Hopefully you've survived the holidays and with NYE being a more muted cookie holiday, you get a chance to breathe, meet your kids you've not seen in 6 months because you've been sequestered in the kitchen, and take a little time to binge some good ol' Netflix.
During this lull of a week in between 2023 and 2024, here are some easy wins you can knock out to set yourself up for some sales in 2024 (hey - businesses don't get a break, amiright? The salesman never sleeps!).
📑 1. Update your cover photo.
Some of you beautiful humans be rockin' a cover photo longer than my last relationship - brush off the cobwebs and give that photo-heavy real estate some TLC. Lean into the day of Loooove if you want to signal to your audience that you'll be offering Valentine's Day cookies, or - if you're just not ready to acknowledge 2023 is over, upload something generic that'll tie you over until you're caught up (on Netflix or heart-shaped cutters, we won't judge).
📑 2. Repost your pinned photo(s).
Even though your pinned content is still valid, Facebook does us dirty by timestamping posts - so that pinned post you made in 2021? It's the first thing your potential clients see when they click to your page. And not all Facebook users are upto-date on how the New Page Experience works in regards to pinned posts - so we recommend reposting and repinning - just for the sake of the timestamp.
📑 3. Update your email vacation message.
I get to read a lot of your vacation (aka auto responder) messages when I send out the Onesday Wednesday newsletter every week - and heads up, some of them will be out-of-date come the new year. Give your auto-responder a once over and update any mentions of 2023, Christmas, Booked, or Holidays to reflect the new year's information.
📑 4. Update your email signature.
Corrie said to leave this one out, but if you're like me and see your email sig and sell-able real estate too, don't forget to update it to reflect 2024 data (some of you have "booked until X" in your signatures). Also - high five for makin' even our names work for us!
📑 5. Update your FB auto-responses.
This one is one I always forget. Your auto-responses on your business page likely has some old information. And even if it doesn't, Facebook's newer Merge Tags are pretty neat and something I'd incorporate in 2024 to increase open rates and responses in Messenger.
People are much more likely to open a message that starts with "Hey Sarah" rather than a message that says "Hello customer." (that is, if your name is Sarah).
📑 6. Update your bios (FB and Insta).
A lot of you smarties use your Instagram bio and Facebook (super way-too-short) bio to sell - so don't forget to update that with 2024 data. If your bio says you're booked until December, you're gonna want to update that lest your audience think you're some superhuman baker who's booked out until 2025.
📑 7. Edit your Instagram Highlights.
I forget this one - Instagram highlights. If you're not familiar with highlights, it's the row of circles below an Instagram bio, but above the feed grid. These allow the account owner to take stories (that expire after 24 hours) out of archive and permanently attach them to a profile. Make sure you update these. Sometimes the content is just old (like who wants to see a class you taught 3 years ago), and sometimes the content includes your pre-sales for a Nov 2023 pop-up. You'll want to clear that out and update it for 2024 offerings.