HubSpot vs Marketo: Which is Best for Your B2B Marketing?

HubSpot and Marketo are two popular marketing automation platforms that many B2B businesses use today to run marketing campaigns, generate leads, and grow their business. Both platforms offer different features and advantages. So, which marketing automation platform is best for you? The answer depends on your business’s specific needs. To help you assess which platform will aid in lead generation and growth for your business, OneIMS breaks down the differences between HubSpot and Marketo below.

HubSpot vs Marketo: G2 Crowd Reviews

When it comes to consumer reviews, HubSpot comes out on top. HubSpot earned the #1 in Marketing Automation award and # Overall Best Product for Marketers by G2 Crowd. Marketo also earned recognition by G2 Crowd, receiving #8 in Marketing Automation. According to G2 reviewers, the reason HubSpot earned the number one spot in the marketing automation category is due to the software’s focus on customer retention and usability. What’s more, HubSpot is made for fast-growing companies and offers many different forms of support to help thoroughly answer any questions that come up during your marketing campaigns. 

HubSpot vs Marketo: Crucial Platform Features

While both Marketo and HubSpot are comparable in terms of SEO tools, overall campaign performance reporting, revenue attribution reporting, A/B email testing, and basic content analytics, the two platforms also differ significantly. Learn how HubSpot vs Marketo compare in terms of important features and characteristics, including live chat, analytical tools, content creation tools, and more. 

Website & Content Creation 

A marketing automation tool can be extremely helpful in creating a website without needing to hire a development team. HubSpot offers tools that allow you to easily create a variety of customized pages for your website, including:

• Web pages, including the home page
• Landing pages
• Blog listing page
• Individual blog posts

Marketo, on the other hand, only allows you to create landing pages, limiting what you can do with your website without hiring someone with extensive website development experience.

The Verdict: Compared to Marketo, HubSpot has a wider range of website and content creation features that allow you to build your website without needing to hire a developer. 

Analytics

When it comes to analytic reports, both Marketo and HubSpot offer helpful insights. Marketo offers a variety of reporting metrics, including revenue reporting, high-level engagement analytics, and contact analytics. However, Marketo’s reporting needs to be set up manually, costing your business a large amount of time. 

HubSpot keeps all of your analytics in one place with no manual integration required. This makes it easy for anyone in your company to access important data and interpret it. Additionally, since the data is all in one place, every customer interaction can be connected to revenue, allowing you to make strategic business decisions effectively.  

The Verdict: While both platforms provide valuable analytic features, HubSpot’s design interface makes it easier to interpret your data. 

Live Chat

HubSpot offers a live chat feature that can be used to create a better customer experience for prospects that visit your website. A live chat feature is possible using Marketo too, however, additional software is required to implement this feature. Today, live chat is the preferred method of customer support for those visiting your website, making it a crucial feature to have in order to create a seamless experience for website visitors and leave a more positive impression on your brand.

The Verdict: HubSpot wins this category due to having the live chat feature built into its platform, unlike Marketo. 

Mobile Optimization

With HubSpot, it’s easy to create a website that is optimized for mobile as well as desktop. This feature is built into HubSpot and can be easily set up using a module without needing extensive website development knowledge. Marketo, on the other hand, requires a custom code to make your website mobile-friendly. This means you may need to hire an expert to do this, resulting in additional costs for your business. 

The Verdict: HubSpot mobile optimization is easier for the everyday growth marketer to set up since it does not require custom code like Marketo does.

Email Automation

Marketo has certain email automation features, including sending emails. However, Marketo needs to be integrated with your CMS, CRM, and other similar tools in order to optimize your efforts. What’s more, these integrations need codes in order to set them up, which can take dedicated time and effort from your business.

With HubSpot, you are provided with an all-in-one marketing automation tool that does not require coding capabilities, which includes email, CRM, content creation and more. This means that you can create a holistic campaign that includes automated emails in order to effectively nurture and generate leads.

The Verdict: HubSpot offers better email automation tools since coding capabilities are not required and tools are provided in order to create a more holistic campaign for your business.

Cost

With Marketo, your business is likely to pay more over time. Not only does Marketo require additional software for features already included in HubSpot, but using Marketo will most likely require you to hire an administrator specifically for managing your Marketo platform. 

HubSpot, on the other hand, is an intuitive platform that is designed with the average growth marketer in mind. This means you don’t need extensive knowledge in website development, data analytics, or other areas of expertise to effectively manage your business’s marketing efforts via HubSpot. 

The Verdict: Marketo is more likely to require additional expertise and software, making HubSpot a more cost-effective platform.

Sales and Marketing Collaborative Ability

When it comes to collaboration abilities, Marketo falls short. While Marketo gives your company the ability to integrate your CRM system and sales tools, both your sales and marketing teams are using different systems and interfaces, meaning they aren’t seeing the same information in real-time.

HubSpot offers seamless collaboration across different departments in your company. This is because AMB tools are accessible by both the Sales and Marketing teams. All teams can view account progress and can share account details through integrations with Slack or other communication tools. A cohesive sales and marketing team is important because it creates a sound, aligned business strategy that is designed to result in optimal growth and lead generation.

The Verdict: HubSpot offers better sales and marketing collaboration since, unlike Marketo, the sales and marketing team can view the same accounts in real-time. 

Social Media Monitoring and Publishing

HubSpot offers social media monitoring and publishing that allows you to not only post social media posts to your social platforms but also schedule posts ahead of time and monitor the engagement, clicks, and impressions for each post. These analytics help your business decide what types of content your audience is most receptive to, as well as the times your audience is most active with your account. Marketo does not offer this feature.

The Verdict: HubSpot wins this category by default since Marketo does not provide social media monitoring and publishing.

Form Creation

Both HubSpot and Marketo offer form creation on their platforms, including forms that can be integrated into landing pages. However, unlike Marketo, HubSpot also has popup forms available. Popup forms are beneficial to converting prospects into leads. This is because popup forms demand attention – a customer on the fence may be more likely to pass up on a regular form. 

The Verdict: HubSpot offers better form creation capabilities than Marketo, due to its ability to create popup forms.

Competitor Tracking 

HubSpot’s competitor tracking allows you to continuously monitor competitor’s top social posts, showing you reports on engagement for each post. If the post is suspected of having been boosted, it will state so under the post. With this information, your company can create similar posts to attract similar audiences. Marketo, on the other hand, does not have competitor tracking and requires additional software.

The Verdict: When it comes to competitor tracking, HubSpot wins in this category due to Marketo’s lack of the competitor tracking feature.

Paid Social Ads

With HubSpot, businesses can create paid social ads and analyze how they perform directly via the platform. By offering paid ad creation capabilities, HubSpot continues to simplify marketing efforts for businesses by keeping these marketing tools and analytics in one place. Marketo does not have this ability.

The Verdict: When it comes to paid social ads, HubSpot wins in this category due to Marketo’s lack of paid social ad creation.

Native Video Hosting

Today, many people prefer watching videos to reading blogs since it requires less effort and tends to be more engaging. Unlike Marketo, HubSpot offers native video hosting within the app. Video can be added to landing pages, website pages, emails, and more. By using HubSpot video tool, your business has the opportunity to add a personalized touch when communicating with leads and prospects. What’s more, it also allows you to create measurable, actionable video campaigns directly through the HubSpot platform.

The Verdict: When it comes to native video hosting, HubSpot wins in this category, as Marketo does not offer a video creation tool.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

HubSpot provides its own CRM that is built into the platform. HubSpot also has integrations with popular systems, including Salesforce, SugarCRM, Zoho, Microsoft Dynamics, and others.

Marketo also offers integrations with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and other systems. However, Marketo does not have a built-in CRM like HubSpot does. This built-in CRM can make a large difference because it creates a simpler, more streamlined experience for everyone on your marketing or sales team. 

The Verdict: While both Marketo and HubSpot offer integrations with popular CRM platforms, HubSpot offers its own CRM system as well, which makes it the winner in this respect.

Moving From Marketo to HubSpot

With so many additional features that make it intuitive and easy for every growth marketer to run their B2B business, it may have crossed your mind to migrate to HubSpot. If your B2B business is currently using Marketo and wants to make the switch to HubSpot, never fear. While there is the common misconception that it is difficult to switch over, switching over templates, landing pages, email templates, and lists is possible with proper planning. 

Integrate HubSpot into Your B2B Marketing Strategy

So, which marketing automation platform is best for running your B2B business’s marketing efforts? While both Marketo and HubSpot offer helpful features that help you run successful marketing campaigns, HubSpot offers a more extensive selection of features, making for a more intuitive experience that offers more data to better your marketing efforts.

If your business is interested in switching to HubSpot for your marketing automation strategy, contact our team at OneIMS. Our team is a HubSpot Diamond Agency and has extensive HubSpot knowledge to help you manage and grow your business through this beneficial marketing platform.