Is HubSpot the best Marketing Automation tool?

Which one should you choose? 

Spot the differences between HubSpot and the competition

The best and the rest: or the good, the bad and the ugly 

Let’s see how  HubSpot fares when it goes head to head with its rivals

Comparative guide to marketing automation tools

Let the battle commence 

Round 1, fight!

Not really, they can be quite cooperative actually. 

Here are HubSpot’s main competitors in chronological order:

Basecamp (1999)

Basecamp is an online platform that integrates project and contact management, allowing you to work cooperatively in a simple and effective way.

The main objective of Basecamp is to offer basic tools for the management of your projects (task list, calendar, file sharing) based on the optimal use of its elements and the flow of information between collaborators, managers and clients.

Salesforce (1999)

Orange is not the only fruit…

...so who are they up against? 

The big two

East coast vs. West coast CRM turf war

The old guard vs the new kid on the block

Salesforce (1999) representing Frisco v HubSpot representing Cambridge 

As Rizen Inbound put it in their video description from Aug 2020, Hubspot vs Salesforce: Which is Best for Marketers? (w/Rogelio Rodriguez):

"Salesforce might be the OG CRM, but Hubspot has made waves touting their inbound philosophy and holistic customer care system. So which one is best for marketers? We'll compare both to help you make a decision."

Once upon a time...a quick rundown of their history 

Back in the early days, Salesforce tried to buy HubSpot, but it never transpired in the end.

Why does HubSpot have a CRM anyway?

HubSpot started out using Salesforce's CRM but found fault with it, leading HubSpot to create their own.

Despite their rivalry, history and the fact that Salesforce has a 30% of the CRM market, both companies allow mutual integrations.

This tool is specially designed to help your sales and marketing team achieve their goals.

Salesforce simplifies all the tasks of your sales funnel, from tracking customer interactions and sales opportunities to simplifying communication within your team, allowing you to analyze which channels within your marketing strategy are being most effective in achieving new SQL (Structured Query Language) leads.

MailChimp (2001)

If you don't have access to a robust tool like HubSpot to carry out your email marketing strategy, MailChimp is an excellent solution for building and managing your email list.

With MailChimp you can segment your database for better targeting of your mailings, personalize your emails through templates and also track the interaction of your subscribers.

ActiveCampaign (2003)

When Ryan Holmes started the company in 2003 (3 years prior to HubSpot) as an on-premise tool, only the automation of some marketing and contact management processes were available. However, in 2013 the platform began to operate in the cloud as a software as a service (SaaS). Thanks to this migration in its service delivery model, the scalability and power of ActiveCampaign increased, allowing its users to automate many more marketing and sales processes, making the tool increasingly popular in the industry.

WordPress (2003)

WordPress is a very versatile blog platform that can easily integrate SEO and Social Media tools, as well as other Inbound Marketing tools in one place.

As a blogging tool, it is practically indispensable. It’s also very easy to use and configure while also being very advanced and well optimized for search engines.

MOZ (2004)

MOZ is the leading tool in the SEO industry, which allows you to analyze the quality and authority of your website as well as the positioning of your keywords.

Additionally, you can control and manage your SEO strategy, guiding you to increase your ranking.

Marketo (2006) (Click for comparison with HubSpot)

It presents its services divided into four modules that can be hired individually according to your needs. They are: 

• Marketing Automation 
• Consumer Engagement Marketing
• Real-Time Personalization 
• Marketing Management

 This can be a clear advantage for certain companies because they can contract only the services they are going to use; otherwise, it can become a disadvantage for those companies that are looking for an integral solution.

Hootsuite (2008)

When it comes to managing Social Media, Hootsuite is one of the most efficient inbound marketing tools. From a single dashboard, you can simultaneously manage your actions in networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin.

Their management platform allows you to schedule your publications and monitor their effectiveness, so you can analyze the best times to publish your content.

The success of an inbound marketing strategy depends on the use of content to start building relationships with your future customers. Therefore, being able to listen and relate to your target audience through social networks will lead to results in terms of visibility and conversion. 

Feedly (2008)

Feedly is a simple and elegant RSS reader, which allows you to organize and access a large amount of content from a web browser or mobile device, so you can have at your disposal a wide source of inspiration for the creation of your content.

On the other hand, such Inbound Marketing tools will help you keep tabs on what your competitors are up to. It’s a good option for consuming and also sharing content.

SEMrush (2008)

SEMrush offers a complete set of tools for SEM (Search Engine Marketing), which provide you with very important information from the SEO point of view, such as the positioning, the most relevant keywords, their degree of competence, the URL that is positioned and its SERP (Search Engine Results Pages), as well as allowing you to analyze your competition and detect new opportunities for your business.

This tool constantly adapts to changes in the algorithms and the SEO trends of your processes are always updated.

Optimizely (2010)

Optimizely provides you with a series of tools that allow you to easily run A/B tests, with the purpose of measuring and tracking the way your visitors interact with your website.

This tool is very easy to use and does not require any knowledge of HTML, so it is widely used for testing on landing pages and through the conversion funnel to ensure satisfactory and enjoyable user experiences.

PhotoPin

This is one of the most complete Inbound Marketing tools to find high-quality images, with Creative Commons license hosted on Flickr, for your blog contents.

Photopin is very easy to use, as it allows you to search for any word or words that define the image you are looking for and filter the results based on the types of licenses, relevance and novelty of the images.

To make use of these images, you only have to attribute it to the owner with a link that the same tool puts at your disposal.

Conclusion

Mirror, mirror on the wall, what’s the best marketing tool of them all? 

Lost in the supermarket?

I know, you’re spoilt for choice right, right? 

All these tools have something to offer and help you achieve a successful Inbound Marketing strategy. They provide valuable information and resources that will not only help the work of your team but also the results of your company. 

Which one should I choose? 

It can be difficult to come to a conclusion as to which is better or worse. The best option is to give each one a whirl. Find out how they work for you personally by exploring them and just pick those that most benefit you and your business.

But, if you twist my arm, I’d have to say that…

...the award goes to …

HubSpot! 

Why HubSpot?  Get Started With Marketing Hub

Benefits 

Lead generation

Marketing automation

Email marketing

Forms

Landing pages

Contact management

Live chat

Facebook, Instagram, Google, and LinkedIn ads

Traffic and conversion analytics

Before and after HubSpot

Even though other marketing automation tools existed before HubSpot, this was the only tool that satisfied all the needs of the inbound marketing methodology (which it was 100% adapted to). This methodology caused a sensation in the sector and the HubSpot platform completely revolutionized the martech industry. 

This is why I would recommend their marketing automation tool as the best.