Marketing Automation Software Comparison /Reviews White Paper

Transcription

1 Microsoft Marketing Automation Software Comparison /Reviews White Paper [Type the document subtitle] Jackson Lane 7/7/2014

2 Marketing Automation Software Comparison/Reviews: The best marketing automation software incorporates many of the same elements; List building, CRM integration and /Drip campaigns just to name a few. How smoothly and how tightly incorporated the elements are will cause one software to be "better" than another. Building landing pages, reporting on analytics and executing campaigns is another very important comparison point when reviewing potential marketing automation software. Automation Software Comparisons by Product: Cost of Marketing Automation Software List of CRM Integration Capabilities (does the software connect to your customer database?) Typical Size-of-company Each Platform Typically Supports Campaign Execution Features Landing Page Builders HubSpot: 1. Cost HubSpot has a $200, $800 and $2,400/per month pricing packages. Unfortunately, HubSpot charges per every 1,000 additional contacts. The $200/per month plan only includes 100 free contacts (prospects/leads/customers/employees). It costs $100 for every 1,000 additional contacts. The $800 plan costs $50 for every 1,000 additional contacts. The $800 plan includes 1,000 free contacts, but also demands a $50

3 dollar fee for every 1,000 additional contacts. Finally, the $2,400/per month enterprise plan includes 10,000 contacts ($10/per month per $1,000 additional). 2. Integration Capabilities HubSpot s best integration is with Salesforce CRM, but also merges seamlessly with SugarCRM and some smaller CRM companies (see chart). HubSpot does a great job of merging marketing data with sales data and automatically provides metrics that SugardCRM and Salesforce CRM can t provide (such as traffic sourcing). HubSpot has less ability to import modules from other places (like iframes of forms from WordPress). 3. Typical Company User Size Because HubSpot s customer list is densely populated with small businesses (52%), they make much of their money adding on costs/contact. HubSpot is a templated content management system (CRM) and many companies with their own web designers outgrow HubSpot s tools and landing page builders. 4. Campaign Execution Features HubSpot does a really nice job of carrying leads through the marketing funnel. We at BrainSell wouldn t recommend HubSpot for bulk ing (more than 10,000 contacts), but HubSpot does a nice job of letting you marketing directly to your converted leads once you get them. HubSpot does much more than the other companies in teaching you inbound marketing tactics, and forces you to create calls-to-action and other marketing features during the software training period. 5. Landing Page Builder HubSpot s landing page builder has come a long way from its early days. HubSpot is a template landing page, unlike Net-Results who has a drag and drop mechanism. Sometimes spacing things the way you want them is difficult in HubSpot, but the pages are SEO friendly and behave responsively. We rate HubSpot s landing page builder above Salesfusion but below Net-Results or Marketo. Pardot: 1. Cost Because Pardot is geared towards Mid-market companies, all three of the packages ($1,000, $2,000, $3,000/per month) Pardot offers come with 10,000 contacts included. Pardot s $1,000 package does not include many of the features that true marketing automation software has (such as dynamic landing pages and campaigns), and their $3,000 package really isn t useful unless you re running a call center. 2. Integration Capabilities Keep in mind that Pardot is brought to you by Salesforce. For that reason, the most seamless integration comes from Salesforce s software suite. Unlike HubSpot, Pardot does integrate with Dynamics CRM, which makes a nice combination. 3. Typical Company User Size Pardot aims for Mid-market companies (50-1,000) employees, with 48% of clients falling into this category. Pardot may be too pricey for a small company especially when combined with CRM software. 4. Campaign Execution Features Pardot has many features similar to the rest of the field, but requires a higher learning curve to learn the terminology and get familiar with different modules. Additionally, many of the best and landing page features are not available in Pardot s basic package. 5. Landing Page Builder Pardot creates a nice looking landing page in a template fashion, similar to HubSpot. Pardot links nicely with integrated CRMs to bring your leads through the funnel, but again, the template design may not produce the look everyone is looking for in their landing pages. In addition, most companies that can afford Pardot usually have some sort of content development strategy using tools like WordPress, so some companies may not see much value in the tool Pardot presents. Marketo: 1. Cost Other than Eloqua, Marketo is the most expensive automation software available in this comparison 2. Integration Capabilities Because Marketo is strictly marketing automation, it relies on CRM software to bring a lead fully through the funnel. For this reason, Marketo tends to integrate well with almost any CRM system. 3. Typical Company User Size Marketo is geared towards larger companies, and has a higher percentage of enterprise level companies than Pardot. This aligns Marketo in the higher end of the market, slightly below Eloqua

4 in client size. Marketo may be too expensive or industrious for potential HubSpot or Net-Results users, who are better suited for small business. 4. Campaign Execution Features Marketo brings everything together to create an all-in-0ne platform. Other than Net-Results, Marketo is the only software to provide lead scoring, an automated attempt to qualify certain leads that come through the funnel. 5. Landing Page Builder The feature that separates Marketo from the other landing page builders is the ability to truly A/B test a page. They will literally serve a page 50/50 in real time so you can A/B test in a much shorter period of time. Net-Results: 1. Cost Net-Results provides an affordable automation solution, yet brings all the features of the bigger software companies in this comparison. Net-Results has a bit of lag to it on the enterprise level, so you may not see analytics as dynamically as you d like. To be clear, this is only with extremely large amounts of data or large amounts of campaigns running together. Most companies under enterprise level will not experience any delays. 2. Integration Capabilities Net-Results best integration is with SugarCRM, but it also integrates with Salesforce and Sage CRM. Because Net-Results users are more unlikely to use Salesforce or Sage, SugarCRM s integration is supported much more heavily by Net-Results. 3. Typical Company User Size Again, Net-Results is geared towards smaller companies, and at $800/month, provides a real-deal solution with low overhead. It has the highest percentage of small business users (77%), and has great support at lower levels. 4. Campaign Execution Features Net-Results offers a full suite of campaign execution tools, including the ability to , nurture leads and create drip campaigns to stay in front of your leads. Net-Results has decent analytics capabilities, but in order for the software to report properly there is a higher learning curve than a platform like HubSpot. 5. Landing Page Builder Net-Results best feature is its landing page builder. It is a true drag-and-drop landing page builder that does not live on a template system. You can achieve the exact look you want with Net-Results. One con about the landing pages is the need to replace forms after editing because the forms are not dynamic. Salesfusion: 1. Cost Salesfusion is a very affordable solution, especially considering most of Salesfusion clients are Mid-market companies (48%). Even with $50,000 contacts, Salesfusion will only run you $1350/per month, which is certainly the most affordable software platform for that large of a contact pool. 2. Integration Capabilities Salesfusion has heavily invested itself into making sure it s platform integrates with CRM systems. It does integrate nicely with Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, SugarCRM and Sage CRM. 3. Typical Company User Size Most of Salesfusion s customers are Mid-market companies, but a large percentage is also small businesses. Salesfusion is looking to get into the niche of the bigger companies, and they appear to be scaling up well. 4. Campaign Execution Features Salesfusion can execute drip campaigns, landing page development and lead nurturing. The big difference between Salesfusion is that it has no drag-and-drop capabilities. Everything you do requires filling out a field or a drop box, which can get cumbersome. 5. Landing Page Builder Although highly customizable, unless you re a full-fledged computer programmer it can be very difficult to make a beautiful landing page using Salesfusion. The pages are not very responsive and are not SEO friendly at all. That being said, the landing pages still convert fairly well, and Salesfusion makes you stick to a tried and true conversion template.

5 Eloqua: 1. Cost Eloqua is easily the most expensive option out of the marketing automation options on this list. Oracle gears it s software towards enterprise level companies, so you re looking at a price tag of $2,000-$4,000 a month plus additional fees for additional contacts. 2. Integration Capabilities Eloqua only integrates well with larger CRM suites. Because of this, integration with SugarCRM isn t as smooth as integration with Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Because Eloqua is an Oracle product, the best integration is going to come from Oracle CRM. 3. Typical Company User Size Typically, Eloqua can only be afforded by very large, enterprise level companies. Companies of over 1,000 employees represent 42% of Eloqua clients. Because Eloqua s client base is so big, this represents a huge group of people using the software. 4. Campaign Execution Features Eloqua s execution features provide strong business process management (BPM) abilities during the funneling of leads. Optimization of the lead-cultivation process is a great feature about Eloqua. The software incorporates many drag-and-drop features that make visualizing the lead cycle very easy to do. 5. Landing Page Builder Eloqua does not have a strong landing page builder because most of their clients build PHP landing pages through WordPress. However, they do provide landing page optimization tools to help your existing pages convert more easily.