If you go back a couple of years in 2015, you will come across a shocking fact that only 10% of the companies were actually using the marketing automation tools for their campaigns.

However, post-2015, companies started to make a change in their concept and approach, which increased their marketing output and results significantly. According to a recent study, it was found that:
  • Nearly 75% of marketers currently use marketing automation tools.
  • The marketing automation technology market is expected to reach up to $25-billion by 2023.
According to the research figures, this is an increase of 120% from the figure of 2017, which stood at $11.4-billion.

The current scenario

The vendors for marketing automation tools are competing with each other to stick to their aim to make a mark in the future market. They will court you as well as your business. They also might claim one of the following:
  • Their product is the best.
  • They are the most popular.
  • Their service is the highest performing.
However, when it comes to niche players, vendors still have a lot to do before they can really become a household name. In order to achieve this, most of the companies make a choice of a small handful of solution that is best-in-class.

This makes the choice more difficult because there is a noticeable lack of variation in the market. This creates a clear and sometimes fierce marketing automation faceoffs.

Similarities between HubSpot and Marketo

The most common marketing automation faceoff is between HubSpot and Marketo. There are some similarities between these two tools. They are:
  • Both using cloud-based tools.
  • Both being industry leaders.
  • Both having a strong and long customer base.
  • Both providing high satisfaction scores.
  • Both having a lot of overlapping features.
In spite of all these similarities, both these tools are not the same. There are some clear dissimilarities between the Engagement Marketing Platform of the market and the Inbound Marketing software of HubSpot.

Differentiating between the two

Marketo is primarily a marketing automation tool for enterprises and B2B clients. HubSpot, on the other hand, is more focussed on its consumers. It is this difference in audiences that results in the different ways these systems are built and priced.

When you consider the features of Marketo, it can be categorised into five primary modules that include:
  • lead management
  • consumer marketing
  • email marketing
  • customer base marketing, and 
  • mobile marketing.
All of these modules of Marketo can be bought separately, or you can purchase them together as in an integrated platform. This is a better approach however because it will allow you to develop a more customised solution for all your specific needs. But, there are some businesses that prefer to have a more unified system.

In addition to that, the modules of Marketo are priced in different tiers according to the scale that denotes:
  • basic scale (that is usually used by the smaller companies)
  • professional
  • elite, and 
  • enterprise.
On the other hand, when you consider HubSpot, you will see that unlike Marketo, it offers all of its features and capabilities through a single system. You will also have a couple of free add-ons in the form of CRM applications and sales.

This is ideally an all-in-one solution that is most attractive to several buyers for the simple reason that it provides a seamless functionality. It is also because it is priced as a single unit.

When you use HubSpot, it will also offer you several pre-built integrations with some of the most popular business apps. This will allow making further customisation to your marketing campaigns.

While considering the core product of HubSpot, Marketing Hub, you will see that it is also priced in five different tiers according to scale such as:
  • free
  • starter
  • basic
  • professional, and
  • enterprise.
With some free options, HubSpot seems to be a much more affordable option, especially for small businesses. Ideally, the entry-level product of HubSpot is considerably less expensive even than the basic edition of Marketo.

On the other hand, for enterprise use, both HubSpot and Marketo are more or less comparable in terms of price. However, Marketo is still far more expensive. This is because you will need to buy and use more than one module to make it more effective.

Ease of use aspects

When it comes to ease of use, Marketo typically specialises in providing more customised solutions for enterprises. The software, however, needs more IT knowledge of the users to operate. Therefore, for your benefit, you will need to have a devoted MA specialist or employ a marketing engineer with MA software experience. This will enable you to make the best of the features that Marketo offers in depth. 

On the other hand, it is better to use HubSpot for your marketing automation needs, especially if you are using a marketing automation tool for the first time. This tool will give you a simple solution as well as easy access to a wide variety of marketing functions.

Ease of use is typically a powerful asset in the software industry because it has a direct impact on the satisfaction of the users, and it determines the viability of the product. For all these reasons, HubSpot may rank higher than Marketo.
Many will say that every company should use marketing automation software, but there is room for disagreement. Check out marketing automation and what is it all about to see if it will be a good fit for your brand.