Meet Jason Barta of Barta Media Group

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Barta.

Jason, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
After growing up in the Detroit area through my mid 20’s, I knew it was time for a change. I had enough grueling winters and quite frankly, the north just wasn’t where we wanted to live long-term. It was hard to move away from family and friends but having visited Atlanta a few times before, the feel and the vibe (and the weather) just felt right.

So, we packed up the family and made the move south with dreams and excitement.  It didn’t take long to find out that things certainly were not going quite as we had planned.  However, after some time, major ‘adjusting’ of the plan and a good amount of dedication, things started happening and the hard work started to pay off.

Barta Media Group was founded 10 years ago, in 2007, at a time when the Internet was still something of a mystery to many small business owners. As a small start-up, we made it a priority to give each client personalized service that would help them grow their business and achieve greater online visibility.

As crazy as it seems, it was only a decade ago that many businesses did not have websites and their marketing efforts were done primarily using print mailers, yellow pages, and general signage. Literally going business to business, in the true sense of cold-calling, I began establishing clients and rapport one business at a time.

The business has grown each year since its founding and now has hundreds of clients from dozens of verticals. During its ninth year, Barta Media Group acquired a local competitor, Blue Key Interactive, and merged operations and staff to further the company’s growth, reach and operational excellence.

Over the years, it was vital to build a team that understands how to serve the needs of the client. We want each client to view us as an important part of their business’s success.

Many of Barta’s clients have been working with our company for several years due to the relationships we’ve built, and our teams hard work and dedication.

I personally thrive on overcoming challenges and developing fresh, innovative ideas. As an entrepreneur, I’ve been fortunate to own multiple companies that now employ dozens of talented people. As much as I enjoy seeing the businesses grow and succeed, I’m equally passionate about the growth and success of each employee and each of the clients we serve.

I strongly believe that when you put people in an environment where they feel empowered and motivated to truly master their craft, not only will they find great satisfaction in what they do, they will also enjoy giving the best they have to offer.

That said, my team and I recognize that our clients have entrusted us with their hard-earned finances to help grow their business and improve their online visibility. We take that responsibility with the utmost seriousness and are determined to help each client reach their highest level of success.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Barta Media Group has faced many of the same challenges that other startups do: raising capital (i.e. ‘paying the bills’), building a portfolio, dealing with ‘difficult’ clients, working in a field with significant competition and plenty of other challenges along the way.

But what’s is a good story without conflict?  Each challenge that comes along must be faced with the intention of figuring out a solution and then implementing it. In a nutshell, here’s how I got started:

After moving to Atlanta and prior to starting the company, I was working a couple jobs as a contract musician on the weekends, another part time job selling inexpensive ‘template’ websites with a local company and I also picked up a side job two days a week at which I drove two hours to Alabama to help a friend with his marketing, IT network and other miscellaneous projects.  I was working a LOT and doing whatever I could to make money while keeping the main goal in mind; to be financially independent and on my own.

Challenge: Getting Clients
One of the first things I did was join a good networking group where I committed to attend every week and pass referrals. Secondly, I was literally going door-to-door to different businesses to sell my product. I truly hated that part, but I slowly began to make sales and increase my clientele. I kept the side jobs in place for as long as possible until I was bringing in enough income replace them. I worked out barter arrangements for a couple of my first websites to help build the company portfolio and make a name for myself in my networking group.

Challenge: Hard to Please Clients
To deal with clients, I made it a point to bend over backward for even the most challenging client and began to take the following approach: the customer is not always ‘right’ per se, but there is (almost) always a solution to solve any issue they may have, and that it is my responsibility, as the expert in the field, to find that solution and make things work.

Challenge: Beating the Competition
As an early startup, it was not easy to compete with established companies. There were a few big players locally, who did excellent work and had super talented teams OR just had a good sales people. However, there were three main things I noticed very early on that I knew I could capitalize on. First, some of my competitors we very cheap because they created simple templates that were simply not good for marketing and honestly looked as cheap as they were. I determined to do everything completely custom and from scratch. Each design would be unique and hand coded so it could have the ultimate flexibility.

The second kind of competition was much more expensive. Due to being larger agencies, they had to charge a lot more. While I may not have been quite at their level of expertise (at that time), I knew I could still give my clients a product that would be very comparable but much less expensive. Our pricing fell into a comfortable sweet spot that many companies could afford and still get great, custom quality. In the end, they were always thrilled with what they got and how effective it was.

Thirdly, and probably most importantly what I saw was that most ‘web guys’ were simply not good business people and the customer service was quite rough. They may have been good at design or development but were horrible at running a business. Poor communication, unethical work, delayed time frames and unfulfilled promises caused many web companies to get a bad name, and many others to go out of business after a couple years.

Knowing that, I made a conscious effort to go out of my way to be highly professional with every client, offer over-the-top communication and always made sure they felt like they were my top priority. Those attributes stuck with them and caused them to refer me to their colleagues; it’s possibly the biggest differentiator from Barta Media Group and much of our competition.

Barta Media Group – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
For the past 10 years, we have made it our top priority to offer our clients beautiful and effective websites while creating professional marketing campaigns that drive visibility and exposure to those websites.

Our team of talented designers and marketers are passionate about building relationships with our clients, and as I’ve mentioned already, we have a ‘whatever it takes’ attitude to create the most effective campaigns possible not just ‘score another account’.

We believe that one of the main goals in web development is to create designs that are not only aesthetically pleasing to the eye but also effective, results driven tools for marketing your products or services.

While we love designing websites, we find at least as much gratification in the ongoing marketing of those sites. We enjoy taking part in the process of driving more traffic and exposure to their brand. We love nothing more than to see our client’s success and growth.

Our average client has been with us for over 5 years and some of our biggest clients have been with us for nearly 8-10 years; literally since the beginning. We believe that is a huge testament to the effectiveness of our service but also the powerful business relationship we have built with them.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
The term ‘Success’ can have such a wide-range of diverse meanings, while for some, it’s very singular.

Answering the question of how I define success is almost exasperating for me. I tend to overanalyze my answer, needing all the proverbial “stars to align” in all aspects of my life before I truly ‘feel’ successful.

It’s like I need my personal and family life and relationships to be on point, my fitness and health routine in high gear, my business and finances cranking at full tilt, and a general sense that’s things are going perfectly…

However, perfection isn’t even close to being realistic, so what I have found to be true of success in for life is this:

Success is being able to wake up in the morning, glad that it’s a new day and grateful for what you have.

It’s the ability to look at each challenge that lies ahead as an opportunity and being unintimidated by any of those challenges, no matter how big they are.

It’s being hopeful and optimistic that I’m alive to face whatever comes at me, knowing I will have the upper hand in the end, regardless of what it takes to achieve it.

Success is the confidence in being yourself and drawing strength from within rather than from the outside.

When you’re confident in who you are, what you do, and what you have to offer the world around you, you are successful.

Contact Info:

• Address: Barta Media Group
  3675 Crestwood Pkwy.,
  Duluth, GA 30096
  By Appt Only
• Website: https://bartamediagroup.com
• Phone: 678-464-5785
• Email: info@bartamediagroup.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BartaMediaGroup/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bartamediagroup
• Other: https://bluekeyinteractive.com

Image Credit:
Barta Media Group

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