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Backed by Google & Salesforce, is HubSpot poised to be a marketing automation game changer for SMBs?
Focus Expert David Raab wrote a blog post where he wonders if HubSpot is going to be a game changer for the marketing automation industry. (Read his blog here.) How will the marketing automation industry be affected by this? What do you think about Salesforce backing them? Is this a sign of things to come? Answers may be included in an upcoming report.
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5 Answers
I think HubSpot already IS a game changer; they have been evangelical with the concept of "Inbound Marketing" and small businesses are starting to heed their call. While the HubSpot platform does not have the broader functionality of a true MA platform like those of Marketo, Silverpop or Eloqua, every day I talk to Marketers who have heard of HubSpot, but not of the larger players.
While their platform is not perfect, it still allows a small organization with little marketing horsepower to strengthen its visibility in the Internet and do a better job of understanding who their prospects are; it is a significant step beyond the free tools like Google Analytics. The latest injection of cash by Google and Salesforce will only magniffy HubSpot's ability to be a "game changer" or "first mover" in the SMB market.
Hubspot has done a really nice job of putting a lot tools together in one place that are easy to use together and they back it up with solid research and support. But to answer your question, it depends on how you define SMB. For a 25 - 250m company.. I'd say yes. Larger and they are a good divisional solution. Smaller, and they don't have their offering and pricing quite right for a lot of businesses - but I do think they'll get there.
I was travelling when this questions got posted so a bit behind the flow. I have been using Hubspot for over a year now and while it is not low cost it does offer value. Our ability to sustain using it may be challenged but it won't be because they don't work at what they do. One big feature is the organization is human in scope...you actually get the feeling they care about what you are doing and how they are helping. It will be interesting to see if they can retain this flavour while growing and using the large amounts of investment dollars from the big boys.
I think Hubspot is one company everyone is watching in their rear-view mirror. They've always been a savvy, smart, fun company, but with all that capital, they can hire lots more programmers. Give them 12 month and they will be unstoppable.
As a SMB myself (solopreneur), my observation is that their pricing is all wrong, to be a viable solution to business owners of small businesses. For example, I'm a Salesforce Pro user, and it would cost $1,000 a month to have integration with Hubspot and Salesforce. Same problem with their insistence on using their website CMS. My sites are in a variety of platforms, including Wordpress, Joomla and HTML. I want to be able to track visits to all of them, and optimize all of them for search. I've invested quite a bit in each of them - yet, unless I am willing to pay $1,000 a month, it is my understanding they would be deprecated in favor of a Hubspot CMS site, that could cost me even more. And how do they handle businesses with multiple websites and divisions?
And lately, I've had trouble reaching a salesperson who will call me back to address these questions, so I guess I'm not going with them after all. I'll continue using Leadformix, with nearly everything Hubspot Pro has, at $300 a month.
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