This opt-in page is from Doggy Dan – The Online Dog Trainer.

I love how he owns the space with his name.

But that isn’t what caught my attention. 

I immediately spotted he is running Facebook ads for a live once-a-week webinar.

Not just that, but he also gives the option to register for this week’s webinar or the next one.

The Live v Evergreen webinar debate

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had many conversations with clients about webinars.

Should webinars be live, or should they be evergreen?

Should we test the webinar by running it live and then move to evergreen?

If you follow the Russel Brunson approach, you should run your webinar live once a week for at least 12 weeks.

If the webinar is converting after 12 live deliveries, you flip it over to evergreen.

One of my early clients in Kelso Digital took the Russel approach.

We ran a weekly live webinar for 12 weeks. 

They were new to the online business world.

They didn’t have a list and had never worked with the target avatar. 

But they had all the subject matter expertise in the world.

It was tough going, but we got there in the end. 

By webinar 3, the ads kicked in, and we capped our spend to 150 people per webinar.

By webinar 4 or 5, we dialed in the offer.

By webinar 6 we were a well-oiled machine.

By the twelfth webinar we had a high converting funnel.

But this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea.

Several of my clients are currently debating the merits of live v evergreen.

And specifically, should they run the webinar live several times before moving to evergreen. 

So, let’s look at the pros and cons of starting with evergreen over testing with live webinars.

Pros of Testing The Live Webinar First

1. You get to see people’s reactions live and judge what hits and what misses
2. You get comfortable with the content, and your delivery becomes more relaxed
3. Your storytelling improves, and little stories pop out that only happen when you are on your feet and live in front of a group
4. Every week, you get to debrief and implement changes for the next week
5. You have 12 weeks to find your hit webinar.
6. You will get a higher conversion rate on a live webinar

Cons of Testing The Live Webinar First

1. It’s a big time commitment
2. When you go from live to evergreen, there will be a drop in conversions
3. People behave differently on live v’s evergreen
4. Saying the same shit over and over for 12 weeks in a row is tough going!
5. The rolling tech setup for weekly live webinars is slightly more complex than evergreen only 
6. Some people have to wait almost seven days from when they register to attend the webinar, which causes a big drop in attendance. 

Pros of Testing The Evergreen Webinar First

1. You start as you mean to go on
2. Your cost per lead will be lower
3. Your attendance will be higher
4. Higher attendance will give you more detailed stats on drop-off points
5. You know positive tests will have long-term outcomes. They aren’t just things that will work on the live webinar
6. You’ll have more time to work on the funnel

Cons of Testing The Evergreen Webinar First

1. It’s harder to test hooks, messaging and see what lands
2. You don’t get live, honest feedback
3. You don’t have the opportunity to interact and learn from your audience
4. You don’t get the chance to identify points of confusion
5. You don’t hear the objections to buying first-hand
6. You don’t get to try on new presenting techniques and styles

So, where does that leave us?

Well, if you need to validate your offer, find out more about your audience, understand objections, and test concepts, you should run your webinar live until it converts.

If you are an established online business with a proven offer that is moving from live launching to webinars, you can go directly to Evergreen.

But somewhere in the middle is optimum.

Get your evergreen webinar and funnel up and running.

Then, add a live webinar every now and again to test new concepts and approaches.

Oh, and check out the headline and subhead combo on this opt-in page.

But Doggy Dan lets himself down a little by hosting his webinar opt-in page on the webinar platform.

His conversion rates would increase if he took his opt-in page in-house and built a custom registration page. 

LEADS – Opt-in Page Swipe Files:

• SWIPE FILE 0080 – Doggy Dan – Webinar Registration

UPLEVEL ADS – Facebook Ad Swipe Files:

• SWIPE FILE 0080 – Doggy Dan – Ad to Webinar Registration

NOW LAUNCHING – Sales Page Ad Swipe Files:

• SWIPE FILE 0080 – Doggy Dan – Sales Page