If you are into digital marketing, there is no way you can keep pace with the cutthroat competition if you are not armed with the best technologies. And when it comes to technology, marketing automation tools lead others by a long distance.
Marketing automation tool was not a dominant component of digital marketing until recently. The boom started around 2017 when marketers and organizations began realizing the immense power and capabilities of marketing automation tools.
Today, automated marketing is a multi-billion dollar market with business slated to reach a mammoth $6 billion by 2025. So what are these tools used for?
Marketing Automation tools are powered by technologies that make marketing more effective and result-driven. This is achieved through the use of various types of online media resources such as email, websites, social media, etc. The repetitive tasks associated with marketing efforts are fully automated by these tools. Marketers can choose specific criteria for automating tasks with the aim of boosting efficiency and minimize human error. The software executes the various tasks assigned to it with clockwork precision and absolute perfection.
Automated marketing tools are primarily deployed for:
Marketing automation platforms are either web-based or hosted. Customers need not carry out any software installation at their end.
Not surprisingly, with the growing demand for automation tools, the number of players in this domain are also increasing. There is a glut of choices for marketers and companies. And this poses challenges of a different kind.
This is where we make your job easy. We bring to you a detailed comparison of two of the most popular, in-demand, and widely used market automation tools that have been put through the grind by reviewers many times. HubSpot and Marketo are the top brands in the cloud-based industry and boast of strong customer bases. They have a lot of features in common too. But they both are not the same on several counts.
HubSpot was also launched in 2006 to help businesses adapt to the changing lifestyles, needs, and demands of customers. HubSpot has a powerful, user-friendly, and integrated set of applications. The software system can be used by businesses to draw, customers, keep them engaged, and provide a great experience by creating unique and personalized inbound experiences. The mission is to make the world more inbound and transform businesses.
Marketo was launched in 2006 with the aim of changing the collaboration processes between the sales and marketing teams of an enterprise. The lead management and marketing software solutions from Marketo can help marketing and sales teams work in tandem at every stage of the process from demand generation and lead management to ensuring revenue flow and gaining customer loyalty. Marketo is being used by over 2,000 customers and has over 22,000 user subscribers in B2B industries such as financial services, business services, software technology, communications, and, healthcare services.
Ease of use is among the core features of the HubSpot platform and also a key reason for its growing demand. The learning curve is short and smooth. HubSpot offers an intuitive user interface that’s simple to understand and easy to use. Customers love the hassle-free transition process of the system. HubSpot's all-in-one platform spans the whole gamut of activities including marketing, sales, and services. That’s the reason why it offers such an effortless and integrated rollout across the board. Besides, the focus is always on delivering the best experience to users.
Marketo integrates well with a couple of popular CRMs but that’s precisely why its utility becomes limited. Deploying and integration experiences are not as smooth as HubSpot. Customization is evidently the biggest USP of Marketo but here too you spend a lot of time decoding the learning processes.
If you are looking for a marketing automation system that offers full-funnel experiences to all the customers, then HubSpot is a clear choice.
This comprehensive inbound marketing platform can help create optimized content according to customer data. You can create content for blogs, web pages, emails, and more. You can also create reports and check analytics and more from one convenient place. HubSpot offers all the features in the Professional and above packages. SMEs find HubSpot a more attractive option for this reason. HubSpot is specialized for content production. You can use the platform to create dynamic content and manage blogs efficiently.
Marketo offers customized solutions for specific industries. If you are looking to create an automated platform for your marketing needs, you can buy the suite of marketing modules that include email, customer base, mobile, consumer, and lead management. You can buy these individually or in bundles. While this ensures more detailed coverage of a specific module that you are focused on, you will end up paying more if you are looking for a fully integrated platform with all the modules. Marketo does not offer content production.
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HubSpot and Marketo have come up with recent upgrades that address the gaps in functionality effectively.
When it comes to partitioning, Marketo is not really up to the mark. Separating crucial data is cumbersome with Marketo. There is a real risk of duplication as synchronizing is done across specific data boundaries but those data must also be maintained. HubSpot has addressed the problem in its new release. As scalability is an inherent part of its design, the platform expands to accommodate all your data automatically. You don’t have to spend time and money on system administration.
HubSpot content tools are an integral part of its Marketing Hub. You can create content easily using the platform’s tools and technology. The asset marketplace offers thousands of free templates for marketers. Also, the drag-and-drop feature allows for easy customization. The CMS hub makes website management easy. The flexible themes allow easy edits to the content. HubSpot provides the added convenience of a 24/7 security team and features such as firewalls, SSL, global CDN, SSO, and others.
Marketo offers the ability to create landing pages. However, you can customize only if you have some knowledge of CSS and HTML. You may also need other tools for hosting the main website or blogs.
Businesses prefer using marketing automation systems that can be easily integrated with their CRM as both are closely connected.
HubSpot offers a built-in CRM and can integrate with popular platforms such as MS Dynamics, SugarCRM, Salesforce, and Zoho. HubSpot is easier to use than other similar tools and is hence ideal for SMEs and marketers not well conversant with automated platforms and CRM tools. Over the years, HubSpot tools have undergone massive improvements recently, making it useful for all types of businesses.
Marketo does not offer an in-built CRM module but as the product was built using the Salesforce platform, they offer Salesforce which ranks among the best in the industry. Native integrations are also available for Microsoft Dynamics and SAP.
With HubSpot, you can achieve a closed-loop integration with your CRM. It offers hassle-free access to customer data for analysis. The revenue reporting feature is a standard offering with the Enterprise tier.
However, HubSpot pulls ahead because of a few critical reasons. It allows you to analyze website performance based on key metrics. You can also track your marketing funnel from start to finish. The best part is that all the data can be accessed from one dashboard, allowing you to make the right decisions faster.
There is another feature in HubSpot analytics that other automation tools probably don’t have and that is the Multi-Touch Revenue Attribution. It allows you to measure the impact of your marketing activities meticulously. The bonus part is that you can get all these without having to invest in additional software.
Marketers looking to create a powerful marketing strategy need access to accurate data. This includes information about customers, prospects, leads, and other related aspects. That’s why you need a marketing automation tool that can provide data analytics in a practical manner. Both Marketo and HubSpot offers a set of high-value analytics tools designed to help track campaign programs and deliver detailed reports.
Marketo analytics tools can be used to make predictive analytics on the basis of content preferences, digital behavior patterns, CRM data, and firmographics.
HubSpot comes with features such as company scoring and ABM reporting dashboard templates. It is seen that most ABM practitioners make use of CRM for reporting. HubSpot has a built-in CRM allowing users to build, manage, and report on their ABM strategies conveniently and from one location.
Marketo offers some key reporting features such as an ABM dashboard, weekly sales report, and an account dimensions tool. Customers can utilize these features to measure the ROI of specific marketing programs.
HubSpot offers the whole range of features within a single system. The sales and CRM integrations are available as free or can be add-on options. You can use all the features even at the entry-level. You are required to upgrade the subscription when your database increases. However, you can upgrade the whole package and need not upgrade the individual module.
The three product levels of HubSpot are available at the following prices:
Marketo offers five key modules. They are consumer marketing, customer-based marketing, email marketing, lead marketing, and mobile marketing. You can buy these modules separately or as bundles, or as one comprehensive package based on your business requirements. The modules are priced according to the tiers based on the scale. The packages available are Basic, Pro, Elite, and Enterprise.
HubSpot is a more affordable option for small businesses. The HubSpot Starter package is priced lower than the Basic Tier from Marketo. However, the HubSpot Professional and Enterprise tiers are priced higher.
Please note that Marketo pricing is not given even on their website. You can get the pricing details from their sales team directly.
Marketo pricing is based on the modules you require while HubSpot pricing is based around contacts rather than the individual products. When your contacts grow, you pay more.
HubSpot also offers free versions of their software, unlike Marketo.
Based on the unbiased comparison of both the marketing automation tools it is clear that there are reasons why you should consider investing in both Marketo and HubSpot. Both have some unique features including a few which overlap. When marketers choose a marketing automation tool, they look for ease of use of all the features.
HubSpot’s Marketing Hubs are specifically designed to deliver exceptional user experience. Marketo falls a bit short of effort on this count despite the availability of powerful tools. User experience is not at the core of their tool creation entailing the need for hiring technology experts.
HubSpot scores on most aspects and is the best-fit for SMEs looking to expand operations and nurture leads. Marketo is a good choice for larger B2B organizations looking for personalized automation solutions.
