How to resell services to double your profits

Is it possible to keep up with new client demands, retain a competitive edge, and grow profits at the same time? The answer is yes. If you resell services, that is.

Becoming a digital reseller positions you to deliver “the full-stack tech-first future” your clients want. Find out how by downloading our free guide now.

What’s more, becoming a digital reseller can accomplish all of the above while also scaling and future-proofing your business.

Let’s face it: the business landscape is always changing. And when it comes to software-as-a-service (SaaS), things move exponentially faster. A resell business model is not only a profitable way to expand your offering without overhead, but also a tool for reducing churn, increasing customer lifetime value (CLV), reaching new markets, and more.

In this article, I will expand on the following for the budding digital reseller.

1. How does reselling work?

As a SaaS reseller, you sell third-party software. But as a digital reseller, you can also resell services and earn a percentage of the profit. In turn, the third party reaches new audiences. You incur no additional costs, while reaping the benefit of a healthy profit margin.

2. Who can resell marketing services?

There are no hard and fast limits on who can resell marketing services! Typically, all types of digital agencies, managed service providers (MSPs), IT professionals, media companies, enterprise businesses, and franchises are prime candidates to resell services.

3. Types of services to resell

Just like there are few limits as to who would be a good candidate to resell business solutions, there are a wide variety of services to resell. I’d recommend starting with SEO, PPC, hosting services, and web design services.

4. White-label services to resell

If you resell services, you’re essentially a very valuable vendor. Your clients are looking to you to reduce complexity and be their one-stop shop. But when you become a white-label reseller, you go from vendor to thought leader. You resell the services under your own brand, so it’s as if you’re the expert in all those services you’re offering.

What’s more, you are building the visibility, reputation, and credibility of no one’s brand but your own. Plus, most of the resellable solutions discussed in this article can be white labeled. You can find a variety of services to resell in a software marketplace that centralizes a wide variety of white-label services to resell. All in one place.

How does reselling work?

First, how does reselling work? It may be simpler than you think.

When you become a digital reseller, you will likely start by considering a few of the following questions:

• What products and services do my clients want (and need) in their tech stacks?
• How can I ensure that I’m the only provider my clients will use?
• Which new segments will I target with my resell business?

Let’s say you decide on becoming a Google Workspace reseller, which is a foundational suite of products proven to make clients stickier. You will then enter into a channel partnership to resell services of a third-party vendor, in this case Google.

As a digital reseller, you benefit from getting Google Workspace at a discounted, wholesale price. And every time you sell Google Workspace, you will earn a percentage of the sale.

Depending on the reseller partner programs you join, you may be able to:

• Set your own profit margins
• Only be charged for what you sell
• Access an entire software reseller marketplace
• Enhance credibility and trust

How does reselling work alongside your own offering?

You may be wondering: How does reselling work alongside your own offering? The answer: As the perfect complement.

When you resell business solutions alongside owned and operated (O&O) products or in-house specialty services, you are subverting that old saying from Shakespeare’s time: “Jack of all trades is a master of none.”

Here’s what I mean.

Many businesses looking into how to price and resell SEO services or seeking white-label services to resell from a provider come up against a common anxiety. Namely, that they are diluting their offering. Businesses do not want to fall victim to “jack of all trades” syndrome by doing a bit of everything, but specializing in nothing. Isn’t it better to be an expert, rather than a generalist?

While in contemporary parlance, a “jack of all trades” can have a derogatory implication, that’s not the full picture. The entire quote actually reads: “Jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one” (Forbes). It is far more complimentary. From a professional standpoint, the quote speaks to the versatility required to be successful in business.

How does that relate to you and your desire to resell services?

By being a digital reseller, you can be a master of one and a jack of all trades at the same time—without sacrificing quality or expertise.

It’s important to gain mastery over your niche and differentiator; the one thing your business does better than the rest. That will never change.

But reselling digital solutions allows you to close gaps in your product offering, be more agile, boost credibility, and help clients reduce vendor clutter by positioning yourself as the single source of truth.

A jack of all trades and a master of every one, if you will.

Who can resell services?

There are no real limitations on who can resell services. Besides, marketing services is an umbrella term that encompasses many different needs and functions.

Each business will have a unique approach as they resell services. It will often depend on a variety of factors such as the size of the company, team capacity, what the in-house niche is, and what clients are asking for more of.

A marketing agency that specializes in SEO and backlinking might not necessarily be looking to resell SEO services from a third party. At least not as their top priority, that is.

However, if the team has only one person managing and fulfilling websites for clients, the agency would do well to resell web design services or resell hosting services (or both!) instead.

Here’s a quick list of the types of professionals and businesses who can resell marketing services (and often do):

• Digital agencies (all types and sizes)
• Managed service providers (MSPs)
• IT professionals
• Media companies
• Enterprise businesses
• Franchises
• Consultants (social media, brand, marketing, etc.)
• Hosting companies
• Entrepreneurs
• Influencers
• Freelancers
• And more!

As a digital reseller, partners may experience their revenue doubling, or even tripling. Businesses of all stripes have burst through the scaling ceiling by implementing the decision to resell business solutions.

Types of services to resell

How does reselling work with your business? It comes down to which services you resell. Here are some of your main contenders to consider when it comes to the types of services to resell.

Though this list is by no means exhaustive, I will dive deeper into why to resell SEO services, PPC services, hosting services, and web design services.

Resell SEO services

As an SEO reseller, you can empower your clients to take control of their findability online all while adding a new revenue stream to your business.

If you resell SEO services, you add major value in several key ways.

1. SEO is necessary (and profitable).

When you resell SEO services, you can feel confident in your position that you’re not just offering a nice-to-have solution. SEO-driven organic search is often the primary source of traffic to a business’s website. In fact, statistics show that organic traffic from SEO is more than 1000 percent higher than organic traffic from social media (BrightEdge).

Why is it significant? SEO increases visibility and ensures businesses are found when and where their customers are looking.

For this and many other reasons, effective SEO can reduce the cost of customer acquisition by 87.41 percent on average (Terakeet).

If you resell SEO services, you are providing businesses with a powerful foundational offering that has a high ROI.

Some SEO reseller programs to consider include:

• Boostability SEO
• marketgoo SEO
• Alpha SEO

2. SEO is complex (though rewarding).

Even experts will tell you that SEO is complex (we have the ever-changing Google algorithm to thank in part for that!). SEO is not an exact science, and some would say it’s an art. The search algorithm uses more than 200 factors to rank websites (Backlinko). These factors will be weighted differently depending on your aims.

Having the ability to resell SEO services also provides peace of mind, especially if SEO is not your specialty. Complexity or knowledge gaps do not have to be blockers when you resell business solutions.

Services offered by digital resellers that fall under the intricate blanket of “SEO” include management of:

• On-page local SEO reseller services
  • Local keyword research
  • Title tags
  • Meta descriptions
  • Site speed maintenance
  • Internal linking
  • Mobile responsiveness
  • Page content
• Citation (listings) management
• Local SEO reporting
• Review management

3. SEO can be hard to track (but it is quantifiable).

Though SEO results are highly quantifiable, that fact doesn’t matter if you (or your client) does not know what to look for. How can you track what you don’t understand?

Oftentimes, if you can resell SEO services, you’re also providing more transparency on metrics and reporting by de facto. Many solutions include automated dashboards that translate into increased proof-of-performance and happier clients.

Here is a sampling of metrics to keep in mind as a digital reseller of SEO solutions:

• Number of keywords ranking in search
• Site speed
• On-page SEO
• Link signals
• Behavioral signals
• Personalization signals
• Google Business Profile (previously Google My Business)
• Citation signals
• Reviews

Resell PPC

Digital advertising solutions such as pay-per-click (PPC) also make great candidates for digital resellers. Offering clients the ability to create, manage, and monitor PPC campaigns is an instant value-add that will drive sales.

Here are a few other reasons to consider PPC solutions when you’re looking to resell services.

1. PPC solutions are easy to package with SEO, as they further increase visibility on the search engine results page (SERP) and beyond. They work better together!
2. PPC can be tailored to businesses and campaigns of any size and most budgets.
3. As a digital reseller, you can provide huge ROI opportunities with PPC. For example, Google estimates that the ROI for their PPC ads is 8:1 (Google).
4. Running PPC ads can be time, labor, and cost intensive for your clients to do on their own. In turn, the same could be said for your business if you offered this service in house. Thus, it’s a great candidate when you’re looking to resell services supported by third parties.

Resell hosting services

The only thing more essential than SEO? Having a great website to direct traffic to in the first place.

Every business should have a website.

If you resell hosting services, you’re not only helping your clients claim their piece of digital real estate. You’re also ensuring that there’s enough storage space in the garage, the block is monitored by a Neighborhood Watch, and that the flow of traffic on the street and sidewalk is moving freely.

More directly, some of the components of web hosting include:

• Storage. Resell hosting services with powerful, scalable infrastructure and Cloud storage.
• Speed. Resell hosting services that provide your clients with fast load times (if a website takes more than a few seconds to load, customers will leave!).
• Security. Reseller website hosting can provide world-class security that prevents client sites from getting hacked and servers from going down.
• Maintenance. Resell hosting services so that you don’t need to get bogged down in the technical details; the third party can do the heavy lifting and you can focus on running your business.

When you are a MSP or IT professional about to resell hosting services, you probably feel confident in explaining the ins and outs of website hosting. You are quite capable of providing support for your clients; perhaps website hosting is even part of your core in-house offering.

But for many organizations, what’s under the hood of websites can be a bit of a mystery—or it would at least be a challenge to offer ongoing support.

Either way, the choice to resell hosting services can be beneficial, whether to fill a knowledge gap or simply for the scaleable convenience.

Even if “dedicated hosting” brings to mind a great dinner party you once attended, it doesn't mean that you cannot enjoy a new revenue stream by reselling website hosting services.

Resell web design services

Most consumers research businesses on Google before ever making a purchase online or in store. Ensure that the digital door is wide open and resell web design services to your clients.

A seamless, enjoyable online experience is key for customers. Outdated, clunky websites might lack functionality, hurt credibility, and reduce profits.

While everyone enjoys great design, not everyone is a designer. But as a digital reseller, you don’t have to be. You can leave that to a third-party expert, while still enjoying the profits. A thoughtfully designed website is priceless, and so the margins you set when you resell web design services can yield a big ROI.

Keep the following design improvements in mind as a digital reseller:

• Consistency. The entire website should share a consistent theme and not look patched together. Cohesion is key.
• Simplicity. Busy pages, too much content, and flashing animations can be overwhelming and confusing.
• Accessibility. Do not accidentally discriminate against your customers by building a website that does not follow digital accessibility standards.
• Ecommerce. If you resell web design services that marry design and technology (plus a sprinkle of creativity), you can create powerful ecommerce solutions for clients that will boost their bottom line and add huge value.

White label services to resell

If you’re considering becoming a digital reseller to increase your profits and scale your business, there is one final option that should be on your radar.

Resell services under your own banner by engaging a white label provider. By going the white-label route, you’re building no one’s brand but your own. But what are some good white label services to resell?

All the digital reseller solutions previously mentioned in this article can also be resold with a white-label provider under your own name.

Think about it. If you resell SEO services, you’re essentially a vendor—albeit, one that is adding tons of value. If you resell white-label SEO services under your own brand, you’re a thought leader. Your business gets all the credit for increasing organic traffic or accomplishing any related wins.

If you’re looking to double your profits and scale your business, you might as well do it while increasing your brand reputation. If you’re looking for white label services to resell, consider the following:

• White label digital advertising
• White label social media marketing
• White label apps and app development
• White label reputation management
• White label websites
• White label content creation
• White label graphic design
• White label email marketing
• White label SEO

Lots to consider! But let me leave you with one final tip. If you decide to resell services, engaging a white-label service provider that grants you access to a software marketplace can be a game changer.