Marketing automation is a highly relevant topic for businesses nowadays. Digital marketing is being embraced by companies more and more each day.
If you are serious about growing your ecommerce business, using tools to leverage automation is key.
According to the Website Markets and Markets, the estimated growth of marketing automation has grown from $3.3 billion to $6.4 billion by the year 2024. With the enormous transition to teams operating remotely, it’s crucial to comprehend the significance of work from home tools. In this sense, the key features and use of Salesforce Marketing Cloud Vs Marketo have become critical to businesses.
However, before we go deeper into the topic, I invite the reader to a brief reading of each of their definitions and essential characteristics of these marketing programs.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
This is a customer service solutions platform for marketers. It allows you to manage and create customer relationships and marketing campaigns.
With this tool, you will enjoy several integrated solutions in your system, such as customer journey, mobile number, email, web personalization, social media, content creation, advertising, and data analysis. You will also have predictions made by the Software, thus helping your decision-making.
For example, if you need help with which channel to send a message to your customer, this tool will show you the best way to do it.
The Marketing Cloud system is integrated with salesforce.com’s service cloud, allowing a more pleasant experience for your customers. It is efficient to save time and increase productivity. Avoiding contact with several random professionals and leaving the connection of only one professional.
Thus, creating a more comfortable environment for your client, who will have direct contact with a professional. There is also a trigger function, which will trigger when one of your customers joins a loyalty program, such as welcoming them.
Marketo
One of the most renowned marketing automation platforms for marketing professionals. Founded in 2018, the company gained notoriety in 2012, ranking as the number one Marketing Software company for its growth. However, their ranking declined, especially in 2013 and 2014, when they still needed to enter the orders.
Adobe in the year 2018, for $4.7 billion. From then on, it was integrated into the Adobe Marketing Software suite, whose headquarters is in San Jose, California.
Marketo is Software that helps with marketing organization, automation, engagement measurement, tasks, and workflows. Marketo software is Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based. This system allows marketing campaigns to be automated and personalized across multi-channel campaigns.
The revamped Adobe Marketing Cloud Engage primarily provides its services to enterprise-level B2B marketing and B2C buyer marketers from various industries, such as healthcare, business services, telecommunications, manufacturing, education, technology, and financial services. We can mention some of its most prominent and famous clients: GE Panasonic, Charles Schwab, CenturyLink, and RingCentral.
Given the above, we have a brief notion of the two Software to help with the marketing automation industry. Let’s consider some questions to see which is the ideal Software for you and your company.
Common Characteristics
As you can imagine, both Software has similar characteristics. In this sense, we list some of them, such as
- Nurturing and Engagement Programs
- Analytics and ROI Tracking
- Prospect Tracking
- Social Marketing
- Segmentation
- Website Visitor Tracking
- Email Marketing Application
- CRM Integration
- Lead Scoring.
Marketing Cloud vs Marketo: Pros And Cons
Marketo
Pros
In Marketo, a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) can be integrated with Microsoft Dynamic and Salesforce
The Software works in a strategic and profound analytical way
There is a diversity of products, with consumer engagement marketing, real-time personalization, marketing automation, and marketing management.
CONS
Its modular product system is complicated, as is its price
It may require expert IT knowledge to deal with its complexities
The customer support runs Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m
The marketing automation of this Software may require a dedicated staff member.
Pricing:
These are Marketo’s current prices:
- Spark: US $895.00 per month
- Standard: US $1795 per month
- Select: US $3195 per month.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Pros
Its app store is complete
It offers collaboration between users called “chatter”
It pioneered the CRM system by being cloud-based and, in that sense, has the largest CRM provider in the world
It provides full browser support.
CONS
It is not an exclusive Software; other companies offer similar services, like Microsoft, for example
Some of the updates are not optional, forcing you to stop the whole system from updating and apply the update
There are certain limits, such as on application downloads, emails, and storage.
Pricing
These are the current prices for the Salesforce Marketing Cloud:
- Starter: US $25 per month/per person
- Professional: US $65 per month/per person
- Enterprise: US $125.00 per month/per person
- Unlimited: US $250.00 per month/per person
- Sales and Service Cloud Bundle: US $300 per month/person.
With this brief presentation of the pros and cons of both Software, I will present more consistent topics, covering both characteristics. This way, it will be more straightforward for you, our reader, to choose your automatic marketing management tool.
Campaign Management
It is necessary to have as a goal in the marketing campaign the customer experience, with a personal and unique personalization, which has become vital for Marketing Automation Software or Platform.
With Marketo, you can use engagement programs to manage your campaigns more efficiently. On the other hand, Salesforce Marketing Cloud provides a “Journey Builder” experience, which will involve an email studio, SMS, Social Marketing Media, and more.
The engagement provided by Marketo focuses on email. However, you can add or exclude other channels to your campaign with customization.
Content Management
You can only succeed in your marketing campaigns by determining what your content will be. Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Marketo are two platforms that offer several options for you to enhance your campaign, offering alternatives to create and customize your content.
Both have WYSIWYG permission to develop and create content without adversity and obstacles. However, you can make your content more efficient in Salesforce Marketing Cloud by modifying the code in the range. With this easy accessibility to the codes, professionals with experience with CSS, HTML, and Scrip AMP will work more efficiently. Otherwise, Marketo is inaccessible to access these codes, making the professional’s workload longer due to the extra work that must be applied.
Usage Facilities
When dealing with any software, we should aim at its ease of use. In this sense, marketing platforms should also be easy to use. The members of your company have a limited time to get acquainted and familiar with the system. Ease of navigation, accessibility to critical features, and ease of doing tasks are crucial when choosing which Software to opt for.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Marketo will require a reasonable amount of time for interface familiarization, which is normal. However, Marketo has a good advantage regarding its resources, which are available in one place to facilitate the execution of the intended activity.
In this compass, both marketing automation platforms provide the necessary resources to meet the demands of the marketing team. However, you are looking for Software that meets more complex, larger-scale, or multi-channel communication. In that case, Salesforce Marketing Cloud better meets your requirements. However, it is essential to note that Salesforce is based on channels and modules that are paid for. A beginner may need help to handle it.
Cross-Border Messaging
Transnational messages and triggered activities are present in Marketo and Salesforce Marketing Cloud. Usually, the actions are initiated through an intelligent campaign in Marketo, according to the criteria and rules defined by the user who determined it.
With these brilliant campaigns, it is possible to configure personalized activities, demonstrating the flexibility of the Software. In Salesforce Marketing Cloud, it is possible to set up emails to be triggered, which is called by an external API.
Online reviews are essential in determining which Software you will choose. Marketo has a G2 Crowd score of 4.1 out of 5 stars and a Trusted Radius score of 4.2 out of 5 stars. Salesforce Marketing Cloud has a G2 Crowd score of 4.1 out of 5 stars and a Trusted Radius score of 4.1 out of 5 stars.
Final Thoughts
Regardless of which Software you choose, keep in mind a few details: Marketo has several unique qualities to note, such as the ease of its interface. However, its price could be more affordable. On the other hand, we have Salesforce Marketing Cloud, which brings us experiences that true professionals will be pleased to use.
Such as immersion in HTML, CSS, and Scrip code will undoubtedly help in the maximum performance of your Marketing campaigns. So when determining which Software you will choose for your business and work, remember fundamental things such as: can I afford this price? Will I need help learning to work with this tool? This way, you can analyze whether you will make a good choice.
Frequently Asked Question
What Are Marketing Cloud and Marketo, and How Do They Compare as Marketing Automation Platforms?
Marketing Cloud and Marketo are both popular marketing automation platforms used by businesses to streamline and optimize marketing campaigns. Marketing Cloud is Salesforce’s marketing automation solution, integrated with their CRM platform. It offers a wide range of marketing tools, including email marketing, social media marketing, and customer journey management. Marketo, on the other hand, is a standalone marketing automation platform known for its lead management, email marketing, and personalized marketing automation features.
Which Platform Offers Better Integration With CRM Systems: Marketing Cloud or Marketo?
Marketing Cloud, being part of Salesforce, offers seamless integration with Salesforce CRM, enabling marketers to access customer data and track interactions across both platforms. This integration provides a unified view of customer interactions, allowing for better targeting and personalized marketing efforts. Marketo, while it can integrate with various CRM systems, may not have the same level of native integration as Marketing Cloud does with Salesforce.
In What Ways Can Marketing Cloud and Marketo Optimize Email Marketing Campaigns?
Both Marketing Cloud and Marketo provide robust email marketing capabilities. They allow marketers to create and send targeted email campaigns, segment audiences based on behaviors, and track email performance metrics. Marketo is particularly known for its lead nurturing and engagement features, while Marketing Cloud offers advanced personalization and automation options through its integration with Salesforce CRM.
Which Platform Offers Better Features for Customer Journey Management and Automation?
Marketing Cloud offers a robust customer journey management feature, allowing marketers to map out and automate complex customer journeys across different touchpoints. It leverages the power of Salesforce CRM data to provide personalized experiences at each stage of the customer journey. Marketo also offers automation capabilities, but its focus is more on lead management and nurturing rather than full customer journey management.
What Are the Pricing Differences Between Marketing Cloud and Marketo?
Both Marketing Cloud and Marketo have pricing structures based on the scale and scope of the marketing automation needs. Marketing Cloud’s pricing may vary depending on the Salesforce CRM edition and the desired features. Marketo’s pricing is typically based on the number of contacts in the database and the level of functionality required. The cost of each platform will depend on the size of the organization and the specific marketing automation requirements.
Paul Martinez is the founder of EcomSidekick.com. He is an expert in the areas of finance, real estate, eCommerce, traffic and conversion.
Join him on EcomSidekick.com to learn how to improve your financial life and excel in these areas. Before starting this media site, Paul built from scratch and managed two multi-million dollar companies. One in the real estate sector and one in the eCommerce sector.