Fall Eloqua Release – Little Things Make a BIG Impact

If you’re like me, you will look like this when you learn what’s included in the Oracle Eloqua Fall Release. I’m a marketing geek to the core which means I totally geek-out when Oracle Eloqua pushes out functionality that makes my life (and our customers’ lives) easier. Thankfully, I’m surrounded by marketing geeks at Relationship One. So, when I shared my enthusiasm for the most recent release elements, it was met with other “That is awesome!” reactions.

Though they may seem like small changes, here are the features and enhancements that produced the largest geek-out moments, for me.

The Image chooser in the Component Library will include both a list view and a thumbnail view. The thumbnail view includes the last modified date and the image dimensions. I realize this only saves a click or two, but the ability to see a thumbnail preview of the image and its dimensions without clicking to view the file’s details – AWESOME.

You will be able to bulk upload signature mappings from an Excel or CSV file when creating a Signature Rule. Just in case you’re not sure what a Signature Rule is, this tool allows for an Eloqua email to be sent with a dynamic from name, from email address, reply-to email address, reply-to name and signature in the email content based on the recipient’s contact data. The rule setup used to be a one-by-one mapping exercise (took forever). The upload option saves so much time, especially for companies that have large sales organizations – LIFE ALTERING.

The release includes a new filter for Segments and Shared Filters that compares Visitor Profile Fields. Visitor profile data was not previously exposed to the user in E10…now we can create campaigns based on this valuable data – HUGE.

When you create a Landing Page template, you can choose the folder that it should be saved in and choose for the thumbnail to be displayed. This will make it easier to confirm that you are selecting the correct landing page before opening it – SWEET.

For those of us that take advantage of Eloqua’s External Activity functionality and upload activities that Eloqua does not natively track (e.g., onsite event attendance), the external activity upload wizard will include the ability to add the list of contacts to a Shared List. This dismisses the need to upload the list twice – LOVE IT.

Though there’s not much information included in the release documentation, authenticated microsites will be available. These allow for Eloqua users to require visitors to be logged in before they can view the site content. I’m unsure how the security rules are set up to authenticate the user but this is great functionality for landing pages that have information you want to restrict to a certain audience – HOPING THIS IS AS COOL AS IT SOUNDS.

Our sales reps will love this – Mobile Profiler. It’s the same information that is available to Profiler users today, but it gives them the access to view the information anytime, anywhere – ON BEHALF OF SALES, CHA-CHING.

There is a lot more included in the release that will excite (and, quite possibly relieve) Oracle Eloqua customers. Depending on what Pod version you are on, you may have to wait longer than others to play around with these new features until the scheduled release dates:
Pod 1 = Tuesday, October 7, 2014: 11:00pm – 5:00am EDT (Wednesday October 8)
Pod 2 = Sunday, October 19, 2014: 5:00am – 11:00am EDT
Pod 3 = Sunday, October 26, 2014: 5:00am – 11:00am EDT

In the interim, check out the Release Resource Center for an overview and additional details. There’s also a webcast scheduled for Friday, October 10.

For further assistance with your Eloqua instance, contact us. Geek on.