White Label Design Agencies: Finding the Best Fit
Visuals are non-negotiables in marketing and branding. In fact, brands rely heavily on visuals to introduce themselves, establish their values, and connect with relevant audiences. With digital platforms now offering rich immersive visual experiences and supporting and encouraging a wide range of visual content formats, brands, big and small, are looking for design services. Therefore, for agencies and businesses eager to broaden their services without the cost and complexity of an in-house design team, white label design agencies offer an ideal solution.
So, how do you find the right white label design agency for your needs? What key questions should you be asking before you sift through the choices and make your decision? This blog delves into these burning questions and tips and tricks to find the right white label design agency.
Ready? Let’s get started.
Understanding White Label Design Agencies
Before we talk about tips and tricks to choose the best white label design agencies, let’s address some of the most commonly asked questions to lay a strong foundation.
What are white label design agencies?
Like traditional design agencies, these are great options for anyone looking to outsource their design. But the difference here is that a white label design agency can help create designs you can rebrand and resell as your own. These could be diverse kinds of designs, like logos, website designs, and a variety of marketing designs.
With most traditional design agencies and freelance designers, you might get the designs for your requirements, but the designer or agency might still own the copyright. But white label design agencies transfer the ownership of the designs. Therefore, you are free to use the design as your own for your brand or for your clients, or even resell them.
Who needs white label design agencies?
White label design agencies serve a wide range of clients including:
- Marketing agencies that are looking to provide end-to-end solutions to clients, including design. What if you do not have full-time designers working in-house, but your client wants their ad designs created? White label design agencies can take the design workload off your shoulders and let you focus on marketing strategy and other aspects.
- Web development agencies that are focused on coding and need support with the UI/UX design part to create visually appealing interfaces.
- Freelance marketing consultants looking to offer brand designs as a part of their portfolio without hiring a team of designers.
- Entrepreneurs looking to sell digital assets online but do not have the design expertise or tools to create them.
The key is the rebranding freedom. Unlike traditional design agencies that bind their clients by complicated contracts, white label design agencies allow their clients to rebrand their designs. In short, they are ideal for organizations looking to scale without the hassle of hiring in-house design teams and without worrying about image copyright issues.
Why choose a white label design agency?
Perhaps that’s the first question on your mind. Why outsource your design when there is always the option to hire an in-house team or work with freelance designers? Here are some reasons why:
- It’s cost-effective. Reportedly, the price to hire an in-house graphic designer can cost around $74800 in the U.S. That’s about $6200 per month for a single designer who might be well-versed in one style of design. And freelance designers offer hourly rates, which leads to unpredictable bills. However, most unlimited design agencies, like KIMP, that provide white label design services have plans that cost as low as $699 per month, and you get a dedicated team of designers, including experienced illustrators, at this price.
- Hassle-free scalability. Perhaps one client asks for a logo today. Another client asks for a brand overhaul that involves a wide range of designs like logos, packaging, custom fonts, social media graphics, and more. A single in-house hire might not always be able to handle variety. Besides, vetting suitable freelancers for each of these can be a hassle. Instead, a single white label design agency with a talented team of designers can help you with such varying workloads.
- Expand your service without expanding your team. What if bringing more people on board is not within your scope right now, but competition demands that you expand the scope of your services? White label design agencies help you broaden your offerings without the overheads.
How does white label design work?
The collaboration process is going to be more or less similar to that of working with a traditional design agency or a freelance designer.
The client – whether it is a business owner or a marketer, or a marketing agency, identifies a need for design work. Maybe their client wants a new website designed or the static images created for their digital ad campaign. Instead of tackling this on their own, the marketer or marketing agency finds a white label design company.
They provide a detailed brief including the client’s brand guidelines. The company then works on creating deliverables that match the provided brief. They then deliver the marketer or marketing agencies the required designs along with source files. With the source files in hand, the marketer/agency can always apply their tweaks to the design as preferred.
Once the design is ready, it is open for commercial use, the white label agency remains concealed in the background with its name not popping up anywhere.
The actual workflow depends entirely on the chosen design agency’s approach. Some have in-house project management tools like KIMP360 with KIMP. KIMP360 allows you to manage multiple brands all on one convenient dashboard.
All you have to do is fill in the design brief, load your clients’ brand assets to be included in the design, and look out for the finished designs! Since KIMP supports unlimited revisions, you can perfect your designs and get them on track, since in this case, your reputation depends on the quality of these designs.
How to Pick a White Label Agency That Works for You: 6 Tips & Tricks
1. Nail down your design goals before you start
Before you start shortlisting your options, map out your requirements.
- Is it a single website design for one of your clients?
- Do you need to take care of all the marketing designs as part of your offerings?
- Will you be creating digital assets to sell on online marketplaces? If yes, what type of assets will you need, and how frequently?
- In general, what types of designs will you need, and do you need them on a daily, weekly or monthly basis?
Answering questions like these will give you a crystal clear picture of what’s ahead and what to look for in the white label design company’s scope.
For instance, not all white label web design agencies provide marketing design services and vice versa. There are a few that cater to all types of white label design services, but they might be more suitable when you have design requirements on an ongoing basis rather than one-off assignments.
2. Analyse their past work
So your design goals are locked in. Now it’s time to do some digging. Check out the past work of the shortlisted agencies. But what should you look for?
- Style versatility – can the agency handle diverse design styles? This is particularly crucial for marketing agencies and marketers handling a wide range of clients.
- Quality of designs – will these designs positively impact your brand image?
- Are they aware of trends? Do you notice that some of their work aligns with the current design trends in addition to timeless examples?
- Variety – have they handled a variety of design types in a variety of industries?
- Consistency – if some of their designs are bang-on but some are passable, there is no proof of consistency. Consistency brings dependability.
- Do they have proof of skill for all the design types advertised in their scope?
- Are they able to create unique designs and fresh ideas from scratch? This is particularly essential if you plan to resell the designs they create for you.
Cross-check their portfolio with your goals and see if the shortlisted white label agencies tick most, if not all the boxes.
3. Gauge their reliability from their reviews
With most transactions occurring online in the digital age, a company’s reputation precedes it. When evaluating potential white label design agencies, spend enough time comparing their online reviews and testimonials.
- Look for critical and positive reviews on third-party review sites like Clutch and Trustpilot.
- Check Google Reviews for an even more comprehensive view.
- Look for YouTube video walkthroughs, reviews, and videos comparing the chosen service with others in the segment.
- See what people talk about the agency on social media platforms.
All these steps help you scratch beyond the surface and understand the pros and cons that might not explicitly be stated on the agency’s website and social media pages. What should to look for when you study these reviews?
- See what clients say about their design quality.
- Do they meet the promises?
- What about timeliness?
- Does the design team understand the requirements?
- Are there any red flags? Like delayed deliveries, degrading quality, etc?
- Do they talk about any hidden charges or complicated contracts?
Occasional negative reviews are okay but if there is a pattern, then it must definitely be considered when you make your decision.
4. Do their plans meet your budget?
After all, most clients who choose to work with white label design agencies instead of hiring an in-house design team choose to do so to avoid the hassle and, most importantly, the cost involved. So, compare the plans offered by the chosen white label design agencies.
It’s essential to find an agency that not only delivers high-quality work but also offers plans that align with your budget. You’ll come across many options – hourly rates, monthly subscriptions, project-based pricing, and other options. Find what works for your budget and workflow.
For instance, if your goal is to steadily expand your offerings and add design to your scope without hiring a design team, a long-term option like a monthly subscription might be cost-effective.
In addition to comparing the pricing structures, be sure that there are no hidden charges that might bring you surprise bills in the future.
5. Understand turnaround times
The turnaround time that the agency promises on their website and the comments from actual users about the timeliness of the team are all influential signals to look for. After all, when they are not able to deliver the designs as promised, you will not be able to meet your deadlines and your reputation with your clients is at stake.
So, given that your client relationships and business operations depend on the timely availability of designs, check the turnaround times offered by the chosen agencies.
- Discuss your project timeliness upfront.
- Communicate your expectations, deadlines, and priorities for design projects.
- Check if the agency allows the convenient rearrangement of items in the queue when your client’s requirements change.
- Ask for realistic estimates of turnaround times depending on the types of designs.
6. Evaluate their workflow – for a seamless collaboration
Let’s face it, vetting the right agency to outsource your design, be it a traditional agency or a white label design agency, takes time. You cannot afford to spend a lot of time on each of your design projects. Therefore, in addition to pricing and portfolio, you should also evaluate the workflow and project management strategies of the chosen agency. You need one that supports seamless collaboration for a hassle-free long-term partnership.
- Ask them about the project management software or tools they use.
- What are their communication channels like? While you need convenient modes of reaching them, it will be a hassle if they request briefs via email, feedback via a tool, and other communication via chat. A streamlined workflow where all communication happens through one channel makes your job easier.
- What about project tracking? How can you monitor progress and ensure deadlines are met?
- Then there is the question about scalability. Can their workflow accommodate fluctuating project volumes and evolving needs?
- What is their revision policy like? Do they support unlimited revisions? Is there are convenient design feedback tool where you can highlight the updates required and get them sorted on time?
Taking time to get the answers to these questions can save you a lot of time in the future. And you also know that you have chosen an agency that’s convenient to work with in the long run.
Finding Your Idea Design Partner: A Final Word
To conclude, white label design agencies bring a host of benefits. They let you expand your scope without requiring drastic changes in your operations, team structures, and budgets.
So, what’s your next step? If you’re ready to ditch the hassle and roll with a team that’s got your back, a white label design agency could be the move. Something like KIMP’s unlimited design plans might just be the ticket—affordable, flexible, and primed to make your brand pop. Why not give it a spin and see how easy scaling can be?
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