Take a deep dive into Eloqua’s Email Design Editor
October Eloqua User Group Webinar
Photo by Mattia Bericchia on Unsplash
Overview
In this second episode of Eloqua 101 – Mastering the Basics, we took a close look at the Eloqua Email Design Editor, your HTML-free email builder. Regardless of your level of confidence, you’ll find these tips helpful as you build responsive emails in a code-free environment.
Why this topic?
Amongst all of Eloqua’s features, the Email Design Editor is at the heart of the application.
You can easily create highly personalised, gorgeous-looking emails in an HTML-free environment, no code needed.
If you need some code, you also have the option.
This user group focuses on tips and tricks to help you design the emails you need.
We also covered how best to keep you on brand.
Delivering a consistent experience is critical in your campaigns and that is easily achieved with the Eloqua template library.
Eloqua provides you with two email editors, the Design Editor & the Source Editor. Why?
It’s probably mostly about legacy, but it also gives your team flexibility. The Source Editor is a traditional HTML environment. You can code your emails if you have the skill and the desire and I’d suggest the time.
The Eloqua Email Design Editor was launched in May 2018 and for most Eloqua users, it was a game changer.
Marketers could now get on with building emails & landing pages without the support of a developer
The drag-and-drop interface empowers marketers to build responsive, on-brand assets i.e. Emails and Landing Pages in an HTML-free environment.
When you add Eloqua’s powerful template library function, you’re able to build repeatable assets quickly and efficiently in minutes.
In the week leading up to the October Eloqua User Group, I met with a client and provided coaching for a group of new employees. We planned to focus on their regular newsletter. I noticed they were still building the newsletter in the Source Editor – HTML. Here’s what they said after using the updated Design Editor template to build their newsletter:
Thanks, Derek. The newsletter was much easier to build in the Design Editor.
-Head of Marketing, Australian Financial Services Firm
Watch the replay for a range of tips & tricks.
Building emails is a pretty simple process today, you don’t need HTML skills to produce engaging, on-brand communications. What you do need is a broad range of functions to help you produce your emails and you need to think strategically about your copy, your calls-to-action, and the overall CX.
This month was very much about the functional aspects of your email build and the key functional areas of the Eloqua Email Design Editor are listed here:
- Design Components – this is where you add your content to the empty Layout Cells. You have 11 different types of Content, they include Text, Video, Dynamic Content, Shared Content, Buttons, and more.
- Layout – Layout gives you 6 pre-built layout types. However, you have the flexibility to adjust the width of these layout columns and also add additional columns should you need them.
- Blocks – perfect for content you use again & again. Blocks launched in May of 2020, you can read further about them here. Later that month we covered Blocks in more detail in an Eloqua User Group, click here to read & watch more.
- Email Style – Colours, width, canvas alignment, defaults for font & font colour, default hyperlink colour & additional CSS
- Email Settings – Email Group, subject line, preview text, sender name & advanced settings.
Your personalisation goals are driven by the quality of your data.
The most common approach I take to personalisation follows the creation of my audience or segment. Once I’ve created the audience I can then view the Contacts in my Segment and adjust the Contact View to look at the data I have.
By looking at the Contact Data I can then make decisions about how best to use Dynamic Content and Field Merges. For example, I may be looking at an in-person event or webinar.
The data shows that of the 509 target contacts, 180 of them are from the Financial Services Industry and 140 are from Higher Education. While I’m only running one event, the reason marketers from those two industries would want to attend may differ.
I can use Dynamic Content to tailor the subject line of the initial event invitation email. I can also use Dynamic Content to tailor the copy of the opening paragraph and also the copy on the Landing Page where people will be directed to register for the event.
What about the remaining 189 Contacts in my Segment? Dynamic Content suggests you provide default content. Default content is presented to people when the data stored on their Eloqua Contact does not meet the rule criteria you’ve created for e.g. those in the Financial Services or Higher Education industries.
Do you need a hand with personalisation for your campaigns?
Testing plays an important role in your campaigns, but it shouldn’t consume all of your time.
Over the years I’ve seen clients take varying approaches to their testing. It ranges from not actually testing – obviously an approach we wouldn’t encourage through to, running a complete campaign from start to end with the campaign canvas.
I’d suggest the best approach is somewhere in the middle. I’m not a fan of activating a test campaign canvas, it’s time-consuming and won’t really reflect reality because most people don’t create new contacts for testing purposes. Running a test campaign is a little like “Reality TV” and we know how “real” that is!
Once you have an understanding of the Campaign Canvas and the configuration of the various elements, your testing regime will help you uncover any mistakes you’ve made.
Don't forget, Eloqua shows you any system steps you've missed. Double-click on the red number e.g. "2" in this example and you'll see a list of steps you need to complete before you can send yourself a test or activate your campaign.
Try these tips for more effective testing of your emails
- An email must always be previewed in the context of a person/contact.
- The most effective “test” will always be when you send yourself a test email.
- Always view your email on your desktop & on your mobile device.
- When using Dynamic Content, be sure to view each version of the email.
Why Gmail can help your testing of Eloqua Dynamic Content & Field Merges
You can use the Email Preview function within the Design Editor to preview your Dynamic Content and Field Merges. Keep in mind, you need to preview all emails in the context of a Contact.
However, sometimes you have Dynamic Content configured on a person’s engagement in your campaign.
Most users want to see these personalisation settings displayed in an email, in their inbox, not just in Eloqua using the Preview function.
Earlier this year we covered how Gmail can help you – CLICK HERE to learn more.
What’s new? What’s coming soon?
Release 22D will take place from the 4th – the 18th of November across all seven PODS.
The range of updates includes a number of new Insight Reports covering Auto-Opens/Clicks, Database Growth Trends and Contact Field Analysis.
Enhancements to Bulk API Updates, IP Allowlist Options and limits on how many emails an Eloqua Engage user can send to a single person over a defined period of time.
These updates will be expanded on in more detail for our Eloqua Important Update subscribers.
Not subscribed? CLICK HERE to subscribe today.
Release Highlights
- Three New Reports: Database Growth Trend, Contact Field Analysis, and Auto Activity Analysis
- A new “Home” Option will be added to the navigation menu in Dashboards to help you move back and forth more easily,
- Oracle SMS Enhancements such as “Save As”, and “View Dependencies”
- New App for Webex released by Cisco
- And more!
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