How to get started with a WordPress Maintenance Service

So, you decided you wanted to get started offering a WordPress Maintenance Service for your freelance WordPress business.

You have researched all it that is involved and you think it something you can add to your services fairly quickly and easy.

Congratulations!

Here are eight tasks to do to get you started.

WordPress Maintenance Service

1. Decide on what you will offer

Getting started, you may want to keep your maintenance packages to a minimum. You will want to offer updates & upgrades, user management, and security monitoring or some combination.

The benefit of offering these services is you can get started by simply using a dashboard like MainWP. Everything you need to do can be done inside your dashboard.

Updates & Upgrades – WordPress, themes and plugins all need to be updated from time to time. We know keeping these updated helps address security vulnerabilities. Clients that use WordPress to run a business cannot afford to not update these features. In addition, you can keep backups of their website.

User Management – Have you ever had a client to ask you to delete an employee’s profile? Have you ever had to help a client recover a WordPress password? Anything that can be done inside the MainWP dashboard would fall under this category. Recovering a password via the database would lie outside the boundaries of this kind of service.

Security Monitoring – This is another layer to help prevent a hack. Clients should be aware of this as well. Most of the time, developers will add some kind of security monitoring plugin to a website, and for good reason. Often, the plugins have configuration settings and built-in monitoring. This is something else you can keep an eye on when logging into your dashboard.

2. Create packages

Next, you will want to create a package. If you want to have different levels of service, create those as well. Consider beginning with a base package.

3. Build a landing page showcasing your packages

Next, build a landing page listing your packages. Start the landing page with good copy explaining the benefits of your service. Always start with the benefits. Then, list the features of your packages. Finally, create a section for potential customers to contact you to get started.

4. Take Payments

Starting out, you may want to have one payment cycle, but offering a yearly rate for a slight discount can entice people to sign up. If you are offering monthly, you might want to set it up to take a payment from the client’s card every month using something like Stripe, Paypal, or another payment system. The key is to make sure it is automated as much as possible.

If you are taking payments on your website, you will need a SSL certificate.

5. Contact potential customers

To kick start this part of your business, you will need to pitch the idea to potential customers. One thing you can do is create a couple of lists of possible clients including current clients, past clients, and other developers. Send them an outreach email letting them know of your new offer with a link to your landing page.

Current Clients – If you have a client not keeping up with their site or asking your for help regularly, they would be a good prospect for this type of service. In addition, you help them avoid catastrophe with a hacked site and look like a hero. Further, you build more trust with them nurturing the relationship for future projects.

Past clients – Maybe you have some past clients who you are not currently working with that still have WordPress management needs.

Email list – If you have an email newsletter list, this is a perfect place to send info on your new service.

Other Developers – Do you have developer friends who are too busy with other projects and services to keep up with websites for their clients? See if they might be interested in promoting your services to their clients.

6. Create a segmented Email list

Finally, when you get a list of customers, make sure you create a segmented list just for the WordPress maintenance customers. This way you can send emails to the list regularly with updates on your business and any new service offerings you might have. Also, create a segment them in your CRM so that you can keep up with who has this service.

7. Create Reports

Creating reports for each client is icing on top of your service. You can personalize reports and automate to save time. To your client, it looks like you are going the extra mile for them. Using MainWP allows you to create reports with one of the extensions.

8. Get to Work

Now that you have your system set up, your customers and your monthly recurring payments, get to work. Set it on your schedule to check your client’s websites on a regular basis. Communicate with your clients regularly and don’t forget to offer fantastic customer service.

Wrapping it up

There is obviously more to starting a new service, but these are steps you can take. There are several businesses who have launched this as a stand-alone business. With  25% of the websites powered by WordPress in 2015 and over 26% this year, there is plenty of need and plenty of potential customers.

The best news?

You can get started with a WordPress Maintenance Service with one tool, MainWP.