Offering website maintenance in your web business is the best way to establish recurring revenue, provide quality support for your clients, and build relationships so you stay in business for years to come. Featuring a website maintenance sales page on your website is the best way to begin this conversation with clients, and having a strong sales page is a key ingredient in that equation.
Unfortunately, most web businesses miss an opportunity with their sales pages — loading them up with way too much information, or don’t even list one at all!
I don’t want that to happen to you.
Prospects are not just browsing for types of services, but also for signs of how well we work with and take care of our clients.
We forget that when prospects come to our website to reach out, they are often pouring over our pages to gauge what type of company we are. They are not just browsing for types of services, but also for signs of how well we work with and take care of our clients.
Your website maintenance sales page is the best way to solidify that you take care of your clients and you’ll be around long after the web project is over.
Related: The difference between client management and project management
The best website maintenance sales pages follow a simple formula to outline the offer and why it’s right for the client
I’ve broken down this formula into five elements that you can follow to make sure your website maintenance sales page is positioning your company’s website maintenance plans in the best way possible:
-
State the problem.
-
Make the case that you offer the solution.
-
Outline the benefits or features.
-
Detail your plan options in a pricing table.
-
Feature real testimonials for social proof.
Let’s go through each element.
Related: Making website maintenance plans a requirement for all clients
1. State the problem
You must assume that every lead or prospective client does not know the importance of keeping WordPress core and plugins up to date. As WordPress web professionals we know this, and have seen hacks because of outdated software time and time again.
Unless you lay out the problem in your website maintenance sales page, your prospects will never know the value.
I, personally, like pages with as few words as possible so I recommend presenting the problem in a blog post on your website then just highlighting the key points on the sales page. This way you can link to the blog post for those that want to dig further into the reasons why ongoing website support is important.
Do this: Feature one or two sentences on the problem with a few bullets points for an easily scannable piece. Include a link to a blog post that digs deeper into the problem for those who want to read more.
2. Make the case that you offer the solution
After stating the problem, it’s time to outline that the support you offer is the solution to this problem. Emphasize what makes your company unique in offering this solution. This could include your experience, your speciality or your unique value proposition as a company.
Do this: Include one to two sentences on the solution you offer.
3. Outline the maintenance plan benefits or features
Next, it’s time to break down the features of your website maintenance plans, but not in a pricing table … yet. Take this time to explore the benefits of what someone receives by signing up for ongoing website support, not just line items of what they “get.”
For example, your plan may offer a set amount of development time for support tasks, but the real benefit here for the client is the peace of mind they get sending an issue to a support ticket desk and knowing it will be taken care of.
Do this: Explain the most important benefits or features that your maintenance plans offer. A grid format of three or six benefits works best.
4. Detail plan options in pricing table
Now that you’ve outlined the benefits, you can break down the plan options in a pricing table to showcase for your prospect the options they have for website support.
It’s common to lay out three plans varying in levels of support. The basic plan offering the bare bones support you supply clients, and the premium being the fully loaded version. Often clients fall right in the middle, so make that middle plan your sweet spot with what you believe most clients look for in ongoing website support.
If you are at a loss of what to include in your pricing table, I strongly recommend you look at ManageWP and the features that they offer. Using a tool like ManageWP to deliver website support will also help you define what features to offer for website support on top of your unique offerings.
Do this: Create a pricing table with up to three plans with tiered pricing. Make sure the plans outline what’s not included in one and included in the other so prospects can easily tell what sets each tier apart.
Related: Which pricing model is best for your web design business?
5. Include real testimonials for social proof
Finally, feature testimonials from your clients about how having website support has benefitted their company or how they’ve enjoyed working with you.
Website maintenance is all about trust.
If you’ve yet to work with a prospect on a website project, they won’t know that you take pride in your work, respond to emails and work to keep the website running well. Testimonials are a great way to begin the trust process with the prospect.
If you’ve yet to collect testimonials, the response you will get from sending a simple email to your clients might surprise you. More often than not, clients are happy to supply a testimonial as long as you give an example, specify the ideal length and a deadline by which you need it by.
Do this: Include at least three testimonials from real clients about the benefit of a website maintenance plan or their experience working with you. Listing a testimonial with just a first name and last initial looks fake and works against you. Make sure to feature the company’s logo/avatar as well as their website link to add credibility.
Related: How to ask for testimonials and reviews from your clients
Some additional points to note...
A few things to remember as you set off to construct your website maintenance sales page for the first time, or re-work what you already have:
Don’t copy and paste content from other mass-market website maintenance sites or competitors. Make the words your own and put in your own voice. Inject what makes you unique into your copy and stand apart from the rest!
Don’t feel pressured to put your pricing public — that isn’t the point here. You don’t need to specify your pricing if that is not part of your business model. Just letting your leads know these plans exist after a website is launched will start the conversation. After which, you can include pricing in your proposals.
Related: How to write proposals that win clients
Don’t assume leads will sign up through your sales page. The website maintenance sales page is there for positioning; you will still need to sell these to your client throughout the proposal process or after a website is launched. You might need to work with clients on a project first before they agree to ongoing care, or create an initial evaluation and website cleanup plan to solidify trust. Just make sure to let them know after a website is launch or evaluated that they need to move onto a care plan for further support.
Do offer a “cancel any time” policy. With the ability for the client to cancel their ongoing website support at anytime, you encourage more signups and the ability to prove you will deliver the goods. In my five years of offering ongoing website maintenance plans, I’ve never seen this abused in my own business.
Do require a paid evaluation of a website you didn’t build before allowing them to sign up for a care plan. It’s not fair to you or the client to agree to support a website without fully looking under the hood and fixing issues that will poise a problem further down the road.
Ready? It’s time to build your website maintenance sales page!
Create your website maintenance sales page so you don’t miss out on any potential clients who are browsing your website to see if you are a good fit for their business.
Most importantly, refine your offer with the tips listed above so you feel confident about the ongoing plans. A great website maintenance sales page will reflect that you are a business owner who is concerned about their clients’ websites and works to provide quality support on an ongoing basis.
