Deadlines are an interesting “beast”. Nobody likes them, yet nothing gets done without deadlines. A quote (I forgot by whom) says, “No book has ever been written without a deadline.”

So true!

But there’s another interesting thing about deadlines. They can become your secret weapon when you want to give a sense of urgency to an evergreen product. I’ve done this successfully with Email Mastery, Breakthrough Blueprint and many others.

The “trick” that makes it work is a special deadline. And that is… a START DATE.

Start dates force people to make a decision. Even when your program starts regularly, say, every month, just because there are deadlines, your prospects will have to decide. In a way, it’s like New Year’s when you think about it; there’s nothing inherently special about New Year’s. It’s just a date and time. But it makes it very easy for you to go, “Okay! New Year’s is going to be it. I’m going to start my diet on New Year’s.” And that’s the thing! That’s EXACTLY what you want people to do: To start thinking about it. You want them to evaluate the start date in their mind and imagine themselves taking that action

“No book has ever been written without a deadline.”

They might decide they’re not ready yet or don’t have time right now. But that’s OK. Because the next time you present them with the deadline, they’ll go through the same process repeatedly. And who knows, they might decide to jump on board this time.

But there’s more.

When you know your program starts regularly, say, on the last Thursday of every month, Now you can front-load all your lead generation activities:

  • You know you must make new prospects raise their hand by the 1st.
  • You know you have little time to engage with them, so they get to know you, like you, and trust you…
  • And you know that engagement has an “end” three weeks later when you present them with the start date of your program.

That’s the real beauty of it. Because even if you don’t convert 100% of your leads, you’ll have another cycle where you engage with them and another, and so on.

And every cycle, they’ll be thinking about the start date and making that decision. It might take you a while, but they will be ready to join at some point.

And when they are ready to join, you will be waiting to for them.