Every high school drop out with some coding skills has a couple of options: Build websites for ‘your uncle that has it’s own business’ or start your own online marketing agency. The profession has, to say in Porter terms ‘low entrance barriers’. The other forces of the 5 forces are not that positive as well. The bargaining power of suppliers, e.g. Google, is high, the bargaining power of Buyers, your customers, seems also high and the threat of substitutions, for instance Inhouse marketers, is also high. Ready to kill yourself? Don’t! There’s a way out.
You can move yourself in a position that eliminates these forces to a large extend. You can implement another concept of Porter: that of the differentiation strategy. Focus on a specific market segment, for instance B2B or even Technology, or travel or recruitment. When you do that you can specialize in the specific do’s and dont’s of that specific industry. You can train your staff in best practices, develop tools to support your business processes and reach economies of scale and scope. And suddenly your agency is unique, has a reputation and positions itself above online “PPC management” and cannot be substituted by a college dropout.