Is the unlimited subscription website design agency model, popularized by million-dollar one-man agency owner, Brett Williams of DesignJoy, the way forward for creative entrepreneurship? I mean, you possibly can’t ignore the allure: freelancers and small studios are raking in multiple six-figures, even thousands and thousands, in annual recurring revenue without the enormous overhead costs of running a standard agency.
As 2023 ushered on this latest phenomenon of “productized designers”, I began to change into obsessed with it, and I needed to know more about it — so I went straight to the source and I interviewed Brett himself, in my community of website design professionals and agency owners, The Creative Crew.
This model offers clients high-quality, unlimited access at a predictable cost and a no-strings-attached, cancel-or-pause-anytime guarantee, and guarantees the service provider predictable monthly recurring revenue with minimal overhead. Sounds like an entire no-brainer to ditch the old way and embrace this revolutionary latest way, right?
Not so fast. Is this model the Holy Grail, offering unlimited success for creative entrepreneurs, or simply a fleeting trend set to vanish, leaving a trail of copy-and-paste, unremarkable businesses in its wake? Let’s dig in.
What is the unlimited subscription model for website design agencies?
To understand this unique model, we’d like to first understand what a productized service is: a standardized service offered at a set price, timeline, and scope, sort of like an actual product you possibly can buy right off the shelf.
The unlimited services model is a productized service through which the client pays an ongoing subscription fee, and is allowed unlimited design requests without additional per-project costs, or hourly fees. The service provider delivers on the requests by either chipping away at each, one-by-one, or by assigning a team of designers to work on the client’s request, providing continuous design services throughout the subscription period.
How is it different from the traditional model?
Two words: the web. We can thank the web, and every part it has spawned: social media, low cost and accessible software, access to ideas, and access to people, for the ability to take a business idea, validate it, and profit (or pivot) quickly without having to take out a business loan, lease an office, hire multiple employees, and bury ourselves in bureaucracy.
This democratization of entrepreneurship birthed an entire latest generation of business owners who realized that constructing a lean, scalable and profitable operation was now close by, without much risk.
Productized services have all the time been around in some form or one other (they simply didn’t have a stylish name) but with the web, the customer will be in any a part of the world, in any timezone, entering their bank card information on the checkout page of your website. If you will have a compelling offering, a very good price, and the ability to satisfy your services, you don’t need many purchasers to construct a lucrative, and predictable business.
Why is the Unlimited Subscription Agency Model so Attractive?
This model, if positioned well and executed properly, is a win-win for each parties.
As Luke Miler, founding father of DCNY, a software development subscription puts it,
“With traditional agencies, most projects need a proper kickoff, and weeks go by before the work even starts. With us, you just enroll, provide the details, and inside hours, you receive a notification out of your producer that the work has began and it’s underway.”
The client advantages greatly from this model. Some of the advantages include a simple to know value proposition, a predictable price that’s cheaper than hiring a full-time designer, clear expectations for what deliverables they’ll receive and when, an intuitive system for making requests and receiving deliverables, and a pause-or-cancel anytime guarantee makes this offer a no brainer for clients.
For service providers, advantages include:
- Predictable revenue
- Easier measurement of beneficial KPIs, like Lifetime Value and Cost Per Lead, making it easier to measure the ROI of acquisition methods
- Minimal friction for clients to make a purchase order, which may occur 24/7 on the website
- Sales conversations are easier to shut with warm leads already understanding your value proposition
- You don’t need many purchasers to generate significant revenue
- Predictable systems and processes make it easier to delegate work to team members, freeing you up to enhance your offering, sell more subscriptions, or
- This business will be completely delegated to expert team members, or sold for a handsome price
There’s another party who greatly advantages from this model as well: your team! If you select to productize your services and construct a subscription-style offering into your agency, and you ought to utilize your team’s talents and skills (or you ought to hire a team) with a purpose to scale and manage achievement, your team can greatly profit from the constant influx of recent work, creative challenges, consistent pay, and opportunities for growth. Off Menu’s secret to success lies in hiring talented offshore creatives, “We have 50+ creatives throughout the globe. A ton in the Philippines.” And they pay them thoroughly — because, well, they’ve got the money to do it.
Common Criticisms of the Unlimited Subscription Agency Model
Some critics query the sustainability and scalability of running a design service like DesignJoy as a solo operation and feel that the model is more likely to lead the service provider into burnout.
Hunter Hammonds, whom I interviewed in my community for website design agency owners, The Creative Crew, said this on the subject of the sustainability of solo operations like DesignJoy: “I don’t understand how I could design for 20 customers and feel like I used to be delivering my best work. So if he can, then awesome. He’s a superhuman.”
Brett Williams, whom I also interviewed, acknowledges this common criticism by saying, “I ran DesignJoy for five years, worked literally from sun up till late at night. Eventually, I did burn out. It was just my passion that got me through every part.”
Brett has since made some major adjustments in his business, including doubling his price to cut back demand, limiting his work hours, and selecting to maintain his operation small so he doesn’t must manage people. He continues, “Now, I’m in a superb position, where I work lower than full-time hours and might take off a day here and there, and each time I need to. It’s not an ideal model. There are a number of downsides to it, but reasonably speaking, I actually have a really, very balanced life.”
With huge success stories like DesignJoy, DesignPickle, and Hunter Hammond’s businesses reminiscent of HeyFriends, BiteSized, Endless Design, and DCNY, to call just a few, aspiring entrepreneurs see big money and wish in on the pie. So, they create near-identical versions of the web sites, right right down to the copywriting and pricing, hoping to capitalize on the demand. Hunter Hammonds calls out this “copy-and-paste” approach by saying, “Do not try and duplicate what we’re doing. It’s unrealistic.” He presses the point further by mentioning that their huge success lies in the indisputable fact that he has been in business for a decade, and between his co-founder, Sahil Bloom, and himself, he says, “our network is big.”
Daryl Ginn, founding father of the six-figure design subscription, Endless Design, says, “Even my very own clients are sending me design subscription sites that seem like limitless.design. How are you ever going to be taken seriously if your personal website is unoriginal? It’s not only designers that notice these items. Do higher.”
Another common criticism is that the term ‘unlimited’ is misleading and never truly unlimited. Brett from DesignJoy, who can have popularized the use of the term, has modified his tune, perhaps on account of criticism. He has recently said, “If you’re running a design subscription service: Stop using the term ‘unlimited requests’. It may get you clients, however it’s totally misleading.”
Gregory Hickman of AltAgency, a thought leader in the productized service space, says, “Productized services don’t must be: 1. unlimited requests (which is kinda dumb for those who ask me) or 2. a recurring service (many services shouldn’t be). People have limited their pondering on this, and it’s holding them back.”
One other common misconception is that subscription services are only “rebranded” monthly retainers. However, this is inaccurate and simply clarified: retainers are pre-paid sets of hours for defined work with extra costs for out-of-scope work, while a subscription is a set cost for ongoing access to some type of value, like services, products, or usage.
Even though this model is attractive and potentially very lucrative, the reality is, like every business model, making it succeed takes work, persistence, passion, and grit to get through the unglamorous parts of the business. Plus, having a big network and a distribution channel actually helps. If you’re on the lookout for overnight success, or some get-rich-quick opportunity, productized services and unlimited subscription agencies aren’t it.
Success Stories
The appeal of this model is difficult to disregard with major success stories, like DesignJoy which earned $1.15M as a one-man design agency in 2023.
Similarly, Daryl Ginn of Endless Design has clients paying $8,995 per thirty days for his design services, with some amassing a Lifetime Value (LTV) of greater than $47,000.
Luke Miler’s success in constructing his productized agency, DCNY only contributes to the model’s appeal. In lower than 6-months, the company went from zero to greater than $600,000 in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) based on Miler on this X post, “We’ve built http://dcny.co from $0 to over $600k in ARR in lower than 6 months.”
Hunter Hammonds takes this a step further with his productized agency, Off Menu, which sells their subscription style offering for no less than $15,000 per thirty days — and 24 hours into 2024, Hunter proudly exclaims, “Off Menu has added over $60k/MRR.” And that’s on top of the already six-figure monthly recurring revenues.
Productized subscription services have gotten so popular that supporting businesses are popping as much as cater to the demand. These include project management software specifically designed for unlimited request-style subscription services, like Breeew. Content creators are even capitalizing on this trend by producing content, workshops, courses, and even directories. These directories feature easily searchable productized services, broadening the scope of this growing trend.
These examples not only showcase the financial viability of the subscription model but in addition highlight its potential to revolutionize traditional agency structures.
How to Implement the Productized Subscription Service in Your Agency
If you might be fascinated with exploring productized subscription services in what you are promoting, whether as your primary offering or as an experimental offering inside your existing agency services, listed here are some practical tricks to adopt.
The secret to the success of this model lies in how specific your area of interest is.
Choose a really specific goal market, i.e., Dentists, Authors on the speaking circuit, freelance landscape photographers, bootstrapped SaaS corporations, or if you ought to construct your subscription offering on top of a pre-existing user base of a tool or software, i.e., Wix Studio Web Design Agency.
Now, make certain you clearly define the actual problem your clients suffer with. Ideally, you’ll interview your target market to extract the wording they use to clarify the problem they experience. This will enable you refine your messaging in your website.
Craft a compelling offer at a no brainer price, anchored on some type of value that’s clear for the client to translate.
Make a killer landing page with a transparent copy. In an interview I hosted with Wesley Bancroft, agency owner and founding father of productized service, LogoLaunch, Wesley shared his formula for landing page structure for productized services:
- Headline: Tell your audience what you do and the final result they’ll get.
- Subtitle: Expand on the problem and tell them your solution.
- CTA buttons for booking a call and viewing plans.
- Show curated samples of your best work.
- “Why us?” section: Tell your audience why they need to select you and tell them your promise and who they might be at the end of the process you deliver for them.
- “How it really works” section: Explain your process as simply as possible. Don’t dive into details. Make it easy to know.
- Show testimonials and social proof.
- Show more of your best work.
- Tell them your guarantee.
- List what’s included by way of deliverables and what they get.
- Show the pricing packages and make it easy to match the differences.
- In your pricing packages, consider anchoring with a big priced offering to make your productized pricing more palatable, i.e., custom services start at $18,000/mo, but package 1 is $2,500/mo.
- FAQ section.
- Conclude with a final hero statement or CTA.
- Big button with primary CTA.
In order to your productized subscription service to run like a well-oiled machine, it’s essential to nail your systems and processes with SOPs and continually improve them.
Constantly review and reduce friction at any bottleneck in the system.
You have to be incredibly expert at the craft, time management, and execution (as is the case with Brett from DJ) or it’s essential to hire and nurture the best (as Hunter does with Off Menu).
You need an easy project management system that ought to allow the client to simply submit requests, comment on them, and see your progress. Kanban style boards (i.e., To Do, Doing, Done) where you drag and drop items from left to right in relation to its progress are helpful. Consider Trello, Asana, Basecamp, Wix Studio’s Project Management tools, etc.
Set clear communication and bounds with clients.
The more you alter your mindset to selling a product, slightly than a service, the higher you’re going to get at delivering this service and getting out of your personal way.
The Future of the Model: Sustainable Revolution or Fleeting Trend?
Productized services aren’t only a passing phase; they’re indeed gaining momentum. These “unlimited” (though we now understand they aren’t truly unlimited) subscription services appear nearly unstoppable. Clients are drawn to their transparency, the ease of accessing value, and the cancel-or-pause anytime guarantee. Furthermore, the costs are generally manageable for many businesses opting into these services. As we’ve seen, many creative entrepreneurs are thriving by shifting their offerings to this subscription style model.
Brett from DesignJoy believes, “The hottest trend in 2024 will undoubtedly be productized services.”
Hunter of OffMenu sees the value of productized services increasing, with a trend towards higher priced offerings. He notes, “Huge trend in productized services this yr. Raising prices,” which opens opportunities for service providers aiming to supply lower-priced options to the clientele being priced out.
Do these services offer unlimited growth potential? It could appear so, especially for those who spend time reading the success stories we’ve outlined in this text. But considering basic economics: as supply increases, demand typically decreases. And with the popularity dramatically rising amongst website design businesses, will the supply eventually exceed the demand?
Possibly.
However, in case your website design agency is trying to diversify revenue streams, now is perhaps the opportune moment to productize.
About the creator
Brad Hussey, an influential web designer and content creator from Canada, has made a big impact in the website design industry. Teaching over 600,000 students through online courses and tutorials available on Udemy and his personal web sites, Brad is recognized as a pacesetter in the field.
Join The Creative Crew Community
Looking to grow your website design agency? Join The Creative Crew, a community spearheaded by Brad Hussey in partnership with Wix Studio. It’s the perfect place for agency leaders, creative directors, and business owners to boost their skills, network, and access exclusive industry content. Dive into expert sessions, industry training, engaging workshops, and discussions on vital topics in website design.
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