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One of the most common questions Salesforce CRM clients and prospects ask is whether to use Salesforce Pardot or HubSpot for marketing automation. Pardot has one distinct advantage where Salesforce is concerned. Salesforce acquired ExactTarget, which included Pardot. Thus the two systems are natively integrated, which means they work together seamlessly.
However, HubSpot can be integrated with Salesforce. When data changes in one system, it syncs with the other and vice versa. To make this happen we will require taking extra steps since HubSpot isn't native to Salesforce.
Before digging into the strengths and weaknesses of each system, here's what marketing automation systems can do for your organization. In short, both systems enable users to create marketing campaigns to generate leads. Pardot and HubSpot offer:
o Email marketing
o Online marketing
o Customer relationship management (CRM) integration
o Workflow creation
o Lead management
o Social media management
o Marketing reporting and analytics
o Campaign management
Beyond these basic features, the systems are significantly different. GetApp has a comprehensive list of features each offers.
Comparing Pardot and Hubspot is like comparing apples and oranges. Organizations with a wish list of marketing automation features may find that one system meets more requirements than the other.
For instance, both offer workflows for automating marketing activities. Yet their capabilities are different. HubSpot's automation workflows are based on if/then and if yes or no. "Did customer subscribe to blog?" If yes, send a welcome email.
Pardot's workflow automation can be customized on triggers such as interactions, time, and other custom parameters. You can automate sending an email based on a prospect's last activity or performing certain activities. Pardot can send a "We miss you" email based on the last activity or a "Happy Anniversary" based on the user's join date.
Here's a comparison chart of HubSpot and Pardot based on many reviews.
o All-in-one CRM, sales tool, and marketing system
o Integrate SEO and SEM
o Easy to build forms
o Design a website without technical knowledge
o Useful training and resources
o Strong support
o Native integration with Salesforce
o Flexible for creating nurtures
o Automate email campaigns
o Custom landing pages drive more leads
o Intuitive interface
o Effortless to create email templates
o Set it and forget it
o Folder organization
o Simple process for creating landing pages
o Analytics, tools, and automation based on Salesforce data
o Strong community support
o Subpar user experience and user interface
o Less flexibility for creating nurtures
o Reports have fewer capabilities
o Limited permissions settings
o Analytics could be better
o Sync issues with Salesforce
o Outdated out-of-the-box templates
o Limited WYSIWYG editors
o Chat support not always available
o No SMS marketing
Some of Pardot's features become available when using it with Salesforce. For example, Pardot does not have an SMS marketing feature, yet, you can get this feature by adding a Salesforce AppExchange app like Open SMS Pro. Salesforce also has the ability to create quotes, something neither marketing automation system offers.
Although price plays a significant part in selecting a marketing automation system, the cost of Hubspot and Pardot depends on too many variables to indicate whether one has a clear advantage over the other. Actual cost depends on which price plan you choose.
Although HubSpot can be integrated with Salesforce, it won't have the level of integration you achieve with Pardot and Salesforce. Think of Salesforce as having its own language. Only Pardot is fluent in Salesforce-speak. HubSpot knows some, but not as much as Pardot.
Several small marketing teams report that Pardot has helped them scale quickly because it makes it easy for the team to sync marketing campaigns and orchestrate content and engagement across channels. Pardot provides full HTML control for customizing templates with variable tags and includes A/B testing to identify best performing campaigns.
Sales teams also benefit from working with Pardot Engage instead of the Sales Cloud to run their own, marketing campaigns. Thus, supporting sales and marketing alignment to achieve smarter results faster.
With Pardot, teams will be able to see which channels are performing and which are not. Users can track where prospects are coming from even in long sales cycles. Campaigns can be tweaked on the fly.
Probably the easiest decision factor of all is whether an organization heavily relies on Salesforce. For those that do, Pardot has an advantage in terms of having tighter integration. And the second option is whether you need marketing automation software with comprehensive customization. Pardot excels here, too. Aside from these two factors, the best solution depends on your organization's needs.
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To learn how Salesforce Pardot can benefit your organization or how to do Salesforce integration with marketing automation, please contact us at customersuccess@appshark.com.