HubSpot vs Marketo

August 20, 2023 | Author: Sandeep Sharma
62
HubSpot
HubSpot offers a full stack of software for marketing, sales, and customer service, with a completely free CRM at its core. They’re powerful alone — but even better when used together.
13
Marketo
Fast and easy marketing software that helps B2B marketing professionals drive revenue and improve accountability.
HubSpot and Marketo are both popular marketing automation platforms that offer a range of tools and features to help businesses with their marketing efforts.

HubSpot is an all-in-one inbound marketing and sales platform that provides tools for content management, lead generation, email marketing, social media management, customer relationship management (CRM), and analytics. It is known for its user-friendly interface and focus on inbound marketing strategies, providing businesses with the tools to attract, engage, and delight customers.

Marketo, on the other hand, is a comprehensive marketing automation platform that offers features for lead management, email marketing, campaign management, lead nurturing, customer engagement, and marketing analytics. Marketo is known for its robust enterprise-level capabilities, scalability, and extensive integrations with other marketing tools and systems.

The key difference between HubSpot and Marketo lies in their approach and target audience. HubSpot is popular among small to mid-sized businesses and organizations that prioritize inbound marketing and are looking for an all-in-one platform to manage their marketing and sales efforts. Marketo, on the other hand, is often favored by larger enterprises and organizations with more complex marketing operations, seeking advanced automation capabilities and integrations with existing systems.

See also: Top 10 Marketing software
HubSpot vs Marketo in our news:

2023. HubSpot unveils strategy to integrate AI across the platform



HubSpot, the marketing and CRM platform, has unveiled its comprehensive AI strategy known as HubSpot AI. While the incorporation of AI elements has been an ongoing effort for HubSpot and other enterprise SaaS vendors, the advent of technologies like ChatGPT has prompted HubSpot to adopt a more extensive approach while retaining earlier features. The CRM database stores valuable company data, enabling users to gain insights into customer profiles, encompassing basic information, purchase history, customer service interactions, and more. HubSpot AI encompasses a four-pronged strategy, starting with content assistants that assist users in generating various content types across the platform. Additionally, AI agents, currently in different development stages, aim to automate customer service tasks and answer queries. The third component, AI Insights, provides predictive analytics, such as identifying customers likely to churn or make a purchase, a capability integrated into the platform over time.


2020. HubSpot’s new end-to-end sales hub aims to simplify CRM for mid-market customers



HubSpot, renowned for its role in shaping the concept of inbound marketing, has unveiled the HubSpot Sales Hub Enterprise. While the company has been providing a CRM tool for five years, which has successfully addressed the usability concerns of salespeople, the new offering aims to deliver a comprehensive approach that caters to the needs of not only sales professionals but also management and system administrators. HubSpot recognizes that larger players in the industry, such as Adobe, Salesforce, and SAP, typically acquire various components of the technology stack and integrate them into their solutions, or customers themselves piece together different elements. In contrast, HubSpot believes that developing a unified, integrated solution in-house will naturally result in a more user-friendly experience.


2020. HubSpot unveils new content management system for marketers



HubSpot, a renowned inbound marketing firm, has introduced a dedicated content management system (CMS) specifically designed to simplify the process of adding and updating content for marketing professionals. While content management has always been a fundamental aspect of HubSpot's offerings, this new CMS has been developed from scratch with marketers in mind. It provides developers with the flexibility to use their preferred programming languages while leveraging the modular structure of the HubSpot CMS. Simultaneously, the user-friendly interface empowers marketers to make frequent changes necessary for modern websites.


2018. Adobe acquires Marketo for $4.75 billion



Adobe has announced its acquisition of the marketing automation company Marketo for a significant $4.75 billion. This strategic move positions Adobe strongly in the enterprise marketing arena, pitting it against major competitors like Salesforce, Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP. The acquisition not only bolsters Adobe's Marketing Cloud portfolio but also grants access to Marketo's expansive customer base of 5000 organizations. This presents a valuable opportunity for Adobe to drive revenue growth in this particular segment of its offerings, while intensifying its competitive edge within the enterprise market. With the integration of Marketo, Adobe is poised to further solidify its position and expand its reach in the realm of marketing automation.


2018. HubSpot added customer service tools to its marketing platform



HubSpot is venturing beyond sales and marketing by officially introducing its Service Hub, a comprehensive solution for managing customer service. This expansion includes an all-in-one inbox for organizing all customer communications, a bot-builder to automate certain customer interactions, features for developing a company knowledge base (which can be utilized by the bot-builder), survey creation tools, and a dashboard for monitoring the performance of your service team. Service Hub is seamlessly integrated with HubSpot's existing products, enabling businesses to track customer interactions across sales, marketing, and support.


2017. HubSpot unveiled Conversations



CRM, marketing, sales, and customer experience provider HubSpot has introduced a range of product updates, including notable integrations with Facebook for advertising purposes, Shopify for ecommerce functionalities, and the introduction of a new tool called "Conversations." The Conversations tool, facilitated by chatbots, consolidates customer messages into a single inbox, representing the evolution of HubSpot's live chat platform. This unified messaging system becomes crucial during significant transitions, such as the handoff from sales to support. Key features of Conversations include seamless integration with HubSpot CRM and the ability to create chatbots, leveraging the technology obtained from HubSpot's recent acquisition of the chatbot platform, Motion AI. These updates aim to enhance customer interactions and streamline communication processes within the HubSpot platform.


2017. Marketo picks Google Cloud to migrate from on-prem data centers



Marketo, the marketing automation platform, has made the strategic decision to migrate its entire on-premises operation to the Google Cloud Platform. This collaboration goes beyond mere hosting, as Google will offer enhanced integration with GSuite. As a result, Marketo customers will enjoy the ability to create content and engage with their customers directly from the Marketo platform, leveraging popular Google tools such as Gmail, Sheets, and Hangouts Chat. Additionally, Marketo has outlined plans to leverage Google BigQuery for advanced analytics and utilize Google's machine learning APIs to unlock improved marketing insights for its clientele. By embracing this partnership, Marketo aims to empower its customers with an enriched experience and enable more effective marketing strategies.


2017. Marketing platform HubSpot acquires AI startup Kemvi



Inbound marketing and sales platform HubSpot has made an acquisition of Kemvi, a startup that utilizes artificial intelligence and machine learning to assist sales teams. A short while ago, Kemvi introduced DeepGraph, a product that examines public data to enable salespeople in identifying the optimal time (such as after a job transition or the release of an article) to connect with potential customers. Additionally, it takes proactive measures to verify leads. HubSpot was actively seeking innovative ways to incorporate AI technology into its platform as a means to combat competitors. The acquisition of Kemvi was especially attractive to HubSpot due to its ability to address a genuine requirement among salespeople.


2016. Vista Equity Partners acquired marketing platform Marketo



San Francisco-based Vista Equity Partners has entered into an agreement to acquire the online marketing platform Marketo for a sum of $1.79 billion. This strategic acquisition will enable Marketo to maintain its unwavering commitment to customer success and retain its position as a leading independent player in the market. Marketo will continue to spearhead product innovation and thought leadership within the digital marketing industry, setting the agenda for the future. Furthermore, this partnership will empower Marketo to fulfill its ambitious vision of providing an ultra-scalable enterprise platform for customer engagement, catering to the needs of tomorrow's marketers and the C-suite.


2015. HubSpot launches own CRM system



HubSpot, a renowned company recognized for its marketing tools, has officially launched its CRM product, moving it out of the beta phase. The CRM tool is available for free, while HubSpot's sales "acceleration" tool, Sidekick, is priced at $50 per seat per month. HubSpot describes the CRM tool as designed to assist sales representatives in minimizing the tedious aspects of data entry and interaction management. The tool automatically captures data from the sales process and organizes it in a chronological format. This strategy of providing free software to companies and subsequently upselling their IT departments has proven successful for software companies like Dropbox and Box. Although there are still costs associated with the sales process, having products integrated into more businesses helps reduce certain barriers.

Author: Sandeep Sharma
Sandeep is a marketing expert with a wealth of knowledge in various domains: customer relationship management, social media management, advertising, search engine optimization, website building, Sandeep has established himself as a multifaceted professional. He honed his skills while working at Salesforce and Hubspot, where he gained invaluable insights into the industry. Now, as the proud owner of a small advertising consulting agency, Sandeep continues to provide innovative and effective strategies to businesses, helping them thrive in the competitive landscape of digital marketing. You can contact Sandeep via email sandeep@liventerprise.com