As a consultant, I’ve executed many, many event-based campaigns for our customers. Now, as a marketer for Relationship One, I support the execution of at least one event campaign a month. To run this type of campaign, Oracle Eloqua users have a couple options. You can facilitate the invitation process and post-registration communications through the traditional Campaign Canvas or leverage the Event Module for execution (included in Standard trim, add-on to Basic).
The Event module is a tool in the platform with the purpose of easily managing communications and actions that should happen once a contact has registered for an event. It’s a template interface that, within a handful of configuration decisions, manages the experience for a registrant including which emails go out to which registrants, when, and with what content. There are a few other bonuses that are mentioned later in this article but that’s the main gist.
While the Campaign Canvas can handle events, there are specific reasons why the Event module may be the better choice.
Multiple Sessions
If you’re running a webinar where you’re offering registrants several date options, you can save time and avoid creating multiple versions of confirmation and reminder emails. Or, if you’re really snazzy, and you’re using Dynamic Content to change out the content of an email based on a session that a registrant selects, I’ve got a better option for you.
The Events module can manage the sending of one version of a confirmation and one version of a reminder email. By setting up each date/time option as an individual Session, any email that contains details about the Session one registered for can be sent with field-merged data about that specific session, allowing for you to communicate the necessary details based on their registration selections using one email.
In addition, the Event Actions in the Events module can fire actions based on the date of the session. For example, if I am offering a webinar on April 17 and April 20, my one-day reminder email will be sent on April 16 to only those registered for the April 17 session and similarly the day before for the later session for those that registered for that particular date. Event Actions mirror form processing steps, which means I can do much more than send an email based on registration information.
Capacity
Are you running a webinar campaign or facilitating an onsite event with limited capacity? The Events module is set up to handle this. You can select the count of maximum registrations and when that number is hit, automatically send a different email than the standard registration confirmation email letting the registrant know that the limit has been reached. Also, you will be notified that the maximum has been reached so you don’t have to constantly check in on the number.
One of the Advanced options is to have a Wait List. Once the capacity has been reached, registrants can be put on a Wait List. If you offer a cancellation option, anyone that cancels their registration gets bumped off the list and the next person the Wait List will be registered and be sent the appropriate registration emails.
Modified or Incomplete Registrations
In addition to managing the experience of a cancelled registrant, you can also easily set up a process to manage a contact that modifies their registration information or has not completed their registrant profile. For example, if I register for the April 17 webinar (formerly mentioned) but later, register for the April 19 webinar, I could receive an email that acknowledges that my information has changed and include the most recent details of my selection.
Automatically Disable Services
It’s happened to my clients. It’s happened to me. After the event has taken place, someone registers for the event and they get all of the post-registration emails all at once: confirmation, reminders, post-event, etc. This happens because most Campaigns remain active for days, weeks or months after the Campaign is technically complete. With the Events module, you can set a Disable Services date. This disallows for any Event Actions to run after a specified date ensuring that irrelevant emails are not inadvertently sent.
Organization For Ongoing Nurturing
With the stellar event that you offered, you now have a list of registrants and attendees that have raised their hand in interest. You can have these lists stored as Shared Lists. Or, you can use the Events module to store all your event-based lists. Then you can leverage the ‘Has Linked Record in Event’ filter criteria to add those specific contacts to your Segments for further nurturing.
You can do many more fancy things with the Events module but I would say those are the primary benefits that cover a majority of the use-cases. That said, I love to hear about the ways that customers are using the Events module for more complicated use cases. Please share!
If you have Eloqua and you need support with the Events Module, please contact us! We love helping companies transform their marketing automation.
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About the Author: Relationship One
