You may have already created a course but want your audience to purchase your online courses throughout the year.
Or you are looking for a passive income from your online course setup.
If you want to make more out of your e-learning courses, then creating evergreen courses is a great way to turn your online teaching business into a new source of income.
In this guide, we explain everything you need to know about evergreen courses and how to create them.
What Are Evergreen Courses?
An evergreen course is a course that your learners can buy all year round. There is no open and close enrollment time.
Unlike with traditional courses, an evergreen course doesn’t have a timed closing date.
Instead, learners can buy the course at any time of the day, month and year.
This means that you can promote your course throughout the year without considering any closing dates.
Once you have your evergreen course launch, the course material will be available indefinitely.
This being said, there are also course instructors who remove their courses after some time but there is no set finish date from the start.
You can create just a single evergreen course or multiple courses that can be purchased all round the year.
While not all online courses are suitable as an successful evergreen course, there are a few typical course categories that work very well, including photography, video production, fitness and wellbeing, trading and personal development.
Pros Of Evergreen Courses
One of the biggest advantages with an evergreen course is that students can find it online whenever they like, and they can buy the course at any time.
There is no need to sign up for a waiting list or note down a launch date. This makes it easier for anyone led by an impulse buy.
As a course creator and instructor, evergreen content means that you just create the course once and launch it only once.
The content of the course will stay valid for a long time and you don’t need to update it too often.
While you only have one official launch date for an evergreen course, you can still manage to form a next launch strategy for the course from time to time to remind your audience about the benefits of your course.
If you already have a larger audience, then you can generate a consistent passive income stream with evergreen course content.
Cons Of Evergreen Courses
While evergreen online courses have a lot of advantages, there are also a few drawbacks.
In order to create evergreen courses, you need to put automated promotions, mentions and email notifications into place.
This ensures that your audience is aware of your online course and you can also reach new audiences by selling courses on different platforms.
This being said, automated and paid marketing does require some investment in time and money.
Another disadvantage of evergreen courses is that there is no urgency for students to buy the online course because you don’t have an official closing date.
This means that you will have to remind your existing students and potential customers consistently that this course is available.
How To Build An Evergreen Online Course?
If you want to turn your courses into evergreen courses, then you will need to create an automatic perpetual launch sequence.
This means that your students are regularly reminded of your evergreen courses in your marketing campaigns.
From paid advertising on Google to social media campaigns, evergreen courses require regular and consistent promotion.
While this might not sound easy, there are only a few steps to create an evergreen course online.
Create Your Course
If you don’t have an evergreen course that contains information and content that could be valid for at least a year, then it’s a good idea to create a course with this in mind.
You can also check some competitors and see what type of evergreen content they write about.
When you create an evergreen online course, you use a lot of the same steps as you would with creating a normal course.
Choose your course niche, validate your course idea and then start to create a course outline.
Pick a course hosting platform and then set up your course website. Make sure that you test everything before you launch it.
It’s worth mentioning here that evergreen doesn’t work for every type of online course.
For example, if your course requires regular communication with students or too much interaction, then launching an evergreen course doesn’t work.
You will need to spend some time upfront to design the course to be very effective without too much communication.
Once you have your course ready, it’s time to look at the marketing because that’s where the real difference lies between traditional online courses and evergreen courses.
An evergreen course requires a range of different marketing strategies.
You will need to create a sales funnel that directs your audience to the course sign-up page and converts them into a new learner.
Automate Email Launches
If you already have an online teaching business model with a newsletter email list, then this is a great way to promote your evergreen course.
Just segment people on your list who have and haven’t received a launch message for your evergreen content.
After a while, you will be able to launch your course to new members every few weeks or months.
Email sequencing allows you to automate almost everything which means you don’t have to write a draft email every day.
But it’s not just about sending regular emails. People’s inboxes are full of emails and you will have to make sure that yours stands out.
First, ensure that your readers receive informative content that makes them want to click on the links in the email.
Try not to use any sales language, but instead talk about positive reviews and the practical benefits of your evergreen course.
This takes a little bit of trial and error but it’s essential for the success of your evergreen online course.
For the automation sequences, you can use a number of different email tools, such as Mailchimp.
Some will also integrate with your online course platform which makes it even easier to create automated emails to your students.
Write An Evergreen Blog Post
The more content you create around your online courses, the more likely someone will find your website and the associated evergreen courses.
Create a few blog posts that introduce your evergreen material and engage potential learners with the subject.
You need to show your expertise in this type of blog post.
Whatever you write about, it should be closely related to your evergreen course and all the content should be valid no matter when your audience reads it.
Make sure that you also check for any keywords that you can include in the blog.
When potential customers are looking for your course type, then they will be using certain search terms that are relevant for your course.
Another important element that you should include on your blog post is a call to action. This will remind people that your course is available to buy.
If you don’t have your own website, then you can also post blog posts on forums, such as Quora.
Create Social Media Ads
One of the most popular ways to promote evergreen courses is social media advertising, such as Facebook ads.
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have a huge following, so you can make use of this opportunity by marketing your evergreen course.
There are different campaign types that you can set up, including traffic campaigns and lead generation campaigns.
These ads allow you to fully target your campaign, so you can reach the audience that would buy your evergreen course.
It’s also a good idea to install Facebook pixel on your course landing page and your course website.
This allows Facebook to display ads to people who have previously shown some interest in your evergreen course products.
We recommend that you create video ads for your campaigns instead of using standard stock images. Videos are much more engaging than a simple image.
Before you start your paid advertising campaign on social media, make sure that you test everything.
Sometimes even small tweaks like a new headline or a certain keyword can make a big difference.
You can also run A/B tests which allow you to compare different versions of your social posts. You can then see which one is more effective.
Automate Social Media Posts
This is a useful way to get all your social media posts sent out without having to schedule them individually.
Tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer allow you to write and create your Facebook posts, Tweets and other social posts, and then send them out at a specified time.
This means that you can keep track of all the social media posts in one place and you can even use social media scheduling for all your posts, not just your evergreen courses.
Promote Your Evergreen Course With Google Ads
Whenever people search for anything, they typically use a search engine like Google. The same applies to your learners and potential students.
With Google advertisement, you can try to push up your evergreen course to the top of the landing page where most people click.
Google Ads allows you to promote your online evergreen course by targeting certain keywords. You can also target users with specific interests or demographics.
Google advertising can be a big task and as you will be investing a good amount of money, you need to make sure that it’s done right.
You can also check with the agency or Google Ad professionals to get you started with your Google Ads campaign.
Host Webinars
When it comes to creating evergreen courses, you need to show off your expertise in the field.
Hosting webinars and creating podcasts is an excellent way to do this.
You can choose to put out a webinar every month or just every quarter. It’s important however that you put something out regularly.
Similar to the blog posts, you can cover a large variety of topics which are related to your evergreen course.
Make sure that you mix the webinar content up well, so it doesn’t get boring for your audience after a while.
You could talk about different topics, have a Q&A session or even give away an exclusive coupon.
But you don’t need to host a live webinar each time. Pre-recorded webinars are quicker to set up and you can manage them easier.
Partner With Other Course Creators
Once you have your evergreen course campaigns going successfully, you may want to consider working with another online course creator.
Joint ventures are very common, and it’s a great concept to extend your audience.
Just look for a few online course creators who offer similar courses to yours and get in contact with them. There is no specific structure or outline to a partnership.
It’s essentially a business partnership where revenue from any promotions are split 50-50.
There are also a few other options that you can explore, such as renting a list from another course creator.
If you found that your partnership with a course creator works really well, then you can also set up some other joint ventures, such as a Facebook Live or a webinar.
This will be beneficial for both of you, and you can drive more sales.
How Much Can You Make Selling Evergreen Courses?
This can vary widely depending on different factors, such as the topic of your online course, your audience, your level of expertise and the price of your online course.
One of the biggest reasons why some online course creators don’t earn enough money is because they charge too little or too much when they sell online.
You will need to find the right balance for your successful evergreen online course topic.
As a rule of thumb, high-quality courses which contain more detailed information also have a higher price.
Final Thoughts
Evergreen course creation isn’t very difficult but it takes time and a slightly different approach to your standard courses.
Your focus for evergreen courses should be on promoting and marketing your online course.
