HubSpot vs WordPress: Leveraging Right Platform for Marketing Goals

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Table of Contents

• Why choosing the right CMS platform is Important for marketing?
• Overview of HubSpot
• Overview of WordPress
• HubSpot Use Cases
• Case Studies of HubSpot CMS for Marketing
• WordPress Use Cases
•  Comparing HubSpot and WordPress 
• When to Use HubSpot?
• When to Use WordPress?
• Conclusion
• Ready to Get Your Website Designed?

In my experience as a marketer and agency owner, I’ve noticed a common misconception among many marketers: you don’t need a fully built website to start generating leads for your business. 

Instead, consider creating a targeted landing page and testing it with paid ads. This approach allows you to gather valuable data and insights quickly. Once you have the results, you can design your website based on what works best for your audience, ultimately maximising your ROI.

In this article, I’ll be comparing HubSpot and WordPress—not in the traditional sense. Instead, I’ll show you how to leverage both platforms together to enhance your marketing efforts and achieve your goals. So, let’s dive in!

Why choosing the right CMS platform is Important for marketing?

Choosing the right platform for your marketing efforts is crucial for several reasons:

1. Efficiency in Setup: If your chosen platform isn’t seamless or aligned with your goals, it can take a long time to set up your website optimally for lead generation. A complicated or poorly integrated platform can hinder your marketing effectiveness from the start.
2. Platform Limitations: Not all platforms are created equal. While some may excel at generating organic traffic, they may not perform as well for paid channels. This discrepancy could stem from limitations in customisation, design flexibility, or other factors. Understanding these differences can help you select a platform that meets your specific needs.
3. Data-Driven Decisions: Your choice of a content management system (CMS) should be guided by data. Regularly assess whether the platform you’re using is delivering the best ROI possible. If it’s not meeting your expectations, it might be time to consider alternatives.
4. Consistency is Key: Once you’ve selected a platform for a particular channel, it’s essential to stick with it to maximise your benefits. Constantly switching platforms, even if one is successful, can lead to instability and negatively impact your website’s performance and overall marketing strategy.

The choice of CMS serves as the foundation of any website. An ill-suited platform can directly affect your website’s performance, impacting lead generation, traffic, conversions, and all other marketing-related metrics.

Let’s compare WordPress vs HubSpot. But before that… some overview of both the platforms.

Overview of HubSpot

HubSpot began as a customer relationship management (CRM) platform but has since expanded its operations into multiple areas, including content management systems (CMS). In this article, we’ll focus on HubSpot as a CMS, examining its capabilities separate from its CRM functions.

Key Features of HubSpot CMS

1. Landing Page Creation: HubSpot allows users to create landing pages using a variety of available themes. This feature enables quick and efficient setup for marketing campaigns.
2. Blog Management: The platform includes robust blog management tools, allowing for the creation and organisation of blog posts with ease. You can categorise your content and implement tags to enhance discoverability.
3. User-Friendly Interface: HubSpot’s “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) editor is designed for user-friendliness. This intuitive interface lets you easily add and modify content on your website without the need for extensive coding knowledge.
4. Customisation Options: HubSpot CMS offers extensive customisation capabilities, including the ability to modify themes directly. This flexibility allows you to tailor your website to match your brand identity seamlessly.
5. Lead Generation Tools: The platform also provides various lead generation tools, such as forms and pop-ups, which can be integrated directly into your website. Since both the CMS and CRM functionalities are housed within HubSpot, these tools work together to streamline your marketing efforts.

By leveraging HubSpot as a CMS, businesses can take advantage of its comprehensive features to enhance their marketing strategies and improve lead generation.

Benefits of Using HubSpot

Let’s discuss the benefits of Hubspot in detail.

Rapid Page Creation: One of HubSpot’s standout features is the speed at which you can create pages. In just five minutes, you can set up a landing page for a product. If you need to create additional pages, simply duplicate the existing ones and update the text. This efficiency allows you to quickly market multiple products without extensive setup time.

Direct Lead Attribution: HubSpot excels in tracking lead sources through its CRM. If you’re generating leads using HubSpot forms, the platform automatically attributes leads to their origins. This means you can see exactly where leads are coming from—whether it’s paid search, social media, or other channels—along with details about the specific keywords, campaigns, and even the path taken by the user. This level of attribution provides invaluable insights for optimising your marketing strategies.

Integrated Analytics: HubSpot features a built-in analytics platform that provides detailed insights into user behaviour. You can track metrics such as the types of users visiting your site, the duration of their visits, bounce rates, pages visited, and exit points. This comprehensive tracking helps you understand user engagement and refine your marketing efforts accordingly.

Seamless Landing Page Creation: Adding new landing pages in HubSpot is remarkably easy and quick—often taking mere seconds. Users can create landing pages from scratch or leverage existing themes within HubSpot. This streamlined process makes it accessible for anyone to set up landing pages without requiring technical expertise.

Drawbacks of HubSpot CMS

While HubSpot offers several compelling features, there are notable drawbacks to consider:

1. Cost: The most significant drawback of HubSpot is its cost. To access the CMS version, you’ll pay a minimum of around $30 per month. This may seem reasonable, but when compared to WordPress, which is free via the WordPress.org community, the expense becomes quite high. For small businesses or startups, this cost can be prohibitive.
2. Steep Learning Curve: Although creating landing pages on HubSpot is quick and straightforward, mastering the platform can be challenging. Users often face a steep learning curve when navigating HubSpot’s extensive features, including its content management system, CRM functionalities, and lead attribution tools. This learning phase can consume valuable time, hindering immediate productivity.
3. Limited Customisation: HubSpot restricts certain customisations that may be essential for website performance and design. For instance, adding scripts, altering core functionalities, or optimising the database isn’t possible. While minor adjustments can be made using HTML and CSS, users looking for significant modifications—like introducing new modules or changing the overall theme—will find these options severely limited.
4. Dependency on the HubSpot Ecosystem: Unlike many other CMS platforms where you can purchase just the CMS, HubSpot’s model requires you to invest in multiple services to access its CMS features. You cannot opt for the CMS alone without also subscribing to the Marketing Hub or Professional plan. This bundled approach can lead to escalating costs, making HubSpot a less flexible option for some businesses.

Overview of WordPress

WordPress stands as the largest CMS platform in the world, powering approximately 45% of all websites on the internet. Supported by the WordPress.org community, it provides a free and flexible website development framework for users. Here are some key aspects that make WordPress a compelling choice for many businesses:

1. Easy Installation and Customisation: WordPress can be installed easily via cPanel or directly through FTP servers. Unlike managed CMS platforms like HubSpot, WordPress allows users to make direct customisations to their server settings, giving them more control over their website.
2. User-Friendly Interface: WordPress is renowned for its user-friendly content management system (CMS). It allows even those with minimal technical expertise to manage and update their websites efficiently.
3. Extensive Plugin Library: With over 30,000 plugins available, WordPress offers a vast range of functionalities that users can integrate into their websites. These plugins allow you to enhance features, improve SEO, add social media integration, and much more without needing extensive coding knowledge.
4. Diverse Themes for Customisation: WordPress boasts around 10,000 themes that users can choose from to improve their website’s appearance and user experience. This extensive variety enables businesses to find a theme that aligns with their branding and functional requirements.
5. Cost-Effective Solution: One of the most attractive features of WordPress is that it is completely free to use. Users can host their websites on any hosting platform of their choice, providing the flexibility to select a service that best fits their budget and performance needs. This independence from specific hosting providers makes it a versatile option for businesses of all sizes.

Benefits of Using WordPress

WordPress is a beacon when it comes to website creation, offering a range of benefits that cater to both beginners and experienced developers. Let’s explore some of the key advantages of using WordPress:

• Extensive Customisation Options: WordPress provides unparalleled flexibility for customisation. Users can easily change themes, edit theme files, and modify plugin functionalities after installation. This level of control allows you to tailor your website’s design and features to meet your specific needs.
• Strong Community Support and Ecosystem: WordPress is backed by a robust community of developers, designers, and users. This active ecosystem offers countless plugins and themes, ensuring that you can find the right tools to enhance your website. With such a supportive network, help and resources are readily available.
• SEO-Friendly Architecture: One of WordPress’s standout features is its SEO-friendliness. The platform is designed to favour organic traffic and growth, making it easier for users to optimise their websites for search engines. From customisable permalinks to SEO-friendly themes and plugins, WordPress equips users with the tools needed to improve their search engine rankings and drive traffic.
• Cost-Effective Solution: Unlike some other platforms, WordPress is completely free to use. You can build and manage your website without incurring licensing fees, which makes it an attractive option for startups and small businesses. You also have the flexibility to choose your own hosting provider, allowing you to find a solution that fits your budget.

Read More: Drupal vs WordPress: Which is the Best CMS for Australian Marketers?

HubSpot Use Cases

Let’s dive into how HubSpot can enhance your marketing strategy with some specific use cases:

1. Creating Effective Landing Pages: HubSpot excels at building landing pages. You can create a landing page in minutes, allowing you to quickly capture leads and drive conversions. The ease of use means you can launch multiple campaigns without the typical hassle of web development.
2. Launching Targeted Campaigns for Quick Wins: If you’re looking to run targeted campaigns, HubSpot is your best friend. The platform allows you to create segmented lists and deliver tailored messages to specific audiences, resulting in faster conversions. Whether it’s an email campaign or a paid ad, HubSpot streamlines the process to help you achieve quick results.
3. Replicating Marketing Efforts for Long-Term Gains: One of the standout features of HubSpot is its ability to replicate successful marketing strategies. Once you find what works, you can easily duplicate campaigns and landing pages to maximise your reach and engagement over time. This means you can build on your successes without starting from scratch every time.
4. Strong Attribution for ROI Tracking: HubSpot’s built-in attribution capabilities are a game changer for tracking your ROI. It allows you to see exactly how leads are generated, from the specific channels they come through to the keywords they use. This level of detail helps you assess lead costs and ultimately understand how your marketing efforts impact your bottom line.

Case Studies of HubSpot CMS for Marketing

WP Creative  

We have used HubSpot to create landing pages for our website primarily because it is fast and easy, especially for paid channels. This efficiency has significantly impacted our goals and bottom line. In contrast, creating the same landing pages on WordPress requires a lot more customisation, which slows us down. With HubSpot, we can set up landing pages in just five minutes and create as many as we need. This streamlined process has improved our efficiency by nearly 50% and increased our ROI by almost 100%.

Agoda

Similarly, Agoda is another great platform that uses HubSpot CRM to improve its performance KPIs. Agoda was facing CRM challenges so it moved to HubSpot. This resulted in an increase of 31% in its sales numbers. 

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In essence, HubSpot is an excellent platform for CMS-based marketing, particularly for paid media campaigns where the goal is to generate leads quickly. Its ability to create landing pages within minutes and market them effectively enhances ad quality and sets a high standard.

WordPress Use Cases

Now, let’s discuss WordPress-based use cases. While we already know the advantages WordPress offers its users, it’s important to highlight the differences between HubSpot and WordPress. Let’s focus on scenarios where WordPress excels and is a more feasible option:

Ideal Scenarios for WordPress

1. Content-Rich Websites: WordPress is an ideal platform for building content-rich websites, whether it’s a personal blog, an enterprise blog, a knowledge base, a news site, or a magazine. With its flexibility and powerful content management tools, WordPress is the go-to solution for creating and managing content-heavy websites—no questions asked.

2. Generating Organic Traffic: WordPress is one of the best platforms for ranking websites quickly and consistently in search engines. It is the most widely used platform for websites aiming to grow organic traffic because of its SEO-friendly nature. WordPress offers all the essential features for on-page and technical optimisations, making it easier to rank websites effectively.

3. Scalability: With hosted platforms like Wix, Webflow, or even HubSpot, you’re ultimately dependent on the platform for hosting your website and storing your data. If anything goes wrong, your data and history are tied to that platform, making it difficult to disconnect. As your website scales, you may also face higher costs to stay on the same platform.

With WordPress, that’s not the case. Powered by WordPress.org, it provides a completely free framework, and you can host your website on any cPanel or even a barebones server of your choice. Whether you’re scaling to 1 million pages or beyond, WordPress makes it easy without being dependent on a platform. Your only consideration will be the type of hosting server you choose, meaning you won’t face increasing platform fees as you scale.

4. E-Commerce Websites: WordPress excels at powering e-commerce websites, thanks to its free plugin, WooCommerce, which integrates seamlessly with WordPress. If you’re looking to launch an affordable, fully customisable online store, WordPress is one of the best options. WooCommerce offers scalability, speed, and complete flexibility, making it ideal for businesses that want a tailored e-commerce experience without high costs.

Examples of Successful WordPress Implementations

TechCrunch: TechCrunch, one of the largest and most respected tech news websites, has millions of pages, ranks for millions of keywords, and attracts thousands of visitors daily. Remarkably, this influential website is hosted on WordPress. This demonstrates just how scalable WordPress is when it comes to managing large-scale content websites.

CNN: Everyone knows CNN as the largest global news media network. Their website, which receives millions of daily visitors, is powered by WordPress. This shows just how scalable WordPress is, even for a platform as vast and influential as CNN, which plays a crucial role in providing information that shapes lives worldwide.

We could go on about how successful and powerful WordPress is, but with examples like TechCrunch and CNN, you already get the idea. Many other reputable websites rely on WordPress regularly. It’s clear that WordPress is undoubtedly one of the best platforms available for website development.

Comparing HubSpot and WordPress

When to Use HubSpot?

1. Fast Creation of Landing Pages for Lead Forms

HubSpot enables the rapid development of isolated landing pages tailored specifically for lead generation or paid advertising campaigns, allowing businesses to quickly adapt to marketing needs.

2. For Lead Attribution and Management

For lead attribution and management, HubSpot has a significant advantage with its built-in literature platform and forms. When someone fills out a form from any paid medium, the CRM automatically pulls in all the necessary information from your team’s sources. Even if certain sources aren’t available, HubSpot will recognise the platform and automatically classify the lead as a paid lead. This streamlines the attribution process, reducing issues that often arise from third-party channels, other CMS platforms, or simply the absence of a robust tracking system.

Building Standalone Landing Pages Without a Full Website

When you only need landing pages, HubSpot allows you to create these as subdomains (e.g., paid.wpcreative.com.au) linked to your main site (wpccreative.com.au). This setup provides a dedicated space for targeted campaigns while maintaining a clear connection to your primary brand.

When to Use WordPress?

1. Building Your Entire Website or Business Front End

WordPress is an ideal platform for creating a wide range of websites, including business sites, portfolio sites, e-commerce stores, and blogs. Its versatility and user-friendly nature make it the best choice for any of these types of websites.

2. Creating Content Management System (CMS)-Based Content

If your goal is to develop content that can be dynamically managed and placed throughout your site, such as a contact management system, WordPress offers a customisable and scalable solution. Its robust CMS capabilities allow for effective content management and organisation.

3. Seeking Independence with Self-Hosted Solutions

If you prefer not to use a hosted website platform and want the freedom to control your site fully, WordPress provides an independent self-hosted option. This allows for greater flexibility and choice in how you manage and run your website.

Conclusion

It wouldn’t be accurate to claim that WordPress is better than HubSpot. Each platform has its strengths, especially when it comes to creating effective landing pages quickly and efficiently, which can lead to better conversions. As a business owner, the best approach is to leverage both platforms effectively.

Use WordPress as the foundation for your main website, focusing on organic marketing by adding valuable content, resources, and forms for lead generation. For your paid marketing efforts, HubSpot is the way to go. Its built-in forms and direct attribution features make it easier to manage your marketing budget, track leads, and analyse conversions. By combining the strengths of both, you can create a more effective marketing strategy that drives results.

Read More: The Best Website Builder in Australia for 2024

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