The Queen's Christmas Day message to the Commonwealth was to take time for quiet moments of reflection. Well, not a problem. My traditional business reviews are at the end of June and the end of December so here's my look back at lessons learned in 2013. This year was a “down” year in that I was covering a sabbatical for a professor at Simon Fraser University until September and then picking up my original course load that runs Sept-Dec. I knew in advance that 2013 would bring more challenges in terms of available time, but I was uncertain what effect that would have on traffic and conversions. Here's what the data says. 

You can certainly see the impact that the 2012 content strategy had on referral traffic from the email newsletter and YouTube, as well as the impact on email subscribers, which are two benchmarks for Boxcar Marketing. Likewise you can see how the decrease in volume of content affected those same metrics. 64% fewer posts, 16% fewer newsletters and 76% fewer 1-Minute Marketing videos meant 523 fewer newsletter subscribers and 303 fewer visitors from Email and YouTube (assuming the same conversion rate).

What does this tell me? Well, this data is just a small subset and overall traffic to the site was only down 6%. But as the primary content producer, I have to pick up the slack in 2014 or get some help. The quantity of content determines the volume and quality of traffic, which determines the number of conversions (email signups). So my goals for 2014 are to add 3000 words of content each month and to see at least 50 email signups a month. This sounds like a lot of content but really I just need to ensure the email newsletter gets out each month (easy, I did 10 of 12 last year) and write 500-word blog posts each week (hard, there were 41 fewer posts in 2013 than in 2012). I also need to decide on some goals for the YouTube channel and my 1-Minute Marketing tips. In 2012, I was posting 1 per weekday and reduced that to 1 per week in 2013. 

What's the plan? I've started an editorial calendar to avoid writer's block and I've scheduled times in my calendar to write. It takes me about an hour to write a quality, 500-word post, which means I need about 10 hours a month to reach my goal of 3000 words (6 hours plus a big buffer). My theory is that if I can get the writing on track, then I can get the email conversion volume up again, along with referral visitors to the site from email and YouTube. 

Now about those videos: I have a digital marketing webinar series planned with eBound in February (sign up for “Mastering Facebook Metrics” and/or “Social Media Metrics In Depth”). Plus, I have another series in the works that I hope to announce in early 2014. 

The webinars are part of our focus for publishing clients who are looking for Google Analytics Audits, Social Media Marketing Audits, and in-house online marketing training, all of which I love! 

Now, I could be disappointed that the numbers are down for 2013, but I knew that going into the year and planned for it accordingly. Business was brisk, especially through the summer and fall with new advertising campaigns, lots of Facebook Page management and online-marketing training. Plus I had a baby boy in February.

In the Queen's message, she reflected on the birth of her grandson and that a baby allows people to think about the future with renewed “happiness and hope.” So here's to happiness and hope in 2014!