What can evolving your services look like?
Meet Ashley, Klaviyo Champion and Director of Email Marketing at SmartSites, a full-service digital marketing agency. Ashley led the expansion into email and SMS services, successfully launching and scaling Klaviyo services in just nine months. Today, SmartSites is a Klaviyo Platinum Partner with over 1,000 five-star reviews.
Even though SmartSites is a larger agency, Ashley’s approach to launching new services, tracking performance, and growing profitably applies to agencies of any size.
As you read through her journey, consider how the steps she took, like piloting services, time-tracking delivery, and shifting to retainer models, mirror what’s required to evolve from email execution to full B2C CRM services.
How does launching new services align with B2C CRM?
B2C CRM is not a stock keeping unit (SKU), it’s a shift in how you package and deliver value. That shift starts by evolving your services, just like Jose from ABC Agency did in the video below.
You’ll see how he moved from hourly work to project-based and then retainer services. While the video doesn’t mention B2C CRM directly, the path is the same: start small, build process, and scale strategically.
As you grow into B2C CRM, you’ll likely use parts of Klaviyo you haven’t before: like Marketing Analytics or Customer Hub. Packaging those into your services helps you sell strategy, not just execution.
How SmartSites launched and scaled Klaviyo services
When Ashley joined SmartSites, she came on as a project manager managing their existing services, which at the time was heavily SEO and paid ads. As SmartSites grew, Ashley led the launch and scaling of Klaviyo services. Pricing was a critical part of this strategy, as they wanted to make sure that they were giving themselves opportunity to learn and experiment but were on the road to profitability.
SmartSites already used a retainer model, so they launched Klaviyo services that way too. But Ashley made thoughtful moves that any agency can learn from, especially if you're shifting from channel execution to full-service B2C CRM.
Here’s how she did it:
Step 1: Offer a discounted rate to existing clients in exchange for feedback
SmartSites, an established firm that could afford to take some risks, offered a discounted rate to their existing clients in exchange for feedback. They surveyed their beta clients consistently to understand what worked and what didn’t. When clients saw positive returns, they submitted case studies as part of the agreement for their discounted rate.
Even if you can't discount your services, offering added value in exchange for feedback is crucial. Engaging with customers about what works and what doesn’t helps build a more reliable process. Some incentives newer agencies and freelancers offer include:
- Free audits.
- Free customer journey/consultation sessions.
- Free e-books and educational materials.
Most importantly, leverage your previous work experience to build a niche. Do you have industry expertise from your previous work experience? Are you a Gen Z consumer who can demystify your peers’ buyer behavior for brands seeking to appeal to this age group? You have a unique point of view, and productizing it through free strategy sessions or consultations will encourage brands to take a chance on you.
Step 2: Track how long each task takes
Using a project management tool, Ashley time tracked the average time to launch for each task, from building out a client’s welcome series to each flow. Additionally, this spreadsheet tracked each client’s health and account metrics. This helped Ashley’s team see where efficiencies were being built into the existing process and where refinements might be needed as they scale.
B2C CRM services often span strategy, execution, and analysis. Tracking across these layers helps you scope, price, and package services that go beyond email setup: like ongoing performance reviews or journey optimization.
Step 3: Gradually reduce discounting as you build a repeatable process
As Ashley identified key process gaps, their team continued to offer discounted services, but not nearly as steep as they did earlier on.
As you move into B2C CRM, your value becomes less about hours and more about business impact. Use this phase to package outcomes: like improved lifetime value (LTV) or re-engagement rates, not just deliverables.
Step 4: Track tasks with variable time spent
Some tasks take a fixed amount of time, like creating key segments, while others, like migrating a client's potentially messy data from your ESP, may take variable amounts of time. Tracking which tasks could take longer depending on the client’s current state will help you prepare to identify how much time you need to complete each task and determine appropriate scope of work for your prospective clients.
B2C CRM work often depends on your client’s data maturity and systems. Tracking time for these more complex services helps you package them effectively and avoid overcommitting.
How do I know when I am ready for the next phase?
Your pricing model is highly dependent on your business, and offering hourly rates may not make sense for your existing structure. However, we hope that this framework helps you think about how to beta launch your services as you accommodate for scaling and the inevitable learning curve.
In the next lesson, we will walk through what metrics to track to determine when to move from one phase to the next when evolving your pricing model.