If you’re a coach, it can be really helpful to understand what launching and evergreen selling are and which is best for selling your services, products and programmes.

In this post I’m going to talk through each of these options, what they look like and how you can implement them into your business.

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Launching

If you’ve spent any time in the online coaching industry, I’m sure you’ll be familiar with the launch model.

The launch model tends to be used for selling online programmes and courses that have an open and close date or start and end date / cart close etc. Launching can also be used for your main coaching package in some circumstances. The launch model really emphasises FOMO, urgency and scarcity because something is running out or stopping.

That’s where the launch model gets a lot of power from, because that in itself is a really great selling tool because it helps people to move and make decisions and get on board with something. 

A launch is basically a system of marketing, promotion and visibility based around a date of something that is disappearing.

Launches are naturally quite high energy, which can also work well for some people who enjoy working in that way.

So while launching can be very effective for sales, there are some downsides.

Launching can be a pretty full on and stressful process. If you have a lot riding on your launch, then that can make it super intense! 

There’s also some ethical questions about how we employ urgency and scarcity as a sales tactic.

Running launches around open / close dates also mean that if a new lead comes into your world and is ready to work with you, they might miss the chance if you’re not in a launch.

For something more in depth, This article talks about some mistakes you might make while launching a new product

Evergreen

Evergreen, yes you guessed it, is when something is available all of the time / all year round. 

You aren’t using urgency to sell, and therefore there needs to be some other form of motivation to have people buy.

When many online business folk talk about Evergreen selling, what they’re actually talking about is an Evergreen Funnel – basically a way of selling all year around that does use urgency and scarcity but on a more individualised basis.

Some examples in my business

My Thrive 1:1 Mentoring Programme is available Evergreen, anyone can book a call with me and work with me at any time unless I have a wait list because I’m fully booked.

For my Pinterest Magic course I have built out a short sales funnel and more typical ‘Evergreen Funnel’ which does include a time limited discount that is served to people on an individual basis. Sign up for my Pinterest Marketing Planner for Coaches and you’ll see it in action!

For Wholehearted Business, my 6 month group programme, I have in the past used a launch model where I’ve had those focused periods of promotion around an open / close cart date. I launched that about 4 times and then decided to have it available on an Evergreen basis. I’m just about to create its own funnel to add a little urgency in there.

Mixing up these approaches in your business

Overall, I tend to mix up the launch / evergreen style of selling in my business and I use urgency / scarcity in ways that feel good to me.

As I said earlier, there can be some ethical issues with falsely using these things, however my rule is to always do business in a way that you’d want it done to you. I personally have no issue with urgency / scarcity, as it helps focus me to make a decision. However I don’t believe it’s especially ethical to use that for higher ticket programmes that carry more of a financial investment. I tend to only use scarcity / urgency in a manufactured way for lower priced programmes.

Plus, all of my packages and programmes come with a two week cooling off period / refund period.

So, when it comes to how you can mix this up, I tend to think it’s about how we can use scarcity / urgency to ‘get people to move’ in ethical / feel good or simply necessary ways like when we have an actual date for a paid live training or a start date for something.

For 1:1 coaching packages, perhaps it’s using a time limited bonus to focus your marketing around. I just did a ‘mini launch’ using this method for Wholehearted Business.

Maybe it’s running a flash sale on a course or programme with a time limited discount – again, a great way to focus your marketing efforts and give people that reason to buy.

Remember – you absolutely don’t have to use any of these methods to have people move, if your sales copy and the rest of your marketing is optimised to do so, then your potential clients internal urgency will kick in when it’s the right time for them.

I rarely if ever use anything around my main 1:1 programme and I still have people contact me to work with me because they’ve reached a point of needing support and they didn’t need me to create that urgency for them.

Next steps

If you want to figure out what all of this looks like inside of your business this is the exact kind of thing I support my clients with inside my Thrive 1:1 Business Mentoring Programme. Check that out here if you’re ready to take things further.

Let me know in the comments if you use Launching, Evergreen or both in your marketing!

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