You might have heard the term "white label marketing" - or you might have even been told that you could benefit from it.

But what is white label marketing, and when should you use it?

Find out everything you need to know in this guide.

Key takeaways:

White label marketing is when you outsource various projects to a marketing partner, who brands these projects with your own business name and logo.
A business owner or team might choose white label digital marketing service to free up their own time, get better quality or a bigger quantity of results, or save money by avoiding in-house costs.
When choosing between white label digital marketing companies, look for companies that are reliable, experienced in your niche, and able to take on as much work as you require.

What is white label marketing?

White label marketing is when a company outsources its marketing needs to another company that handles the marketing project on its behalf.

This could apply to all types of marketing services, including website design or rebranding, content creation for a blog or social channels, or producing advertising campaigns online.

What makes the service "white label" is that the digital marketing agency does not claim or copyright the end product - instead, it's branded with the client's logo and name.

If you want to expand your audience and invest more in your marketing efforts without relying on an in-house team, white label marketing is the answer. This type of marketing solution also makes sense if you just want to purchase a short-term service that you don't need a full-time member of staff to manage.

The obvious benefit of hiring a white label agency for your marketing needs is that you can hand over the job to an expert, so you can guarantee a high-quality end result.

What is white labeling?

White labeling is when your company's name and logo are used to brand a specific product or service, rather than the manufacturer's.

The term "white label" refers to the white color of the label or packaging on a physical product, allowing companies to stamp their own brand and logo onto the empty space. The same applies to digital marketing services, but a white label company will often input your own branding for you where applicable, rather than leaving a blank space.

So, one company makes the product or service on behalf of the other company, producing an end result that looks like it was made specifically by the other company.

White label vs private label

What's the difference between white label and private label products?

The key difference is that white label products are generic, meaning that they can be sold to multiple clients, who can each put their name on the end result and sell it on as their own.

Private label products are customized to the client or business, which means they're more tailored and unique to the business's brand and values.

These terms are often used interchangeably in digital marketing. For instance, a digital marketing agency might offer white label search engine optimization services, which involves technical SEO processes that don't need to be tailored to specific brands.

But the agency might also offer white label email marketing or copywriting, which is technically classed as a private label service because it has to be made to be unique from the other content that already exists for the client's competitors.

Types of white label solutions

The most common types of digital marketing services offered by white label companies are:

Social media marketing/social media advertising - Using social platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to spread brand awareness and attract your intended audience with targeted campaigns.
Web development/web design - Optimizing your website for conversions and sales with a custom-built design.
Content writing - Creating high-quality, engaging content that provides genuine value to your audience and boosts your SEO.
Search engine optimization - Optimizing your on-page, technical, and off-page SEO to increase your likelihood of ranking on the first page of the SERPs and bringing more organic traffic to your site.
Pay-Per-Click advertising - Displaying ads on search engines and popular websites to bring in new leads and generate more sales.
Email marketing - Sending commercial messages to your email subscribers to promote your products and services.
Reputation management - Influencing the public perception of your business and ensuring that your positive reputation is maintained across all platforms online.

A white label marketing agency might specialize in only one or two of these services, or they might have a team that can provide a well-rounded digital marketing service.

Why consider white label marketing?

There are a few reasons why you might benefit from white label marketing for your business:

Save time

The biggest benefit of outsourcing your digital marketing services to a white label company is that you'll save hours of your own time working on various marketing projects.

You can find digital marketing agencies that will manage all of your marketing needs, allowing you to focus on other aspects of managing your brand, like delivering the best customer service, without having to worry about website development, content creation, or social media management.

A white label agency can handle every stage of your marketing project, from beginning to completion, so you don't need to spend your own time working on your marketing, or training a member of your team to do it for you.

Save money

Another huge benefit of hiring a white label digital marketing agency is that you can save on the overhead costs that come with managing your own in-house marketing team.

Your digital marketing partner should give you the flexibility to choose a plan that suits you best, so you can select the types and intensity of services you receive based on your monthly budget.

This often works out much cheaper than hiring a dedicated team to work in-house on your marketing projects.

Get better results

Using a white label digital marketing agency should also give you better results than you'd achieve from your own marketing efforts.

You might pride yourself on keeping up to date with the latest marketing trends and educating yourself on the most important elements of marketing for your business, but you're unlikely to have the same level of expertise and skill as a professional in the marketing industry.

When you hire an agency for white label marketing services, you don't have to worry about whether or not your efforts will pay off. As long as you choose a reliable, top-reviewed white label partner, the marketing services you receive should be high-quality and ideally suited to your brand and target audience.

Get more results

Hiring a professional white label digital marketing agency usually means you'll get more results than you would with in-house staff, too.

An in-house marketing team gets paid a specific salary regardless of monthly workload. A white label partner, on the other hand, usually gets paid based on the amount of time spent on the job, or the volume of work produced.

That means you can often get more results from what you're spending compared to paying your own staff to work on your marketing projects year-round.

Still your own product

Why source a white label digital marketing solution specifically? Because white label partners won't try to stake a claim on the work they've done for you, so even though you didn't produce the product yourself, it can still be showcased as your own.

So, if you hire a professional SEO content writing agency that offers white label services, you can outsource your content marketing to a professional, but publish their content in your name. The agency will create the content as if they're a member of your team, so you won't need to change the wording to ensure it comes across as your own work.

That means you get all the benefits of a quality service without having to compromise when it comes to the issue of ownership and copyright.

More flexibility for agencies

Agency clients can particularly benefit from white label services.

Let's say you're the owner of a web design company and you want to offer content writing services to the clients whose websites you've built.

You could hire a white label agency to produce content on your behalf, which you could then sell to your clients in your name.

This could be worth your time if you charged your clients more for this service than you paid the white label agency, then took a commission with every sale. You'd essentially be earning money from acting as the middleman, while still passing off the service as your own.

Scalability

The right marketing plan can help you to scale your business by focusing on the best methods of lead generation and conversion.

A white label digital marketing company is well-equipped to help you to scale with marketing by having the capacity to take on extra work if your marketing efforts start paying off. You don't have to worry about hiring new members of staff or dedicating more time to marketing because you're not dealing with these processes yourself.

The same goes for scaling down, too - if the market conditions change to be disadvantageous to you, you can easily adjust your level of service down in the short team while you reevaluate other aspects of your business.

When should you use white label marketing services?

There are a few reasons why you might benefit from using a white label digital marketing company:

You’re a startup looking to get started with digital marketing: Startups need to get their brand out there as quickly as possible, but usually lack the funds to hire an in-house team. Working with a marketing partner gives you a flexible and budget-friendly option for your initial marketing needs.
You want to offer marketing services but lack the resources: If you’re a web developer or you run a design agency that lacks an in-house marketing team, you can use a white label company to provide the services your clients are looking for.
You’re a small brand that wants to focus on growth: Big brands might have the budgets required for their own dedicated teams of staff, but small businesses can still compete by outsourcing in white label digital marketing.
Your own marketing efforts haven't paid off: The best way to get top results from digital marketing is to hire a white label agency with the skills and expertise to do the work for you.
You want to rebrand or reignite your business' growth: You might have been through a lot of ideas and projects already, and need a white label digital marketing agency that can offer new services and creative approaches to take your business even further.

What to consider when choosing a white label partner

Finding a high-quality, reliable white label agency partner for your business is essential, whether you plan to sell white label products to your clients or you just want a white label solution for your own digital marketing needs.

When you're choosing a digital marketing company to work on your white label requirements, consider the following things:

Reliability

First and foremost, a white label provider should be reliable and provide the exact service that they promise you.

Reliability isn't always guaranteed. Look for an agency that has a history of positive customer reviews on sites like Trustpilot. Don't just check the website's testimonials, since these are often a little biased - it's not like a company will share feedback that doesn't discuss its services favorably.

Experience in your niche

It's also helpful for your chosen white label digital marketing agency to have experience in working for your niche. This is especially important for tailored digital services like content writing, email marketing, and web design, which need to be personalized to specific audiences.

You can ask the agency to share samples of their past work for clients similar to you, and check customer reviews to get an idea of the clients that the agency has worked with previously.

Capacity for work

Digital marketing agencies should have the ability to increase or decrease workload based on your budget and changing business needs.

It might also be beneficial for you to look at digital marketing companies that offer other services other than the one you need now.

For instance, you might want to start with web design or web development, but you may eventually need content creation, social media marketing, and other specialized services. Finding a white label team that can manage all of these services for you will save you the hassle of outsourcing a solution for each of your requirements separately.

Of course, you might only need to outsource one or two aspects of your marketing, and in this case, you'll benefit more from finding a dedicated agency offering a specialized service than choosing a company that can do it all.

How much do white label digital marketing services cost?

Different white label digital marketing companies have different charges for their services. The exact cost depends on a few factors, including:

The type of digital marketing service you need
The business location
The agency's size and reputation
The scope and complexity of the project
Whether you want a one-off or recurring service

The average monthly price range for white label digital marketing is $500-$1,600 for a recurring service.

A single one-off project might cost anything from $1,000 to $6,500.

Final word

White label digital marketing can help you save time and money by outsourcing your projects with marketing experts, while still benefiting from having your own branding and logo on the end result.

If you've never worked with white label digital marketing companies before, start with one service, such as content marketing. A professional content writing agency can produce high-quality white label web copy for your business that's true to your company's brand and values, eliminating your need to hire an in-house team of writers.

A white label partnership doesn't have to cost a fortune. Start small, try out one or two outsourced services, and decide whether the results are worth investing more into as you continue to grow your business in the digital world.