Officially open for business! Friday, April 13th, 2012, Webtegrity was privileged to celebrate our Grand Opening with many new friends and familiar faces.  After 15 years of business out of our homes, it was a dream come true to launch our web design company officially in such a fun, unique, creative space as our loft.

The San Antonio Business Chamber made the event even more special when several members joined in and brought the big golden scissors and red ribbon to make the opening official.  Their team of volunteer members were incredibly supportive.

Along with the SA Chamber, we had clients, friends, church family and even our building neighbors stop by throughout the day to enjoy cake, Starbucks coffee and snacks.

“Everyone who came to celebrate with us, showed us their support and encouragement,” said Rusty Postell.  “It’s this type of unity carried between us and our clients that makes our company more than a web design service – we are proud to be a part of a network of businesses helping each other grow and succeed.”

We also want to say thank you to River City Digital Graphics for designing and printing our custom invitations for this grand opening!

Hugo Vital and his team worked with us to create a new site like none other in their industry. This will become a powerful tool for the San Antonio and surrounding communities.

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“Not only was this a wonderful honor for Webtegrity, but this was also a privilege to network with such fun, creative people who have a heart for San Antonio,” says Ashton. “It’s refreshing to find a team of people from such diverse backgrounds who come together with one goal – to further improve the quality of our cultural arts in San Antonio. When we were awarded the bid to design the site, I don’t know who was happier, us or KWCAD!”

You can view the King William Cultural Arts District website and be sure to comment on their site!  They are doing great things for this city and the award for Best Cultural Arts District of Downtown San Antonio only just starts to reflect on their amazing impact across our community!

Some companies have easy products that very naturally create an instant excitement or interest – like Apple.  They offer technology that changes lives and impacts millions around the world daily.  They’ve created their own culture where their products all cross-market and sell each other.  BRILLIANT!  So how do we learn from  Apple? Or how do we learn from Target, who reinvented themselves over the years preserving their existence while their competitors dropped off like flies?  How do we tap into their creative marketing juices and gleam from their market research if our product is not naturally exciting?

Well look at Geico… they took a BORING topic like insurance and with a twist in their marketing plan invented a talking gecko that is a staple in this generation. Everyone knows what company that little gecko works for. And it caused America to like insurance.  Am I saying you need a mascot?  Not necessarily.  The point to this is to understand the psychology of selling / buying.  Why do people buy anything?  Need or Want. People need insurance.  In an absolutely flooded industry how does one insurance company stand above the rest?

Every book you read about marketing will ask you – “Who is your target market?”  Those same books will follow that question with other like – “Who is your ideal customer?”  “What services do you provide for them?” “How can you keep loyal customers and create new business?”  After reading pages of questions, most business owners are left exactly where they started – full of unanswered questions and no direction of how to move forward.  Will someone answer the question – what is the best way to market my business? We’ll give you some ideas on how to get creative with your marketing plan.

1. Give more than you sell.

That might sound like an instant bankruptcy settlement, but I’m not talking about just product giveaway.  I’m talking about value.  Give more value to your customer than what they walked in the front door for.  Value could be in better customer service, cleaner facilities, better quality products than the average in your industry, or faster service.  You could start an incentive program for loyal customers,  or create a giveback program.  One of our most favorite things to suggest is get involved in your local community. Offer free training classes for something in your industry. Giving back instantly adds more value to your business.

2. Make it exciting!

Apple accomplishes this by selling a product that offers many functions, works as described, and due to their genius marketing, if you have their product you feel more professional, more advanced than a basic pc user or even cooler than the kid with the generic mp3 player – you have an ipod!  They’ve given value to the customers by giving great quality and a sense of pride.  Target does this as well by making all of their printed sale ads look fun and vibrant, exciting and full of life.  It makes moms that have the cumbersome task of weekly shopping look exciting and they will want to buy from Target because of the value given at great prices, plus they look pretty.

We’ve done this in our business by having to make nerdy, technical website design interesting to our clients.  So while other web design companies send out flyers with pictures of other websites they’ve developed and speaking only to their services – we decided to speak to the problems our clients run into.  Our marketing switched gears and added a funny twist too. See this postcard?  The front side shows a funny photo that will instantly get someone’s attention and then presents the problem and us as the solution.  The back of the card offers a quick bullet list of our services and our contact information.  We left a space where we could hand write a note too so that the mailout now becomes personal.  Kids were used in this marketing strategy because our average client has children or grandchildren around these ages.

3. Create relationships not customers.

Standard marketing tips tell you to engage your customers either by better customer service, polls and feedback forms, or social media. All of these things work really well. However, typical businesses that actually use these tools never really maximize their capabilities. If a customer actually interacts with you using one of these methods even once, they have the potential to become a lifelong loyal customer. There’s got to be more of a relationship built here now. If they give you feedback, you should give them incentives.  If they engage with social media, you should give them a reward. When they purchase from you, create a follow up process that touches them again within 24 hours of that purchase.  Building a relationship takes time, but it is very rewarding for both parties.

Now is the time to get creative in your marketing plan. There’s never been more resources at a business owners’ tips than what is available in today’s technology world. If these concepts make sense to you and you’d like to know more about developing or improving your marketing plan, connect with our team today and we’ll get you started.  There’s new ways to do things for any company that can create new loyal customers, add value to your business, and produce long-term profit.

Let’s Get Creative
Call  210-885-8408

“Many social measurement tools focus on social listening by monitoring keywords and buzz. While they’re helpful in many cases, these tools don’t connect the dots to show how investments in different social channels ultimately lead to sales or business objectives,” said Phil Mui, Google Analytics group product manager, explaining how the new tool is designed to go beyond listening.

“Our goal with the new reports is to tie social activities and referrals to measurable, meaningful economic value so businesses can more effectively evaluate which social channels are impacting their bottom line, and which tactics will lead to measurable economic value,” Mui said.

This great new feature is now available under the “Social” tab on your Google Analytics dashboard.  You’ll be able to see and track conversions, customer flow, and social media plugins.

Check out more and see some great screenshots on this Blog Article >>

See this Google Doc on the Topic too >>  http://code.google.com/apis/analytics/docs/tracking/gaTrackingSocial.html

If you are a business owner looking to find more resources for your company, find better suppliers or maybe just network – the 2012 Biz Growth Expo is the place to be!  Not only will you find great new contacts, but admission is FREE!  You can’t beat that!

Round up your friends, co-workers, family and even grab the guy on the corner of the street – let them all know the EXPO is happening Tuesday May 1st @ 9 AM Closes @ 2 PM at the Exposition Hall “A” at Freeman Colliseum.

I’ve even heard that they are giving away some FREE stuff to the first few who register online. Don’t miss it!  Come by our booth!!!

BOOTH #S27

Opens Tuesday, May 1st @ 9 AM Closes @ 2 PM

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So, we set out how to mirror your Mac using Apple TV and we discovered Air Parrot!  GENIUS!  This is a very inexpensive app that allows perfect mirroring from your Macbook Pro or iMac to mirror seamlessly on your smart TV using the Apple TV product. After countless hours of googling around trying to find a solution this was a brilliant find and we wanted to share it with you.

If you need to mirror your Mac using Apple TV – Air Parrot is the way to go! Check it out!

This past week one of the best web design companies in San Antonio known as “Webtegrity” announced its recent accreditation by BBB serving Central, Coastal, Southwest Texas and the Permian Basin. As a BBB Accredited Business, Webtegrity is dedicated to promoting trust and integrity in the web design industry.  According to BBB reports by Princeton Research, seven in ten consumers say they are more likely to buy from a company designated as a BBB Accredited Business. BBB is a resource for the public, providing objective, unbiased information about businesses.

“We are so excited to be a BBB Accredited Business because we know the importance of reputation and we want to be a trustworthy web development company for San Antonio,” said Kori Ashton, business owner. “Our BBB Accreditation gives our clients confidence in our commitment to maintaining high ethical standards of conduct.”

BBB Accredited Businesses must adhere to BBB’s “Standards of Trust,” a comprehensive set of policies, procedures and best practices representing trustworthiness in the marketplace. The standards call for building trust, embodying integrity, advertising honestly, and telling the truth. “We will always be transparent with our procedures. Our goal will be to honor our promises and consistently remain responsive to our clients needs,” said Ashton.  “This accreditation with the BBB was one of our first purchases as our new company and we will work hard to maintain an A+ with the BBB.”

About Webtegrity, LLC

8746 Wurzbach #201
San Antonio, Texas 78229
210-885-8408

About BBB

BBB’s mission is to be the leader in advancing marketplace trust. BBB accomplishes this mission by creating a community of trustworthy businesses, setting standards for marketplace trust, encouraging and supporting best practices, celebrating marketplace role models and denouncing substandard marketplace behavior.

Businesses that earn BBB Accreditation contractually agree and adhere to the organization’s high standards of ethical business behavior.  BBB is the preeminent resource to turn to for objective, unbiased information on businesses and charities.

Pastor Wes and his team were excited and readily available to help load all the new content into their powerful WordPress-based website. We incorporated a fun flickr photo gallery widget, an events calendar, and their sermon browser program.

Kori and Webtegrity were a delight to work with.  Personal.  Professional.  And most importantly, interested in us as clients to the degree that our website accurately depicts our mission, vision, and purpose.  I specifically remember a detailed call in which Kori helped us better define the purpose of our website and how to design it in order to lead people where we wanted (in our case, to come to church).  They were also very helpful in designing the navigation on our site so that it was intuitive and easy for people of all ages and backgrounds.  After working with several other web designers with disastrous results, Webtegrity was a dream come true (and an answer to prayer)!

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Choosing a web design company can be overwhelming. At Webtegrity we want to simplify the process for you by speaking clearly without computer jargon. This article is just one more example of how we are different from the average design company. These 10 topics are a great starting point to help you ask the right questions when choosing a design studio. If you have a question or concerns that is not addressed here, please contact us.

1. Ask for proof.

Don’t be afraid to ask the web company you’re dealing with for proof that they’ve designed a project similar to your needs. The last thing you want to be is someone’s FIRST when it comes to this type of investment. Ask to see sample websites produced by the company. Or even ask for past client names so that you can speak with them to get first hand knowledge of what it’s like to deal with the design company.

2. Read the fine print.

Some web companies want to control your domain name and content. Be sure that the contract you sign with them gives you full rights to your domain name and that it remains registered in your company’s name. Be sure that you have access to your hosting account, just in case you ever need to move it, or for some reason your web company goes belly-up – your website will still be functioning. As much as you can, keep the control in your company’s hands.

3. Expect normal fees.

Re-occurring fees are normal on any website if you’re talking about an annual domain name renewal, or your hosting fees. If your designer is using a third-party software and any extra type of widgets, extra fees might be expected there, but other than that, a website should not require large fees after the initial design investment.

4. Expect Homework.

Unless the design company has experts from your industry on their staff, expect to have some homework when it comes to helping with building your website. Truth is, a web design company is here for you to help code, script and design the layout of your website. The content – like articles, blog posts, service lists, about us info and such really has to be written by you, or your staff. The best thing to do would be to write the text in a Word doc or a Text editor and send it to your web company electronically so that they can Copy and Paste the content into the new page built for it. You may even have to work with the design team to help them understand your demographic and how the navigation of your site should function specifically for them. Your new web company should be able to give you expert direction when making these decisions.

5. Get things customized.

So many companies these days use templates that restrict their designs because they cannot customize the site to fit your vision. Be cautious when starting out. Ask plenty of questions and be sure that the designers can get creative for you! Your site should be unique to your company and service! If a design uses a WordPress or other open source template to design from – that’s fine. Just be sure that they customize it so much to meet your look and branding that no other site out there looks just like yours.

6. Get access and Get trained.

Maintenance fees can really hit your budget hard on a monthly basis. While you do want to keep your website up-to-date, you do not need to pay someone ridiculous fees. If you want to have access for changing content on your website – you’re looking for a Content Management System (CMS). Your new web company should be able to build your website on that type of platform and provide you / your staff adequate training on how to use the system.

7. If you build it (right), they will come.

Even if your site looks amazing –it will not be profitable if no one sees it. No one can guarantee placement on search engines unless you pay the individual search engine for that placement. However, there are ways that a design company can better your placement organically.

If your site is designed properly with the correct meta tags and keywords, titles and content – you can expect to advance on the searches quickly. We will work with you to target the correct keywords for your service or company.

8. Do they answer the phone?

One of the nightmares of doing business online is that sometimes the company can be online one day and gone the next. What happens when you need help with your website? What happens if your website is down or you can’t get your emails? Be sure the agency you work with is going to be there for you in the long run.

9. Do they listen or do they only speak?

Yes, they might be the experts in the web design field, but do they listen to your vision or do they just push their own budget, design limitations and concepts on you? Every web company can bring solid ideas to the table, but this is a partnership between you and the web company. This should be a networking together that makes sense and one that can last for years to come. The two of you are joining in an endeavor to better both of your companies. You get a better web presence. They get a happy, dedicated customer and a great looking addition to their portfolio. Be sure you feel comfortable communicating with your project manager. This doesn’t mean that the entire project will run smoothly, but it does mean that things should be able to be worked out easily and quickly.

10. Your company is growing – so should your website.

Along with your CMS website should come the room to expand and evolve with your company’s growth. Technology changes daily and the scripting used on your website today could be obsolete in 5 to 10 years. Will this new web design company be able to keep up with all the latest so that you look up-to-date still? Will they offer you ideas and solutions to reach out online and expand your reach? Be sure that this new company is willing to revamp even their own thinking to keep you looking the best!

Call one of our representatives today to learn how we can help with your next online project. 210-885-8408