Marketo Competitors: there are a lot of them and they’re not all created equal!
When it comes to Marketing Automation, there are a lot of options; there are even different definitions of Marketing Automation itself and different companies use the phrase to mean different things. Here at Net-Results, we use the following definition:
There are a few key terms in here: “automatically” and “over multiple channels;” this means that while a lot of software platforms automate some things, not all of them manage campaigns and processes automatically and over multiple channels.
But Marketo is one of the platforms that truly does! So let’s take a look at the Marketo Competitors and how they stack up!
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Marketo Competitors: How do they stack up?
For the purpose of this blog post, we’re going to compare five main points between Marketo and its top competitors:
- Platform Functionality and Features
- Average Time to Go Live
- Pricing
- Quality of Support
- Average Time to See ROI
1. Marketo Competitors Platform Functionality and Features
Let’s start with the meat of any Marketing Automation platform: the platform functionality and features!
Most “real” marketing automation platforms utilize a lot of different functionalities to allow marketers to drive ROI, generate leads, and convert visitors into customer by automating marketing programs, measuring marketing ROI, and communicating with specific groups and segments.
To figure out how Marketo Competitors really stacked up when it came to platform functionality and features, we wanted to go straight to the source: marketers just like you (and me!). So we recently paired up with G2, a trusted software review site with over 1.2 million authentic and timely reviews from real users, to license some data to get to the bottom, once and for all. The proof is in the pudding and that’s what we wanted to provide you with!
So here’s how Marketo Competitors perform when it comes to 3 large platform functionality and features requirements:
Segmentation:
Hubspot and Net-Results both beat out Marketo for Segmentation capabilities, with Hubspot coming in at 84% user satisfaction with the feature and Net-Results customers rating it at 91%. Pardot and other competitors came in around 80%.
Lead Nurturing:
When it comes to Lead Nurturing, the data actually showed very close results. Hubspot and Marketo were both tied around 85% customer satisfaction regarding their lead nurturing features. Net-Results came slightly ahead at 85% and Pardot fell slightly behind at 81%. Given that this is such a bread and butter piece of marketing automation, we’re not surprised that many competitors rank very similarly!
Lead Scoring:
Another section where most of the competitors scored very similarly was with Lead Scoring! At 82%, Marketo beat out Hubspot at 81% and Pardot at 79%. (Net-Results came in at 90%).
2. Marketo Competitors Platform Average Time to Go Live
Going live is an important aspect of Marketing Automation implementation: the quicker you go live, the faster that you get to really generate leads and see true ROI (more on that later).
When it comes to Time to Go Live for Market Competitors, we thought that giving you the in-depth details might be helpful!
For those that don’t have their reading glasses on hand, Hubspot and Pardot users went live about 1.5 faster than Marketo users; Hubspot and Pardot both averaged a 2 month implementation period while Marketo users averaged 3 months.
Net-Results actually came in as the head of this pack in all aspects; Net-Results users went live in 1 month, which is 2x as fast as Pardot and Hubspot users, and 3x as fast as Marketo users.
3. Marketo Competitors Pricing
Pricing can be a really complicated facet of shopping for Marketing Automation; we actually wrote a whole Marketo Pricing Whitepaper because we got so many questions about it!
There a number of reasons for this, a lot of which we talk about more in depth in that Whitepaper. First, when so many companies don’t offer all features at all tiers, it’s really difficult to determine what the cost will actually be at the end of the day (we do it differently, by the way). Second, many companies don’t publish their transparent pricing because they want you to engage with their Sales team in order to get their information (plus their sales team can give you a real number based on their add-ons) — which totally makes sense, unless you’re the shopper and just want the information!
So we did some more research (through a little bit of a sneaky partnerships with some agencies who were also shopping for Marketing Automation) and found out what our Marketo really costs!
Looking for Marketing Automation Pricing? Download the free Comparison Chart which compares, Marketo, Pardot, Act-On, Net-Results, and Hubspot.
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If you’re not wanting to download the chart, here’s the gist: Marketo is the most expensive (by far) for their basic tiers and everything else is less expensive. Hubspot, Act-On, and Pardot are all very similarly priced, and Net-Results tends to be less expensive than the other five options.
In fact, the Sales Orders from Marketo that we see are generally twice as much as ours.
4. Marketo Competitors Quality of Support
I could truly write a whole book about why Quality of Support is so important in the world of Marketing Automation (in fact, I did! You can check out our free Whitepaper, 6 Reasons Marketers Leave Marketo).
For a lot of marketers, from the newest team member to the most experienced, learning a new Marketing Automation Platform can be a little bit overwhelming. It’s why choosing a Customer Success (CS) team that will truly partner with you throughout your Onboarding process is so important; they should be giving you all the tools you need to be successful while using their software.
Then there’s the whole “what about after I’ve gone live?” question. Your CS Team should be there for you then, too! At Net-Results, every customer has unlimited access to their Account Managers Calendar to schedule a training call, and customers can expect to have any ticket they submit to the team to be resolved within an average of a single business day.
Quality of Support should not be overlooked! Having a great CS team helps save time, go live faster, and get you on the road to achieving your goals.
So how did Marketo Competitors do when it comes to Quality of Support? We’ll let the numbers speak for themselves.
- Net-Results: A+ (97%)
- Hubspot: B+ (88%)
- Marketo: C- (73%)
- Pardot: C- (73%)
5. Marketo Competitors Average Time to See ROI
Now in my humble opinion, average time to Return on Investment (ROI) is a huge deal — and one that a lot of marketers don’t necessarily take into account. If time to go live is the very beginning of your relationship with a software, time to ROI is the middle of the road; it’s a terrific indicator of how much a software is actually helping its customers market and increase revenue.
When it came to Marketo Competitors and the Average Time to See ROI, the data (remember, this is from marketers just like you) showed interesting trends.
If you’re considering Hubspot, Pardot, or Marketo, it’s likely that you’ll see ROI in around the same amount of time. Marketo users saw ROI in an average of 17 months, or just under a year and a half. If you’re looking for a Marketing Automation Platform that enables you to get ROI in 7 months, with 60% of customers reporting going live in 6 months or less, you might want to check out Net-Results.
So that’s how Marketo and its Competitors ranked for 5 of the most important aspects of Marketing Automation Platforms! We hope this post was super helpful for you and helped illuminated more of what Marketo Competitors are really worth checking out!
As always, don’t forget to subscribe to the Net-Results blog via the form below and if you’re interested in learning more about the Net-Results platform, schedule a personalized demo with one of the Marketing Automation Experts from our Product Team.
To your success!
Sarah Augustinsky
Marketing at Net-Results
