 3: Write your business plan
Like any other business, you need a business plan if you want to run a successful reselling business. It describes every aspect of your business in a formal document. Generally, this business plan should outline:
- What your reselling business does
- The pain point your business solves
- A list of your target audience
- Your marketing strategy, how your business will make money,
- and financial documents.
The business plan doesn’t have to be too long. Just include the main components some of which we’ve indicated above.
Step 4: Choose the right website builder platform
Next, choose a white-label website builder platform to partner with. This step is critical because it will determine the tools, features, support, and quality of service you'll offer your clients. Does the platform easily align with most of your business goals?
Evaluate platforms based on their ease of use, customization options, pricing models, and the availability of a white-label or reseller program.
One such website builder that can help you set a solid foundation for a successful reselling business is the Brizy Cloud reseller program.
What is Brizy Cloud
Overall, Brizy Cloud is a user-friendly website builder that lets you quickly and easily create the website you want with no web design experience. It includes all the features and multiple template options customers require to build professional websites.
Specifically, the Brizy Cloud allows you to resell its software services through its reseller program. These include a hosted domain, one workspace, unlimited websites, external popups, web stories, blogging functionality, etc. On top of all this, the user interface is fully white-labeled — a big plus if your agency gives user access to clients. You’ll be able to replace the:
- Builder logo and its name
- Custom domain names
- Client project subdomains
- Client email notifications from your system will come from your email (including account creation, password resets, team member invites, etc.)
- The free and Pro plans all point to your pricing page
- Custom URLs for your About and Support pages
- Customers can add their own template designs
Unique selling point: Brizy supersedes expectations in inline editing. This implies users can directly edit minute details of page elements and see these changes in real-time without changing interfaces. Therefore, with Brizy, you're sure your clients will have the best site-building experience they expect from you.
Brizy Cloud reseller program pricing plan
For pricing information, get in touch with the Brizy Cloud reselling team. Usually, they tailor custom pricing plans for partners based on their business needs. The plans include licenses and a potential lower price per additional license based on volume.
So, what does the onboarding process look like? Let’s find out in step 5.
Step 5: Sign up for the reseller program
The onboarding process in Brizy Cloud is highly automated and a dedicated onboarding team will support you all along your Brizy journey.
Let’s talk reselling
The onboarding process starts with talking with the sales team in Brizy. Begin by filling out this form:
Ask questions about the reseller program, align it with your business expectations, and get custom pricing deals based on your needs and specifications. Before you can reach out, you’ll find some answers to pressing questions like billing, invoicing, active licenses, refunds, fees, and more in the FAQ section.
Reseller integration
This step largely depends on your business.
For instance, let’s assume you’re already a hosting company. Thorough system-to-system integration like API integration, custom domain publishing, remote control over users, accounts, PRO license access, and so on will be required.
But if you’re starting from the ground up, only a Stripe account is required for the reseller integration to work for you.
Customize the platform with your branding
This includes customizing your branding & logo, domains, setting up customer support, and your customer information. This lasts around 7 minutes.
Note: If you join the Brizy Cloud Reseller program you'll be able to offer both free and Pro licences to your clients. Generally, the Pro plan included one hosted domain, one workspace, pro features, design services, global CDN, blogging functionality, and unlimited everything like websites, landing pages, web stories, team members, traffic – the list goes on.
Notably, the free plan only has one workspace, basic CDN, and limited traffic to try the platform before you make a final decision. Setting up a digital storefront is the next big thing if you’re a startup reseller business.
Step 6: Set up your reseller business website
Creating a professional website lets you establish a solid online presence, attract potential customers, and showcase and sell your digital service. Customers can learn about your offerings, browse packages, and subscribe to your plans.
Most importantly, focus on two critical aspects when optimizing your website: search engine optimization and the user experience.
Why?
These two factors ensure you’re easily found and keep customers on your page longer.
Additionally, the internet is pretty much flooded with competition in the website builder reselling business. Therefore, you need to be more strategic about the type of site you create to stand out.
How to optimize your website for free
The following are some tips to optimize your website for SEO and user experience:
- Do keyword research: The best on-site optimization always starts with keyword research. This is the process of finding words and keyphrases relevant to your business.
- Create a simple site navigation: so people can easily browse your website.
- Create landing pages: where users can land from your marketing platforms. You can easily learn to create and optimize your landing page with Brizy.
- Check site speed: using tools like PageSpeed Insights and then upgrade.
- Optimize your website for mobile usage.
Step 7: Develop your pricing and packages
Create tailored tiered pricing packages that address specific customer requirements.
Then, offer supplementary services e.g., custom domains, SEO, and ongoing website maintenance to increase revenue. Implementing effective upselling and cross-selling techniques can optimize your racing strategy for profitability.
The following are some tips to keep in mind for your pricing page:
- Highlight one option, after determining your profit maximizing plan. Test the price of your lower and higher-end plans.
- Make the pricing page easy for your users using a nice layout.
- Assure the buyer, especially, if you’re a startup reseller business. Show credible business you’ve worked with (if any). Or add reinforcements like security seals, a money-back guarantee, or the number of customers you’ve served. Doing this can help.
- Apply and test best practices for different call-to-action messages to see what works for you. For instance, you can begin with ‘Choose Plan’, ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Get Started Today’.
Step 8: Focus on customer acquisition and retention
Customer acquisition is the process of bringing in new customers for your business. Start by listening to your potential customers to know their wants, needs, likes, and dislikes.
After you know exactly who your target audience is, you’ll have a much easier time acquiring them because your ad copy, text, images, CTAs, and service will speak their language. But this is a lot easier said than done. Other marketing strategies to acquire more new customers include:
- Content marketing
- Social media management through organic, influencer, and paid campaigns.
- Email marketing works equally well to create and nurture a dedicated customer base.
- Do search engine marketing, and paid advertising to find an audience fit for your business.
- Gather testimonials and case studies to build trust with potential clients, and more.
Customer retention
Customer retention, on the other hand, is a technique you’ll want to pay a lot of attention to if you want your business to succeed in the long term. Some proven customer retention techniques to retain customers include:
- Provide ongoing customer support and regular communication. Keep in mind that 68% of customers leave because of poor treatment and poor customer relationships
- Offer updates, and additional services to maintain customer loyalty
- Focus on delivering excellent customer service to retain clients
and so on.
Step 9: Expand your services
Finally, introduce new services like advanced website customization, digital marketing, email marketing, ecommerce solutions, etc. Don’t rely on reselling website building only. By diversifying your services, you can attract a wider customer base or target new customer segments.
However, be ready to streamline your business operations such as customer service, marketing, and sales, to handle a larger client base efficiently.
Site builder reselling business success stories
The following success stories are two examples of businesses that partner with Brizy to solve their problems.
Company #1
The challenge:
Their biggest challenge was managing over 7,000 websites on a legacy builder with no drag-and-drop functionality.
So, how’d they overcome this challenge?
The solution:
They did a deep API-based integration of the Brizy Cloud reseller program, development of custom elements, creation of personalized designs, and more.
The outcome:
At launch, Company #1 had over 3,000 websites live. Brizy helped migrate hundreds of sites each week, full refresh giving users a true website builder experience with great UX, white labeled & synced with client's CMS, and responsive templates.
Company #2
The challenge:
10,000+ monthly popups created with an unintuitive legacy in-house platform; how to migrate to a locally hosted solution with frequent updates and intuitive UX
The solution: API-based implementation of Brizy’s popup builder into native On-Site Messenger.
The outcome:
They saw a monthly growth of 80-400% in the first 4 months after launch, Users now can use a modern, up-to-date drag-and-drop editor and the client maintains stringent compliance requirements.
Start your website builder reselling business today
That’s it. We’ve covered everything you need to know to start a website builder reselling business as soon as possible.
Starting this reselling business adds a valuable income stream to your business. Consequently, this will boost your revenue, increase customer retention, and grow your base of loyal customers.
Partnering with the Brizy Cloud reseller program lets you onboard a top-tier website builder that is easy to use and puts your customers first. The process only lasts 30 minutes and you’re good to go.
So, let’s talk about reselling to strike a deal that aligns with your business deals and start reselling today.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the initial costs of starting a website builder reselling business?
Most site builder reseller programs like Brizy Cloud tailor custom plans for our partners based on needs. Some of the initial costs can include the reseller program fee, setting up your own website, marketing expenses, necessary software tools, customer support infrastructure, and more.
What is the best white-label web builder platform for a reseller?
It really depends on what you’re looking for, but platforms like Brizy Cloud are among the most popular resellers known for their features and support. Basically, evaluate platforms based on their ease of use, customization options, pricing models, and the availability of a white-label or reseller program.
Is reselling business profitable?
Yes, reselling can be profitable with the right strategy (like subscription-based pricing), quality platform, and effective marketing strategies. Profitability depends on your ability to attract, acquire, and retain clients.
How to create a reseller website?
To create a reseller website:
- Select a reliable web hosting provider
- Choose a website builder platform
- Select a page template or design
- Customize it to fit your brand
- Integrate the reseller program,
and set up payment and support systems (e.g., PayPal, Stripe).
With Brizy, we provide all of this, including the a few templates for the reseller websites (example 1, example 2)
Article by Dimi
Co-founder & CEO of Brizy, Dimi has a passion for Web projects with cutting-edge tech & great usability. He's always happy to share and connect with others.
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Article by Dimi
Co-founder & CEO of Brizy, Dimi has a passion for Web projects with cutting-edge tech & great usability. He's always happy to share and connect with others.
RESOURCES
Choose Roadmap for
You will be redirected to our external roadmap boards on Trello
