8 To-Dos For New Eloqua Users

If you’re new to Oracle Eloqua, be assured you are in good company. The process of moving to a new system, especially one as robust as Eloqua, can be overwhelming at first, but it gets easier. Marketing automation platforms like Eloqua were developed to increase marketing productivity, create a better customer experience and evaluate your marketing activities. I have been in your particular situation before, and if you like a challenge, you will thrive. Based on my experience, I’ve created a checklist for new users that will help you get on the road to success straight away.

1. Set up your brand
Eloqua allows for customization of how you would like your company represented to your customers. Every email and landing page design should follow a consistent look and feel. There are also “behind-the-scenes” configurations that affect branding. Up front items to check off the list include: uploading your logo, setting up standard email and landing page templates (including headers and footers), and configuring your bounceback settings and landing page domains.

2. Organize upfront
Think about the long game and set up your users to be most efficient in finding things in the system by establishing a folder structure for everything created in Eloqua. Consider organizing by year, product, region, or type of campaign. Whatever you choose, you won’t regret the initial work. Also, a strong and consistent naming convention will do wonders for easing the search for an email, form, image, etc.

3. Govern your database
Eloqua’s contact database comes with a set of standard fields; most of them you’ll use, some you may not. Take a peak at the fields and create the custom fields that you will need to store the information you have about your contacts. Consider what fields should be standardized with a pick-list to ensure clean data (e.g. Country, State/Province, Lead Source).

Now that you have created your fields, you can import your contact list(s) to populate your database. Be sure to separate out contacts that have opted out of your communications or that you know have invalid email addresses. You can upload these contacts separately and flag them with an appropriate Unsubscribe or Bounceback status so that you don’t email them through Eloqua.

4. Transfer your programs
Review your existing campaigns and assets (emails, forms and landing pages) and decide which ones you want to transfer to Eloqua. This is a great opportunity to analyze what has worked in the past and what has not worked so well. Filter out the duds and transfer your best programs. Build from the winners.

5. Integrate
First things first, set up Eloqua to see your web activity. Apply the Eloqua tracking scripts to your web properties so that you have that data available in Eloqua to segment, make campaign decisions, lead score and report on.

While I’m on the web topic, make a list of your web forms and, where it makes sense, integrate them with Eloqua. Form submitters (aka Leads) can be quickly dropped into a campaign, get cleansed and/or sent to sales. The steps that occur after a form is submitted are critical, and Eloqua has the power to make things happen with seamless automation.

Next, Eloqua will have its eyes and ears on your outbound efforts and the your contacts’ responses. This data is gold. Who else should see this information? Sales! Connecting Eloqua to your CRM will give your sales team better visibility into what marketing is doing and what their leads are responding to. On the flip side, push CRM data into Eloqua for segmentation purposes. What data is available in your CRM that will be imperative for you to be able to create targeted lists for your campaigns? Get it hooked up!

Lastly, and I would say not an out-of-the-gate priority relative to the above items, is integrating other external systems that will impact your success with Eloqua. Are there platforms that you use regularly that plug in to Eloqua (e.g. webinar platforms, data cleansing services, channel marketing tactics that are not native to Eloqua). Are there external databases that host data that will enable you to market smarter? Depending on the source of the data, there is likely a solution for getting that data into Eloqua for your use.

6. Create training goals
With all the tools and features that Eloqua has, you may be tempted to implement all of them. However, implementing too many features without proper guidelines can hinder your progress and frustrate your stakeholders, such as your sales staff and IT department. Don’t hurry; you will get there. Focus on 1-2 features at a time. Implement, test and analyze to fully understand when and why you would use that feature.

7. Create a committee of stakeholders
The data that Eloqua collects is valuable to many functions outside marketing. So, don’t try to do it all alone. Create a committee with relevant team members from departments such as sales, operations and IT. This will increase corporate buy-in, and other departments can assist you in changing business processes so that your Eloqua decisions and use are supported across the board. Take this opportunity to review your current business processes and evaluate which ones will change due to what Eloqua offers.

8. Track key metrics and identify your wins
Eloqua is a powerful tool that allows your company to have better insight into consumer behaviors. Use this time to document your baseline metrics. This way, you will be able to set up the platform to capture the metrics that you need to show gains or areas for improvement. There are many ways to identify your wins, such as increased productivity, new event management process, better segmentation, or an optimized lead scoring methodology. As you identify those areas of improvement, celebrate your wins with your team and committee.

Congratulations again on your decision to use Oracle Eloqua as your marketing automation platform. In my opinion, and I think most of us ‘Eloquans’ would agree, you’ve made a great choice. I know it’s a lot to take on, so start with the list above and get on the path for success early on. I wish you all the best. Please let me know if you have any questions in the comment box below. Good luck!