Vestal Media LLC is a boutique internet marketing and search engine placement agency located in Dallas, Texas. Founded in 1997, Vestal provides top notch optimization services to help you find more customers. But not only that. Through research we find them at the place in the cycle when they are most likely to buy and not simply curiously click your ad, wasting your ad budget.
We operate virtually and pull teams together based on the scope of your project, so you get all the benefit of talent honed at agencies without the sticker shock of paying for all that overhead. Our principal activities are to conceive, build, and optimize websites for search engine placement, and to create and manage online advertising campaigns.
Core Team:
Ellen Ruark, Founder & Chief SEO Strategist
Ellen has worked in Dallas internet development since 1999. She has extensive experience in ecommerce, search engine optimization, content creation and management, web site development, and pay per click (PPC) marketing. Over the years she’s worked on campaigns for nationally recognized names such as American Airlines Vacations, American Airlines,American Way magazine, Verizon, Pier 1, ATT, Muzak, Permeo Technologies, ZixMail, Dallas Museum of Art, and The Dallas Market Center.
Ellen’s technology background includes time at a Dallas search placement marketing firm where she architected information and optimized many of the company’s sites. A former morning radio show host in DFW during the 90s, Ellen got the internet bug while hosting a computer show and taught herself HTML to build one of the first blogs in early 2000. She enjoys building test sites to continually broaden her SEO theories and has founded or assisted in creating several successful ecommerce ventures.
Heather Wood, PhD, Video and SEO Strategist
Heather is a videographer, researcher, writer, analyst, and web-savvy professional. Dr. Wood performs market research and optimizing for Vestal websites and specializes in video content development, and social media placement in YouTube, Blogger, Twitter platforms.
As a published writer, she can script your video today and shepherd it through production and upload to a global audience. Heather’s dissertation was on female video artists in modern art and she unites artistic sensibility with both academic and real-world understanding of the role video plays in marketing image in today’s culture. Her technical knowledge is not confined to video. Heather has taught English, literature, and writing at the college level and her understanding of text and words plays an essential role in Vestal Media search engine placement efforts.
Joanne Taylor, Marketing Strategist
Joanne is a marketing professional with over 25 years of experience successfully marketing brands and products for some of the largest advertising agencies and corporations in the world. Joanne studied Advertising at The University of Texas, Austin, the top school for Advertising. She worked for J. Walter Thompson advertising agency on the Burger King Corporation account and was responsible for the advertising and promotions for the Southwest Region. Joanne then transitioned to the corporate side of marketing when she accepted a job with the Burger King Corporation. As a regional marketing manager, she was accountable for the marketing, sales, and promotion for 25% of the country. During her career, Joanne also contributed to the marketing and advertising efforts of Carnation brand foods and pet foods, TGI Friday’s and Popeye’s Chicken.
Lee Slaton, Social Media & Branding
Lee has over 25 years of marketing experience, working for high-profile advertising agencies in Manhattan and Dallas and on the corporate side, marketing both business-to-business and consumer products and services. A gifted strategist and analyst, Lee has a broad set of capabilities that include strategic planning, brand positioning, project management, market research, materials development, public relations and promotional planning. As Marketing Director of The Container Store for seven years, Lee was instrumental in helping to create the brand as it continues to exist today. Her client list includes recognizable names like Proctor & Gamble, Verizon, Tuesday Morning, Norwalk Furniture, Bassett Furniture, Best Products, Volunteer Hospital Association (VHA) and The Dallas Morning News. Lee holds a Masters Degree in Advertising from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Darcy James, Graphic Design Chief
Darcy brings over twenty years of graphic design experience to the table in such diverse categories as package design, print ads, catalogs, brochures, and web sites. Chances are, you’ve already viewed her work for national brands like Bombay Company, Neiman Marcus, Pier 1, Fitz & Floyd, The Container Store, Tuesday Morning, Norwalk Furniture, Bassett Furniture, The Horchow Collection, and Verizon. Other clients include QRS Music Technologies, Kennedy Home & Gift, Room Service Home, East Hill Industries, American Messaging and the non-profits Christian Community Action (CCA) and Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas. Darcy’s site is WWFMCreativeDesign.com and features a vast array of her extraordinary design skills.
Kari Mitchell, Web Design
Kari is a brilliantly talented designer and artist with extensive experience in all aspects of web design and ecommerce, specializing in Volusion store design and implementation. You can view her stunning designs at her website, Kari and Co Web Design.
Rebecca Case, Video
Rebecca has a master’s degree in Emerging Media & Communications from University of Texas at Dallas. She did her undergrad at SMU. She is the founder of Park Cities Film which specializes in video for websites including product usage videos, testimonials, introductions and other video for the web. Becky scripts, shoots, edits and uploads your video to your website in a turnkey video solution.
