HubSpot, Salesforce, Mailchimp & Constant Contact

In today’s digital age, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms have become indispensable tools for businesses of all sizes. These platforms streamline processes, enhance customer interactions, and boost overall productivity. However, with a myriad of options available, selecting the right CRM can be a daunting task. In my 8 years of experience in the digital marketing world, I have used various CRMs. I’m here to share my personal experiences, highlighting the pros and cons of four popular choices: HubSpot, Salesforce, Mailchimp, and Constant Contact.

HubSpot

HubSpot is an all-in-one inbound marketing and sales platform that offers a comprehensive suite of tools to attract, engage, and captivate customers. Its key features include:

1. Marketing Hub: Tools for creating and automating marketing campaigns, managing content, and analysing performance.
2. Sales Hub: Features for managing leads, automating sales processes, and tracking sales.
3. Service Hub: Tools for providing customer service, managing tickets, and analysing customer feedback.
4. CMS Hub: Solutions for building and managing websites optimised for performance and user experience.

Pros

• User-Friendly Interface: HubSpot boasts an intuitive interface that simplifies navigation, making it easy for new users to adapt quickly. I think it was 2016 when I first used this CRM and I had no trouble finding my way around after just a day of using it.
• Easy-to-Use Builder: You don’t need to be a designer to create captivating email campaigns and landing pages. These integrated builders come with drag-and-drop objects so you can add your own design or you can use one of the existing free and responsive templates.
• Time Zone Emails: One thing I particularly like about sending emails through HubSpot is the fact that you can schedule an email to be sent based on the recipient’s time zone. Given that our recipients’ list spans 7 continents and 24 time zones, this was a nice feature to help increase email visibility.

Cons

• Price Point: While HubSpot offers a free version, its advanced features come with a hefty price tag, making it less accessible for small businesses on a tight budget.
• Learning Curve: Despite its user-friendly interface, mastering HubSpot’s advanced features may require some time and training.
• Limited Customisation: While it can be an excellent tool for small businesses, larger ones may find it difficult to tailor the CRM to their specific needs. It’s one of the reasons why one of my clients (a university) made the switch to Salesforce.

Salesforce

Salesforce is a CRM platform known for its robust customisation capabilities and extensive ecosystem of third-party integrations. Its core offerings include:

1. Sales Cloud: Tools for managing leads, opportunities, accounts, and contacts, as well as forecasting and territory management.
2. Service Cloud: Solutions for delivering personalised customer service experiences across multiple channels, including case management and AI-powered chatbots.
3. Marketing Cloud: Features for creating, executing, and analysing marketing campaigns across email, social media, and web channels.
4. Commerce Cloud: Tools for creating seamless, personalised shopping experiences across digital and physical channels.

Pros

• Highly Customisable: Salesforce offers unparalleled customisation capabilities, allowing businesses to tailor the CRM to their unique requirements. This can be great for universities as you can link your admissions to Salesforce and have your team respond to applications from within the CRM.
• Vast Reporting Options: My main job in using Salesforce at the moment is creating and updating lead and application reports for our marketing campaigns. You can set up the reports in whichever way you like, both in terms of data capture and data visualisation. Utilising UTM parameters, the reporting can provide you with great insights as to which campaigns and target audiences bring the best results.
• Scalability: Whether you’re a small school or a big university, Salesforce can scale seamlessly to accommodate growing business needs.

Cons

• Complexity: Salesforce’s extensive customisation options come at a cost – a steep learning curve. Users may require dedicated training to harness the platform’s full potential. Trust me when I say that, even though it’s been over 6 months of me using this CRM, I still manage to get lost in it because of how much data there is to look at.
• Basic Builder: I also use Salesforce to send out weekly emails and create landing pages. Templates for both the emails and landing pages are pasted HTML codes but I see that they’re working on a builder for the landing pages (not the emails though, those are still HTML-based). However, the builder was very basic and you can’t execute more complex designs with it. Still, it beats using HTML code for us marketers and I hope they add more features to it soon.
• Costly: Salesforce is notorious for its high price point, particularly for its advanced features and add-ons, making it less feasible for budget-conscious businesses.

Mailchimp

Mailchimp is a popular email marketing platform that helps businesses create, automate, and analyse their email campaigns. Its main features include:

1. Email Marketing: Tools for designing and sending professional-looking email campaigns, with customisable templates and personalisation options.
2. Marketing Automation: Solutions for automating email workflows based on customer behaviour, preferences, and interactions.
3. Audience Management: Features for segmenting, tagging, and organising subscriber lists to send targeted campaigns.
4. Analytics: Insights into email performance, including open rates, click-through rates, and revenue generated.

Pros

• Email Marketing Expertise: Mailchimp excels in email marketing, offering a plethora of features to create visually stunning campaigns and automate email workflows.
• Landing Page Builder: I know it’s mainly an email marketing platform but in my personal experience, I’ve used Mailchimp mostly for creating landing pages. The landing page builder is simple and easy to use with drag-and-drop objects and requires no need for HTML knowledge.
• Affordability: Compared to other CRM platforms, Mailchimp offers competitive pricing plans, making it an attractive option for small businesses and startups.

Cons

• Limited CRM Functionality: While Mailchimp is excellent for email marketing, its CRM capabilities are relatively basic compared to dedicated CRM platforms like HubSpot or Salesforce.
• Landing Page Forms: When we make landing pages for our clients, in some cases, we want to have a contact form both at the top and at the bottom of the landing page. In Mailchimp (and also Salesforce’s Builder) that isn’t allowed, even though we want to use the same form and not a completely different one.
• Customer Support: Making the switch to GA4 tracking, I had to contact customer support to figure out how to make sure our landing pages are tracked without the use of third-party apps. While they have an option for you to leave your phone number, they never reached out via phone and my chats averaged over an hour. In some cases (not the GA4 issue thankfully), they couldn’t even understand what our problem was let alone provide an adequate solution to it.

Constant Contact

Constant Contact specialises in email marketing and online survey tools, offering solutions to help businesses connect with their audience and gather feedback. Its key features include:

1. Email Marketing: Tools for creating and sending email campaigns using customisable templates and personalisation options.
2. Online Surveys: Solutions for gathering feedback, conducting market research, and gauging customer satisfaction with customisable survey templates.
3. Event Management: Features for promoting and managing events, including online registration, ticket sales, and attendee tracking.
4. List Management: Tools for organising, segmenting, and cleaning subscriber lists to send targeted campaigns based on demographics and engagement.

Pros

• User-Friendly Interface: Constant Contact offers a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy for users to navigate and utilise its features effectively.
• Email Marketing Focus: Similar to Mailchimp, Constant Contact specialises in email marketing, providing users with tools and email templates to create engaging campaigns and automate workflows.
• Email Building and Reporting: Both email creation and email reporting are simple and easy-to-use tools. Whether you want to send out basic or complex emails (in terms of design), I feel like the builder offers just enough to make either work. And email reporting is no science with the key metrics available to you at the click of a button.

Cons

• Affordability: The pricing is based on the number of contacts your account has, the same as Mailchimp. However, Constant Contact can get pretty “aggressive” with its prices as the number of contacts goes up.
• Integration Options: Compared to other CRM platforms, Constant Contact has limited integration options with third-party applications, potentially restricting you from connecting with your preferred tools.
• Scalability: As businesses expand, they may find Constant Contact’s scalability could be improved, particularly in terms of advanced CRM features and customisation options.

Conclusion

In conclusion, selecting the right CRM platform requires careful consideration of your business’s unique requirements, budget constraints, and growth prospects. Each of these CRM platforms offers unique features and capabilities to suit the diverse needs of businesses across industries. By weighing the pros and cons outlined above, you can make an informed decision that aligns with your business objectives.