“Should I be using Hubspot?” is a question I get a lot from businesses.
Marketing Automation Tools like Hubspot, Pardot, Marketo, etc. have a lot to offer, including lead nurturing, email drip campaigns, landing pages, CTAs, and comprehensive analytics.
But did you know that Hubspot lost $34 million last year alone?
In his insightful and well-researched article about Hubspot, blogger Mark Webster asks, “at what point do we consider HubSpot’s financial performance a referendum on the efficacy of Inbound Marketing?”
Herein lies the issue.
I don’t think there’s a problem with these tools so much as there is with the businesses that buy them.
Too many businesses believe a Marketing Automation Tool is a marketing panacea: something that can literally substitute for real marketing people with real marketing skills.
That is a problem.
A Marketing Automation Tool should complement a marketing department, not the other way around.
To get full use of these tools, you need things like:
- A marketing strategy
- An email strategy
- A lead generation strategy that integrates with sales dept.
- Creative copywriters to write emails, blogs, and white papers
- Creative email, web, and landing page designers
- Conversion rate and A/B testing optimizers
- Data analytics, reporting, and number crunchers
- Etc.
I believe businesses that don’t have these types of marketing people are not getting the most from their Marketing Automation Tools.
These businesses pay a lot of money for a tool that they think will magically solve all their marketing needs, and it won’t.
And when they realize this, they abandon ship.
And that’s why companies like Hubspot have been in financial trouble – too many companies buy-in without the right mix of marketing people and skills to support it.
So if you don’t have a marketing department, pass on the Marketing Automation Tools.