Oracle Eloqua is a leading marketing automation platform that enables businesses to better store, manage, and utilize customer information. Larger organizations that have multiple brands, divisions, or regions are faced with a dilemma of having multiple Eloqua databases, or with managing everything in a single Eloqua database. Budget, team structure, available resources, and overlap of Accounts and Contacts are the key factors that determine the best way forward. Multiple brands or regions can be easily managed using Eloqua, especially if you follow these guidelines.
Choose the best Eloqua trim for you
To use the system for multiple brands, a subscription to the Eloqua Standard trim or above is necessary. These subscription levels allow unlimited data tool use (e.g., Custom Data Objects), multi-Lead Scoring models, and Custom Security. If you are not sure what Eloqua trim you are on, or if you would like to discuss upgrading to the Standard trim or higher, contact your Oracle CSM.
Customize Subscription Management options
With custom Subscription Management, your Contacts can dictate the flow of your communication with them. A subscription management plan enables recipients to choose when, how often, and what types of materials they will receive. Eloqua’s functionality allows you to either let each division or region create its own subscription process, or design a consolidated process for your entire organization.
While the former may be preferable when, for example, your mailing list has a low attrition rate, the latter may help you achieve higher customer satisfaction. A consolidated process across your organization prevents subscribers from seeing duplicates of marketing material. Further, giving a Contact access to everything they are subscribed to, and the ability to easily edit those subscriptions, will keep your opt-outs down and your conversion rates up – just as they should be.
Carefully tailor user access
If you are using a single database, you should also consider having processes in place to control access to Assets and Contacts within your database. To ensure the security and reliability of your customer information database, it is best to allow users access to only the Contacts and functionality they need for their specific job roles.
You should clearly delineate which of your users can access particular assets, which of your Contacts they have access to, and whether or not their ability to maneuver in Eloqua should be restricted. In certain environments, only specific groups should have access to a given set of Contacts or data. Enact proper security group controls to manage user access to data and if they should be restricted in any way with actions related to those data (e.g., read only, make changes, delete, etc.).
Groups who can access specific functionality for one brand may not need access to that same functionality for another brand. On the other hand, to ensure consistency, certain templates or overarching branding assets should be accessible across many or all user groups. Neglecting to add proper boundaries to your Assets and Contacts can be costly both in terms of your wallet and your reputation.
Keep it clean
It has been said that cleanliness is next to godliness. Nowhere is cleanliness more important than in your Eloqua database. Meticulously follow a rigid naming convention and folder structure to save yourself time later on. For example, when a proper naming convention is not followed, choosing the correct Assets when you run reports becomes challenging, and finding Assets to make changes takes more time. Database cleanliness should always be a high priority, but the stakes are exponentially higher when you are managing multiple brands, divisions, or regions in a single database.
Devise a rollout plan
Determining the best timing for rolling out Eloqua across the different regions or brands is critical. Determine whether staggering your releases or rolling them out all at once will benefit you the most. In some situations, going live with all brands may be your best bet while for others, a phased approach might be a better fit (e.g., one brand at a time, one division at a time, one region at a time). Finding the differences and similarities between your groups of customers and your marketing strategy will help. For example, do all regions use similar Email designs? If so, the same templates can be used across multiple regions and you can localize it, however if there are different brands that do vastly different things, then you would build for the main brand and then roll out the custom templates one brand at a time.
Train your team – old and new!
As new hires come on board, standardized training for Eloqua will ensure proper data use. For example, creating training videos and manuals will help you maintain consistency within your organization around how you use Eloqua, particularly with gathering and entering data. This will in turn reduce the number of possible human errors. Although new hires may have prior Eloqua experience, having an internal training program in place will ensure they get up to speed on your organization’s specific processes and configuration. It is equally important to train existing employees with any new changes in your process. For example, if you configure security groups or implement new naming conventions, existing Eloqua users need to know about these changes and how this may impact their access.
Whether you are new to Eloqua or an existing customer looking to expand your use of Eloqua across different brands or regions, we can help. Together, we can develop your implementation, customize your rollout strategy, configure your Eloqua database and develop a custom internal training process. Let’s schedule some time together to discuss next steps.