Pardot is a popular marketing automation platform from the developers of Salesforce. For Salesforce users, Pardot offers a convenient segue into the efficiency and productivity benefits of a full-scale marketing platform.
But before investing in Pardot, businesses shouldn’t ignore the main player in the field of marketing automation – and the platform that, in many ways, blazed the trail for more recent applications – HubSpot.
In this article, we present a brief comparison of the pros and cons of HubSpot and Pardot, in order to help businesses make an informed choice. For further information, and for bespoke advice tailored to your sales goals, please get in touch with one of our marketing specialists today.
Pardot
Pardot and HubSpot are probably the two most popular marketing automation platforms on the market today, and the reason for this is their shared reputation for reliability, high performance, versatility, and mobile friendly access. Pardot is built along the same lines as Salesforce, with a range of ‘clouds’ focusing on specific areas of sales and marketing. This helps users organise their sales and marketing funnel into functions and areas of responsibility.
There is also a very strong emphasis on automation. Using Pardot to its full potential will liberate a lot of time spent on manual and repetitive functions, while enabling your sales and marketing team to pursue larger numbers of leads, in less time.
Pros
- Easy to access on all devices, including smartphones and tablets.
- Intuitive workflows for lead nurturing campaigns and drip-feed email marketing.
- Works hand in glove with Salesforce CRM to track prospects throughout the sales funnel.
- Good ROI tracking feature allows users to optimise their sales and marketing campaigns.
Cons
- Not as good as HubSpot for managing video hosting, images and graphics, pay per click advertising (e.g. Google Ads), or landing pages.
- Reporting and analytics options are limited.
- Pardot lacks the diversity of features that come with HubSpot as standard.
- Can be used without Salesforce, although integration of the two platforms brings the best results from each.
HubSpot
Like Pardot, HubSpot is an excellent lead management and automation platform but, unlike Pardot, HubSpot has a broader focus on integration, customer service, and content strategy. It is the all-inclusive, rounded approach taken by HubSpot, as well as its integration potential with a wide range of useful third-party applications (e.g. WordPress), that make the platform a more versatile sales tool for most businesses – especially those that do not currently use Salesforce.
Pros
- HubSpot integrates all the tools you need to conduct a sales campaign, including content marketing tools, blogging, inbuilt forms and quizzes, and email marketing.
- Good for both B2B and B2C/e-commerce businesses in various sectors.
- Great range of analytics and monitoring tools.
- HubSpot contains a full suite of digital marketing tools, allowing you to create and edit content, update your website, conduct SEO, track leads, and manage your social media platforms from one interface.
- Extremely safe cloud-based infrastructure with 99.9-100% uptime guaranteed, making HubSpot perfect for remote teams.
Cons
- Technical support and after sales care from the vendor is strictly limited. Users normally benefit from accessing HubSpot in partnership with a certified agency, such as JDR, who can assist with configuration and user-related issues after implementation.
- HubSpot is accessed through several contracted tiers, with progressively greater levels of service and capacity, the more you pay. Many of the more advanced customisation and access management tools are only available at higher tiers.
Find out more
At JDR, we use a variety of marketing strategies to get the best results and ROI for our customers, including making extensive use of marketing automation solutions. We are one of the country’s leading HubSpot specialists and are also certified in several other leading marketing automation platforms.
We are committed to helping businesses find the best fit for their business model, budget, and growth strategy, so please get in touch today to find out more.
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