Not every business owner is a born marketing expert, and there's nothing wrong with that. It’s a problem that can be easily solved with a little education and research. That’s where the Infusionsoft Marketing Library comes in. The library has dozens of free eBooks and webinars that can help you develop marketing strategies and generate more sales leads. Among the many great eBooks included in the library are:

The ABCs of Earning Customer Referrals. Word of mouth is the best advertising that money can’t buy. This step-by-step guide has over a dozen unique ideas you can use right away to enhance your referrals and create great leads. It contains proven ways to generate new leads through Facebook and Twitter as well as identifying and opening up untapped lead sources.

There was a time when stores would boast: "If we don't have it, you don't need it." In today's world, if a shopper can't find what he wants at the mall (Black Friday, anyone?), he can make an online purchase on his phone in the mall parking lot within minutes of leaving the store (or maybe save it for Cyber Monday!). However, the long lines and large crowds at the stores during the holidays attest to the fact that not everyone shops online. So why do people face those maddening swarms in the department stores and malls, when they could so easily sit at home in their pajamas and browse the internet?

Want instant gratification?

Going into an actual store and making a purchase means you don't have to wait and see if what you're buying is what you really want. It's so much easier to see that you're choosing the right color or size when you're physically in front of the item. Shopping online, unless it's an item you're already familiar with, can be akin to spinning a roulette wheel.

The holidays are a time for family, festivities and fun. Whether it’s flying out to see Grandma or sending out holiday cards to your old college friends, it’s also a time to acknowledge the important people in your lives. As a small business owner, those important people also include your customers.   

You know perfectly well that a holiday greeting can be an important part of your marketing efforts. It can help generate goodwill, reminding customers that you’re still thinking of them and stand ready to assist them if they need anything.

Cooler temperatures and falling leaves mark the start of fall for many parts of the country. They also mark the start of a busy holiday season. From Halloween through New Year’s the holidays jump off the calendar in rapid succession.

It’s important to keep focused during these months and not lose your direction. With all the holiday fuss it’s easy to see the carefully orchestrated life-work balance you’ve maintained throughout the year get thrown out of kilter. Visiting with family and friends, spending time with your kids and finding time to enjoy a little bit of the holiday festivities can stress out even the most the best entrepreneurs.

As the summer finally draws to a close, it’s time for another season to begin. Not fall, exactly: holiday season. In the United States at least, major holidays aren't distributed evenly throughout the year. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the calendar is rather sparse, with the 4th of July being the only major holiday.

Once the leaves start turning and the temperatures began to cool, that all changes. From, jack o’ lanterns to turkeys to Christmas trees to Time Square, the calendar seems like a never-ending stream of one holiday after another. With all the festivities going on, it’s easy for entrepreneurs to get sidetracked. Don’t be like the others. Keep your goals in sight and push on.

In football, coaches often talk to their teams about staying strong in the 4th quarter. For the coaches and players, the end of September marks the beginning of the heart of their season.

For many entrepreneurs, it means the start of a new fiscal quarter, often the final quarter of a business’ calendar year. And just like a football team, you’ll want to stay at your best to close out the season. If you haven’t already, it’s a good time to reflect on the challenges and opportunities available over the next few months. Many save such reflections for the end of the year, but there’s nothing to be gained by waiting for today’s news to become yesterday’s history.

Yes, it that time of year again, when ghouls and goblins prowl. It’s also the time of year when many companies do big business. Surprisingly, Halloween has risen to become the biggest adult holiday of the year. Temporary Halloween stores are on the rise. Bars, nightclubs and restaurants are cashing in by sponsoring Halloween related events. And it’s not just limited to particular industries. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF), 148 million Americans will take part in some sort of Halloween celebration this year. In 2013, the NRF estimated Halloween spending in the U.S. alone at around $8 billion. The average U.S. consumer is expected to shell out $80 on costumes, candy and decorations.

That’s a lot of trick-or-treating.

Networking has become a bit of a buzzword over the last few years. It’s not just for information technology experts anymore. It's a critical part of the Lifecycle Marketing process.

When we attend a business conference we might talk about networking with colleagues and like-minded entrepreneurs. When we add friends on Facebook or other social media, we’re still networking after a fashion. 

For many small businesses, referrals are the most reliable source of new customers. New contacts lead to new leads, which in turn can lead to new sales opportunities. In essence, gaining referrals is networking for your business.

There are many ways to gain referrals, but they all start with a simple premise: asking. For a business to take advantage of customer referrals, they need to not only ask, but make asking an ingrained habit. Your customer already knows you and likes your product. Why wouldn’t they want they want to share that product with the people they know?

Maybe it is the “slow season”for your business. Or maybe it has been your best season ever, and your stress levels are off the charts. Either way, hopefully you have decided to take a little time off and become reacquainted with your family again.

It can be a little intimidating sometimes, trying to reconnect with family members when you've been putting a lot of time into your business. You may feel like they resent your time away from them.  Or you may simply feel like you don't know one another anymore.

Spending time with loved ones doesn't have to involve elaborate plans.

Your loving spouse hands you a mug of hot cocoa when you enter the house on a cold wintry morning after you've shoveled the walk. The hearty “ho-ho-ho”of a sidewalk Santa greets you as you drop a few coins in the kettle on your way into the store. A delighted look crosses your mom's face when you proclaim her holiday cooking the best in the world. 

The holidays are a time of giving and receiving, often creating memories that last much longer than the winter season. Customer loyalty is one of those things that can give a business owner that warm fuzzy feeling. Are your clients, patients, or customers getting that feeling in return?

There’s something about the holidays that make us nostalgic for “the good old days.” Maybe it’s those classic films like It’s a Wonderful Life, where everyone in Bedford Falls knows George Bailey over at the Bailey Building & Loan. Yep, good old George, who probably learned about customer service when he worked in the town drug store as a kid. No doubt he used to give out a wink and a grin along with that extra cherry he tossed on top of his customer’s ice cream soda.

Now, thanks to technology, customers have more choices than ever before. You can set your business apart from the others by demonstrating excellent old-fashioned customer service. One way to do that is by using email marketing during the holiday season, and in the Infusionsoft Marketplace, there is a campaign just for this purpose.

Since the beginning of its history, the United States has relied on its veterans, men and women willing to put their lives on the line to defend the freedom of others. Our national holiday Veterans’Day is set aside to honor and commemorate these courageous individuals, and is a wonderful opportunity to be able to thank a veteran for his or her service.

Our flagship product JoomFuse that integrates your Joomla websites with your Infusionsoft application just got an upgrade!

Here are just some of the new features:

October.

As summer becomes a memory, the leaves are already turning in many places around the world. The canopy of green will give way to a stunning panorama of color, marking the start of fall better than any calendar. Many people are already picking out their pumpkins and deciding what costume they’re going to wear come October 31st. 

While Halloween may get the lion’s share of attention during the month, and deservedly so considering the amount of money spent on it, it’s not the only holiday that calls October home.

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. So goes the old rhyme that many of us learned in school. On October 12th of that year, Columbus’ ship first set down on what soon came to be called the New World.

Lifecycle Marketing is a valuable approach to marketing that has replaced many of the traditional methods. It’s based around two very simple ideas. The first is that it’s often easier to generate more revenue from existing customers than from finding new ones. Secondly, taking care of existing customers costs less than searching for new prospects.

Over the course of our series on Lifecycle Marketing, we’ve taken a look at how it can help your business. The Lifecycle has 8 simple steps: 

• Attracting Traffic.  Customers won’t buy from you if they don’t know you’re there. You need to do more than just advertise. Give them a reason to come through your doors, real or virtual, by creating great content.