It seems like Brexit has been looming on the horizon for almost 3 years at this point. However, with pressure starting to mount on the UK to carry through with its promise, it seems like the right time to start looking at what Brexit means for marketing businesses operating across Europe in 2019.
Ever since the UK voted to leave the European Union in June of 2016 uncertainty has existed with businesses who conduct operations across the UK and European borders. At the time of writing this article, there is still a lingering uncertainty around the terms on which the UK is set to depart of the European Union and what the United Kingdom is a long-term relationship with the EU businesses is going to look like.
Irrespective of how long it takes for Britain to make its final exit from the EU, it looks as though these changes are set to impact digital marketing professionals who operate in and out of the region. We’ve looked at some of the ways that Brexit is going to impact digital marketing professionals and how the looming change in order to be prepared.
AdWords & Facebook Advertising Will Be Affected
Brexit is set to have a significant impact on traditional pay per click advertising models such as Facebook ads, Instagram ads, and Google AdWords. Perhaps the most notable impact that this is going to have is the significant currency fluctuation that will occur during this time. Due to the fact that a large proportion of advertising spends from Europe has come from UK based marketing professionals in the past, Brexit is likely to cause complications and negative currency changes which will impact spending for Great Britain based professionals.
For digital marketing professionals who operate in the UK and EU the most important thing is to keep a close eye on your spending throughout this period. it’s not necessary to completely change your advertising structure and pull back on spending just yet, however, it is important to keep a close eye on paid advertising spend.
Perhaps one of the only areas of marketing that won’t be affected during this is SEO. Search marketing professionals are unlikely to face the same sort of resistance as their pay-per-click counterparts during this period because they are not accountable to a traditional spend model.
B2B Interactions Will Change
Brexit is going to have a radical impact on the way that marketing is conducted across Europe. The changes are set to fragment relationships between B2B clients as the new changes will complicate the relationship of businesses who had previously been able to conduct business freely as they were both members of the European Union. If history is any indicator when global economies become unstable, companies will naturally pull back on their spending.
While Brexit will not necessarily put an end to all business to business cross-border transactions, it will certainly complicate the way the business is conducted and introduce a new level of rigidity that previously did not exist.
Consumer Spending Will Drop
In times of economic doubt, consumer spending naturally drops. Brexit will be no different. At a time when the economy, currency, and cross-border relationships are undergoing significant change, consumers will naturally be more conservative with how much they spend. While we would not expect to see the same sort of impact that was felt in the US during the 2008 financial crisis, there will be a level of reduced spending that will be felt by local businesses.
