What I learned by counting all the American marketing agencies [4 takeaways]

This is a defining human impulse - the desire to quantify the world around us. And given the pending 2020 U.S. Census, now is a good time to contribute.

Recently my team did just that: like our astronomical ancestors under an ancient sky, we looked outward and began to count.

What did we count?

All marketing agencies in America. Sort of.

Actually, it would be foolish to report an exact count. Our source was the online listings, so there is a lot of room for error. Some agencies are swallowed up by competitors two weeks after counting thems. Others happen in the real world but last online. And some have never existed; they were always empty shells, built by scammers with an UpWork account, declaring their "team " ready for your next big project.

Here's what I can say: America is home to at least several thousand marketing agencies. We crawled 6,000 ads and analyzed 600 LinkedIn websites and company profiles, to cover as many disciplines as possible. These include:

• Advertising
• Branding
• Content Marketing
• Design
• PR
• SEO / SEM
• Social networks
• Web design
• Web development and applications

We have put together a number of metrics, including:

• Agency size
• Agency age
• Agencies per capita
• Main disciplines
• Hourly rates
• Breakdown by sexe of the leaders
• Images of heroes on the home page
• Company names
• Company slogan

We encourage you to read the full report .

Below I will share our four takeaways from the state of marketing agencies in America in 2020. I encourage leaders and contributors: sit back, breathe and think to your trajectory in the universe of the agency.

1. Preserve what is special as you grow

Our analysis revealed that 77% of agencies have 10 to 49 employees and 18% of agencies have 50 to 249 employees

I wonder how many of them would like be able to take it to the next level, and how many large agencies aspire to be small again? Like rock bands, do agencies play in arenas, only to find themselves slumped over a shrimp buffet backstage, yearning for their leaner, darker club days?

This raises the fundamental question: What are we losing as we grow?

Small agencies need to anticipate the challenge and make a strong commitment to certain values ​​that may be threatened when scaling up. Large agencies should take stock. What was sacrificed - agility, focus, community? Pick something that has already defined you, that you want to recover. Make it a 2020 goal.

2. Anticipate lifespan and inheritance

On average, a dog will live 10 to 13 years. As for a marketing agency? Not very long.

In America, 61% of marketing agencies are between 5 and 19 years old , after which the population drops considerably.

Why is that?

PeKnow what influences the lifespan of an agency. How much is external versus internal? Do agencies barely outlive dogs because markets and technology tend to evolve beyond their original grasp? Or because 20 years is roughly the ideal point for a human career and visionary founders find it difficult to keep their businesses going?

In either case, there is a lot to anticipate and act on at different times. the lifespan of an agency.

Take a calm look at the evolution of the markets and technology around you from the start. Just because you mastered something new five years ago doesn't mean you are able to master what's going on around the corner. A long life depends on a lot of planning (and a little luck).

3. Don't just hire women, give them the moyens to lead

This topic is a monster, and certainly deserves a lot more attention than I will give it here. But I would like to share a heartfelt note on how our agency was founded and what it means for gender equality in agency leadership.

The founders of Digital Third Coast are both men. They worked together in a first iteration of a digital marketing agency, early in their careers. They left this agency and ventured out to start their own business.

For the purposes of our analysis, we have classified our agency as having “all the men” in charge. In this case, the highest level of identifiable leadership is "owner", and there are two owners, both males.

Our owners are conscientious, fair and progressive. They value the contributions of women as much as men, they hire womenmes regularly and they give women leadership opportunities in our organization. But none of that changes where they started. When they were in their old agency, they looked around and found themselves among other men.

The numbers are appalling in the agency world, as in so many other industries. But women leaders do not materialize out of thin air, and we will not achieve a state of equality by promotion alone. If we flipped a switch and suddenly every marketing agency across the country with over 250 employees had all-female C suites, those numbers would hardly change.

A challenge for agency heads: just this minute, are there any women in your organization who are working and growing up with other women, in a substantial way, who could one day feel empowered to venture out on your own? There should be someoir.

4. Make an authentic first impression

On a (slightly) lighter note - can we end the plague of stock model photography? Please.

In a world defined and dominated by user-generated content and the unprecedented privacy and access of social media, agencies should not represent themselves with sterile images.

The hero image homepage is a huge opportunity. US marketing agencies do various things with it. Most show people, objects or places. You might spot a light bulb, a group of people standing around a table or a city skyline.

The opportunity, of course, is not only to look good or look trendy, but to reflect expertise, integrity and professional values.

Agency managers should reflectFail: is my homepage hero all there can be, or has I seen everyone do?

Much of our day-to-day life is occupied by an appropriate depth of focus - we manage the job at hand, our people, our quarterly and annual goals, our corporate vision. Sometimes we we venture beyond that and consider our competition and our markets.

And, every now and then, we are prompted to go further and think about existential questions about longevity, longevity, equality and connection to our past. Hope this data will help you with that.