“What should my company use, HubSpot or Marketo?“ If you are reading this post, it means you’ve been asking yourself this question lately. When choosing a perfect Marketing tool for your company, and despite the big number of different solutions, the comparison between these two will inevitably arise. In this post we will go over different functionalities of HubSpot vs Marketo and get all your questions answered.
Marketo was founded in 2006 in San Mateo, California and was purchased by Adobe Inc. in 2018. Marketo describes their solution as the “Best-in-Class Marketing Automation Software”, so their goal is to focus on Marketing technology and Marketing automation.
HubSpot was also founded in 2006, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company positions their software as a full platform of marketing, sales, customer service, and CRM software — plus the methodology, resources, and support.
During these years on the market, HubSpot and Marketo both grew their business and became a number 1 and 2 Solution respectively, according to SimilarTech. HubSpot is used in over 146,000 websites, and is dominating in the US, UK, Canada, and India. Meanwhile, Marketo is leading in Japan, with its solution active in more than 39,000 websites.
Both HubSpot and Marketo offer a complete Email Marketing solution: you can design and send out your emails easily from both platforms. In addition to email creation, HubSpot offers a separated workspace for designing reusable CTAsthat can be added to your emails and landing pages.
Thinking about creating a blog or using some landing pages for lead generation? One of the key advantages of HubSpot is that it has its own Content Management System that allows you to build your website directly with it, or to design a blog and landing pages right in HubSpot and link them to your website. Marketo also offers tools for creating landing pages but does not have a built-in CMS.
When it comes to automation, Marketo is built around programs and smart campaigns that work based on different filters and triggers, making building very complex automation processes possible. Keep in mind that sometimes, in order to do that, you’ll have to use several smart campaigns that would fire depending one on another, what can make testing, modifying, and tracking your campaign performance not so easy.
HubSpot has workflows and sequences that are very easy to build and test, all in one place. Of course, both platforms offer a library of pre-built assets: in case of Marketo, your account should be connected to Marketo Library to be able to import programs. In HubSpot, when creating a new workflow, you can choose whether to use a template or to start from scratch.
What about Ads? You can acquire Facebook Lead Ads and LinkedIn Matched Audiences in Marketo Launch point that allows you to set up audiences similar to your customer profile in Marketo and import some information (in case of Facebook). You can also send some offline conversion information from Marketo to Google Ads.
With HubSpot Ads Software, you can connect your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Google Ads accounts just in a couple of clicks and see a list of all your campaigns as well as switch them on and off, optimize them and see their performance right from HubSpot.
Marketo has a native (and a very powerful) integration with Salesforce that allows bidirectional syncing of your data in a way that you can make the most out of both platforms.
HubSpot can also be integrated with different CRMs, but it’s not even needed in most cases as it offers its own CRM tool: you can create and manage pipelines, deals, products, quotes, and opportunities directly from HubSpot.
If you not only want to manage your customer database from your tool, but also contact them in real time, HubSpot can make it possible: With Service Hub you can build a Chatbot, route the conversations to your Support Team, and create tasks for them. More than that, your agents can manage and reply tickets and emails as well as connect their calendar to schedule meetings and calls with HubSpot. Marketo doesn’t currently offer these functionalities.
Reports are very easy to find and use in Marketo: they are all put together in Analytics. There are several report types that you can use, modify, and save, such as Lead Performance, Landing page Performance, Email Performance report, etc. You can organize them in folders and sort by type. You can also see statistics for each campaign directly within the corresponding program.
In HubSpot, alongside Reports that you can group in Dashboards, you have Analytic tools in almost every other part of the solution: Ads Software has its own analytics tool, blogs and landing pages have their traffic analytics, and, for example, if you are organizing online events, you can see your attendees and no-shows’ statistics directly from the HubSpot Marketing events tool.
HubSpot Marketplace has hundreds of different apps to integrate with such as Slack, SurveyMonkey, Calendly and many more. Every integration has a documentation, a video walkthrough and is done in a couple of clicks. No need to be a developer to connect your other aps with HubSpot.
Marketo has a Launch Point where you can find many different integrations available, with all the services divided in two categories: service providers and agencies. Some of these integrations require basic technical knowledge (API, webhooks).
Both HubSpot and Marketo have their Knowledge base for generic users as well as their documentation for developers. When it comes to “human” support, you can always open tickets both in HubSpot and Marketo. In addition to that, HubSpot provides you with immediate help via chat or phone that is extremely fast and very effective.
Marketo Expert certificate exams are pretty expensive. For preparing for the exam, a list of topics and sample questions is offered. You can also find videos and tutorials in Marketo Docs, but mostly you’ll have to study and practice on your own. Marketo also offers a paid prep course to help you pass the exam. You can take your exam either at a testing center or at home, in which case it will be a proctored exam with a supervisor monitoring you and your screen via the webcam.
To conclude, I would like to share a more personal opinion on the HubSpot vs Marketo dilemma as I had a chance to happily work with both platforms. I would say, Marketo is like a manual car, and HubSpot is like an automatic one: though Marketo offers a lot of possibilities, its complexity makes it not so easy to start using it independently. HubSpot, on the contrary, is very intuitive and user friendly.
So, Marketo or HubSpot? It depends on your concrete case. I would definitely advise you to consider the size of your company and whether you have an IT-department in-house to help you with the set-up (in case of Marketo you might need it). Keep in mind that, while both solutions are made to be used by companies of all sizes, if you are a smaller company, HubSpot might be the perfect option for you, since technical help is almost not necessary. Moreover, HubSpot customer support is always ready to assist you immediately, and that will make you feel part of the family.
I would also take into account whether you are a beginner in the world of Marketing automation or an advanced user (Marketo could be the right fit rather for an experienced user) and especially whether you are looking for an email Marketing automation tool for building complex workflows or rather an all-in-one platform that can replace your CMS, CRM, your Ads manager and more. You can also take a look at our write-up on HubSpot vs. Pardot.
If you need extra advice to make a decision, you can always count on mbudo. We will evaluate your case and help you develop the best Marketing strategy for your business. We are a HubSpot Partner Agency, don’t hesitate to contact us!