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Deciding to sell WordPress maintenance is a smart move. However, with more and more professionals taking this route to add to their recurring revenue, you’ll need more than just good intentions to succeed.
Fortunately, there are several concrete strategies you can implement to convince clients you should maintain their WordPress sites. Actioning these tips should help you boost conversions and your income.
In this post, we’ll provide an overview of WordPress maintenance, what it encompasses, and why you may want to provide it. Then we’ll share five tips for how to sell it to leads. Let’s jump in!
In This Article 👀
Understanding WordPress Maintenance and What It Includes 🛠️
There’s a lot that goes into maintaining a WordPress site, which is why offering services in this area can get a little tricky. It’s hard to provide something without a clear definition of what “it” is.
[bctt tweet=”🔨 WordPress maintenance includes a wide variety of tasks that you can handle for clients. #WordPress” username=”thewpbuffs”]
Essentially, ‘WordPress maintenance’ includes any task that contributes to the upkeep of a site. Most professionals who offer this type of service focus on running updates, creating backups, and executing security scans.
However, there are many other skills you can put to use and include in your website maintenance packages. This includes:
- Performance optimization and monitoring
- Error troubleshooting and emergency support
- Analytics reporting
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Malware removal
- Content updates or creation
- Social media integration and account management
- Custom development
- Plugin and theme installation and customization
The details of which tasks you’re willing and able to provide and how you’ll work with clients to complete them are up to you. However, an important step you don’t want to skip is creating a formal contract that outlines your responsibilities so you and the website owner are on the same page.
Why You May Want to Sell WordPress Maintenance 💰
Given how tedious some of the tasks involved in WordPress maintenance can be, you may not be terribly excited by the idea of offering it to your clients. However, there are many benefits for web professionals who go down this route.
Unlike project-based development or design jobs, website maintenance is ongoing. This means you’ll have a recurring source of revenue, instead of always scrambling to find your next gig.
This can help tide you over between development projects or be your primary focus as a WordPress professional. Many aspects of website maintenance can be automated or outsourced, which also makes this service flexible from a provider’s standpoint.
Plus, maintaining sites you’ve built is an easy way to keep your clients close. In the event they decide they want to invest in a redesign or need someone to custom-code a new feature, you’ll be on hand for the job.
Landing these jobs means more revenue for you, and not having to source as many new clients will save you valuable time. Overall, selling WordPress maintenance has a lot of benefits to offer while requiring minimal changes to your current workflow.
How to Sell WordPress Maintenance (5 Key Tips) 💸
Given the advantages of selling WordPress maintenance for developers and other professionals, it’s no wonder this is becoming a more popular service. In order to stand out from the crowd and land clients, you’ll need to do some strategizing. Here are five tips that can help.
1. Emphasize the Benefits for Website Owners
One barrier to selling WordPress care plans is convincing website owners they actually need one. With so many plugins and tutorials available, some may be tempted to take a Do It Yourself (DIY) approach to keeping up their sites.
However, there are some real advantages for website owners to invest in professional WordPress maintenance, even if they have the skills to take care of their sites themselves. For starters, these tasks can become very time-consuming.
Chances are, your leads are managing a business or brand and not just a simple website. They have a lot on their plates, and pointing this out can work in your favor. By saving them time, you can give them the freedom to pursue other responsibilities.
You might consider sharing some statistics about the amount of time you save your clients on your Services page. Other data can be useful for selling your WordPress maintenance packages as well.
Before and after shots of sites you’ve worked on can demonstrate your value to leads. On our own site, we share performance metrics for a client website we optimized:
By showcasing real results, the benefits of signing up for one of our care plans are clear even to website owners without much experience. You could so share improved traffic levels, search engine rankings, and more. Just be sure to get permission from the site owner before posting their data.
2. Offer Unique Services to Stand Out from Competitors
As we discussed earlier in this post, the services that fall under the umbrella of ‘WordPress maintenance’ vary widely. You may be able to use this to your advantage if you plan carefully.
Tasks such as creating backups and running updates are going to be difficult to compete for, because every maintenance provider offers them. However, if your care plans include unique services, you can stand out from your competitors.
All-in-one packages are appealing to clients because they don’t have to hire multiple professionals to take care of their site. If you’re able to tackle SEO as well as security scans, you’ll have an edge over providers who stick to the basics.
A similar strategy is to provide access to products as part of your packages. You sometimes see this with WordPress hosts who include plugins or themes with their plans:
At WP Buffs, we include iThemes Security Pro, WP Smush Pro, and WP Rocket with our care plans:
When you include premium products like these in your plans, leads may feel that signing up to work with you will give them more bang for their buck.
3. Use a Tiered Pricing Model to Encourage Sales
We’ve mentioned the concepts of ‘care plans’ and ‘maintenance packages’ throughout this post, but it’s important to consider what those terms mean in relation to your own services. Specifically, you need to decide if and how you’re going to bundle your WordPress maintenance skills.
One of the most popular methods is to use a tiered pricing model. This involves segmenting tasks into multiple levels and charging increasingly high prices for each type of package:
We use a three-tiered pricing structure ourselves. This model has proven psychological benefits for converting leads because you can appeal to the broadest range of potential clients. Here’s how it works in a nutshell:
- Most leads opt for your middle tier. Those who think your highest tier is too expensive feel like they’re getting a deal, while those who think your lowest tier doesn’t offer enough coverage feel that they’re getting adequate service.
- Leads who might normally leave without converting due to high prices may sign up for your cheapest package instead.
- Potential clients who experience Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) may sign up for your most expensive package so they feel like they’re getting a comprehensive service.
In other words, this method enables you to capture leads you might otherwise lose and upsell potential customers with nothing more than a simple pricing table.
[bctt tweet=”💵 A tiered pricing model can help you secure more sales and boost your revenue. #WordPress” username=”thewpbuffs”]
To determine how to divvy up your services, assign value to them based on how time-consuming they are. Easy-to-automate tasks such as backups and updates should go in your lowest tier. More demanding ones – including content creation and malware removal – should be in your highest.
4. Share Social Proof to Build Your Reputation
As you probably already know, a lot of time and care goes into creating a website. For active brands and businesses, there’s also a lot riding on their sites always being functional, too. Therefore, they’re not going to put their online presence into just anyone’s hands.
In order to sell WordPress maintenance, you need to prove you’re up to the task of keeping client sites running smoothly. Social proof is an effective way of doing just that.
This strategy consists of showing leads how much current clients appreciate and benefit from your services. When it comes to making online purchases, shoppers place a lot of value on their peers’ opinions. The market for WordPress services is no exception.
There are a few different ways to build social proof for yourself. One of the easiest is to share client reviews:
You can create a form on your site for clients to submit their testimonials as well as requesting them. Make sure to get permission before posting reviews, though.
Social media is another channel through which you can generate social proof. Your follower count and engagement rate both say a lot about how involved and loyal your clients are:
Another option is to add share counts to your blog posts. A number will mark your content as valuable and help build your authority in your field.
5. Provide Valuable Content for Free
Speaking of content, it can help you sell WordPress maintenance in other ways, too. Specifically, it’s wise to create quality, valuable content, then make it available for free. Another name for this is ‘content marketing‘.
The concept of giving something away in order to make more money can be a confusing one. After all, you’ll have to put in a lot of time researching and writing posts, and time is money.
However, there are many ways content marketing can enable you to sell more WordPress maintenance plans, such as:
- Improving your SEO. More content means more chances to rank on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) and drive organic traffic to your site.
- Expanding your audience. Shareable content – such as blog posts – provides free marketing. Readers can spread the word about your brand by sharing your content on their social media accounts. This also provides social proof.
- Demonstrating your expertise. Content marketing is a chance to showcase your knowledge and authority on all things WordPress maintenance-related.
- Building brand loyalty. Once you’ve given people valuable content for free and built relationships with them, they’re more likely to come straight to you when they’re ready to sign up for a plan.
Don’t be afraid to go beyond blog posts, either. At WP Buffs, we have several free resources available including e-books, webinars, and the WPMRR podcast:
Everyone has their preference when it comes to media consumption, so the more channels you’re able to cover the better.
Wrapping Up 🍬
Selling WordPress maintenance isn’t as simple as just slapping an offer up on your website. Convincing leads to become clients takes a little more nuance and effort.
Keep these five tips in mind when promoting your WordPress care plans:
- Emphasize the benefits for website owners.
- Offer unique services to stand out from competitors.
- Use a tiered pricing model to encourage sales.
- Share social proof to build your reputation.
- Provide valuable content for free.
Thinking about offering WordPress maintenance services but not sure you have the time? Let us handle the tasks behind the scenes while you focus on selling care plans. Check out our white-label partnerships today!
Want to give your feedback or join the conversation? Add your comments 🐦 on Twitter.
Featured Image Credit: Roman Kraft.
GIF Credit: GIPHY.
