You might not know this about me (but, I’d bet you do), I LOVE talking about marketing! All things marketing really fire me up.
I’ve been having a conversation with a couple of my clients lately about the best method to bring in their ideal clients. One of the questions that continually gets asked is, “What’s better, live launching or evergreen.” Which one is the better model?
Let’s say you’re like one of my clients and have just put the finishing touches on your first or new online course or group coaching program.
What’s your BEST next step? Get it out there to your ideal clients who need the transformation you provide. But should you go the live launch route? Or should you use an evergreen model?
As a marketing strategist, I get asked this question all the time. I’ve created sales funnels for both live launches and evergreen promotions.
Here’s the thing… neither is better than the other. There are pros and cons to both methods. It really depends on your business model. What it is that works for you and your audience.
What’s the Difference Between a Live Launch and an Evergreen Funnel?
Let’s start by explaining the differences between live launching and the evergreen model of funnels. I’m going to be very transparent in exactly what it takes to run both styles of marketing. Then, you can decide from there what will be best for you.
Live Launches
A launch is when you open your doors for a specific period of time. You’re actively selling to your audience during that window of time, live, on social media, and in emails. You are reacting to your audience’s comments and feedback in real-time.
Here’s the thing, a live launch should be as meticulously planned out as your evergreen funnel. And, it should be as meticulously planned out as your overall marketing strategy.
If you’ve planned it well, you have a full month launch plan that usually incorporates pre-promotion, a launch trigger of some kind, like a webinar or a challenge, a sales period (generally between 5-10 days depending on how long you want your cart open) and then finally your delivery phase.
If you do a launch correctly with a great strategy, you can either get lots of paid traffic and increase your email list and followers in a short period of time, then sell to this new audience. Or if you already have an audience you want to make sure you’re developing and delivering content prior to the launch that warms them up. This way when you open the cart they are already focusing on their problem and understand why you are the best solution.
Planning all of these things out ahead of time will really save you time and energy during the live launch. Because let’s face it, doing a live training takes energy. By planning things out ahead of time, you know what comes next.
Live launches can be very fun and productive. They’re especially good if you have a product or service that has a limited period of time that people can join. Think, a mastermind or a group coaching program. With both of these, you really want to avoid adding people mid-stream to avoid disrupting the flow of the coaching and more importantly the building of the community. Live launching makes a lot of sense for programs like this.
Live Launches mean getting a lump sum of money at a specific period of time. This may or may not be good for your business model.
An Evergreen Funnel
An evergreen funnel leverages technology and automated systems to sell your course 24/7. That means that fresh leads are constantly coming into your sales funnel. They’re nurtured toward the sale and with the right messaging, your leads make a purchasing decision, day or night.
Evergreen funnels mean your cart is always open for a specific product or service. And you’re running traffic through a funnel consistently to get people to buy. Now, generally, these funnels are automated, but they are built and designed so that they feel like they’re live.
Evergreen funnels can be phenomenal if you want predictable, scalable, and repeatable income. Generally, you are using paid traffic, like ads, to run people through this funnel. What that means is that you can see that the money you put in directly correlates to the number of leads and the number of leads directly correlates to the number of sales.
The other nice thing about an evergreen funnel is that because you’re not actively participating in them you can take a step back and really view the data on what is working and what isn’t. Then, make tweaks along the way. Over time you get to create an automation that consistently and effectively sells your product, service, or solution.
Once you have an evergreen funnel that is built and is working, you can really just set it and forget it. That is why people love evergreen so much. That’s everyone’s goal to have money coming into their business while they sleep.
However, just like live launches, there are cons to evergreen funnels. First, can take time and money to test and tweak before it’s working at maximum efficiency. Sometimes it can take six to twelve months to really crack the code. This can be quite discouraging for people to be investing so much time and money into something that is not returning the investment immediately.
An evergreen funnel requires just as much planning as a live launch does. You’re looking at your ideal audience and really thinking about what they are struggling with, what they need to see, hear, and learn before they’re ready to invest in you. And then planning out every step of the customer journey so that by the end they’re ready to buy.
What do I recommend?
One of the things that I encourage my clients to do is try live launching for a while. Get it down to a science AND THEN turn it into an evergreen funnel. Here’s a big secret though, sometimes those evergreen funnels stop working, and then you have to start again from the top.
When you look at the industry you’re going to see the big players doing both live launches and evergreen funnels. Some have perfected opening group programs once or twice a year and making millions. Others are killing it with evergreen funnels that are bringing in revenue on a daily basis.
The reality is there is no right or wrong with these two types of funnels. It’s a matter of figuring out what works for you, your business, and your audience.