I think some people assume that my evergreen funnels have always converted like clockwork, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
The reality is that I’ve made loads of mistakes – things that I look back on and think to myself, “why in the world did I do that?”
But, all those mistakes were not wasted on me. Instead of dwelling on them, I learned from them.
Today I’m sharing three of the biggest mistakes I made with my first evergreen funnel so that you don’t have to.
My name is Caitlin Bacher, CEO of Scale With Success®, and I’m on a mission to help course creators all over the world grow their business in a way that is profitable and scalable. I’m sharing revealing insights about what it really takes to scale an online course business to millions of dollars per year. Join me here to discover the tough decisions I’ve had to make, the biggest failures I’ve had to bounce back from, and the learnings that emerged every step of the way. I’m so grateful that I have the chance to tell you everything right here on Scale With Success®: The Podcast. Let’s get started.
Let’s get right to it because I am ready! Did I have one too many cups of coffee this morning – it’s possible. But, the real reason I’m so hyped up is because these are all mistakes I wish someone told me years ago when I first started experimenting with using evergreen funnels to sell my course.
I thought I knew everything back then and was convinced I was doing “all the right things”, so it would drive me nuts when “all the right things” led to absolutely zero courses sold.
That’s probably why now, I love serving clients who come to me believing they’re doing all the right things because I know that without a doubt, by the time they’re done with Phase 1 in my program their confidence is shooketh in the best possible way. They begin to understand exactly why “all the right things” are actually not the right things and they understand FINALLY why they haven’t been able to get results in the past.
If you’re in Phase 1 now, then you know what I mean and if you’re not – well, hopefully today’s episode will shed some light on why you need to be.
Without further delay, here are 3 big evergreen funnel mistakes every course creator needs to avoid.
1. You’re Repurposing Your Launch Content
One thing that really surprised me about evergreen was that I couldn’t just repurpose the content that I’d used during a live launch. I honestly thought I could take a recording of my live webinar (and all the emails I sent out with it) and put all that content into an evergreen funnel.
I didn’t understand that the content inside an evergreen webinar (and all the pages and emails that go with it) need to follow a completely different framework in order to really capture the attention of your audience and move them into action.
Before I figured that out, I was definitely struggling to make my evergreen funnel profitable.
Maybe you’re in the same boat, trying to repurpose your launch content into an evergreen funnel, and feeling frustrated because IT ISN’T CONVERTING. You may even be telling yourself that maybe evergreen won’t work for you – because all those years ago, that’s exactly what I was thinking.
Once I figured out that I needed to quit repurposing all my old launch stuff and start following an evergreen framework, things started moving in the right direction.
One of the best things about selling an evergreen course is that it’s gathering data all the time. So, there is ample time to make tiny content tweaks that can make a HUGE difference in your bottom line.
Learning which evergreen metrics to track (it’s different from launching), how to track them, and most importantly how to UNDERSTAND what they mean took some time for me to figure out as well.
2. Your Evergreen Funnel Has Way Too Many Steps
The best way to ruin your evergreen funnel is to add in a bunch of steps that you don’t really need. If your funnel requires an ad, a lead magnet, a two week nurture sequence, a webinar, and a 10 day post-webinar sequence – you are LOSING money. I don’t know who that funnel was created for, but it wasn’t created for a course creator looking to sell their course on auto-pilot 24/7.
It is ridiculous and the reason I get so fired up about it is because when course creators try using a funnel like that and it doesn’t work – they think something is wrong with them. Like, they’re just not cut out for this or they’re just not good at sales and marketing.
Friends, 11 step skincare rituals work, but 11 step funnels do not. When I tell you that simple scales and complex fails – believe it.
More steps mean more opportunities for the prospect to stop engaging and lose interest. Direct and simple is the way to go.
3. You’re Keeping Your Sales Page On Your Website
If you tell me your evergreen funnel isn’t working and I see a direct link to your sales page inside your Instagram bio – I know exactly what’s happening.
A sales page has its place and that place is NOT front and center on your website or your Instagram bio.
Social media is where you post “top of funnel” content. This type of content is short, sweet, and attracts an audience of people experiencing problems you can solve. Your sales page is “bottom of funnel” content – the very last thing someone should see before they buy.
If you sell a course that is somewhere between $197-$1,997 and you’re trying to force people from top of funnel straight to bottom of funnel – you’re going to lose them. Not because your course is bad, but because you’ve skipped entirely over the middle of funnel content that your evergreen funnel needs to be successful.
Showing your audience the right content in the right order is the secret sauce to making our Profitable Sales Engine™ so effective. The engine consists of three layers of content, top of funnel – which helps you grow an audience of ideal customers, middle of funnel – which educates your audience about your method and why it’s different from anything else in the marketplace, and bottom of funnel – which converts them into a customer.
So, to recap here are the three big evergreen funnel mistakes to avoid:
1. Don’t repurpose your old launch content – the content you’ll share in a live webinar is DIFFERENT than what you need to include in an evergreen webinar, so don’t try to shove your live content into an evergreen funnel – it won’t scale
2. Don’t create an evergreen funnel that is overly complex and has too many steps. Simple scales and complex fails.
3. Don’t put the sales page for your evergreen course on your website – instead design an evergreen funnel that shows your prospects the right content at the right time
I appreciate you being here and tune in next time for another episode of Scale With Success® The Podcast.
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