Mega Red Packet: Debriefing

It’s been two weeks since the Mega Red Packet launch ended, and it is now selling permanently at retail price. Although still busy with customer support and having just settled down in my new apartment in Petaling Jaya, I want to document the Mega Red Packet launch report while it’s still fresh in my mind.

This is my most successful product launch to date, with the 10 day launch special raked in $301,801 (or RM1,056,303.50) in sales.

Idea Conception

The idea on doing Mega Red Packet brewed on the same day I discussed the IMGuerilla project with Vince Tan over a cup of coffee at Starbucks, The Curve, back in late December 2007.

Mega Red Packet’s mission and objectives were very ambiguous back then as we were focusing on accomplishing one product launch at a time. We just agreed that Mega Red Packet should be a massive online sale that runs for 7 days.

Problems

It took another year before starting the Mega Red Packet project. In spite of him being my best business partner to date, Vince and I didn’t do well with the first two launches together.

And to do something that lived up to the name “Mega Red Packet” was more difficult than we thought. We didn’t want Mega Red Packet to be just another product launch. Or just another firesale. Since its goals weren’t clearly defined we didn’t risk carrying out the project with such a foggy direction for Mega Red Packet.

Admittedly, our personal lives and own relationships to deal with didn’t make it any easy.

Introducing A New Partner To The Project

I am choosy with who I work with on a partnership basis. And Stephen Luc passed my test. When we pulled in $100,000 in 10 days from PLRGold: Videos together, I knew right away that Stephen is an integral part of our success with Mega Red Packet. And not too long later, Vince did the Biggest Firesale event in the same month – November 2008 – and generated $170,000 in 10 days.

It was meant to be. Mega Red Packet is next.

Stephen is American. He can do good videos. Handle customer support. Take care of technical aspects with Vince. And he is of Asian descendant.

Vince wasn’t sold on the idea initially, until I convinced him to let Stephen join us to form the dynamic trio.

The years of experience with Internet Marketing and witnessing many strategies finally gave me greater clarity I couldn’t see just a year ago.

And I suppose this is where working at McDonald’s at the age of 16 paid off in dividends.

“What if we franchise out our success?”

This became a big part of the Mega Red Packet component: franchising out our current Internet Marketing success in the form of Reseller Memberships, Franchise Business and new Private Label Rights.

What about traffic? People always need traffic. The demand for it can never run out. If we didn’t answer that question well, Mega Red Packet would set itself up for failure.

And so the answer was Traffic Leopard – our upcoming home study course to be sold in physical format. Only this time we gave our our digital version as part of Mega Red Packet. We also talked and negotiated with other webmasters who own traffic building sites so our Mega Red Packet members could draw instant traffic from them.

Throw in other components such as Premium Software, member’s forum, and a series Fast Action Bonuses – Mega Red Packet finally saw its big picture.

It’s all work from here on.

Product Creation In 5 Months

Having learned our lesson from two failed launches together revealed its rewards. If Mega Red Packet is to be the best, we need to hire the best people. And we NEED to be the best people to run the big show.

All these while, we had always been trying to save whatever we can and go cheap. Vince and I were probably raised that way. Hah! But not this time.

Investing a lot more money than usual quickly grew uncomfortable for us since we were so used to low-cost, high-profit lifestyle. I challenged myself nonetheless. If I wanted to be really, really rich and successful I had to stop being too cheapskate.

Vince probably found his way around though. He’s a master at bargaining and quoting a friend, “With Vince, nothing is ever full price.” I still needed a good bargainer like him on the team though at times I wonder if he gets his daily newspaper free just by taking from his neighbor after they’re done.

And I found Stephen was just as much the same as us.

Anyways more time spent doing the project meant more profit potential gone so we needed to overcome the product creation. LIKE FAST.

We hired copywriters – 3 in all – to write our sales copies. One of them was Kenneth Yu, the master copywriter who formerly worked for Mindvalley Labs and his clients have raked in millions of dollars using his copy. I could write our own copy but like I said, we needed to outsource as much as we can if we wanted the product creation done faster.

We also got Zaizen Goro to do our graphics. Like Kenneth, he hails from Malaysia. But one of the best nonetheless.

Dennis and Vicky came in the wee hours of the launch to join our technical support team. And with Stephen operating on low-cost and man, he sure works like a machine, we got everything we needed down pat in 5 months.

It was relatively fast for a project THIS HUGE. I think if we had attempted to do everything on our own and tried to launch without Stephen it may take us a year.

Game Plan

This was going to be our first high ticket product launch and we wanted Mega Red Packet to stay even after the 10 day event is over. No more “sell for 7 days and close the sale forever”. It works – sometimes. The scarcity factor is good – sometimes. But there was no continuity of income and it would create the “fly by night” impression for newbies to the world of Internet Marketing.

So we had to find a space between all the advantages available to us.

SCARCITY: For the first 10 days, people can get Mega Red Packet at early bird price.

CONTINUITY: Mega Red Packet will sell at its retail price after the 10 days launch price is up.

BARRIER OF ENTRY: 3 EZY payment plans were made available.

Initially we set our sights for $497. Then $697. Then $997. Then back to $697. Yes, we panicked and we weren’t sure whether we could make it.

One of the major lessons I learned from my failed launch last year was “the message”. Is it clear this time? Will people know what it is? How can I explain Mega Red Packet in 30 seconds?

If I told one person, then he told the other person in the ear, and then another, then another… and to the 10th person whispering back into my ear – will the message be the same?

So I spent A LOT OF TIME writing a clear, easy message on Mega Red Packet. It boiled down to only this:

“We’ve Done Everything For You.”

The message was easy. Delivering the promise was another matter altogether though. And we can only find that out on launch day.

The Pre-Launch Strategy

Vince’s ingenious pre-launch strategy worked like a charm. It was the same strategy he used for Biggest Firesale 2008. Twitter and Facebook made it a whole lot more easy aside from people blogging about us.

4 weeks to launch day on 4th May, we kick started the Joint Venture recruitment drive and 2 weeks to launch, we started the pre-launch sequence.

We gave our existing affiliates at AMLOH-Central.com Twitter messages and blog posts to use, with a distilled message on “busting the recession using proven Internet formulas”.

And for every person who joined our Advanced Notification List, their referrer’s affiliate ID was hard cookied so on launch day, they will receive an email from our system with their referrer’s affiliate ID.

Just before launch:

- 3,210 web pages and blogs found on Google are talking about it

- 209 tweets (and counting) on Twitter about this online event

- 2,000 subscribers were on the Advanced Notification List, 3 of which would stand a chance to win a FREE copy by random selection

- This would run for 10 days only and 1,000 spots will be available at launch price special

We motivated affiliates to push the pre-launch with a pre-launch contest in an effort to generate buzz and interest in the Internet Marketing arena.

Joint Venture recruitment didn’t went so well at first. Vince did his best and so did Stephen, even though marketing isn’t his best skill in the hand of cards. Fortunately, my past reciprocal promotion efforts with some big players finally paid off in dividends.

Vince successfully got in Ewen Chia. I got Michael Rasmussen. I have never heard of people offering to make bonuses for their own top affiliates so I had to be the first to do the honor. I made a custom bonus package for Michael, Ewen, Calvin Woon, and also Ian del Carmen. Jeremy Gislason and Simon Hodgkinson came in the last minute, miraculously. I wasn’t counting on them as they had Marketing Main Event 4 to push, only to be postponed to a later time.

Mega Red Packet: Launch and Warzone

Stephen, Vince and I were nerve wrecks 1 whole day before the launch. We slept less hours, went on more walks, and anxiety built up. Were we going to make it or fall flat on our faces after 6 months of hard work, including pre-launch? Time would tell after we change the index.php page on the servers.

At 8:00 AM Eastern Time, we were in for it.

The soundtrack of the Russian March from Call of Duty: World at War kept looping in the desktop. Sales were slow. Could be times were REALLY horrible in the States?

For the first 2 days, I slept no more than 4 hours and spent most mornings walking out to calm my nerves. Then I had a brilliant idea. Why not introduce 6 EZY payment plans?

We also suspected Stephen could have done a better video so Stephen did one on the spot.

And all these DOUBLED our conversions. The sexy Virtual Chat Agents saved nearly 30% of our sales which otherwise would have been lost. And in the last 48 hours, we threw in a final 48 hour showdown to motivated JV Partners and affiliates for the final push.

The Mega Engines had to be introduced earlier than we needed if we wanted to make more sales and salvage a dying launch. Fortunately, not only did we save it in time – it turned out to be our best record to date for a product launch. For all 3 of us. And for our merry affiliates.

Amateur launch makers will claim they have hundreds of people on board their launch. Professional players in the field know that it takes only a handful of individuals to pull off the launch. And Mega Red Packet needed only a handful of key players.

To the tune of less than 60 people who have made sales for us in the first 10 days. And that was our ticket to $300,000 – or our first 1 million Malaysian Ringgits for a product launch. Damn, we make Malaysia proud.

But Mega Red Packet came with a price: massive customer support and technical servicing. We promised to set up the websites for our members. 9 per person. More than 500 members and you do the math.

Post Launch: Summary

As I am writing this, we have to help many members with their websites. Some needed more help. No matter. I am glad I took Vince’s suggestion in setting up a forum. I had second thoughts initially, knowing how fast forums die.

But it made the community grew tighter and closer.

Mega Red Packet, after everything, was NOT just a product launch. It was a platform to change everyone’s financial fortunes. Especially for our members. Launching it wasn’t easy. Introducing the idea was harder.

But I believed – we believed – that nothing is better than duplicating success. And if we can help hundreds of other shape their Internet Marketing future based on our current success, Mega Red Packet has done its job. Successfully.

And it wouldn’t be there without the help of our highly esteemed affiliates and Joint Venture partners. This launch has taught me many great lessons I wouldn’t have otherwise discovered before, and I am glad I was in this process with my best partners in business to date, Vince and Stephen.

The Hall Of Fame Is Erected Here:

=> http://amloh-central.com/halloffame/megaredpacket

I had set my sights on making Mega Red Packet the most successful launch for me – for us – to date. Even to beat my recent record with PLRGold: Videos.

The first time I did a launch that broke $100,000 was PLRGold Master Rights Pack 5 back in September 2007. That took 3 months.

In November 2008, I broke that again in a month.

And in Mega Red Packet, all 3 of us made the run and TRIPLED that in 10 days.

It’s only a matter of time before we go for the million dollar launch, and nothing is more satisfying than having a successful goal achieved before I moved on with something else in my personal life: settling down in Petaling Jaya to meet new people and challenges – and to re-enroll into college. Something that I would really like to complete now, since I didn’t have the chance 6 years ago.

Thank you all for your support.