Ever since businesses discovered marketing as a way to increase awareness, drive leads, and close sales, things have never been the same. Companies have always been on the lookout for unique strategies to implement in marketing campaigns to help them stand out from the crowd. And thanks to the fast-paced digital transformation, marketing has been fused with technology, birthing modern-day marketing as we know it today.
As a result of this evolution, marketers are now armed with an arsenal of tools, including email marketing software, social media management platforms, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and more. But which one is right for your business? To answer this question, we'll look at two leading marketing automation solutions—HubSpot and Marketo—side by side. We'll discuss what they are, how they're different from one another, their key features, and pros and cons for each. We'll also highlight how to choose the best platform for your business.
What is Marketo?
Marketo is a cloud-based marketing automation platform designed for business-to-business (B2B) companies. Launched in 2006, the platform provides everything you need to automate lead generation, nurture prospects, convert leads into customers, and track customer interactions. With Adobe Marketo, you can create personalized emails, landing pages, web forms, surveys, and more. You can then use these automated messages to send targeted offers or promotions to individuals.
What is HubSpot?
Founded in June 2006 by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot is a CRM-powered marketing automation solution that helps small- and medium-sized businesses grow their online presence. The platform includes modules such as Customer Relationship Management, Sales Intelligence, Social Media Management, Lead Nurturing, Content Creation, Website Tracking, SEO/PPC Optimization, Analytics, and Reporting. It has over 143,000 active users across more than 120 countries.
What are the differentiated features of Marketing Hub Enterprise and Marketo Ultimate?
When comparing the unique functionalities of Marketing Hub Enterprise by HubSpot and Marketo Ultimate, key differences emerge in their offerings which cater to diverse marketing needs.
HubSpot's Marketing Hub Enterprise
HubSpot focuses on holistic and accessible tools for marketers aiming for comprehensive campaign management and real-time interaction:
- Content Strategy: Streamlining content creation aligned with user needs and SEO.
- Social Media Tools: Management tools to engage and grow social media presence effectively.
- Ad Tracking & Management: Allows for precise tracking of ad placements and performance analytics, optimizing spend and ROI.
While HubSpot's Enterprise solution is packed with myriad features, there are no specific exclusivities mentioned in the limitations of the basic offering.
Marketo Ultimate
Marketo Ultimate, on the other hand, leverages advanced technological integrations for predictive analysis and personalized user experiences:
- Advanced Predictive Content: Utilizes machine learning to deliver content anticipated to perform best with individuals or segments.
- Predictive Audiences: Employs predictive analytics to segment audiences more accurately, enhancing targeting strategies.
- Experience Automation: Advanced automation capabilities that allow for personalized customer journeys at scale.
Marketo Ultimate also does not list specific unavailable features, rather it emphasizes advanced capabilities in audience targeting and automation that are unique to its platform.
In summary, HubSpot’s Marketing Hub Enterprise appears to be exceptionally user-friendly with strong content and social media tool offerings, ideal for marketing teams looking to streamline their efforts across multiple channels. Meanwhile, Marketo Ultimate excels in utilizing advanced predictive technologies and automation, making it suitable for marketers focused on cutting-edge targeting and personalization strategies.
How is Marketo different from HubSpot?
While both HubSpot and Marketo offer similar core functionality, each has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. Let's examine some of the most important differences between the two platforms.
- Pricing - Marketo offers five core modules that users can purchase separately, bundled, or in an integrated platform. The modules are priced in three tiers: Pro, Elite, and Enterprise. On the flip side, HubSpot has a unified purchase system for its numerous features and functionalities. Its core product, Marketing Hub, is available in four different pricing tiers: Free, Starter, Professional, and Enterprise.
- Integrations - While HubSpot integrates with third-party applications like Google Analytics, Marketo does not. If you want to integrate with other apps, Marketo requires you to build custom integrations. That means if you want to connect Marketo to any external app, you either need to pay extra for it or build your own integration.
- User Experience - Marketo focuses on providing solutions to enterprises and larger businesses. Its software is designed for top-tier marketers and may require someone with IT knowledge to navigate and optimize. Conversely, HubSpot offers a much simpler user experience, and anyone can access its depth of marketing tools trouble-free.
What is the total cost of ownership for HubSpot's Marketing Hub, and how does it compare to Marketo's pricing structure?
Total Cost of Ownership: HubSpot Marketing Hub vs. Marketo
When considering marketing automation tools, the total cost of ownership (TCO) is a vital factor. Let's delve into the details of HubSpot's Marketing Hub and compare it with Marketo's pricing structure to provide a comprehensive overview.
HubSpot Marketing Hub: Cost-Efficiency and Value
HubSpot's Marketing Hub is designed to be powerful yet user-friendly, offering a deep level of customization without complexity. This ease of use extends to its pricing structure, making it an appealing option for both small businesses and large enterprises.
- Quick Implementation: One of the notable aspects of Marketing Hub is its rapid deployment. Enterprises can activate Marketing Hub within an average of under three months. This swift implementation can lead to quicker realization of ROI, potentially lowering the initial phase of ownership costs.
- High Engagement: Users of Marketing Hub Enterprise exhibit substantial feature utilization, with 88% showing high usage rates. Furthermore, Marketing Hub can significantly boost engagement metrics — users report a 121% increase in email click-through rates after 12 months.
- Support Services: Included in the subscription, HubSpot offers a range of support channels. This integrated support can decrease additional costs typically associated with third-party training or troubleshooting services.
Marketo: A Comparative Look
Marketo is another major player in the marketing automation field, known for its comprehensive feature set targeted primarily at mid-size to larger businesses. Marketo's pricing model, however, is generally tiered and can be perceived as less transparent compared to HubSpot.
- Pricing Model: Marketo often requires a custom quote, which can vary significantly based on the scale and specific needs of the business. This can make initial budgeting for Marketo more challenging.
- Implementation and Adaptation: Setting up Marketo can be involved, depending on the complexity of use cases. This might lead to higher upfront costs due to longer implementation times and potential need for specialized consultancy.
- Additional Costs: Marketo users might incur additional costs for advanced training, premium support, and add-ons, which are often necessary for utilizing the platform to its fullest potential.
Price Conclusion
When comparing the total cost of ownership between HubSpot Marketing Hub and Marketo, businesses should consider both the direct and indirect costs. HubSpot offers a clear advantage in terms of ease of use, quick setup, and inclusive support, which can greatly reduce the TCO. Marketo, while powerful, may introduce higher initial and ongoing costs, particularly in terms of setup, customization, and support. For businesses looking for a straightforward, scalable solution with predictable pricing, HubSpot's Marketing Hub often emerges as the more cost-effective choice.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Marketo and HubSpot
Let's look at the strengths and weaknesses of both Marketo and HubSpot to see which CRM-powered marketing platform is better for your business's needs.
Advantages of Marketo
- Flexible pricing gives you the ability to choose from among three pricing options: Pro, Elite, or Enterprise.
- Multiple modules are included in one package, making it easy to try out various modules without buying them separately.
- A wide variety of add-ons and extensions allows you to customize your account according to your business's needs.
Disadvantages of MArketo
- It can be costly for smaller businesses, and it has no free plan.
- It lacks blog management features, unlike HubSpot, which has them.
Advantages of HubSpot
- HubSpot is very affordable, and its entry-level product is less expensive than Marketo's.
- The free version has many useful features, including lead scoring, email automation, and landing page creation.
- The ability to create campaigns and track results using Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Twitter Analytics, etc., makes it easier to measure ROI.
- It also provides a simple interface, which is easy to use even for nontechnical people.
Disadvantages of HubSpot
- Its reporting tool is pretty basic compared to Marketo's.
- It lacks A/B testing on lower packages.
Marketo Vs HubSpot: Unique Features on Each Platform
No doubt, both platforms have several similar features and capabilities that make them suitable for their customers. Common core features across both platforms include SEO tools, content marketing, email automation, landing pages, A/B testing, lead nurturing, reporting/analytics, and many more. However, each platform has unique features that make it more attractive to certain types of companies. Here's a quick comparison of their key features.
Marketo's Unique Features
1) Lead Nurturing
Unlike HubSpot, whose focus is inbound marketing, Marketo has traditionally focused on lead nurturing. The platform has concrete features that help nurture leads through various stages of the buying process. These include automated follow-up emails, dynamic content, personalized messages, and more.
2) Financial Management
Marketo's robust financial management system helps you manage your finances while growing your company. You can effortlessly see how much money you spend on different activities and set budgets accordingly. It also lets you generate reports and analyze data to know where you're losing money.
HubSpot's Unique Features
1) Built-In CRM
Unlike Marketo, HubSpot offers its own built-in customer relationship management solution. That means you don't need an additional third-party application like Salesforce to run your sales pipeline, nurture leads, and close deals.
2) Blogging Tools
HubSpot provides a blogging feature that allows you to write blogs about your products and services. You can also schedule posts, assign tags, and publish them automatically. In addition, you can integrate other social media channels, such as LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram, right into your blog posts.
3) Transactional Emails
HubSpot comes with a powerful transactional email builder that lets you send customized emails based on user actions. For example, if someone subscribes to your newsletter, you can send them a welcome message; if they click on a link in the email, you can send them a thank-you note; and if they download a file, you can send them an invoice.
How does HubSpot differentiate itself from Marketo in terms of customer experience and revenue generation?
HubSpot distinguishes itself from Marketo primarily through its focus on delivering personalized and empathetic marketing experiences which drive both customer engagement and revenue growth. Unlike Marketo, HubSpot has designed the Marketing Hub to provide tools that not only attract high-quality leads, but also ensure these leads convert into loyal customers through tailored interactions. This approach enables marketers to reach their audience in a meaningful way while simultaneously bolstering conversions.
Moreover, HubSpot enhances the synergy between the sales and marketing teams. It achieves this by integrating functionalities into a singular platform, allowing both departments to access and utilize the same data including details about contacts, companies, and deals. This unified system fosters a more coordinated effort, eliminating common barriers that separate marketing and sales, which can often hinder customer acquisition and retention.
By prioritizing both technological integration and customer-centric marketing strategies, HubSpot successfully differentiates itself from Marketo, delivering a more cohesive and effective approach to revenue generation and customer experience. This strategy ensures that users of HubSpot can anticipate not only better collaboration internally, but also more conversion opportunities and customer satisfaction externally.
What AI capabilities does Marketo offer and how do they compare to HubSpot's AI tools?
Marketo has leveraged the power of Adobe Sensei to elevate its AI capabilities, particularly through its Predictive Content feature. This advanced tool enhances customer engagement by meticulously cataloging various content assets on a website — including text, images, videos, and more — and employing machine learning along with predictive analytics to dynamically deliver the most relevant content to users across multiple platforms such as desktop and mobile, and through various channels like email.
On the other hand, HubSpot integrates artificial intelligence in several user-friendly tools designed to optimize content creation and campaign execution. Its Content Assistant tool simplifies the content generation process by providing suggestions for topics, headlines, and even drafts of sentences. Meanwhile, HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant streamlines marketing efforts by automating the creation of copy for various forms of marketing collateral, such as emails, landing pages, and ads. This not only saves time but also allows marketers to dedicate their focus to more strategic initiatives that benefit from a personal touch.
Both Marketo and HubSpot offer distinct approaches to incorporating AI within their platforms, each focusing on different aspects of marketing automation and content management to enhance user experience and operational efficiency.
How does Marketing Hub make it easy for businesses to start with free tools and upgrade as they grow?
1. What are the options for a business as it grows after starting with free tools?
As the business expands, it can either upgrade using the same platform or immediately opt for one of the premium editions available.
2. How can a business start with Marketing Hub?
A business can begin by utilizing the free tools offered by Marketing Hub.
Marketing Hub is designed to support businesses at every stage of their growth. Starting with no initial cost, businesses can utilize our free tools to kickstart their marketing efforts. As they expand and their needs become more complex, Marketing Hub makes it easy to transition to higher-tier services.
Marketing Hub makes it easy for businesses to start with free and upgrade as they grow by offering a unified purchase system with four different pricing tiers: Free, Starter, Professional, and Enterprise. This allows businesses to access a range of features and functionalities at no cost initially, and then seamlessly transition to more advanced capabilities as their needs evolve and their business expands.
This flexibility ensures that businesses can scale their marketing strategies efficiently, without having to invest in external tools or complicated integrations. From the very beginning, Marketing Hub is your partner in growth, adapting to your changing needs with its scalable solutions.
How does Marketing Hub empower connections and personalize messaging for better customer engagement?
1. What tangible results can be expected from using Marketing Hub in terms of customer engagement?
One tangible result from using Marketing Hub is a significant increase in website traffic. Specifically, customers using the platform experience an average increase of 113% in traffic to their websites after 12 months, indicating a robust enhancement in customer engagement.
2. How is content personalized for individual customers?
Content personalization is achieved through the use of personalization tokens. These tokens allow for the display of content tailored to individual contacts based on their specific information stored in the HubSpot Smart CRM. This ensures that the content each customer sees is relevant to their interests and behaviors.
3. How are analytics used to improve customer engagement?
Analytics in Marketing Hub, specifically multi-touch revenue attribution and customer journey analytics, are utilized to optimize the customer experience by providing insights into which marketing activities are effectively contributing to revenue and how customers are interacting with various touchpoints throughout their journey.
How to Choose the Best Platform for Your Business
If you want to grow your business, you should definitely consider using one of these two popular marketing software solutions. But settling on one of the two enterprise CRM solutions will depend on various factors, such as your specific needs and business model.
When to Use Marketo
You should choose Marketo if:
- You want to automate all aspects of selling, including managing your inventory, shipping orders, creating invoices, collecting payments, and communicating with clients.
- Your goal is to optimize the entire sales cycle by automating repetitive tasks and removing manual processes.
- You want to focus on building long-term relationships with your customers instead of just closing sales.
- You want to use analytics to understand what works best for your audience.
- You want to track your progress over time and compare results against competitors.
When to Use HubSpot
You should opt for HubSpot if:
- You are looking for a simple way to get started without investing a lot of time learning the platform.
- You have a small team and don't require sophisticated tools.
- You want to start generating leads right away.
- You want to engage directly with prospects before reaching out to sales representatives.
- You want to provide value to your current and potential customers.
- You want to collect data from multiple sources (e.g., website, app, social media).
The Final Verdict
Both HubSpot and Marketo offer robust features and capabilities that can take your business to the next level through automation, personalization, and optimization. There are some critical differences between the two platforms, however, that can make it difficult to decide which one is better suited for your business. These include pricing, integrations, and support options.
But overall, if you value affordability, ease of use, scalability, and customization, HubSpot may be the best enterprise CRM platform that fits your requirements. Conversely, Adobe Marketo might be the perfect fit for your company if you're in the market for a premium, feature-packed, and sophisticated marketing automation solution.
Eternal Works is a Virginia Beach marketing and growth agency focused on helping businesses succeed online. Our goal is to leverage top-tier marketing technologies, strategies, and expertise to help our clients achieve their goals faster and smarter. We specialize in digital marketing, content marketing, SEO, PPC management, conversion-rate optimization, lead generation, and more. To learn more about how we can help your business grow, contact us today.
