The Biblical quotation, “For now we see through a glass, darkly;”, nicely described the situation for email marketing immediately post-Brexit. Whether or not it has delivered is of little consequence to us at the moment as all we want to know is how to deal with the day-to-day reality of trading not only with the EU, but with Northern Ireland as well. Things are becoming clearer, but not necessarily more reassuring.

Newspapers and periodicals are replete with the problems being experienced by companies wishing to export to, and import from, the EU and while this did not come as much of a surprise, the fact that there are similar problems with Northern Island has given rise to considerable column inches, and comments on TV. If you believed all the advice and anecdotes being published, you’d think there was no hope left for us.

Almost all reports agree in one specific aspect; companies wishing to export to the EU, and from now on I’ll include Northern Island in the EU, will be faced with increased costs, a fair bit of bureaucracy and, the biggest problem for many, delays at the borders. If you devise a system whereby you can cope with the changes, your company might steal a march on others and, as we know, this can give a distinct advantage in email marketing where we rejoice at single-digit percentage improvements.

I’m reluctant to give specific advice, but if I indulged myself, I’d probably say, somewhat forcefully, don’t believe what you are told on television, newspapers and gossip. Much of it gives itself away by being contradictory. We need an unimpeachable source of guidance and there is one available to us. It’s not specific to email marketing but dependable general advice is generally to be welcomed.

‘Things’ are becoming clearer, although they might change as time goes on. In the meantime, companies wishing to export to the EU have a readily accessible source of dependable information available online. If you go to https://www.gov.uk/export-goods you will see the reassuring headline, ‘How to move goods from the UK to international destinations, including the EU’, and to reassure you further, it delivers, although it’s fair to say it is not an easy read, not because it’s difficult to understand, but because it exposes cost implications.

For a start, there are ten headings, numbered from one to eight. It starts predictably enough with a requirement to ‘Check if you need to follow this process’. If you click on the hotlink below, you’ll see additional hotlinks for specific subjects, one of which gives advice for moving goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland as well as Northern Island and the EU. Click on it, and you get 2000 words, with 45 hotlinks for further information. Nobody said it would be simple.