Every day we have clients coming to us who have tried creating an evergreen funnel in the past, but couldn’t make it profitable. They know evergreen funnels work for others, but they can’t figure out why they don’t work for them.
And they start telling themselves things like, “maybe my audience just won’t buy without a launch”. Even though they hate launching, they believe that it’s the ONLY way to get people to buy their course.
The truth is that while your audience might not be buying your course from YOUR evergreen funnel, I guarantee they’re buying programs from other evergreen funnels – whether they know they’re in a funnel or not, they’re buying.
So, if your audience isn’t the problem, then what is it?
Well, it’s your funnel – more specifically it’s what’s INSIDE the funnel that isn’t working.
Today I’m sharing three reasons why your evergreen funnel isn’t working so you can discover exactly what needs to be fixed.
Let’s get started.
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.
So, you’ve tried an evergreen funnel before (and maybe you even believe you set up everything the right way), but it just won’t convert – so what’s the problem?
WHY aren’t people buying or if they are buying, why is your conversion rate so impossibly low?
When our clients come to us many of them have tried evergreen funnels in the past, but they haven’t worked – and they can’t figure out why.
After working with hundreds of clients all over the world as they build out their own Profitable Sales Engines™ so they can begin selling their course on auto-pilot to the tune of six figure years and even six figure months, I’ve learned there are three very common reasons why your old evergreen funnel didn’t work.
Reason #1: Trying to “automate” your launch
Inside Scale With Success® Accelerator, our clients are NOT repurposing all their old launch content into an evergreen funnel because time and time again we’ve seen that things that work great in a launch, can actually provide a very confusing experience for your evergreen prospects.
And nobody wants that. The reason our Profitable Sales Engines™ have such high conversion rates consistently is because every piece of content inside it is specifically designed for an evergreen sales experience. An experience that is infused with connection and is based on consent – which ensures that your prospects are getting the right message at the right time.
When you’re launching, you’re shoving everyone into one big launch container and everyone is getting the same message at the same time – regardless of whether or not they’re ready for it.
So, you build up all this momentum and then everything ends until the next launch cycle begins all over again and EACH TIME you launch you have to push harder and harder – more affiliates, more ads, more team members, more, more, more. That’s not scaling – that’s insanity.
But, the truth is that some people really enjoy the launch process and that’s fine for them. If you love launching and it’s working for you, then great!
But, if you hate launching and you start transitioning to an evergreen model – just make sure you don’t automate what you did in the last launch. It’s like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, it just doesn’t work.
Reason #2: Including too many steps in your funnel
The best way to ruin your evergreen funnel is to assume that your audience needs the same amount of nurturing that a launch requires.
It doesn’t.
The reason the sales cycle is so much faster (and profitable) for evergreen funnels is not about the number of steps you have in your funnel – it’s about the QUALITY of content inside each step.
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.
This is what happens when people try to repurpose their launch content. Maybe you needed all that content in your last launch as you nurtured people for weeks or even months BEFORE asking them to buy – but you certainly don’t need all that in an evergreen funnel.
I hear a lot of course creators falling into the trap of believing that their audience requires loads of nurturing – but, it’s not QUANTITY of nurture content that your sales depend on, it’s the QUALITY.
Our Profitable Sales Engines™ can take a prospect from stranger to sold in a couple days – NOT months even for those who have super-sensitive audiences that have a real aversion to high pressure sales tactics.
And let me say this, if your audience is super-sensitive AND they have a real aversion to high-pressure sales tactics – then why in the world would you shove them into a launch container where you are yelling the same message at the same time to every single one of them REGARDLESS of where they are in terms of their buyer readiness.
A high-converting evergreen funnel is simple, effective and fueled by connection and consent.
Reason #3: Not knowing how to fix it.
One of the best things about running an evergreen funnel to sell your course is that you are getting data daily that (if used correctly) can be used to increase the profitability of your funnel by 200% or more.
The problem is that most course creators are collecting the wrong data. Maybe they ran a launch before and think they know what evergreen data to collect – but, really they have no idea. The data you collect in a launch is different than what you need to collect in an evergreen funnel.
Not only does having the right data make your evergreen funnel more profitable, it saves you a TON of time because you’re not trying to fix the wrong things. If you want your evergreen funnel to become more profitable over time, then you’ve GOT to embrace a growth mindset. The truth is that sometimes one TINY tweak can make a world of difference – as long as you’re making the tiny tweak to the right spot.
We provide our clients with a digital data tracking sheet that tells them exactly what benchmarks need to be met at every step of their funnel. But, we don’t stop there. We teach them what to track, how to track it, and MOST importantly – how to interpret it and make decisions about what to improve.
It’s so systematic that it feels like a “paint by numbers” craft activity. If this number is lower than 45% do that. If that number is greater than 125 do this. Running evergreen funnels profitably is a skill that anyone can master – as long as they’re not a quitter and they believe that with intentional action, things just keep getting better.
So, if you’ve tried making a funnel before and it didn’t work, which reason resonates the most with you?
1. Trying to “automate” your launch.
2. Including too many steps in your funnel.
3. Not knowing how to fix it.
I appreciate you being here and make sure to join me next week 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 auto-pilot?
Sign up for my free masterclass, “How To Generate Launch-Sized Revenue Without Launching” and I’ll show you how our clients are making MORE money in LESS time than they ever did while launching.
If making sales everyday in a way that is completely automated and doesn’t require paid advertising sounds good to you, then click the link around this episode and sign up for my free masterclass today.
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!
