Whether you are a coach, course creator, or personal transformation expert, you know you have a super valuable offer to share. And you know launching it strategically will help you get it to the right people. You’ve scoured Google, listened to marketing and launch experts, and perhaps bought courses. But you still don’t know the best launch strategy for your offer. 

Allow us to help.  

Launch strategies generally fall into two main categories.  And today, we’ll be doing a deep dive into both – so you have a better idea of what launch strategy to use and when.

But before that, let’s take a look at the 3 factors you should consider when determining what launch strategy to use.

Marketing effort: How much time and resources are you willing to put into your launch? What’s your budget? How many hours are you willing to spend on it? Are you going to work on it solo or hire a team/team members? 

Potential income: What kind of income do you estimate from your launch? Will that income cover your launch expenses through direct or indirect sales and promotions?  Are you willing to invest heavily in your launch strategy even if the income you earn might be low? What are the risks and rewards?

Learner experience: What kind of offer do you have? A self-study course? Timely workshop? A membership? How is your audience going to interact with your offer? The launch strategy will vary based on how hands-on or hands-off your offer is.

Your deep dive into the two kinds of launch strategies 🔽

THE EVERGREEN LAUNCH STRATEGY

What is it

In the simplest terms, an evergreen launch strategy – as its name suggests – is a launch without a specific start or end date. It runs all year around (unless you take it off the market). Ideally, all you have to do is launch your offer once and then set everything up to run in the background. If launched well, that offer has the potential to bring revenue consistently.

For example, our 10 Components of a Successful Heart-Centered Launch course is an evergreen product. We launched it once when it was created, and since then, it has been live for anyone who wants a non-sleazy, stress-free way to launch their offer themselves. 

And because we believe in our offer so much, we pitch it in relevant blogs (like this one!), we have an email sequence leading to it from our lead magnet, and we occasionally promote it on social media. Our website SEO also leads people to it. If we wanted to, we could also run FaceBook ads. People can get it anytime and start working on their launches. There’s no time constraint!

Pros of an evergreen launch strategy

• It can make money for you while you focus on other things.
• After a few well-placed tweaks, it can act as a source of passive income for you.
• You can automate it so it’s almost a hands-off approach after the initial launch.
• It’s easy to scale an evergreen launch by upselling, down selling, or cross-selling your other offers once people opt for your evergreen product. And even that can be automated!
• You only need to do all your planning and launch content creation once and then reuse the entire strategy when you have a new group of leads. Imagine the time saved!
• Your promotional efforts are spread over a year or more. 

Cons of an evergreen launch strategy

• Since you don’t have a definite start or end date, it might be difficult to build up a sense of anticipation or urgency to buy for your audience. Making it a little more difficult to sell.
• Limited chances to interact with your customers one on one and receive feedback to improve the launch and the offer if needed.
• Requires ongoing promotion to gather a new set of leads.
• Learners depend on their own motivation to buy/make use of the offer. Making it less attractive to people who need to be guided/driven.

Here’s what an evergreen launch strategy looks like in action.

Evergreen launch strategy is great when:

• There is an ongoing demand for your offer.
• You have the time/resources to invest in ongoing marketing efforts. 
• Consistent revenue generation is your goal.
• Your ideal audience is well-defined and likes to work at their own pace.
• You have an automation and a sales funnel in place to capture, nurture and sell to leads.

However, you can’t use it if:

• Your offer is seasonal or time-sensitive. 
• You have a limited inventory. e.g. A coaching cohort with limited spots.
• Your offer requires a high-touch, personalized sales approach that can’t be easily automated.
• Your ideal audience THRIVES on urgency and scarcity.

The Open/Close Launch Strategy

What is it

A more traditional launch strategy, the open/close strategy only allows people to buy your offer at specific times of the year. It has a solid start date(open cart) and an end date(close cart). It depends on a prelaunch strategy to build anticipation, and early bird bonuses to sweeten the pot. Since people only have a short window to buy, it creates urgency and scarcity, making people more inclined to get it.

A good example of this is Amy Porterfield’s digital course academy. 

We also recently created an open/close launch strategy for a writing coach, which brought her $25,000k+ in sales.

Here’s what we did. 

The Pre Launch Phase: Together, we created a lead magnet specific to her open/close launch and promoted it on emails, social media, and her website. We nurtured her list and built up anticipation for the course along with a waitlist page. She also collaborated with others in her industry and set up affiliate marketing to generate more buzz. The waitlist page was also promoted. We offered a ‘thank you for being on the waitlist’ discount for people on the waitlist.

The Launch Window: During the launch window, we crafted five highly targeted launch emails, social media posts, and videos encouraging her ideal audience to invest in her offer. We opened the doors for people to sign up for the program and set up a countdown timer so people knew the time they had left to purchase the offer. We drove traffic to the offer sales page.

Post Launch Analysis: Once the buying window was closed, we measured the results of the launch to understand what worked and what didn’t. This will help us tweak the strategy for the next time we open cart for this offer.

Pros of an open/close launch strategy

• Automatic scarcity and urgency are created, making it easier to sell during the launch window. 
• Creates a feeling of exclusivity, as customers know that the product or service is only available for a limited time.
• You can focus your marketing efforts and resources on a specific timeframe.
• It’s easier to generate a buzz about an exclusive limited-time event.
• You can gather immediate feedback from customers during the launch period to tweak your offer/strategy for the next time.
• It doesn’t require consistent marketing efforts beyond the offer end date.
• You can re-use it (with tweaks) when launching the offer again later down the line.
• If done right, you can make a lot of money in a very short span of time.

Cons of an open/close launch strategy

• It requires more work upfront as you have to plan all your launch and prelaunch content in advance.
• You need a more hands-on approach as you create anticipation for your offer and during the sales window.
• The limited availability of the product or service during the launch window may result in missed revenue opportunities as people might not have the funds to invest in your offer at the moment.
• Your revenue drops significantly once the sales window closes as the sales from the limited-time offer stop.
• If you don’t have any other revenue source, this can lead to fluctuating revenue streams.

The open/close strategy is great when:

• Your ideal audience THRIVES on urgency and scarcity.
• You prefer concentrated effort on promotion for a short window of time.
• You are comfortable with and have the resources for planning and creating content upfront.
• You have a highly anticipated offer that can generate excitement and demand.

Don’t use it if:

• You have a self-paced or evergreen offer.
• Your offer has a consistent yearly demand.
• Your ideal audience feels pressured by scarcity and urgency.
• You don’t like the feast/famine cycle.
• Your offer can’t generate enough buzz. 

Here’s a handy comparison table for you, keeping the 3 factors discussed above at the forefront. Keep your business goals and ideal audience in mind before determining which one is right for you.

	Evergreen Launch Strategy	Open/Close Launch Strategy
Marketing Effort	No urgency or scarcity created, making it tough to market.	Automatic scarcity and urgency are created.
	A person can buy anytime.	Has a short window to buy.
	Requires ongoing promotion but no prelaunch marketing.	Requires pre-launch marketing but no promotion once the sales window is closed.
	Is almost hands-off after the initial launch	Requires a hands-on approach during the launch window
	Typically used for more self paced courses	Typically used for more high touch offers
	Works well once you know your open/close efforts are successful	Can be inconsistent and unpredictable–at least the first time
Learner Experience	Learners depend on their own motivation to finish	Often used for more hands-on offers – higher success rate for learners
Potential Income	Creates more passive income	No passive income but can bring in a large amount of money in a short period of time

Our thoughts…

Both strategies have their advantages and disadvantages. Lori always tells our clients, “Try the open/close launch strategy first, perfect it, then turn it into an evergreen model.”

Need a launch team to help you strategize, plan, and execute your next evergreen or open/close launch?  We offer launch and funnel-building packages to fit every budget. Submit and application for our launch services.