February 13, 2014
In the Eloqua Winter 10 update, new features fall into two main categories: campaign execution and user management. Users will have access to first-party cookies, simple email campaigns, and new industry solutions. In addition to this new functionality, they can create a splash page for internal announcements, refine permission settings, and require unanimous approval before campaign activation.
Most of these features are released either under controlled availability or upon specific request to Eloqua Product Support. You can find more information in Eloqua’s Resource Center in the Topliners Community.
Here are three of the top features from the Eloqua Winter release, complete with pros, cons, and key takeaways:
1. Simple Email Campaigns
A wizard-based process simplifies an email blast into four easy steps:
- Name your campaign
- Select the appropriate segment/contact list
- Select the email
- Decide send date
The new email campaigns come with a dashboard that allows you to track email performance with easy to read metrics and a simple graphic. However, note that this dashboard comes at the cost of not being able to run the campaign through Eloqua Insight.
Pros: The new campaigns are easier and quicker to create and come with a useful out-of-the-box dashboard.
Cons: No closed loop reporting. These campaigns aren’t built to integrate with Salesforce and cannot store cost information. Additionally, you won’t have visibility into contact engagement for ongoing initiatives, like a monthly newsletter.
Takeaway: The new Simple Email Campaigns is best for transactional emails, where associating cost or tracking engagement across multiple touchpoints isn’t necessary. The quick setup and accompanying dashboard will significantly reduce time needed to otherwise navigate Program Builder and Eloqua Insight.
2. Lead Scoring
Updates to the Lead Scoring module prioritize which contacts get queued for scoring. Inactive contacts are removed altogether, increasing overall efficiency. Contacts are re-scored every 24 hours unless they trigger an action, prompting immediate queuing. Leads who perform several consecutive actions enter the queue only after the last action has been fired, reducing redundancy.
Pros: The updated module is more efficient and accurate; contacts will never be more than a day out of date. The module also includes built-in inactivity scoring, something that has historically been a headache to configure.
Cons: None.
Takeaway: The 24-hour score refresh makes updating your scoring system easy and painless, and should be particularly useful to those who are either implementing lead scoring for the first time or are looking to move away from the more complicated Program Builder. As a result, lead score distribution will be more accurate across the board. There are no outstanding cons from these changes.
3. Campaign Approvals
Eloqua is finally borrowing some functionality from other CRM tools, catering to companies that require strict governance. Now, Eloqua users can designate a list of approvers who can control if and when a campaign goes live. According to the release notes, while approvers and steps are controlled globally, individual campaigns can be customized to different requirements.
Pros: Eloqua users can prevent emails that do not meet branding or privacy policy guidelines from being sent. Internal email notifications and status tracking in Eloqua keep the process transparent.
Cons: The approval process requires unanimous approval, which can delay campaign creation and activation if too many people involved.
Takeaway: Given the limited flexibility of the approval process, this functionality is best leveraged by small teams where only one or two people need to officially “approve” workflow steps and campaign elements. Still, this a big step forward towards improving user governance in Eloqua. No more accidental email blasts of highly sensitive content!
Are there any other features you’re excited or concerned about? Do you agree or disagree with any of pros or cons listed here? Let us know, we want to hear from you!
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