HubSpot CRM vs Agile CRM: Choosing the Right CRM for Marketing Automation
Fast-paced times come with the necessary tools for businesses to be able to keep up. Now using automation software is a complete necessity – every company should use it. Today’s business world is competitive, so marketing automation tools are far from being a luxury. Does my business really need marketing automation software? Even if I have under ten employees? The answer is yes! If you’re running a small business, you need marketing automation even more. This way even a team of one or two can manage multiple campaigns. It’s always a good idea to make such implementations from early stages.
When it comes to choosing a customer relationship management (CRM) tool for marketing automation there are luckily many out there that you can choose from. The issue is that with variety it becomes increasingly difficult to decide on one. To help you choose the right CRM, we have prepared a comparison between two of the most popular platforms you can use for marketing automation. HubSpot CRM vs Agile CRM – find out which one is best for you!
What are marketing automations?
Well, marketing automation encompasses software platforms by means of which businesses eliminate the need for human intervention for repetitive, routine tasks. Marketing teams use marketing automation software to efficiently run multiple campaigns. It’s used for both time-saving purposes and customer relationship improvement.
What is HubSpot CRM?
HubSpot CRM is a CRM platform that provides software solutions for different departments and needs. It offers six products – Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, Content Hub, Operations Hub, and Commerce Hub. HubSpot CRM’s Marketing Hub is an all-in-one marketing automation software that promises to reduce the usage of time and resources. The marketing tools are AI-based and can help your team connect at a deeper level with customers by engaging and personalizing customer interactions.
HubSpot CRM’s Key Features:
- Forms – HubSpot CRM offers a free form builder with which you can create custom forms to post on your website. When a person accesses your website, they can choose to fill in that form and that information is automatically collected and stored by HubSpot CRM. You don’t need to be an expert to create these forms, you just have to drag and drop elements and arrange them to your liking.
- Email Marketing – this feature enables you to create personalized marketing emails. HubSpot provides all the necessary tools like free email templates which you can customize. When it comes to the content of that email, you can leave it to AI. Instead of spending hours writing manually emails, AI can do it for you and use an appropriate tone at the same time.
- Ads Software – another thing you can personalize is ad campaigns. HubSpot offers an ad sequence builder that creates ad campaigns for each stage of your customer’s journey. This ad software makes detailed reports on your ad campaign’s effectiveness so you know exactly how they perform.
- AI – AI can help you boost engagement and work smarter. With AI you can write content, automate workflows, and benefit from better analyzing capabilities. HubSpot provides all the tools you need to generate engaging content that will grab the attention of potential customers.
- Campaign Management – with HubSpot you can effortlessly manage campaigns in one place. Without efficient collaboration between marketers, the end result can suffer. But with HubSpot CRM’s campaign management capabilities gathered it’s easy to plan campaigns – no more switching between multiple tools.
- Marketing Automation – to reduce operational time and work more efficiently, you can take advantage of HubSpot CRM’s marketing automation feature. You can harness the power of chatbots, email, and workflow automation. Creating emails requires no code and just by setting triggers and conditions, they can be sent to the right recipients. You can also create workflows with ease be they simpler or more complex.
- Marketing Analytics – to measure the performance by benefiting from built-in dashboards, reports, and analytics. With all data in one place, tracking analytics and receiving detailed reports is no longer a challenge. You can also analyze CRM data to have a complete view of the customer lifecycle. Another thing that can be measured is website performance by analyzing interactions.
What is Agile CRM?
Agile CRM is an all-in-one CRM platform that is mainly used for automating marketing, sales, and service. It offers a generous amount of features and implementations. Agile CRM is easy to use and powerful while being affordable. Agile CRM is designed to provide high levels of flexibility and customization so it can adapt to different operational needs.
Agile CRM’s Key Features:
- Email Marketing – Agile CRM offers email marketing software that comes with prepackaged templates to choose from. After selecting one and drafting the content of the message, you can automate the sending. However, you are not limited to these templates, you can create your own without needing code. Another aspect of this feature is email personalization with which you can add a personal touch to your emails.
- Newsletters – with Agile CRM you can send newsletters. By connecting the platform with your website, blog, or social media, it collects all subscriber information. This can be further analyzed to create the perfect list you can send newsletters to. Agile CRM’s visual interface makes designing newsletter campaigns easy for non-technical users. After sending them, you can track to see how many emails have been opened and receive performance reports.
- Email Tracking – this feature allows you to monitor your emails – who read your email and even reread them. Agile CRM will send you real-time notifications to alert you when this happens. When a recipient doesn’t read an email in a pre-established amount of time, you will receive reminders to follow up on that message.
- Multichannel Campaigns – to benefit from maximum visibility, you have to reach customers on a wide variety of channels. This is why Agile CRM supports multichannel campaigns – from email marketing to social media marketing. You can even send text messages and connect with customers over the phone.
- Personalization Software – with personalization software, you can customize customer experience. Agile CRM offers four types of personalization – personalized images, message timers, personalized videos, and email personalization. With just a click you can automatically send customized content.
- PPC Management Software – PPC (Pay-Per-Click) management software can help create, launch, and optimize shopping campaigns. Keywords are essential for getting website traffic. This software assists you in finding relevant ones so you can make improvements. Generating dynamic ads is another thing PPC management software can help you with.
- Content Planner – this feature allows you to prepare the content you will want to post in advance – you can see the distribution of the content in the content calendar tool. To ensure a good position among other popular websites, you can benefit from SEO reviewing tools.
HubSpot CRM vs Agile CRM
Both platforms, HubSpot CRM and Agile CRM offer powerful marketing automation that are meant to increase efficiency, boost sales, and improve customer relationships. When deciding between one of them, pricing plays an important role in case you are looking for a small business CRM platform.
- Free Plans – in terms of free plan availability, both HubSpot CRM and Agile CRM offer generous free forever plans. HubSpot CRM’s free plan doesn’t have a limited number of seats but the number of features is not very high. Agile CRM offers a free plan that allows up to ten users but the features are more varied and numerous compared to HubSpot. To benefit from these free plans, you don’t even have to add your credit card information.
- Pricing – before deciding whether to pay or not for one of HubSpot CRM’s plans, you can request a demo. The plans are three in number and are paid for by the number of seats – Starter ($20/month per seat), Professional ($890/month with three seats included), and Enterprise ($3,600/month with five seats included). Agile CRM offers three types of commitments – monthly, yearly, and two-year. The longer the commitment the bigger the discount – this is the basic principle. There are three priced plans – Starter ($9/month per user), Regular ($30/month per user), and Enterprise ($48/month per user).
Why You Might Prefer HubSpot CRM
- HubSpot CRM’s interface is more intuitive and straightforward than the one of Agile CRM
- HubSpot CRM offers more app integrations than Agile CRM
- You are looking for a wide range of features
- You run a large enterprise or a smaller business but with a large budget
Why You Might Prefer Agile CRM
- Agile CRM can fit more intricate business processes than HubSpot CRM
- Agile CRM telephony service integration
- You prioritize cost-effectiveness
- You are looking for a small business CRM
After carefully analyzing your business needs and priorities, you can start making a decision. HubSpot CRM and Agile CRM alike offer powerful marketing automation software and a generous amount of features. However, depending on your budget and the size of your business, one choice might be more suitable than the other. For larger enterprises, HubSpot CRM is a more appropriate option while for small to medium companies Agile CRM is a better choice.
