Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and marketing automation systems are pivotal in improving customer engagement and promoting business expansion.

This is achieved through supporting organisations to enhance customer relationships, manage data, and streamline internal processes.

With the increased necessity for start-up businesses to make their mark, and existing organisations to optimise their solutions, marketing automation platforms are in higher demand.

Finding the one best suited to specific business requirements and company demographics is difficult. HubSpot and Mailchimp are two notable names that stand out.

HubSpot and Mailchimp are distinct marketing automation platforms tailored to various business needs.

This blog will help you make an informed decision on which platform is best for your company through a side-by-side comparison.

Overview of HubSpot

HubSpot was founded on June 9^th, 2006, by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah.

The company was established with the aim of providing up-to-date inbound marketing and sales software solutions to businesses.

HubSpot is an all-in-one platform for inbound marketing, sales, and customer service. It enables businesses to attract, engage, and delight customers through a range of integrated tools and features.

HubSpot is customised for the flexibility of growing organisations and provides integrated solutions for optimising processes for large businesses.  

Overview of Mailchimp

Emerging in 2001, Mailchimp originally started as a side project for a web design company called Rocket Science Group.

Over the years, Mailchimp has evolved into a standalone email marketing and marketing automation platform, establishing itself as one of the most popular email marketing services.

Mailchimp provides businesses with a set of tools to create, send, and manage email campaigns, in addition to handling various automated marketing tasks.

It has also expanded its services to include social media management, ad campaigns, and audience insights with detailed analysis, making it a versatile marketing platform for businesses of all sizes.

Comparison of key features

The key features offered by HubSpot and Mailchimp include:

• User capability and customer support
• Email marketing capabilities
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management)
• Marketing automation
• Analytics and reporting
• Simple integration options

HubSpot's unique features:

HubSpot’s unique features that set it apart from others include:

• All-in-One Solution: HubSpot's integrated suite covers marketing, sales, and customer service for managing the entire customer lifecycle.
• Content Management: It includes a CMS for easy creation and management of websites, blogs, and landing pages.
• SEO Tools: HubSpot provides keyword research, on-page SEO optimisation, and content strategy tools to boost online visibility and search rankings.
• Lead Capture and Conversion: HubSpot offers lead capture forms, pop-ups, and A/B testing to enhance lead generation and conversions.
• HubSpot Academy: Their training and certifications empower users to improve marketing, sales, and CRM skills.

These features contribute to a comprehensive marketing strategy, making HubSpot the ultimate marketing platform to partner with for the best for your business.

Unique features of Mailchimp:

While HubSpot offers a comprehensive suite of features, Mailchimp provides its own set of tools, including:

• Segmentation and Personalisation: Easily segment email lists by criteria (e.g., demographics, purchase history) for precise, personalised content delivery.
• Content Studio: Centralised storage in Mailchimp's Content Studio streamlines access and reuse of images and files for email campaigns.
• A/B Testing: Optimise campaign performance by conducting A/B tests on elements like subject lines, content, and send times.
• Mailchimp & Co. Community: Engage with resources, guides, and a community forum to exchange insights, seek advice, and learn from fellow Mailchimp users.

Both HubSpot and Mailchimp provide features to enhance marketing efforts, with HubSpot excelling in its all-in-one approach, and Mailchimp offering features for email marketing and engagement.

User-Friendliness

HubSpot's visually appealing interface is intuitive for new users, although its extensive feature set can present a steeper learning curve.

Trained professionals assist with implementation and onboarding, and an integrated chat feature is available for answering questions.

HubSpot Academy offers educational resources to enhance customer support and proficiency with the platform.

Mailchimp is known for its beginner-friendly approach, with an intuitive interface and simple tools tailored to email marketing. Its clean interface makes tasks such as creating and sending email campaigns efficient.

Pre-designed templates cater to users without advanced design skills, and comprehensive tutorials and guides aid users in getting started and troubleshooting issues.

Email Marketing Capabilities

Both HubSpot and Mailchimp offer robust email marketing capabilities, but they cater to different types of users and business needs.

HubSpot excels in email automation with features for complex workflows, lead nurturing, and personalised messaging.

Robust segmentation options enable users to target specific audiences based on various criteria and engage with the demographic supported by personalisation options and dynamic email templates.

Combining these features leads to effective email campaigns through high quality and guaranteed deliverability rates.

Mailchimp provides professionally designed email templates that users can customise. It offers a drag-and-drop email builder for custom emails.

The platform supports list segmentation, basic personalization through merge tags, and A/B testing for optimising email campaigns.

Furthermore, the management of email campaigns and mail lists is made easier through regular analytic updates making it a popular choice for small to medium-sized businesses and beginners in email marketing.

CRM and Lead Management

HubSpot provides a more comprehensive CRM and lead management solution, suitable for businesses looking for an all-in-one platform that tightly integrates marketing, sales, and customer service.

HubSpot's CRM features include Contact management, Lead scoring, Sales automation, and Marketing-Sales alignment.

One of the distinctions between the two is HubSpot’s lead generation process and the effective lead nurturing that can become legitimate business opportunities to streamline customer relationships.

Mailchimp offers a basic CRM with a focus on eCommerce integration and email marketing. It is closely aligned with its email marketing platform. It provides features for managing contacts, creating tags, and segmenting lists making it a useful tool for organising customer data.

The choice between the two depends on the depth of CRM functionality you require and your overall marketing and sales needs.

Marketing Automation

HubSpot excels in advanced workflow automation, enabling the creation of sequences based on triggers, actions, and conditions while ensuring data synchronisation between marketing and sales teams.

A/B testing optimises campaign elements, and behaviour-based triggers respond to actions such as website visits and email interactions. Detailed reporting and analytics provide insights for data-driven decision-making.

HubSpot offers more advanced and comprehensive marketing automation features, making it suitable for businesses with complex marketing needs and larger budgets.

Mailchimp offers automation workflows triggered by actions like sign-ups and purchases, even in its free plan.

It's particularly suited for eCommerce, with features like cart abandonment emails and product recommendations. Users can segment their audience and personalise emails.

Mailchimp provides a simplified and user-friendly approach to marketing automation, making it a good choice for smaller businesses and those primarily interested in email marketing and eCommerce integration.

Analytics and Reporting

Both HubSpot and Mailchimp offer analytics and reporting features to help users measure the performance of their marketing campaigns.

Users can track key performance indicators (KPIs) across various areas, customise dashboards, and focus on relevant data. Marketing analytics include email performance, website statistics, and return on investment (ROI) tracking.

Sales analytics track team performance, deal progress, and pipeline health. Conversion tracking monitors website actions, and attribution reporting reveals channel contributions. Lead scoring insights identify highly engaged and likely-to-convert leads.

HubSpot offers more extensive and comprehensive analytics and reporting capabilities, covering various aspects of marketing, sales, and customer service.

Mailchimp provides comprehensive email campaign reports, detailing open rates, click-through rates, and eCommerce data.

Users can track the performance of automated email workflows and gain insights into revenue generation from email campaigns.

The platform also offers segmentation reports for analysing audience engagement, list growth reports to monitor subscriber growth, and basic audience insights, including subscriber location and engagement history.

HubSpot's analytics and reporting tools, including real-time campaign tracking, customisable dashboards, and data visualisation demonstrate how HubSpot helps in data-driven decision-making – enhancing the experience.

Integrations

HubSpot offers a wide range of integrations with third-party applications and services to enhance its functionality and connectivity with other tools commonly used by businesses.

These integrations span categories such as customer relationship management CRM and sales, social media, content management systems (CMS), analytics, marketing automation, payment and finance, among others.

These integrations enable businesses to streamline their processes, improve data management, and create more powerful marketing, sales, and customer service strategies.

Mailchimp offers extensive integrations and partnerships with third-party applications, enhancing its compatibility with various business tools.

It provides eCommerce integration for popular platforms, enabling automation of eCommerce-related emails.

Social media integration allows users to connect and manage their social media accounts within Mailchimp, simplifying their social media marketing efforts.

Conclusion

In summary, the choice between HubSpot and Mailchimp depends on your specific business needs. If you require a comprehensive marketing and sales platform with a robust CRM, HubSpot is a better fit.

However, if you're primarily focused on email marketing and need a user-friendly solution, Mailchimp may be the right choice.

HubSpot is a versatile marketing and sales service provider and prides itself on offering a customer-centric experience with an inbound CRM.

It provides different hubs to offer software that can boost your business efficiently and effectively.

Reach out to our team and schedule a conversation to explore the potential with HubSpot.