So… you finally did the thing.
You stopped launching your course.
You built an evergreen funnel.
You turned it on.
And at first, it probably felt exciting. Maybe you even made a few sales.
But now?
That excitement has faded… and so has your revenue.
You know something isn’t working – but you can’t quite put your finger on what. And to make it even more frustrating, you see other people selling courses on autopilot about everything: pilates, guitar, baking sourdough, finance, watercolor… you name it. Which makes you wonder, why is mine struggling?
Here’s what I want you to hear right out of the gate:
If your evergreen funnel isn’t converting, it does not mean evergreen won’t work for you – and it definitely doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.
After helping thousands of course creators transition from launching to selling on autopilot, I’ve noticed a pattern. Most funnels that stall or slowly die aren’t broken… they’re just built on the wrong assumptions.
In today’s episode, I’m walking you through three of the most common mistakes course creators make when selling on autopilot – mistakes I made myself – so you can stop spinning your wheels, and start building real momentum again.
Let’s get into it.
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.
Alright, now that we’re back, I want to set the tone for this conversation.
If your evergreen funnel isn’t converting the way you hoped, this is not an episode about doing more, working harder, or piling on more tactics. In fact, a lot of what’s holding course creators back once they go evergreen comes from trying to force things that worked in a completely different sales environment.
Evergreen isn’t launching on repeat.
It’s a different buyer journey, a different sales rhythm, and a different way of building trust.
And when you don’t realize that shift needs to happen, it’s incredibly easy to respond to slow sales by doing the exact wrong thing – doubling down on strategies that aren’t designed to work in automation.
Which brings me to the first mistake I see course creators make all the time when their evergreen funnel isn’t converting…
Mistake #1: You’re treating evergreen like a launch.
When I first started selling my course on autopilot, I wasn’t making any real money – and I genuinely couldn’t understand why.
I had already proven my offer worked.
I had sold it during launches.
People showed up, engaged, and bought.
So I assumed the solution was simple: take everything that worked live, drop it into an automated funnel, and let it run.
I literally thought I could upload my live webinar, plug in my launch emails, turn it on… and be done.
And at first? I did sell a few courses.
But then the sales dried up. Fast.
That’s the part nobody warns you about.
This is exactly how so many evergreen funnels stall: they “work” just enough to give you hope – and then completely fall flat.
At the time, I thought this meant evergreen just didn’t work for my audience. I told myself, “Maybe they only buy when there’s urgency. Maybe I need the hype. Maybe I need the live energy.”
But evergreen wasn’t the problem.
The strategy was.
What I didn’t understand yet was that a launch and an automated funnel are two completely different buyer experiences.
A launch assumes:
- a LOOOOONG sales cycle – taking months to build even a little bit of emotional connection
Evergreen is different.
In an automated funnel, your prospect is:
- a short, highly-effective sales cycle
So when you drop launch content into evergreen, you’re asking it to do a job it was never designed to do.
That’s why it feels like fitting a square peg into a round hole.
The content itself isn’t bad – but it’s out of sequence, out of context, and missing the elements evergreen requires to build trust quickly.
Evergreen doesn’t need louder content.
It needs different content.
It wasn’t until I stopped trying to reuse my launch assets – and rebuilt my funnel specifically for how people actually move through an automated buying decision – that things started to shift.
When I designed content that could:
- create connection without live interaction
- establish authority without high-pressure sales tactics
- and move someone from problem-aware to ready-to-buy on their own timeline
That’s when evergreen became predictable. And scalable.
Now, I get DMs every single day from course creators who tell me they’re “done launching,” but still feel stuck.
And almost always, they’ve tried evergreen before by repurposing their live webinar and emails – and walked away thinking it didn’t work.
Here’s the truth:
What works live isn’t scalable in automation.
Evergreen success doesn’t come from doing more of the same.
It comes from building a sales experience designed for how evergreen buyers actually buy.
Mistake #2: You’re solving the wrong problem – and it’s ruining your evergreen growth.
Because here’s the truth: traffic is almost never the real problem.
When I first started getting traction selling my course on autopilot, I was excited… and also uneasy. Sales were coming in, but my conversion rate was low. And my immediate conclusion was the same one I hear from so many course creators today:
“If I could just send more people through this funnel, I’d make more money.”
But evergreen doesn’t work like that.
Evergreen exposes your weakest links.
And sending more traffic to a funnel that isn’t converting doesn’t fix the problem – it magnifies it.
At the time, I didn’t have money for ads, so I was forced to slow down and actually look at what was happening inside my funnel. And that’s when it clicked: my issue wasn’t traffic. It was messaging.
I wasn’t clearly communicating:
- the real problem my audience was struggling with
- why that problem existed
- or why my approach was different from everything they’d already tried
Once I fixed that – once I could describe my audience’s problem better than they could themselves – everything changed. Sales increased without increasing traffic. Revenue grew without increasing spend. And suddenly evergreen started doing what it’s supposed to do.
This is why solving the wrong problem stalls your funnel.
When you assume traffic is the issue, you avoid fixing the hard stuff:
- unclear positioning
- a vague promise
- a webinar that educates but doesn’t move
- emails that inform but don’t convert
Evergreen success doesn’t come from more people.
It comes from making the right message land with the people you already have.
If you want sustainable evergreen profits, the order matters:
Fix the funnel first.
Then scale what’s working.
That means looking at everything – your content, your webinar, your emails, your sales page – as one connected sales conversation, not isolated pieces.
What breaks my heart is seeing course creators with funnels that are this close to working – where a few messaging shifts could unlock immediate sales – but they’re convinced they have a traffic problem instead of a sales problem.
So they jump from tactic to tactic.
Reels. Ads. SEO. Partnerships.
All while pouring more people into a leaky funnel.
If your evergreen funnel isn’t converting, more traffic is the last thing you need.
Because evergreen doesn’t reward hustle – it rewards precision.
Mistake #3: You’re avoiding uncertainty – and it’s stalling your evergreen funnel.
Evergreen success requires you to be in a constant relationship with uncertainty.
Unlike launching,… evergreen asks you to stay present. To watch what’s happening. To notice what’s not working yet. And to make decisions before you feel ready.
And this is where a lot of course creators get stuck.
Because instead of testing, adjusting, and iterating, they freeze.
They keep telling themselves:
“I just need more clarity.”
“I should wait until I’m more confident.”
“What if I make the wrong change and break everything?”
So nothing changes – and the funnel stalls.
When I first started selling my course on evergreen, my revenue moved at a snail’s pace for one reason: I was trying to eliminate uncertainty instead of learning how to work with it. I overanalyzed every decision. I second-guessed every tweak. I wanted guarantees before taking action – and evergreen doesn’t offer guarantees.
Evergreen funnels don’t grow because you got everything right the first time.
They grow because you’re willing to make small decisions, learn from the data, and course-correct quickly.
But many of us were taught that mistakes mean something is wrong with us. That if something doesn’t work immediately, it’s proof we’re not cut out for this.
So instead of making imperfect changes, we wait.
Instead of testing, we stall.
Instead of gathering data, we seek reassurance.
Meanwhile, the people who do scale with evergreen aren’t more confident – they’re more willing to be wrong.
Show me someone making 10x more revenue on evergreen, and I’ll show you someone who has made 10x more imperfect decisions. Someone who changed subject lines that didn’t work. Tweaked webinars that flopped. Tested ideas that failed – and used that information to build something better.
The moment your evergreen funnel starts moving again isn’t when you finally “feel confident.”
It’s when you decide that uncertainty isn’t a threat – it’s feedback.
Courage comes first. Confidence follows.
And the sooner you stop trying to protect yourself from mistakes, the sooner your evergreen funnel can actually grow.
So let’s recap what we covered today, because if your evergreen funnel isn’t converting, it’s rarely because evergreen “doesn’t work.”
Most of the time, it comes down to three fixable mistakes.
First, trying to do more of the same – repurposing launch content, repeating strategies that were never designed for automation, and hoping more effort will magically create better results. Evergreen requires a different sales experience, not a recycled one.
Second, solving the wrong problem. More traffic won’t save a funnel that doesn’t clearly communicate value. When your messaging doesn’t clearly articulate the problem, the cause, and why your solution is different, no amount of traffic will make it profitable. Fix the funnel first – then scale.
And third, letting uncertainty run the show. Growth always comes with discomfort, and waiting for confidence before taking action only keeps you stuck. Courage comes first. Confidence follows.
If you take anything away from today, let it be this: a stalled evergreen funnel doesn’t mean you failed – it means you’re being invited to refine, not retreat.
Evergreen works when you’re willing to adjust the strategy, focus on what actually moves the needle, and keep moving forward even when the path isn’t perfectly clear.
I appreciate you being here, and be sure to tune in next time for another episode of Scale With Success® – The Podcast.
Are you sick and tired of launching and looking for a proven method to generate consistent revenue from your online course on autopilot?
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Today’s episode is brought to you by Scale With Success® Accelerator — an online course designed to help you generate launch-sized revenue without lanching. If you want to learn MORE about our proven method for success, click here to watch my free masterclass. See you in there!
