My journey into Eloqua began when I started an internship at Tegrita Consulting group in the Fall of 2016. I was in the final year of my undergraduate studies at Ryerson University in Toronto. Marketing Automation was a new world to me but within a matter of weeks, I found myself excited about the inviting world of Eloqua through the eyes of Tegrita and their personnel.
Within the first month of my internship, I quickly gained a working knowledge base about how Tegrita uses the Eloqua platform to benefit their clients. I learned about how Eloqua is used by marketers through working with the Tegrita team to create internal Email Campaigns and implementing Nurture programs. Ultimately, within 9 months, I was offered a full-time position as a Consultant and my fantastic journey with Eloqua continues.
Marketing Automation Platforms (MAPs) like Eloqua are an effective tool for businesses to increase sales, generate leads, and draw attention to products and services. Customization of marketing Campaigns specific to existing customers versus prospects is critical for success. Users who are new to Eloqua should have specific goals they want to achieve and should allow themselves the opportunity to see what Eloqua can do for them to enhance their marketing strategies.
By the end of my internship (and one of the many reasons why I was hired full-time), I quickly realized that there are five important things that all new Eloqua users need to think about:
1. Be proactive – Eloqua can support you and help you succeed at each stage of the sales funnel. Ideally, you should be nurturing throughout the sales cycle… from prospect, to Lead, to closed/won. It might sound easy, but you have to think through every stage carefully. While the launch of a successful Campaign may be the objective of most new Eloqua users, that goal must be substantiated by mapping out a clear, definitive, and detailed approach. Before you even begin to map out your Campaigns and Nurture Programs, get to know Eloqua. Familiarize yourself with Eloqua’s functions and capabilities. Start by becoming comfortable with the various use cases, features and resources that Eloqua has to offer. A good place to start is Topliners – have you set up your login? If not, what are you waiting for? Befriend the Eloqua community. So many great solutions are available as well as simple answers to basic questions. Once you understand how to interface with the software, you will equip yourself with the skills you need to achieve marketing automation triumph!
2. Plan, plan, plan – It is easy to fall into the trap of instant gratification. I have been there! I wanted to launch a Campaign and see immediate results, but it was many months before I launched my own Campaign and while I know that it is frustrating to wait, there is a benefit in doing so. I needed time. I needed time to learn what Eloqua can do. I needed time to understand how to plan a Campaign. I needed time to get all the right steps into a Campaign and run some tests. And, I needed time to think about the target audience and the Email content for the Campaign. I put myself in the customer’s shoes. What do I want to receive (and how often)? What interests me? What are the proven practices? Because I had time, my first Campaign launch was successful.
3. Understand the landscape – I’m not just talking about how to use Eloqua and understand its advanced capabilities. I am talking about the marketing landscape. More often than not, by the time a potential customer chooses to interact with a brand or company, a purchase decision may have already been made. In this day and age, the way to interact with customers has evolved. Gone are the days of batch and blast… you have to target your database strategically and use social media platforms. The key to success is simple – pay attention to customer behavior. This takes me to point number 3…
4. Find a happy medium – Regardless of the mechanisms potential customers use to identify with new brands, human behavior tends to conform to certain practices. Simply put, there are tried, tested and proven practices that continue to work despite the evolving methods we use to communicate. When you create content, there are fundamental ways in which you can connect to prospects or existing contacts in your database. Keep it simple, tailor to your target audience, and most importantly, pay attention to the outcome of your Campaigns using Eloqua’s reporting capabilities (and Tegrita can help you take it to the next level whenever you’re ready!).
5. Customize for your brand – After you familiarize yourself with Eloqua and launch a handful of Campaigns, you need to really focus on what is working for your brand. When you start using more tools within Eloqua and understand what Eloqua can do for you, start documenting your successes (and failures) so you can come up with an internal checklist that works for you. Did a particular Campaign generate the most Leads? If so, what was unique about it? How can you capitalize on that particular Campaign’s success? Is there something different about the Contacts who went through that Campaign?
Keep in mind, I had the entire Tegrita team supporting me and guiding me through this journey and they continue to do so. While discovering what Eloqua can do, I understood the value of having an implementation partner. They walk by your side during your Modern Marketing Journey. For me, the Tegrita team is still walking by my side as my journey into the wonderful world of Eloqua continues. To find out more about how we can support your Eloqua journey or to talk about the five key take-aways from my experience, contact us today.