It’s 5 o’clock on Friday and you’ve run into an Oracle Eloqua issue. You need a quick answer, but you don’t know where to turn. How can you get a resolution in the quickest amount of time?
It’s Tuesday afternoon, and you’re building a complex nurture campaign. You need to ensure that contacts can enter the campaign multiple times, but you can’t recall how to do it. Where can you go to jog your memory?
It’s a leisurely Sunday morning and you’re all excited to begin your Oracle Eloqua adventures tomorrow. You’re not new to marketing automation, but you are new to this platform. You can’t wait to learn everything there is to know…but how? Where should you start?
Scenarios like these are fairly common, but lucky for those of us in the Oracle Eloqua community, there are many resources at our fingertips. In fact, there are so many places to turn, it can be difficult to know which road to travel. Should you try Topliners? Oracle Eloqua’s Help Center? Oracle Academy? Your trusted partner? Sometimes knowing the best place to look for an answer is half the battle.
Oracle Eloqua’s Support Resources
When I first joined the Oracle Eloqua community nearly a decade ago, I was immediately struck by the sheer volume of knowledge, expertise, and resources at my disposal. Quite frankly, it was a little overwhelming. Lucky for me, I had an amazing SmartStart and a truly knowledgeable Success Coach that set me on the right path. Since then, Oracle Eloqua has instituted even more resources and the community itself has grown tremendously. Although there are many outlets for support, the ones I find to be utilized most often are, in no particular order:
- Oracle Eloqua Help Center
- Topliners
- Oracle Marketing Cloud Academy
- Oracle Eloqua Customer Success Program
- Oracle Eloqua User Groups (EUGs)
- Oracle Support
- Trusted Partners, such as Relationship One
You can never go wrong by starting your journey at the Oracle Eloqua Help Center. You can access the Center by using the above link, or by hovering over the “?” icon at the top-right of your Oracle Eloqua instance and clicking Help Center. When you reach the Center, you will find direct links to Oracle Support, Topliners, and the Academy. Best of all, you will see a navigational area on the left with links to information on every area within the Oracle Eloqua platform.
Think of the Help Center as a dictionary, encyclopedia, and instructional guide all rolled into an easily accessible hub. Consider the Center your go-to-resource when you need to understand a certain feature of Oracle Eloqua, or need a quick tutorial or refresher on how to perform a certain function. Wondering how to change email defaults? Looking to learn more about creating CDOs? Need a refresher on how signature rules work? Check the Help Center first. Chances are, you’ll find the answer and help you need.
The best part about the Help Center is that it is super easy to navigate. You’ll see a table of contents on the left side of the screen for quick navigation. There is also a search function if you need more precision. All pages have drill-down capability and links to related pages ensuring you get a full view of the topic.
Topliners is the place where the cool kids hang out. It is THE online community for all things Oracle Eloqua related. Topliners is an excellent resource when you’re looking to build your network, socialize, or share insightful information. It’s also a great place to post difficult questions that aren’t easily answered by the Help Center.
Topliners is broken into six sections, each with its own content and resources. Below is a description of each section, as worded directly in Topliners.
- Imagine It is where you can be inspired by creative marketing or sales campaigns. You’ll find interesting ideas and trends in the industry to help keep you informed. It’s also where you can share cool and intriguing campaigns and ideas with your peers.
- See It is the place to share your successes and see how other people conquered their challenges.
- Do It is where you collaborate with your peers and put your ideas into practice. Here you will find shared tools, technical details, and knowledge to advance your use of Oracle Eloqua and other Oracle Marketing Cloud products.
- Code It has all the information you need to develop apps that connect with Oracle Marketing Cloud Applications. Find code samples, learn the APIs, and connect with other developers.
- Know It is where you learn how to better leverage product capabilities. You will find links to release information, recent version rollouts, upcoming product changes, and Academy course lists.
- Dream It gives you an outlet to share product enhancement ideas, including functionality that you feel would be beneficial.
Lastly, within Topliners, you will find a direct tab to “Find Apps” which brings you to the Oracle Marketplace. The marketplace contains information on many applications that will extend the functionality of your Oracle Eloqua instance. This is an excellent place to peruse if you are looking to fill a gap in functionality, perhaps related to data manipulation, data extraction, or enhanced campaign and program capabilities.
Oracle Marketing Cloud Academy
Are you new to Eloqua and looking to understand all of its functionality? Would you like to augment your skills in a certain area of the platform – perhaps campaign building, program building, or form creation? Do you need to grow your strategic skills and knowledge regarding segmentation, lead scoring, nurture campaigns, etc.? If you answered yes to any of these questions, a license to the Oracle Marketing Academy may be the perfect answer.
Oracle Marketing Academy has courses and learning paths in five different areas. They are described as such on the OMA website:
- B2B Cross-Channel Marketing (Eloqua) is designed specifically for marketers who want to increase their product and best practice skill set. Classes are available in-person, on-demand and via live, interactive webcast.
- B2C Cross-Channel Marketing (Responsys) has a wide range of courses offered for various skill sets. Classes are available on-demand, instructor-led, and personal.
- Content Marketing (Oracle Content Marketing) where marketers learn best practice and product tips in the library of on-demand, self-paced courses.
- Data Management (Data Management Platform [DMP]) provides access to a growing library of self-paced product and best practices courses to help you get the most of the Oracle DMP platform.
- Testing and Optimization (Maxymiser) hosts in-person, on-demand, and interactive webcast courses enable your business to take charge of your testing and optimization strategies.
Once you begin using the Oracle Academy, you will find a wide range of hands-on functional learning in addition to best practice guidance and strategic education. If you are really focused on your education, you can follow specific learning paths for certification and/or Luminary status.
Oracle Eloqua Customer Success Program
Oracle recently announced its new Customer Success framework. As part of this program, all customers are assigned a Customer Success Manager (CSM) who will have access to an elite team of specialists. These individuals can provide you with further guidance on marketing best practices, strategic planning and implementation, platform utilization, and business transformation processes. Your CSM will be able to determine which services, tools, and resources you should engage with that best meet your needs.
If you are looking to better understand how you can leverage marketing automation and/or you need to harmonize your use of various Oracle Marketing Cloud products, it may be beneficial to work with your CSM on a development plan for your marketing maturity.
Oracle Eloqua User Groups (EUGs)
Oracle EUGs are my absolute favorite resource. Why? It gives me a chance to network and speak directly to Oracle Eloqua users across different industries, segments, and maturity levels. I’ve learned so much simply by talking with other users about their challenges, successes, and plans for the future.
Each EUG is run differently, but most are a hybrid of learning sessions (demos, best practices, functional explanations, release update information, etc.) and networking. Groups vary in size from small and intimate gatherings to larger meetings.
Many EUGs take place once a month, and can be found in almost every major city across the country. If you are interested in becoming a member of your local EUG, or simply in attending a meeting, I strongly encourage you to reach out. You can visit the link above to see a listing of EUGs and find the one closest to you. Each EUG has a separate page on Topliners where you can see the latest happenings as well as information on the next meeting.
Sometimes, no matter how hard you try or how much you research, you just can’t find the answer to your problem. At other times, something is not working and you suspect there may be a configuration error or a system issue. If the latter, you can always check Eloqua’s System Status on Topliners to see if there is a system-wide issue. If nothing is posted, it may be time to submit a support ticket.
Whether you are opening a support ticket for a suspected bug or a possible configuration issue, you’ll need to use Oracle’s Support site. Keep in mind that you will need to get pre-approval to use your company’s CSI (Customer Service Identifier) number. To do this, you will need to log into Oracle Support and formally request access from your Eloqua admin. Once approved, you can submit tickets yourself, asking for help on a specific task or requesting further review of an issue.
Honestly, there is never a bad time to enlist help for a certified partner. Whether you are asking a “simple” question, looking to troubleshoot an issue, needing assistance with your execution projects, or wanting strategic guidance to help drive your nurturing and digital marketing projects forward, a trusted partner can help. Regardless of who you choose as your partner, they should be able to support you on quick resolutions or long-term engagements.
Trusted partners can also assist with your complex needs, even managing your advanced projects from beginning to end. Technical and advanced projects are our speciality, ranging from standard and custom integrations and complex SmartStarts to full closed-loop reporting and strategic advancement. If you feel a partner may help you and your marketing automation plans, I encourage you to reach out to Relationship One.
As you can see, there are many resources available to you as you navigate your options for support. If you ever find that the above-mentioned channels are not satisfying your needs, please contact us. We love helping companies transform their marketing automation!
