Since we’re getting toward year’s end and it seems all the online giants are releasing their year-end wrap-ups, we thought we’d do the same and provide you with eight tasks you should complete to make sure your inbound marketing strategy is on point for 2013.  Here we go!

• Check your blog analytics – First of all, if you’re not blogging, you must add it to your 2013 to-do list.  You can’t start inbound marketing without fresh, engaging content on a regular basis.  If you’ve been blogging this year, take a look back at the posts that received the most “Likes”, shares, and views.  What are the similarities among them? Is it the tone of the writing? The topic? The images?  Aim to create more of that kind of content in the upcoming year.
• Lead capturing -- How do you capture the information of people who visit your website? If your only lead-capturing mechanism right now is your “Contact Us” page, work on creating some new calls to action in the new year.  Offer something of value in exchange for an email address and place clickable buttons on pages of your website where the offer is relevant.
• Keywords – Do you know what search keywords your website is currently ranking for? Do you know what keywords your competitors are beating you on?  Do you know what keywords you want to rank for? Re-assess your position in organic search and get to work on getting clicked!
• Email – What is your current email marketing strategy? Are you receiving acceptable clickthrough rates? If you haven’t segmented your customers in terms of the types of email messages that would be most relevant to them, take the time to do that so that you can realize more effective email campaigns next year.
• Fix SEO errors – Time after time we come across websites with basic SEO problems – missing meta descriptions, non-unique page titles, missing 301 redirects, etc.  Go over Google’s Webmaster Checklist and make sure your website follows the guidelines for the best chance to show up in search. And if you’re employing black hat methods, knock it off!
• Facebook – Set growth and engagement goals for the new year.  Find the common thread among your best-performing and farthest-reaching posts and apply what you learn to upcoming posts. Make sure you haven’t missed the boat on talking with your fans instead of at them.
• Twitter – Again, set growth and engagement goals for the new year.  Make sure your profile isn’t full of only outbound messages, reply to others’ tweets and do make sure you’re not ignoring people who are talking to you.
• Pinterest – If you haven’t joined the latest social media craze, it might be time to.  Pinterest is currently the Internet’s top website traffic referrer. To incorporate it into your inbound marketing strategy, you’ll need to have image-rich, engaging content on your website.

If you tackle these eight areas of your online world, you’ll be well on your way to having an inbound marketing strategy that works in 2013! 

Have any questions about the checklist or inbound marketing in general?  Drop us a comment below.