I get asked all the time how I run an online business from home without working more than 20 hours each week and the answer I always give is using an evergreen sales funnel.

I still do launches and create new digital products all the time, but the majority of my income is from evergreen sales funnels that I have built throughout the years and continue to make daily sales from today. Did someone say passive income?!?

I’m sure you hear online entrepreneurs talk about building out funnels and earning money on autopilot but when you break it down it is just having an automated system in place to make sales for your business.

I’m going to walk you through step-by-step how I set up an evergreen sales funnel, why your business needs one and how you can build a funnel to make consistent daily sales of your digital products.

If you are a blogger or have an online course business you will LOVE having an evergreen sales system in place.

Evergreen Sales Funnel Basics

What is an Evergreen Sales Funnel?

Simply, an evergreen sales funnel is just an automated system that sells your product for you in the background of your business. This is why everyone sales “make sales when you sleep” or “sales on autopilot” because once you build out this funnel it can make sales on a daily basis without you actually working or actively selling.

This means someone new can land on your website or social accounts and opt-in for one of your lead magnets or email list and then they are added to a specific sequence or email funnel that will nurture them and promote your digital product or online course.

It is a VERY strategic process that takes someone who is brand new to your business and leads them down this cohesive content journey so they are warmed up to make a purchase.

The automated system does all the heavy lifting for you. Once you have put in the time to build out each piece of your evergreen sales funnel, your focus shifts to getting the right people into your funnel.

This is more of a maintenance task so you are still making sales from your funnel, but now your time and attention are on optimizing the funnel so that you can increase your conversion rates.

This means less time on the front-end of your business being “live” and more time in the background updating and tweaking things to improve the effectiveness of your funnel.

There is a lot of tracking and optimizing for an evergreen sales funnel to find the sweet spot of what works the best for your audience.

It sounds fancy and complicated when you say evergreen sales funnel but honestly, they are super easy to create.

I have taken it a step further and created a sales notification to pop up on my watch to notify me when someone joins one of my programs through my sales funnels.

This is literally one of my FAVORITE things.

You know when you're having a bad day or want to give up because it feels like nothing is working?

Having this sales notification pop-up on my watch gives me the reassurance I need to stick with the strategies I have been using instead of letting all of those self-sabotaging thoughts infiltrate my business.

It's not just about saying "I made money while sleeping!" or, "I made money grocery shopping!"

Yes, it is a good feeling that I can make sales when I am not sitting at my desk working, but for me, it's more about the confidence it gives me that I have been able to build an online business and get to this point in my journey.

Why you need an Evergreen Sales Funnel

When my 4th son was born, he was immediately taken down to the NICU for an extended stay.

This was not something we had planned for and it threw us for a major loop. Not only was it extremely hard, but suddenly everything else in our lives were put on hold. here

I was balancing my own emotions from being discharged without my baby, *trying* to keep the lives of my other 3 boys on track, going to and from the hospital constantly and just overall adjusting to this new schedule.

I shouldn't say schedule though, because there definitely wasn’t any kind of schedule happening.

Not to mention, I had to accept that I had little to no time at all to actually sit down and work.

When I finally was able to bring him home (best day ever!) and start working on my business again, I was surprised to see that I still made sales the entire time 😱

The best thing about an evergreen sales funnel is the fact that they work every single day. You are able to solve a problem for your audience AND grow your business.

As I mentioned above, you have to put in the work in the beginning, but then you can make sales without live launching or constant promotions.

Not only is this good for your business, but it also helps your ideal customers because it gives them the opportunity to solve the problem they are experiencing without having to wait for you to launch the product or host some kind of promotion.

I don't know about you, but when I am searching online for a problem I have and I come across a solution, I don't want to wait. I want to purchase what I need to solve that problem immediately.

When you set up an evergreen funnel and you start making sales of your products, it opens up a whole new world for your business.

✨Predictable income without all the pressure✨

🎉“You’ve made a sale!” 🎉

Getting that first evergreen sale notification is THE best.

Honestly, it is a weird feeling that it totally comes in automatically without you launching for it, hustling, or actively selling to get it.

When you get that very first evergreen funnel sale that pops up in your email… 🎉💃

Somehow, that single sale means more than doing a big launch or hitting your yearly goal, because it means what you are doing actually WORKS.

It works for YOU (not just those people on Instagram that everything seems to just work out for).

It means you are building a sustainable SYSTEM - not just another promotion.

It’s the beginning of a whole new world.

The possibilities open along with your confidence, because you feel like “oh my gosh, I can do this!”

When that first sale comes in while you’re on a trip, sleeping, or working on your next big idea... It all becomes clear.

You’re on the right track.

How to create an evergreen sales funnel to sell your digital product on autopilot

I sell both online courses and a mixture of different types of digital products. Amongst all of those, I have 5 evergreen sales funnels that are working to bring in daily sales for my online business.

After you have launched a digital product you are ready to build out an evergreen sales funnel.

Keep in mind I said AFTER.

You want to make sure that the product or online course was validated before you create an entire funnel for it.

Example:

You have an idea for a solution for your audience
Outline the offer and what the transformation will be
You pre-sell the offer to your audience
Make sales 💰
Create and deliver the product to everyone who purchased
Build out your evergreen sales funnel

This is the simple process that you can follow to create your own evergreen sales funnel.

Parts of an Evergreen Sales Funnel

Below are the key elements of a sales funnel:

A free lead magnet
Limited time offer that is related to your lead magnet
Email sequence that nurtures your new leads
Sales page
Traffic source to fuel your evergreen funnel

🔥 Lead magnet

Otherwise known as a freebie. This is the start of your funnel. It is something that you give away in exchange for your ideal customer’s email address. It can be a checklist, PDF, video, roadmap, training, etc.

It is how you will attract your ideal customer to you while solving a problem they are experiencing.

But, you need to be strategic with it so that it directly relates to your paid offer. You do NOT want to just pick some random freebie to try to get everyone on your email list. The topic needs to relate to your digital offer.

Like every other part of your funnel, it is a strategic process.

Make it enticing and simple to consume so that your ideal customer (soon to be a buyer) can download it and get a quick win. You want it to be something that they can actually use.

Take a minute to think about all the lead magnets that you have opted-in for… which ones were the most useful? Which provided the most value?

Personally, I love having a free training or evergreen webinar as my freebie. Someone who is willing to put in the time to learn from my training is the type of person I want on my email list. These people are willing to invest their time and energy and are ready to take action.

Plus, it gives me the opportunity to provide a TON of value.

This is different from a live webinar. You need to be very transparent with your audience that it is NOT live. It is pre-recorded.

You want to make sure that your landing pages are optimized with the right messaging for your ideal audience to entice them to sign up for your freebie. You can use (affiliate link —>) LeadPages, Kartra, your website or another landing page builder.

Once someone signs up through your form and clicks for the freebie they can be sent to a regular thank you page or a limited time offer.

🔥 Limited time offer

Once your audience opts in for your freebie, they are immediately given the opportunity to purchase a one-time offer at a special price.

This means they are basically sent directly to a sales page with a timer for urgency. I personally use Deadline Funnel and Kartra, but you can use any countdown timer you prefer.

They are given a certain time period to purchase the limited-time offer until the timer expires.

Now, don’t get all crazy on me.

I know a lot of people think it is ‘salesy’ to immediately send someone completely new to you to a sales page, BUT hear me out.

It gives the people who are ready to solve their problems an immediate resource to do so.

It gives people who need time to warm up to get a lot of value from my free training while also seeing that there is an option to purchase something that will help them. It doesn’t mean that they have to buy it, but the choice is theirs to make.

This limited-time offer normally has a price discount or some other bonuses included.

Here is an example of one of the funnels I have set up that follows the same steps:

Once someone has opted in for this particular lead magnet they are given the opportunity to enroll in a mini-course I have to take it a step further.

At the time of writing this, I have a 7% conversion rate of brand new people (cold leads) who purchase this offer from me right after they’ve opted in for my lead magnet.

This limited-time offer is similar to a tripwire.

It is an optimized offer to help my audience and the mini-sales page is full of social proof, testimonials and the right messaging for cold leads. You will need to have some kind of cart or checkout process in place for this to work.

🔥 Email Sequence

This isn't just any old email sequence, but a strategic process that will convert the people who didn't buy your one-time offer further down in their journey with you.

You don't have to use expensive software or have a million different moving parts in your funnel.

It can be a simple system that works in the background of your business so that you are making sales and can focus your time and attention on other things you need to work on.

I truly believe that every blogger and online business owner needs an evergreen funnel as one of their revenue streams.

It allows you to leverage all the amazing content you have created while giving your ideal customer what they need.

You can easily set up this automated sequence in your email service provider like (affiliate link —>) Convertkit, MailChimp, or I use Karta. This means any new subscriber who opts in for your freebie can go through this automated email sequence or even a webinar funnel depending on how you set it up.

Your email sequence can be as long or as short as you want it to be. I normally create funnel sequences anywhere between 5-12 days long. This way I can spend some time warming up the new leads that did not purchase my limited time offer.

Once you have your evergreen sales funnel set up and working you will need to focus on the traffic source you will use to fuel your funnel.

There are plenty of ways to get in front of your ideal audience so you need to pick what works for you.

Will you focus on SEO to rank in Google to drive traffic through your funnel?
Will you run Facebook ads?
Will you share it on social media as your call to action?
What platform does your audience hand out on?
Will you link to it in a blog post or all of your new content? This is perfect to add to evergreen blog content.
Will you do partnerships to get people into your funnel?
Will you choose other paid traffic sources?

💥This is where I say the fun starts!

You get to start tracking your leads and sales and making the updates needed to increase your conversion rates.

As I mentioned above, it is NOT a set it and forget it strategy. You still need to devote time and energy to making the funnel the best it can be. You want it to be a good experience for your leads too.

When you do it right though, you can uplevel your business without working more hours (you just have to put in the work upfront!).

What Is an Evergreen Sales Funnel (and How to Build One)