Hubspot Automation vs Mailchimp vs SharpSpring

As digital marketing has become standard for businesses, large and small, email marketing – the most popular digital marketing tool for the last 40 years – has taken a second rise into the spotlight.

Delivering powerful returns and now boasting new tech to automate communications, tracking and further optimise for results, marketing automation and email marketing are perhaps the most powerful duo on the digital stage at present.

With this latest rise in email adoption, it seems only natural to have seen a surge in the number of business owners jumping on board with Mailchimp; one of the largest email service providers on the market, with a strong track record stretching back to their launch in 2001.

Now that Mailchimp has recently introduced marketing automation features, many small businesses feel they have the perfect solution for their email and marketing automation services.

But what if there were something better?

Mailchimp vs HubSpot vs SharpSpring

Here at Preface Studios, we are huge advocates of marketing automation services. These solutions have revolutionised the way that businesses of all sizes can communicate with their prospects and customers, leveraging automation to simplify the process while significantly boosting lead generation, reputation building and conversions.

But not all solutions are created equally. And while we love the work that can be done via Mailchimp, it would be remiss of us to suggest that this was the best option for SMEs.

Mailchimp

Businesses love Mailchimp because it is a scalable service, which can be entered into as a free email service provider (only 2000 contacts) and then grow into a paid service as the needs of the business warrant it. Starting at just £12 p/m plan for the marketing automation services.

As an email service provider, Mailchimp is a leader, and their free service is a great option for small businesses with no marketing budget. But in the marketing automation game, Mailchimp’s solutions are basic and barely comparable to the likes of HubSpot and SharpSpring.

Mailchimp’s marketing automation tool lets you trigger marketing emails based on a variety of different actions from your contacts. This includes sending abandoned cart emails to birthday emails and everything else in between. But Mailchimp’s marketing automation is limited to sending emails. There is no capability to automate contact management or internal notifications. Meaning the solution is incomplete for businesses that want full marketing automation capabilities.

HubSpot

HubSpot could almost be considered the founder of content marketing, or at the least the first platform to turn it into a systematic craft and share their insights with the world.

As a result, they know that automation needs to go beyond email, and their platform does just this.

HubSpot’s marketing automation solution not only triggers an email based on the actions of contacts, but it also lets you manage your database, rotate leads amongst your sales team, and even create support tickets automatically.

Furthermore, you can add delays and conditional logic to your automation, which allows you to customise your workflows to meet the unique needs of your team.

The downside, however, is that HubSpot is an expensive solution. While Mailchimp is cheap but sparse in services, HubSpot’s price tag comes in around £22,500 annually for their Enterprise solution up to 10k contacts.

SharpSpring

SharpSpring is the newer of the platforms but quickly making a mark with the SME sector, thanks to being designed specifically for that sector and coming with a price tag to reflect it.

Unlike Mailchimp, SharpSpring can segment users – putting them into a specific audience list – based on their actions on the website. These contacts can then be given a lead score based on their interactions with your organisation, which, in turn, can activate tasks and notifications to the sale and marketing team.

SharpSpring not only offers all of the services mentioned which Mailchimp and HubSpot offer, but they also provide the ability to automate internal notifications and tasks, as well as automate lead management and segmentation. Plus they can integrate with your WordPress CMS for advanced capabilities and results.

On top of this, their pricing is accessible for SMEs, starting at £150 + VAT p/m for 1500 contacts, when join through us here at Preface Studios.

While all three platforms are fantastic tools in their own right, there is no better solution for SMEs than SharpSpring. This platform covers all of your email and marketing automation solutions at a price which is currently incomparable to any other platforms on the market.

The team at Preface Studios have been working with SMEs since 2006. We understand that you need the best results at the right price, and for this, we partner with SharpSpring.

Book a SharpSpring demo with our team today to learn how marketing automation can transform your results and deliver happiness your prospects.