The field of digital marketing has not been immune to all the recent talk about the potential implementation of far-reaching tariffs when President-elect Donald Trump takes office in the United States in January. While financial penalties on foreign imports obviously have little direct impact on fully remote and service-based industries like web development and digital marketing, any such shakeup to the national economy would have knock-on effects all the way down the line. Some digital marketing firms will no doubt have to change client strategies and ways of doing business if things become as erratic and challenging as many experts anticipate.

As the relevant discussion has carried on, it has become apparent that many people only developed a decent understanding of tariffs after the election. No doubt, there are many others who still do not understand them, and may have a hard time understanding why things have gotten more expensive in the wake of their implementation. To minimize the threat of revolt by those consumers, digital marketing firms will likely have a role to play in explaining the source of the increases, as well as their context and any countermeasures that their clients are working to put in place.

Again, assuming that the tariffs do go into effect and take the form Trump has already described, it may be necessary for some companies to shift away from foreign imports and toward domestic alternatives. Of course, this is unlikely to be something they can do overnight, and domestic suppliers will surely also have to take time to develop strategies for ramping up their production. This means some industries and some businesses may experience supply chain disruptions or find themselves needing to increase prices in the short term, only to reduce them again when the situation stabilizes.

Ordinary consumers cannot be expected to know any of what is going on behind the scenes of the businesses and industries that are of interest to them. They especially cannot be expected to understand the sources of those trends or to recognize what the short- and long-term impacts will be, unless it is clearly and concisely explained to them. Among the first places that many of those consumers will look for such an explanation is on the websites or the social media pages for the businesses in question, so it is up to their digital marketing teams to make sure that online visitors are immediately made aware of any temporary price hikes or surcharges, and given estimates for the duration of any disruptions.

There are lessons to be derived from the present situation which may be helpful to digital marketing companies, their clients, partners, and consumers, even in times when there is no expectation of major, far-reaching shocks to the economy. There will always be crises affecting various companies and industries, and there will always be a need to communicate with customers and partners about them. If the looming threat of tariffs gets your company thinking about that for the first time, then maybe you should seize the opportunity to have a more general discussion with your digital marketing service providers about crisis marketing and public relations.