Earthquake preparedness

Today marked the launch of the national Do Not Call Registry in Canada, which as many marketers know is a speedbump in your overall marketing mix and a wee bit of a pain in the ass. But i'm sure more than a few are chuckling to themselves as the government drops the ball again on this one and is completely overwhelmed by the number of calls/hits going on their website (note to self: probably shouldn't be laughing at the fact that so many people are rushing to sign up). But I mean come on, there is some humour in the typical dropping of the ball and lack of preparation. It's not quite to the level of FEMA, but have some kind of a disaster response in place CRTC!

And I think the most ironic thing is that all marketers work to get this kind of a reaction to a campaign they are doing and this campaign is an anti-marketing initiative. Congratulations CRTC, a job well done. Now enjoy the rewards of angered people who were angered already and thus filling their name out to not receive marketing again.

Out of this comes an interesting thought though...what happens if your marketing campaign all of a sudden hits a home-run?

Are you prepared for the onslaught? Do you have the right people in place? Will your website crash?

It's important to have a disaster response (for lack of a better term) in place in case you do get flooded. Nothing turns a customer off more than when they want to learn more about you and get a "Cannot display website" result.

Say goodbye to that sale.