At a glance
| Agency | Web Loft Designs, Plano, Texas |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Team | 27 designers, developers, project managers, QA, and DevOps |
| Services | Web design, development, web applications, SEO, maintenance, and digital marketing |
| Moved from | WP Engine and Flywheel |
| Results so far | Four referrals, three active projects worth about $50,000, and 20 to 30 more sites lined up to migrate |
Marina Marsh started Web Loft Designs in 2004 as a family business with a couple of relatives, building websites while they still worked corporate jobs. Within a few years they were hiring developers and designers, and Marina quit her job to run the agency full time. “It just started going in a direction we never planned,” she says.
Today Web Loft Designs is a team of 27 based in Plano, Texas. They design and build websites and web applications, and they handle SEO, maintenance, and digital marketing for clients of every size. Some of the team have been with Marina for 18 years, and some clients have stayed for 15 or 16, coming back for second and third projects.
“We care about results,” Marina says. “We’re passionate, we’re scrappy. Passion drives us.”
We sat down with Marina at WordCamp US 2026 to hear how the move to Pressable went and what happened when the first Automattic for Agencies referrals came in.
The right call at the right time
For years, Web Loft Designs recommended WP Engine and Flywheel to its clients. Marina still calls WP Engine a great company, but support and pricing had become a concern for the agency and its clients. The team was already planning to switch hosts in 2026. “Automattic reached out to us at the right point,” Marina says.
Through Automattic for Agencies, Marina started working with her partner manager, and the relationship moved quickly because the two clicked. “I believe in chemistry,” she says. “When we see an honest person driving the agency relationship, that’s very important to us.”
Her partner manager introduced the team to Pressable, Automattic’s managed WordPress hosting, and to the people behind it. Knowing Pressable is part of Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, made the decision easier. As Marina met more of the team, her first impression held up. “Everybody we’ve interacted with is a specialist in their area,” she says. “That’s what makes Pressable better than anyone we’ve worked with before.”
“Easy. Full stop.”
“Easy. Full stop,” Marina says of the migration. “It’s so frictionless. I don’t remember a single wrinkle.”
Her developers and project manager handed over the site details, and Pressable handled the rest. Pressable kept her team informed and brought in new people quickly when they were needed. “All of a sudden we’d migrated so many sites,” she says. The agency lined up another 20 to 30 sites to follow.
“If I don’t hear any problems, any noise, any complaints, what does that tell me? It tells me it’s done behind the scenes. That’s what makes it amazing.”
Marina Marsh, founder, Web Loft Designs
“Our experience with Pressable has been more impressive than even with WP Engine, who we consider a very high standard in the industry,” she adds.
When she talks to clients about hosting, she leads with three things: quality and support, including security and smooth migrations; the fact that Automattic is behind it; and pricing she’s happy with. “It takes load off our shoulders,” she says.
Four referrals, three new clients
Automattic for Agencies started sending referral leads through as soon as the partnership began. “They sent us one, we closed it. They sent us another one, we closed it,” Marina says.
4
referrals from Automattic for Agencies
3
active client projects
$50K
combined project value, about
20–30
more sites lined up to migrate
Of the first four referrals, Web Loft Designs is working with three, worth about $50,000 combined. They include a large healthcare organization in California, an ecommerce company in Iceland, and an education company in California. A fifth referral was already on the calendar.
The agency usually closes 60% to 70% of its leads. Marina thinks the rate is even higher with Automattic for Agencies referrals, because those leads show up knowing what they want. “They’re ready to buy, and they understand the value,” she says. “They’re not just asking you a lot of questions and then disappearing so you have to chase them. They come prepared to make an investment.”
How they close
Web Loft Designs closes new work in three steps:
1
Detailed discovery
The team doesn’t rush to an estimate. They go through everything the client shares and do their own research on UX, conversions, and the customer journey.
2
A detailed proposal
For most projects they offer a fixed-price guarantee, so the proposal spells out every detail without overwhelming the client.
3
A second call
They walk through the proposal, answer questions, and offer flexible payment terms.
“Everybody can develop a website. A lot of people do WordPress sites,” Marina says. What sets her agency apart, she says, is how much the team cares. “Whether it’s a mom-and-pop shop or a Fortune 500 company, it doesn’t matter, because we care about every client. For that client, it’s their business. It’s their baby.”
People at Web Loft Designs take ownership of their part of the work, whether it’s a piece of code or a Figma design. “Clients feel that,” Marina says. “They know we really care.”
A “no” that built trust
Most of the agency’s clients moved to Pressable smoothly. The exception was an e-learning platform Marina also owns, built from scratch across 15 sites with six more on the way.
After reviewing it, the Pressable team told her they couldn’t take it on. “The standards are high,” Marina says. “It actually elevated our level of trust in Pressable.”
“If we’re not able to deliver something at the level we want, we say, ‘Sorry, we can’t work on your project.’ Pressable is doing the same thing.”
Marina Marsh, founder, Web Loft Designs
What’s next
A few months into the partnership, Marina wants to train her developers on Pressable and give her SEO and digital marketing team more to work with. She’s also starting LinkedIn campaigns and wants ready-made Pressable materials to share with her few thousand connections. “Who better than you to give us the pitch?” she says.
She’d also like more leads like the first four. “They’re so qualified. It makes our job easy. Who doesn’t want that?”
Her summary of Pressable: “Very high-quality care, personalized support, and fast growth.”
Web Loft Designs is an Automattic for Agencies partner based in Plano, Texas, offering web design, development, web applications, SEO, maintenance, and digital marketing.
