Tools for Building an Evergreen Sales Funnel
A sales funnel is a method of guiding a potential customer (or "lead") toward a purchase decision from the point when they are initially unfamiliar with you and your product to the point where they are familiar with you and your product and realize they need it. An evergreen sales funnel is a fully automated sales process that accepts new customers at any time. In most cases, a free lead magnet is used to entice potential customers to the top of a sales funnel.
Typically, once a new subscriber has been welcomed and nurtured, an offer will be made, such as a limited-time discount on a digital product. Since this special offer is tailored to each new member, the sales funnel can be considered "evergreen" and operate year-round. Anyone that subscribes to your free lead magnet will have the same length of time to make their purchase at the sale price. When the countdown clock reaches zero, the offer ends and they are required to pay full price.
Evergreen Sales Funnel Tools
For your evergreen funnel to be effective, you'll need items like:
- A lead magnet
- An email marketing provider***
- A digital product such as an online course, an ebook, or printables
- Individualized deadline countdown timer
- Two different versions of sales pages for your offer: one with regular prices, and one with special discounts
***NOTE: Not all email service providers (ESP) are equipped to manage evergreen sales funnels. Check this list of compatible ESPs
Components of an Evergreen Email Sequence
Three emails components should make up a great evergreen email campaign:
The Initiating Stage
The first sequence in an email campaign is the "initiating" stage. This is how you attract new subscribers and start them out in your email marketing campaign. Typically, this is accomplished through an opt-in form on your website.
Your Offer
This section should describe the value you can bring to your subscribers in the next email in the sequence. Specifically, you should explain why you're emailing them and what's in it for them.
Final Step
After subscribers respond to the call to action on your sales page, what happens next? A great idea at this point is to add them to another evergreen or automated email sequence, starting the process of the next funnel.
How to Build an Evergreen Sales Funnel
Here are some insightful tips for building an evergreen funnel:
Make a Lead Magnet or Opt-In Offer
You need a lead magnet if you want customers to enter the top of your sales funnel. A lead magnet is typically a free opt-in offer aimed to entice your ideal consumer for a paid product. If your product offering is an ebook on baby-led weaning, for instance, a baby-led weaning basics checklist could serve as your lead magnet.
Create Opt-In Forms for Your Lead Magnet
The next step is to design opt-in forms for your lead magnet and configure everything so that new subscribers immediately receive the lead magnet after entering their information into the form.
Create an Evergreen Sales Sequence
There are several ways to go about this, but one of the most effective is, to begin with, a short welcome/nurture sequence, in which you formally introduce yourself to the new subscriber, provide them with some information to help them use a freebie, and provide some additional value.
The next step after the welcome sequence is the sales sequence, in which you inform the new subscriber about your product and how it may help them. In some or all of these promotional messages, you would also inform your new subscriber of the sale's discount and expiration date and showcase your countdown timer. Additionally, you would link to the discounted version of the sales page from each of your sales emails.
Integrate Everything into an Automation System
At this point, you should have everything you need to put together an automated evergreen offer. The automation process should begin with the creation of an opt-in form or landing page, and then new subscribers should be sent a welcome sequence, followed by an evergreen sales sequence, and then a post-deadline survey. Anyone who purchases the course while walking through the sales system should be immediately removed from both the sales sequence and the post-sales-sequence survey.
Create an Individualized Deadline Countdown Timer
The first thing you should do is sign up for a personal deadline countdown timer, like Deadline Funnel, if you haven't already. The next step is to name a new campaign in Deadline Funnel. Then you choose a "blueprint," which acts as a starting point similar to a template. A good starting point is the "Email Sequence + Special Offer" template.
Integrate the Timer with the Email Campaign
What's more, you should link it to your email provider and sales website. After that, you'll be requested to insert the countdown timer code into your emails and the sale page and to choose where you want the sale page to redirect to once the countdown has ended (it should be the full-price sales page).
Test the Funnel before Going Live
Once you've finished the preceding steps, it's time to launch your evergreen sales funnel. First, check that your opt-in form is linked to a functional sales sequence and visible automation. Second, check that Deadline Funnel is configured properly.
Finally, you should place the opt-in forms on your site so that visitors may join your mailing list and receive your free lead magnet at the top of your sales funnel. To make sure everything is in working order, you should sign up for your lead magnet before putting opt-in forms all over your website and promoting it to your email subscribers.
An Evergreen Email Sequence: Using a 5-email Sequence
The standard email sequence has five messages:
Welcome Email
The first impression you make is with your welcome email. In other words, it determines whether or not your audience will continue to engage with your content. In light of this, you should make the most of your welcome email. You should begin by explaining who you are and what your brand stands for. You should emphasize your worth to them.
Consumer Issues
In this email, you will discuss the issues that your target audience is facing. Your email need not address every problem. Provide a brief remedy, focusing on one or two specific challenges.
Examining Additional Consumer Issues
Here, you'll investigate the issues your subscribers have in great detail. The next step in your evergreen email is to assure them that you understand their plight and offer a solution.
Offering Solution Email
Here is your chance to suggest realistic solutions to the issues raised in Email 3. In addition, demonstrate the success of your solution through the use of testimonials.
Use FOMO and a Call-To-Action
You should issue your call to action here. Making people believe that your product is in short supply will increase the number of orders you receive.
How to Maximize Your Evergreen Sales Funnels
Here are some great tips to help maximize your evergreen funnels:
Testing: These are the several funnel assets you ought to take into account whenever you're testing: Total Ads, Ads' Headlines, ads images, ads' color, CTAs, email timings, CTA placements, email copy, tone, and subject line. You can also do a variable test or A/B test.
If you're creating a brand-new landing page, for instance, you could simply modify the copy for the header. Once you've determined which version performs better, you can test it once more by changing only the "register now" button's color.
Repurposing: One piece of evergreen content can be reworked into several different shapes and sizes before being disseminated via various online channels and monitored for audience response. It can be reworked into visually engaging forms or repackaged in ways that give off a completely new vibe. For instance, podcasts can be created from blogs, and stories can be created from reviews.
Utilize Social Media to Promote Your Lead Magnet: More people entering your evergreen sales funnel will result in more sales for you. Promoting your lead magnet on social media is a great approach to attracting more prospects to the top of your sales funnel.
Social Media Paid Ads: One of the quickest ways to attract people to notice and buy your product is to use paid advertising. The challenge is that it requires a great deal of expertise to align your marketing with an evergreen funnel, but if you succeed, the rewards are incredible.
Maximize Your Search Engine Optimization: SEO or search engine optimization is the process of improving a website's visibility in search engines like Google. This results in increased visits to the site. Increasing organic search traffic to your website is another effective method of filling the top of your evergreen sales funnel. You'll get more leads if you increase traffic to your website. The higher your lead magnet's subscription base, the higher your conversion rate and revenue.
Tools for Building an Evergreen Email Campaign
Here are some of the best platforms you can use to build an evergreen email campaign.
- Deadline Funnel makes it easy for you to set up your evergreen email funnel sequence
- ClickFunnels, Unbounce and LeadPages are some of the top landing page builders
- ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, and ConvertKit are a few popular ESPs
- Finally, you can set up your checkout pages and order forms with Samcart or Voma
Summing Up
An evergreen email sequence may be your best bet if you want to build an email marketing campaign that continues to generate sales for your company even as your subscriber list expands and gets updated. Surprisingly, it may take just a few hours to set up the evergreen funnels for your sales page. We hope this post has given you a better understanding of how evergreen funnels work, and gives you just one or two ideas to implement as you look for ways to increase sales in your digital marketing.