Simplifying Higher Education Marketing: HubSpot vs. Salesforce

The higher education landscape is transforming, and so are its marketing needs. Institutions are pivoting towards simpler, more efficient tools to handle increasingly complex campaigns. Enter HubSpot Marketing Hub and Salesforce Marketing Cloud: two giants vying for dominance in the education sector. But which one deserves your trust, time, and investment?

Spoiler alert: HubSpot is emerging as the go-to solution for institutions looking to simplify their processes while amplifying their results. Why? Because no one wants to spend hours troubleshooting integrations or mastering SQL just to send an email. This post takes a lighthearted yet insightful dive into the key differences, practical advantages, and why HubSpot might just be the secret weapon your marketing team has been waiting for.

HubSpot vs. Salesforce: Breaking It Down

Let’s break this epic clash into five key areas that matter most to higher education marketers.

1. Campaign Management Made Easy

• Salesforce: Great for advanced users who thrive on complex setups and mobile messaging campaigns. But if you’re juggling multi-channel outreach across email, social media, and ads, you’ll find yourself cobbling together additional tools. And those integrations? A tech-heavy challenge.
• HubSpot: Like a Swiss Army knife for marketers. Whether it’s crafting social ads, running email sequences, or analysing campaign ROI, HubSpot’s intuitive interface keeps everything in one place. It’s so user-friendly that even your least tech-savvy colleague will be creating campaigns like a pro in no time.

?? Fun Insight: Imagine needing a developer every time you want to adjust a landing page. That’s Salesforce. Now imagine dragging and dropping your way to a fully functional campaign in minutes. That’s HubSpot.

2. Lead Generation and Nurturing

• Salesforce: Lead generation tools? Not built-in. Lead scoring? Requires some SQL magic. For smaller teams without a dedicated IT squad, this can feel like trying to climb Everest without gear.
• HubSpot: Leads flow in effortlessly with tools like landing pages, lead scoring, and automated nurturing workflows and SEO—all included. Bonus: no coding required. Customers report a 105% increase in inbound leads within six months. Yes, that’s a real stat.

?? Ask Yourself: Would you rather spend your time crafting engaging student content or wrestling with segmentation queries? HubSpot lets you focus on what truly matters—building connections.

3. Unified Marketing Operations

• Salesforce: Powerful but siloed. Creating a unified customer profile often means pulling in additional integrations like Data Cloud, which complicates things.
• HubSpot: Built for harmony. With a centralised hub for marketing, sales, and student data, HubSpot eliminates silos. Say hello to real-time insights and goodbye to juggling five different platforms.

?? Higher Ed Example: Imagine tracking a prospective student from their first website visit to their application submission—all in one dashboard. HubSpot makes it happen.

4. Campaign Reporting and Analytics

• Salesforce: Offers detailed analytics, but customisation requires setup time, additional costs, and sometimes a prayer or two.
• HubSpot: Out-of-the-box reporting tools give you everything you need, from lifecycle tracking to ROI analysis. The cherry on top? You don’t need to shell out extra or hire a data scientist to make sense of it all.

??? Pro Tip: HubSpot’s dashboards make it easy to spot trends, tweak strategies, and track progress—all with a few clicks.

5. Customer Support When You Need It

• Salesforce: Chat support during business hours only. For round-the-clock help, you’ll need to fork out for premium tiers.
• HubSpot: Available 24/7 via chat, email, and phone. Whether it’s a mid-morning question or a late-night crisis, HubSpot’s support team is just a message away.

?? Reality Check: During enrolment season, can your team afford to wait hours (or days) for tech support? Didn’t think so.

Why Higher Ed Loves HubSpot: Real Stories

University of San Diego

Building landing pages in Salesforce? A headache that required outside developers. With HubSpot, their team easily took control, reducing costs and accelerating timelines.

Sandow Design Group

For this team, HubSpot removed technical barriers. "It’s so intuitive, even our smallest teams without tech expertise can operate it smoothly," one user noted.

Conclusion: Why HubSpot Wins for Higher Education

Higher education marketing is complex, but your tools don’t have to be. HubSpot Marketing Hub simplifies campaign management, supercharges lead generation, and provides the analytics needed to optimise every step of the student journey. Add in its affordability and stellar support, and it’s clear why so many institutions are making the switch.

Take the Next Step

Ready to elevate your marketing game and recruit more effectively? Contact Velocity today to learn how HubSpot can transform your institution’s strategy. Book a free demo and see why institutions are leaving Salesforce in the dust. Your students deserve it—and so does your team. ??