With a chill wind blowing and snowflakes filling the air, thoughts of warm spring may seem like a distant dream on the horizon. Even though winter may be seem like a frozen eternity, it’s never too early to start planning your marketing for Q2. What are your goals for spring, and how will you reach them?  

The marketing calendar may look a little bare at first glance, what with Christmas and the other winter holidays receding in the rear-view mirror, but the spring and early summer months have plenty to offer.

In April, there’s Easter, Thomas Jefferson's birthday and April Fool's Day for starters. Throw in Tax Day, Earth Day, Administrative Professionals Day, and Car Care Month, too.

Obi Wan Kenobi.  Merlin.  Mister Miyagi. 

In film and in stories, heroes and heroines have benefitted from the wisdom and advice of a mentor. Would you and your business benefit from someone who could provide you with knowledge, support and guidance? If your answer is yes, then it might be time to consider finding a mentor. 

A mentor/protégé relationship is not one where the mentor offers his time and advice for compensation. Although paid consultants and advisors can be beneficial, a mentor is only interested in helping his or her protégé to succeed.

January is almost over already. Do you know where your Q1 goal is? Like any goal, your plan for Q1 is more likely to be met if you write it down. Better yet, make your goals S.M.A.R.T.

S.M.A.R.T. goals have been around in one form or another since the early 1980’s. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, and over the years they’ve been tailored to fit a wide variety of different businesses. Generally, being S.M.A.R.T means having goals that are:

Once the holidays are over, the decorations have come down and the presents have all been bought, will your cash registers still be busy? For many businesses, the end of the holiday season marks the end of the busy season. But those months don’t have to be slow ones for your marketing efforts. It's important to keep your marketing going strong, especially in the “slow” months.

For more than 25 years, hundreds of thousands of sales professionals and entrepreneurs have turned to Dan Kennedy, the “millionaire maker”, for help with their marketing.

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.

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.

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. 

Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction - John C. Crosby

As you grow in your business career, you may find yourself gradually changing from the person searching for answers to the one who has the answers. Are you ready to pass some of that knowledge on to a promising newcomer? 

At first glance it might seem a mentor-protégé relationship is one-sided. You’re effectively giving away your hard-won experience and asking little in return. A mentor can gain satisfaction from building a legacy however, as well as developing leadership skills and gaining prestige within the industry.

Valentine's Day is a special time for lovers, boxes of chocolate and hearts, not to mention a perfect excuse to send that special someone a sentimental e-card. It’s also a special time for businesses, and regardless of what type of business you have, you can use this holiday to show your customers some love.

Here are some ideas to help you become Cupid for a day:

Although they never met in person, Martin Luther King Jr. found great inspiration in Gandhi's teachings of nonviolence. Using this campaign, he was able to push forward the Civil Rights Movement in a mere ten short years. When you compare this accomplishment to other violence-related protests, such as apartheid in South Africa, it is truly a testament to King's drive and desire to fulfill his dream.

In any business, an entrepreneur needs to have that same drive, a passion to succeed under his own initiative. The entrepreneur needs to be able to persevere when faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. He or she needs to have self-discipline and focus, to let nothing get in the way of his or her success.

So, your business has 1000 Facebook friends, 5000 likes, 3000 twitter followers, 1500 1st level connections on LinkedIn and you have a big presence on Instagram, Pinterest, and other social media platforms.

Guess what, I don't care about any of those numbers! What I do care about is...

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.

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.

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.