Quora Q&A

Why should we use Marketo with Salesforce? Doesn’t Salesforce Marketing Cloud provide all the same features?

Short version: assuming you’re looking to automate your marketing (B2C or B2B) you can do that with either of these platforms, no doubt.

But it’s a mistake to think Salesforce Marketing Cloud is more a part of Salesforce, than Marketo is. It’s not.

How Salesforce Marketing Cloud fits into the Salesforce.com platform

You see, there’s the central Salesforce.com platform. This started as the CRM we all know (and, to a degree, love – or hate!) and now contains additional elements such as Service Cloud and Community Cloud.

The Marketing Cloud is, however, NOT built on the central Salesforce system. The core of Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC from here on out) is a platform called ExactTarget. ExactTarget was acquired by Salesforce in 2015 – after ExactTarget, in turn, acquired Pardot (as to make the purchase interesting enough for Salesforce).

Salesforce has added social tools (also acquisitions) to this platform and now sell that as the “Marketing Cloud”. However, ExactTarget integrates with Salesforce just like any other third-party system: through its API.

Therefore, there is absolutely no inherent value over choosing SFMC over Marketo – unless you happen the like the platform better, or perhaps because it suits your needs more.

Is Salesforce Marketing Cloud becoming better integrated?

“But isn’t Salesforce integrating its systems more tightly vs competitors?” you might ask. Of course they are. But the systems are still separate systems. Not to mention that the other vendors (such as Marketo) also ensure their integration with the world’s #1 CRM is as seamless as it can be.

Perhaps one day Salesforce will stop integrating with third-party marketing automation platforms – but considering that would cost them a lot of current customers, I doubt that’ll ever happen.

Pick the marketing automation platform you like and be safe in the knowledge it integrates just as well with Salesforce as the Salesforce marketing products!

I first answered this question on Quora:

What are the best and the cheapest alternatives to HubSpot for e-commerce?

Take a look at both Drip and ActiveCampaign.

Both feature integrations with tools like Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce. Both have nifty ecommerce-specific features, such as abandoned cart emails. And you can get both starting at $50/month – that’s certainly a lot cheaper than HubSpot.

In fact, I would only advise HubSpot if you’re in B2B and really are a newbie when it comes to marketing automation – their tool is easy to use and looks gorgeous, plus there’s a ton of training videos in there.

For everyone else, that’s able to figure a little bit more out themselves, the two tools I just mentioned are viable alternatives to HubSpot that offer comparable functionality (and sometimes downright better functionality, and integrations, too) at a much more attractive price point.

I first answered this question on Quora:

Should I move to Dynamics 365 CRM from Salesforce, having 6 years in Salesforce CRM?

If you’re otherwise invested in the Microsoft/Azure platforms, you probably should. This is all anecdotal (as a marketing automation dude I tend to talk to CRM dudes and dudettes a lot), but I hear Dynamics is easier to use than Salesforce. Dynamics is also cheaper than Salesforce and (for now) more open in terms of integration.

Salesforce is top-dog in the CRM market and they’re acting like it. They want you to use the products they prefer, which I suppose makes senses from a business perspective (even if it’s less convenient for us, the consumer!).

So if your organization also uses Office 365, you might gain from the move. However, if you’re not in the Microsoft ecosystem, it’s harder to come up with a good reason to move to Dynamics 365. You already know Salesforce and 90% of enterprises use it.

If you’re a consultant, you’re good either way. Both markets are booming. I figure you’ll likely be able to use your CRM-knowledge gained in Salesforce and apply it to Dynamics (even if the specifics are different). This is certainly true in marketing automation, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be true in CRM.

I first answered this question on Quora:

Does it make sense for a European SaaS startup to launch in Scandinavia and Benelux when it comes to a B2B product for small businesses? If yes, what general features would help (languages, payments, etc)?

I think those countries you’ve mentioned are great for a European SaaS startup. From my experience, the Benelux and Scandinavia B2B markets are ahead of the rest of Europe. I’m personally in the field of B2B marketing automation and I can safely make that claim for that specific market. I get comments from professionals in the DACH region all the time about how they’re jealous of where we’re at over here in the Netherlands.

Commenting from the perspective of being Dutch, I don’t think you’d need to worry about translating your app into Dutch – unless you’re targeting larger enterprises that employ an older demographic. The rest of the Netherlands (and also the Flanders part of Belgium) is savvy enough in English to give an all-English app a try. I’d imagine that Scandinavians are pretty English-savvy, too.

As for payment: in the Netherlands you should include iDeal as a payment option. It’s become a primary method of paying online. If you want to attract small businesses, it will certainly help attracting new customers. I imagine it’d be less of an issue with larger enterprises.

Hope that helps!

I first answered this question on Quora:

What are good, competitively priced alternatives to HubSpot? What CRM software do you recommend using for small firms?

CRM software (short for: “customer relationship management software”) is a term that’s confusingly used in a number of ways. Some say it to refer to a sales tool, others also apply it to their marketing database solution.

In the meaning I take to (“sales tool”) it isn’t necessarily HubSpot’s “default” offering. Since HubSpot CRM starts off free and you’re asking about cheaper alternatives, I’m guessing you’re also asking about HubSpot Marketing software (which is, in fact, quite pricey).

CRM Software / Marketing Software for small firms

If you really are a small business or a one-man marketing team, I’d suggest taking a look at ActiveCampaign (which includes pretty solid marketing automation features, as well as a built-in CRM) or Drip. You can use either to manage your database of contacts, automate emailing, connect to social media and SMS and more of that good stuff.

You can get either of these tools starting at $50/month.

If you do have a team and/or a larger database, as well as possibly a sales team, I’d suggest taking a look at Net-Results. They don’t have a CRM offering (at this point in time), but they integrate pretty easily and are a very solid option for medium-sized businesses, because of their excellent customer support.

I first answered this question about CRM software on Quora: