Evergreen vs. Launch Funnels: What’s Best for Your Offer?
In the world of online marketing and digital product sales (like courses, memberships, high-ticket programs), there are two popular approaches to selling: evergreen funnels and launch funnels. Both can generate significant revenue, but they operate very differently. How do you decide which model is best for your offer? In this article, we’ll break down the pros and cons of each, compare them head-to-head, and give you guidance on choosing the right funnel strategy (or mix of strategies) for your business.
Evergreen vs. Launch – the basic definitions: - Launch Funnel (Time-Limited Launch): This is a marketing campaign where you open enrollment or sales for your offer for a limited period of time (say 5-7 days, or maybe a few weeks), usually preceded by hype-building content (like a video series or challenge), and then close the cart. Think of it like a blockbuster movie release: lots of buzz, a grand opening, then it’s off the market until the next launch. Launches often happen a few times a year. - Evergreen Funnel: This is a sales process that runs continuously. The product or service is available all the time (or via automated just-in-time scarcity). New leads enter the funnel whenever they discover you, and ideally, each lead goes through a personalized sequence leading to a sale, regardless of calendar timing. Evergreen is “always on.” It’s like having a store that’s open 24/7 rather than a special pop-up event.
Let’s explore each model’s merits and drawbacks.
The Thrill (and Stress) of Launch Funnels
Launch funnels are known for creating a big surge of revenue and excitement. Key characteristics: - Set Enrollment Window: For example, “Course opens Jan 10 and closes Jan 17. After that, doors are shut.” This naturally creates urgency and scarcity, powerful psychological triggers that motivate buyers. People don’t want to miss out, so they rush to join before the deadline. The result can be a significant spike in sales during that window. - High-Energy Promotion: Launches often involve an event or content series: live webinars, a 3-part video training, a free challenge, etc., delivered during the lead-up. This provides tons of value upfront and warms up the audience, getting them excited. It also builds community buzz – e.g., hundreds of people might be going through a challenge together, sharing wins, which amps up the momentum. - Big Revenue Bursts: It’s not unusual for businesses to generate the majority of their yearly revenue in just a couple of launches. For instance, an online educator might do two launches a year and each brings in six figures. Launch model basically concentrates sales (and cash flow) into big hits. This can be great for injecting funds which you can then invest in growth or other projects. - Easier to Make Noise: Because you’re focusing your promo into a short time, you can go all-out – affiliates promoting your launch, ad blitz, social media lives every day, etc. It’s a campaign. This concentrated effort can break through audience inertia more effectively than always-on smaller promotions. It feels like an event, and people pay more attention to events. - Feedback and Cohorts: Many course creators like launches because they can onboard a whole cohort of students at once, which creates a sense of community among them. All students start together, which can improve engagement. It also means you can focus on teaching/service delivery without also marketing 24/7. You market during launch, then shift to fulfillment mode.
However, launch funnels come with cons: - Stress and Burnout: Launches are intense. The high stakes, the long hours, the live events... it can be exhausting (both for you and your team). Cialdini might say it’s a feast-or-famine cycle – big feast then recovery. Many marketers have burned out doing too many launches or very complex launches. If you thrive on adrenaline, you might enjoy it, but it’s not sustainable for everyone. - Unpredictable Revenue: Between launches, sales drop (sometimes to zero if you strictly close the offer). So you rely on that next launch to hit numbers. This feast/famine can be risky. If a launch underperforms (maybe market conditions, ad costs spiked, whatever), your income might suffer for months until you can try again. It can be nerve-wracking. - Limited Access for Customers: Customers who discover you right after a launch have to wait. Some will lose interest or go to a competitor rather than waiting 3-6 months for you to open again. You’re potentially leaving money (and people who could’ve been helped sooner) on the table. That said, the counterpoint is they might join your list and be even more primed by the next launch due to the wait. - All Eggs in One Basket: If you mainly do launches, you’re putting a lot of eggs in those few baskets. External factors (economy, big news events) during launch week could impact results. It’s like having only a couple of big sales windows vs many chances to sell. - Constant “List Warming”: When you’re not launching, ideally you’re still nurturing your audience so they’ll be ready next time. Some businesses struggle with the quiet periods – they go silent and then just show up when they have something to sell. That can turn off subscribers. You need a content plan for in-between so people don’t forget you (or worse, feel you only come around to sell).
A launch model can work wonders especially when: - You’re introducing a new product (hype is naturally higher). - You benefit from group dynamics (like cohort-based courses). - You have a smaller audience – concentrating them in one enrollment can make the effort of servicing them more efficient. - You, personally, like to work in sprints and don’t mind the high-energy hustle followed by downtime.
As Liam Austin says (in a hypothetical quote), “Launches bring excitement, urgency, and high-revenue bursts, but they can be exhausting and lead to feast-or-famine cycles.” That pretty much sums it up.
The Slow and Steady of Evergreen Funnels
Evergreen funnels aim for consistent, ongoing sales. Key features: - Always Open (or Appearing Always Open): An evergreen setup usually involves automation so that each new lead essentially gets their “own private launch.” For example, someone signs up for your webinar today, they might get a special 3-day offer after the webinar – their personal cart close. But another person who signs up next week goes through the same sequence next week. So to each individual, it’s a timed offer, but the business is selling continuously. Some evergreen funnels skip deadlines altogether and just have an always-available product with email sequences educating then pitching gradually. - Predictable Revenue Stream: This can smooth out cash flow. Instead of huge spikes, you have money coming in daily or weekly as leads convert at their own pace. It’s more of a steady growth model. For businesses that want reliability and planning ease, this is a big plus. You can often optimize to a fairly stable conversion rate and then just work on feeding more traffic in to grow. - Less Pressure on Each Lead: Since an evergreen funnel is rolling, if you mess up an email or an ad today, no biggie – tomorrow’s leads will see the corrected version. There’s room to continually tweak and optimize incrementally. A failed launch is a big oops; a weak week in evergreen can be fixed the next week. It’s iterative. - Scaling Potential: Once dialed in, evergreen funnels are easier to scale with paid traffic. You know that, say, for every 100 webinar sign-ups you get X sales and revenue. So you can pour more into ads or affiliates continuously. With launches, you also ramp ads, but ad performance might drop during the crowded launch week, etc. Evergreen is more akin to ongoing optimization like an e-commerce store might do. - Customers Start When Ready: This is particularly good if your offer solves an acute pain. If someone is desperate for your solution now, they can buy now. You capture sales you might lose if forcing them to wait. Also, you don’t have to turn away folks or ask them to wait (which they may not).
Of course, evergreen funnels have cons as well: - Lack of Urgency/Excitement: The biggest challenge: how to induce the urgency and excitement that naturally comes with a live launch. Evergreen requires crafted urgency (like expiring bonuses or auto-generated coupon deadlines) and maybe evergreen “events” like automated webinars. But some potential buyers can see through false scarcity. If not implemented carefully (like using dynamic, genuine deadlines via tools like Deadline Funnel tied to each user), it might not motivate as strongly. “Evergreen offers a steady flow of sales but comes with its own set of challenges,” as an expert might say. - Marketing Overkill?: Some worry that evergreen means you’re always marketing, thus always needing to monitor ads, emails, etc. It’s true that you have to keep feeding the funnel. But many find this more manageable than an all-hands-on-deck launch where you’re juggling 100 things in one week. - No Big Buzz Hype: Evergreen can feel “quiet.” You might not get that huge community vibe of everyone joining at once, posting on social media about “I just joined XYZ program!” So you have to find other ways to foster community if that’s important (rolling enrollment communities can work, but they need careful onboarding to integrate new folks with older ones). - Requires Tech and Automation: To do evergreen well, you lean on tech – email automation, possibly an evergreen webinar platform, deadline mechanisms. There’s setup complexity. A live launch can be done scrappier (e.g., live Zoom calls, manual email sends in a pinch). Evergreen needs to run like clockwork, so testing and maintaining the tech is key. - Shiny Object Syndrome for Customers: If your product is always there, someone might procrastinate indefinitely. They think, “I’ll get to it later, it’ll still be there.” You have to combat human nature’s tendency to put off non-urgent purchases. That’s why adding genuine deadlines or incentives is crucial, even in evergreen. Sometimes evergreen marketers do things like occasional small live events or seasonal promos to shake the tree of those who’ve been lingering on the fence.
Evergreen shines especially when: - You have a product that doesn’t need cohort-based delivery and can be started anytime (e.g., a self-paced course, a SaaS product, a membership with ongoing content). - You prefer stable operations to intense launches. - Your audience is coming in steadily via content or ads year-round, and you want to capture them at peak interest. - You’ve already tested a funnel through at least one launch or beta, so you know it converts and can automate it.
As Graham Cochrane, a known marketer, might put it: “Evergreen offers a steady, automated approach – scale without constant presenting – but live launches typically convert 30-40% better, at the cost of your time.” That implies live events still hold an edge in conversion, which is often cited (live webinars convert better than auto ones, etc.), but you trade efficiency.
Choosing What’s Best for Your Offer
Now that we know pros/cons, how do you decide? Consider these factors:
1. Price and Type of Offer: High-ticket ($1000+)? Many such offers benefit from launches or at least a personal touch (like a live webinar or sales call). That doesn’t preclude evergreen, but you might need hybrid: an evergreen funnel that leads to a sales call or just-in-time webinar. Lower-priced offers can be sold more easily in evergreen fully automated. - If your product is a course or membership: Do you have an engaged community as a selling point? Launch cohorts might help. If community isn’t central and it’s self-paced, evergreen is fine. - If your service/product is seasonal or timely: Launch might align with when people are most in need (e.g., a tax prep course launched right before tax season). - If your offer thrives on group energy (like a live challenge or group coaching), a periodic launch to get a batch in at once could improve customer experience.
2. Your Audience Size and Traffic: - Small following? Launches might be better initially because you can concentrate your small crowd and make a splash that others notice (word-of-mouth). - Large following or steady content marketing machine? Evergreen ensures you’re not wasting the daily influx. Also larger businesses can handle the tech to do evergreen at scale. - Paid ads strategy: If you plan to heavily use paid traffic, evergreen funnels are easier to optimize for ROI and scale up continuously. Many big info-product businesses run ads into evergreen webinar funnels profitably. Launches use ads too but it’s more like big spend in short burst; if something’s off, you find out when it’s basically too late.
3. Your Personality & Team Capacity: Some entrepreneurs love launches – the showmanship, the urgency, the big numbers. Others dread them. Similarly, team size matters: if it’s just you, launches can be overwhelming. Evergreen might spread out workload. - If you like to focus on product development or other tasks, evergreen frees you from constant promo planning. If you enjoy live interaction and your strength is converting on live video, launches leverage that skill.
4. Frequency of Product Updates: If your product changes often or you like to iterate, evergreen funnels need to be updated too, but a launch gives a natural point to incorporate improvements (like version 2.0 of a course could be a big new launch). Some do launches whenever they have a major update to justify the hype.
5. Business Goals – Growth vs. Lifestyle: - Launches can spike growth (maybe more affiliates involved, more PR possible around a big event). If you want quick expansion and don’t mind reinvesting launch profits into more team/help to recuperate, it’s a path. - If your goal is stable income and minimal stress (maybe you favor a lean “lifestyle business”), evergreen likely appeals more. It’s the “slow & steady wins the race” vibe.
It’s worth noting: Hybrid is an option. Many businesses do a mix: - For example, run evergreen most of the year, but do one live launch annually with extra bonuses or a slight discount – snagging those who held out and generating buzz. - Or have an evergreen core offer, but occasionally launch a new related offer. - Another hybrid is “evergreen with live elements” – e.g., monthly live webinars that feed an evergreen funnel at the end (so it’s like doing mini-launches continuously). - Some keep an offer evergreen but will do a push with affiliates or ads at certain times (like an end-of-year sale for an always-available membership to boost intake).
Amy Porterfield, a digital course queen, does both: some courses she only launches once a year (creating mega buzz), others are on evergreen (for consistent income). She decided which based on content and audience readiness.
The honest answer might be: test one, then the other. If you’ve never launched, doing at least one live launch can be great to validate your offer and get testimonials. After that, you could attempt to evergreen-ize it. Many marketers recommend launching first (to warm your list, create assets like webinar recordings, understand objections), then rolling into evergreen. It’s easier to automate something that you’ve proven works live.
Finally, think of your customers’ experience: - Launch model can feel exciting as a buyer (community starting together, etc.). But if someone misses out, they might feel frustrated. - Evergreen means a customer can act when they’re ready, which could lead to more satisfied timing (they buy when they have time to actually use your product, for instance, rather than joining a cohort when life is too busy).
In conclusion, there’s no one-size-fits-all. If you’re just starting out or need a cash infusion, a launch could provide that momentum and proof of concept. If you have an established product and prefer smoother operations, evergreen might be ideal. You might find a combination is perfect: perhaps launch your flagship course annually, but have a lower-cost membership running evergreen for those who miss it or can’t afford the big course.
As one expert insight goes: “If you’re new, launching helps build momentum. Once you validate your offer and have audience, you can shift into an evergreen model — or a hybrid — to scale sustainably.” It really depends on you and your offer.
Don’t be afraid to experiment. The best approach could be discovered by doing: run a launch, measure results and stress levels; try an evergreen funnel, see if revenue stabilizes or dips; ask your audience what they prefer (some communities love live engagement, others want immediate access).
Whichever path you choose, focus on delivering value and a great customer outcome. A successful launch or evergreen funnel ultimately is judged by customer success and satisfaction. Whether they join in a frenzy or quietly one-by-one, we want them saying, “I’m so glad I enrolled.”