How to Use Turnkey Websites to Grow Your Agency

As you’re taking on more web design clients and trying to grow your agency, eventually you’re going to run into the natural problem of scaling your services – it’s a growing pain every business must address.

While the dream is to only work with collaborative, cooperative, and creative clients that have an unlimited budget, those unicorn customers aren’t always the easiest to find. And when you’re ready to scale your agency, sometimes it’s best to look outside the box of your usual clientele and explore a few simpler options that are easier to scale.

One of the easiest and most successful ways to do that is a little strategy revolving around turnkey websites.

What are Turnkey Websites?

Think of templated websites—super simple, incredibly easy to customize, and super affordable for those lower-paying clients. You can still put your agency’s signature spin on them, but the point is that they’re crazy fast to create and can easily be replicated from one client to the next.

If your agency tends to gravitate toward a particular niche, this method can be incredibly successful. Let’s say you focus on building websites for restaurants. You’ve probably identified a few things they all have in common: menus, hours of operation, photos of the food, etc.

It’s noble to create a custom solution for every single client that comes knocking on your door, but the truth is—not all of them need a custom solution. Many will just want something that looks professional, works, and sticks within their budget. That’s exactly where a turnkey website comes in.

These templated site designs allow you to quickly swap out the content to create a solution for your clients that just works. Are they as creative as a custom site design? No. But do clients have a need for them? Absolutely!

Why Turnkey Websites Help You Grow

It’s important to note that with a turnkey website strategy, you can still build custom sites for those larger paying clients. It’s a great way to tier your services and hit different price points, all while maintaining a manageable workload.

While these templated sites won’t be the solution for every client you onboard, they will be for some—and that alone will start to make a big difference in your team’s workload. Even though turnkey sites are typically meant for lower-paying clients, they allow you to take on more work without cutting into development time, which means more money in the bank and an easy-to-scale solution.

The real key to making this strategy work is to price it accordingly. Instead of bidding out sites on a per-project basis with a focus on hourly rates, opt for a fixed rate or even bundle it into a monthly service. If you can generate recurring revenue from turnkey websites, you’re really going to accelerate your agency’s growth!

How to Get Started With Turnkey Websites

While turnkey websites are a pretty simple concept, you need to figure out a few things before offering them up on your services page. To get started, ask yourself these questions:

• What are the most common “components” clients ask for?
• How can I build those components in a way to easily use them in the future?
• What customization options am I going to provide? (Keep the list short!)
• How long will it take someone on my team to go from contract signed to site online?
• How can I improve the process to shave off even more setup time?
• What is the hourly rate I’m paying my employees to launch these sites for clients?
• Given great process, how many sites can I expect one employee to be able to launch in one week?

These types of questions challenge you to figure out a pricing model that scales. The lower the fee, the more attractive it is for prospects, but you have to balance that with making a worthwhile profit. That’s why you need a quality templated design that’s easy to customize and strong processes in place for keeping the workflow smooth and efficient.

The Genesis framework and premium StudioPress themes paired with WP Engine’s powerful WordPress hosting is a great place to start when you’re creating your turnkey templates!