Marketo or Hubspot – what do you prefer? Marketo or Hubspot? How about Pardot or Marketo? Or maybe Act-On or Hubspot? What marketing automation platform do you like or prefer?
We get these questions a lot here at Overdrive. Why – because we work with dozens of large enterprises that use these platforms to power their marketing. Our teams have experience across all these platforms and have to integrate them with our media and nurture programs every day.
So recently, I chimed in with a prospect asking for our thoughts on migrating from Marketo to Hubspot. Here is my reply almost verbatim:
As for the question of Hubspot vs. Marketo, let me add my two cents here, as I see these migrations often.
We are agnostic about preference but probably have more experience with Marketo because of its popularity with large enterprises.
As an email and marketing automation platform, Hubspot and Marketo are similar from a feature-to-feature standpoint. They both offer personalization and email nurture and can also be integrated with various media and tracking platforms.
Now, Hubspot is more expansive, offering CMS and CRM add-on capabilities. However, as a Marketo replacement, the main issues in my mind are:
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- The migration and re-deploying of all your nurture campaigns, reports, training, etc. (As you stated, Marketo is a known quantity) is still a good amount of work, but we can help you do it fast with our complete Customer Journey mapping approach.
- Losing historical data and cookie profiles in Marketo. This is something that you cannot just replace and requires more consideration. Suppose you have thousands of Marketo cookies set and paired with known email addresses and lead records. In that case, you can trigger email alerts, personalize UX, perform lead scoring, and trigger other events based on live web engagements and segmentation. If you change platforms, you must build up those cookie/email parings or, in Marketo speak, “known leads.”
When changing marketing automation platforms, I always ask what data assets I am losing or being forced to rebuild. In the case of marketing automation platforms, it’s usually this CRM/marketing automation cookie connection. You have to get everyone to click on their emails again so you can set a cookie on their browser.
Now, in the long term, HubSpot is saying they will combine those under one umbrella, like Salesforce and Pardot.
But either way, you have to rebuild your cookie pools in any new platform you deploy.
To gauge the risk of the change, you look at two metrics and whether you use them. So ask yourselves these four questions:
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- How much work would it be to set all this up again? Think about all API and data flows, media connections, live nurture campaigns, etc.
- How many “named leads” do I have in Marketo? (in other words, how many email records also have a cookie set on the user’s browser? This is what you have to rebuild over time.)
- How many un-named leads? (or Marketo cookies set on browsers where you don’t know the email address or user history yet, but you will when they enter it.)
- Ok, even if we have a bunch of cookies set, are we using them, and can we live without them? (So, how crucial are these Marketo cookies you built up in your lead scoring, nurture programs, triggered events, sales engagement alerts, etc.? Are you doing any real-time personalization? If you are not marketing, interruptions may be minimal.)
We have no concerns with any platform you choose. Indeed, if you’re starting from scratch, we can help you deploy and integrate with media as required. We work with clients that have both platforms. If you’re ready to change your marketing automation, contact us so we can start the conversation. Our creative, custom SEO services drive immediate ROI and help connect brands with more qualified customers than ever before.
