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While James is a huge fan of the evergreen marketing model, he acknowledges that launches can have a lot of benefits for some marketers. And finding a sweet spot between the two can be the makings of a great business, which is why he’s invited marketing consultant Ron Reich to share his expertise on launches.
In their chat, Ron defines launches and evergreen marketing.
He discusses three different levels of the launch model.
And he and James talk about the ways a business owner can inject launches into an otherwise evergreen marketing scheme.
Table of contents
1. Launches and evergreen marketing defined
2. Getting the best of two worlds
3. Three levels of launches
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a. A launches
b. B launches
c. C launches
4. Where knowing yourself is key
5. Easy ways of approaching the launch model
6. One client for whom it worked
7. Not a secret, but almost a legit hack
8. Personal connection makes a difference
9. A caveat
Launches and evergreen marketing defined
For today’s topic, Ron uses the word “launch”, as it’s best understood in the realms of internet marketing. If the word has negative connotations for you, however, you can easily substitute “campaign” or “promotion”.
What a campaign/launch/promotion is, says Ron, is a marketing event that happens in real time, with a beginning, middle and an end. That’s really all a launch is.
So if you promote a webinar happening on Thursday, where you have a special offer running till Sunday, that’s a launch or a campaign.
Evergreen marketing or evergreen campaigns, on the other hand, would be your consistent marketing mix, that consistently brings you leads, customers, and revenue. An example would be an ongoing social media campaign, or a podcast.
Getting the best of two worlds
Ron is all about optimizing. So in his opinion, to maximize your revenue potential, you really want to have an evergreen engine and marketing launches working at the same time.
That said, if you’re to choose between focusing on evergreen or focusing just on launches, you’re definitely better to just focus on evergreen, absolutely 100 percent. Focusing just on launches can put you on fragile ground, running the risk of a failed campaign, whereas a business can run quite adequately on an evergreen marketing strategy.
The beauty of combining the two is, someone like James, who runs a largely evergreen machine, can get a spike in database or sales with the occasional launch or promotion. And it’s a much less wear-and-tear existence than that of businesses that rely solely on launches.
Three levels of launches
A launch campaign can be thought of as belonging to one of three levels:
A launches – These are the big affairs that might take two to three weeks on a marketing calendar. They last all day, typically have a lot of promotions, and are really about making a big scene.
B launches – The B launch or B-level campaign might be a week-long webinar campaign, that starts on Thursday, you start promoting it two or three days before that, and the deadline of the special offer might be on Sunday. Or it might be in the form of a three-day challenge, with a period where you’re taking sales.
C launches – Then there are the C-level promotions, which could be a one-day sale, or a weekend affair, similar to Black Friday. The four-day cash machine is a classic C promotion.
Ron’s rule of thumb when mapping out clients’ marketing campaigns is two to three bigger promotions per year, that may or may not involve partners. Then in between you might have a B-type promotion or two C promotions.
That would be Ron’s starting mix, typically, for maximizing revenue and visibility. But it would also depend on the marketer’s energy and style of doing things.
Where knowing yourself is key
Ron knows his typical starting recommendation wouldn’t work for James. He, on the other hand, likes then energy of doing wide marketing promotion.
It’s key, isn’t it, says James, knowing yourself? His friend Peter Shaw talks about it.
If you like the adrenaline and the excitement of the launch, and you can put the energy into it, dial more of that into your business. If you like a drama-free, stress-free life, and you just want consistent income coming in and not too much excitement, then evergreen works well.
A couple of affiliate promotions, maybe a live event a year on top of his evergreen efforts – that’s worked well for James.
You can adjust the split however you want, he says. It could be 50:50, 80:20. Either way, one of the big takeaways is knowing which type of business owner you are and how much launch you can tolerate.
Easy ways of approaching the launch model
One of the best effective hourly rates James has gotten for marketing efforts was doing live marketing promotion campaigns. And all it came down to, essentially, was sending some emails.
Anyone listening who has a successful business, say, $5,000, $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 a month in revenue, already has a lot of assets in place. So they can actually promote affiliate programs like James does.
If you’re just doing evergreen on a regular basis, it doesn’t take a lot of time and energy to spend a couple of hours setting up emails. And it could be seasonal – a Black Friday offer or a Christmas special, a start-of-the-year kickstarter, or an Easter thing.
And there’s templates for those kinds of things, says Ron. So successful promotional campaigns needn’t involve the stress of a big mega launch.
If you’re already successful with evergreen, says Ron, you might also consider a simple webinar, like a five to seven-day webinar promotion. It’s a little more work, but a bit more bang for your buck.
Says James, if you can give people the inducement of participating in something that’s fun and event-based, they’re more likely to get excited and focus on it. And you can ask them to do something right then and there rather than hoping they’re just going to read your emails.
One client for whom it worked
If you have a successful business, says Ron, doing at least $100,000 a year in revenue with just evergreen activities, he can positively guarantee that if you add some live marketing promotions and special offers once a month, even every other month, your revenue will improve.
He had one client who had just an evergreen marketing funnel, that was working quite well. She was selling her $500 product on a regular basis, and getting leads as well.
When she added a monthly promotion to her marketing, her profits went up by 25 or 30 percent. So if you’re getting leads regularly and not doing any live marketing, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table.
Not a secret, but almost a legit hack
What else has Ron seen that is quite clever?
One of the best strategies he’s encountered, says Ron, is actually basic segmenting. And – it’s almost a legitimate hack – it’s essentially doing more special offers to your existing customers, especially those Dan Kennedy calls your hyper-responsive customers.
Two things are sure: One, your existing customers are 10 times more excited to hear from you about whatever you’re doing, than someone who’s just on your email list. Two, the more of a hyper-responsive customer they are, the more they’re going to be excited about hearing from you.
Your best customers actually want to get more offers from you, and they will have a legitimate, insatiable desire to buy your stuff.
Ron has his best customers on a VIP list that gets a special email just for them. And during bigger promotions, these same customers get emails offering them a special discount or bonus that the public doesn’t get.
Personal connection makes a difference
Another bit of jam, says Ron, is something that just works really well. Whether in your evergreen marketing machine, or as part of a launch or a bigger promotion, it still is true that personal connection makes a huge difference. And in 2022, it is actually the biggest conversion enhancer Ron has seen.
So take people who engage with you on social media – if you’re sending them regular DM type messages, that’s going to make them a lot more warmer and more inclined to invest in your services. And if you do this during a launch, it’s amplified even more.
A caveat
Now Ron wants to note, although the discussion has been leaning towards the launch model, one must beware of being launch-heavy in their marketing.
You need to be building an evergreen engine, and that will consist of your main marketing channels, your main media channels. It’s about being consistent with your regular content mix, plus, essentially, regular calls to action and regular invitations to whatever you’re selling, whether that’s being a call with you or to invest in your product or service.
And James has his own closing tip. If you have a launch for, say, a $1,000 or $2,000 course, or a weekend mastermind or retreat, give people access to your recurring membership – give them three months access to it or the like, and then let them stay on after that to pay.
The big takeaway is, when you think you’re fulfilling on the service, that’s actually the front door to the next offer. So if you’re launch-heavy, think about how you can build a recurring system from the back of your front ends.
To close out, Ron has a special invitation. He has a course called Launch Engine Intensive, selling typically for $1000 or $500. As a special offer, if anyone’s listening to this, find Ron on Facebook. Friend him, send him a message, and tell him that you listened to James’s podcast and that you’d like access to the course. He’ll get you free access to his $500 launch course, just for being a friend of James.
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