As a young entrepreneur, you may wish to follow a DIY approach to solve business-related issues. However, there is no point in reinventing the wheel! As the common saying goes, you need to work hard and work smart.
In this context, you can fast-track your time to market through white label solutions. Alternatively, you can launch a promising startup that resells white label services. Either way, white labeling unlocks a wealth of opportunities for entrepreneurs. But what are these? And how do they work? Let’s take a look!
What is White Labeling? How Does it Work?
White labeling is a business model where a manufacturer sells an unbranded product or software service to a reseller. The reseller may choose to customize the product/service or may directly market, advertise, and sell it under their brand.
Thus, in a white-label market, the producer and seller are two separate entities that work for a mutual benefit. Resellers do not have to invest in the R&D required for creating the product. On the other hand, manufacturers do not have to bother about selling their items.
The name draws inspiration from the practice followed in the fashion industry where retailers acquired mass-produced goods from manufacturers and sewed on their branding on the piece. The result? A product that is quite similar to private label brands but is available at a competitive price point.
Advantages of White Labeling
Naturally, one of the first benefits of white labeling relates to the cost-saving aspect. However, there are a few other advantages of white labeling that one must consider. These include:
- Since businesses no longer have to develop solutions from scratch, they save up on time, as well as human and financial capital resources.
- Resellers can easily and quickly add their branding and start selling without setting up the infrastructure. Thus, white-label solutions enjoy a shorter time to market with a high degree of scalability.
- With quicker time to market and customization at the reseller’s end, you will have happier and more satisfied customers.
- Resellers can focus on their business’ core competency while manufacturers can focus on mass production of the product/service.
- Reselling white-label business services fosters deeper customer relations than keeping it solely focused on mere transactions.
Top 5 White Label Business Opportunities
White labeling has become relatively common in the tech industry. Hence, entrepreneurs can capitalize on this opportunity and offer the following White Label Services:
#1- Website Design and Hosting Agency
The global web hosting services market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.1% and reach a valuation of USD 183.18 billion by 2026. These figures highlight the scope of growth offered by such a business opportunity. However, this promising avenue is also experiencing intense and fierce competition amongst stakeholders, who are battling it out to gain some traction.
Naturally, in this situation, white labeling would be the best growth hack to establish your domain.
As an entrepreneur, you may consider reselling the following services:
- Website hosting.
- Website creation.
- Website design.
- Basic SEO.
- Responsive Web Design.
- Add-on functionalities for the website.
#2- White Label SEO Agency
If the industry for website design and hosting is heating up, then the SEO market is white-hot! SEO has become the most sought-after digital service, and businesses can greatly benefit from its branding opportunities.
Digital businesses are redirecting a significant chunk of their cash flow to SEO activities. Naturally, ranking high on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is bound to get them more traffic and subsequent revenue through sales.
White-labeled SEO agencies can offer fully-serviced or fully-managed solutions in the following fields:
- SEO audits.
- On-Page SEO.
- Off-Page SEO.
- Blog Creation and Content Marketing.
- Standalone services such as link building, content optimization, etc.
#3- Online Reputation Management (ORM) Agency
As more and more businesses follow a customer-centric approach, a single bad review could ring the death knell for an already struggling company. Consumers heavily rely on other consumers to share their feedback, which molds their opinion of a business. Hence, every business requires someone to manage and monitor their online reputation and ratings.
For those looking to white label ORM solutions, you may offer the following suite of services:
- Reputation audit and competitive benchmarking.
- Reputation management through real-time management of online presence.
- Reviews generation.
- Response generation.
- Social Media Management.
- Chatbot development.
#4- White Label Accounting Firm
Bookkeeping and accounting activities are no strangers to outsource. This fact is evident by the roaring success of companies like Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PwC. Hence, it would be a smart move to ride on this wave and white label accounting as well.
You may offer the following financial products and services to your customers:
- Accounting-as-a-Service.
- API Integration.
- Financial products.
- Accounting software.
- Invoice generation and tracking solutions.
- Digital bookkeeping.
#5- Content Marketing and Advertising Agency
White label businesses can easily tap into the scalability and convenience offered in businesses involving content marketing and advertising. This industry has, so far, the lowest barriers for entry into this space. Plus, there are ripe and low-hanging opportunities that entrepreneurs can capitalize on and keep moving upwards.
Several businesses are relying on churning out high-quality content for inbound marketing. On the other hand, advertising takes care of the outbound aspect of marketing. Thus, you can resell the following set of services:
- Blog writing
- Video or Infographic creation
- Copywriting
- Social media post creation
- Digital advertising
- Advertising over search engines and social media
Conclusion
As an entrepreneur, white label products and services can be a stepping stone that gets you right in the midst of all the action.
Resellers can directly pitch their products without investing time, money, and workforce into the product or service development process. In the meantime, their primary focus would be on the core competencies and establishing a brand presence. From this jumping-off point, they can continue customizing their solutions and gaining a trail of loyal customers. For the rest, the low-cost and scalability of the business model will drive it to its ultimate success!
Guest post courtesy of Sheryl Jones