Few industries are as resilient as online marketing. It has the uncanny ability to reinvent itself time and time again, changing from pure SEO to a full-blown content strategy, to performance marketing, and finally to digital marketing.

But despite the variations in strategy and channel, one thing remains the same. Regardless of the approach, digital marketing is a constantly changing landscape that requires marketers to stay abreast of the latest trends and technologies to succeed in this space.

In that regard, we wanted to examine the changing face of digital marketing and how it impacts the overall mortality rate of online marketing agencies. So let’s dive in.

The Evolution Of Digital Marketing

According to HubSpot Blogs research, 79% of business owners feel that their company’s website is very important or important in helping them to grow their business. But even with this importance, 48% of respondents said that creating a quality website was either very difficult or quite difficult. In other words, 48% felt that their website wasn’t living up to their expectations. 

Looking at the state of the web today, it’s easy to understand why so many businesses are struggling to build a strong website. The landscape has changed. Thanks to the rise of automated tools like HubSpot Growth, any business with a humble blog can now grow traffic and revenue online without needing to hire an expensive agency.

While organic search traffic has always been a significant portion of our total traffic, last year we saw a 40% increase in conversions thanks to social media.

Thanks to platforms like Facebook and Instagram, our audience is growing and more engaged. And as a result, our traffic and conversions are on the rise.

The Impact Of The Evolving Face Of Digital Marketing

If you’re part of the 48% of businesses that feel that their website isn’t living up to their expectations, you’re in luck because we’ve got some fantastic news for you. 

With the right planning and execution, you can have a quality website that will live up to your expectations and even exceed them.

But to do that, you need to understand what is limiting your website’s performance and how you can fix it. 

One of the main causes of poor performance is a bad foundational strategy. The first step to fixing your site’s performance is by defining its goals. What do you hope to achieve with your website and how is it going to contribute to your business? 

For example, if your goal is to increase brand awareness and sales, you might want to consider using digital marketing to grow your email list. There are several email marketing platforms like MailChimp and HubSpot that can help you build your email list and send weekly newsletters to your subscribers.

But if your goal is to drive traffic to your website and grow your business, you might want to focus on increasing the quality and content of your website.

The Changing Face Of Digital Marketing Agency Mortality

Looking closely at the numbers above, it’s clear to see that while the overall state of digital marketing has gotten better, the mortality rate of digital marketing agencies has gotten worse.

From 2012 to 2018, the number of digital marketing agencies that went out of business more than doubled from 13% to 31%. And the number of agencies that closed their doors altogether increased from 3% to 12% during the same period.

So what happened? Why did so many agencies go out of business in the first place? The simple answer is that the competition for client work got so fierce, that it became very difficult for businesses to choose one agency over another. In other words, it’s not that agencies stopped providing effective services, it’s that they couldn’t keep up with the demand for those services. 

Let’s take a closer look. In 2022, as the pandemic began to subside, the demand for marketing services decreased, causing marketing agencies to take a hit. However, the decline in business was more profound for larger agencies. According to Econsultancy, a research firm focused on the business of marketing and advertising, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs and MSEs) accounted for 68% of all spending in 2022.

On the other hand, global marketing and advertising agencies (GIAs) saw a 23% decrease in 2022, while digital marketing agencies saw a 37% decrease.

While many marketing agencies have changed how they operate and adapted to the new environment, it’s still difficult to predict what the future of digital marketing will look like.