I’ll be blunt. Most agencies would be able to sell email today… and they don’t. Not because it’s hard. Due to a couple of narratives they tell themselves.
The tales seem reasonable. They’re mostly wrong. These are my four favorite retirement picks.
Myth one: clients won’t pay for it
They already do. At this moment, each and every client you possess pays for mailboxes somewhere, typically to a huge brand that doesn’t decide up on the telephone. The money exists. It’s just a question of who picks it up.
Provide an improved version. On the service your name, on the line your voice when something breaks. To a business owner who despises getting support, that is worth real cash.
Consider the invoice that you send today. Renewal, site maintenance, and perhaps a retainer fee. It costs a little more per month per box, and the invoice just keeps swelling, and the new sales call has not been made. Then you have ten clients, a few mailboxes per client, and that line starts to get interesting.
Myth two: it means running servers
Not anymore. Just a hosted platform takes care of the machines, updates, and uptime. You’re the one that’s responsible for the client. Private label email hosting allows you to place your name on the service without developing any of the plumbing. Your logo appears on the webmail page, your email address is displayed in the browser bar, and the technical work is left to the provider.
You will still have to take your pick. Inquire about the location of the data. Inquire about the process of backups. What do you think happens if it fails at midnight?
Myth three: managing it will swallow my week
If you do not do it right. Twenty panels, twenty logins, twenty sticky notes with passwords? Sure, that takes a week. One dashboard doesn’t.
Here’s a level playing field for any platform. Try five jobs:
Add a new domain
Create a mailbox
Reset a password
Hang up a person who recently left
It is possible to add a second domain to the same client.
If you’re able to complete all five before you’ve let your coffee cool, the tool was designed for agencies. Otherwise, continue to look for a better deal.
Other good ones also provide a unique username for each client. There are no mailboxes for them to look at except their own. You see the lot.
Myth four: clients will notice and complain
They’ll notice. But not in your usual way. What they’ll see is a cleaner login page with a logo that they are familiar with. Staff is not so interested in the ownership of the servers. They are concerned with the timely delivery of mail.
A white label email service maintains that consistency, and your brand remains in the spotlight. If a client does ask, be honest about who runs things behind the scenes. Tell them it’s a service you take care of their needs. Most won’t blink.
One hint: Keep your employees a week ahead. Send a 2-line note containing the date and the new web address. Surprises cause complaints. Notice rarely does.
What to check before you sign
First, limits. Your margin can be quietly destroyed by storage and sending caps. Second, exits. If a client moves on, you should be able to copy the mail out over IMAP. Third, support hours. Since it’s 8 pm, someone has to respond. Don’t be afraid to request a trial account either, and do it yourself first before your client does.
Test deliverability too. Send email to Gmail and Outlook addresses, check the spam folder, and verify SPF, DKIM and DMARC records are correct. Having a beautiful branded inbox is not much help if all the messages are lost.
Choosing your test client
Choose a friendly person, a small group, and patience. Explain to them what has changed. Get one domain moved, establish mailboxes, and send a brief message to each person with the new web address. Give it a week. If no one complains and no one asks me where their mail went, then you have a pattern to repeat.
TrekMail is designed for agencies, MSPs, and hosting companies that need every client to have their own login to their mailbox and every domain to be managed in one location. Test it on that client first, and then determine how quickly you want to work on the others.
FAQs
Does it require some technical skill to operate?
Having some understanding of DNS will aid. The majority of the day’s work occurs in the dashboard and a quality provider will describe each step.
Will staff retain their existing email address?
Yes. The address remains unchanged. The only change is the location for the mail.
Is it possible for one client to view the mailboxes of another?
No. Each client will log in separately and have access to their own users.
How much does it take for the beginning?
This will vary by provider and plan. Before you decide, check out the per-mailbox and per-domain pricing; read the limits.
Does Outlook/phone application still work?
Typically, yes, via typical IMAP and SMTP configuration. Request that the provider validate.