Does HubSpots acquisition of Performable make them a legitimate marketing automation vendor?

As Dharmesh says, this strengthens HubSpot in an area where it was weak (complex campaign flows). This makes it more directly competitive with other marketing automation vendors, especially in the small-to-mid business segment. Good way to spend that venture capital.

That said, there are still some holes for HubSpot to fill, such as more powerful lead scoring. They'll need to integrate the data structures and user interfaces, which could be a challenge. And Performable's price point is considerably higher than HubSpot's, so it will be interesting to see how they handle the combined product.

Incidentally, Steve, HubSpot had just over 4,000 customers when I spoke with them a couple of months ago. I don't think they're close to 7,000 yet.

The first answer is: HubSpot was in the marketing automation category before the acquisition.

If we agree that the definition of marketing automation is a set of technologies used by marketing departments to automation repetitive tasks, then you can already do that with HubSpot.

They've got powerful, easy-to-use applications for search engine optimization and landing page development and a number of other features that small and mid-sized marketing departments need to do regularly. True, they haven't traditionally competed with the traditional MA vendors: Eloqua, Silverpop, Neolane, Pardot, Marketo, Aprimo, etc., but they do say they have over 7,000 customers using their automation solution already.

From my perspective, the Performable acquisition allows HubSpot to get deeper into the marketer's every day concerns -- how do I truly analyze what my customers are doing, both on my web site and in the social sphere? How can I connect with them with the right message at the right time through the right channel?

Intriguingly, it may signal that HubSpot is ready to participate in the Revenue Performance Management debate now. With Performable's impressive looking integrations -- to CRM and billing and customer helpdesk systems in particular -- HubSpot can legitimately say they can help a marketer manage the complete funnel, from awareness through to revenue recognition.

And if they can wrap up the complete package in an easy-to-use interface and dust it with a sprinkling of the right kind of analytics, this could be a marketer's dream toolkit.

One overlooked benefit of acquiring Performable is that Hubspot can now count Joshua Porter as one of its employees. He is a true thought leader in the area of user experience and design. His Bokardo Blog is one of the best UX blogs out there.

I'll personally be waiting to see if Hubspot can "productize" what's in Josh's head and deliver it in the form of a product to tens of thousands of customers. That would be a win.

Best disclaimer ever.

Marketing automation has unfortunately been associated with email, email and just email (if you scratch beyond the front of RPM or Revenue Generation or Revenue whatever). Hubspot has always been interesting company in this space, in terms of taking a different position and defining a new category- Inbound category. This acquisition will enable Hubspot to go in new directions than just making feature improvements.Whether a marketer accepts a single platform to do all their different functions remains a question/debate.

Here are my thoughts on this:

1. I have no idea who Performable is -- sorry, I just don't. So, seeing the purchase was interesting to me, but not anything that blew me away. However:
2. Hubspot adding marketing automation (or better marketing automation) is a big deal -- I have been watching them more intensely over the last couple months and I have been impressed. Oh, and I really don't understand their product. What I do understand is that they know how to market and sell in impressive fashion, they got a bunch of smart guys running around up there making product, and they have a bunch of money. Formidable.

@Carlos: to answer your questions:

Does HubSpots acquisition of Performable make them a legitimate marketing automation vendor?”

Yes, they already were WITHOUT the marketing automation technology. They were beating marketing automation vendors on deals already.

Does this acquisition now put HubSpot in the mix of vendors? See above, YES. In the SMB, they were already a presence. Adding credible marketing automation features eliminates some serious objections.

Do they have a bigger advantage due to their leadership with their inbound marketing?
They are thought leaders in small business marketing, not just inbound marketing. Its like a champion boxer dropping themselves into a new weight class.

Will be interesting to see how the product develops. By many hubspot has been seen as marketing automation tool when it has lacked a lot of true markering automation function. Watch with interest

Good answer, Dharmesh.