AlphaGraphics Encourages Business Owners to ‘Think Social’

SALT LAKE CITY, UT—Nov. 28, 2011—Business ownership is challenging in the best of times. And 2011, for most businesses, has not been the best of times.

While the recession has taken a toll on the business community, one group has grown dramatically in size and strength—the community of social media users. According to Jesse Himsworth, director of marketing at AlphaGraphics Inc., in order to continue to survive and grow, small business owners must focus on reaching this new set of consumers.

“Today’s consumer has constantly evolving options for learning about your business,” says Himsworth. “People of all ages and all professions own ’smart phones,’ which means they are literally walking around with the Internet in their pocket. And, more importantly, they are pinpointing their location. The opportunities for geo-based, hyper-local marketing are limitless, and savvy business owners need to take advantage of this new communications channel.”

To support this growing need, marketing communications specialists like AlphaGraphics owners have also evolved to add the latest technologies to their traditional product lines. For example, in addition to traditional printing services, including color, large-format and digital printing, AlphaGraphics locations now offer multichannel, cross-media solutions, such as mobile, e-Publishing and e-mail marketing solutions to small- and mid-sized businesses. This full range of services enables business owners to integrate the latest marketing approaches into their existing programs gradually, and to continually test and refine programs to meet their objectives.

“Understandably, many business owners have been focused on simple survival in recent years. But now, there are some encouraging signs that the worst may be behind us,” said Himsworth. “According to the latest data from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the number of start-ups is beginning to increase and job creation shows signs of a ‘choppy,’ but continuing, improvement.