Press Release: Source: The Visual Arts and Design Academy (VADA)
The Visual Arts and Design Academy (VADA) at Santa Barbara High School presents their 13th Annual Spring Show and Reception Thursday, May 2 from  5-8 p.m. at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s Ridley-Tree Education Center at McCormick House, located at 1600 Santa Barbara Street in downtown Santa Barbara.

The VADA Spring Show will feature original artwork and design projects from over 150 students in their Sophomore, Junior and Senior years at Santa Barbara High School’s Visual Arts & Design Academy. Artwork will be on view from May 2 – May 5. Artwork mediums on display will include oil and acrylic paintings, fashion illustrations and digital photography, drawings, sculptures, and more.

VADA offers high school students who are passionate about art and design a more relevant high school experience. VADA uses art as a catalyst for academic engagement, to cultivate creativity and prepare students for college and career. VADA is a unique “school-within-a-school” that integrates rigorous academic coursework with project-based, career-focused art and design instruction in a supportive and creative environment.

VADA has been a California Partnership Academy since 1999, and is funded in equal parts by the California Department of Education, the Santa Barbara Unified School District, and local businesses, non-profit organizations and individual donors.

Mission Web Marketing, a Santa Barbara based marketing company recently launched changes to the Purnell website to better reflect the brand’s image and points of difference. President of Mission Web Marketing, Eric Petersen, said they targeted key elements of the website to make shopping online for the visitor a smoother experience.

“We implemented an entirely new look-and-feel and streamlined the website to make purchasing online easier and more intuitive than ever,” Petersen said.

Purnell, a family-run business founded in 2010, manufactures a range of durable, versatile apparel for comfort and performance in everyday active environments. In preparation for their Spring season roll-out, Purnell decided to revamp their website and online marketing initiatives. President and Co-Founder of Purnell, Brita Womack, explained that it was important to define and communicate the points of difference of the brand.

Purnell defines itself as an apparel brand for visionary craftsmen whose clothing stands for innovation and functional design, she said. “The natural thing was to bring that story to our website,” Womack said. “It really is the face of our brand.”

Purnell is mostly sold through retail stores, which often creates a separation between the brand and the customer. The website creates a venue for the brand to directly interact with its customers, “and that is a valuable exchange,” Womack said.

About a year ago, Mission Web Marketing began working on the original creation of the e-commerce website, Purnellgear.com. In addition to the cosmetic changes on the website, behind the scenes Mission Web Marketing implemented some web marketing tools.

“We provided Purnell with search engine optimization, and a pay-per-click advertising campaign on Google, to help drive more traffic and generate revenue,” Petersen said.

Womack hopes the new version of the website will help customers understand what Purnell is all about and how it is different from all of the other functional clothing brands out there.

“Because of Mission Web Marketing the website is easier to shop and the path to purchase is very clean,” Womack said. “In the spirit of what our brand is about –utility — we focused on making it as usable as possible.”

During the past ten years Mission Web Marketing has provided an assortment of web marketing services, including pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, e-commerce and website development. The company has worked on websites and marketing initiatives for several well-known companies throughout the United States and beyond.

The Purnell website is one of many websites Mission Web Marketing has built or assisted with during the past couple of years, including local websites for Ecology.com, The Santa Barbara Airport, The Granada Theatre, The Towbes Group, The Territory Ahead, Magellan’s Travel and Maps.com to name a few.

For more information, please contact Amanda Jacobs, the public relations and marketing manager for Mission Web Marketing, at cell 805.403.4901, office 805.696.9320, or by e-mail at Amanda@missionwebmarketing.com. Also, please visit www.missionwebmarketing.com.

Don’t dive into web marketing without sitting down and creating a plan. Many web marketing firms you will find online will promise extreme results without showing you the facts. We use Google Analytics and search engine optimization tools to measure where your website started and where it’s growing. At Mission Web Marketing we always incorporate website metrics packages on our clients’ websites to track criteria like website performance, campaign and sales activity, trends over time and profitability. Our Santa Barbara based marketing team finds the most valuable web marketing measurements like website visitors, unique visitors, page views, transactions, sales and conversion rates. You should be able to see how many people are visiting your site, how many pages they’re looking at, where they’re coming from and what they’re buying. Make a plan, set your goals and measure your results.

2. Continually update your website
Don’t set up your website and leave it there to just sit and rot. It’s important to give your website visitors a reason to keep coming back. You should update a page or a couple features weekly. If you have a blog, update it! Get your visitors coming back to your website.

3. Don’t rely completely on SEO

There are other aspects to web marketing besides search engine optimization. When you create your plan, incorporate other ways to drive traffic and sales on your website. Customize this plan for your company to target your audience. We recommend implementing techniques such as, search engine marketing or paid search, an e-mail marketing campaign and a social media strategy.

4. Use social media to network

Use your social media accounts to actually talk to other business owners and entrepreneurs to grow your brand awareness. Don’t just spam your social media followers with promotional materials, but supply them with something useful. Give advice, ask questions and get to know the people that follow your company. Once you develop a relationship with your followers, they will start to engage, like and trust your company.

5. Manage your Google Adwords efficiently

Using Google Adwords for your pay per click advertising campaign can be very lucrative. However, Google will try to sell you as many Adwords as possible so their wallets grow. It’s not necessary to have an exorbitant amount of Adwords, it’s actually better to narrow in on your target market. You can hire a certified Google Adwords specialist through Mission Web Marketing to help you efficiently target the right audience at the right price.

If you have questions or need help with your web marketing initiatives to generate more traffic and sales, contact Mission Web Marketing today and schedule your 100% free consultation at 800.260.6406.

SEO and PPC both have the same desired outcome, they both drive traffic and increase leads or sales for a company or individual’s website.  It’s just the money, time and return of investment that clients worry about.

Search engine optimization takes time and skill from experts to get top search engine rankings for related keywords. The results of SEO can lead to greater authority, long-term, top rankings on search engines, with steady traffic. However, SEO is an art with no guarantee, and a return of investment that happens organically, over time.

With pay per click, clients can buy their way to top search engines through advertisements like Google Adwords.  It is quick to setup, guarantees top search engine rankings and fast results. However, staying at the top can cost a lot of money by paying for every click.

In “SEO vs. PPC: When Should You Invest In Each?” published in Business to Community by Jayson DeMers, he said, “It’s natural for us to seek and adapt a system that offers greater returns for lesser inputs (money spent, time invested, resources employed, etc.). If your goal is simply ‘get listed on Google for specific keywords in order to generate traffic,’ PPC wins as the most optimal solution, at least in the short term. People who run websites that aren’t intended to sell directly (or where revenue isn’t directly related to quantity of traffic) are much less likely to find PPC to be a viable option for their search marketing. In this case, only SEO can do the trick.”

PPC campaigns can work wonders for ecommerce websites that are looking to sell products directly and quickly, while SEO can give websites great authority and lead to a much higher return of investment than PPC over time.

“If you’re not running an ecommerce website (or if your intention is not just selling something but building authority over the long haul), don’t waste your time debating SEO and PPC. Your strategy has to be SEO, hands down,” Meyers said.

And we agree with Meyers. Overall, return of investment will go far with search engine optimization and give your website the authority it needs to succeed online. Back up your search engine optimization efforts with pay per click campaigns to sell more products if you are an ecommerce website.

Either way, web marketing initiatives should be customized for your company, its website and the type of business you do.  Mission Web Marketing and a team of SEO and PPC experts are here to help customize your marketing initiatives for your online success.

If you have questions or need help with your web marketing initiatives to generate more traffic and sales, contact Mission Web Marketing today and schedule your 100% free consultation at 800.260.6406.

In the past month our Santa Barbara marketing team has had a great time completing projects for other Santa Barbara, CA companies and nationally renowned companies. We are working on some exciting new projects and we are enthusiastic about creating some great websites.

Our Santa Barbara marketing team is looking forward to seeing where the New Year will take us and what kind of doors will open!

Here’s what we have done:

-We have just launched the new website for Inc. 5000 company, Safe Site.

-We have launched a website for the new Santa Barbara workwear clothing company, Purnell.

-We are in the process of completing Santa Barbara marketing and website design initiatives for Santa Barbara Vacation Rentals.

-We are in the process of completing Santa Barbara marketing initiatives and website design initiatives for Santa Barbara Ice and Propane.

-We have started website redesign and Santa Barbara marketing initiatives for Santa Barbara Teacher’s Association.

Special thanks to our clients for making our jobs easy and we look forward to working with you in the future! If you have questions or need help with your web marketing initiatives to generate more traffic and sales, contact Mission Web Marketing today and schedule your 100% free consultation at 800.260.6406.

Warm Regards,

Amanda

It is important for economic growth that your website have both an increasing amount of website traffic, as well as the ability to turn those visitors into customers. Working hard at SEO will increase visitors, but updating the functionality of your website will get customers buying.

Make sure your website follows these e-commerce rules:

1. Have compelling product descriptions

Product descriptions on e-commerce websites should be straightforward and about 75 words long at a maximum of around 200. Since your product details like size, color and shipping information will be noted next to the item, you can create a short thorough description that shoppers will actually read.

2. Always use high quality photos

Display high quality photos of your products because, “a picture is worth 1000 words.” Using large, quality photos shot from different angles will help the customer determine if the product is what they are looking for. Good photos will help you sell your products.

3. Make your policies accessible
Make sure it is easy for your customers to find your policies on shipping information, returns and frequently asked questions. It will benefit your company greatly if visitors can easily find positive testimonials or reviews of your company and its products.

4. Implement strong website analytics
Make sure you track website visitors, unique visitors, page views, transactions, sales and conversion rates. You should be able to see how many people are visiting your site, how many pages they’re looking at, where they’re coming from and what they’re buying. Read more about web analytics.

5. Make your contact info easy to find
It is important to make it easy for people to get in contact with your customer service representatives. You don’t want them leaving your site if they have a question or a problem. We suggest getting an 800 number for your telephone. It will make your company look large and can cost as little as $10 a month. Place it on your homepage for easy access.

6. Have easy-to-use search functionality

Navigating your e-commerce site with an easy-to-use search bar can help customers find exactly what they need on your website. Allow your customers to search by product category, size, availability and color to make it the user’s experience as easy as possible.

7. Write clear calls to action

Make sure your call to action buttons are easy to find and clickable. Lead generation; sign up forms, content marketing or calls to action should lead to a conversion point, not a dead end.

If you have questions or need help with your web marketing initiatives to generate more traffic and sales, contact Mission Web Marketing today and schedule your 100% free consultation at 800.260.6406.

“I think you should have to get a license to use Twitter because most people are so f***** boring that they should shut up,” Fey said.

In the video, Fey explains that she doesn’t use Twitter and she never has, but she wants to be the person who decides whether you can have a Twitter license.

For all of us web marketers, we hope she would grant us permission to have one of these special Twitter licenses.

Twitter acts as a significant social media tool for web marketers who are constantly sharing blog posts, articles and marketing tips to our followers. Social media outlets hold endless potential for building a brand image, collaboration and creating business relationships. Many web marketers would be lost without Twitter.

Here are 5 reasons why Twitter can help promote your brand:

-It builds relationships

-It can generate leads

-It can increase website traffic

-It’s a venue to share information including press releases, articles and blog posts

-You can share commentary and insights

Fey might be right about some Twitter users, but for web marketers, Twitter can be a godsend. Twitter can help people with the same interests share valuable information about their topic of choice. For brand promotion or web marketing purposes, you can see great results by following some Twitter business rules.

5 Tips for using Twitter to promote your business:

-Don’t spam your followers

-Retweet posts

-Respond to others

-Follow relevant Twitter users

-Promote yourself

Fey may think Twitter is boring, but for most businesses it it’s great for content marketing and sharing relevant information. Follow Mission Web Marketing on Twitter @MissionWebMrktg

Here is the “Ask Tina” video:

If you have questions or need help with your web marketing initiatives to generate more traffic and sales, contact Mission Web Marketing today and schedule your 100% free consultation at 800.260.6406.

The major search engines, Google, Yahoo and Bing scan your site for relevant content for users. The easiest way for your company to continue generating content for your already-built website is maintaining a blog. Writing content that people want to read will create social buzz and keep your website high on the search results.

It will keep your feedback loops, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. moving with shares and likes from your fans and followers. You want people to pick up the links to your content and share them without having to ask them.

Creating quality content for users will increase traffic to your website, generate link building and keep your website ranking well on search engines.

See the great infographic below on “Why Content for SEO”

If you have questions or need help with your web marketing initiatives to generate more traffic and sales, contact Mission Web Marketing today and schedule your 100% free consultation at 800.260.6406.

The first place customers look when researching a product or service is a search engine, “Google it!” With search engine marketing, we can get your advertisement on top of Google almost immediately. By implementing search engine marketing or pay-per-click advertising campaigns, we can put your business right in front of your target customer.

SEM consists of small text ads, typically called Sponsored Links, which appear at the top or to the right of the search engine results pages on Google, Yahoo, Bing and various partner sites. Search engine marketing advertisements look like organic search engine results, which people don’t recognize as advertisements.

Search engine marketing has generated millions of dollars for our clients and can generate traffic to your website almost immediately. But, in order for a search engine marketing campaign to be successful, there are some things every small business owner should know.

It is important to have a search engine marketing expert managing your campaign

Any online marketing effort needs experience, knowledge and focus to become successful. Our experienced team of dedicated Google Adwords specialists, including a Google-Certified Ph.D physicist is here to help you optimize your campaign.

-We research the keywords that are most likely to send qualified visitors to your website.
-We create keyword-rich, small text advertisements that appear at the top of Google.
-People search Google for the keywords you specified, then click on your ad.
-You pay the cost per click.
-You get more traffic and sales!

You should hire someone who has the tools to monitor your campaign performance

We can track the costs, transactions and revenue generated from every online advertising campaign down to the keyword-level. We accurately measure your return on investment and make modifications to your campaigns to achieve profitability. We typically aim for a conversion rate of 1% (orders/unique visitors) or better when starting out. Average order value (AOV), cost of goods, cost per customer, and return rates also contribute to the success of an advertising campaign. Measuring several variables and making unique campaign adjustments results in success.

However, be forewarned that search engine marketing can cost from a few hundred to several thousands of dollars per month. It is also not for everyone– especially those with limited budgets, low conversion rates, and a low average order value. Before diving head-first into search engine marketing, do yourself a favor and contact us for a 100% free consultation. We can save you a lot of money, trouble and heartache.

For more information on search engine marketing please click here.

Dec. 10, 2012

Mission Web Marketing has signed a contract to build a new website for 2012 Inc. 5000 company, Safe Site, one of the nation’s fastest-growing energy companies.

Last week Mission Web Marketing, a Santa Barbara based marketing company, signed a website development contract with Safe Site Owner Guy (Skip) McIntosh III. In a few months, Safe Site will have a custom website with an assortment of web marketing services, including search engine optimization, provided by Mission Web Marketing.

“We are excited to work with Safe Site and give them a professional website to better reflect their success,” Eric Petersen, owner of Mission Web Marketing said.  “We look forward to assisting with their continued growth.”

Safe Site provides subsurface utility engineering; hydro-excavation (a safe way of exposing buried utilities); services that locate and protect underground utility lines; and other utility-related environmental excavation, extraction and cleanup services. Owner Skip McIntosh is a highly recognized expert in the utility locating industry, with over 32-years of experience in the utility business, he helps operate Safe Site with a safety conscious and customer driven philosophy.

Inc. magazine ranked Safe Site NO. 1296 on its sixth annual Inc. 500|5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The list represents the most comprehensive look at the most important segment of the economy—America’s independent entrepreneurs.

Safe Site also made the 2012 Inc. Hire Power Awards, a list of businesses that are adding jobs and rebuilding the economy. Safe Site hit NO.7 on the Top 10 Energy Companies and NO.8 on the Top 10 Colorado companies.

McIntosh was excited by the website proposal provided by Mission Web Marketing and got a clear understanding of how the Safe Site website will be built and managed, he said.

“I believe the new site will give Safe Site a more professional look and feel, while giving our clients a confident feeling and image about the services we perform,” McIntosh said.

During the past ten years Mission Web Marketing has provided an assortment of web marketing services, including pay-per-click advertising, search engine optimization, E-commerce and website development. The company has worked on websites and marketing initiatives for several well-known companies throughout the United States and beyond.

The Safe Site website will be one of many websites Mission Web Marketing has built or assisted with during the past couple of years, including local websites for Ecology.com, The Santa Barbara Airport, The Granada Theatre, The Towbes Group, The Territory Ahead, Magellan’s Travel and Maps.com to name a few.

For more information, please contact Amanda Jacobs, the public relations and marketing manager for Mission Web Marketing, at cell 805.403.4901, office 805.696.9320, or by e-mail at Amanda@missionwebmarketing.com.

See this press release on PRLog here and on 1888pressrelease here.