Introduction:
Marketing automation isn’t only a trend; most of the business people would agree that it is the future of digital marketing. Leveraging a marketing automation tool simplifies client interactions and makes it possible to pull, nurture, and convert more leads than traditional marketing methods.
As per a recent study by Emailmonday on an average 51% of businesses are currently using marketing automation software. In today’s time marketing automation is a ‘must’ for any company to thrive in the industry. Marketing automation is trending can be proved by the fact that the industry expects to be worth $5.5 billion in 2019, according to Markets and Markets research. With these statistics, it has been observed that the use of marketing automation tools has grown significantly over the past few years.
Since the marketing world is entirely on board with automation, which platform will you prefer? When deciding which marketing automation platform to use, you’ll find that there is no shortage of choices in the market. Though there are plenty to choose from, one of the most common faceoffs is HubSpot vs. Marketo.
HubSpot and Marketo are the two most flourishing marketing automation software companies in the world. Both these cloud-based tools hold strong customer-bases, and high satisfaction scores. HubSpot and Marketo both offer many similar features. However, the two should not be mixed as some key differences might help in determining the tool that is more suitable for your organization.
Overview:
While comparing both HubSpot vs. Marketo, one must have a thorough understanding of the abilities of each so as to make the best decision for the marketing efforts put forth.
The real differences, however, begin with functionality and pricing. The points described below will throw the light on the both the software:
What is HubSpot:
HubSpot is created to deliver real all-in-one inbound marketing services and is one of the most popular tools in the market for its features. It allows users to log into one system and work on multiple things like managing & updating website content, creating specialized landing pages, scheduling social media posts, to generate more traffic for a website, and a few other things. In HubSpot, there are three hubs: marketing, sales, and service. With each of these hubs offered by HubSpot, one can market, sell, and serve.
For getting a brief idea about HubSpot, one can have a glance on the video displayed-below:
HubSpot is a robust platform for all your digital marketing needs, inclusive of the content management system for your website. Besides this, it also acts as an email marketing provider, a social media scheduler, a CRM solution, and more. It also helps you manage the entire lifecycle of a prospect; right from their first connection with your brand to turning into a loyal customer.
What is Marketo:
Marketo was built as a solution for large companies, especially enterprises that are handling mass amounts of data and more complex marketing processes.
It is for any business that is having robust email campaigns and various triggers or drips. Marketo is also recognized for its advanced analytics. An extra feature of Marketo is its mobile app, which permits users to stay connected.
Marketo’s platform incorporates the following areas of marketing:
- Lead management
- Email marketing
- Consumer marketing
- Customer base marketing
- Mobile marketing
One can easily imbibe these five modules and control everything within their respective businesses correlated to digital marketing.
The below-displayed video will help get a complete idea about Marketo:
HubSpot and Marketo provide a variety of solutions and features that can help in executing an effective inbound strategy to the users in their respective businesses.
From the above-mentioned information, we’ve got an idea of the two big tools leading in the digital marketing and automation world. We will further breakdown the benefits they each furnish in some essential areas. Picking the right software will help you boost the overall performance of your business:
The below stated are the three main features of both the platforms, along with their key feature elements:
- Email Marketing
- Lead Nurturing
- Social Media
Let’s take a deep dive in all the three main features -
Email Marketing:
Email marketing is one of the foundational constituents of a successful digital marketing strategy. Executing automation into your email campaigns can help eradicate a lot of repetitive manual work. Also, it helps businesses track leads engaged with specific pieces of content and customize follow-ups with a single touch of a button. Email marketing is not that simple, but these platforms can surely make it more comfortable.
Lead Nurturing
When a prospect comes to your site and shows their interest by downloading a content proposal then it is indicating that they want to learn more. Therefore, it’s your job as a successful marketer to make sure that happens, because if not fed properly, they might lose interest in you, or worse, they might look to your competitors for insight.
Both of these platforms offer unique capabilities for lead nurturing, so it’s important to look at your overall performance goals and align with the one that best suits your needs.
Social Media
This feature gives clear ideas to businesses about their social media returns. Some apps and features are more advanced than others, but each tool offers special benefits that help to boost social performance and overall marketing strategy of any business.
User Interface
HubSpot’s user interface was designed by the marketers and for the marketers. Marketo too has an excellent user interface with intuitive dashboards and navigations. But, it has been observed that HubSpot CRM is easier as it provides the step by step instructions to users while employing it so that even a beginner can use it easily.
HubSpot is highly focused on UX and has lent a tremendous amount of time into research before proceeding for advancing the platform. On the other hand, Marketo’s UX is focused more on large enterprises where certain users within an organization rely on particular areas of the platform. For businesses that need deep analytics and workflows, Marketo is a desirable product.
Versatility and Range of Tools
Marketo offers customized marketing solutions for distinct industries. As mentioned previously, it basically includes 5 main modules of marketing which can be purchased individually or in a bundle to build an automated platform that meets one’s business demands. Marketo accouches more in-depth coverage on the specific module like email marketing, etc. This means you'd end up spending extra if you want a completely integrated platform that holds all of the modules.
In contrast, HubSpot is an all-in-one inbound marketing platform that gives the ability to produce optimized content for blogs and web pages - based on the client's data. It not only enables one to create reports but also check analytics and a few other things all in one place. If you want to extend your marketing part in a better way, there's also an alternative to integrate up to 1,000 external tools with HubSpot's App Integration Ecosystem.
CRM Integration
Marketo owns two native CRM integrations: Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics, along with few other integrations with SugarCRM, Oracle, NetSuite, and SAP Cloud for Sales. HubSpot, on the other hand, only has one native integration: Salesforce. If you’re looking to integrate with other CRMs you’ll likely have to set up a custom integration or have to build one for you.
If your business uses Salesforce, you will enjoy the fact that Marketo was built using the Salesforce platform and merges very comprehensively.
Pricing
Which is more expensive, HubSpot or Marketo? Both offer different levels of packages, add-ons, and free trials. However, comparing the two; HubSpot starts at $FREE per month and Marketo is comparatively costly.
When you add all of the premium features and analyze the highest tiers of HubSpot and Marketo, the pricing is more or less relative; with Marketo being on the higher end.
In addition to this, HubSpot accouches a free version of its platform, where you will not get all the benefits, but it might be an exceptional way to start without putting a lot of up-front expenses. Once you opt for more features and users, the cost does increase, but overall it is less expensive than Marketo.
One needs to pay at least $895 per month for the basics and up to $3,195 for the Elite package of HubSpot. On the other hand, as heeded, the base price of Marketo is $895 per month and rises with the number of users, features, and contacts.
The image for pricing displayed below will clear the concept between HubSpot and Marketo.
HubSpot Pricing
Marketo Pricing
Pricing for Marketo is tiered in different sets for varied industries, such as for start -ups and small scale it offers starter and prime plan.
On the other hand for mid-scale and large-scale businesses, it offers an ultimate and enterprise plan including different features that ultimately enhances the ROI of their respective businesses.
Analytics and Reporting:
Acumens feed successful marketing strategies, and these valuable insights evolve from data that can be related to information about leads, prospects, customers, content engagement, and business deliverables.
HubSpot presents reporting and analytics in one user-friendly platform. Through HubSpot, your company can instantly view and assess all of the analytics, whereas Marketo gives robust reporting and high-level engagement analytics.
Nevertheless, both these tools need manual integration that can be a complicated and time-consuming process.
HubSpot and Marketo: What are the Drawbacks?
One of the most influential shortcomings to HubSpot is that it’s not always perfect for larger enterprises that implement a large number of outbound marketing strategies and tactics. HubSpot does not integrate outbound efforts to help companies get an overall view of their marketing mix.
Furthermore, with HubSpot you won’t be able to use A/B testing, which is important in improving the enforcement of digital campaigns without upgrading to a PRO package.
Talking about Marketo, it is challenging to access it unless you have a lot of expertise in tech. Marketo attains its groove with larger organizations that possess dedicated IT staff to support its implementation.
Support & Training:
If business people are indulged in marketing, then it is assumed that one will cross their paths with HubSpot Academy. Undoubtedly, it is one of the top FREE marketing and sales training resources on the internet. Although both HubSpot and Marketo hold strong support communities, HubSpot has a definite edge.
With free phone assistance and many tutorials and documents in the Academy, HubSpot has more resources for not only practicing the software but for inbound marketing and sales in general.
The resources of content delivered to the business people by in-house HubSpot professors, external agencies, and expert users is an excellent way to onboard and up-skill the internal teams of the clients' business. Not only that, but courses also aren't confined to how to use the HubSpot platform but it's a learning that stretches beyond just marketing.
While on the other hand, Marketo Education isn't free, and it's nowhere near as extensive as HubSpot’s counterpart. This is something to know when one is thinking about recruiting a trained or certified talent pool that is going to be far shallower.
Unfortunately for Marketo, many online reviews claim that the organization's support is very hit-or-miss. Specifically, it can be tough to get someone on the phone, but when you do get a hold of the right person, the reviews show that service is excellent.
In addition to phone support, both HubSpot & Marketo provide paid training depending on business people's needs like individual training or text-based resources such as Marketo resources, Marketo blog, HubSpot marketing resources, HubSpot Sales guide, Hubspot academy, and HubSpot blog.
Marketo and HubSpot have their own particular "University" and "Academy" that helps customers in learning the tools and become more skilled marketers. Both platforms hold certification courses that one opts for and finishes online. HubSpot even has specific lessons and courses that are not restrained upto the software, but about other inbound strategies and methodologies.
Reviews Comparison:
Many business people are satisfied with HubSpot as they entirely rely on it for managing marketing, sales, and CRM processes. According to some clients, the renewal process with Marketo is a little frustrating. On the other hand, the renewal process with Marketo can be a little frustrating. Besides this, for most of the users, HubSpot is easy as it helps to find the content that interests their target audience. In contrast, Marketo gives a fair amount of flexibility, such as one can customize the campaign contents based on the triggers after the initial start.
The following reviews obtained at GoodFirms is displaying the importance of both the platforms:
HubSpot:
Marketo:
Final Verdict:
Marketo and HubSpot are quite different marketing automation platforms, each with its own benefits and strategy. One is an ideal all-in-one and another is a best-in-breed platform; selecting the one between the 2 is a difficult choice to make.
Marketo is admirably suited to B2B marketers who already have an entrenched MarTech stack and are capable of customizing their platform. HubSpot, on the other hand, is a more desirable fit for marketers looking for an out-of-the-box platform with full features for every need.
Marketo is an outstanding piece of kit that is focused on value and performance. When it comes to basic features like - filtering, reporting, and assigning multiple assets, Marketo is reliable go to software as one can perceive actual ROI by using its tools, and with HubSpot, you’re not going to find many compromises. Where Marketo falters as in customizable qualifiers and sales-lead conversion features, HubSpot chooses up the slack admirably
