There’s been speculation on what the funding of HubSpot means for Infusionsoft. This news is a good time to clarify where we sit in the marketing automation category and why we’re so excited to be leading the Small Business segment of the category.
This investment from Google Ventures, Sequoia and Salesforce.com into HubSpot is a fantastic thing for our industry. At Infusionsoft, we’re doing great and we’re happy for their success. But we’re focused on what we do. And that’s enabling small businesses to convert more leads, get repeat sales, save time and money while they grow their businesses. We love what we’re doing and I wouldn’t trade places with another CEO in the country right now.
How Infusionsoft is Different
I like the HubSpot guys a lot. Within the competitive landscape overview chart featured in their funding announcement earlier this week, I find it interesting they omitted Infusionsoft in the marketing automation category. That might be due to the fact their eyes are more on the medium-sized businesses (the “M” in the Small and Mid-sized Business [SMBs]) than on the “S” that we proudly serve at Infusionsoft. There’s some confusion here about “small business” vs. “SMB.” Truth is, there’s a big difference between the two.
At Infusionsoft we often chuckle at the software industry’s bantering of the term SMB because we’ve found that what they mean is “Smaller Medium-sized Businesses” instead of “Small and Mid-sized Businesses.” By that definition of SMB, HubSpot is for SMBs… and Infusionsoft is for Small Businesses. For us, it’s not a point of major concern as HubSpot targets a more medium-sized company and doesn’t offer the marketing automation technologies our small businesses customers are seeking. If they are invading someone’s space in the Marketing Automation category, it’s that of Marketo, Eloqua, Genius, Pardot, etc. Two players in particular, Eloqua and Marketo are proudly waving the Marketing Automation banner at the large business Enterprise level. We appreciate the work they’re doing to educate the market on the benefits of marketing automation. We’re doing the same thing down here at the small business level. Our companies are in for a lot of fun over the next few years. To put a fine point on the key differences:
- We are definitely not for Mid-sized businesses. Infusionsoft is for small businesses with under 25 employees.
- It’s interesting that some are casting HubSpot as a direct competitor to us. That’s just not true. We very rarely bump into HubSpot in the sales cycle. And when we do, the customer frequently buys both Infusionsoft and HubSpot. Our solutions are both referred to as “Marketing Automation” but they are actually very different.
- Further, we’ve never considered HubSpot a Marketing Automation company, largely because, they’ve deliberately positioned themselves as something different and only recently began to offer the basic technologies that we would consider marketing automation.
- The other point is that HubSpot’s pricing is much higher than ours. They serve a larger business than we serve. For example, at $250/mo. their customer can set up one lead nurture campaign. One. When the customer pays $1,500/mo., they can set up 100 campaigns. When our customer pays $199/mo., they can set up unlimited campaigns.
Infusionsoft Leads the Small Business Marketing Automation Space
David Raab, the top analyst covering the marketing automation category points to Infusionsoft as the leader in marketing automation for small business. He recently commented on the news, pointing out that the marketing automation leader in customer size is missing. As I noted already here, I agree with this point. It seems odd Infusionsoft wouldn’t be included in a Marketing Automation category overview. Our customer numbers (6,000+ customers and 20,000+ subscribers) and $23 MM revenue run rate, in addition to our feature set and product positioning makes us one of the leaders in the category and the undisputed leader in marketing automation for small businesses. We’ll continue our dogged pursuit of making the incredible time-saving and revenue-enhancing benefits of marketing automation technologies easier to use and more accessible to the hundreds of thousands of small businesses that have stabilized and are eager to grow profitably.
Looking Ahead
I am thrilled with the progress we’ve made over the years and the leadership position we’ve established in Marketing Automation for Small Businesses. As I’ve noted, our customer numbers and revenue run rate make us the undisputed leader for small businesses. Unlike most Marketing Automation vendors, we are cash-flow positive. We have a complete sales and marketing suite that includes CRM, Email Marketing, Lead Nurture and eCommerce, with a smart automation engine at the core of it all.
It’s this complete solution that our customers love because it helps them convert more leads, get repeat business and automate repetitive tasks so they can save time and make more money. That’s what small businesses want. That’s what we give them. It’s our passion. We love doing it, and we’ll keep on doing it, for years to come.
