Smart Ways to Make Recurring Revenue for Your IT Agency

It costs five times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.

There comes a time when the feast and famine of acquiring new clients become tiresome. And it’s frustrating to think how unpredictable your income can be.

If there’s any way you can incorporate a recurring revenue model into your business, consider it. Because in today’s competitive digital industry, a rolling cash flow means survival for your business.

To help you get started, we’ve listed down these guaranteed ways to achieve a sustainable income.

4 Most Popular Recurring Revenue Models for Your Digital Agency

Offer web-related subscription models

Subscription is one of the best ways to lock your clients in for a long duration. With this long-term association, digital agencies can enhance their services to match their clients’ needs as they scale.

Package your services depending on what most businesses need and offer them on a subscription basis.

Depending on your industry, consider offering subscription-based services like:

• Content marketing – creating and distributing digital assets, such as blogs posts, videos, ebooks, and other digital content providing information to your audience
• Resource library – offering access to valuable resources, such as checklists, templates, ebooks, and webinars, with a monthly subscription fee

• Social media management - handling a client’s socials, creating social media marketing campaigns, or managing social media ads

Subscription models were built to establish relationships with clients who regularly pay for ongoing access to a product or service. It ensures a steady, recurring revenue stream for B2B companies.

Offer website maintenance services

The most common package digital agencies can offer is website maintenance, especially in the web design, development, and hosting industry.

Instead of building custom websites for a one-off fee, turn a one-time purchase into a monthly revenue stream by offering payment plans and additional maintenance services.

Website support can include services such as:

• Website content updates (client provides the content)
• Regular website backups
• Plugin updates, installations, and customisations

• Minor design tweaks (make sure to lay out the scope of the revision beforehand)

This revenue model works well as you can perform the job in bulk while working on other bigger projects. Even with a low-value monthly package, you can earn big with a large number of clients that need these services per month.

READ: How to Use Upselling and Cross-selling to Increase Revenue

Offer consultation calls

Ongoing monthly, bi-monthly, or weekly calls can be healthy for businesses discussing their next digital strategies.

Use this opportunity to extend your expertise — and make an income from it. Offer relevant consultation services to your current pool of clients.

Depending on your expertise, offer consultation on common digital topics, which include:

• Conversion rate optimisation (CRO)
• Social media marketing

• Digital advertising
• Data visualisation and analytics
• Search engine optimisation

Providing consultations is a reasonable way to build recurring revenue. You can increase the price of your service depending on the level of time and expertise your client requires.

Resell or affiliate with other supplementary services

Reselling is a less obvious way to generate recurring revenue but brings decent income as well.

If you’re a web design agency, you may purchase a web hosting provider’s resources wholesale and then resell them for a profit. Becoming an affiliate partner for tools and services your clients might need gets you commissions for customer referrals.

Other tools your clients might need for their online business may include:

• Graphic and web design tools

• Ecommerce platforms
• Web or email hosting
• WordPress plugins and services, like backup and website security
• Email, social media marketing, or project management software

Being a reseller or an affiliate for supplementary services hits two birds with one stone. Your clients get all they need in one place. And most importantly, you get a steady source of income for your business.

Stream Your Revenue

The benefits are clear. Building recurring revenue streams for your digital agency brings you a predictable and stable income. It also deepens client relationships — retaining their business and, at the same time, keeping their satisfaction and loyalty.

But before offering these services, assess your hosting resources and make sure they’re able to meet your business’s demands. A robust IT infrastructure is essential for digital agencies looking to scale their services.