You ask the questions
Eloqua User Group subscribers drove the agenda this month
September Eloqua User Group
This month we asked User Group members to submit specific questions, questions that they’ve always wanted answered. The range of topics was diverse from stopping Bots submitting forms to email heat maps, CRM integration, FTP and more.
The first question related to “Eloqua for Dummies”, was there such a resource?
The short answer was no, there’s no Eloqua for Dummies publication. However, there are many resources to help new and seasoned users get up to speed with Eloqua. Attending the User Group is the number one option, however I’m a little bias with that suggestion.
We’ve grouped some of these here for easy access and add a short explanation below each one.
Try these learning resources to help you get started with Eloqua.
LaunchPad encourages you to create an account and accrue badges as you complete modules.
The Eloqua Help Centre has a range of guided learning modules and specific Eloqua tasks, a great place to start.
Sometimes you have 5 minutes and you need an answer, you’ll find these videos quick and easy to help you complete tasks.
Topliners is an online community. You really need to create an account in order to access all areas of Topliners.
Data Privacy & Security
A few questions were asked about how to manage secure data within Eloqua. The examples came from Financial and Medical Services companies.
Eloqua provides a range of functions including a Data Privacy add-on.
“The add-on is made up of many components. In order for a campaign to be successful and to adhere to regulatory requirements, users must create assets that contain elements approved as part of the add-on.
Please contact us today to learn more about this offering that will ensure your adherence to all corresponding requirements.”*
*SOURCE: Oracle Eloqua Data Privacy Security Addon Cloud Service Configuration Guide
Automating regular data uploads e.g. via Excel. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) may be the answer.
A number of User Group members asked about automating excel uploads to Eloqua. Today they’re manually uploading contacts to specific campaigns or simply loading them into Eloqua’s core database. This is a reasonably common request. The data is usually from an external source and it’s received in an excel file i.e. it’s not from the CRM or ERP systems which are typically already integrated with Eloqua.
An economical solution to a common request.
The key thing you need is a secure server, a server that Eloqua can connect to in order to “pick up” the excel file and then process it. Marketing Cube can provide secure server access for a fee, however, most clients will want this process to take place on their server. We can support you with either solution.
Once Eloqua has uploaded the data you can then instruct Eloqua to perform a series of actions with that data e.g. add the contacts to an active Campaign, push them to the CRM etc. Let us know what you’d like to do and we can work out the most effective way to complete the task for you.
Using Account Data with Eloqua to create better segmentation & personalisation.
One question was “How to use accounts and link them to contact records? Best practice in using the CDO (Custom Data Object) to keep track of all interactions. For example manual upload of new leads.” Eloqua’s Account Object is generally best used when Eloqua is integrated with your CRM platform. The relationship between a person/Contact is already established and is mirrored in Eloqua.
Where you don’t have an Account to link a person to, then this would most commonly be where you’d create a Lead.
What if you don’t have a CRM integrated with Eloqua?
The Eloqua Account Object can still be used, however, the association or linking of a Contact to an Account is done manually. The obvious value to use is the Company Name, however as you can see in the example in this section, any changes in the formatting or spelling of that company name negate the connection between the Contact and the Account.
CRM integration uses the CRM Account ID, a unique value generated by the CRM. You may want to consider using a similar unique value to create the link between the Contact and the Account.
Try this as an example
Once linked, if you have an account with “Acme Corp” in the Company Name account field, all contacts with “Acme Corp” in their Company contact field will be linked to the account.
However, if one of those contacts has instead “Acme Corporation,” “Acme” or anything that isn’t identical to the Company Name account field, then that particular contact will not be associated with the account (until the discrepancy is fixed). As always, it is pivotal that the values in your records are accurate.
Eloqua Release 19D update.
As at the time of the webinar – 24th September 2019, Release 19D information wasn’t published. We recapped on a few additional points from Release 19C reminding members of the following:
- Changes to the default Campaign end date. The default campaign end date period is now 3 months, not 12 months from the activation date. Manually selecting an end date is the best process to follow, it will deliver more accurate reporting and provide a clear idea of “active” campaigns.
- Form dependencies are now easily viewed from the Form Design Editor, helpful to see where your form is being used.
- Email Search Enhancements: Easier to find emails through search enhancements, including via subject lines.
Watch the replay to review all the points covered above plus more.
