How Could Brexit Impact Digital Marketing Agencies?

With trade talks appearing to stall, stop and then be brought back to life only to stumble onward again, many are predicting a no-deal Brexit whilst secretly keeping their fingers crossed for a surprise deal to be announced.

For Digital Marketing agencies the natural question is how either scenario will impact your clients and their marketing budgets. But before you consider your clients, you need to think about how the next few months will affect your business. With it increasingly likely talks will continue right until the last minute, it leaves you with very little time to react either way.

Here are some of the conversations we’ve been having with our clients to get them Brexit Ready.

Plan for both scenarios It’s time consuming and 50% of your effort will have been for nothing but no one can predict what’s going to happen. Having a plan in place for the 1st January will give you a clear direction either way whilst your competitors are still panicking.Speed will be key in the New Year and the agencies that can react quickly will see themselves accelerate past the competition. But what will be even more impressive is the agency that can start talking to their clients now about their plans for either outcome and what it will mean for the ongoing relationship.

Who are your international suppliers? Come the 1^st January, if the pound falls the cost of invoices from international suppliers will increase. For Digital Marketing agencies many of your reporting and analytics tools come from America and invoice in US dollars. You need to be aware that the conversion from dollar to pound will be closer to equal than it is now and that means you paying more.

Audit supplier costs Off the back of the above point, if your supplier costs increase how will this impact your margin against each client? Will some no longer be profitable? How will you handle this? Will some clients need to pay more or are their services you will need to remove from their contract?

Review the industries your clients occupy How are the different Brexit outcomes going to impact them? Does this open up new markets or constrict them? What does that mean for their marketing budgets?This point also allows you to start planning for your clients and gives you a reason to initiate a conversation. If you can proactively provide your clients with your approach to the different Brexit outcomes alongside suggestions for their future marketing strategy, you will be positioning yourself as a true partner and not a simple supplier.

Data 75% of the UK’s cross-border data flows are with the EU. Marketers who use B2B data sourced from the EU could face new challenges if a no-deal Brexit occurs. What options are available to you here? Do you need to consider new strategies, new data collection methods or update T&C’s now? As with point 4, this is another opportunity to deliver a solution to your clients before they even knew the problem, but only if you have your own house in order first.

These steps will hopefully help you be ready to take up the opportunities that Brexit will bring across the economy and to do so in an informed manner.

If you’d like to discuss your approach we won’t give you the hard sell, just some ideas and a nudge in the right direction. Our Manchester office number is 0161 220 2920 and we’re always happy to chat.