Short answer: a live launch sells your offer during a set window, with a free event everyone goes through together, so it's best for selling in bulk, launching something new and warming up a colder audience. An evergreen funnel sells every day without you launching, using a free resource, a low priced offer and an email sequence. Most coaches need both: use live launches to validate and sell big, then turn what works into evergreen so sales come in between launches.

One of the questions I get asked most is "should I launch, or should I just build a funnel?" Usually it's asked by someone who's exhausted from launching, or someone whose funnel has been quietly doing nothing for six months.

The honest answer is that they do different jobs. Once you know what each one is for, the decision gets a lot easier. Below I'll explain both, help you choose, then walk you through setting them up step by step, with a funnel map to copy, the numbers to aim for and an action plan.

This post sits between two of my ultimate guides: the ultimate guide to a 6 figure course launch and the ultimate guide to evergreen funnels. Use this one to decide, then head to the guide that fits.

What is a live launch?

A live launch has a specific start date and a specific end date. You run a free event (a masterclass, a bootcamp, a 3 to 5 day challenge) and everyone goes through it at the same time. You pitch during the event, open cart for a set period, then close it.

"Live" here means live in time, not necessarily live on camera. My own launches are now pre-recorded, but they still have a start date and a community, so they feel like a live event.

What a live launch funnel looks like

1. Opt-in page so you know who your leads are and can grow your email list.
2. Thank you page with next steps: join the group, save the Zoom link, share the graphic. Or a VIP pass. I've made some events live only with a 24 hour replay, and offered a VIP pass from $17 to $97 for lifetime access, slides and extras. It makes money straight away, which you can put back into ads.
3. Pre-event emails with reminders and value, to get people to turn up.
4. The event itself.
5. Post-event emails that send people to the sales page, into your DMs or to book a call. These days we offer all three, because people like to buy in different ways.

What is an evergreen funnel?

An evergreen funnel runs every day. Someone finds your free resource, opts in, gets offered a low priced product, goes into a nurture email sequence and is then sold your core offer. No launch window. No going live. My version of this is the Freedom Funnel.

What an evergreen funnel looks like

Here's one we ran for a course programme:

1. Start with the core offer. Everything in the funnel has to relate to it. I've seen so many funnels where the freebie has nothing to do with the main offer.
2. A useful free resource. Ours was a course launch checklist and planner. People could print it and use it every time they launched. On the opt-in, we asked one market research question: their monthly revenue. That told us which offer to point them towards later.
3. A low priced offer on the thank you page. A $27 launch kit with 400 plus templates, laid out like a mini sales page with a summary of everything included at the bottom.
4. An order bump at checkout. A $17 add-on, which took the average order to $44.
5. A one time upsell at $97 after purchase.
6. A nurture email sequence, then a sales sequence into the core offer.

Every step relates to the last: checklist, then a launch kit, then a strategy to make more from your launch, then the signature programme.

Evergreen vs live launch: the pros and cons

Live launch

• Good for: selling in bulk, launching new offers, building buzz and community, taking a cold audience to hot in a few days, and getting lots of sales in a short window.
• Watch out for: it's intense. If you're doing it live every time, it's draining, your life goes on hold during launch weeks, and sales are lumpy, with big months and quiet months.

Evergreen funnel

• Good for: consistent daily sales, freeing up your time, low priced offers that cover ad spend, and building trust gradually with people who aren't ready yet.
• Watch out for: it needs steady traffic every day, and it takes testing to get right. A funnel with no one going into it makes no sales.

Which one do you need?

Start with a live launch if:

• the offer is new or hasn't sold yet (you need proof people want it)
• you want to sell a lot of spots in one go
• much of your audience is new to you and needs time with you
• the offer is in the low to mid four figures

Build evergreen if:

• the offer has already sold and you know what makes people buy
• you're tired of feast and famine months
• you have, or can build, a steady flow of daily traffic
• you want sales coming in while you deliver, rest or launch something else

I'd always perfect something live before automating it. You learn what people respond to, which objections come up and which emails convert, and then you build the evergreen version from what actually worked.

Step 1: Check whether your offer is proven

Write down your core offer, its price and how many times it has sold. If it hasn't sold yet, you're not ready to automate it. You don't know what makes people buy, which objections come up or which emails convert. Go live first.

Time: 10 minutes. Done when: you can say "this offer has sold X times at $Y" or "this offer hasn't sold yet".

Step 2: If it's new, run it live once

Pick a free event that suits the price (a 3 to 5 day challenge for offers around $1,000 to $3,000, a masterclass to your warm audience for higher ticket), give it a start date, promote it for one to two weeks and pitch properly. Use how to plan a launch to map the dates. If you want the pitch structure done for you, The 5-Figure Webinar Formula includes my 10-step webinar framework and pitch script for $27.

Time: Four to six weeks from planning to cart close. Done when: the offer has sold at least a handful of times and you have your launch numbers.

Step 3: Write down what actually sold it

Straight after the launch, capture the things you'll reuse: the questions people asked, the objections that came up, the session where most people bought, the emails with the best opens and clicks, and the exact words buyers used to describe their problem. That's the raw material for your evergreen funnel.

Time: 1 hour. Done when: you have a one page list of objections, best emails and buyer language.

Step 4: Map the evergreen funnel underneath it

Work backwards from the core offer so every step relates to the last.

The build is where most evergreen funnels stall. If you'd rather not do the tech yourself, the Funnel Builder inside Ascendia OS builds your opt-in page, $27 offer, checkout and order bump for you, ready to go live on your own domain, and the Email Marketer writes the nurture and sales emails.

Time: 2 hours to map, then a few weeks to build. Done when: every step in the map clearly leads to the next, and you could explain why someone who buys the $27 offer would want the core offer.

Step 5: Send traffic to it every day

An evergreen funnel with no one going into it makes no sales. Decide your daily traffic sources before you build: posts with a call to action to the free resource, comment-to-get reels, stories, guest spots, collaborations and, when you're ready, small daily ads. The low priced offer is there to help cover any ad spend.

Time: 20 minutes a day. Done when: the funnel gets new opt-ins every single day and you check the numbers weekly.

Step 6: Turn your launch into an evergreen launch

This is what I do now. I take a launch that works, pre-record it, and run it again and again. Same five short sessions, same opt-in page, same emails and content, with a start date so everyone goes through it together and there's still a community and buzz. My team can run it, and I can be away with my family while it happens.

You can run it on set dates, like a launch, or switch it to fully evergreen so people start whenever they opt in. Either way you build it once and rinse and repeat, which is how you grow your business without growing your hours. The maths are good too: at a 10% conversion rate, 100 leads a month into a $1,000 offer is $10,000 a month.

Ascendia OS has a Launch Manager for exactly this part too: it plans the launch from first email to cart close and then sets it up to run again on repeat.

Time: A day to pre-record, once the live version works. Done when: the sessions, pages, emails and content are saved so your team can run the next round.

For the full launch side, read the ultimate guide to a 6 figure course launch. And if your launches used to work and don't anymore, start with why my old launch strategy stopped working.

Worked example: the numbers behind each route

Example (illustrative): a coach with a proven $1,000 programme.

• Live launch: 600 sign-ups to a 5 day challenge. At 3%, that's 18 sales, or $18,000, in one window. At 10%, it's 60 sales.
• Evergreen funnel: 500 opt-ins a month to a free planner. If 8 to 10% buy the $27 thank you page offer, that's 40 to 50 buyers. If 70 to 80% of them add an $11 bump, each order is worth $38. If 3% of opt-ins go on to buy the core offer over the following weeks, that's 15 sales and $15,000 a month, every month.
• Both: evergreen pays the bills every month, and a launch two or three times a year gives you the big spikes.

Benchmarks

Common mistakes

• Mistake: Automating an offer that has never sold. Fix: Sell it live first, then build the evergreen version from what worked.
• Mistake: A freebie unrelated to the core offer. Fix: Start with the core offer and work backwards.
• Mistake: Building a funnel with no traffic plan. Fix: Decide your daily traffic sources before you build.
• Mistake: Launching live every time until you burn out. Fix: Pre-record what works and run it as an evergreen launch.
• Mistake: Only one way to buy. Fix: Offer a sales page, DMs and calls, because people buy differently.

Your action plan

Today

• Write your core offer, price and how many times it has sold.
• Decide live first or evergreen using the lists above.

This week

• Plan your next live launch dates, or
• Map your evergreen funnel using the template.

Next 30 days

• Run the launch and capture what sold it, or
• Build the free resource and $27 offer and start sending traffic daily.
• Check your opt-in, thank you page and email numbers against the benchmarks every week.
• Read the ultimate guide to evergreen funnels for the full build, page by page.

Frequently asked questions

Is an evergreen funnel better than a live launch?

Neither is better. They do different jobs. Live launches are best for selling in bulk and launching new offers. Evergreen funnels are best for consistent daily sales once an offer is proven. Most coaches benefit from both.

Can a launch be evergreen?

Yes. Pre-record your launch event, keep the same pages and emails, and either run it on set dates or switch it to start whenever someone opts in. That's an evergreen launch.

What should I put on my thank you page?

For a launch, the next steps: join the community, save the dates and a VIP upgrade. For an evergreen funnel, a low priced offer that relates to your free resource and leads towards your core offer.

Do I need ads for an evergreen funnel?

Not necessarily, but you do need consistent daily traffic. That can come from content, collaborations and other people's audiences as well as ads. A low priced offer in the funnel can help cover ad costs if you do use them.

Should my free resource be a masterclass or a PDF?

Test both. A masterclass lets you share more of your story and build more trust, but in our ad testing the cost per opt-in was cheaper for a PDF guide or checklist. You can turn a masterclass transcript into a guide and see which performs better.

Laurie Burrows is a UK-based marketing and sales strategist who has built a business that's generated multi-seven figures in sales through social media and digital marketing. Today, Laurie helps business owners use social media, content and digital marketing to get seen, attract more clients and make more sales. She's also the founder of Ascendia OS.