Charles Tatum, Author at CRM Switch

Pardot vs. HubSpot – A Marketer’s Experience

October 31, 2024August 4, 2014 by Charles Tatum

Marketing automation software has rapidly become the “other half” of many businesses’ core enterprise customer relationship management solutions, complementing and integrating with CRM.

Unlike the market for enterprise CRM, in which there is a wide range of opinions about the perceived value of various enterprise solutions, the market for enterprise marketing automation software has a group of close competitors that each offer high-quality products and all of which are well regarded within the enterprise community.

HubSpot vs Pardot - A Marketer's Experience

For businesses looking to compare HubSpot and Pardot, the two highest-rated solutions on G2 Crowd (with Marketo and Eloqua not far behind), some significant differences between these two platforms should be carefully evaluated before making a final selection.

This comparison is based on my personal experience implementing and managing both systems as a marketing automation software user and consultant. I have strived to present both systems fairly and accurately based on my experience using them.

Use Cases

Both systems are very complete and capable marketing automation platforms, but their intended use cases are pretty different.

HubSpot

While initially a purely marketing-oriented platform, HubSpot, over the last year, has made a big push to become an all-in-one solution for content management, social media publishing & monitoring, and marketing automation.

Update: Since we published this post, HubSpot has also been pushing to compete with Salesforce in sales and customer service.

Businesses looking for a single platform to host their website, publish on social media, and manage their marketing needs will find a tightly integrated package with a wide range of advanced features that give them much flexibility and control over each service aspect.

Pardot

Since its recent acquisition by Salesforce, Pardot has been rapidly moving toward becoming a single, albeit essential, piece of the Salesforce platform.

Pardot is focused purely on marketing automation, which makes it an excellent addition to an existing CRM system, but it is not, nor trying to be, an all-in-one solution the way HubSpot is. Businesses looking to plug a marketing automation tool into an existing ecosystem of other software will find Pardot’s singular focus on the essentials very inviting.

Platform Strengths

Interestingly, while both systems have a lot of great features to offer users, the strengths of each system come primarily in different areas, making the distinctions between them very apparent.

HubSpot

HubSpot is a very polished and user-friendly marketing platform. The software offers various content-generation tools for emails, landing pages, calls-to-action, and forms.

The HubSpot team has also made a tremendous and very successful effort to make social media publishing and monitoring a very slick and user-friendly experience within the system.

Other highlights include an easy-to-use lead scoring tool, extensive list and workflow generators, and some excellent reporting tools that give a clear picture of what’s working and what needs attention.

Here’s an example of a typical HubSpot report:

Platform Highlights:

User Interface
Content Generation Tools
Social Media Integration
Lists & Workflows
Lead Scoring
Reporting

Pardot

While HubSpot is taking the road of constantly adding new features and functionality, Pardot has taken almost the opposite approach and offers a clean, simple, and focused interface that allows users to very quickly access the things they want to work on.

Pardot is a very well-organized system. By default, it requires users to match each piece of content to a campaign, and a folder, which makes it much easier to organize and navigate through the many different pieces of content businesses will create.

Custom fields, integration with CRM systems (especially Salesforce, obviously), tracking via custom redirects, and a powerful branching automation rules editor are other highlights of Pardot and set it apart from HubSpot in some key areas.

Finally, one of the standout features of Pardot is its “Prospect Activities” breakdown, which shows users the exact sequence of events that a prospect followed before converting on a landing page or web form.

Here’s an example of the Pardot activity breakdown:

Platform Highlights:

Fast & Clean User Interface
Organizational Structure
Tracking & Custom Redirects
Automation Rules
Custom Fields & CRM syncing
Prospect Activity Breakdown
Email Deliverability

Areas For Improvement

With such different areas of respective strengths, it probably won’t surprise anyone that one vendor’s strengths are, more or less, the same areas where the other could improve.

HubSpot

One of the drawbacks to HubSpot’s rapid buildup to offering an all-in-one solution is that the product can occasionally feel a little too complex. Another side effect is that some users might find the interface a bit sluggish when compared to the snappy performance of Pardot.

Also, for companies that may have a large user base and aren’t rigid about enforcing some kind of organizational structure within the system, it’s easy to quickly fill HubSpot up with a vast amount of content that has disparate naming conventions, duplicates, abandoned drafts, etc. It’s an avoidable pitfall, but one that will require diligence from users.

The two final areas where HubSpot could use improvement are in the areas of visitor behavior and CRM integration. Though HubSpot does provide contact activity history, it’s not as detailed and helpful as Pardot’s system is.

In terms of CRM integration, HubSpot will probably never integrate as completely with Salesforce as Pardot will, simply because salesforce.com owns Pardot. HubSpot’s Salesforce integration is good but does suffer from the occasional hiccups, especially with custom fields.

Room For Improvement:

Organizational Tools
Application Speed
Visitor Activity Details
Custom Fields & CRM syncing

Pardot

The only current drawbacks to Pardot are areas that will most likely improve over time as the product becomes more integrated into the Salesforce ecosystem.

Currently, Pardot’s reporting options, though at first glance appearing to be plentiful, don’t offer much customization and don’t include a “big picture” report like the HubSpot example above. To get the same information from Pardot, multiple reports need to be consulted to get the kind of big-picture performance information that marketers will need to measure success.

Content creation is another area where Pardot has room to make improvements. Though the current tools for forms, landing pages, and email creation are sufficient, they’re less intuitive and user-friendly than HubSpot’s and could benefit from some attention from the development team.

Room For Improvement:

Reporting
Content Creation Tools

Two Great Choices

HubSpot and Pardot are both excellent marketing automation platforms, one is not definitively better than the other. Though similar in purpose, they are very different in execution, and that’s a good thing for businesses. This is not Coke and Pepsi — it’s coffee and iced tea. Both are beverages, and each business will have a different preference depending on the type of job they need the system to do.

With that said, those businesses that are current Salesforce customers will find integrating Pardot easier than integrating HubSpot. That’s a fact, not an opinion. Salesforce.com owns Pardot, and eventually, the distinction between the two will be purely semantic.

On the other side of the coin, those businesses that are looking for an all-in-one solution to manage their inbound, outbound, and social media marketing efforts — and possibly their website — will be hard-pressed to find a better offering than what HubSpot brings to the table.

As always, it’s essential to carefully evaluate needs and requirements before selecting and committing to a platform that will likely become a cornerstone of your business.

CRM User Adoption: Directive, Not Discretionary

October 4, 2019June 24, 2014 by Charles Tatum

So here we are again with another discussion about CRM user adoption. It was only a few months ago that I wrote about how good leadership can increase user adoption, but a recent discussion we had with a prospect having difficulty getting his sales team to adopt the company CRM solution highlights another side of the issue.

4 Questions To Consider Asking Your CRM Consultant

October 4, 2019May 29, 2014 by Charles Tatum

So, you’ve just bought a new enterprise CRM system. Congratulations.

It’s a big step for any business, but it’s also only one step (admittedly, a crucial one) in the many steps required to get a new CRM system implemented and running smoothly.

When Do You Need CRM And Marketing Automation Software?

October 4, 2019April 29, 2014 by Charles Tatum

The decision to add CRM and/or marketing automation software to your business is an important consideration, and one that should be carefully evaluated before either type of system is purchased.

Depending on which solutions are chosen, integrating CRM and a marketing automation platform can present a fresh set of challenges, and so it’s a good idea to clearly understand the purpose of each one individually, and the goal of having the two systems working together.

Don’t Buy CRM Based On Buzzwords

January 16, 2024March 20, 2014 by Charles Tatum

It happens to the best of us. Though the CRM buying process is very different than buying consumer products, one of the common denominators is the tendency of both vendors and salespeople to pitch their products with buzzword-heavy lingo. When we, as buyers, get caught up in the pitch and start relying on fancy language and the occasional bit of sales hyperbole, it’s easy to get carried away and make a purchase that’s not entirely based on our needs.

The CRM industry, and the vendors in it, certainly have their fair share of product lingo and feature buzzwords. Those about to embark on, or currently in the middle of, the evaluation and purchasing path will undoubtedly encounter a fair share of product jargon and enthusiastic sales reps eager to explain their respective products using whatever flavors marketing has cooked up that week.

Top Ten Sales Buzzwords

For those wading into the waters of buying CRM, either for the first time or as a seasoned enterprise software purchasing veteran, LinkedIn has recently published a list of the top 10 sales buzzwords used in 2013.

It’s probably safe to bet on hearing some, if not all, of these words when your CRM buying process moves from the research phase into actual product evaluations and sales reps are brought into the mix.

Looking just at North America, the top ten buzzwords are:

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Driven
Strategic
Effective
Responsible
Competitive

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Positive
Creative
Organization
Innovative
Patient

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Though LinkedIn’s list is not specific to the CRM industry, it’s not hard to imagine how the terms above might be applied to a product like CRM.

For example, “(Insert CRM product name) allows your organization to effectively drive sales and be competitive in your vertical by establishing focused business processes that increase ROI.”

Another, “We’ve integrated an innovative marketing suite into (CRM product name)’s core feature set that allows your creative team to develop strategic messaging based on social media monitoring and push positive brand awareness.”

For the record, I have fabricated the above examples entirely. They are not copied from or based on any particular CRM vendor’s sales or marketing material, and are meant only to serve as an example of the kind of language those in the CRM buying process might reasonably expect to hear.

Using Your Own Language

The best way to avoid falling into the trap of buying CRM based on fancily-worded feature sets and overly enthusiastic marketing hyperbole is to come ready with your own buzzwords, so to speak.

By going through a careful planning and evaluation process, your business will develop a detailed list of core features and functionality that you can use to evaluate each CRM vendor on your terms.

Choosing a CRM system is all about your business, it’s processes, and it’s needs. No one knows those three things better than the people that run it.

By taking the time to develop a comprehensive CRM plan and strategy, before you charge into the vendor jungle, you’ll be far less susceptible to being influenced by well-meaning reps eager to tell you about the latest strategic innovation that will allow your business to “be an effective communicator of positive brand messaging to your prospects and strategically drive creative organizational responsibility”.

How Good Leadership Can Increase CRM User Adoption

July 6, 2023March 6, 2014 by Charles Tatum

When a business purchases a new CRM solution or upgrades an existing one, that decision almost always comes from executive management. It may come from employee feedback and requests, but ultimately it’s up to the company’s leadership team to take action.

How Good Leadership Can Increase CRM User Adoption

Where things sometimes get snagged is what happens after that initial decision has been made. The end goal of implementing a CRM solution is to have company employees use it, and ensuring high CRM user adoption has a lot to do with good executive leadership.

Engaged Leaders Equals Engaged Employees

A SlideShare presentation published by Cornerstone OnDemand — a cloud-based talent management software company — highlights how good leadership can have a profound effect on employee engagement through all aspects of the business:

Employee Engagement: It’s Actually All About Your Leaders from Cornerstone OnDemand

While aimed at addressing day-to-day operational job engagement, their presentation is highly applicable to management’s role in increasing user adoption of a new CRM system.

Leadership’s Role

We can illustrate how good leadership can affect user adoption if we borrow the example from slides two and three and then suppose that two companies implement the same enterprise CRM solution separately.

Committed Leadership

For Company A, let’s assume management is highly engaged throughout the CRM selection, implementation, and training process:

During the selection phase, feedback about needs and use cases is solicited from a cross-section of employees, and a strong effort is made to get buy-in throughout the organization.
After implementation, managers are using the system themselves for administrative functions and “big picture” analysis while at the same time, encouraging (and enforcing, if necessary) system use for the teams they oversee.
Managers in Company A are also all participating in ongoing CRM training and are comfortable answering common questions about features and use from their employees.
A dedicated system administrator is assigned to manage system security and maintenance and keep up with functional updates to the system.

For Company A, it’s not hard to imagine that user adoption throughout the business will be high and will likely stay that way. While this may sound like an unattainable, somewhat utopian scenario for many businesses, it’s common practice in many others.

Fractured Leadership

For Company B, we’ll assume management is divided over which CRM solution to implement, and the selection and implementation process happen with minimal-to-zero input from outside the executive team:

During the selection phase, the sales team’s needs are given priority over all other departments, creating resentment and leaving managers of non-sales staff feeling marginalized.
After implementation, the CRM system is used primarily by sales staff. Marketing, IT, and customer service staff find using the system unintuitive and difficult.
Managers do not use the system regularly but insist that their teams use it exclusively.
After the initial round of training, no ongoing training program is implemented, and no one takes clear ownership of the system or is responsible for its maintenance or administration.

For Company B, user adoption among sales staff may be high but will probably be low throughout the rest of the organization, limiting its effectiveness and possibly even fostering continued resentment among other departments.

Setting The Right Example

Unfortunately, for many businesses that go through the CRM selection and implementation process without prior experience or third-party assistance, the Company B scenario is where they end up.

No company wants to go through the process of selecting and implementing an expensive enterprise CRM solution only to have no one use it. Avoiding that mistake is why it’s critical that a company’s leaders be engaged in and committed to the “process and the promise” from the outset of the decision to buy a CRM system.

A company with high CRM uptake among employees and management is not a mythical idea that exists only in the imaginations of CEOs. It’s a reality that can be achieved through careful planning, execution, and dedication from the entire organization.

The Fundamental Function Of CRM Software

October 4, 2019February 4, 2014 by Charles Tatum

Over the last several weeks and months, we here at CRM Switch have written a lot about various aspects of the CRM industry: vendors, product histories, migration to and from various systems, integration with a variety of other types of software, and more.

But one thing that we haven’t discussed in awhile, and a topic that should be revisited on a fairly regular basis, is the fundamental purpose and function of CRM software for a business and it’s users.

Does Email Tracking Signal the End of the Cold Call Era?

October 4, 2019December 3, 2013 by Charles Tatum

Sometimes the best indicators of where things are headed at the intersection of business and technology are our own evolving habits and processes as employees. As 2013 winds to a close, I’ve noticed a trend: the shrinking number of outbound phone calls in my CRM activity log from month to month.

It wasn’t too long ago–maybe even just a few years–that it was unthinkable that a professional salesperson could be effective at their job without constantly being on the phone

7 Simple CRM Housecleaning Tips

October 4, 2019November 19, 2013 by Charles Tatum

Halfway through Q4, and with the holiday season quickly approaching, a lot of B2B and non-retail related businesses often find things starting to slow down a bit.

During this winter doldrums period, rather than taking a few extra trips to the coffee maker, now is a great time to take advantage of the lull and do some CRM housekeeping.

Developing CRM User Personas To Increase System Adoption

October 4, 2019November 12, 2013 by Charles Tatum

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink”. As it goes with horses, so it often seems to go with CRM systems. A common challenge we hear from clients and prospects is finding ways to maximize CRM user adoption.

Five Ways to Avoid CRM Lead Stagnation

October 4, 2019November 28, 2012 by Charles Tatum

One of the biggest challenges for a sales team working with a CRM system can be managing and keeping track of leads and maintaining consistent follow up. Too often, inconsistent lead management can result in sales staff staring at lists of hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of leads with no clear way to keep track and prioritize them.