AlphaGraphics Bike MS Success – Reached 97% of Goal!

A couple months ago, we shared with you our goal to raise $10,000 for the National Multiple Sclerosis foundation. Our last post about the MS Bike Ride 2010 came a few weeks before the event. Now we’re here to share our successes with you! As we shared previously, 2010 marks the fourth year that Team AlphaGraphics has participated in the Bike MS Ride, in Colorado. Each year we’ve formed a team and participated because we want to experience a great organized ride and help the National MS Society fund research, advocate for change, and help people with MS and their families lead powerful lives. We believe in the work they do and we want to be a part of it. We are joined by more than 200 other teams and corporate partners to raise awareness and make a difference in the lives of people with MS.

“It was great to be part of such a worthy cause, and I felt more motivated than I’ve ever felt before. I can’t wait to be part of it again next year,” says Jim Findlater, who participated in the event for the first time.

The AlphaGraphics team raised 97% of our goal, reaching an outstanding $9,700 in donations. Thank you to every person and organization that supported us with a donation. We couldn’t have done it without you! Join us next year as we continue to raise awareness and raise money for the National MS Foundation.

AlphaGraphics Bike MS Team, 2010

Bike To Work Day 2010 Business Challenge Winner!!!

A big congrats to the staff and team at AlphaGraphics for being a Business Challenge Winner for the 2010 Bike to Work Day. Over 800 companies participated in the Business Challenge this year.

On Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010, AlphaGraphics Arvada had a significant percentage of employees that participated in the event. Because of the high level of engagement, AlphaGraphics Arvada was awarded the Business Challenge Winner of Jefferson Country Class A prize.

To see all the winners, visit the Bike To Work Day website.

Jim, Jacqueline, Ed and Kirk prepare for an afternoon bike ride.

Check out these 7 Facebook Marketing Tip

Check out these 7 Facebook Marketing Tips From World’s Top Pros! http://ow.ly/2u6pg Our fave: Give your fans FUN reasons to connect!

Marketing Technologies that Improve Response Rates

AlphaGraphics offers a wide variety of services, but one of the most valuable services we offer is our marketing services. Using innovative marketing technologies can help attract your target audience, and improve your results.

Who Knew?
Did you know that 68% of people read their mail over a trashcan? If your marketing pieces don’t WOW them in the first 3 seconds, it’s b-lined into the wastelands, never to be seen again.

Did you know that 74% of people go to the Internet to research your company or marketing offer before they reach out to you directly? By offering your audience MORE ways to respond to your offer, you can increase your response rates.

Challenge
The marketing challenge businesses are faced with is two-fold: to WOW customers and prospects with visually appealing and stimulating images, and make it easy to respond to your offer in the way they want to respond.

Solutions
AlphaGraphics offers innovative marketing solutions that can help you improve your response rates, drive traffic to your site (or anywhere you want it!), engage customers and prospects, and turn warm leads into hot leads.

Variable Data Technologies
Studies have shown that personalization in marketing helps improve results. Personalization can be as simple as including recipients’ name and address, but it can also include customized variable data, such as images, text, or the combination of images and text.

Printing with Variable Data
Variable Data Printing (VDP) allows you to give your audience personalized attention, and make each individual feel like a true VIP.  Each and every piece of marketing collateral can be generated specific to each recipient, making your materials more interesting, engaging, individualized, and most importantly, relevant. By providing your audience with relevant and attention-grabbing text and images, you more likely to connect with more individuals in your target market, thus improving your response rates.

This is a sample of variable data imaging, that can be used for print, or digitally. The name is spelled in dandelion flowers across the sky, for an attention-grabbing, unique image.

This sample shows the first and last name on a golf ball. The name would be reproduced for every individual in your database, and customized on the fly.

Personalized URLs with Variable Data
As we mentioned before, personalization is an excellent way to capture the attention of your target audience. Cross-media marketing is a great way to engage users. The concept of cross-media marketing is to combine print or e-mail with Personalized URLs. Personalized URLs (PURLs) are micro-websites that can be intimately customized, based on the data. Variable data images and text can be applied to PURLs, making the user experience of personalization carry over between different medias. In the case of a PURL, the recipient’s name is appended to a URL, and an individualized website is developed. When the recipient visits their personalized website, the variable data allows for detailed customization and micro-target marketing within campaigns.  For example, a real estate company may have a single campaign with multiple target audiences. They target young adults, professionals with families, and retired empty nesters. The images and text relevant and interesting to the retired empty nesters will be very different from the images and text relevant to young adults. Using variable data, you can designate that a certain image and block of text will appear based on the criteria in your database.

If you’re interested in looking at some demo sites, we have a few available. Contact us if you’re interested in experiencing how a personalized URL site functions.

QR Codes with Variable Data
Once the VDP has captured the attention of your audience, it becomes very important to get them to react. The more simplified the steps to respond, the better. In today’s highly digital-oriented world, millions of people are using SmartPhones to connect with businesses in new ways. One of the best ways to enable your mobile users to quickly respond to you are QR codes. A QR code is a “quick response code” that contains data that connects to a URL, a phone number, an e-mail address, or an address. When an individual uses a mobile device to ‘read’ the QR code, the data automatically initiates the action. If you have a QR code that contains data for your website, the mobile device opens the web browser, and takes them directly to your site. If the data contains a phone number or address, then the user can instantly call you or map to your location, with a single click. This eliminates the need for mobile users to manually enter web addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, etc., and directs them automatically to the exact place you want them. QR Codes are a quick and easy way to instantly help your audience connect with you in many ways.

This is a QR code. Use your mobile device to "scan" it, and it will direct you to the home page of our blog.

Need a reader for your mobile device? Try one of the following: http://get.beetagg.com, http://reader.kaywa.com/, http://www.getscanlife.com/.

Powerful Combinations
If you are looking for an attention-grabbing campaign, make AlphaGraphics your partner in marketing. Our unique solutions to your businesses’ marketing challenges help set us apart from the competition. We offer creative marketing services such as consulting, design, e-mail marketing, variable data printing, personalized URLs, QR codes, and more.

By combining the powers of variable data printing, variable data web development, and QR codes, AlphaGraphics can help your business take the necessary steps towards capturing your target markets, improving response rates, and increasing ROI.
Think you business could benefit from any of the marketing technologies mentioned above? Give us a call, and we can help you get started, and make sure that you will stand out.

Contact us Today!
AlphaGraphics Arvada
8290 W 80th Ave Unit 3
Arvada, CO 80005
303.422.5400
http://www.us424.alphagraphics.com

AlphaGraphics Downtown Denver
1050 17th St. #199
Denver, CO 80265
303.820.2679
http://www.us438.alphagraphics.com

AlphaGraphics Golden
1217 Miner’s Alley
Golden, CO 80401
303.279.6834
http://www.us612.alphagraphics.com

Bike to Work Day, Colorado! June 23, 2010

AlphaGraphics Arvada, Downtown Denver, and Golden are proud and excited to participate in community events, and our next big thrill is going to come from the Bike to Work Day Colorado, on June 23 2010. The Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) has created a handy website with information about the stations for this year’s ride. All stations are providing breakfast, so take a look to see which station is on your commute.

Arvada, Downtown Denver, and Golden AlphaGraphics are each located very close to some of the breakfast stations, and they will all be offering free bottled water to anyone who stops by our stores on June 23rd. Plan on riding by any of our three locations on your way to or from work, take a little rest,  pick up your water, and share your commute stories with our friendly employees who are also participating in the ride!

Ed enjoying a long bike ride

For the past several years, several members of our staff have dedicated to participating in the event for a variety of reasons. Owner, Ed Rothschild, is an avid bike enthusiast, who bikes an average of 60 miles per week. His passion for the biking comes from his desire to exercise, and feel the freedom of pedaling his way through his favorite Colorado trails. His favorite bicycling is done in the early mornings, on the Clear Creek Trail, or Platte River Trail. His participation in this year’s Bike to Work Day is a given, and he plans on traveling 37 miles round trip.

Inspired by Ed, Jim Findlater, our 2009 VIP employee, pushes himself to ride nearly 70 miles per week. He recently logged a 150 week, as he prepares for the upcoming MS Bike Ride. Jim said his primary reason for riding is to “get in good with the boss man”, but he also rides because he loves to be active, and enjoys the health benefits that come from riding. Jim loves the Clear Creek Trail, and regularly takes afternoon rides after work, alongside Ed.

Lara's Green Envy

Lara - La Boca Grande

Although our other employees aren’t as enthusiastic as our

mega-pedal-pushing-trail-blasters, Ed and Jim, they truly do enjoy a good ride, and many will be cycling to work. Kirk, whose passion is his yellow Triumph motorcycle, will give up his roaring engine, lace up his biker boots, and pedal his way into the office, racking up a wicked round-trip mileage total of nearly TWO miles! Striking jealousy into the hearts of other bicyclists, Lara (winner of the 2009 La Boca Grande Award), will be stylishly cruising to work on her 1970s vintage beach cruiser, which she named Green Envy. Lara loves the outdoors, and she likes to ride because it makes her feel good about herself, and is always fun. She also needs practice texting and biking, so she tries to rack up the texty miles, by riding at least once a month.

Jacqueline enjoying gorgeous Colorado

Jacqueline came to Colorado from Florida about nine months ago, so she rides because it allows to her to slowly take in the beautiful Colorado scenery. Her ride to work will take her up the Bear Creek Trail, and past Morrison, where she can pedal past groups of people on horseback, catch a half mile of lakeside trail, all while enjoying the gorgeous view of the Rocky Mountains.

While most people who are biking do it because they love the ride, and exercise, Linda said that she wants to participate in the Bike to Work Day event because it’s important to her to be involved in something that’s good for her, and good for the earth as well.

Our staff is happy to be involved in something that helps our bodies, our minds, and our community. By biking to work, we will get the benefit of great exercise, help reduce traffic congestion, while improving the quality of our earth’s air. We hope to enjoy the commute to work on June 23rd, and we hope you will participate as well.

Giving Hope Wings – The AeroAngel Story

AlphaGraphics Arvada, Downtown Denver & Golden are always thrilled to help support worthy causes in our community, and AeroAngel is a non-profit group that we are honored to work with. AeroAngel was recently founded by Mark Pestal, and was created to “give hope wings”.  The non-profit works to provide free air transportation to people that require travel for a compelling need. In the last few months, arrangements were made to lease aircraft to be flown by volunteer professional pilots, with the expenses for fuel to be donated.

For the past couple months, AlphaGraphics has been working with AeroAngel. We feel very strongly about the good work they do, and we have donated over $425.00 in printing and discounts to AeroAngel, to help them spread the word! A wonderful, touching story came to us this week, and we felt compelled to share with the friends and family of AlphaGraphics.

The small organization recently featured the story of a young girl who was abducted from Colorado at the age of 5. The past three years the young girl was missing, and in early May, the Missing Children Task Force located the “little princess” in a small mid-western town. The parents were in need of travel, and AeroAngel was there to make their only living dreams come true – to be reunited with their missing daughter.

Please read the touching story, “First Flight for a Princess” the touching story, and how this young girl became the first “little princess” to fly on AeroAngel. We would love if you could share this touching story with your friends and family.

You can make a donation online if you would like to help support the wonderful cause, and help Give Hope Wings! Another way you can help is to purchase AeroAngel Coffee. For each pound of coffee you purchase, a portion of the proceeds goes directly to AeroAngel, to help pay for fuel costs.

Please share this story with your family and friends, and help raise awareness for the wonderful cause!

New Babies are Joining the AlphaGraphics Family!

The AlphaGraphics family continues to grow and grow, and this month, we celebrated the baby

Jim enjoying the baby shower, to celebrate his new baby girl!

showers for two employees who’s wives were expecting. Both working out of the Arvada store, Jim and Jeremy, the new dads, were the stars of the May baby shower.

Jim and his wife Anna are the proud parents of a gorgeous, and charming 3 year old, named Jamie. The family was expecting a new addition, a baby girl, who arrived into the world on May 16th at 5:22am, weighing 5lb 15oz. Jim has reported that Anna and baby Kendra are both doing well. Jamie is very excited to be a big sister, and can’t wait to share all of her princess dresses with new baby Kendra.

Jeremy snacking on the delicious potluck treats

Jeremy and his wife Erin are expecting their first child, a boy, that is due June 18th. They have been preparing the new baby’s nursery for the last few weeks, and Jeremy said that he’s excited to welcome their new little boy into the world.

The shower to celebrate the new babies was a great success, and everyone participated by bringing their favorite potluck dish. Everyone in the office pitched in to get the two new dad’s special gifts, which included some new essentials for the babies. No shower is complete with out some special games, so we played throughout the day.

The first game, the Poopy Diaper, was a clever game in which a variety of chocolate bars were melted, and placed into diapers. The new dads were supposed to use their keen senses to identify

Jacqueline, tasting the diaper contents for idetification

what candy bars were in the diapers. The next game, Name that Baby Food, was a taste testing game, in which people were required to taste and identify 5 different flavors of baby food. Every member of the store played, and the results were shocking! Last place was a tie! The two people with the most incorrect answers for the combined games were those of our two new dads, Jim and Jeremy. First place was also a tie, and the winners were Linda and Jacqueline.

Thank you to everyone who helped with the baby shower! A special thanks to Linda, for all the wonderful decorations, and photos of the special event!

Mmmm.. Bananas!

This looks icky, but Jacqueline said it tastes great!

Jim showing his new baby gifts

Jeremy's baby gift

All the pink girly stuff attracts all the ladies!

Jacqueline has to show Jim how to sample the diaper

Bike MS 2010: Team AG Rides to Raise $10,000

Team AlphaGraphics Bike MS 2010

AlphaGraphics Bike MS Team 2009

2010 marks the fourth year that Team AlphaGraphics has participated in the Bike MS Ride, in Colorado. Each year we’ve formed a team and participated because we want to experience a great organized ride and help the National MS Society fund research, advocate for change, and help people with MS and their families lead powerful lives. We believe in the work they do and we want to be a part of it. We are joined by more than 200 other teams and corporate partners to raise awareness and make a difference in the lives of people with MS.

This year our goal is to raise $10,000 for the National MS Society. Our employees and customers are joining forces to raise the money, and we’re hoping we can count on you to help as well.

Multiple sclerosis interrupts the flow of information between the brain and the body and stops people from moving. Imagine a time when you’ve exerted your body to exhaustion – maybe your legs felt like they couldn’t support your weight; your arms ached from the inside out and cooking dinner seemed like a tremendous task; or maybe you were too exhausted to shovel your driveway. You were fortunate to have the opportunity to decide to exert yourself – for individuals living with MS, without exertion, these feelings can be their everyday reality. With the help of people like you, the National MS Society addresses the challenges of each person whose life is affected by MS and helps them stay connected to the great big moving world.

Can we count on your help?

Please join us! There are so many ways to help: join our team as a riding cyclist, a virtual cyclist, or even register as a volunteer! Make a donation online! Send in a check! Forward this to everyone you know!  Talk to your employer about becoming a sponsor of the Bike MS Ride or find out about their matching gift program.  However you join, thank you for joining the movement!

Visit our online donation page!

Our Friends at Table Mountain Inn Are Sharing a Deal!

AlphaGraphics is always excited to share deals that come our way, and today we have a special treat. Our friends at the Table Mountain Inn are participating in a wildly popular Groupon. Groupon is an online service that has daily deals in the Denver metro area. You can visit their website, or sign up for their convenient e-mail newsletter, that highlights the daily deals. Here’s how it works…

1. Each day Groupon features something cool to do at an unbeatable price.
2. You only get it if enough people join that day… so invite your friends!
3. Check back the next day for another awesome Groupon!

Typically, deals are discounted for one day only, and they feature local restaurants, events, activities, and more. Today’s deal features our friends at Table Mountain Inn, in Golden. The Table Mountain Inn is a local favorite for our friends and employees in the Golden area. The menu options offer a wide variety of choices within Southwestern and American Cuisines. Don’t miss out on the tasty and tempting deal.

Check out the deal now, but hurry, it’s only good for today!

Today’s Deal:

$12 for $25 Worth of Southwestern-Infused Fare at Table Mountain Grill & Cantina

Don’t miss out on this special opportunity! Buy your Groupon today!

Consumers Want More Print

We’ve all heard it a thousand times; consumers are seeking a more digital experience, and print is dying. As it turns out, those rumors are false! According to Deliver: A Magazine for Marketers, consumers that are already in an existing relationship with a business prefer to be contacted by direct mail.

Consumers Want More Print - Source: Deliver Magazine

Deliver’s CEO, Grant Johnson, says. “Those who do direct mail well will prosper, and those who do it marginally well or poorly will falter. Mail will still play a key role as a driver to action: raising money, buying a product or service, visiting a store or website, or being used as the main channel to close the sale through fulfillment.”

So what does this mean to us? And more importantly, what does it mean to our customers? Now is the time to connect with our existing and potential customers through effective, creative, and well thought out print. But is print enough? Probably not. However, “Sometimes to connect with people online you must get their attention through an offline channel first,” says Christine Hansen of Deliver Magazine.

One of the ways we have been successfully combining print and online marketing, also known as cross-media marketing, has been though the use of personalized websites. Personalization has been proven to increase response rates, because it makes the interaction, the experience, more appealing for our audiences. When direct mail comes from someone they know, and is personally addressed to the consumer, they are over 50% more likely to read it. If you take it one step further, and offer them a completely customized experience, such as a personalized website, you can even further capture the attention of your audience, and get from them the information you want.

What Makes Consumers Open/Read Direct Mail?

51% said having something “personally addressed to me” would make them open and read their direct mail, so if you are not a household name, this is the second most important attribute in being “opened”. Of course, you must be offering a product or service of interest, which comes in third on the list, with 50% response.

By adding implementing cross-media marketing campaigns, not only is your direct mail piece more likely to be opened or read, but you can have highly transparent tracking options that allow you to see exactly who received your direct mail piece and took and interest in it. The benefits don’t end there. Once you know who has expressed an interest in your direct mail piece, you can immediately capture information about them, add it to your database, in a highly customized, personal way that is simple and noninvasive for your consumers. Add in auto-responders, a second, third, or fourth touch to your now highly targeted database, and your opportunities for making the sale or closing the deal increase exponentially.

Consumers want more print, so let’s give it to them in a highly personalized and creative way. If you’re interested in learning more about how cross-media marketing campaigns can benefit your business, please contact us. We will send you a personalized sample of a targeted direct mail piece, and allow you to experience the process yourself.

Email Erika Holley at eholley@alphagraphics.com, or call 303.422.5400 for more information.