HubSpot vs MailChimp

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.


2021. Intuit to acquire Mailchimp



Intuit has made a significant move in the email marketing industry by acquiring Mailchimp for a whopping $12 billion. Although Intuit is not widely recognized in the email marketing space, this strategic purchase aligns with their ambitions to strengthen their position as a hub for small business growth and disrupt the small business midmarket. Intuit's flagship product, QuickBooks, is already a well-known offering among SMBs, and acquiring Mailchimp presents an opportunity to expand their service offerings to their existing customer base. While it may seem like a bold move, Intuit's decision is likely driven by the anticipation of significant corporate synergies that will outweigh the initial investment.


2021. Mailchimp moves into e-commerce



Over the past few years, Mailchimp has evolved from a simple newsletter platform into a comprehensive marketing company. While the platform has already provided integrations with various e-commerce websites, it is now introducing its own online stores tailored to small and medium businesses. Additionally, Mailchimp is launching a new appointment booking service. These new offerings are part of Mailchimp's "Websites & Commerce" plans, which include a free tier providing most of the essential functionalities. Users on the free plan will incur a 2% transaction fee. For $10/month, Mailchimp will remove its branding, provide access to email and chat support, and reduce the transaction fee to 1.5%.


2020. Mailchimp launches new AI marketing tools



Mailchimp has introduced a suite of AI-powered tools aimed at providing small businesses with the same advanced capabilities utilized by their larger counterparts. These tools encompass personalized product recommendations for customers and predictive analytics for targeted marketing, enabling businesses to identify potential buyers more effectively. Additionally, Mailchimp has unveiled a new AI-driven tool that assists business owners in creating visually appealing assets, leveraging its acquisition of Sawa. Furthermore, a tool has been introduced to aid in crafting compelling email subject lines, helping businesses enhance their communication strategies.


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.


2019. Mailchimp acquired e-commerce platform LemonStand and broke up with Shopify



Mailchimp has made the decision to discontinue its app that allowed users to utilize their Shopify data for creating targeted email campaigns. This move came after disagreements arose between the two companies regarding the sharing of customer data. Interestingly, prior to parting ways with Shopify, Mailchimp quietly acquired LemonStand, a smaller competitor of the e-commerce platform. This acquisition was aimed at enhancing Mailchimp's platform by incorporating more integrated e-commerce features. It serves as an indication of the growing importance of Mailchimp's e-commerce business. In the past year, Mailchimp collaborated with Square to introduce shoppable landing pages, showcasing the company's dedication to developing native e-commerce functionalities. While Mailchimp continues to expand its platform's e-commerce capabilities, it remains open to collaborating with third-party providers (excluding Shopify, the largest among them) to offer additional functionality to its users.


2018. Mailchimp partnered with Square to launch shoppable landing pages



Email newsletter service Mailchimp has announced a collaboration with Square, enabling its users to create landing pages integrated with e-commerce functionalities. These shoppable landing pages serve as an additional sales channel for businesses, facilitating the selling of limited-edition products and targeted promotions. While Mailchimp's landing pages have been available for some time, their primary purpose was to capture email addresses or direct users to a store. With this partnership, customers can now establish complete shopping experiences with built-in payment options directly on these pages. To simplify the process, Mailchimp provides a range of pre-designed templates and a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder. Square will apply a flat processing rate for transactions, while Mailchimp offers this service at no additional cost to its users.


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.