Has anyone out in the Toplinersverse had some success with methods of capturing consumer, so no business cards, data at an event with no WiFi access?

If so I would love to have a chit chat with you.

The Situation: A salesperson discovers that the primary email address for a lead/contact has changed. He/She changes the email address in the CRM system to reflect the new primary email for that lead/contact. Since Eloqua auto synchs use email address as the unique identifier, the auto-synch will run and try to find a match using the new email address. However, since this change has only been made in the CRM, it will not find a match in Eloqua and therefore create a duplicate record. Needless to say, this is far from ideal!

The Solution: Create an autosynch that references the Lead / Contact's history object in Salesforce.com. Use the old email address value as the unique identifier to match Eloqua's database and use the new email address value to overwrite it once a match has been made (don't worry.....if your confused, just follow the Play by Play!).

Play by Play:

1.Enable History Tracking on the Email field

Ensure that history tracking is enabled for the email field in Salesforce.com. This allows all changes made to this field to be recorded and allows us to pull this info into Eloqua. [Note: This change requires that you have Administrator privileges in Salesforce.com.]

               Your Name > Setup > Customize > Lead >

2. Create an Auto-synch in Eloqua to pull the information from history object

*The Auto-synch instructions below are specific to Leads in Salesforce. The same process can be followed for Contacts by swapping the word "Lead" for the word "Contact" in the following instructions.

** Although the screen captures show the Eloqua9 interfaces, the process is the same for Eloqua10.

A)	Setup > Integration > Inbound > Create Data Sources > Create Data Source with External Call
B)	Give your new Auto-Synch a name and optionally give a description and a save folder. Ensure that the Purpose for upload is set to "Modify Email address" and the checkbox labeled "Can be scheduled for automatic execution" is checked. Click Next.
C)	Select the type of Action to be performed, in this case we are retreiving data so select 'Retrieve', and select the entity in Salesforce from which we are trying to retrieve data from (Lead History). Lead the box labelled "Retrieve 18 character IDs" unchecked. Click Next
D)	Select the fields that you want to pull data from on the Lead History object. Click Next
E)	Since it is possible to track changes on multiple fields in Salesforce, we need to configure the filter so that we are only pulling in changes made on the Email address, as well as only pulling in changes that were made since the last time this Auto-synch ran successfully (see screenshot). Click Next.
F)	Set the field mapping so that Eloqua knows which field coming in from Salesforce contains the old value and which one contains the new value (see screenshot).
G)	If you would like to receive notifications when this Synch is successful or when it fails, enter a notification email address and select when you would like to be notified. You may also allow this Auto-Synch to run every night at 10PM (default) or manually set the frequency of this call. Once you are complete, click FINISH.

3. Testing

Everything should be set up and ready to go at this point. To test this process, make a change to a Lead / contact's email address (in Salesforce) and then manually run your Auto-Synch. To manually run an Auto-synch, go to....

Setup > Integration > Inbound > Management > Auto-Synchs > (select the auto-synch you just created) > Auto-Synch Options > Run Auto-Synch (you may select ignore date filter to pull in any changes prior to configuration of this process).

Once this completes, and runs successfully, you will be able to view the contact's activity overview and the date and time of the change will be recorded.

Note: these instructions were taylored (haha get it taylor like my last name...not funny? Okay moving along ) for Salesforce however similiar solutions may be available in other CRM systems.

I hope you guys found this Play by Play helpful, I will be putting out additional Play by Play's periodically to help everyone on their Eloqua adventures. Feedback is appreciated as always.

-JT

Best Practice - Standardized Data Sets & Values

• Data is the key to everything. If your data is not standardized, how can you score, segment or route leads?

  
  

• When do you do this?  In the beginning is best, but if you have to circle back after you’ve already implemented marketing automation, it’s better late than never.  Many marketers (or management) don’t realize how important this is until later in their use of automation. Note that if you get this right, other success planning elements will be much easier - and more successful.

  
  

• Who owns the data? Doesn’t everyone in the company own some type of customer or prospect data?  More than likely, this data is shared. Creating a Standardized Data Set with Values and placing it on a central repository for all to access will get you started on the right path.  On your Standardized Data Set document, note a master system of record and make sure all stakeholders agree. 

Recommended Resources:

• Data Management Playbook:  Best Practices for Increasing Data Quality and information on Standardized Data Sets

• Data Dictionary Template:A great Excel template to use for creating standardized data sets for your organization

• Standardized Data Values Example:  Examples of common fields to standardize on

So I was getting ready to reply to Krysten Ollice's comment about missing ee13 since she'll be on vacation and then I thought - this would make a good friday_fun question - so here goes:

EE veterans (Krista Seidemann, Mark Halliday, Dave Liloia, Eytan Abrahams, Adrian Chang, Laura Vogel) what would suggest someone who is thinking about scheduling their vacation around EE??

Schedule the vacay for right after EE to recover from the after-party of the after-party of the after-party of the Markies, what's better than heading to a beach for a few days after Eloqua Experience - time to recharge the batteries before heading back to the office ready to start cranking out all of the great ideas from EE?

or

Schedule the vacay first (go explore San Fran for a couple of days) then go to EE - knowing there are going to be so many great ideas coming out of EE you'll want to get back to the office as soon as possible to start building the amazing campaigns you saw at EE!! 

or

Go to EE then give yourself 2-3 months to get all the ideas that came out of EE up and running then take a well deserved vacation!!

I decided to make this a question instead of a poll so I can give out helpful & correct answer awards

Does anyone know of a way to produce a clickthrough report for a specific email link that shows, not only who clicked on the link, but also the date/time when they clicked on it?  I realize that someone can click on the link more than once.  Displaying the first time they clicked on the link would be suitable in that scenario.

Does anyone know of an app that can synch badge scans at events and shows, into Eloqua?

Looking for any and all ideas to overcome the stall I'm in.

I really enjoyed Amanda Batista's post "Modern Marketing Lessons From The Godfather." LMAO. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, take a minute now - even if you're not a Godfather fan, the analogy she makes between the famous (or perhaps infamous) one-liners and Modern Marketing hit the mark (pun intended).

So, Topliners, what are your favorite movie one-liners? If you're feeling really "modern," please feel free to share how you'd apply your fav as a Modern Marketing lesson - but no pressure, after all, this is Friday Fun!

I'll start... "Get busy living or get busy dying." - Shawshank Redemption.

Cheers!

Kristin

Update July 19, 2013: this script has been updated to use the new Eloqua tracking scripts. I have added support for radio buttons and for using any field (not just the first field) for the email address. Also note that skip rules are now indexed by field name, not by number.

First post.

I'd like to share with you a script I call Progress Pro - a script that uses jquery and data lookups to implement advanced progressive profiling for Eloqua 10.

You can download the script here: http://www.kpaonline.com/assets/js/progressPro.zip

Progressive profiling is a technique whereby visitors are asked different questions each time they fill out a form.  The idea is to start by asking a few simple questions, for example email address and name, and gradually learn more about the visitor as they perform subsequent registrations. This reduces the barrier to entry into your marketing campaign, while still allowing you to collect detailed information on your most interested prospects.

The Problem

Eloqua 10 has a cloud component for progressive profiling. If you want to implement progressive profiling on an Eloqua-hosted landing page, I suggest you start with that. See this post: http://topliners.eloqua.com/community/do_it/blog/2013/02/05/how-to-do-progressive-profiling-in-e10-using-the-cloud-component

However, this solution only works for forms hosted on Eloqua landing pages. It also has some limitations, although it is generally pretty good. But if you want to do progressive profiling on your own forms, you will need to implement some sort of custom solution.

The desired solution would work for visitors from any channel, use only one form, and enable advanced dynamic skip rules while still allowing easy implementation for simple use cases. It would dynamically pre-populate the form based on browser cookie or email address and ask questions conditionally according to the prospect's previous answers. Incidentally, it would also be useful to track the incoming channel and store it in a contact field. Progress Pro implements such a solution.

Methodology

Eloqua has an amazingly awesome feature called Data Lookups. I won't go into the details, as the feature is well documented. This feature allows you to access data from your Eloqua database using javascript. Once you have data on the visitor, you can use javascript to manipulate the form accordingly. The methodology is:

•     Create a long form, beginning with email address, containing all of the questions you want to ask in the entire profiling process. Set the email address field to prefill, but don't make any of the fields required.
•     Create two data lookups: one for looking up the email address by tracking cookie, and one for looking up the rest of your data by email address. These lookups are performed by Progress Pro using jquery.getScript to load a script with appropriate parameters from Eloqua.
•     If the visitor comes in from an email, their email address will be prefilled. Progress Pro uses this to perform the lookup by email address and prefill the form with data accordingly.
•     If the vistor comes from another channel and has an Eloqua tracking cookie, Progress Pro performs a data lookup by cookie to get the email address, then performs another lookup by email address to get the rest of the data and prefill the form.
•     If neither of these is the case, the visitor will begin by filling in the email address field. Progress Pro attaches a jquery.change handler to the email field, and performs the lookup by email address once it has been filled in. If the visitor is not in the database, the rest of the form obviously stays empty.
•     Progress Pro then hides some of the questions on the form according to parameters you specify. In the basic setup, you simply specify a number of fields at the top of the form that should always be shown, and the number of unanswered questions you want to ask. Each time the visitor returns, they will be asked a new set of unanswered questions until they have completed the entire form.
•     For more advanced use cases, you can specify an array of conditional skip rules; e.g. if the prospect indicates interest in a particular product in the answer to one of the questions, skip all questions having to do with other products. These rules are implemented dynamically - as soon as the prospect selects an answer to the question on which the rule depends, the form immediately alters accordingly.
•     Progress Pro uses jquery.validate to validate the form. This is necessary because only visible fields can be required, or the form will always fail validation. You specify an initial set of validation rules, which are modified dynamically according to which fields are shown.
•     To track the incoming channel, you can use an optional URL parameter called "ch" - your form needs to contain an hidden field called "Channel History" which will be populated with whatever channel you specify in the URL.

Usage

To use this script, first upload it to your website (or wherever else you want to host it - please don't hotlink our copy of the script, if you do I will find out and ask you very politely to stop ). Then, in the <head> section of your landing page, add javascript code similar to the following:

//---------begin code-------------

<script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.6.0/jquery.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jquery.validate/1.8/jquery.validate.min.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jquery.validate/1.8/additional-methods.js"></script>

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.mydomain.com/assets/js/progressPro.js"></script>

//-----------end code--------------

This is to load the necessary script files. Obviously replace "mydomain" with your domain, and replace "assets/js" with the path to your copy of Progress Pro.

You should also make sure you have installed the Eloqua visitor tracking code, which you can find in Eloqua under Setup->Website->Tracking.

Then you set up a document.ready function to call the function prePop and prepopulate the form. You will need to specify which field to use for the email address, and the total number of fields on the form (including the "Submit" button). As a callback from the prePop function, optionally call addChannel() to record the incoming channel in the Channel History field, and call the function progressiveProfile to hide fields as appropriate. Be sure to call the latter two functions as callbacks from prePop or they will not work.

In the most basic usage, just specify the number of unanswered questions to ask and the number of fixed questions to always show at the top. For this example we will set both to 3. A more advanced call using conditional skip rules is shown in the comments of the script itself. For basic usage, just specify the skip rules as an empty array.

You will need to provide the data lookup keys for your data lookup by cookie and by email. These will be generated by Eloqua when you set up the data lookups. You will also need to provide an array of form fields (indexed starting at 0) with the names of the database fields corresponding to each question. These names can be found in the fields setup in Eloqua. Also provide a set of jquery.validate validation rules (see http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/validation). In this example, all fields are required.

//------------begin code--------------------------

<script type="text/javascript">

$(document).ready(function() {

    var elqDLKey_Cookie = escape('9b4bd4bf329e4f5c886a84464823313d');

    var elqDLKey_Email = escape('beecda0cb5e04cfa93fe68127cb5cdb0');

    var theseFields = {0: 'C_EmailAddress', 1: 'C_FirstName', 2: 'C_LastName', 3: 'C_How_did_you_hear_about_us_1',

                    4: 'C_BusPhone', 5: 'C_Title', 6: 'C_Company', 7: 'C_State_Prov', 8: 'C_Product_Family1',

                    9: 'C_Number_of_Employees1', 10: 'C_HR_When1', 11: 'C_EHS_when1', 13: 'C_Channel_History11'};

    var openQuestions = 3;

    var fixedQuestions = 3;

    var emailField = 'C_EmailAddress';

    var numFields = 14;

    var thisForm = $('form').attr('id');

    var myValidationRules = { rules: {firstName: {required: true}, lastName: {required: true},

                howDidYouHearAboutUs: {required: true}, title: {required: true}, company: {required: true},

                stateOrProvince: {required: true}, productFamily: {required: true},

                numberOfEmployees: {required: true}, hRWhen: {required: true}, eHSWhen: {required: true},

                businessPhone: { required: true, phoneUS: true }, emailAddress: { required: true, email: true } } };

    var mySkipRules = {};

    prePop(theseFields, elqDLKey_Cookie, elqDLKey_Email, emailField, function(){

        addChannel();

        progressiveProfile(openQuestions, fixedQuestions, thisForm, theseFields, elqDLKey_Cookie,

                                    elqDLKey_Email, emailField, myValidationRules, mySkipRules, numFields);

    });

});

</script>

//--------------end code-------------

For advanced usage, the skip rules are specified as an array. You set which field (by name) is to be hidden or shown, the field value the rule depends on, an operator, and a condition to match the "depends" field against. In other words, the rule states something like "hide this field if this other field contains 'California'" or perhaps "show this field if this other field equals 'yes'". You can specify multiple skip rules for each field. As a simple example, suppose we want to hide field 'C_HR_When1' if field 'C_Product_Family1' has the value "yes." The skip rule for this looks like:

//---------begin code-----------

var mySkipRules = {'C_HR_When1': {1: {action: 'hide', depends: 'C_Product_Family1', operator: 'eq', condition: 'yes'}}};

/----------end code ---------------

The possible actions are "hide" and "show" where show takes priority over hide if the rules contradict. The possible operators are "eq" for equals, "neq" for not equal to, "contains" and "always" - always means the action will always be taken regardless of the values of other fields.

A more advanced example is given in the script comments.

Et voila! We have progressive profiling that works for all visitors, uses a single form, and supports both simple cases and more advanced conditional rules.

I hope you find this useful. If you have any questions, comments or problems with this, please don't hesitate to contact me: esnyder@kpaonline.com.

[EDITOR'S NOTE: As this is custom code, the Eloqua support team will not be able to provide support or help you troubleshoot this code if you implement it. We recommend that you take Eli up on his offer and add a comment to this message and/or email him directly if you run into questions.]

What is one feature/function that you would add to Eloqua? How would it help you reach your goals?

You can develop the perfect marketing and sales process. The right content can be delivered to the right people at the right time. Leads can be scored and handed off to sales appropriately. Sales can educate and guide the company through the buying process exactly as they should. But even in a perfect situation you may still be faced with competition. And typically that competition is not another solution, it’s indecision. So many opportunities are stalled in the decision-making process and it can be agonizing to overcome that challenge.

I have a campaign idea that can be found here: http://businessischildsplay.com/2013/07/overcoming-indecision-a-late-stage-nurturing-campaign/

When we retrieve forms via the assets/form/{id} REST endpoint, we notice that when we render the HTML contained in the "html" field, text input fields contain <eloqua /> tags as their values.

Everything else functions correctly. Is it possible to omit the eloqua tags?

Here's a screenshot of what I mean by this:

Our upgrade was yesterday. I missed a critical use case in our pre-upgrade planning. I need help, please.

Here is the use case:

1. A third-party system is feeding campaign response data via CastIron directly to an Eloqua Custom Data Object (this is still working)

2. In E9, the CDO - via Data Card Services Processing Steps - was capturing the data, saving it and updating it to the Contact table (this is no longer working)

3. Then, it was firing the SFDC integration call to associate the record as a campaign response (this is no longer working based on #2 no longer working)

In E10, the Update Rule in the Data Card Services Processing Steps doesn't allow for the data to be updated to the Contact table via an Update Rule - the action is no longer an option. (I totally missed the upgrade's impact to Update Rules - sigh).

This is where I need help. How can I build this to work in E10? I'm testing it even as I write this and I'm seeing some results by configuring the "Field Mapping" option in the CDO to the Contact table. Weirdly, I cannot map the Email Address field - it's not giving me an option to do so. Also, this option doesn't allow for large text fields and I do have one of those in this data set. I feel like I'm missing something, but I'm so far in the weeds now, I'm just not sure what it is - any help is very much appreciated.

Best,

Kristin

For those of you planning to attend, we have decided to postpone our meeting to Thursday due to the weather.  We will still plan to meet at Kimball Farm in Westford at 5:30.  Stay dry!

Webex App

This article will describe the individual pieces of the WebEx App, how to install it and it will outline a sample program. This document assumes the reader knows how to use Eloqua Program Builder, Eloqua Emails and Eloqua forms.

In order to use the WebEx App, you will need to have a valid WebEx account with API access. You will also need to register at cloudconnectors.eloqua.com

What is the difference between cloundconnectors.eloqua.com and Appcloud.eloqua.com

WebEx App Components

The WebEx App is made up of the following Connectors:

• WebEx Register - allows you to register a contact to attend a WebEx event.
• WebEx Unregister - allows you to unregister a contact for a WebEx event.
• WebEx Query - allows you to determine whether a contact actually attended a WebEx event.
• WebEx All Viewers - allows you to pull into an Eloqua group all the people who attended a WebEx event.

The first 3 are Cloud Connectors, which are used in Program Builder. The last is a Cloud Feeder, which automatically pulls records into a group in Eloqua

ARTICLE – What is the difference between an App, a Connector, a Component and a Feeder

How to Install an App

To install the Webex App, visit this page:
http://appcloud.eloqua.com/apps/webex-connectors

Click on the green “Get App” button in the top right corner:

Installing Connectors:
A new screen will open. Click on the “Add Connector”:

IF you are not logged into Eloqua, you will be prompted to login. It’s recommended that you click the “remember me” button. After logging in, you will see a screen similar to this:

The bottom portion of the screen shows any connectors that are currently installed. The top portion is where the connector is actually installed. Click the “Add” button:

If you receive an error similar to this, it means the Connector had been installed previously:

If you receive a confirmation similar to this, the App connector has successfully been installed:

Repeat this for any other Connector you would like to install

Installing a Cloud Feeder

Cloud Feeders have a different installation then Cloud Connectors.

NOTE - Before the Cloud Feeder can be installed, the event needs to be configured within WebEx.  You will need to input the following information into the Cloud Feeder:

• WebEx User Name
• WebEx Password
• WebEx Session Type
• WebEx Session ID
• WebEx Organization Name

Create a user in your Eloqua install. This user is the one used to push data in through the feeder. It doesn’t need to be dedicated to one feeder, but it should be a user dedicated to API access. For more information about setting up a user, please search the knowledge base of the article titled "Eloqua-Setup"

Ensure the user is added to the “API Users” security group to ensure it has API access. As well, remember the username and password for the user, because you will need it for the next step.

Create a contact group in Eloqua to store the Contacts. For more information about creating a contact group, please search the knowledge base for an article named "Database Management".

If you would like to store the Start Time and the Minutes Attended, create those fields in Eloqua now. For more information about creating a contact fields, please search the knowledge base for an article named "Database Management".

To install the WebEx feeder, go to the following URL: https://cloudconnectors.eloqua.com/StepTypeOverview.aspx?StepType=WebExAllViewersQuery

Click on the “New Step” button.  You will be brought to a screen like this:

Fill it out with the user credentials you created in the previous step.

You will be brought to the following screen:

Input the information collected from WebEx earlier.

Select the contact group created earlier.

Once everything is configured, you will need to enable the feeder. In order to do that, click on the “Credentials” tab within and select “Enable Step”:

Using the Connectors in Program Builder

Each connector executes as an action in a step in Program Builder. Once a contact hits that step, the Connector grabs that contact, and processes it based on the logic defined in the Connector. When it’s done, the Connector changes the status of the contact in the program, and the contact continues on its way.

To use the Connector in Program Builder, do the following:

Create a step in the program where you want the step to execute

Set the action of the step to: “Cloud Connector”

You will be provided with a list of Cloud Connectors that have been created. Select the correct one from the list:

Click on the “Configure Button”. This will bring up a configuration window from Cloudconnectors.eloqua.com (you may need to login to Cloudconnectors.eloqua.com):

Once you are logged in, you will need to input the credentials of the user that was created earlier:

On the configuration and field mapping screen, you will have slightly different options for each CloudConnector.

They are as follows:

Configuration

Fields:

Once everything is configured, you will need to enable the connector. In order to do that, click on the “Credentials” tab within and select “Enable Step”:

The Program      

Defining every step of how to configure the program is outside the scope of this article. Here is a sample program that can be used as a guide to creating your program:

NOTES:

The webex "Query Attendance" step can only return data for events that have occurred in the last 90 days.

We are planning a nurture campaign and are not sure if we should personalize (recpieint's first name) at the beginning (Interest Stage).  It might seem creepy to them and actually be a turn off.  These are names that are on our database but may have not been engaged in some time. Should we wait until further along in the stage (i.e. Jusitify stage)?

Hi Community!

We are interfacing content between a website CMS and Eloqua for custom content, so that we can deliver said content in emails and landing pages effeciently.

We have a requirement to place an image overlay (like a big white play icon), a bit like this: http://u3.uicdn.net/372/cc7727211f2a7907850d2f844e707/diy-business-us/vi_video_content.jpg

Unfortunately the CMS system providing it can't supply it to us for some reason.  And trying to overlay the image in emails from Eloqua using CSS will result in inconsistent results between email clients, particularly mobile and so on..

So - our plan is to overlay the image in our middleware software and then upload the image to Eloqua, then use that newly uploaded image in the system.

Is there any way we can upload an image to Eloqua via the REST API, or via any other API?

Thanks

Mark

I am new to Eloqua, but just want a sort of virtual show of hands to help influence a particular decision...

Is it better to use the Eloqua form generator or better to use an external form? Which do you rate higher? Or is there very little difference?

I hope I am able to explain this properly.

We have a webinar campaign and a tradeshow follow-up campaign. In the tradeshow campaign it's a simple "personal" email to thank those that came by our booth and to invite them to the webinar or contact us for further discussion. So I've added the landing page and form for the webinar to both the Webinar campaign and the Tradeshow campaign, however, when people register for the webinar, they are showing up in the Tradeshow campaign in Salesforce and the Webinar campaign is empty.

So based on this it seems like I can only have the landing page and form in 1 campaign in order for the CLR to work correctly. Can anyone confirm this for me? Or should I be doing things differently?

Thanks!

hello,

I am trying to figure out our settings for closed loop reporting to make sure they are correct or make changes. but i cannot find where to get there from our set up area. Anyone can help?

Zurine