Why Web Development Agencies Should Offer Business Email to Their Clients

Picture a small restaurant in Nairobi launching its new website on a Friday. By Monday the owner is still emailing suppliers from a personal Gmail address, the website's contact form is sending enquiries to an inbox nobody checks, and the person who built the site is the one getting the phone call.

That is an imagined scenario, not a real client. If you build websites for a living, it probably feels familiar anyway.

Customers judge a business by its website and by the address that answers their enquiry. This article looks at why business email sits so naturally beside web development, what taking it on involves, how to weigh your options honestly, and where a partner programme can help.

Email is already part of the website job

Every website lives on a domain, and the same domain is used for email. When a domain is set up, pointed at a new host or moved between registrars, DNS records change, and those include the records that tell the internet where the domain's email should go. If they are altered without care, existing email can stop arriving. Agencies are often the people with their hands on DNS, so email problems become website problems whether or not email was ever in scope.

Contact forms and system notifications add another link. Enquiries, order confirmations and password resets all send email from, or to, the client's domain. Somebody has to decide which address receives them. It should be a proper mailbox on the client's domain, not the developer's own inbox and not a personal account the owner might lose access to.

Launch is also the moment clients are most receptive. They have just invested in a business identity online, and “which address will your customers see when you reply?” is a natural last item on the checklist.

What clients actually need from professional email

A business email address uses the client's own domain, such as sales@yourclient.co.ke, instead of a free personal address. For clients, that comes down to four practical needs:

• An address that matches the website. Replies, invoices and quotations carry the same name customers saw online.
• Separate inboxes for separate jobs. Sales, accounts and support enquiries are easier to manage when they do not all land in one personal mailbox.
• Continuity when people change. If mailboxes belong to the business rather than to an individual's personal account, a departing employee does not take the customer history with them.
• Control of the domain. The business should own and be able to renew its domain, with access that does not depend on one person.

If you want something to send a client who is not yet convinced, our guide on how to get professional business email in Kenya covers the basics from the business owner's side.

Doesn't email already come with hosting?

Often, yes. Many hosting plans include mailboxes, and for a one-person business with modest needs that can be perfectly adequate. Bundled email is a legitimate choice, and no agency should be talked out of it just because an alternative exists.

It is still worth knowing how the two differ:

• Email tied to a hosting plan usually moves with it. If the website changes host, the mailboxes and their history may need to move too, and that is another migration to manage.
• Limits follow the plan. Mailbox size, sending limits and features depend on the hosting package, and support comes from whoever runs the hosting.
• A standalone email service separates the two. The website can change host or be rebuilt without touching anyone's mailbox.

Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are also sensible options, and some clients will already use them or ask for them by name. If that is the case, recommend what fits. The right answer depends on how many people the client has, how heavily they use email, which tools they already depend on and who they trust to support it.

Three ways agencies can handle client email

There is no single correct approach. Most agencies fall into one of three.

Many agencies begin by recommending and referring, and only move to managing email for clients where the relationship is already deep. The honest cost of managing it yourself is that “I can't log in” or “my email isn't arriving” becomes your problem, usually at an inconvenient time.

The business case, without the hype

Web projects are usually paid for once. Between projects, income stops until the next client arrives. Services that clients keep using, such as email, can extend a relationship beyond launch, and a business tends to keep using email for years.

That is a structural point, not a promise. Whether email is worth adding for your agency depends entirely on your numbers. Before deciding, work through these questions:

• How many active clients do you have, and how many of them would use professional email?
• How many inboxes would each client need?
• How much time would setup and support take per client?
• What would you earn from it, if anything, and when? Get the terms in writing.
• If a client leaves or the relationship ends, who owns the account and the mail?

Fill these in with your own figures and the provider's written terms. Be cautious about any pitch, a partner programme's included, that skips this step.

If you manage client inboxes, think about data

Mailboxes hold personal data: customer names, invoices, enquiries. Kenya's Data Protection Act, 2019 distinguishes between data controllers and data processors. The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) describes a processor as an entity that processes personal data for a controller under a contractual arrangement, and says that controllers and processors must register with the ODPC unless they are exempt. Read the ODPC's FAQs for the details.

Whether and how this applies to your agency depends on how you work, so check with a qualified adviser before you start managing client mailboxes. This is general information, not legal advice.

What to look for in an email partner

Whichever provider you consider, a few questions separate a service you can recommend confidently from one that will cost you time:

• Pricing you can explain in a sentence. Is it per inbox? What does it include? Is tax added on top?
• Clear limits. Storage, outbound sending and inbound email should each have stated allowances.
• Plain guidance for DNS. You or your client will have to add records to the domain, so instructions should be unambiguous.
• A clear support split. Know who handles a client's problem, and who handles a fault in the service itself.
• Client ownership. The client should own their account and data, not be locked inside yours.
• Terms in writing. That includes what happens if the arrangement ends.
• Control when staff leave. A business should be able to manage access to its own mailboxes.

How partner programmes typically work

Programmes differ, but three models come up most often:

• Referral. You recommend the service. The provider deals with the customer directly, and you are credited for the introduction.
• Reseller. You work more directly with the customer, which usually includes managing the service and providing support.
• White-label. The service is presented under your own brand.

Terms vary widely between providers, so read them before you commit your clients to anything.

BosonWare Retailer: one example

BosonWare Retailer is the partner programme for BosonWare products, and BosonMail is the one partners mainly promote. It is open to agencies, freelancers, IT consultants and other suitable partners. The programme is mainly referral-based, and resellers are supported for qualifying businesses such as web agencies with larger client bases. In both cases, clients create and own their BosonWare account.

Referral partners

A referral partner recommends BosonMail to clients. The client creates their own account, and BosonWare supports the client directly. Retailer codes attribute a sale to the partner and can also apply a discount for the client, depending on the partner.

Resellers

Resellers can manage client inboxes and handle support for their own clients. BosonWare remains responsible for higher-level support, such as product bugs or infrastructure issues. To be considered for reseller status, an applicant selects “Direct Client Consulting & Agency Sales” as a marketing channel, explains their agency business in the Additional Notes field, and provides a valid website.

Commission and discounts

Approved partners earn commission on the sales they bring in. BosonWare confirms the amount when an application is approved, so this article does not quote rates.

How to apply

1. 1Create a BosonWare account.
2. 2Open the Retailer application. You need to be signed in.
3. 3Describe your marketing strategy and plan, your target audience and customer segment, and choose the marketing channels that apply to you.
4. 4Optionally, add a website or portfolio URL, social media handles, and any notes about your existing client base or experience.
5. 5Submit the application.

BosonWare administrators review each application and approve or reject it with a reason. Approval is not guaranteed.

BosonMail as an example of what you would be offering

BosonMail is a managed business email service. BosonWare runs the email infrastructure, and your client's team gets addresses on their own domain with nothing to install or maintain.

If a client needs more, extras are added to the inboxes that need them:

• Additional storage: KSh 10 per GB per month.
• Sending credits: KSh 150 per 1,000 emails, added to the monthly allowance and valid for 90 days.
• A higher monthly sending allowance: KSh 100 per 1,000 emails per month.

As an example from BosonWare's own pricing, a team of five on the yearly plan pays KSh 6,000 a year before VAT. That is what the client pays. It says nothing about what a partner might earn.

Payment is by invoice through M-PESA, and inboxes are activated once the payment is verified. Our BosonMail setup guide walks through the whole process, which is useful to read before you recommend it to a client.

Getting started: a practical checklist for agencies

1. 1Take stock. List the clients you built sites for over the past year and note what email each one uses today.
2. 2Try it on yourself. Set up professional email on your own agency's domain first, and use it the way a customer would.
3. 3Choose your model. Decide whether you will refer clients or manage their inboxes for them.
4. 4Write it down. Draft a one-page description of what you offer and what you do not, including when and how you provide support.
5. 5Read the terms. Check any partner programme's terms in writing before you promise anything to a client.
6. 6Start small. Begin with one or two clients, learn what questions come up, then widen the offer.

Frequently asked questions