Quora Q&A

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:

What is your favorite mental framework to setting up marketing automation?

Greatness in small beginnings. (Yes, Uncharted fans, that was a reference.)

What I mean to say is: test marketing automation out for your business. Pick a product, a limited segment of contacts and do a limited campaign. Then test it out in a smaller tool like Drip or ActiveCampaign.

It could be an automated email sequence that looks for engagement on the part of the segment you’ve selected. Experiment with attributing lead scores for contacts in this particular segment. See what happens, see how the software works, how to set everything up etc.

And only then dive into a larger strategy.

Now, don’t get me wrong: strategy is really, really important. I often see larger companies skip this stage and go straight into a wide-scale marketing automation implementation.

That’s a very expensive way to find out whether it works for you.

Once you know you can have success on a smaller scale, pick a tool that fits your organization (you often don’t get a trial from the big boys in marketing automation – except with Net-Results, because they’re awesome).

As for the larger strategy, make sure you focus on adoption. Nothing will work if the people in the organization don’t know how to use the software. Or think outside their own comfort zone, but within this new realm of possibility that marketing automation offers.

So it’s something like:

Pick a limited segment and experiment. Prove automation works for you.
Pick a larger tool that fits your organization (if needed).
Now consider your customer, how he communicates and what you actually need to say and do in order to draw him in.
Create a clear customer profile and journey.
Practically consider the workflows and assets you need to be making.
Start training people in the use of the tool and let them set everything up.
Start running, keep adjusting and keep experimenting.

A marketing automation mental framework has to put the customer first. It has to make sure marketers actually enjoy working within it. And it has to put out results.

I first answered this question on Quora:

What is your experience using Eloqua?

Some notes on my experience using Eloqua.

Eloqua is an enterprise-level marketing automation tool. It’s expensive (when compared to similar solutions), because of that very reason: Oracle sells to enterprise customers.

From my more tech-savvy colleagues I hear the back-end is an absolute dream to use. It’s easy to integrate and connect to other enterprise systems. It allows for large volumes to flow through the system with relative ease.

Here are my personal experiences:

Experience using Eloqua: what I liked

Working mostly on the marketing side of things, I can say I really like what they’ve done with their campaign builder. The “free-flow” approach works really well and is easy to use, even for non-techy marketers.

On top of that, you get the Program Builder, which allows you to build system-wide automations. In conjunction with the flexible lead scoring system you can build some pretty powerful marketing pipelines.

As a consultant Eloqua is great, because big companies use it and they pay specialists very well.

Experience using Eloqua: what I didn’t like

The software contains extensive functionality, but it’s not always that user-friendly. Besides a dated-looking interface (writing this halfway through 2018), I found it hard to find information I was looking for on a regular basis. Be it reports, or customer data.

The email and landing page builders I found absolutely terrible to use. The interface is clunky (meaning it takes multiple steps to get something simple done, like bolding a font) and not intuitive at all (meaning things aren’t where you expect them to be, or they don’t behave like you’d want them to).

Experience using Eloqua: what I found absolutely horrifying

There’s no way to set up an RSS-based newsletter, without third-party add-ons. And even when we managed to do that, it was hard to pull off for the folks in charge of that part of marketing (i.e. non-techies).

Eloqua also drops the ball on stuff that’s just handy and smart on a day-to-day basis. It feels like the entire approach to the platform is “enterprise”, which for some reason mean you don’t implement those little improvements that make a marketer’s life easier.

Example: as cool as the campaign builder is, there’s some absolutely essential stuff they’ve left out. You can’t, for example, have it track a specific link (whether it exists on a page or in an email). You can’t base a trigger on a specific page, unless that page is an Eloqua landing page. You can only trigger based on “website visit” which is the entire website you’ve hooked up to the system. Nuts.

There’s more stuff you’d expect a $2000+/month marketing automation tool to do, but it just doesn’t. Compare that to something like ActiveCampaign or Drip at $50/month, well…

Finally, I should note that Oracle support sucks. In the sense that they’re just not there, or not available. Mind-blowing at this price point.

Experience using Eloqua: compared to some other tools

It does more than Pardot.

It certainly does more than HubSpot.

(But it also looks far worse than both of those).

It fits larger teams better than those two.

From what I hear, it’s better suited for larger volumes than Marketo.

And even though I just mentioned ActiveCampaign and Drip, both of those tools are aimed at smaller businesses (I was just trying to make a point about usability).

Experience using Eloqua: should you buy it?

Honestly, if you’re looking at a tool like this, I’d recommend Net-Results instead. Even more flexible segmentation, perfectly suited for larger teams, but absolutely stellar customer support and training.

I first answered this question on Quora:

What is the best marketing automation software available today?

The best marketing automation software is the one you’ll actually use <- see my article right there for some hot tips on picking a platform.

To answer your question: what you really need to be asking yourself is: what is the best marketing automation software available today for me?

There is no one-size fits all solution.

In this answer, let me give you two things. First, a couple of pointers on how to pick a good solution for your business. Second, a few recommendations.

Note, I’m in B2B marketing, so if you’re a big retailer this won’t help you much (but if you’re interested in generating better quality leads and work with a sales team, this will help you).

Picking the best marketing automation software

There a lot of marketing automation platforms on the market, so it’s easy to get overwhelmed. It’s important to pick a tool that fits your use case and business.

The way to do that is to:

Make it very clear what you’re trying to accomplish with the tool (you need a vision for your marketing and have some idea of the tool’s practical use, i.e. requirements).
Make sure your management is in on it. If you’re using marketing automation software to make your business more customer-centric, you need cultural change as much as technological change.
If you’re in B2B, this won’t fly without the cooperation of the sales team (and I imagine that goes for some B2C folks, too).
Try before you buy. Ask for a trial period. Second-time buyers know how important this is. You can’t imagine working with a tool, you need to actually work with it to understand it.

The best marketing automation software recommendations

If you’re a small business in B2C, have a look at Drip. Cheap, modern and it does a whole lot.

If you’re a small business in B2B, have a look at ActiveCampaign. Relatively easy to use, tons of options, even comes with a CRM if you need it (which is decent). Great option. Or you could still pick Drip, works fine for B2B marketing, too.

With small business, I mean: it’s largely you running the marketing team, there’s a small sales team, you do less than $1m in yearly revenue. You’re looking at automating email campaigns, leveraging customer data to personalize stuff… that sort of thing.

If you’re a medium-sized or larger business, have a look at Net-Results. Kick-ass support (like, they will actually pick up the phone and put in the time to help you forward), a platform that does what you need it to do (including a really great landing page builder) and no pricing shenanigans.

With medium-sized business and above, I mean you’ve got a marketing team of at least 3 people (and preferably someone who can dedicate a good chunk of their time to maintaining your marketing automation software). You’re looking to do emailing and personalization, but also you want to integrate with other business systems and have a team of marketers working together in a single solution.

So that’s any business ranging from a solid midrange company to a large enterprise.

Big brands?

Maybe you were expecting me to say HubSpot, Eloqua, Marketo or Pardot. The truth is that the big players in this market have fallen asleep. If you go with a big brand you should expect subpar support (okay, HubSpot isn’t too bad here), lack of platform updates and, most important of all, expect to pay through the nose.

Net-Results is bootstrapped, so it doesn’t have to consider investor whims or wishes. It’s a smaller company that still actually puts the customer first – which is huge, especially if your team isn’t that tech savvy.

I first answered this question on Quora:

Which certification is better for career growth in marketing: Adobe Campaign, Marketo, Salesforce or Oracle Eloqua?

I think it largely depends on what you’d like to achieve with your career and the kind of companies you want to be working with.

If you’re the hardcore development type, I’d look into getting certifications for all of the tools you’ve mentioned. I know a few people with marketing automation certifications across the board and they do really well as freelancers.

Also, look into which tools are in demand in your geographical area. Over here in Europe, Salesforce is huge and Eloqua is rapidly growing. My Salesforce certifications have certainly helped me secure a lot of well-paying work. Marketo, on the other hand, isn’t quite as big. I’ve heard of Adobe Campaign implementations, but I’ve never worked with it.

Pick a tool you know will get you work – and then get really good at it.

Furthermore, all of the tools you’ve mentioned are used by large companies. Exceptions are Salesforce Pardot and Marketo, which are also extensively used in the mid-market segment. If you just want to be developing, go for the big tools and specialize – it’s likely you can get work doing just development work for a larger corporation (freelance, too).

Smaller companies often need someone that can they can consult with on both marketing as well as technology. That’s where I operate and I love it. I’m certified in HubSpot and Pardot, which gets me exactly those kinds of projects.

I first answered this question on Quora: